Henry Braun throws a pitch while Bronco Tigers coach Brian Sullivan (background) studies his form at a spring training practice game last week at the Field of Dreams. Photo by Rich Schmitt, Staff Photographer
All anyone needed to know about who was having fun was etched on the faces of the players as they hustled to and from the dugout in between innings. The season does not officially begin for another nine days, but coaches and players in the Palisades Pony Baseball Association are ready to play ball right now. ‘They are nice and give you lots of tips that help you. They cheer you on because they want you to do good.’ That is how an 11-year-old Bronco player described his coaches during the Palisades Pony Baseball Association’s spring training practice games last week. In spite of the recent rains that have kept practices to a minimum and fields closed, spring training for Pony Baseball has finally arrived at the ‘Field of Dreams’ complex at the Palisades Recreation Center. Try-outs were held in January. Each perspective player fielded grounders and fly balls, threw to first base to demonstrate his throwing arm, and took cuts at the plate. As always, more players tried out than the fields are able to accommodate. The PPBA is broken down into three divisions. Pinto, consisting mostly of 8-year-olds, with a few outstanding 7-year-olds and some nine-year-olds who help provide experience for their younger teammates. For many 7- and 8-year-olds, this is their first experience with a pitching machine. Pinto games are on Tuesday or Thursday and every Saturday. The Mustang consists of 9- and 10-year-olds, and players do their own pitching. Games are Wednesdays and Saturdays. Broncos are 11- and 12-year-olds, who play Tuesdays or Thursdays and Saturdays. Palisades also has a Pony division (13- and 14-year-olds) team, which hosts games against other Westside teams every Friday night at the Rec Center. The start of spring training and practice games signify that the pancake breakfast, PPBA’s annual fundraiser, is drawing near to usher in a new PPBA season. This year’s PPBA Opening Day festivities will be March 19. Fifty-one years of celebrating the spring with the ever popular menu of delicious pancakes, mouthwatering sausages, orange juice, and coffee, all for a price lower than some lattes, $3.00. Seek out your local neighborhood baseball player to purchase tickets. Baseball Commissioner Bob Benton is tight-lipped about who will throw out the first pitch to start the 2005 season. He promises to divulge who it will be next week, a mere two days before Opening Day. For more information about PPBA, including schedules, rules and standings, log onto the new web-site: http://PPBA.net.
Robert Tilandy, a resident of Pacific Palisades for over 50 years, died in his home on February 22. He was 95. Bob was a fiercely independent person who lived alone and fended for himself, even to the extent of changing the oil in his 1978 Honda Civic. He resisted any suggestion that he move to an assisted-living arrangement. Bob was born and raised in Pasadena. His father, a German-speaking Hungarian, was a tailor whose clientele consisted of wealthy Easterners who rode the trains to winter in Pasadena. When times changed, his father opened up a garage to build cars, where Bob acquired his early knowledge of motors. He attended Woodbury College, where he earned a degree in economics, but the Depression forced him to take odd jobs, including one at E.F. Hutton, where he posted stock losses and gains on the display board. Thereafter, Bob became a marine engine mechanic in the Santa Monica harbor, and later operated a water taxi from the pier out to the gambling ships that were then moored outside the three-mile limit. During World War II, Bob served in the U.S. Army on the East Coast, where he served as the officer in charge of a motor pool. His knowledge of German led the Army to assign to him all the German prisoners of war there. He ran the motor pool efficiently, using the German P.O.W’s, who performed well in their jobs since they feared being returned to Europe. Following military service, Bob returned to work on the Santa Monica Pier, where he worked for Tedford and Sons repairing diesel and gasoline engines. He married and bought his home in the Palisades with the help of the G.I. Bill. Bob often complained that he felt he had been overcharged for the $15,000 he paid for his house with a 3-percent mortgage. He worked on boats until his retirement. Never far from the water, Bob made friends on the pier, where he spent many happy hours even after retirement. On Monday nights for years, Bob and his pier friends met every Monday evening for drinks and dinner. Having lived through the tremendous technological changes of the last century, Bob kept up with world affairs by subscribing to and reading numerous magazines and journals. His marriage was brief and did not result in any children. In the most recent past, several neighbors helped Bob with the more arduous tasks of maintaining his house and yard, and keeping his 26-year-old automobile running. He was proud that he still had a valid driver’s license, a prized possession. He is survived by his sister, Adrienne Fissel of Arroyo Grande.
