The Buerge Farm often hosted the Palisades Garden Club sale and refreshment stop for its annual garden tour fundraiser. The Haverford property is now for sale for $3.85 million. Photo courtesy Bill Buerge
The historic Buerge home, a generous-sized spread consisting of a ranch house and farm on Haverford that became a gathering place for the Buerge family for over 60 years, is on the market for $3, 850,000. Approximately 20,000 sq.ft,, the three-lot property, aptly called The Farm, comes complete with a red barn and even a windmill. The land in the 600 block of Haverford (where Radcliffe and De Pauw intersect) was purchased in 1938 by Maurice and Helen Buerge at a time when much of the Palisades was planted in bean fields. Maurice and his father and brothers built all the structures on the three Haverford lots with logs hewed with adzes. Bill Buerge, the youngest son, purchased the authentic windmill for his mother in 1968 after reading an article about Nebraska in the National Geographic. Maurice and his oldtime farm buddies hooked up a pump and got the windmill to operate. Maurice also planted an orchard which was filled with over 60 trees, including a number of varieties of avocado and tropicals such as sapote, guava and stone fruit (peaches and plums). Son Bill recalls how he and his siblings collected bushels of macadamia nuts, which they learned to crack open with hammers. He also remembers harvesting horseradish. ‘Dad had an old grinder that he used to get out once a year to grind up the horseradish, and he would have the whole neighborhood crying.’ Maurice, who started his career as an auto mechanic and eventually became co-owner of Walker-Buerge Ford in West Los Angeles, and Helen raised their four children, Betty, John, Susan and Bill, in the ranch house. Helen loved gardening and managed to continue the farming life she had known growing up on a farm in La Junta, Colorado. She planted a big vegetable garden every year, always testing varieties of tomatoes, squash, peppers, beans and pumpkins. The pumpkin patch was a local favorite, producing award-winning specimens weighing as much as 200 pounds. The Farm grew to become a popular place for the neighbors to gather, and every Halloween, Helen opened the garden to local children and their families to enjoy an afternoon of stories, refreshments and a potluck dinner. She gave each child a small pumpkin to take home. A member of the Palisades Garden Club, Helen hosted the refreshment and plant sale for the club’s annual garden tour. One year she rented a horse, goat and some chickens for the day to give the place a little more farm flavor. In anticipation of the annual spring event, she would spruce up the garden with new annuals. Even after losing her strength in her later years, she continued to water and care for the plants from her wheelchair. The Buerges were always hospitable. The house at The Farm grew from two to five bedrooms, and although there was no ‘Bed and Breakfast’ sign hanging up, Helen ran one anyway, according to her son, Bill. ‘The door was always open, and so was the kitchen,’ he said. Helen was always gracious and made everyone feel welcome regardless of what she may have planned for the day or given the time of guest arrival. Maurice died in 1995 and Helen continued to live in the house until her death in 2000. The Buerge property is represented by Dolly Niemann of Prudential John Aaroe. Contact: 230-3706.
When the Community Council meets on August 26, Paul McGlothlin, founding director of the Renaissance Academy, will make a presentation about the new charter public high school which will open September 8 in the 881 Alma Real building. At Council Chairman Norman Kulla’s request, McGlothlin will describe the mission of the school, curriculum and faculty. He will also update the progress of creating classrooms, administrative offices and bathrooms in the 13,000-sq.-ft leased space adjacent to the Palisades Branch Library. ‘I’ll then invite questions from Council members and the community,’ said Kulla, who has already advised McGlothlin by e-mail that he should ‘be prepared to address’ parking and traffic issues. In addition, Council treasurer Patti Post posed the following in a separate e-mail to McGlothlin: ‘The [July 29] article in the Palisadian-Post about your new location indicated that students would not be allowed to park on site and that there would be a shuttle system. This could mean that some will park instead on the streets in the adjacent neighborhood. What steps are you taking to keep students, staff and faculty from parking in the neighborhood? Where would the shuttle begin and how often would it run?” According to McGlothlin, Renaissance Academy still plans to provide a shuttle system to (1) transport students to the school from several undetermined Palisades locations and (2) transport students to and from other school classroom locations (e.g., Santa Monica College and Temescal Gateway Park). ‘We’re also staggering the schedule [by starting classes at 9 a.m.] to avoid conflicts with nearby schools,’ McGlothlin told Palisades Optimist Club members on August 10. ‘It’s also important to know that 300 kids are not all going to converge on that building at one time. Many of the kids will be going straight to classes at Santa Monica College, to Pierson Playhouse, or to Stuart Hall in Temescal Canyon. We also want to make the Getty one of our classrooms.’ However, a specific morning drop-off location near the school has not yet been decided. ‘It will be the least difficult place to drop them off,’ McGlothlin told the Post this week. He wants to get community input on this issue at next Thursday’s meeting. As to the parking situation, McGlothlin said, ‘The vast majority of students will take the shuttle or ride in a parent-run van pool. Those who have to drive can pay the monthly fee to park in [the Alma Real building], but Renaissance is not offering this option. We’re providing transportation, not parking.’ The school is paying for 14 faculty parking spaces in the building. While Renaissance is expecting about 300 students on opening day (including about 150 ninth graders), ‘we’re still getting enrollments and adjustments,’ McGlothlin said. Students are currently selecting classes and meeting with advisors. Dr. Roberta Benjamin, director of the Charter Schools Office for the Los Angeles Unified School District, told the Post that an inspector from the Office of Environmental Health and Safety plans to study traffic patterns on Alma Real, La Cruz, Swarthmore and Carey prior to the Community Council meeting. ‘Also, our facilities office will do an inspection when they get a plan of the building. This is an independent charter school, and we are not responsible for the physical plant, but we do have oversight responsibility for the safety of these students.’ Benjamin added that a representative from her office will attend the Council meeting. The Renaissance Academy is chartered through the State of California, and like Palisades High School will receive its per-student funding directly from the state”about $6,000 per student,’ according to McGlothlin. There is no tuition, but ‘we will of course pass the hat just like any other school these days.’ Optimist member Curt Baer, who has an insurance agency on the third floor of the Alma Real commercial/professional building, said he worried about ‘rowdyism and hallway traffic’ between classes (although classes will be held one level below ground level) and complained, ‘It’s just going to be a zoo.’ ‘We’re going to be very good neighbors,’ McGlothlin replied, ‘and the kids will be well supervised at all times. This is different style of high school. There won’t be any bells, and we’re taking some of our classes off-site, so students won’t be traveling in big groups together inside the building.’ He also noted that the student/teacher ratio is 20 to 1, the faculty is expert and experienced, ‘and the students are motivated’this is a school of choice. If a student wants to squander this opportunity [by misbehaving], he won’t be around.’ ‘Additional reporting by BILL BRUNS
