As planned, Marquez Elementary School fifth grader Sedona Zinszer had 10 inches of her hair cut off on Saturday evening during the first Pacific Palisades Relay for Life, which raised funds for the American Cancer Society, honored cancer survivors and remembered those who have lost the fight. Zinszer, age 10, donated her hair to Locks of Love, an organization that has helped over 1,000 children by providing wigs for those who do not have hair. ‘Sedona had been thinking about donating her hair for months,’ said Zinszer’s mom, Courtney, a cancer survivor. ‘There’s no way I could’ve done it at her age.’ Zinszer was only 3 when her mom had to undergo chemotherapy treatment that caused her to lose her hair, and when asked why she decided to donate her hair, she told the Palisadian-Post, ‘My mom had cancer and hated not having hair, so she would wear a hat all the time. You could just imagine a kid not having hair.’ Besides, Zinszer added, ‘It was a hassle to brush my hair every morning.’ She raised close to $2,000 by having people sponsor her per inch of hair cut, and was awarded a prize for the youngest participant to raise that much money. Solis Salon stylist Amy Powell performed the haircut at the lower Marquez playground before Saturday’s Luminaria Ceremony while close to 20 people watched. On Sunday, Zinszer went back to Powell’this time at her salon on Swarthmore’so that the stylist could buzz her hair even shorter and clean up the rough cut done for the purpose of cutting the main pony tail. Zinszer said her fellow students at Marquez ‘thought it was really cool’ that she had cut her hair for Locks of Love. She also enjoyed hearing that that another student had donated hair. If others are thinking of doing the same, Zinszer said, ‘I would tell them it’s a good idea and a good cause.’
Betty Lou Celebrates Her 85th at Los Liones
Los Liones State Park was the perfect backdrop for Betty Lou Young’s 85th birthday picnic last week. Not only was the setting Betty Lou’s dream come true conceived over a decade ago, but the field stone amphitheater proved to be ideal for the gathering of over 100 friends and admirers. Organized by the Will Rogers Cooperative Association, the event became an occasion to honor Betty Lou and to thank the staff of California State Parks and myriad volunteers for establishing and maintaining the 10-acre pristine gateway to Topanga State Park. Betty Lou was the first to imagine that the canyon, which had been written off as surplus land by the state for years, could be restored. ‘This plan is what started it off and Betty Lou was the first domino,’ said her son Randy, referring to the landscape plan sketched in 1992 as part of the Los Liones Botanical Garden Association proposal to plan and develop a botancial garden in Los Liones. Realizing that if those who were fighting to keep Los Liones from being developed had a proposal, it would show that they were in earnest, Betty Lou underwrote the plan developed by landscape designers Burton and Spitz. When the state decided to turn Los Liones into a gateway park in 1994, Betty Lou joined the hearty cadre of volunteers, who spent weekends ridding the canyon of years of discarded debris and rampant ‘exotic’ plants. ‘We removed 10 feet of debris and trash, with the help of Dale Skinner and his front-end loader and the glamazons, [referring to a diligent group of women] who whacked out every weed they could find within an inch of their lives,’ Randy said. ‘Three hundred tons’that’s 30 dumpster loads’were hauled out of this canyon.’ A woman of many talents and interests, Betty Lou was honored by friends from many chapters of her life. The UCLA and Smith graduate has established a career for herself as a historian, focusing on the history of Pacific Palisades, Santa Monica Canyon and Rustic Canyon. She recently completed a history of the Chautauqua movement. But Betty Lou was also a busy mom’she and her late husband Thomas raised three children who attended three different elementary schools, and she was active as a Girl Scout leader. As her son joked at the outset, he invited the country-club types and the activists to the party, ‘to see whether a fight would break out.’ It didn’t. Members of The Whiff N’Quaffs, a group of eight doctors and their wives who socialized and enjoyed golfing trips together, joined the afternoon birthday party. Margaret Pollock, whose father Telford Work was the first editor of the Palisadian-Post, and retired pediatrician George Cobley reminisced with Betty about one memorable trip to the British Isles in 1969. Meanwhile, Temescal Canyon Association members, many of whom not only worked to shape up the canyon but keep up the maintenance, bestowed their appreciation. Shirley Haggstrom formally inducted Betty Lou into the Glamazons and presented her with a set of miniature garden tools in keeping with the day’s theme. ‘God Almighty first planted a garden, And indeed it is the purest of human pleasures. It is the greatest refreshment to the spirits of man…’ Randy quoted from the essays of Francis Bacon as he presented a 24-in. boxed California oak to the park in his mom’s name. Betty Lou tossed in the first shovelful. Part of the charm of the canyon are the native trees, including oaks, sycamores and black walnut, 75 percent of which were purchased by the Will Rogers Cooperative Association. Joining in the birthday fete were several State Park rangers, including Topanga Sector Superintendent Kathleen Franklin. ‘It’s wonderful to recognize someone who has been so vital to the community and at the forefront in preserving history and nature,’ she said. ‘Betty Lou is an activist who fought to keep Los Liones within Topanga State Park as a place of natural beauty to be restored for current and future generations.’
