Dr. William L. Oppenheim, professor and chief of the Division of Pediatric Orthopedics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, has been named as the first holder of the Margaret Holden Jones-Kanaar, M. D., Chair in Cerebral Palsy. The executive chair was established as a result of an estate gift from the late Dr. Jones-Kanaar, professor emeritus of pediatrics at UCLA, and a world renowned pioneer in the field of cerebral palsy. Born in Maine, Jones-Kanaar, a longtime Palisadian, received her bachelor’s degree from Radcliffe College, master’s degrees from Vassar College and the Harvard School of Public Health, and her medical degree from Cornell University. Early in her career as a pediatrician in public health, Jones-Kanaar witnessed the lack of attention given to children with cerebral palsy, which spurred her passion for developing innovative, multidisciplinary medical solutions to help these children. Because CP can affect more than motor and cognitive functions, effective treatment requires integrating services in medical specialities including pediatrics, neurology, orthopedics, ophthalmology, otology, psychiatry, speech and physical and occupational therapy. In 1943, while in private practice, Jones-Kanaar initiated a CP clinic at Childrens Hospital in Los Angeles and later established six multidisciplinary pre-nursery schools. In 1954, she opened a pre-nursery school for children with CP at UCLA, a facility to provide care, teaching and research, which continues today as the Intervention Program. She initiated the Jones-Kanaar Foundation in 1994 to aid CP projects and other interests she shared with her husband. The chair will support the chief of the Division of Pediatric Orthopedics and the director of the Center for Cerebral Palsy in the Department of Orthopedic Surgery. This position will provide leadership in innovative research and education related to cerebral palsy. The establishment of the chair also will provide important resources to help promote the medical school’s basic science initiatives and play an integral role in advancing this area of medical science. Funding from the Jones-Kanaar chair may be used to support graduate assistants, postdoctoral fellows, laboratory research, supplies, educational activities or other related areas. The investigative advances fostered by the creation of this chair will ultimately translate into optimal care for patients. Oppenheim has spent his entire 25-year academic career at UCLA. He has written 60 peer-reviewed articles and 15 textbook chapters and delivered more than 200 national and regional presentations in the field.
Sports Briefs
Anthony Triumphs at Riviera Club Tourney Blake Anthony, a fourth-grader at Corpus Christi School, won the boys’ 10-and-under division championship at the Riviera Country Club’s annual tournament last month. Anthony outlasted Alec Bowman, 7-6, 5-7, 6-3, in a grueling three-hour match. Anthony was presented with his trophy by new Riviera Tennis Director Pam Austin. Meyers Paces Loyola Cross Country to Title Palisades native Ethan Meyers, a second-year varsity runner on the Loyola High cross country team, helped lead the Cubs to the CIF Southern Section championship at Mt. San Antonio College and the Division II state title at Woodward Park in Fresno last month. Along with Meyers, a junior who also ran track at St. Matthew’s, Loyola’s squad included two-time state champion Mark Matusak of Torrance and Will McGregor of Santa Monica, who was a track teammate of Meyers at St. Matthew’s. Westphal Has Pepperdine Hoops Primed for WCC Palisadian Paul Westphal, head coach of the Pepperdine University men’s basketball team, has the Waves ready for West Coast Conference play, which begins tomorrow. Pepperdine posted a 78-63 victory over Colorado State Monday night at Firestone Fieldhouse, improving to 10-5 this season. Westphal is currently 62-43 in four seasons with the Waves, including a 29-13 (.690) mark in WCC play and one NCAA Tournament appearance (in 2001-02). Amos Enters Vegas Fencing Tournament Palisadian Noelle Amos of Marymount High and the Los Angeles International Fencing Club, has qualified for the ‘Duel in the Desert’ fencing tournament in the Women’s Epee division, which begins January 29 in Las Vegas. Amos finished 22nd overall last year.