Community activism rarely takes a summer hiatus in Pacific Palisades, as reflected by the agenda for next Thursday’s Community Council meeting beginning at 7 p.m. in the Palisades Branch Library community room, 861 Alma Real. The public is invited to participate in the following discussions, as arranged by chairman Norman Kulla and fellow board members. 1. Paul McGlothlin, founding director of the new Renaissance Academy, will talk about his high school’s mission, faculty and enrollment prospects. He will also address community concerns about traffic and parking impacts on Alma Real and neighboring streets. The school (grades 9-12) will open September 9 at 9 a.m. in the 881 Alma Real building and is anticipating upwards of 300 students. (See story below.) 2. Kulla will given an update about the proposed creation of a preferential parking district for neighborhoods bordering the Palisades Recreation Center and the Village business district. The issue was discussed at the July 22 meeting. 3. Verizon representives will give a brief PowerPoint describing their proposal to have Pacific Palisades serve as an early ‘test community’ as Verizon begins to replace all its copper wiring with high-speed fiber optics in a $40-50 billion national project. ‘Huntington Beach is already aboard and they’re also talking with Malibu and Topanga Canyon,’ Kulla said. ‘Verizon wants the community to invite this buildout, subject to their agreeing to abide by community concerns.’ 4. Council member Patti Post and resident Steve Lantz will discuss the threatened cancellation of Commuter Express Route 430 between Pacific Palisades and downtown L.A., the Department of Transportation’s August 11 hearing on the matter, and proposed follow-up action. 5. Chamber of Commerce representatives will evaluate their inaugural four-week Movies in the Park series (which concluded at the Palisades Recreation Center last Saturday) and respond to community input. 6. Dan Hackney, executive liaison to neighborhood councils for the L.A. Bureau of Sanitation, is expected to give an update on the polluted ‘mystery pond’ at PCH and Chautauqua, and will bring someone expert on the problem. 7. Area Representative Stuart Muller will report on his Car Wash Noise Committee, based on communications with Inspector Jay Paternostro (L.A. Department of Building and Safety, South Region Noise Abatement) and Palisades Gas and Wash operations manager John Zisk (USA Petroleum Corporation). 8. Kulla will update arson coordination between LAFD and LAPD regarding the Palisades Letter Shop dumpster fire that was set by vandals on June 4. 9. Charlene Baskin of Palisades Beautiful will announce a tree-trimming fundraising proposal. For more information about the Community Council, visit www.90272.org
The real estate market on the Westside is hot. Multiple offers in this frenzied time drive the prices into the stratosphere for all properties, as Angels Attic founders Jackie McMahan and Eleanor LaVove discovered when they set their sights on a diminutive Mexican mansion. Eager to add the 7 1/2 ft. high and 6 ft. wide house to their collection, the two bought it at auction for a record-breaking $217,000 in June. For years the two women had known about and coveted the house. When LaVove was living in Mexico, she even went in search of the house upon which it was modeled. ‘I rented a driver and went out to see what I could find out,’ LaVove said. ‘ButI didn’t find a thing; everything is built behind walls.’ The small mansion, believed to be is a copy of a house which once stood in Puebla, was discovered in an antique shop in Puebla in the spring of 1977. Although the facade of the house has some Moorish features, it is French in flavor, a reflection of many full-sized mansions in Puebla and Mexico City built over the years after the arrival of the troops of Napoleon III in 1862. In 1922, the house was wired and redecorated, giving the interior some feeling of the 1920s. The Paige automobile in the driveway is, along with a pair of early radio towers, from this period. A friend of McMahon and LaVove who was closing her miniature museum in Washington, D. C., held the auction in June to sell all the contents of the museum, including the Puebla house. ‘We wanted it so badly we were determined to get it,’ LaVove said. ‘The competition was from people we knew, including Mary Harris Francis and Barbara Marshall, cofounders of the Toy and Miniature Museum in Kansas City. Mary bid against us, but quit when she saw that we really wanted it, and another phone bid didn’t go as high as we did.’ Fully furnished, the house contains a drawing room, dining room, kitchen, bedroom, bath, music room, and chapel. A section of the removable facade covers each of these. The interiors are furnished primarily with fruitwood tables and chairs. Of particular note is the carved master bedroom suite done in the European style set against French-style panel wallpaper in pale pistachio green and ivory. Typical of the ’90s, the house has German marble elaborate beadwork fringe. The house is generously accessorized with milk glass, soft metal and porcelain decorative art objects. The imaginative roof garden with aviary, gazebo, various bird houses and four-awninged art gallery lends tremendous animation to the facade as does the working exterior enclosed elevator that passes up through the three-story filigree stairwell. The house comes complete with six dolls dating from 1890-1920. ‘I think it’s a wonderful house and great fun. It’s very big for a little house,’ LaVove said. She and McMahon each kindled their passion for dolls and dollhouses as children.’While they have donated their collections to the museum, each stubbornly retains one favorite doll house at home. The museum, which opened 21 years ago in the distinctive blue Queen Anne-style home on Colorado, is the only repository for doll houses on the West Coast. It consists of seven rooms filled with not only doll houses and doll house furniture, but also mini collections of antique children’s toys, such as stoves, baby carriages, china and tea sets as well as antique dolls and porcelain doll heads. It was originally created to benefit autistic children and now has expanded to assist all children and seniors in need. The Puebla house has already moved into the pink gallery at Angels Attic where visitors can see it from 12:30 to 4:30 p.m. Thursday through Sunday. Contact: 394-8331.
