In Memoriam

1937

Jean Marshall Cates, of Nevada City, Nevada, on May 2, 2020.
Jean was born in New Jersey in 1915. Her family eventually moved West to Southern California. She attended University Southern California and Scripps College at which time she met her husband, Barker Cates. Jean was extremely artistic, creating window displays for major fashion stores in the 50’s. Jean and Barker moved to Nevada City in 1960. Jean was an avid gardener and world traveler. She had a great love for England and traveled the country many times exploring its history. Jean Cates is survived by her only grandson, Steve Moran-Cassese and two great-grandchildren.

1950

Elisabeth “Bep” Polak Barendsen, of Huizen, Netherlands on April 6, 2020.
Bep was born in Rotterdam, Netherlands. Her family survived the German air raid on Rotterdam on May 14, 1940, that started five years of Nazi occupation of Holland. In 1948, her father, a professor of economics at Rotterdam University, made her apply for admittance at Scripps College, through a colleague who at the time was teaching at Claremont McKenna College. Bep sailed to Boston and went on to California by bus, for the first time abroad and knowing hardly any English. Coming from war torn Holland, she wrote home that, to her amazement, “you can buy just about everything here!” Bep studied humanities and French, and lived in Dorsey Hall. She enjoyed it all enormously, and had two unforgettable years at Scripps. Afterward she never stopped keeping contact and meeting with many college friends. Back in Holland, she took up and finished her law study. Rather than entering a law firm, she joined American Field Service Committee which, following the principles of the Quakers Society, was involved in refugee assistance in Europe. She stayed for AFSC in Vienna for two years, counseling refugees from Hungary who had fled for the Russian oppression that followed the 1956 popular up raise against communism. She came back in 1958 to marry Dick Barendsen, a civil engineer employed by the city of Amsterdam. Abroad for a one-year traineeship with an American construction company, they lived in New York City, where their eldest daughter was born (when Nel Barendsen got of age, she was admitted to Scripps College, class of 1983. Shortly after coming home, they moved to Rotterdam where Dick got involved with the port extension. In 1970, his work changed back to Amsterdam. They settled in the beautiful, rural Gooi area south of the city, where the then three children grew up, finished school and set out for further education. Later, daughter Charlotte died from a brain hemorrhage. After a stroke which brought her down and up again, she ended up with dementia. After two years of living with it at home, she moved to a nursing home in a nearby town. There she lived for five more quiet and even happy years with Dick seeing her daily. She is survived by him, daughter Nel Barendsen ’83, son Niek, and two grandchildren.

Sally Bieler Chamberlin, of Los Alamos, New Mexico on October 15, 2020.
Sally Bieler Chamberlin passed away peacefully in her home on October 15, 2020.  She was artistic, musical, loved nature and the outdoors; and enjoyed skiing, dancing, and swimming, including water ballet.  She is survived by her brother, Barrie H. Bieler; her three children, David Chamberlin, Linda Chamberlin, and Alan Chamberlin; her three grandchildren and her four great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her husband, Walter S. Chamberlin.

Caryl Chesmore Hinckley, of Bellingham, Washington on October 24, 2019.
Caryl Chesmore Hinckley, the oldest daughter of Carlton R. Chesmore Jr. and Fay M. Chesmore, died on Oct. 24, 2019, in Bellingham, Washington. She was 90 years old. As she requested, she will be cremated. Her extended family was with her recently to celebrate her 90th birthday and her full and joyful life.

1951

Ellyse Spiegl Burke, of Salinas, California, on June 21, 2020.
Ellyse Burke, aged 91, of Salinas, CA, passed away June 21, 2020 peacefully and in her beloved home. She was born March 8, 1929 to parents Ellis and Phyllis Spiegl. Ellyse was predeceased by her husband of 21 years, Mickey Burke, and two sons Jeffrey Burke and Patrick Burke. Ellyse graduated from Salinas High School, attended Scripps College and ultimately graduated from UC Berkeley. She returned to Salinas after college, married and became the mother of five children. Her sincere interest in the lives of others reverberated throughout her friends and family, but also through her life-long dedication to service. Her volunteer work included the Junior League, Entre Nous, The Steinbeck House, Meals on Wheels, The National Steinbeck Center, ATT Pro-Am Golf Tournament and the Monterey Jazz Festival. She served on numerous committees at Sacred Heart School and Palma High School, as well as setting up the gift shop at Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital. Enthusiastic, curious, engaging and straightforward are just a few of the endearing qualities Ellyse shared with her friends and family. She lived in a beautiful home which she shared, of course, with her family but also with foreign exchange students, musicians, actors and out of town visitors. She had a gracious and welcoming spirit and was fascinated with other people’s lives and well-being. Ellyse’s ability to measure the soul of a person took one from “stranger” to “dear friend” in a short time. Her dear friends were enormously important to her and many of the friendships started in childhood and continued all the way through until the end. In fact, it has always been her friends that have lifted her up, carried her through the tragedies, and provided the camaraderie that have always been of utmost importance to her. She loved her friends dearly and they in return. Ellyse had many interests and hobbies. For many years she was a member of Chamisal Tennis Club, enjoying doubles tennis. She was an enthusiastic bridge player, cherishing the thrice weekly games that filled up her recent calendar until COVID-19 shut down her favorite pastime. Starting in childhood and extending into her 80’s Ellyse enjoyed horseback riding. She was given her first pony at age 3, and spent her childhood and teenage years riding through the hills and gullies of Carmel Valley her 2nd most beloved place on earth. The California Rodeo was most definitely her favorite time of year participating in and attending the 4-day event was a highlight in her life. Ellyse traveled extensively multiple trips to Europe and Mexico, trips to the Galapagos Islands, West Indies, Costa Rica, and Israel to name just a few favorite destinations. She touched the lives of so many. She was truly an indomitable spirit nothing defeated her. She took all the ups and downs that life can toss out and showed her family how to navigate them through sheer stubbornness, humor and practicality. Her friendships were her core strength, and undoubtedly she returned the kindness. Her children will forever miss the force of nature that was Ellyse but are grateful that she was absolutely clear in how she wanted to conduct her final days of life, an amazing example of living life to the fullest. Services private per her wishes. She wanted her friends and family to remember her from her blowout 90th birthday party, so please keep that memory close in your hearts.

1952

Georgia D. Economou, of Towson, Maryland, on May 11, 2020.
Georgia D. Economou, Professor Emeritus of English, was embraced in the arms of our Lord. She was a beloved daughter, sister, aunt, cousin, and friend. Georgia “Suzi” was born on February, 21, 1930, in Great Falls, Montana, to Demetrios G. Economou and Amelia Ananiadis Economou, who both emigrated to the United States from Greece. Georgia was the eldest of two children, followed by her brother, George Economou, noted American poet, literary translator, and scholar. Georgia led a rich, full life, as she was a true renaissance woman with a passion for the arts, culture, and education. As a senior at Great Falls High School, she was chosen as a top 50 finalist in Vogues’ Prix de Paris Fashion Contest and was a representative on the Mademoiselle Magazine College Board. Georgia earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from Scripps College and a Master of Arts degree from Columbia University. Georgia has successfully authored various books, including “Virginia Woolf: a Writer’s Diary”. Georgia began her teaching career as an English professor at State College in Mankato, Minnesota. In 1957, she began teaching English at Towson University, which she deeply cherished until retirement. One of the highest honors of Georgia’s life was receiving the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship, which allowed her to live out her dream of living in Greece, the land that she loved, while also visiting Paris, the city that brought her great inspiration. Throughout her life, Georgia was captivated by the ballet, theater, and classical literature including Greek Mythological literature, while her desire to learn only grew. Georgia had an adventurous spirit and was a source of joy and laughter to her family and friends. She loved to tell stories about her journeys in her Volkswagen Bug, named Shots, which included a thrilling trip to the top of Pike’s Peak in Colorado. Georgia enjoyed creating unique and specific memories with each family member. Her laugh was infectious and the twinkle in her eye was sparked by joy. Georgia is survived by her sister-in-law, Rochelle Owens, poet and playwright; and many loving cousins in Greece and the United States. Georgia was preceded in death by her father, Demetrios G. Economou; mother, Amelia D. Economou; and brother, George D. Economou.