Hoops Learning to Cope Without Bell
With injured All-City forward D’Andre Bell still on the bench, the Palisades High boys’ varsity basketball team has had to learn how to compete without him over the Winter Break. The Dolphins finished 0-3 in the Top of the World Tournament at Cerritos College on Christmas week, losing to Southern Section powerhouses Verbum Dei, Dominguez and Long Beach Jordan. But Pali recovered to post a respectable 2-2 mark at last week’s Torrey Pines Classic in San Diego. After a 68-53 loss to San Diego University (despite 18 points from Carl Robertson), the Dolphins bounced back with a 60-49 victory over Simi Valley, led by point guard Corey Counts’ 21 points. Bell, who is bound for Georgia Tech, saw his first action of the season in last Thursday’s 48-42 victory over Torrey Pines, scoring a team-high 11 points. Palisades (4-9) opens Western League play next Wednesday at perennial City contender Westchester. Ronda Crowley’s varsity girls’ team was also busy over Winter Break. The Dolphins went 1-3 at the Nike Tournament of Champions in Chandler, Arizona, losing to Niwot of Colorado, Long Beach Millikan and San Leandro and posting a 33-30 victory over one of the host schools, Basha. After Christmas, Palisades was back on the court, this time in Antioch, California, for the West Coast Jamboree, where it lost its first two games to Oakland Fremont and Rancho Cucamonga Los Osos before rebounding to beat Dimond of Anchorage, Alaska, 54-51. The Dolphins host Westchester in their Western league opener next Wednesday.
Lewis: ‘Player of the Century’
Life is fulfilling when you’re doing something you love. No one knows that better than Palisadian Herb Lewis, who was recently chosen ‘Player of the Century’ for the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Adult Baseball Camp in Vero Beach, Florida. ‘I’ve always loved the game,’ says Lewis, a resident of Castellammare for 38 years. ‘I played in high school, I played in the Army, I played pick-up games whenever I could. No matter where I was I made sure I had my glove and a pair of spikes handy.’ Lewis will turn 90 on June 1 but he still runs the bases himself and he is still a capable fielder in the most physically demanding positions’short stop and second base. His latest trophy, which he says had to be shipped because it was ‘too heavy to carry back’ is but his latest honor. He is already enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, as the oldest active player in the United States and, of course, he’s in the Hall of Fame at Dodgertown, too, where he gets reunited every year with some of the Dodgers’ all-time greats like Dusty Baker and Bill Russell. ‘I thought my playing days were over when I had a heart attack right on the field when I was 40,’ Lewis recalls. ‘It was a hot day in the middle of August and here I was trying to turn a double play and I had base runners knocking me into center field.’ One of 45,000 people nationwide involved in Men’s Senior League Baseball, Lewis gets as excited about his Sunday afternoon games as a kid playing little league. ‘I love being out there and I hate it when we’re rained out,’ he says. ‘There’s no place I’d rather be.’ Lewis claims his wife of 63 years, Anne, encouraged him to attend his first Dodger Adult Baseball Camp 17 years ago after reading about it in the newspaper. Though he had just undergone quadruple bypass surgery and had not touched a baseball in 32 years, Lewis passed a physical and was cleared by his doctor to play. ‘Baseball has been my husband’s fountain of youth,’ says Anne, who has performed in numerous plays at Theatre Palisades, most recently as the lead role in Driving Miss Daisy. ‘All of the younger players call him Herbie. He’s their inspiration because they know if he can play as long as he has then they can too.’