Once a week, Harry Newman travels from his Thousand Oaks home to lunch at Terri’s on Swarthmore. Now a familiar fixture at the restaurant, where he’s been dining for five years, the architect spends about 30 minutes eating and illustrating what he calls ‘architectural fantasies’ on Terri’s white paper tablecloths. ‘I saw the paper and crayons, and started doodling,’ says Newman, an Illinois native who moved to California in 1975 ‘because I loved the weather.’ In Chicago he had worked as an illustrator, doing full color renderings of architectural plans for various publications. Fluent in acrylic, watercolor, charcoal, pencil and ink, Newman says, ‘I hadn’t used crayons since I was 6 years old.’ He explains that ‘most people don’t know how to use crayons’ and that ‘if you know what you’re doing, you use them the same way you use charcoal.’ Ripping back the paper wrap from a black crayon, Newman demonstrates how he uses the side of the crayon to make the long, sweeping strokes that create so many of his cityscape images hanging on the walls of Terri’s. ‘ ‘Some are blocky, some are ethereal,’ says Newman, describing the variety of solid color illustrations in blue, purple, turquoise, red and carmel-brown. ‘They’re big visions of roadways, building shapes, bridges, automobiles and trains.’ About a month ago, Terri Festa told Newman she wanted to have an exhibit of his work at her restaurant. Her husband, Chip, mounted Newman’s illustrations on stiff but lightweight black foam core with double-faced tape, and Newman helped arrange his pieces on the walls. Then, when Terri opened her new restaurant, Terri’s Cafe, in Agoura a few weeks ago, Newman did an illustration opening night and gave it to them. ‘It’s the only original I’ve given away,’ says Newman, who estimates that he’s done about 300 illustrations so far. While they are fantastical images, with futuristic themes defying gravity and rational landscape, Newman says, ‘There’s logic behind every one. I do them so that structurally, they could hold up in a fantasy-type world.’ With a bachelor’s degree in engineering from the University of Illinois, Newman got his first California job as an architect designing and constructing a small recording studio. He started his own architectural business and got his break when he designed Herb Alpert’s studio at A&M, which led to more studio jobs with the record company. Now, Newman says most of his work is on the Westside and in the Palisades, where he designs ‘highly important homes’ for celebrities. He is currently working on a large project on San Remo. ‘I can’t come to Terri’s and eat and not do an illustration,’ says Newman, who usually works while he eats, with his lunch plate on the drawing. ‘I’m somewhat obsessive, so I have to sit outside to eat if I’m not going to do one.’ One of Terri’s customers recently called Newman’s illustrations ‘tablecloth art,’ though Newman says that a good amount of thought goes into each piece. ‘I have to be really thinking about what I’m doing,’ he says. On the back of each illustration, Newman writes the date and a little something about what he was doing before he came to Terri’s that day. He also has started to sign the new ones ‘at Terri’s’ to distinguish them from the older pieces. While Newman says he enjoys using all different colors, he admits, ‘Black is a favorite because it’s like charcoal. And there’s something so pure about it’like black-and-white photography.’ When asked if he has a favorite illustration, Newman quotes Frank Lloyd Wright and says, ‘the next one.’ Then he continues, ‘Doing these illustrations when I’m not working on homes is part of what keeps me honed in. Each one keeps me sharp.’ For more information, visit Terri’s Restaurant at 1028 Swarthmore.