Kenna Lois Hunt, of San Rafael, California, on July 24, 2020.
Kenna Lois Hunt, class of ’52, passed away peacefully on July 24, 2020—one day before her 90th birthday. After graduating from Scripps, she attended the renowned Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London and graduated in 18 months. She was a magnificent, versatile actress  and a loving friend to those who knew her.

Nancy Lloyd Kittle, of Corte Madera, California, on March 9, 2020.
Nancy Kittle, known for her support of non-profit organizations committed to improving the environment, the arts and promoting the causes of Native Americans, died on March 9, 2020. She was 89 and a resident of Corte Madera. Born in Santa Barbara, Nancy was the only child of Grace Meeker Lloyd and Francis Vernon Lloyd. Her father died in 1935 when she was 5. Nancy attended Miss Branson’s School in Ross, before attending Scripps College and later graduating from Sarah Lawrence College. In subsequent years, she obtained MA degrees in Biology and Anthropology from, respectively, San Francisco State University and the University of Arizona. After completing her studies, Nancy married Jonathan “Jake” Kittle who was raised in Marin County. They became cattle ranchers and eventually bought a ranch in Wyoming that supported 2,000 head of cattle. However, the isolated life on the ranch for Nancy was not only hard work managing the kitchen and living quarters, but ranch life did not provide the intellectual stimulus she sought. Nancy ultimately returned to Santa Barbara and ended her marriage in divorce. Nancy was truly a “Renaissance” woman with many intellectual and varied interests that ranged from classical music, (she played the flute), the SF Symphony and theatre, to Native American Indians, photography as an art form, the ecology of San Francisco Bay, bird watching, gardening and traveling. An avid hiker, backpacker and camper, her frequent trips included exploring the Sierras in California and the Grand Tetons in Wyoming. In the month of August, she would typically be found in her beloved Jackson Hole cabin. During the 1990’s, Nancy became interested in photography and took classes at the San Francisco Art Institute. She chose a Hasselblad camera for shooting black and white landscapes and portraits. Her most accomplished work representing the best of her legacy was published in The Sierra Club Book “Legacy”, with a text by John Hart, in which she showcases 50 photographic portraits of prominent people in the San Francisco Bay Area who made major contributions to protect the environment during the past one hundred years. Three years later, in 2009, she produced and contributed the photographic portraits of Native leaders included in a book entitled “Restoring Native Homelands”, a Ten Year Anniversary Project Gallery published by The Tribal & Native Lands Program of The Trust for Public Land. Nancy was predeceased by her 3 half-brothers: Francis V. Lloyd, Jr of South Yarmouth, Massachusetts, Ambrose Coghill Cramer III of Charlottesville, Virginia and Neville Murray Joselyn Cramer of Montecito, California and will be missed by many loving nieces and nephews, extended family and friends.

1953

Nora Alemany, of La Verne, California.

1954

Cynthia Margaret Holyoak Harris, of Bellingham, Washington, on June 10, 2020.

Idelle Feinberg Weber, of Los Angeles, California, on March 23, 2020.
Idelle Weber, an artist who cast a critical eye on midcentury American consumerism with Pop art silhouettes of corporate workers and photorealist paintings of trash, died at the age of 88. She had been in an assisted living facility, according to her daughter, Suzanne, who confirmed the death but did not specify a cause. A painter who experimented with sculpture and collage, Ms. Weber was one of the few women involved in the Pop movement of the 1950s and 60’s. She used brightly colored and patterned backdrops to highlight her anonymous, black-and-white figures of businessmen and brides, politicians and television-show characters, all appearing in arrested motion. Her bold, flat aesthetic fit into the Pop category, but her subject matter was different than Andy Warhol’s soup cans or Roy Lichtenstein’s blown-up comics. Ms. Weber was interested in how consumer culture codified social roles. For example, the couple in the painting “Bride and Groom” (1963-64) step into their future against a shade of blue that alludes to the luxury jeweler Tiffany’s. Her work “expanded the notion of what ‘Pop’ could be,” wrote Sid Sachs, the director of exhibitions at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, in a catalog for a show of Ms. Weber’s work at Hollis Taggart gallery in New York in 2013. She achieved success despite the hurdles she faced as a woman in a largely male milieu. In 1957, for example, she tried to audit a class taught by the Abstract Expressionist Robert Motherwell. She went to see him with her portfolio, which he looked at approvingly. He then asked if she was planning to marry and have children, to which she responded yes. “He looked at me and he said, ‘It’s too bad, you’ll never keep working,’” she was quoted as saying in Ms. Sachs’s catalog. “And he didn’t let me in the class.” Motherwell was wrong: Ms. Weber got married, had children and kept working. In the 1970s, she pivoted from Pop to photorealism by painting close-ups of New York City food stalls and piles of trash. She went on to make tightly cropped details of gardens and patches of grass, before segueing to more expressionistic landscapes in dark tones. By 2000 Ms. Weber was known primarily as a realist, and her Pop work was largely forgotten. It was only about 2010, when Mr. Sachs curated the critically acclaimed exhibition “Seductive Subversion: Women Pop Artists, 1958-1968” (originally titled “Beyond the Surface: Women and Pop Art 1958-1968”) that her early breakthroughs were rediscovered, once more hitting a cultural chord. Older pieces that she had kept in storage were bought by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, which displayed its acquisition when it reopened last fall. Ms. Weber was born Tessie Pasternack on March 12, 1932. Her father put her up for adoption after her mother died in childbirth. Her new parents, Julius Earl Feinberg, who worked in real estate, and Minnie (Wallach) Feinberg, a homemaker who had previously lived abroad, gave her the name Idelle Lois Feinberg. From their house in Wilmette, Illinois, Minnie would take Idelle to the Art Institute of Chicago, where they would look at miniature period rooms, works by Edward Hopper and more. Idelle took to drawing at an early age, and her parents encouraged her by enrolling her in art classes. When she was 8, the family moved to Beverly Hills, California, settling in as neighbors to Elizabeth Taylor. As a teenager she began frequenting the gallery of the dealer Frank Perls, who arranged for her to visit the private art collections of movie stars like Edward G. Robinson and Vincent Price. Ms. Weber attended Scripps College in Claremont, California, for a year before transferring to the University of California, Los Angeles, where she received her bachelor’s degree in art in 1954 and her master’s in it the next year. In 1956, one of her pieces was accepted into the open-call exhibition “Recent Drawings U. S. A.” at the Museum of Modern Art. (The collector Gertrude Mellon bought it.) Traveling to see the exhibition, Ms. Weber wound up staying in New York City for almost the rest of her life. Within her first few days there she babysat for Mark Rothko’s daughter and met her future husband, Julian Weber, a lawyer who went on to be president of the humor magazine National Lampoon. The couple married nine months later, in 1957. Mr. Weber died in 2006. Ms. Weber is survived by two children, J. Todd and Suzanne, and three grandchildren. Her husband’s job as a corporate lawyer and the skyscrapers in her new home city inspired much of Ms. Weber’s most noted work. “I was just amazed, you know, because they had fluorescent lights and men in business suits, but you saw only the silhouettes of these people at any hour,” she said in a documentary film accompanying the “Seductive Subversion” exhibition. “And all those buildings had giant escalators. You’d see these people coming down after work or going up at the beginning of the day, and I really loved it.” She connected with leading players in the New York art world, like the influential dealer Ivan Karp, and in 1962 she signed on with the Bertha Schaefer Gallery. Her first solo show took place the following January – just two months after Andy Warhol’s debut at Stable Gallery. Ms. Weber recalled that Mr. Warhol had seen almost all her exhibitions and had even tried to give her advice: On learning that she had painstakingly created her gridded backgrounds by hand, he suggested that she use a paint roller to make the process easier. Her response: “Nuance, Andy, nuance.” In 1964, Ms. Weber made “Munchkins I, II, and II,” a nearly 18-foot-long painting dramatizing the anonymity of corporate life. She also ventured into sculpture, arranging her office dramas in small, clear acrylic cubes and constructing three-dimensional silhouettes in Plexiglas and plastic, like the neon-inflected “Jump Rope” (1967-68). Her work was shown in Pop art surveys around the country. By the end of the decade, however, Ms. Weber and art’s mainstream had moved on. She returned to painting, re-creating photographs she had taken of fruit stands and garbage on New York City streets – the commercial products that Pop once celebrated now left to rot. She continued to show in galleries and museums, some of which acquired her art, among them the Art Institute of Chicago, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. She taught at New York University for more than a decade and then at Harvard. As Ms. Weber traveled abroad in the 1980s and ’90s, her subject matter and style shifted toward nature – gardens, grass, landscapes – while her brush strokes loosened. She began assembling, in 2000, an installation of more than 500 paintings, drawings, watercolors and prints of heads that she had made over the past half century. Titled “Head Room” and exhibited in 2004 by the Nassau County Museum of Art on Long Island, it was unlike anything she had done before. If there was one through line to Ms. Weber’s long and varied career, it was her close observation of the details of the world around her – what Ms. Chaffee called “the critical gaze of the real.” It’s present in her scenes of corporate life and in her swirling paintings of the horizon, which look like the work of different people. She spent her life exploring that impulse in many forms. “Art historians, art critics and dealers sometimes make it sound like an artist’s development is like a single thread,” Ms. Weber once observed. “More often it’s like a rope with several strands intertwined and revolving around one another.” She added, “This certainly has been the case for me.”