Anna Lindgren, who had lived in Pacific Palisades with her husband Howard since 1954, died on January 22 after having a stroke. She was 84. Anna was born in Naples, Italy, in 1920. Howard was a U.S. Army medic stationed in Naples during World War II, and Anna lived a block away from the hospital where he worked. Anna, who was studying English, met Howard through a friend and the couple fell in love. Howard returned as a civilian eight months after the war and they were married there. The couple spent eight years in Chicago before moving out to California and the Palisades. Anna was active in real estate, successfully buying and selling properties. She was also active with the Patrons of Italian Culture Club for many years. In addition to her husband of 58 years, Anna is survived by her daughter, Linda Hann (husband Terry), grandson Andrew Hann (wife Sherry) and four great-grandchildren, Sarah, Sydney, Sophia and Seth, all of Las Vegas, Nevada. A memorial service was held at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City on January 28.
Irving Louis Uttal, a Pacific Palisades resident since 1949, passed away peacefully on February 22 in Santa Monica. He was 82. Uttal was born on December 13, 1922 in Albany, New York, to Fannie and Harry Uttal. He distinguished himself early in his youth as a local checkers champion in the Albany area. During World War II, he served as a co-pilot in U.S. Air Force 390th Bombardier Group, flying 35 missions over Europe. After the war, he remained active in the reserves and retired as a lieutenant colonel. Uttal graduated from Boston University with a B.A. in business administration, and in 1946 moved to Los Angeles. Within a year he founded Heirloom Carpets in partnership with his brother Joseph and Leo Ricard. In 1959, Uttal sold the business and joined Olivetti-Underwood as a business machine salesman. He spent the remaining 20 years of his career as a lead computer salesperson for MAI Basic Four. Upon retirement, Uttal founded ROI Computrux, a value-added reseller focused on accounting systems for trucking companies. Uttal married Lois Horwitz in August 1949 and they settled in Pacific Palisades, where they raised four children. An artist, writer, humorist and successful computer salesman, Irving was considered by his friends and family a Renaissance man. Fond of a good joke, Irv often brightened the room with his irrepressible wit and frequent puns. During the wartime years he contributed humorous stories to the Saturday Evening Post. After his retirement, he continued writing, focusing on U.S. military policies during World War II. Irving was active in the 390th Bombardier Group and the B’nai B’rith, where he and his wife, Lois, were honored with the Akiba Award in 2001. Irving enjoyed the outdoors; on weekends he liked sailing, bicycling, and hiking, or visiting the cliffs overlooking the ocean. He and Lois were familiar faces in the community, and were often seen on their frequent walks to the village. In addition to his wife of 55 years, he is survived by his children, Debra Uttal Leifer of Pacific Palisades; Judith Uttal of Irvine; Nancy Dolin of Van Nuys; David Uttal of Pacific Palisades; and grandchildren Janel, Karin, Joshua and Joseph. Memorial services were held at the Hillside Memorial Park and Mortuary in Los Angeles. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the 390th Memorial Museum Foundation in Tucson, Arizona, or the Marina Ketubah chapter of the B’nai B’rith.
Via de las Olas residents are warning city officials that the wooden bulkhead supporting a section of the street between Lombard and Friends should be replaced with a more stabilizing cement structure. Photo by Rich Schmitt, Staff Photographer
A group of Via de las Olas residents, fearful of losing their street and their bluff to landslides, prodded the Community Council last Thursday night to ‘advocate on our behalf’ for emergency action by the City of Los Angeles. Led by Bill Moran and Regina McConahay, the residents said that immediate rehabilitation efforts are needed along Via and the bluffs (especially between Via de la Paz and Friends Street), if the city hopes to forestall a landslide disaster similar to the one that engulfed PCH in 1958 just west of the current trouble areas. The residents urged ‘five critical steps to save the bluffs,’ including: 1. Re-engineer, repair and resurface the street. 2. Re-engineer, repair and rebuild the wooden bulkhead near Friends, the sewers and the storm drains. 3. Determine the presence and condition of hydraugers; establish regularly monitored, reported, and certified saturation by inclinometers. 4. Reinstate status of Via de las Olas as an official street warranting repairs and resurfacing. 5. Make this a priority in the city’s budget action plan. Last June, in response to homeowner demands and a request by City Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski, the city’s Geotechnical Engineering Division and Bureau of Street Services submitted a report giving possible methods of repair and projected cost estimates to improve the stability and engineering of the roadway. Total estimated cost: $1,460,000. Following public discussion last Thursday, the Community Council unanimously recommended to Miscikowski’s deputy, Monique Ford, that ‘remedial action be given urgent status requiring imminent attention for funding and corrective action.’ The council also unanimously supported Miscikowski’s proposed action to make Via de las Olas an attendant project of the adjacent Potrero Canyon Restoration Project, which is nearing its final financing stage. The city plans to sell 35 lots along the perimeter of Potrero in order to complete the project and pay back its 20-year ‘investment.’ But Miscikowski reiterated last week that she will bring a motion to City Council to insure that Potrero revenues are also allotted to help shore up Via de las Olas before going to the city’s general fund. After the meeting, McConahay told the Palisadian-Post that while the Community Council’s proclamations were ‘wonderfully supportive, they do not translate into action without immediate funding. I’m scrambling to find other sources of revenue.’