PaliHi cheerleaders, wearing their warm-up suits, create a pyramid. The “flyers” on top of the pyramid are (from left to right) Caroline Palo, Andrea Ales and Jamie Stovall. Photo by Rich Schmitt, Staff Photographer
Everyone needs a cheerleader’someone to lift you up when you’re down and to give you the spirit to hang in there. Even the Palisades High School cheerleading squad needed their own cheerleader earlier this year. The PaliHi cheerleaders say their sport takes more athletic ability than people think. However, the activity, which has always been a part of the high school program, is not funded by the athletic department. And this spring, the program was in danger of coming to an end. The former coaches, Cellia and Cat Whiteford, had found other jobs and were no longer available for practices. The program had become disorganized. And due to the high cost of cheerleading, girls didn’t want to spend the money ($1,200 this year for new cheerleaders, $400 for returning ones) for a program that was falling apart. Many team members quit. Junior Bridget Bruner, who was planning to switch schools, was one of them. But when four freshmen came to her and said that no one showed up for practice besides them’she started calling the other girls one by one. All of the returning members on the squad came back. There are now 37 cheerleaders, and this summer a new English teacher at Pali, Olivia Castro, was hired as cheerleading coach. So the sounds of ‘Let’s go, Pali, let’s go!’ will again be heard again as the cheerleaders, bright in their blue and white uniforms, perform at all the school’s football and basketball games Loud voices are important in cheerleading, so in practices, captains Bruner, Morgan Brown and Jasmine Thomas have the squad continually repeat, ‘C’mon, C’mon yell defense go, yell defense go!’ loud enough to be heard by the crowd. ‘I’m a loud person,’ says Bruner. ‘It’s okay to be loud in cheer.’ She and the other two captains lead the practices, which have taken place twice a week at PaliHi for the past month. Cheerleading fees cover uniforms’which this year includes a new A-line skirt to replace the pleated fly-away skirt of previous years’mats, sound system, cheerleading camps, buses to away games and all related costs of the program. Kim Thomas, a special education assistant who has been the faculty sponsor of the team for 22 years, organizes the paperwork, orders uniforms and arranges for the buses. The team raises money and takes private donations, in hopes that no one who wants to cheer will be turned away because they lack the funds. Two tryouts were held this spring before the new coach came aboard, and although boys have been a part of the squad in the past, no one tried out this year. The importance of the program is not lost on the athletic department. ‘They are a large part of spirit on our campus,’ says Leo Castro, Pali’s athletic director and football coach, who is also Olivia’s father-in-law. ‘Cheerleaders get the fans involved in the game. The crowd motivates the game and motivates the players.’ Castro would also like to see a drill team and marching band perform during halftime. During a recent practice, the girls were practicing some football season cheers. ‘Tighten up that defense, you say hold, hold that, that line,’ moving in unison with precision arm and leg movements and claps. The squad comes up with many of their own cheers, and also performs stunts, such as forming pyramids, by holding up three girls at shoulder height. The girls watch the game and respond to the action with an appropriate cheer. During halftime, they turn on the portable sound system, and perform dances as well as cheers and stunts. They also ‘rally’ to get the crowd going. ‘Dolphins, Defense, You say, Stop that drive!’ During basketball season, they do sit-down cheers on the front row bench during the game, and also perform between quarters, at halftime and during time-outs. Castro came to the team in July with a background in dance drill, from Hollenbeck Middle School in East L.A., where she coached the drill team. ‘The girls will get a sense of being part of a team’something bigger than themselves, representing their school and their community and looking out for each other,’ Castro said. Some of the cheerleaders come with experience from elementary school and middle school squads, others with a dance or gymnastics background, and still others with natural ability and attitude and the desire to learn. ‘I started off as a beginner,’ said junior Victoria Choi, who worked her way up to the varsity squad and likes cheer because ‘it lets me express my energy and spirit.’ The squad members continuously come up with new cheers and routines: ‘Who rocks the house? The Dolphins rock the house! And when the Dolphins rock the house, they rock it all the way down.’ The camaraderie of the squad is a draw for the girls. ‘I like that not everyone is from the same group of friends,’ says junior Nicole Tirosh. ‘The stereotypical cheerleader is ditzy. Some people don’t know us, and they say we’re like that.’ Bruner says, ‘If two cheerleaders talk in class, the teachers think the cheerleaders talk a lot. If one person slips up, it’s all of us.’ A Palisadian, Bruner adds that ‘most of my friends I met through cheer. The hard part is I have to go far to see some of my new friends.’ The squad members come from all over Los Angeles. Candy Brown, mother of team captain Morgan Brown, had a sleepover for 36 cheerleaders last year at her house in Baldwin Hills, and has helped organize garage sales to raise money to help those who can’t afford the team dues. ‘Cheerleading is very necessary for the school too,’ she says. ‘If they didn’t have cheerleaders, even though [some students] like to tease them, it wouldn’t be as much fun.’ While some of the cheerleaders agreed that Pali’s school spirit is strong, others feels there needs to be some improvement. ‘It feels good to pump your team up,’ says senior Jessica Santos, who joined the team as a freshman, took a break and is back this year. ‘You have to be loud and proud’put some attitude into it. At games, we compete against other cheerleaders, try to have fun and see who can do better stunts.’ Senior Nikita Hearns is fulfilling a long-time dream by being part of the squad for the first time this year. ‘It makes you more outgoing,’ she says. ‘It makes you happier. You express your feelings by cheering for the team.’ For junior Jasmine Thomas, competition is what makes cheerleading fun. The competitions take place in the spring and summer at amusement parks and major high schools. As a captain, she wants to lead the squad to its best potential. Strong motions and good personalities make for a successful squad. ‘We’re not a part of the athletic program but we work just as hard and get hurt just as much.’ In addition to afterschool practices three afternoons a week, they work on their conditioning three days a week’doing ab work, lunges and squats in the fitness center. For their new coach, the goal this year is no injuries, and that ‘we all stay on the team and treat each other right.’ She’s ordered two-inch thick cheerleading mats that velcro together, for the team to practice stunts on. ‘We’ll also be stretching out and warming up ahead of time, and working on getting down safely from stunts,’ Castro says. Next week, the Cheerleaders of America camp will come to Pali to instruct the squad for a week, then junior varsity and varsity squads will be selected, and then it’s ‘Go, big blue!’ for the football season opener on September 10 at Sylmar High School. (Donations for the program can be made out to Palisades High School, earmarked for cheerleading, mailed to 15777 Bowdoin St., Pacific Palisades, CA 90272.)