1957

Katherine Barrows Moule, of Oakland, California on September 21, 2020
Katherine died peacefully at home in Oakland, California, of endometrial cancer. She was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the daughter of Lyman Barrows and Susan Decker Barrows of Wayzata, Minnesota. After primary and secondary education in local schools, she graduated from Dana Hall in Wellesley, Massachusetts, and Scripps College in Claremont, California. At Scripps, she majored in art under Phil Dyke, a noted Southern California watercolor artist. For her whole life, Katherine was an active watercolor artist, continuing her education with Dorothy Voorhees in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and taking classes at the Corcoran School of Arts and Design in Washington, DC. In 1957, she married James Crawford Moule of Arcadia, California, an aerospace engineer. They had four children, all living: Elizabeth Moule Polyzoides of Pasadena, California; Nancy Moule Rowe of Boulder, Colorado; Allison Moule of Kent, Washington; and John Moule of Nipomo, California. She is survived by her husband; her three sisters: Susan Patterson, Elizabeth King, and Margaret Yamashita; her four children; and three grandchildren: Alexander Polyzoides, James Nicholas Polyzoides, and Katherine Polyzoides. Katherine was a member of Town and Gown in Berkeley, California; the New Mexico Watercolor Society; and the California Watercolor Association.

1959

Barbara Ann Schuyler Wetzel, of Aurora. Colorado on October 13, 2020.
Barbara Ann Schuyler Wetzel, age 83, passed away peacefully on Tuesday, October 13, 2020 at Shalom Park Nursing Home in Aurora. Colorado. Barbara was born November 9, 1937, in Denver, Colorado to Karl(Danny) and Barbara(Nanny) Schuyler. Barbara is descended from the Revolutionary War’s General Philip Schuyler and from the daughter of Alexander Hamilton. Barbara’s grandmother was Mrs. Eugene D. Millikin, wife of former U.S. Senator Millikin and whose first husband was the late Senator Karl C. Schuyler. Barbara graduated from Grayland Day School and St. Mary’s Academy. She received her college education from Scripps College, University of Denver and the University of Michigan. Barbara had many passions in life including books (she worked at Walden Bookstore and volunteered at the University of Denver library) and art (she taught at a local studio and was a docent at the Artists of America exhibitions). Barbara was a philanthropist donating to many organizations. Some of her favorites were The Wildlife Sanctuary in Keensburg Colorado and the Dumb Friends League. Barbara belonged to PEO, an organization which gives scholarships to deserving women. Barbara volunteered for the Hospice of Peace. She purchased a room at St. Anthony’s Hospital that was dedicated for the hospice’s use. Barbara volunteered at Fort Logan as well as the Colorado Aids Society. For many years Barbara hosted students participating in “Up With People”. She hosted students from Australia, China, Spain, Germany and many others. Barbara loved to travel. She traveled to Europe with her family on the Queen Mary. She loved New York, Washington, D.C. and California. Together with her sister, Diane, she toured many of the historic locations of the Civil War. Barbara loved cruising: Alaska, the Carribbean (Disney Cruise for her grandchildren) and the Panama Canal. Barbara loved to camp, but only at the Broadmoor. Barbara loved animals. She had several cats and dogs. Her two main loves were Goldie and Cuddles, both Cocker Spaniels. Barbara loved sports. She was an excellent swimmer, golfer and equestrian. Barbara had a variety of collections. Her most memorable were her Beanie Babies. She distributed most of them to her nieces, nephews and grandchildren. Above all else, Barbara loved to go to the movies and to Broadway musicals (season tickets to the Denver Center for the Performing Arts). Barbara knew the words to any song you could name. Her favorite musical was “Frozen”. On her last evening in this world, Barbara and her granddaughter, Rachel, watched a “Frozen” marathon on television. Barbara is survived by her sister Diane Bakke; brother, Peter Schuyler; her two children, Deborah (Howard) Selbst and Philip(Vicky) Wetzel; her four grandchildren: Jessica Gardiner, Rachel Selbst, Schuyler Wetzel and PJ Wetzel; and her four great-grandchildren (Jay, Josh, Ben and John Gardiner).

1961

Carol E. Levy Hicks, of Prescott, Arizona, on November 30, 2019.
Carol E. Hicks was born in San Diego, California, to Dr. Edward and Katherine Levy on December 20, 1939. She graduated from San Diego High School and received her Bachelor of Arts from San Diego State University. A Prescott resident for 25 years, Carol was an avid horse woman and a member of Desert Saddle Bags, Prescott Saddle Club, Back Country Horsemen of Central Arizona and a founding member of Large Animal Shelters and Emergency Readiness (LASER), an organization that provides shelter for animals during evacuations. Carol loved riding wilderness trails and camping with her husband and riding partner of 59 years. She is survived by her husband, Charles (Spike) Hicks; sister, Susan Conner of Carlsbad, Calif.; daughters, Katherine (Katie) and husband Randall Carruthers of Keosauqua, Iowa, Carlyn and husband Lawrence Ille of Oceanside, California; 2 grandchildren and one great-grandchild. No services will be held per Carol’s wishes. We would also like thank everyone for their love and support in sending sympathy cards and keeping us in their prayers.