Ann Cattell Johnson, 87
Pacific Palisades resident Ann Cattell Johnson, an occupational therapist for 60 years and a sculptor, has passed away at the age of 87. Born in Western Springs, Illinois, to a Chicago industrialist and a theatre actress/director who started the Theatre of Western Springs in 1929, Ann was the last surviving member of the Cattells, her immediate family. The family’s fortunes changed significantly during the Depression, but Ann had childhood arthritis and, despite the expense, was sent to Arizona for a cure. She outgrew the disease and stayed, falling in love with the Southwest. She began her studies at the University of Arizona in visual art and occupational therapy and finished them at USC with a master’s of science. Her first job as an occupational therapist was in Santa Barbara, where she met her husband-to-be, James (Jimmy) Johnson. He had returned from the war and was working at Disney Studios where he flourished for 37 years, ultimately as head of Walt Disney Records and Music. Ann continued her career in OT, specializing in victims of cerebral palsy and in art that heals, encouraging some of her patients to start careers in the arts’visual and literature’themselves. During this period, she had four children, the third of whom, Gina, was autistic. The Johnsons became active in the issues and politics of California’s mental health system, and started the nonprofit organization Parents and Friends of Mentally Ill Children, which used satellite homes and foster parents to wean mentally ill children from hospital settings and back into healthy, lively foster homes of four to six children. In the meantime, Ann was specializing in cerebral palsy OT for very young (infants to 3 years old). Working with Swiss specialist Anne Muller and Palisadian Dr. Margaret Jones at UCLA Medical Center, she helped develop groundbreaking new ways to work with these young patients’some of which are still used today. Ann’s daughter Gina passed away in 1973, her husband Jimmy in 1976. In 1980, she met Hughes chief scientist Eugene Grant. With his love and help in engineering some of her more difficult metal sculptures, she created an impressive body of abstract work, from huge hanging mobiles to small standing sculptures. They moved to the Palisades to be closer to her brother, David, who had lived here for nearly 50 years. Ann’s career as an OT lasted 60 years. She retired in 2001, and continued to devote herself to her loves’Gene Grant, her children and grandchildren, hiking, Great Danes, traveling, and vigorous ocean swimming. She and Gene sailed down the Nile in a felucca, cruised the Galapagos Islands in a yacht, snorkeled the kelp beds of the California coastal islands from Gene’s boat Circe, and took many motoring tours through the western states. With her niece she took a camel safari through Algeria. She was a member of the Palisades AARP chapter since its inception, and active in the Palisades Art Association. Ann is survived by her loving mate Gene; children, Glenys Johnson of Sebastopol, California, Grey Johnson of Nyack, New York, and Gennifer Choldenko of Tiburon, California; and grandchildren Ian and Kai Brown and Georgiana and Madeleine Johnson. A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. on February 20 at her home. Please throw a shell in the Pacific Ocean to remember her. Memorial donations can be sent to the Autism Research Institute, 4182 Adams Ave., San Diego, CA 92116.
Paul Richard Beck, 76; A Man of Many Talents
Paul Richard Beck passed away suddenly on the evening of December 26 at Santa Monica/UCLA Medical Center. He was 76. Born in Los Angeles, Beck was the only child of Dave and Betty Beck. In fact, he was Adohr Milk’s ‘Adorable Baby’ winner of 1935. His father was proprietor of Dave Beck Auto Parts, where Paul learned not only about the business but also about keeping his word. Later on in his business life his nickname was Honest Paul Beck. As a child, Paul set up a lemonade stand and at the end of the day said to his parents, ‘Wow, look at the money I made.’ His parents responded: ‘Oh, what about the lemons and the sugar you used?’ It was their gentle reminder of the meaning of overhead. Other than the automotive business, Beck was known in many fields, ranging from being a writer for old radio shows such as ‘Amos ‘n’ Andy’ to real estate investor, importer/ exporter and inventor. He was also the talent agent for George Chakaris when he won the 1961 Oscar for best supporting actor in ‘West Side Story.’ Paul made friends wherever he went and was known for his kindness, charity, unique sense of humor and his ‘Marco Polo’ international love of languages and of all people, animals, nature and art. He always offered good advice, according to his wife Delanie, who credits him for her business success. ‘His streetwise common sense was handed down from his years of honest business experience,’ Delanie said, ‘and in remembering that the customer is always right.’ Now a real estate agent in Beverly Hills, Delanie worked for years in the Palisades for Fred Sands, Prudential and Coldwell Banker. Paul enjoyed his associations in the Palisades, and loved to meet friends’including his American Legion buddies’at the venerable House of Lee on Sunset. He spent a good part of his later years successfully developing a new fan belt design that can be quickly and easily fabricated on site for any application or size, eliminating the need for an inventory of multiple-sized belts. Beck is survived by his wife, R. Eve Delanie Bryant-Beck of Malibu. Services are scheduled for Friday, January 7, 1 p.m. at Gates, Kingsley and Gates, 1925 Arizona in Santa Monica. A remembrance of his life is planned at Duke’s Restaurant in Malibu later this month.