Palisadian Ulis Williams Has Gone from Olympic Champion to College President
A graduate of Compton High, Williams has served as President of Compton College since 1996. Photo by Rich Schmitt, Staff Photographer
Forty years have passed since Ulis Williams won a gold medal as a member of the United States’ 4 x 400 meter relay team at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. And while that was clearly his defining moment as an athlete, the man once dubbed ‘The Compton Comet’ is just as proud of his achievements off of the track. Williams has not rested on the laurels of his gold medal victory. Instead, he has invested his time and energy into education and is now the President and Superintendent at Compton Community College. ‘Just as I did not anticipate running track, I did not at first aspire to become a college president,’ Williams says. ‘I just put forth my best effort the same as I had in track and, through dedication and hard work, I eventually acquired the qualifications to be where I am today.’ While living in Santa Monica, Williams and his wife Sandra used to walk to Pacific Palisades and eventually they grew to enjoy its relative tranquility. In 1998, they leased a home on Haverford and two years later moved two blocks from the Via bluffs. And while he enjoys the community in which he lives, Williams has not forgotten the one from which he came. ‘Compton has changed a lot since I was in high school, but there’s still a lot of pride,’ Williams says. ‘I always wanted to give back to the community that gave me my start in life and I’m glad I have the opportunity to do that. I want to help make others’ dreams come true.’ The son of a sharecropper, Williams spent his childhood years on a cotton plantation in Mississippi with no dreams of a better life on the horizon. That changed when his family moved to Compton in 1957 and the 15-year-old was introduced to the sport he would go on to dominate. ‘I started running track because friends on my block ran track,’ Williams remembers. ‘At the time, the only sports I knew about were baseball and basketball. But Fred Kennedy, a P.E. teacher at Enterprise Junior High where I was going recognized I had potential and told the coach at Compton High about me. So when I got there, the coach said he wanted me to try out for cross country. I didn’t even know what that was… I thought it was some sort of treasure hunt.’ It didn’t take long for Williams’ God-given talent to surface. He quickly established himself as one of the top prep runners in Southern California and in 1961 he won the state championship for the 440 yards. The following year he was named Amateur Athlete of the Year and Freshman Athlete of the Year at Arizona State University. In 1963, Williams was first in the 400 meters at the NCAA national championships. ‘That Olympic year was difficult for me because I won every race from the time I was a junior in high school until I was a junior in college,’ Williams recalls. ‘Then, in January I pulled a muscle in my left leg during the Los Angeles Times Indoor Games at the Sports Arena. I remember the pain vividly. It was like someone had hit me with a baseball bat. I had never been injured before so it was a new experience for me. I didn’t run for about six months but fortunately the Olympics were later in the year, so I was able to run in the Olympic Trials and I finished second.’ At the Olympics, Williams ran third in a foursome that finished in 3:00.7 and set a new world record. A broad smile still crosses his face every time Williams relives that cloudy October day when he raced into the history book. ‘I had been running the anchor leg all the way up to the finals,’ Williams remembers. ‘Right before the final, we huddled and suggested a new running order to our coach [Bob Giegengack]. Ollan Cassell would lead off, followed by Mike Larabee, myself and Henry Carr. I think it gave us a psychological advantage because our opponents had to readjust to us running in a different order.’ Williams has vivid memories of the race. ‘Mike [Larabee] gave me a two or three-yard lead, but the guy from Trinidad-Tobago passed me on the backstretch, but not by enough to cut in front. I was holding the baton in my right hand and he was hitting my arm as we rounded the last turn. We ran side by side for awhile, then I accelerated to open a seven or eight yard lead.’ It appeared the United States was on its way to an easy victory, but Carr started his run too late and Williams was forced to pull up, almost causing him to drop the baton (which would have meant automatic disqualification). Williams fell as he handed off to Carr, sliding on the crushed brick track, but he had maintained the team’s lead and Carr went on to win by nine yards, almost a full second ahead of silver medalist Great Britain. ‘Standing on the victory platform was sort of an anti-climactic feeling,’ Williams says. ‘For the first time in years, I had no immediate challenge. I was wondering what I would do next.’ Upon returning to America, Williams became involved with the Boy Scouts of America, though he longed to return to his roots one day. He got his chance when he was hired as the assistant track coach at Compton College in 1970. The team tied for the conference championship and won it outright the following year. In 1975, he received his master’s degree in Urban Studies and Planning from Antioch College in San Francisco. He was hired as Compton’s Director of Community Services and Athletics and has remained at the college ever since. ‘When he became President, Ulis invited all of his Olympic teammates here and it was so special to see the camaraderie between them,’ says Compton College’s Director of Public Information Stan Myles, who remembers watching Williams compete in the Compton Relays’once among the country’s premiere track and field events. ‘He is such a positive role model for the students because he’s from here and they can see what someone can do if they set goals and work hard to achieve them. He was a phenomenal runner but more importantly, he’s a nice human being.’ Williams took over as President on an interim basis in 1996 and became Compton College’s 11th permanent President the following year. Since then he has overseen construction of a new Vocational/Technology Center, plans for a new math/science building, raised $3.2 million for an Olympic track and has worked out an agreement with Major League baseball to build a youth academy on campus’a project expected to break ground at the end of the month. Under his leadership, the College is finalizing a long-range institutional plan, ‘Renaissance 2000,’ to meet the needs of future residents. ‘I believe success is where opportunity meets preparation,’ Williams says. ‘The most important resource in any country is the people. An educated society is really what maintains civilization. Ignorance and greed will cause its demise. Everyone cannot be a leader but education will enable citizens to hold their leaders accountable.’ When he’s not influencing the lives of his students, Williams is making a difference here in the Palisades. An active member of Palisadians for Peace for two years, he mans the booth every Sunday during the Farmer’s Market. ‘I understands unfairness and racial inequality because I grew up in a segregated society,’ he says. ‘Everyone should want peace. Governments seem to think war is the way to solve problems, but if we spent as much time developing sophisticated minds as we do developing sophisticated weapons, perhaps peaceful resolutions would be easier to find.’