1964

Barbara Burns Myers, of Omaha, Nebraska, on July 15, 2020.
After contracting ALS, Barbara Burns Myers with the attentive, loving care of her husband Lee and their three sons and their families managed to participate in travels, baseball games, family gatherings, and a raft of activities until fairly recently. Of course, the nature of that disease is that it always overwhelms, and she left us on July 15, 2020, at her home in Omaha, Nebraska. She came to Scripps College by way of Clinton, Oklahoma and Phoenix, Arizona, and majored in Psychology.  Dorsey Hall was her home base on-campus; and over her Claremont years she was a cheerleader for CMC-HMC teams, participant in child development activities, and always a wonderful friend. On graduation Barbara went to San Francisco where in time she met her future husband, writer and editor Lee Myers.  Later homes included Cody, Wyoming and Omaha, Nebraska, where she was employed at Boys and Girls Town. As one of three sisters, she enjoyed being the mother of three creative sons, Mason, Ryan, and Tyler, and following the activities of three granddaughters.

1965

Jennifer Lehman, of Santa Rosa, California, on September 11, 2020.
Jennifer S. Lehman, educator, mentor and long-time friend to many, has passed away at the age of 77 in Santa Rosa, California. Jennifer taught at Rincon Valley Junior High School/Middle School in Honors English, Latin and Reading, and for many, many years co-directed musical theater at that school. She also taught English at Ursuline High School and most recently, IB Latin at Montgomery High School. In addition, she volunteered her time at the Children’s Speech Therapy Center. She was twice awarded the honor of Sonoma County Teacher of the Year. She leaves behind a brother and sister-in-law in Wisconsin, a nephew in Santa Rosa, and her sibling cats, Tommy and Tuppence. Her intelligence, acerbic wit, organizational skills and ability to cut-to-the-chase brought clarity to her endeavors. After years of valiantly holding off many medical challenges, teaching all the while, she completed her life’s work on September 11, 2020. She lived her life with fortitude and dignity as an inspiration to all of the many students, colleagues and friends who will remember her forever. At her request, no services will be held. She might like it if those who know her would talk softly among themselves, honoring her and enjoying memories.

1966

Sheryl E. Vaniman Griffith, of Red Hook, New York on November 8, 2020.
Sheryl E. Griffith, 75, of Red Hook, N.Y., passed away unexpectedly on Sunday, Nov. 8, 2020. Born on June 23, 1945, in Atascadero, California, she was the daughter of the late Ralph and Esther (Monro) Vaniman. Sheryl graduated with Honors in Art from Scripps College in 1966. Studied for a time at the Rhode Island School of Design, and later earned a Master of Library Science at the University of Albany. For over 20 years, Sheryl was the Head Librarian at the FDR Historical Site and Library in Hyde Park, New York. She also worked for several years at the National Archives and the Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C. Sheryl was instrumental in the creation and development of the Town of Red Hook Recycling Center. She also worked at both the Red Hook and Tivoli Libraries. She is survived by her loving sons, Joel Griffith of Tivoli, New York, and Jesse Griffith of Minneapolis, Minnesota, and extended family, countless friends and colleagues. Sheryl was widely travelled and widely read. She was a talented carpenter, prolific seamstress, avid gardener, enthusiastic dancer, and outstanding cook. In addition to her parents, her younger brother, Douglas Vaniman, predeceased her

1969

Jacqueline Bigar, of Glendale, Arizona, on March 1, 2020.
Jacqueline Bigar, 72, an astrologist whose syndicated column, “Bigar’s Stars,” has been published for decades in The Inquirer and other newspapers across the nation, died at her home in Arizona. First published in the Daily News in 1977, Ms. Bigar’s column over the years drew a national and then an international audience. In it, the then-Philadelphia-based writer offered readers a view of the future based on their birth dates and the position of the stars. “Readers flocked to it,” recalled Gene Castellano, a former assistant features editor for the Daily News. Castellano worked on Sundays, and said the column would arrive that day for editing even though it wouldn’t be published until later in the week. It was so compelling that fellow journalists would call from home, Castellano said, asking him to look ahead and let them know what was in the stars for their love life. Ms. Bigar’s column began appearing in The Inquirer in 1988. King Features Syndicate acquired the rights to the column in 1991, and it was published in newspapers including the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Denver Post, Kansas City Star, Los Angeles Daily News, and San Francisco Examiner. In 1995, Ms. Bigar helped to develop and moderate, with her former husband, an online astrology forum for Prodigy.com. She also wrote daily astrology tips and conducted chat sessions online. “She will be missed,” said C.J. Kettler, King Features president. “She has been part of the King Features family for a long time. We are shocked. She was beloved.” The last of her columns, written in advance, will appear in The Inquirer on Saturday, March 14. Ms. Bigar, an Aquarius, began formal astrology training in 1975 under the guidance of Jeanette Oswald, a professional astrologer and radio and television personality. Except for that tutelage, Ms. Bigar was largely self-taught. Her son, Geoffrey Livingston, posted the news of his mother’s passing on Facebook. “Once we get control of her Facebook page, we will turn it into a memorial site for her readers across the globe,” he wrote. He said the family was seeking privacy as it mourned and sought to make burial arrangements. “We will post something as soon as we can. However, we may not be responsive in the interim,” he wrote. “May the stars be with you.” Born in Washington, she graduated in 1965 from the Orme School in Mayer, Ariz. Four years later, she graduated from Scripps College in Claremont, California, with a bachelor’s degree in literature. In 1966, she met Livingston, a student at the nearby Claremont McKenna College, through the student newspaper, the Collegian. “She was always interested in astrology when I met her in college,” he said. “It was hard to tell if this was her hobby.” They married in 1970 in Pasadena, California, and moved in 1975 to Philadelphia, when Livingston took a job at the Daily News. In predicting the 23-day duration of a Philadelphia newspaper strike in 1977, she so amazed Daily News editor F. Gilman Spencer that he hired her on the spot to write a weekly horoscope column. In 1982, she began writing her daily column, “Bigar’s Stars.” “Gil was impressed,” Livingston said. “He was a whimsical guy, and he made Jackie the astrology columnist, to my horror. I didn’t think she could do it.” Ms. Bigar studied astrology books and honed her skill, Livingston said. While preparing an astrological profile for the reputed mobster Philip “Chicken Man” Testa, she predicted that there would be a “big blowup” in the family in March 1981. “A few days later,” Livingston said, Testa “was blown up by a bomb.” The “Love and the Stars” column, published in The Inquirer’s Do This section, typically offered readers at times cryptic guidance on romance and interactions, usually just in a few lines. On Friday, for instance, Ms. Bigar predicted a five-star night for those born under the Libra sign. “One on one relating could take you down an unusual path,” she wrote. “At first you might not feel comfortable with what is happening. The unexpected occurs when dealing with an important person. Tonight: Walk away from a power play.” But each column also offered an extended dash of advice for those born on that date. For readers born on Feb. 28, she wrote: “This year, your intuition greets your stability. The combination proves to be powerful when applied together. If single, you might reveal these traits as you reveal different personalities and different segments of your life.…” Livingston described Ms. Bigar as quirky and fun, a lover of music and good times. The couple divorced in 1986. Ms. Bigar moved to Arizona in 2011. In addition to her son and former husband, she is survived by a daughter, Joanne Marder; two grandchildren; and a brother.

