Nathan Wells, a city Park and Recreation Department employee of 35 years, died Feb. 1 at the age of 99. A resident of Pacific Beach for nearly 80 years, Wells has a park named in his honor in Balboa Park: Nate’s Point Off-Leash Dog Park. Wells spent two years of his life grading, drenching and placing fire pits along Fiesta Island for public use. The beloved fire pits scattered across Fiesta Island have been a controversial issue among residents ever since city funding for maintenance of the fire pits was cut in 2008. Private donors, politicians and local organizations stepped in at the eleventh hour to cover the cost to sustain the fire pits through June 2011. Fire pits weren’t the only land-improvement project Wells took on during his longtime employment with the city. Wells’ namesake, Nate’s Point Park, was a job pioneered by Wells, who labored there during his spare time and on weekends. In 1996, transforming a pile of dirt and unruly weeds into a space where families could enjoy the outdoors was Wells’ three-month extracurricular project. “So many people use the dog park and have no idea about its history or that it even has a name,” said Wells’ niece, Darlene Dise-Brucker of Orange County. After suffering a heart attack near the end of the project’s completion, Wells was transferred from Balboa Park to a new assignment demanding less rigorous activity—Mission Bay Park. Part of a project implemented by the city, Wells was responsible for the placement of the fire pits along Fiesta Island. “Yet another blighted area was transformed,” said Dise-Brucker. Wells was a lifelong resident of Pacific Beach during his adult life, with the exception of three years of deployment during World War II. Born in Nebraska, Wells and his brothers hopped a train to California when he was just 17 years old. His sister and her husband were living in a house on Lamont Street, where Wells and his brothers pitched a tent on their five-acre lot. Later, Wells moved to a home on Yosemite Street, where he lived with his wife of 67 years, Mary Eleanore, and their three children. A funeral service for Wells was held Feb. 11 at Our Lady of Refuge Church in Pacific Beach.