Power Struggle Over Highlands Park
The six-year battle to get the only park in the Highlands built has suddenly become overshadowed by a power struggle to determine who will manage the now-completed site. Accessed by a small turnoff at 1950 Palisades Drive, the park is hidden from the street. The security gate can only be opened with a computer-coded card. Inside there are almost three acres of open green space (some of it hillside) and a jogging track. Adjacent to the parking lot are bathrooms and a small playground, complete with a slide, climbing ladders, swings and two rocking horses. Mostly children use the park, as well as residents with their dogs, who are allowed off-leash twice a day (between 9-10 a.m and 4-6 p.m.). While there is a baseball backstop there is no organized play allowed on the 85-yard long grass field. However, that has not stopped local AYSO teams from using the lush field to practice, which is just one of half a dozen contentious issues now enveloping the park. The recent mudslinging began in February when dissidents began a campaign to oust the entire board of directors who oversee the park. A special meeting of the Palisades Drive Recreation Association called for 7 p.m. Tuesday night at the Palisades Hills Club House, 16721 Monte Hermoso, will determine whether the five members, including president Dave Powers, Howard Lee, Steve Abraham, Andy Caster and Angie Cloke, will be voted out in the recall election on a variety of charges. According to the February letter distributed to homeowners in the area, the board is guilty of ‘fiscal irresponsibility, violation of the bylaws, and non-responsiveness to the members, allowing for a small minority to obtain control of the association.’ It is signed by Highland residents Peter Bos, Mitch Chupack, Peter Culhane, Alan Rubin and Art Zussman. Next came a letter (‘Urgent’Save Your Park’) signed by board member Abraham and Caster, who at the time was not yet a member of the board but won in this month’s elections (along with attorney Angie Cloke). ‘Are you aware that a small majority of Highlands homeowners strongly oppose the park?’ read the letter. ‘Some want to shut the park down!’ Bos’ group responded with: ‘It is time to take charge of a board that has mismanaged the affairs of the PDRA and has continuously conducted themselves improperly.’ That letter, in April, accused Abraham and Caster of making ‘misleading assumptions,’ and declared that ‘No one on our slate has ever advocated shutting down the park or preventing children and families from enjoying it!!!’ There are 1,500 homeowners in the Highlands, a third of whom belong to PDRA, which represents owners in four of the 19 local homeowners associations: Palisades Hills, Vista del Mar, Vista Catalina and the Summit, where Powers lives. ‘These 525 households are assessed $20 a month to use the park,’ which is basically used for upkeep. Besides the use of the park, there have been ongoing disputes in the last two years regarding assessments made by the PDRA board to improve the site and questions regarding maintenance, liability, security, even what kind of fence will be built around the new playground. And most recently, some 50 accounts were sent to collection by the current board for non-payment of fees. Some residents said they did not want to pay for a park they didn’t use. Others claimed they were not even aware it existed, even though there is a reference in the CC& R’s to the establishment of an ‘open space area’ for the use and enjoyment of residents. It was, in fact, the reference to the ‘open space’ in the CC& R’s that got Debbie Schem asking, when she moved into Palisades Hills 10 years ago: ‘So where is it?’ In her research with her husband Greg, who would become PDRA’s first president, the couple discovered that while the developer, Headland (then headed by Charles Chastain), was mandated to build a park ‘all he had done was put up a bond for $100,000 in 1978, which was sitting in a non-interest-bearing account,’ Debbie explained. ‘Basically, the area designated for the park was where the construction company used to be. When we first saw the site it looked like a dump.’ Powers, who has been on the board for eight years, feels a turning point came about two years ago when a small group of residents, including several who live facing the park, began to question ‘our every move, insinuating that we are a group of incompetents,’ said Powers. He pointed out that the present board consists of ‘a medical doctor who owns his own business, an attorney, a consultant for IBM, and a retired bank executive.’ Powers, who is a physical therapist and has an MBA, said that some of the residents above the park are now upset that the site is starting to be used more, especially since the new play equipment was installed in April. ‘My wife, for example, was at the park recently with my 8-year-old son and his 7-year-old friend and one of the condo owners came out and yelled at them to be quiet,’ Powers said. ‘My wife informed her that the boys are allowed to play in the community park. The woman told my wife that the park was, in fact, in her back yard.’ In the last year it has been determined that Section 14.03 of the Highlands CC&R’s provides that any owner of a lot or condominium in the planned development has the right to join PDRA and thereby use the park. While only two residents from outside the four designated homeowner groups have joined so far (paying a one-time fee to have the title recorded, plus $20 a month), membership is, in fact, open to all 1,500 households in the area. Tracy Landau, who lives on Michael Lane, joined six months ago and now visits the park daily with her 2-year-old daughter Sophie and her dog, Chloe. The same goes for Angie Cloke, who lives in the complex below the site and walks Bailey, her Wheaton terrier, twice a day in the park. ‘He’s the official greeter. Everybody knows him,’ said Cloke, who joined the association in the last year. The current battle over the park has not stopped Debbie Schem, who is grateful that there is now a park nearby that she can visit with her three children (ages 8, 11 and 13) and her golden retriever, Cubby. ‘The play area still needs a shade canopy and there’s more planting to be done,’ Schem said Monday. But that doesn’t seem to bother her as much as ‘this small group of people who are now trying to dictate what should happen in this park. I’m not going to let that happen.’ Running for the board on Tuesday night are Bos, Culhane and James Keefe, who lives in one of the condos adjacent to the park with his wife, Leslie. Nominations will also be accepted from the floor. Attorney Cloke, who is seen by both sides of the dispute as neutral, is expected to be renominated should the whole board be voted out. (Editor’s note: See today’s Real Estate News & Views on page 19 for a history of PDRA’s role in developing Highlands Park.)
PaliHi Students Help Kids Learn Beach Conservation
By LAURA WITSENHAUSEN Associate Editor As the planes taking off from LAX flew overhead and dolphins swam in view, 3,000 students participated in ocean conservation last Friday, gathering trash at Dockweiler State Beach in Playa del Rey, then forming aerial art with a message to ‘Keep Oceans Alive!’ The mostly elementary-age students were joined by 35 marine biology students from Ray Millette’s class at Palisades Charter High School, who acted as mentors to the youngsters. The teens helped the kids find trash, and also taught them about the effects of pollution on the ocean and its inhabitants. The event was part of the 11th Annual Kids’ Adopt-A-Beach Cleanup along the California coast, commemorating Ocean Day. The Los Angeles clean-up was sponsored by the California Coastal Commission’s Whale Tail License Plate Fund and the City of L. A. Stormwater Program. Participating students at Dockweiler had previously attended a series of assemblies taught by Michael Klubock, executive director and founder of the Malibu Foundation for Environmental Education, learning how urban neighborhoods are connected to beaches through storm drains, and the importance of recycling and litter reduction. Teacher Ray Millette has been bringing his students to the event for nearly a decade. ‘Our job is not to just pick up trash, but to act as mentors. To elementary school kids, high school kids are near god. If high school kids tell them ‘good job,’ smiles come out.’ ‘My kids get a lot out of it, they feel empowered,’ said Millette, who also has students who volunteer each month to clean up Will Rogers State Beach. Students from his classes also have volunteered at Ballona Wetlands and done work on UCLA’s research boat. Although Millette says the health of the bay has improved, there are still major problems with pollution coming down storm drains. ‘This event makes a difference in the mindset of kids, and with that we’ll make a difference overall.’ First grade teacher Maria Alvarez of Mayo Elementary School in Compton agreed. ‘When we have the assembly, Michael comes to talk to them and they are so impressed by how dirty the ocean is. They really want to clean up and help the ocean animals.’ The youngsters spent a couple of hours picking up trash’mostly cigarette butts, paper and styrofoam’while also finding shells, a jellyfish and other signs of ocean life. PaliHi sophomore Stephanny Lemus said, ‘For me it was a different experience. I’ve never done community service with so many people’I think it is a great way to clean up the beach.’ Stephanny and fellow sophomore Yuriko Umana really bonded with the third graders from Mayo Elementary School. They liked it so much that they plan to come to the school to do community service with Edgar Ayala’s class to fulfill some of their required community service hours at PaliHi. ‘It was wonderful how they were able to guide them through the whole beach,’ Ayala said about the teens, who handed out stickers, magnets and pencils they had brought for the youngsters. ‘They showed them what driftwood was and told them why the trash was not good for the beach.’ For some Pali students, like sophomore Ivan Oseida, the trash cleanup was a familiar scene, since he volunteers every month for Heal the Bay. Two other volunteers, Jared Cox and Kat Hamner, are the president and vice-president, respectively, of the PaliHi Orca club, which raises awareness about killer whales. After the clean-up, all the participants formed aerial artwork spelling out ‘Keep Oceans Alive!’ with an image of a life preserver. (See photo, page 1.) ‘The aerial art component is important because the kids are involved in communicating the message further out. They are part of a wider expression,’ said organizer Michael Kublock. Palisadian John Quigley of Spectral Q, who has created this type of artwork around the world, designed and choreographed the beach scene. Students got into groups with their classmates and, megaphone in hand, Quigley guided them into the form of the letters and shapes. The design had been laid out in the sand using plastic and orange flags. Single file, the students lined themselves up next to the plastic and sat down one next to the other. As the helicopter with the aerial photographer flew overhead, Quigley ran back and forth, moving groups of students in red shirts to fill in parts of the life preserver, and asking them to keep their backpacks on their laps. Once his vision was satisfied, the photos of the children forming a message of conservation on the newly cleaned beach were taken from above. Heal the Bay sponsors monthly beach clean-ups. To volunteer, contact: 800-HEALBAY.
New Design Museum Displays Creativity
Many of us become aware of architecture only when superstars like Frank Gehry or Richard Meier design award-winning buildings like Disney Hall or Getty Center. But alongside these men are scores of men and women who are working away with a public fervor to bring good design into all aspects of our lives. They believe that their profession is essential to the wellbeing of society and that they are indispensable in developing livable cities and a healthy environment. This group wants all of us laypeople to think about architecture and design and to learn the difference between good design and no design. Architectural schools have always been laboratories for new ideas, but now the A+D Museum is presenting the world of design and architecture to the public in an accessible way. Longtime Los Angeles architect Bernard Zimmerman always wanted a museum to bring attention to architecture and design, says Palisadian Stephen Kanner, who trained with Zimmerman and is currently the president of the A+D board of directors,. The idea evolved from the success of a number of exhibitions over the last decade specifically dedicated to design. For instance, in 1998 Zimmerman conceived New Blood 102, which brought together 102 of the newest talents in the fields of architecture, interior design, fashion design, graphic design, landscape architecture and product design. But Zimmerman’s dream came together unexpectedly at a Passover dinner at Santa Monica Canyon real estate developer Ira Yellin’s house. Kanner asked Yellin, who at the time was the owner of the historic Bradbury Building downtown, if he had any space available for the museum. He did, and up until Yellin’s death last year, the A+D Museum, which opened in January 2001, was comfortably ensconced in that eclectic Victorian landmark. The museum recently relocated to an airy, 5,000-sq.- ft. space on Sunset in West Hollywood, where white walls and polished concrete floors provide a tabula rasa for a wide range of design exhibitions. With a home secure, the museum has gone full steam ahead booking exhibitions to the fall of 2006, including Richard Neutra’s VDL House, where he lived with his family; 2X8, an AIA-sponsored exhibit from eight L.A. architecture and design schools; and Vroom!!, a cutting edge automobile design exhibit that explores the world’s foremost driving machines. This schedule demonstrates A+D’s commitment to presenting the broadest definition of design. The current exhibit showcases recent designs for development and improvement of L.A. The projects included range from homeless shelters and daycare centers to pedestrian amenities and greenways. The way in which the show has been mounted is one key to its success. Each of the projects is presented with a full-color rendering and a short text description. These ‘packages’ of information have been photoscreened onto translucent scrims that act as partitions in the gallery. And each project is identified by a color’pumpkin for a transitional housing shelter; brown for the Gramercy Court shade structure’so the visitor can easily identify each project. The museum’s board of directors not only serves as the clearing house in scheduling exhibitions, but is also very much a working board. Director of Installations Tom Hinerfeld installed the current exhibition, and Creative Director Tyrone Drake donated the cards, posters and repro graphics for the shows that are generated by the museum itself. ‘A lot of this is work in kind,’ Kanner says.’We refer a lot of architects and designers to them.’ Kanner’s involvement with A+D is a natural extension of his dedication to the work of other architects. In 1994 in celebration of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Los Angeles Chapter, he co-chaired the 100-100 exhibition, which was an exhibit of the work of 100 high-quality architecture firms in Los Angeles. And as president-elect of the L. A. chapter of AIA, he seems dedicated to broadening the vision of the association. ‘As president I will be working to connect AIA with college and high school students and the public with exhibitions and programs at the museum,’ Kanner says. ‘The AIA awards presentation will be held at the museum in October.’ While Kanner readily accedes that he spends considerable time on museum activities’three to four meetings a week and an average of 12 phone calls a day’he is still thoroughly engaged and energized by his own architectural practice of 25 architects. ‘Although I don’t draw every line as I used to do in the early days, I still sketch the concepts for the projects,’ projects that range from one of the 34 homes commissioned by New York developer Coco Brown to occupy a unique subdivision in Sagaponac, Long Island, to the low-income housing project to be built at the corner of Santa Monica Boulevard and 26th St. For the Sagaponac project, architect Richard Meier was asked to choose architects who ranged in age and accomplishment’including Philip Johnson, Zaha Hadid and Steven Holl’to create an anti-tract where each house would be an expression of an individual’s vision. Kanner’s design, a simple two-story rectangle sited on a two-foot high wooden plinth, maximizes the sunlight that penetrates the dense forest surrounding the house, and reiterates the clarity, strength and optimism of his work. Kanner believes the principles of modernism continue to hold true, despite the fact that modernism is often interpreted as architecture that is cold and inhospitable. ‘It’s about light, space, materials and problem-solving,’ says Kanner, who designed the modernist home in the Palisades which he shares with his wife Cynthia and daughters Caroline, 9, and Charlotte, 3 1/2. ‘It’s an architecture that makes a good modern home feel good.’ The A+D Museum , 8560 Sunset, one block west of La Cienega, is open Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sunday, noon to 6 p.m. Admission is free.
St. Matthew’s Summer Camp Celebrates 50th Anniversary
St. Matthew’s Summer Camp, celebrating its 50th summer, is inviting all past and present campers, staff and their families to a 50th anniversary celebration in St. Matthew’s meadow on Saturday, June 26 from 5 to 9 p.m. Members of the anniversary committee are hoping that all past and present campers, staff and their families will attend. Many campers have a long-term connection to the camp. Palisadian Bruce Harlan, who was a camper at the school in the 1970s, started working at the camp in 1980 as an arts and crafts assistant, then continued working at different jobs and eventually served as camp director until 1999. Harlan, whose son Kelly, 6, is entering the camp for the first time this year, is now a science teacher at St. Matthew’s School. ‘The main thing about the camp for me is that it’s one of the few things that really celebrates kids being kids,’ says Harlan. ‘It doesn’t have any fancy equipment, no video games, waterskiing or trips to Disneyland. It’s just kids with groups of friends and counselors. They run through the hills and get dirty, make up games, with no goal other than to enjoy summer and enjoy being a kid. In the Palisades, that’s pretty amazing.’ The camp, now led by Erik Warren and Katie Wood, was started in 1954. There are 16 groups of kids, divided into boys and girls, with two counselors per group and a total of 240 campers. Groups make up names for themselves, such as Road Runners, Scrubbing Bubbles and Minor Aches and Pains. In preparing for the 50th anniversary, Harlan and his co-committee members found pictures from the camp in the 1950s, and noticed that the camp activities, such as making forts and playing hide-and-seek, haven’t changed much. The campers still play games such as Ditch, chasing each other through the hills of the 34-acre property off of Bienveneda. Jolly Roger’s Cave on the campus is a favorite storytelling spot. Campers come for the entire six-week session, which Harlan says allows for team-building and relationships, more so than camps that operate two-week sessions. There is often a waiting list for campers, although the camp always reserves space for about a dozen children from the Oakwood area of Venice who attend free of charge. The counselors make the camp, Harlan says, adding that the camp receives about 150 applications each summer for counselor jobs. ‘They’re creative and energetic. It’s a really sought after job.’ The staff, many of whom were once campers themselves, often stay for several years. One college student and one teenager are in charge of each group. In addition to the planned activities’morning chapel (songs, prayers and a thought for the day), swimming at the outdoor pool and music or arts and crafts’the counselors make up each day’s activities for their group. The camp also features its own traditions’World Day with a kid-created Town Fair, Costume Day with skits, and Tournament Day with a watermelon-eating contest, relay races and water fights. ‘Gus Alexander was director of the camp most of the time the camp has been in existence,’ Harlan says. ‘He was a huge personality who made the camp the way it was for close to 30 years.’ On the 50th reunion Web site, John Meyers, who is starting his 24th year on staff at the camp, wrote: ‘The memories that I will take to the grave are of the teenagers and young adults in our community who year after year become the loving older brothers and sisters to our campers. This ‘Camper-Counselor Relationship’ as Gus defined it is the very heart and core of St. Matthew’s Day Camp… It is no coincidence that of the 50 persons we had on staff last summer, all but 11 of them were former campers.’ ‘We have an esprit de corps we’ve never seen in other camps,’ Meyers, the athletic director at Our Lady of Malibu School, told the Palisadian-Post. ‘I feel I’m very lucky to be a part of it.’ Organizers are hoping for a large turnout at the reunion at St. Matthew’s meadow. RSVP to smdc@stmatthews.com or 573-7787, ext. 6. For more information, go to www.stmatthews.com/smdc50.html.