Cynthia Williams Haney, of San Diego, California, on May, 2020.
A note from Marianne Pfau, Professor of Music History, and Director of Angelus Sacred Early Music Series: “Cynthia was the initial spirit behind the ‘Angelus Series of Sacred Early Music’ concert series that I have directed since 2007 at USD. After the passing of her late husband, Michael Haney, in 2006, she contacted me in the Music Department, asking whether I could think of any way in which the department might honor his memory. She told me that her husband, who was a professor at USD’s Psychology Department, had cherished a great love of early music. During the following months, Cynthia and I conceived ‘Angelus’ together, and she has been the trusted and generous supporter of the series ever since. After a while, her donation became true seed money as she intended, attracting further support from other donors. Seeing this trajectory of ‘Angelus’ gave her great joy. This year’s concert would have been on Bach’s birthday, March 21 2020. Knowing that Cynthia herself was battling a serious illness now, on that day I shared with her the finished program that could of course not happen due to campus closure. I was hoping that it would console her in some way and give her strength. She responded gratefully. This was the last contact I had with her. As a regular donor, Cynthia took a true interest in the development of ‘Angelus,’ which has blossomed from small seeds into a well-established and University-supported series of high caliber that year after year has filled beautiful Founders Chapel on the USD campus. For the past decade, we have been able to pair renowned professional early music specialists from around the country with student singers in cantatas by J. S. Bach. Recently we began working in collaboration with Dr. Emilie Amrein, Director of Choral Activities, and now some thirty students in different choral ensembles are participating in ‘Angelus.’ The series has become an important part of our educational mission as well as to USD’s cultural offerings for the larger San Diego Community. Cynthia enjoyed witnessing this growth in size and significance. I will always be grateful to Cynthia Haney for sharing her husband’s passion for early music over a decade ago, for helping me establish a vision for ‘Angelus,’ for her unfailing financial generosity, and for her fervent support. She was a very fine person indeed, whose gentle spiritual and quiet artistic presence held immense meaning for me. My life is enriched by having known her, and I will miss her dearly. We will dedicate next year’s Angelus Lenten concert, scheduled for March 20 2021, to Cynthia’s memory. RIP.”

1970

Linda Jean Yorton, of Hartford, Connecticut.

1971

Valerie Bryan Franklin, of Woodland Hills, California on July 20, 2020
Valerie Bryan Franklin – Art Dealer, Collector, Consultant, Benefactor, Philanthropist, businesswoman, and cherished family member and friend — died peacefully on July 20 at her Woodland Hills, CA home. Born to Harry A. and Ruth Franklin in Los Angeles, Valerie grew up immersed in the art world, surrounded by extensive, exquisite, and historically significant collections including African, Oceanic, modern and antique Asian, Latin American, and Pre-Columbian works.  Her parents began collecting in 1938, and turned their home into a salon for pioneering scholars. The Franklins’ passion became a business when they opened the highly-respected Franklin Gallery, which became the Harry A. Franklin Gallery. While following her father’s lead, Valerie paved her own path in the male-dominated art world with tenacity, and with the poise, intelligence, and ferocity necessary to achieve her own prominence. She attended Scripps College, Claremont, CA, and graduated from UCLA with a B.A. cum laude in Art History where she studied Primitive Art under the late Dr. Arnold Rubin. After graduation she served as Associate Director and then Director and Owner of the Harry A. Franklin Gallery, Beverly Hills, CA from 1971 through 1989. Throughout her career, corporations, museums and private collectors regularly engaged Valerie for her expertise as an art consultant.  In 1990, she retained Sotheby’s for a single owner sale entitled “Harry A. Franklin Family Collection of African Art.” That sale remains the most important single sale of primitive art ever.  Her success buttressed her philanthropy in the art world. Notably, Valerie elevated her standing as Benefactor to the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, when she contributed an extraordinary collection of Oceanic Art to the museum.  Of her donation Timothy Rub, Director, said, “One of the finest and most comprehensive private collections of Melanesian art, numbering over 1200 objects…Due to this donation, the Hood’s Museum of Art’s holdings in this area are among the largest to be found in public museums in the country and serve as a significant resource for exhibition, teaching, and research.” Other recipients of Valerie’s gifts include, in part: UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History, Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History, Denver Museum of Art, Detroit Institute of Art, Baltimore Museum of Art, De Young Memorial Museum, San Diego Museum of Art, and Dallas Museum of Art. She has loaned pieces of her collection to these museums and to several Smithsonian museums, the National Gallery of Art, American Museum of Natural History, Center for African Art, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, among many others. In the 1970’s and 80’s, fortunate attendees heard Valerie’s lectures at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art for the Docents Council, Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Friends of Ethnic Arts – San Francisco, and “The Expressions of Cameroon Art” Docent Training, and as Professor of African Art, Humanities Department, California School of Professional Psychology. During those years, she also served on the Ethnic Arts Council of Los Angeles as Membership Chair, Program Chair and Executive Board member. As a beloved family member and friend, Valerie was always fascinated by life and was endlessly fascinating herself.  She was a captivating conversationalist, with far-reaching knowledge, experience, and insights that opened the awareness of those around her. She was generous and giving, fully committed to those she loved, and willing to share different approaches to life problems.  She was insightful into the intentions of others, quick to spot a phony, and strong-willed. Valerie had a firm awareness of, and appreciation for, the beauty that graced each of the five senses. Altogether she was a woman of deep spiritual beliefs, intellect, and compassion for others, and she was a true gift to us and to life. Valerie was pre-deceased by her parents, and is survived by her extended family and all those who love her.

1974

Tamara Smiley Hamilton, of Herndon, Virginia, on June 29, 2020.
Tamara was born in Alabama February 28, 1952 to her parents, Viney and Maso (pronounced May-so) Smiley.  The Smileys migrated to Los Angeles in the mid-1950s. Years later, Maso told his daughter the family made that trip because California had tuition-free state colleges. Tamara’s family ultimately settled in Watts, where at the age of 13, she witnessed the 1965 uprising in her neighborhood. Tamara knew she wanted to change the anger and violence into justice and reconciliation. (Rotarian Magazine: https://www.rotary.org/en/peace-coach). This approach dovetailed with being a Global Citizen that her father told Tamara repeatedly was her destiny. Tamara made a strong impression on Nancy Hargrave Trask, Scripps Class of 1939, who met Tamara at the Anytown/Brotherhood Program run by the National Council of Christians and Jews.  Tamara recalled in her memoir that Nancy “… saw me; she really saw me,” https://www.kosmosjournal.org/article/diary-of-a-watts-princess-a-memoir-of-hopes-and-dreams/ Nancy lobbied for Scripps’ admissions to recruit Tamara and in the fall of 1970 Tamara arrived for her first year at Scripps. Tamara was a true trailblazer.  She left her imprint on Scripps when she designed her own curriculum for a Black Studies major that ultimately took her to Ghana, West Africa. Scripps granted her the opportunity to pursue her studies. (https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=970864930011176&ref=watch_permalink) Tamara’s approach to creating change—the epitome of the Scripps woman actualizing a creative and independent choice—helped pave the way for what is now the Interdisciplinary Core Curriculum. After immersing herself in Black Studies at Scripps College, a predominantly white women’s private undergraduate institution, Tamara enrolled in an equally prestigious HBCU (historically black colleges and universities), Howard University.  She earned a Masters in African Studies and Research in 1976 and thereafter spent 17 years working as a Regional Director for the NEA (National Education Association) on the front lines to help reduce racism’s impact on education. In 1981 Tamara received her second Masters in Communications Management from the University of Southern California.  In 2016 Tamara received a call from the Obama White House inviting her to work with White House appointees who requested public speaking coaching to support their reentry into the private sector.  Tamara earned a third Masters from George Mason University in Conflict Resolution in May of 2020 (where she was awarded the 2017 James H. Laue Scholarship for recognition of her contributions to human and civil rights). In 2013 Tamara began attending Camp Scripps and became widely known among alums of all ages. While Tamara took her mission of Global Citizen and Peace Coach seriously, she did not take herself too seriously. Her first presentation at Camp Scripps was “Zumba Grandma.”  Her one-woman tour de force performance on the stage of Balch Hall was the first of many, as Tamara told over 100 Scripps campers how she became a Zumba teacher.  She wore her Zumba outfit, demonstrated the exercises accompanied by Zumba music, and delivered her own humorous commentary about the experience.  At 60+ years old and perfectly at ease with her matronly (and at times creaky) body, Tamara was dubbed the “grandma” of the class, which was filled with exactly the type of women you might expect—very young, skinny, blond ponytails, white and giddy. “Zumba grandma” was the epitome of Tamara, as she was supremely comfortable in her own skin and profoundly at ease with who she was. Tamara presented the entire Zumba situation with tongue-in-cheek humor based on detailed observations of human nature, self-revelation, and clever use of language and movement. Her presentation made an indelible impression and brought the audience of multi-generations of Scripps alums together as one. For alums who did not know Tamara as a student and only met her fully formed, Camp was the place where they could revel in the richness of her life experiences and be introduced to and included in her world.  She made her experiences and interests a part of the shared experience of Scripps. That was the essence of Tamara Smiley Hamilton. 

