I was born in the predominantly Roman Catholic community of Fond du lac, Wisconsin. In the Catholic tradition, I was baptized soon after leaving the hospital.
My parents both served in the U.S. Navy during WWII. Having seen La Jolla while in the service, they decided to move from Wisconsin to La Jolla. I attended JI. Kindergarten in Wisconsin for the 1952-1953 school year. The Summer of 1953 found us moving to La Jolla. I attended Kindergarten at La Jolla Elementary School for the 1953-1954 school year. In the Fall of 1954, I began First Grade aţ Stella Maris Academy, the local La Jolla Catholic School. In Eigth Grade, I became an Altar Boy, usually serving the 6:30 A.M. daily Mass. I joined Troop 83 of the Boy Scouts of America and became an Eagle Scout in 1962. Evidencing my Church and community service, I was awarded the Ad Altere Dei Award, also in 1962. During my eight years at Stella Maris, I received the Sacraments of Confession, Communion and Confirmation.
Post Vatican II, after realizing that what I had been taught were absolute truths had been compromised by Vatican II, I concluded that I hadn’t left the Catholic church, the Catholic church left me!
I attended La Jolla High School beginning in the fall of 1962 and graduated with honors in 1966. I was offered a full academic scholarship by the University of California at Santa Barbara.
After being awarded the full Academic Scholarship from UCSB, I was selected to attend San Diego City Lifeguard School and to be paid for doing so! My San Diego City Lifeguard Service began in 1966 at South Cove for ten days, I was transferred to De Anza Cove for one day and then was transferred to Mission Beach Tower 4 where I worked for the rest of the Sunner of 1966. During my tenure in Tower 4, I was assigned to guard the Ocean Beach Aqua Fair by the Surf Controller, Doug Smith. The surfing competition was won by Skip Fry, the famous San Diego and world renoun Surfer.
As a Peace Officer, I learned about power. President Harry S Truman best articulated what I learned as a San Diego City Lifeguard as follows: “If a man can accept power as a gift from
someone else, he’ll be all right, but, if he ever thinks for one minute that he created the power, it will ruin him every time.”
When I arrived at the University of California at Santa Barbara, I was dissolutioned by what I expected to be an outstanding concentration of wonderful new things to learn at the University. Except for the U.$. History course, my UCSB classes were mediocre at best. In December 1966, I elected to decline the rest of my scholarship and return to La Jolla. Upon my return, I applied to a local college and was accepted. My entrance exam qualified me to avoid the courses known as Subject A and Subject B and to proceed with English and English Literature. I knew I had done the right thing in getting away from UCSB.
I enrolled in a full set of courses and was doing well in each when, on May 21, 1967 at 12:44 A.M.?, my life changed dramatically. I was in a freak auto-accident. San Diego Police Officer Randal found my broken and bleeding out body and rushed me to the Emergency Room of Scripps Memorial Hospital. I was so near death that a Roman Catholic Priest administered Last Rights, a.k.a. Extreme Unction.
But for my lifeguard service physical training, I would not have survived the car accident. On the evening of May 20, 1967, I weighed 185 pounds. When I was released from the hospital 24 days later, I weighed 117 pounds. I was permanently blind.
On Saturday, October 26, 1967 I flew back to Newark, New Jersey. A Seeing Eye limousine driver drove me to the Seeing Eye campus on the outskirts of Morristown, New Jersey. On October 28, 1967 I was matched with a female German Shepherd named Rani. My new life had begun.
This is not the venue to tell my life story. That can be found in the book entitled, “FREEDOM FOUND” and subtitled, “7 SEEING EYE MIRACLES.” Suffice it to stay that Nancy and I married on June 13, 1970 in the Mary Star Of The Sea Catholic Church. The sacrament of Holy Matrimony completed, thus, I lacked only the sacrament of Holy Orders.
With Rani at my side every day, I commenced my Real Estate career in September of 1972 with James M. Becker Realty. Six years later, with James Becker’s blessing, I opened my own Real Estate Brokerage at 1124 Wall Street in La Jolla, CA. I am still here today. My Seeing Eye dogs are Rani (1967-1976), Pegasus (1976 1986), Marvel (1986-1992), Churchill (1992-2000), Ken (2000-2005), Lawson (2006-2010) and Enya (2010 to date).
In the mid-1990’s I joined the La Jolla Vinyard Church. Pastor Don Williams preached the Bible in much the way I learned the Bible through the Catholic Church’s teachings. Under the tutilege of Don Williams Ph.D., I completed the “Teaching And Preaching The Word of God” course he taught at Coast Vinyard.
I was invited to help the Sorrento Valley Christian Center during its organizational phase. My experiential knowledge of the operations of corporations has been learned in the school of hard knocks. I have been President/Board Member of multiple corporations including, but not limited to, Joseph L. Klatt, Inc., the Clinton Manor Homeowners Association, Inc., Joseph Dean Klatt Realty, Inc., the San Diego County Service Center For The Blind, Inc., the Fountaine Bleu Homeowners Association, Inc., the La Jolla Real Estate Broker’s Association, Inc., the Association for Dispute Resolution-San Diego, Inc., and most recently, the Cape La Jolla Homeowner’s Association, Inc. I also served as Vice President of the San Diego County Foundation For The Blind.
I hold multiple college and university degrees. I have international mediation credentials and I am a Harvard Law School Master Mediator.
For a complete listing of Dr. Klatt’s academic credentials, log into KlattRealty.com.
If you are interested in either of Dr. Klatt’s published books, you may preview them at AuthorHouse.com.
Vincit Veritas, Joseph Dean Klatt Ph.D.