Photographing War in the Pacific
(Editor’s note: This is the third of three articles revisiting World War II through the recollections of three Pacific Palisades veterans. On Saturday, the new WWII Memorial on the Mall in Washington, D.C., will be dedicated. American Legion Post 283 will host a corresponding event to observe the memorial dedication and honor Westside veterans. See story, Page 1.) By BILL BRUNS Managing Editor ‘Out here in the Pacific we have all kinds of heroes,’ wrote Robert Garrick of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin in November 1944. ‘However, only a few have stood before high-ranking military officials to be received as heroes because they have been shooting pictures.’ In Garrick’s estimation, Loran (‘Little Smitty’) Smith was that kind of hero, a Navy combat photographer who for nearly three years shot still and motion pictures from aircraft and ships across the Pacific. His daring work not only provided valuable reconnaissance information, but also appeared in newspapers, magazines and newsreels throughout the world. In early 1940, when Smith was a college student in Iowa and a part-time newspaper photographer, he drove out to Los Angeles with three friends, chronicling their adventures for Look magazine. He chose to stay in L.A., working as a photographer until he was called up as a Navy reservist in December 1941 and assigned to Admiral Chester Nimitz’s public relations staff in Hawaii. ‘I understood that meant taking pictures for publication, and I wasn’t going to get them hanging around Pearl Harbor,’ Smith recalled recently at his home in Palisades Bowl. Unafraid of flying (though untrained as an aerial photographer), he volunteered for numerous combat missions, preferring to shoot from a two-man dive bomber that would take off from an aircraft carrier. ‘I sat behind the pilot, in the turret, and we would first drop down from about 10,000 feet to deliver our bomb. I’d try to take some type of picture. Then we’d go back down a second time just to shoot still pictures, ideally flying at 100 to 300 feet elevation because it’s much harder for anti-aircraft gunners to hit a fast, moving target that close. Then we’d come back a third time so I could shoot movie film.’ Smith (5’7′ tall) had to stand up in order to shoot over the side wall. One day, while his bomber was in a dive at Truk, an anti-aircraft shell exploded so close to the plane that the blast blew Smith’s motion picture camera out of his hands and into the sea. ‘When I came out to a carrier, I had to look around for a volunteer pilot,’ Smith observed. ‘Most of them didn’t want to hang around after dropping their bomb.’ Arriving back at the carrier after each mission, Smith would hand his film over to an officer, who would have a messenger fly it on to Pearl Harbor. Alas, whenever his photos were published, Smith was uncredited; the byline would simply read U.S. Navy. And in subsequent years he was never able to track down his negatives. ‘They’re somewhere in Navy files,’ he said, ‘but I found a large number of prints that I was able to donate to the Nimitz Museum in Texas.’ Smith was the admiral’s favorite photographer and would chronicle his activities in Hawaii’everything from playing horseshoes with enlisted men to conversing with President Franklin Roosevelt during a lunch at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. In November 1944, Smith was transferred to the famed Steichen Photo Group in Washington, D.C., and finished out his duty working mostly in the photo lab. ‘I missed out on the end of the war in Japan,’ Smith said, ‘but on the way to Washington I stopped off in Los Angeles and got married.’ His wife, Audrey, died in 1991. Their two sons, Stuart and Scott, both graduated from Palisades High and now live in Montana. After the war, Smith returned to Los Angeles and worked as a contract photographer for Life magazine until 1950, when he became a staff photographer for the Los Angeles Mirror. He took one of his most memorable photos when Nikita Khrushchev visited Fox Studios and watched the filming of ‘Can-Can’ in 1959. ‘I caught Khrushchev with a big smile on his face as he watched the dancers, while his wife is next to him with her typical sour look.’ In 1962, Smith got into the travel agency business, and at 84 he still works part-time doing desktop publishing for Altour International. Despite suffering a stroke three years ago, he remains active in the Masons, the Shriners, the American Legion and the Press Photographers Association of Greater L.A., which honored him last year with a Lifetime Achievement Award.