Constance Caputo Spar, of Corona del Mar, California, on June 18, 2020. After graduating Scripps with a bachelor’s degree in psychology, Connie earned a master’s in counseling from California State University, Fullerton. She served as a counselor in the Fountain Valley School District, head counselor at Irvine High School and chair of guidance and counseling, director of matriculation and professor at Irvine Valley College before her health forced her to withdraw from the work she loved. She brought insight and influence to her profession, easing paths and changing lives. As small as she was in stature, she had an enormous capacity to grasp another person’s reality and the grace to walk alongside them through the messiness of life. She steadfastly offered kindness, acceptance, direction and empathy to all. She was patient yet motivating. She was smart as well as wise, as funny as she was sensitive. She was loyal, lavish with her affection and powerful in her honesty. She was a deeply spiritual person who cherished the little pleasures of earthly life — perfectly scrambled eggs, well-polished shoes, a card from a far-off friend. She loved the bawdiness of Bette, the mysteries of Marceau, the treasures of The Met and the champagnes of France. She prized poise and dignity and placed a premium on her Scripps experience and education. Connie is survived by her beloved husband of 31 years, Jerrold Spar, a former classmate at Wilson High in Long Beach, and brother, Phillip Caputo.

1975

Rebecca Blanche Randall Mullen, of Ladera Ranch, California, on July 7, 2020.
Rebecca Blanche Mullen, née Randall, 66, passed away July 7, 2020, in Ladera Ranch, Calif. She had been diagnosed with bile duct cancer in 2016. Rebecca was born in Lake Forest, Ill., to Cmdr. John A. and Barbara Coen Randall Jr. She grew up in Washington and Southern California, and graduated from Scripps College. In 1977 she married Franklin Mullen. Franklin’s involvement in real estate took the couple to Denver, where Rebecca received master’s degrees in education and school administration, and was active in the Junior League. After moving to the Los Angeles area, she continued her work with the Junior League. A plaque in a Los Angeles library bears her name in appreciation for her efforts in establishing a children’s literacy program. After teaching for 12 years at Viewpoint School in Calabasas, Rebecca took a position at the Adelson Educational Campus  in Las Vegas, where she taught for four years until her illness forced her to retire. She moved to Ladera Ranch to receive treatment at UCLA, where she also participated in a clinical trial that helped extend her life for several years. Rebecca loved life fiercely. She enjoyed movies, the theater, tennis and reading, and was a member of the Ladera Library book club. She also took an avid interest in local and national politics and was a research advocate for the Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation, but she found her greatest joy in her sons, Tyler and Maxwell. Rebecca was predeceased by her parents and a sister, Cynthia Chambers. Besides her sons, survivors include former husband and lifelong best friend Franklin; sisters, Barbara Buckler and husband Bill, Deborah Nava and husband David, and Sylvia Randall and husband Keith Posen; brothers, John A. Randall III and wife Jerrilynn, James G. Randall and wife Valerie, Paul Randall and Matt Randall; sister-in-law Lizz Randall; and numerous nieces and nephews.

1978

Caroline C. Post, of Cambridge, Massachusetts
There is a picture of Callie taken in the summer she was two and a half. She is standing with her older sister and brother on the lawn in front of our house wearing nothing but a huge smile and her favorite little red sneakers. It tells you everything about her – she knew what was essential and she knew how to be happy about it. These two qualities were what made her such a wonderful first-grade teacher. Born with Klippel-Trenaunay syndrome before anyone even knew what it was, she knew the pain which the multiple operations and physical disfigurement that a derangement of the circulatory system could bring, but it only made her more determined to spread her love and share her creativity with the young people she taught. Working first at a school for the children of migrant workers in Florida and then at an inner-city school in Houston, she found and nurtured little ones who needed her love. After she died, we found among her things copies of letters she had written to each of her students, welcoming them to first grade and, after they had finished the school year, praising them for their work. When she left Houston in 2002 to come north to help care for her ailing step-father, she became a reading tutor, but found new joy in making beautiful things, especially glasswork and mosaics. Her family and friends treasure her many pieces – which she could have sold, but preferred to give away. That was the story of her life: finding happiness in giving away love.

Tegan Cloud Speiser, of Capitola, California of June 26, 2020.
It is hard for any one person to get an understanding of the contours of Tegan’s life. She was a good friend to a great many, yet she was self-possessed and didn’t broadcast her thoughts. If you wanted to know her, you had to be there. Many were and many did. If one were lucky enough to know her in the last period of her life, one could get a clear glimpse of Tegan as she battled the cancer to which she would eventually succumb. Tegan was planning her early retirement when she was surprised by a diagnosis of late-stage cancer. Surprised but undaunted; she fought the cancer ferociously, learning everything about her condition and treatments from genetic tumor typing to qi gong. She recruited allies among the practitioners and fellow patients. She raised money for patient support and advocacy groups, including WomenCARE and Prideville. She practiced self-care and did the internal work that extended her life long enough to do more of the things she wanted. She hammered away at her bucket list: traveling, experiencing new things, and exploring philosophy and spirituality. With a relish made more exquisite by the shortness of time, Tegan practiced the culinary arts, soul collage, and unbridled joy. She shared her time with old friends and new. She showed us what an insatiable quest for knowing looks like. Anything left undone was not for lack of trying.