Bill Rosendahl at his campaign headquarters in Mar Vista. Photo by Rich Schmitt, Staff Photographer
‘I love the matzo ball soup here,’ said Bill Rosendahl, even though his serving was growing cold as he talked and an interviewer listened during a February interview at Mort’s Palisades Deli. ‘I’ve told Bobbie that if I win, I’m going to serve her soup at a City Council meeting.’ This is Bill Rosendahl, casually praising the popular deli owner, Bobbie Farberow, and trying to keep a local touch as he runs against Flora Gil Krisiloff and Angela Reddock for the City Council’s 11th District seat in Tuesday’s primary election. Another Rosendahl touch was the fact that, coincidentally, former Mayor Richard Riordan was eating lunch across the room. ‘Dick is a good friend of mine,’ Rosendahl said, noting that Riordan and his wife, Nancy Daley, hosted his first campaign fundraiser in March 2004. ‘What’s good about the Riordans’ support is that it symbolizes both political parties’Nancy is a strong Democrat, Dick is a strong Republican, and I see myself in the middle as a consensus builder. I’m a non-partisan guy; I think most problems can be solved without ideology if you just get people in a room and work on them.’ Of course, Rosendahl is a lifelong Democrat who worked on campaigns for Bobby Kennedy and George McGovern, but he still projects himself as an ‘objective,’ problem-solving politician who will draw on the skills he acquired as a moderator for more than 3,000 public affairs television programs for 16 years. The interview was interrupted for a moment by Phyllis Genovese, the town’s 90-year-old business legend (she founded The Letter Shop on Via de la Paz in 1947), who politely came up to Rosendahl and was introduced by a friend. Genovese said, ‘I just wanted to give you the word that I went over to our ex-Mayor and I asked him, ‘Whom do you recommend in the City Council election?’ and he said, ‘Bill Rosendahl’go over and talk to him.” ‘Well, God bless you,’ Bill said, and when he learned Genovese’s age, he asked, ‘So what’s the secret?’ ‘Oh, I don’t know’good hard work I guess,’ Genovese said. Rosendahl has always been accustomed to hard work, having grown up in New Jersey as one of eight children born to two Germans who immigrated here before World War II. ‘My father started here as a janitor with a 6th grade education, but he got himself schooled in bookkeeping and ended up being the vice-president of a cosmetic firm, the Wella Corporation. I was active in campus politics in high school and at St. Vincent’s College in Pennsylvania, where I got a degree in politics and economics. I also got involved in the civil rights movement, going down to Washington and hearing Martin Luther King’s ‘I Have a Dream’ speech.’ In 1968, when Bobby Kennedy announced he would run for president, Rosendahl took a leave from graduate school at the University of Pittsburgh and joined Kennedy’s campaign in Indiana. ‘I ran a congressional district for him in the primary and we bonded in that relationship,’ Rosendahl said. ‘He then asked me to work in his Oregon campaign for six weeks, before going down to California. I was in the hotel, waiting for him in the press room, when he got killed.’ Distraught, Rosendahl returned to graduate school to complete his master’s in social work, then was drafted into the Army. He spent his first year as a counselor at Ft. Carson, Colorado, ‘working with soldiers who had drug and alcohol problems, racial harmony problems, identity problems and morale problems. So I said to the general, at a little gathering, ‘General, we have a lot of problems here: AWOLs are up and new enlistments are down.’ ‘He said, ‘Come work for me,’ and I began advising him on how to improve the situation. We turned things around, and my picture ended up in Life magazine as part of a story on ‘The New Army,’ in early 1969.’ According to Rosendahl, ‘John D. Rockefeller III, oldest of the four brothers, read the Life article and asked me to work for him as an associate in New York. I managed his emerging interest in social change and proposed ways in which he could make his five foundations more sensitive to young people.’ In 1972, Rosendahl left Rockefeller to work on George McGovern’s national campaign staff. ‘After that election, I decided I needed to understand myself better and the world better, so I took a leave from our way of life and got a backpack and a sleeping bag and became a wanderer. I started in Europe, went to the Middle East, followed the Nile to Sudan, traveled across the Namib desert to Ethiopia, and then made my way down to South Africa, all by foot and local transportation.’ He then flew to Brazil and took planes to major cities in South American and Central America before returning home after 18 months and 39 countries. Back in the U.S.A., Rosenthal was still imbued with politics, and although he worked on two more unsuccessful political campaigns, he met Jimmy Carter along the way. This led to an White House appointment to the State Department as Chief of Operations for the U.S. Trade and Development Program. ‘When the president was defeated in 1980, I got a call from people at Westinghouse Broadcasting who wanted me to join the cable television business. They said, ‘It’s a lot of fun, we’re wiring the nation and we’re looking for people with your campaign experience because every city will be making a decision about who gets the franchise.” Thus began Rosenthal’s 22-year career as an executive with Westinghouse, Century Cable and Adelphia. When Rosendahl lost his job at Adelphia in 2003, he seized the opportunity to finally run as a political candidate himself. City Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski was going to be ‘termed out’ in 2005 and the reconfigured District 11’shed of its San Fernando Valley voters’was now focused on the coastal area between Pacific Palisades and LAX over to the 405 Freeway. ‘I live in Mar Vista,’ Rosendahl said, ‘so I see myself as the guy in the middle of the district who wants to bring the whole district together. I’m running for City Council because I want to take my skills as the facilitator of a discussion and solve the many problems that we’ve been talking about in this campaign.’
Several Palisadians have recently been honored for their work in the film business, including three who won Academy Awards on Sunday night at the Kodak Theatre. Scott Stokdyk and Anthony LaMolinara were both first-time Oscar winners for their visual effects work on ‘Spider-Man 2.’ The two shared the honor with John Dykstra and John Frazier. The same group had been previously nominated for ‘Spider-Man.’ Santa Monica Canyon resident Stokdyk was the film’s visual effects supervisor, and is currently working on ‘Spider-Man 3,’ due out May 2007. A 1987 Palisades High School graduate, he was also nominated for ‘Hollow Man’ in 2000. Stokdyk was a city tennis doubles champion at PaliHi who went on to attend Harvey Mudd College, where he received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering. He and his wife Danielle have a 2-year-old son, Mason. He celebrated the win at a small company party and then the Vanity Fair party. ‘It was incredibly fun. It feels really amazing. I don’t think it’s sunk in yet,’ Stokdyk told the Palisadian-Post Tuesday. ‘It’s particulary exciting for me because it’s the first Oscar for Sony Pictures Imageworks, where I work.’ Stokdyk has particularly enjoyed working with director Sam Raimi. ‘I read the Spider-Man comics when I was younger. I went from being enthralled with something that’s such a different world to helping create that world,’ said Stokdyk, who has been working on ‘Spider-Man’ films since 2000. His father John and stepmother Jane Stokdyk are longtime Highlands residents. Palisadian Anthony LaMolinara, the film’s animation director, has lived in the Palisades for seven years. He and his wife Marie have two children: Luca, 18 months, and Brando, 5-1/2 months. LaMolinara and the other nominees stood up onstage while waiting for the winner to be announced. ‘I had butterflies,’ he recalled. ‘I got really nervous right before they announced it. Once they announced it, and I walked out there I became calm, completely relaxed.’ LaMolinara was one of the first to arrive at the Governors Ball. ‘I speak a little German and I went over to Wolfgang Puck and he said, ‘come on into the kitchen.” When LaMolinara walked in with his Oscar, all the cooks applauded. ‘It’s the time to let your ego hang out, be soothed, massaged and loved.’ A Florida native and graduate of Florida State University, LaMolinara is currently working to set up a new studio at Disney where he will work on his next project, ‘Toy Story III.’ He has had a varied career in the movie industry, working mostly in animation, but also as a camera operator, and doing slow-motion films for the NFL and a live-action short. ‘I used a lot of what I learned shooting NFL films as a ground cameraman in the ‘Spider-Man’ movies.’ ‘The crew was great, the four of us enjoyed working together and the animators did some things that were never done before.’ Palisadian Bob Beemer won his third Oscar Sunday night for his sound mixing work on ‘Ray,’ an award he shared with colleagues Scott Millan, Greg Orloff and Steve Cantamessa. Beemer previously won the Oscar for ‘Gladiator’ and ‘Speed’ and was nominated for ‘Road to Perdition’ and ‘Independence Day.’ Beemer had several Palisadian colleagues on ‘Ray,’ including casting director Nancy Klopper, music editor/music supervisor Curt Sobel and film editor Paul Hirsch. Hirsch, an Oscar nominee for ‘Ray,’ won the American Cinema Editors’ award for best editing of a comedy or musical on February 20 at the Beverly Hilton. Sobel won the Motion Picture Sound Editors Guild’s Golden Reel award for best music editing in a musical film on Saturday night at the Century Plaza hotel. ‘How honored I was to be accepting an award on the same stage where George Lucas had just been acknowledged for his lifetime achievements,’ Sobel said, adding that he recalled meeting Lucas 10 years ago, and how he offered him a composing job. Sobel shared the evening with his wife, Connie, and his younger sons, Jay and Brett. ‘Following dinner, we rushed to Universal’s Pre-Oscar ‘Ray’ party at Spago. Earlier, Paul Hirsch had said I had better walk in to Spago with the Golden Reel statuette held high, or else. It was great not to disappoint Paul and to be able to share the award with those there who had made this movie such a success.’ Sobel also attended the Academy Awards ceremony, sitting next to fellow Palisadian Tom Newman’s family. Newman was nominated for his original score of ‘Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events,’ his seventh Oscar nomination. Other Palisadian Oscar nominees included Palisadian Graham King, the producer of ‘The Aviator,’ nominated in the best picture category; Don Cheadle, who was nominated as best actor for his role as Paul Rusesabagina in ‘Hotel Rwanda’; and Caleb Deschanel, a best cinematography category nominee for his work on ‘The Passion of The Christ,’ his fifth nomination. Costume designer Colleen Atwood was nominated for her work on ‘Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events.’ Atwood won the Oscar in 1993 for ‘Chicago’ and was previously nominated for ‘Sleepy Hollow,’ ‘Beloved,’ and ‘Little Women.’
The Palisades Junior Women’s Club awarded a record $96,350 to 40 local organizations at a reception Tuesday evening at the Woman’s Club. Recreation, public schools, community service and beautification groups topped the list of major award recipients this year. To help celebrate the event, 26 past presidents of the club, including Dotty Larson (1954-55) and Vonnie Flowers (1957-58) from the 1950s, participated in the festivities. ‘It has been a spectacular year,’ said current president Jenifer Byington, adding that the club had raised more money than in the past. ‘It’s not about how much each group gets, just the meaning for them. Some groups like the Oom Pa Pa Band or the Palisades Art Association ask for a small amount every year, and they are always so appreciative.’ For the past 19 years, the club has donated the proceeds from its annual Holiday Home Tour and Boutique to deserving nonprofit organization serving the Palisades community. This year for the first time, the club added an estate sale that netted over $5,000. The Junior Women’s Club was established over 60 years ago as a way to bring dedicated young women together to enhance and preserve the unique qualities of the Palisades community. The 2005 grant recipients included: Beautification: Palisades Village Green Committee’$2,500; Palisades Garden Club’$500; Palisades Beautiful’ $5,000; Palisades P.R.I.D.E.’$4,500. Education: Palisades High School Booster Club’$4,000; Paul Revere PRIDE Booster Club’$4,000; Canyon Charter School Booster Club’$4,000; Friends of Marquez Marquez Charter Elementary’$4,000; P.E.P. Palisades Elementary School’$4,000; Palisades Charter Schools Foundation’$5,000; Calvary Christian School’$500; Nature of Wildworks’$250. Community Services & Charitable Organizations: Sisters of St. Louis League $1,000; Palisades Hunger Walk’$250; Oom Pa Pa Band’$600′ Fire Station #69’$2,000; Fire Station #23’$2,000; Heal the Bay’$500; Palisades Americanism Parade Association’$4,000; Meals on Wheels’$400; Jules & Doris Stein UCLA Support Group’$750; Friends of Villa Aurora’$250. Chamber of Commerce: Disaster Preparedness’$500; Holiday Decorations’$1,000; Street Maintenance’$3,000. Boy Scouts of America: Crew 223 $1,000; Camp Josepho’1,250; Camp Managers Corps’$1,200; Kevin Niles Memorial Library & Learning Center’$500. Recreation: Palisades Art Association’$250; USC Thornton Music Program’$750; Chamber Music Palisades’$500; Palisades Symphony’$500; Friends of Film’$4,000; Palisades-Malibu YMCA’$3,500; Palisades Recreation Center’$4,800; AYSO Region 69’$2,500; USA Youth Triathlon’$100; Pacific Palisades Historical Society’$1,000; Field of Dreams’$5,000.