Mary Alice Reynolds, 85; Active Mother, Volunteer
Mary Alice Reynolds, a Palisades resident since 1955, passed away on May 23 at her home. She was 85. Born in Red Oak, Iowa, on December 10, 1918, Mary later moved to California and graduated from Beverly Hills High School. She received a business degree from UCLA, where she served as president of Alpha Phi sorority. Throughout her life, Mary was actively involved in many volunteer and charitable organizations, including Girl Scouts, Alpha Phi Crescent Bay Alumnae, PEO and Assistance League of Santa Monica. She also served as a Sunday school teacher at Bel-Air Presbyterian Church. Mary will be greatly missed by her four children, W. Howard Reynolds of Walnut Creek, Laura McDonald of Idyllwild, Elwood Reynolds of Mill Valley, and Marily Movius of Denver, Colorado, as well as her 10 loving grandchildren. Memorial services will be held at Bel-Air Presbyterian Church on Tuesday, June 1 at 2 p.m. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the PEO Home or the Alpha Phi Foundation.
Henry Morland, 81; Past 43-Year Resident
Henry (‘Hank’) Morland, an aerospace engineer who worked on Apollo missions to the moon and the Space Shuttle, and a 43-year resident of Pacific Palisades, died in Lafayette, California, on May 11. He was 81. Born in Detroit, Morland graduated from the University of Michigan. He served in the Army during World War II in France and Germany, raising portable pontoon bridges. He later worked at a laboratory associated with the University of Michigan in Ypsilanti, at Glenn L. Martin in Baltimore, at Lincoln Laboratory of MIT in Lexington, Massachusetts, and at Rockwell Space Division in various locations. Morland was an accomplished jazz pianist who played and arranged music throughout his life. He competed in national bridge and chess tournaments. He also served on the St. Matthew’s Parish School board. He loved baseball and coached Pacific Palisades Baseball Association teams from 1965 to 1973. Morland and his wife Dorothy (whom he married in 1947), moved to Lafayette two years ago. She had served as school librarian at St. Matthew’s for about 25 years and then ‘substituted’ in the library until they moved. In addition to his wife, Morland is survived by his sons, John (wife Hilary) of Lafayette, and James (Helen) of Boise, Idaho; and five grandchildren. Donations can be made in his name to the St. Matthew’s Parish School Library, 1031 Bienveneda Ave., Pacific Palisades, CA 90272.
Youth Triathlon
Kids of all ages are welcome to compete in the second annual July 4th Youth Triathlon. Co-sponsored by the Palisades-Malibu YMCA and the non-profit USA Youth Triathlon, the event will include participants ages 7-15 competing in age categories in a triathlon that consists of a three-mile bike ride, a 1.1-mile run from Palisades Recreation Center to the Palisades-Malibu YMCA pool in Temescal Canyon and a 150-yard swim in the pool. The race begins at 10 a.m. on July 4th at the Rec Center in front of the Pacific Palisades Library. All finishers receive a commemorative t-shirt and a medal, and all race participants are invited to march in the Fourth of July parade that afternoon. Training clinics will be offered every Saturday in June from 12:30 to 3 p.m. Kids will learn about proper performance techniques, improve their coordination and stamina in all three sports and prepare for the race. Top Los Angeles-area triathletes will coach each session. For more information, contact Kacy Mackreth at the YMCA (454-5591), Executive Director of USA Youth Triathlons Deborah Hafford (310-613-8953), or log on to www.usayt.com.