By HOWARD GOULD Special to the Palisadian-Post Over 50 boy scouts from Troop 23 (based at Palisades Methodist Church), under the guidance of Scoutmaster John Wilson, recently returned from a five-day, four-night kayaking trip in Seattle to fulfill their summer ‘high adventure’ as they work towards becoming Eagle scouts. Most of the Troop consists of Palisadians who attend Paul Revere Middle School, Palisades High, Pilgrim School, Lighthouse School and, in the fall, Rennaisance Academy. These scouts all spent the two previous summers at the Boy Scout camp on Catalina Island at Emerald Bay. The troop spent two days in Seattle visiting the Pacific Science Center, the Experience Music Project, the Space Needle, Bill Speir’s Underground Tour, Pioneer Square and the Pike Street Market and the Museum of Flying with Air Force One and the Concorde. After Seattle, the boys traveled to Anacortes and took the ferry to Friday Harbor, where they camped at Lakedale Campground and packed their dry bags in preparation for kayaking. In all, they kayaked about 35 miles over four days and, on the off day, hiked five miles. The first day was a send off from Jackson Beach with a landing on Turn Island for lunch. Passing across Friday Harbor with its many ferries, yachts and sailboats entering and exiting, Troop 23 then crossed over toward Shaw Island and by the Wasp Islands to Jones Island, a nature preserve where it camped for two nights. The second day saw the troop paddling around Jones Island and across open waters to the northeast side of San Juan Island to investigate tide pools and work on individual paddling and group interactions on the water. The boys returned to Jones Island for the night. Day three was a long paddle through the Speiden Channel and around Speiden Island to Reid Harbor on Stuart Island, the northernmost land in the continental United States. The fourth day included a five-mile hike to the lighthouse at the northernmost point of the island with a view across the water to Canada. Rising at 5 a.m. on the fifth day for a 6:30 departure (in order to miss the peak tides on an exciting paddle to Henry Island), Troop 23 then paddled down the Haro Strait with a view out to the Pacific Ocean through the Strait of Juan De Fuca. Ocean-going vessels, including huge cargo ships, entered Puget Sound right in front of them. After packing away the kayaks and gear, and after lunching on a high promontory above Smallpox Bay, the boys were treated to a glorious send-off as a pod of Orca whales headed north along the coast, playfully breeching and cavorting as they swam the same channel the troop had just paddled. Each day, scouts took turns guiding the group along the course by selecting appropriate points of bearing. They learned to take into account the ebb and flood tides which dominate Puget Sound and dictate the direction for each segment of the trip. The scouts also learned to use proper formation as they crossed open stretches to minimize their exposure to larger vessels and to navigate the waves and boat wakes rocking their kayaks on the open water. Editor’s Note: The author serves as an assistant scoutmaster for Troop 23.