Karen Suell Raiford died February 23 at her home in Pacific Palisades, a victim of lung cancer. She devoted over 40 years to social work and management in Los Angeles County, working successively in the county Department of Social Services, and then with the Superior Court. She was born Karen Suell Kiersgaard in Glostrup, Denmark on November 30, 1932. The family moved to Virum (north of Copenhagen) before settling in Lyngby in 1953. Karen grew up during the Great Depression, and in Nazi-occupied Denmark during the Second World War. She was educated as a nurse in Roskilde following the war. Karen first came to the United States from Denmark in 1954 and resided in East Lansing, Michigan for four years, working in a hospital there as a nurse’s aide. In 1958 she moved to California. After a brief time nursing in Pasadena she enrolled at UCLA, graduating in 1962 with a B.A. in sociology; she received her Master’s of Social Welfare there in 1968. She started work with the Los Angeles County Department of Social Services (DPSS) in 1961, where she worked for the next 11 years, rising to the position of deputy district director. In 1972 Karen started with the Superior Court of Los Angeles as the director of child custody evaluations department. She headed that department until her retirement in September 1992. During her time with the court, Karen made frequent presentations at statewide as well as national conferences. She was part of the statewide committee that drafted the California Rules of Court setting standards for child custody evaluators. She also drafted the first standards for child custody evaluators for the Association of Family and Conciliation Court (AFCC), which were published in 1986. Karen served on the national and California board of directors for AFCC. She received the Distinguished Service Award in 1992 from AFCC for her contribution to the Child Custody Standard Committee and the National Board of Directors. Following her retirement, she continued to work for the department, and donated many volunteer hours recruiting and training new staff. She also provided training for the newly formed Riverside County Superior Court Child Custody Evaluations office. Karen was also very involved with her church, the Unitarian Universalist Community Church of Santa Monica. There she served on the personnel and ministerial committees, and as a mentor for four years in the church’s Discovery program. A memorial service will be held for Karen at the church, located at 1260 Eighteenth Street in Santa Monica, on March 20 at 2:30 p.m. In addition to her husband of 38 years, John D. Raiford, Karen is survived by her sister, Mary (L’sser) H’iler; a brother, Hanse Kiersgaard; two nieces; three nephews; three grand-nieces; two grand-nephews and one great-grand-nephew in Denmark. A daughter, Joan Mhoon (Ginga) Raiford, died in 1983. In lieu of flowers, donations in Karen’s memory can be made to the Southern Poverty Law Center, P.O. Box 548, Montgomery, Alabama 36177; the Salvation Army; or Survivors After Suicide at the Didi Hirsch Community Mental Health Center, 4760 S. Sepulveda, Culver City, CA 90230.
Chase Pekar will make his debut on the international tennis circuit this summer as a member of the gold medal team. Along with 13 other top-ranked American juniors and two college coaches, the 14-year-old Palisadian will represent the United States as a tennis ambassador on a 27-day European tour which will include tournaments in Sweden, Germany and Holland. ‘I look forward to representing our great nation that I’m so proud to live in,’ Pekar says. ‘I’m eager to compete against top juniors half a world away from us.’ Pekar and his doubles partner Torsten Keil-Long of Claremont reached the finals of the War By the Shore junior tournament in Newport Beach last July. Pekar won the 14s division of the Palisadian-Post Tennis Open and reached the boys’ 12s consolation finals at the K-Swiss Grand Prix Masters in 2003. An eighth-grader at Corpus Christi, Pekar plans to enroll at Palisades High in the fall.
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