Dayle Collup, Engineer
Dayle O. Collup, a retired aerospace engineer who lived in Pacific Palisades for 49 years, died December 25 at his home after a short illness. He was 84. Born August 5, 1920 in Fort Worth, Texas, he was a son of the late Fred and Olive Collup. He graduated in 1942 from the University of Oklahoma, where he met his wife Enid McMahan. They were married May 9, 1942 in Washington, D. C. After serving in the U. S. Navy in World War II, Collup worked in civilian defense department jobs. He joined Hughes Aircraft Corp. in 1954, where he worked for 27 years as an engineer and executive in the Radar Systems Group before retiring in 1981. He was a member of the California Yacht Club in Marina del Rey, and of various ham radio, engineering and boating organizations. In addition to his wife of 62 years, he is survived by a daughter, Carol Ann Collup Currier (husband Chet) of Darien, Connecticut, and two grandchildren, Dana Lynne Currier of Chicago and Craig Andrew Currier of Kingston, R.I. He was predeceased by his twin brother, Doyle. Interment will be private. Plans for a memorial service will be announced at a later date. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to hospice care agency Vitas Healthcare Corp. of California, 16030 Ventura Blvd., Suite 600, Encino, CA 91436.
Edmund Brunner, Rand Economist
Edmund Brunner, Jr., an economist who lived in Pacific Palisades from 1961 until 1999, died after a long and interesting life on December 18 in Santa Barbara. He was 91. Born in Richlandtown, Pennsylvania, Brunner graduated from Dartmouth College with a degree in economics in 1935. After working for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, he completed his MA in economics at Columbia University in 1940. Ed was a Brookings Fellow for two years before joining the U.S. Department of Labor. In 1942 he became an Intelligence Specialist for the Air Force, and served in Asia during World War II. Following the war, Ed worked for governmental and nonprofit agencies where he specialized in national defense cost-benefit and other economic analyses. He was employed by the Air Force Intelligence Service and the Institute for Defense Analysis. He then joined The Rand Corporation in 1961, where he was associate head of the economics department and program manager of mid-east studies on behalf of the Ford Foundation. He retired in 1986. Ed was a truly compassionate, principled man, with a wry sense of humor and a love of language. To the end he lived according to his creed: ‘Never surrender.’ He will be keenly missed. The love of his life, Gerti Landauer, whom he married in 1948, predeceased him. He is survived by his three children Naomi Hentschel (Craig), Ruth Green (David), Seth Brunner (Linda Clebenger) and six grandchildren. Memorial services will be held January 16 at 3 p.m. at the Palisades Woman’s Club, 901 Haverford. Send donations in his memory to Doctors Without Borders, P.O. Box 1856, Merrifield, VA 22116-8056.
Alice Mabel Moore; Founded a Travel Agency in Palisades
Alice Mabel Moore, a beloved wife, mother and grandmother who gave much joy, passed away peacefully on December 28 at her home in Castellammare with family and friends around her. She was 88. Born in Worcester, England, on March 11, 1916, Mabel (as she was known) moved to the Palisades in 1953. She founded Travelmoore travel agency on Antioch in 1967 and ran it for over 22 years. She was a docent at the Getty Villa in the Palisades for 10 years after retiring from her business. In addition, she belonged to the Palisades Garden Club, the Historical Society, the Lady Bugs, the Palisades Woman’s Club and the Palisadians. She contributed generously to numerous local and international organizations. Her husbands, Raymond Stuart-Williams and Commander John T. Moore, preceded her in death. She is survived by two children, Anne Stuart-Williams Ahmed and Digby Stuart-Williams, and two grandchildren, Carny Ray Stuart-Williams and Dylan Andrew Stuart-Williams. A memorial service was held at St. Matthew’s Church on January 2. Donations to funds for tsunami victims are requested in lieu of flowers.
Raymond Bradley Memorial Set For Saturday, January 8
Raymond G Bradley died peacefully in his sleep at home in the Palisades on New Year’s morning, three days before his 91st birthday. Funeral services will be held at Corpus Christi Church, Carey St. at Sunset, on Saturday, January 8 at 2 p.m. The reception at the home of daughter Debbie and son-in-law Greg Schem will follow. In lieu of flowers, donations to Corpus Christi Church or school or to Alcoholic Anonymous Pacific Palisades may be made in Bradley’s name.