After a long struggle for over two years with a rare disease (fewer than 100 reported cases worldwide), longtime resident Branka Sondheim passed away on August 10 at UCLA Medical Center. She was 67. Born in Zagreb, Yugoslavia (now Croatia), on December 9, 1936, Branka survived the Holocaust with her mother in Vienna, by means of false papers after her father was taken to a concentration camp, where he died. After the war, her mother remarried, and in 1949 Branka came to Chicago with her brother and family. She attended Waller High School and won a scholarship to the University of Chicago, where she met her husband, Harry. They were married on March 30, 1958. Harry was an attorney in the California State Attorney General’s Office and later the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office while Branka finished her education at UCLA and graduated in 1959. She then began working as an Employment Security Officer for the state, helping the unemployed find jobs. After the Sondheims moved to the Palisades in 1960, she staffed the Youth Employment Service. Operating out of the Palisades-Malibu YMCA facility, she helped find jobs for Palisades youths until the operation was closed by the state. After the birth of her two children, Branka occasionally worked for the state on a part-time basis until her retirement in 1986. Harry retired from the L.A. District Attorney’s office after a 34-year career and began an active volunteer life, including serving as chairman of the Community Council from 2000-2002. Branka never really ‘retired,’ but devoted her life to things she loved: her family, friends and community activities. She was a volunteer in the Museum Service Council at the County Museum of Art, a member of the Palisades Garden Club and a persistent swimmer at the YMCA pool. In her ‘spare’ moments, she enjoyed cooking, traveling, participating in a knitting group and tending to her garden. She once wrote that ‘a garden, just like a marriage, is always a work in progress, constantly evolving, requiring tending and caring, with the hope that it will be improving all the time.’ In a writing class at Emeritus College in Santa Monica, Branka wrote many stories about her childhood years in Vienna during and after the war, following the example of her own mother Onkel Mayer, who had also participated in the class before her death. In the following story, Branka describes the days in 1944 during the bombing of Vienna. ‘I am transported back about 60 years to the many hours my mother Onkel, my soon-to-be-stepfather, and I spent in the cellar of 106 Gumpendorferstrasse in the 6th district of Vienna. We had no gas mask, no survival kit, nor did anyone in the building….What we and some of the other occupants of the apartment in the building might have taken along, depending on the time of year, were blankets, maybe a valise with one’s important papers, maybe jewelry or gold coins, which were always something you could trade in for food or favors from officials, should that ever become a necessity. ‘There were some benches or old crates in the cellar to sit on, and we brought a cot or two, for I remember sometimes lying down there, especially during the last few days of the war when the Russian army was marching in, when it wasn’t safe to be on the street or even near a window. ‘Even among all the destruction and fear one could always find a bright side. Towards the end of the war, when bombing attacks were more and more frequent, schools closed. I guess the idea was to allow children to stay close to home, to be with their parents. My mother was still going to the office downtown, however, and just took me with her. ‘In the office, I met some of my mom’s co-workers. …I especially liked Anny, a young woman of Czech background. She was always cheerful, talkative, lively and loved to cook and eat. When the air raid sirens announced another bombing attack, while we were in the office, everyone had to scramble down into the catacombs underneath and near the famous Vienna landmark, St. Stephen’s Cathedral. Nowadays, and I think before the war, visitors were led through these catacombs on tours of downtown Vienna. Queens and emperors and their families are buried there. The belief was that these underground caves were safe, that no bomb could penetrate these vaults. ‘It was in one of these cavernous rooms that my mother, Anny and others from the office were sitting and waiting for the all-clear signal again. Leave it to Anny! It was lunch time and she pulls out some pawidltatschkerln, a triangular pocket of dough filled with plum mousse, a typical Czech dish which not everyone can make to perfection. It may have rained bombs outside, but for a little while, I enjoyed this treat and forgot to be afraid.’ In addition to her husband, Branka is survived by her son Daniel and his wife Chalon Bridges and children Sam and Lucy in Sonoma; her daughter Rebecca Martin, who lives with her husband Robert and children Noah and Rachel in Pacific Palisades; and her brother Marcel Mayer (wife Vicki) of Waldorf, Maryland. The family will celebrate Branka’s life at a memorial close to her birthday in December at Kehillat Israel. For more details, contact Harry at 454-1088. The family suggests that any memorial contributions may be made to the Palisades Garden Club, P.O. Box 261, Pacific Palisades 90272 or the Palisades-Malibu YMCA Aquatic Program, 821 Via de la Paz.
Submitted by Palisades High Alumni Association Edited by BILL BRUNS The Palisades High Alumni Association will celebrate 10 years by hosting a ’63 to ’79 graduates/administrators/ teachers picnic Saturday, August 21. Everyone who was at PaliHi during those years is invited to join old friends and make new ones at this bring-your-own picnic that will run from noon to 5 p.m. on the school quad. A hot dog, chip and drink combo will be for sale, while supplies last. This inaugural event is intended to bring awareness of the Palisades High Alumni Association (PHAA) and Dolphins After Dark (DAD) because there is an urgent need to inform alums about how they can help the association achieve its goals. While admission to the event is free, all alums attending are encouraged to donate at least $10 and become an ‘active’ member of the PHAA. In the future the association would like to host a picnic for the ’80s and ’90s alums, but volunteers must step forward to form a committee. PHAA president Jeanne Jensen (’76) has long wanted to form a Pali All-Star Band for events such as this, as well as the Fourth of July parade. At the picnic, alumni musicians from the ’60s and ’70s will come together to play for the first time as a group. If you play an acoustic instrument, bring it for an open jam-session. ‘Come on out’we can still rock the house!’ says Pali All-Star Band committee chair Richard Wayman, who sings, and plays keyboards and bass. The PHAA was formed in 1994 by a group of dedicated seniors, alums and parents. This group started the alumni newsletter, Dolphins, and on Alumni Night each year, recognizes current and past teachers, administrators and volunteers. In 2002, Jensen formed the social events committee, naming it Dolphins After Dark. With that she became the PHAA’s event coordinator and, soon thereafter, created the Dolphins After Dark Web site. That fall, Jensen also became the president, when Maggie Ghodes Nance (’90 and faculty) departed. Other members of the the PHAA’s board of directors are communications director Jan Gong, secretary Richard Wayman (’76) and treasurer Georgia Dent-Inferrera (’76). Pat Boren (’72) volunteers whenever she is available. The group wishes other ‘Palisadians’ would lend their assistance, since each person plays a vital role in getting things accomplished. Simply maintaining what they do isn’t enough anymore. Jensen has been pushing forward by having meetings this past year with Charlotte Atlas, Atlas, one of PaliHi’s vice principals. ‘Ms. Atlas has a lot to oversee within her job, yet she makes the time to keep current with what we do,’ Jensen says. ‘She sees our enthusiasm and is extremely supportive’for that we are grateful. And what can I say about Mr. Jefferson [plant manager] and Mr. Braithwaite [finance office]? They are simply wonderful. The alumni association has come to rely on all three of them for our meetings and events. They help us make it all happen!’ Over the next year, the PHAA will focus on creating an Alumni Wall of Fame, as well as development of a scholarship program for seniors and a ‘gifts’ program for the school. Until recently, the group (by necessity) had put many ideas on hold. Then, earlier this year Jensen and coach James Paleno (basketball and golf) began discussing ideas and the ‘Wall of Fame’ came up’an old idea to her, a new one to him. ‘It was as if a dimmed light bulb suddenly was glowing to its true potential’100 watts,’ Jensen says. ‘From that moment plans started moving in the right direction.’ The PHAA feels it is important to let alums know that those who will appear on the future Wall of Fame are being ‘invited’ by the alumni association to take part in this recognition. This is by no means a ‘buy-in’ where alums (or families thereof) can donate money to be recognized. While there is always the hope for and necessity of donations to fund and further develop programs, the board of directors is developing guidelines on how they want to see this all transpire, in true accordance with their beliefs. One of Jensen’s ideas is to retire uniform numbers worn by prominent athletes who have passed away. This will be an invitation that is extended to the athlete’s family. ‘The PHAA cannot retire every number of a great player who passed through PaliHi, but eventually we’d like to see them recognized on the Wall Of Fame,’ Jensen says. In an agreement solidified a few weeks ago between the school and the alumni association, any type of fundraising made though an outreach program directed at alumni must be developed by and carried out by the PHAA’s board of directors. After all, these are the ideas of their group who will do the work to bring it about. Another goal involves assisting programs already in existence at PaliHi. The new scholarship program will provide Pali’s alums with the opportunity to help the various programs at the school by making a donation to any individual department, sport or a general fund. In the fall, the PHAA will learn more about the needs of the school and will include this information on the Dolphins After Dark Web site. This year, the PHAA started making adjustments and cut out the return envelope (for donations) in the newsletter, saving $1,000. That money was thereafter awarded to five seniors at Senior Awards Night’a great start since, for years, the association only had funds for the newsletter and even had to cut back to a single annual Dolphins edition. By making similar adjustments, the association is further freeing up funds. As Dolphins After Dark grows, the Dolphins newsletter will be reduced to a flyer. Last week the Web site opened its bulletin board, which can be accessed for a minimum donation of $10. ‘We set up a PayPal account that allows alums to make donations online, rather than having to send in a check,’ treasurer Dent-Inferrera says. ‘This year is critical and while we are anxious to move forward, the number of alums who make donations has dropped sizably. While that is indeed discouraging, we’ve also received two of the largest donations ever!’ The association has also set up sponsorship levels on their DAD Web site. They know it’s a simple equation, but without the support of alums, they have nothing from which to work. There is a lot of truth to the saying ‘every dollar helps,’ and what the PHAA wants to achieve absolutely requires funding. ‘I’ve seen so much movement within the PHAA/DAD in this last year’some great things are happening!’ Richard Wayman says. ‘It is sometimes overwhelming, but we go forward.’ ‘Each board member currently has between two and 10 years invested and they hope to keep right on going,’ says Jensen, who is frequently asked why she does this when she only attended PaliHi for one year. ‘I feel fortunate to have had friends since my sandbox days at Marquez Elementary. Often I meet people in my age group who don’t see or even speak with anyone from their school years. For me, the ties are binding…I still carry the passions of those school friendships that were the basis of so many firsts’ crushes and relationships. Much of our core as individuals was formed together, and that is something that can never be taken away.’ ‘Memories Do Matter!’ has been Jensen’s slogan since 1998. ‘That plea just hit me at the right time I suppose,’ she says. With 41 years of PaliHi graduates, the PHAA is trying to create something of interest to everyone, so that more alums will play an active role. The important fall meeting will set the tone for the rest of the year. The Awards and Development Committee will meet for the first time October 21 at 5 p.m. in the school library, with the regular PHAA meeting at 7 p.m., the same night, same place. Alums, administrators, faculty are all welcome to join us. ‘We’d love to hear everyone’s input. If others come up with the same ideas we have, then we’ll feel like we are on the right track,’ Jensen says. ‘And if they come up with something entirely new that we can put into action, that’s fantastic.’ Jensen then refers to an e-mail Paul Edmonds (’76) recently sent her: ‘As Mr. Mercer said opening day back in ’73, ‘What you’ll get out of Palisades High School will be in direct proportion to what you put in.’ Mercer’s words certainly apply to Jensen, who frequently puts in some 25 hours or more a week, and is grateful for the endless support of her husband, Jonas Ahlm. ‘Is there really life after high school?’ Jensen asks jokingly. ‘Once a Dolphin, always a Dolphin!’ The PHAA wants to thank the many Palisades business owners and alums who have donated items for Alumni Night and the upcoming picnic, including Georgia-Dent Inferrera and Wendy Price Anderson (’64) for hitting the pavement, as well as the rest of the picnic committee who have donated their time and have secured donations. Thanks also to the many people within the administration, the faculty, the Booster Club and volunteers who have played a vital role in the PHAA over the years. ‘We also a warm welcome to PaliHi’s new principal, Dr. Gloria M. Martinez,’ says Jensen. The new alumni association Web site is at www.dolphinsafterdark.org, or e-mail PHAA at PaliAlumniAssoc@aol.com for more information about involvement, donations and programs.
By continuing to use our site, you understand that we use cookies to improve your experience and collect analytics data. To find out more, read our privacy policy here.
