Samuel “Skip” Keesal founded his law firm, Keesal Young & Logan, in Long Beach in 1970.

What started as a lone attorney and two clerks has grown into a firm with 69 lawyers and offices in San Francisco; Seattle; Anchorage, Alaska; and Hong Kong.

As the firm grew, so did Keesal’s prominence in Long Beach. Since 1990, he has been a member of the Board of Governors of Cal State Long Beach, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in business in 1962.

He also serves or has served on boards for the local Boys and Girls Clubs, Long Beach’s Museum of Latin American Art, the Long Beach Police Foundation and the local Boy Scouts of America council.

“Skip gives so much to this community. He is not only a very powerful business person, but a very powerful giver,” said Shaun Lumachi, publisher of the Long Beach Post newspaper and website.

Lumachi’s publication named Keesal the most powerful person in Long Beach this year and in 2009, citing his charitable work as well as his political ties.

Keesal has donated thousands to politicians at the city, state and federal level. His contributions in the last few months include $30,800 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign committee, $5,000 to the congressional campaign of Long Beach Councilman Gary DeLong and $2,500 to Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich.

Keesal also has development interests in Long Beach. His firm owns the Union Bank of California building and surrounding land near the intersection of Ocean Boulevard and Golden Shore in downtown. That property, along with neighboring land owned by the Molina family of Molina Healthcare Inc., is part of a multibillion-dollar mixed-use development called the Golden Shore Master Plan.

The plan, unveiled in 2007, calls for razing the Union Bank building, as well as a Molina office building and City National Bank building south of Ocean, and replacing the structures with as many as five high-rises.

The project has received preliminary approvals from the California Coastal Commission and the city. Initially planned to be built in several stages over a decade, the Golden Shore project could include 1,370 condos, a 400-room hotel and 28,000 square feet of retail space, along with office space.