Carradine “Carrie” Sue Young, of Wellington, Colorado on September 14, 2020.
Carrie Sue Young, age 64, passed away on September 14, 2020 after a year-long struggle with cancer. She was at home in Wellington, Colorado, and surrounded by her children, pets, and husband. Carrie knew that strength is not necessarily demonstrated through survival, but through honesty and courage in the face of suffering. Carrie was born in January 1956 in Peoria, Illinois to Gene Koch and Martha Rice Koch. She grew up in Illinois, St. Croix, Virgin Islands, and Greeley, Colorado. She received an education at Scripps College in Claremont, California and at Colorado State University. From the age of 23 and through the rest of her life, Carrie lovingly co-parented her oldest three children with her first husband, Rick Rouge. On September 9, 1989, Carrie married Nick Young with whom she had three more children. They celebrated their 31st wedding anniversary five days before her passing. Carrie was a kind and loving force in the lives of her family, friends, and community. She lived a life of faith and was active in her church community for many years, devoting time to the Food and Prayer Ministries. She kept her home open to those who needed family and food. Carrie volunteered at the Rocky Mountain Raptor Program caring for injured wildlife over several years where she was much beloved as the volunteer “mom,” and was honored twice as volunteer of the month. Carrie was an active member of the Northern Colorado Homeschool Connection alongside other mothers and families. As a compassionate and courageous person, Carrie was willing to challenge her own perspective, religious dogma, and the status quo. Carrie became passionate about social justice, including racial justice (Black Lives Matter), LGBTQ rights, mental health awareness, immigrant rights, and gender equity. She believed in loving her neighbor and welcoming the stranger. Carried hoped her grandchildren would grow up in a more just and equitable world. During her childhood in the Caribbean, Carrie learned to love the ocean, and always considered herself an “island girl”. She loved nature and maintained a large organic garden and indoor plant collection, keeping the rest of her property “wild” for the native animals and grasses. She was always surrounded by plants, flowers, and pets, and was devoted to her many chickens, dogs Rosy and Mary, and cat Bruce. Carrie loved art, color, and design; she was an artist who filled journals with creations in pen, pencil, and paint. Carrie shared her passions with her children and grandchildren in numerous ways, including by reading classics aloud, leading hikes in the mountains, snorkeling over reefs, and caring for creatures great and small. Carrie was preceded by her father, Gene Koch, mother, Martha Rice Koch, and younger brother, John Koch. She leaves behind her brother Craig Koch (Ketchikan, Arkansas), and her husband, Nick Young (Wellington, Colorado). She also sadly leaves behind her six children, Lucas Rouge (Englewood, Colorado), Jacque Hanson (Fort Collins, Colorado), Audrey Rouge (Denver, Colorado), David Young (Wellington, Colorado), Naomi Young (Brooklyn, New York), and Jon Young (Fort Collins, Colorado). She held on as long as she could for her five grandchildren who loved their sweet, kind, loving Gramma. Above all else, Carrie was a devoted and adoring mother and grandmother. Her unconditional love is her legacy and gift

1983

Jennifer Crowder, of Seattle, on July 26, 2020
Jennifer Crowder passed away peacefully on Sunday, July 26, 2020 from complications of Parkinson’s and Cystic Fibrosis. Her husband Kevin Sulonen was at her side. The family would like to thank the staff at Kaiser Permanente, Swedish and UW Medicine who provided Jennifer with advanced specialty care. She lived fully while fighting both diseases for many years. She leaves behind husband Kevin Sulonen, sister Steffanie Kennedy and her husband Ken, brother Doug Crowder and his wife Joa, and brother Paul Crowder. She also leaves behind dearly loved nieces Chelsea Lay, Ella Crowder, Maya Crowder, and nephew Chase Woodrum, as well as a grand niece and nephew. She leaves behind one beloved aunt, Nadine Sommerfield, and is very much missed by her “furry loves,” dogs Samantha and Chloe. Jennifer’s parents Paul and Jane Crowder predeceased her. She deeply loved her family and was grateful for the values her parents instilled in her and her siblings. Her parents provided Jennifer and her siblings an amazing childhood filled with music, art, education, outdoor adventures, and travel. Kevin loved her deeply and fully honored their marriage vows of “in sickness and in health” by caring for her full time for the last year. Jennifer was born in Ithaca New York where her father Paul was earning a master’s degree at Cornell University. The young family moved to Seattle, eventually settling in Bellevue. Jennifer graduated from Newport High School, Scripps College in Claremont, California, and earned her master’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Kevin and Jennifer lived in Fayetteville, North Caroline while Kevin served in the 82nd Airborne. After Kevin’s military service, they returned to Seattle and became long term residents of Crown Hill. Jennifer was smart, talented and very independent. She loved being outdoors and was most talented at making bouquets from her beautiful garden. She played the French horn with several groups including Thalia Youth Symphonies, Orchestra Seattle, and Seattle’s Gilbert and Sullivan company for 25 years. She loved music and was a mentor to others. She regularly attended the Seattle Opera, Seattle Symphony, Olympic Music Festival and was a member of the Seattle Art Museum. She traveled extensively, beginning in Bath, England while she was in college, and later went on to visit China, Cambodia, Turkey, Spain and Italy. She and her family loved to spend time on the Washington coast, especially at Kalaloch. She loved art, literature, poetry and she was an accomplished, published writer. Besides her family, she leaves behind many friends from her years working at Safeco, fellow horn players, and members of her Book Club. Jennifer will be dearly missed by all.

1995

Shalom Montgomery, of Hacienda Heights, California, on July 11, 2020.
On the morning of July 11, 2020, beloved Los Altos High School English teacher Shalom Montgomery passed away. She was an amazing mother to her son, Kundai Chamutinya, and to the hundreds of students that stepped through her door everyday. She will be remembered for always being there for her students. Monty, as most students elected to call her, always gave sound advice and took the time to hear her students out. She will be dearly missed by every person whom she came in contact with. There will never be another soul as kind as Ms. Monty’s.

1983

Jennifer Ann Crowder, of Seattle, on July 26, 2020.
Jennifer Crowder passed away peacefully on Sunday, July 26, 2020 from complications of Parkinson’s and Cystic Fibrosis. Her husband Kevin Sulonen was at her side. The family would like to thank the staff at Kaiser Permanente, Swedish and UW Medicine who provided Jennifer with advanced specialty care. She lived fully while fighting both diseases for many years. She leaves behind husband Kevin Sulonen, sister Steffanie Kennedy and her husband Ken, brother Doug Crowder and his wife Joa, and brother Paul Crowder. She also leaves behind dearly loved nieces Chelsea Lay, Ella Crowder, Maya Crowder, and nephew Chase Woodrum, as well as a grand niece and nephew. She leaves behind one beloved aunt, Nadine Sommerfield, and is very much missed by her “furry loves,” dogs Samantha and Chloe. Jennifer’s parents Paul and Jane Crowder predeceased her. She deeply loved her family and was grateful for the values her parents instilled in her and her siblings. Her parents provided Jennifer and her siblings an amazing childhood filled with music, art, education, outdoor adventures, and travel. Kevin loved her deeply and fully honored their marriage vows of “in sickness and in health” by caring for her full time for the last year. Jennifer was born in Ithaca New York where her father Paul was earning a master’s degree at Cornell University. The young family moved to Seattle, eventually settling in Bellevue. Jennifer graduated from Newport High School, Scripps College in Claremont, California, and earned her master’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Kevin and Jennifer lived in Fayetteville, North Caroline while Kevin served in the 82nd Airborne. After Kevin’s military service, they returned to Seattle and became long term residents of Crown Hill. Jennifer was smart, talented and very independent. She loved being outdoors and was most talented at making bouquets from her beautiful garden. She played the French horn with several groups including Thalia Youth Symphonies, Orchestra Seattle, and Seattle’s Gilbert and Sullivan company for 25 years. She loved music and was a mentor to others. She regularly attended the Seattle Opera, Seattle Symphony, Olympic Music Festival and was a member of the Seattle Art Museum. She traveled extensively, beginning in Bath, England while she was in college, and later went on to visit China, Cambodia, Turkey, Spain and Italy. She and her family loved to spend time on the Washington coast, especially at Kalaloch. She loved art, literature, poetry and she was an accomplished, published writer. Besides her family, she leaves behind many friends from her years working at Safeco, fellow horn players, and members of her Book Club. Jennifer will be dearly missed by all.

2007

Emily Rees Garnett, of New York City, New York, on March 29, 2020
Emily Rees Garnett died 28 months after being diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer. She was 35 years old. Emily was born in Phoenix on March 19, 1985, the first child of Brian and Barbara Rees. She graduated from Xavier College Preparatory in 2003 where she was a 4-year state finalist in the breaststroke and co-captain of the swim team. She continued swimming at Scripps College and was named the Scripps Alumnae Athlete of the year upon graduation. Always seeking adventure, Emily moved to Manhattan after college and began working as a case manager for Housing Works, an AIDS/HIV advocacy group. This work led her to law school and she graduated from CUNY School of Law in 2012. Emily was admitted to the New York Bar after graduation and worked in NYC as an elder law attorney focusing on guardianships, capacity issues, special needs issues, and public and private benefits. Emily was known in the New York Surrogate Court as a detail-oriented, dedicated professional. In 2012, Emily married Christian Garnett and they welcomed their son, Felix, in November, 2015. In 2017, Emily, Christian, and Felix moved to suburban Mt. Kisco after a decade of living in the city. In November 2017, two days after her son’s second birthday, Emily was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer and given a life expectancy of 2-3 years. After her diagnosis, Emily became a relentless advocate for breast cancer awareness. Emily began documenting her illness, treatments, and life in her blog, Beyond the Pink Ribbon, to foster dialogue surrounding metastatic breast cancer. In addition to her blog, her writing on health issues was published by Women’s Media Center, Scary Mommy, Coffee+Crumbs, CURE Magazine and Healthline. In February 2019, she walked the runway for AnaOno in New York Fashion Week to bring awareness to metastatic breast cancer raising $100,000 for research. Emily was a member of the Metastatic Breast Cancer Alliance’s Patient Advisory Advocacy Group and served as an ambassador for the Breast Cancer Research Fund. In this capacity, she appeared in a New York Times ad campaign and was featured on a billboard in Times Square. This last year, she was named WEGO Health’s Rookie of the Year for advocacy work across numerous social media channels. In addition to her blog and advocacy work, Emily hosted a podcast, The Intersection of Cancer and Life, which featured candid, honest and often funny accounts of the realities of life with cancer. She appeared on Entertainment Tonight with Giuliana Rancic to talk about cancer and was featured in a YouTube episode of Binging with Babish. Last October, she traveled to Washington DC to lobby congress for increased funding for breast cancer. But Emily’s real legacy lay with the countless individuals with whom she connected daily. Persons who read her blog or listened to her podcast sought her out and she always made time to speak to them, offering advice and counsel. Emily is survived by her husband, Christian, their son, Felix, parents, Brian and Barbara Rees, her brother, Patrick Rees, paternal grandparents, Paul Rees and Donna Rees Canfield, maternal grandmother, Beverly Morgan, numerous aunts, uncles, cousins and their children. In her last effort to shed light on this devastating disease, Emily donated her tissue to Memorial Sloan Kettering for research. No funeral arrangements were possible due to the COVID-19 quarantine.

Lucy Amneus, of Claremont, California, on February 11, 2020.
Lucy Amneus died of complications from a stroke. She was 89. Lucy was born in 1930 in South Bend, Indiana to Robert and Lucille Nall and lived there until she left for college. In 1952 she graduated from Indiana University with a degree in English literature and history. She married Edward R. Hagemann in 1951, and the couple had two children, Jessica and Matt. She later married Dan Amneus. A resident of Claremont for 45 years, she taught special education for more than 20 years in the Pomona school district. When she was 49, she received a Claremont Rotary Club scholarship to study infant schools at Newton Park College of Education in Bath, England. When she returned to the classroom, the study abroad added to her already formidable teaching skills. She loved music and the music programs at the Claremont Colleges, and was a member of the Scripps College Choir, the Louis Ronfeldt Chorale and the Claremont United Church of Christ choir. After her retirement in 1996, she audited classes in art history, literature and music at the Claremont Colleges for the rest of her life. “Lucy will be remembered by all who knew her for her love, grace and kindness,” her family shared. “She was always ready to help a friend or neighbor and her generosity extended to numerous charitable organizations.” She is survived by daughter, Jessica Reichman; son, Matt Hagemann; grandchildren, Hannah, Hillary and Henry Hagemann; and by her longtime friend and partner, John M. Shahan. “Lucy greatly enjoyed singing with the young students at Scripps College, and they also appreciated her,” her family shared. Donations in her memory can be made to support special performances by the Joint Music Program’s choirs by check to “Scripps College—Joint Music Program,” with “Lucy Amneus” in the memo line, mailed to Scripps College or at www.scrippscollege.edu/giving.

Bradford “Brad” Blaine, of Claremont, California, on April 14, 2020.
Bradford “Brad” Blaine’s personal kindness and unwavering support of the College will be remembered by those he touched during his association with Scripps, which spanned more than 50 years. Life Trustee and Emeritus Professor of History, Brad brought great expertise and understanding to the Board through his personal insights into issues facing the College gleaned from his 35 years as a distinguished member of the Scripps faculty. He was a member of the Executive and Finance Committees and served as Vice Chair and Co-Chair of the Educational Policy Committee. In this latter capacity, he used his wealth of knowledge and thoughtful perspective on academic affairs to skillfully guide committee discussions to ensure that the educational program remained consistent with the College’s mission. He and his wife, Mary Anne, have been extraordinarily generous supporters of Scripps. Many important undertakings of the College have received encouragement and support through their gifts, most notably the Brad and Mary Anne Blaine Lecture series. As a prominent and long-time resident of Claremont community, he served as an important Board liaison to the City. Brad will be missed.

Julia Freeman P’85, of Palo Alto, California, on August 28, 2019.
Julie was born in Torrance, CA and raised in Alhambra, CA. She attended Garfield Elementary and Alhambra High School before earning a Bachelor’s Degree in English and her teaching credential from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her family had a cabin at Lake Arrowhead, where she enjoyed a lifetime of summers water-skiing, boating and swimming. It was there that she met her husband Paul Clark Freeman, during the summer of 1960. Paul had a summer job working for a lumber company, and Julie worked in the village snack bar. They were married June 23, 1962. Julie began her teaching career in Burbank, CA, where they welcomed Susie and Wendy. She and Paul bought their first home in La Canada, CA, then moved their young family briefly to Sacramento, CA. They settled in Palo Alto, CA in 1968, where Jay, Andy and Bryce were born and they raised their family. When her children were young, she was an active volunteer at Green Gables Elementary School; serving as homeroom mom, on the PTA, and helping with Field Days. She taught a creative writing class at Green Gables, which was loved and appreciated by many students over the years. She introduced “New Games”, a collection of fun, unconventional activities that involved teamwork and creativity. Having achieved the Curved Bar as a Girl Scout, she supported Susie and Wendy’s troops. As her own children grew, Julie returned to teaching as a teacher’s aide at Palo Alto High School. She later worked as a private tutor until her recent retirement. Her passions and hobbies included reading, writing letters, postcards and thank you notes to everyone, playing the piano and ukulele, singing with the Sunday Singers, baking, book group, tennis, and movies. She traveled to much of the U.S., visited Switzerland, Hong Kong, and Ireland, and enjoyed river cruises on the Columbia and Rhine rivers. Julie was a devoted Christian Scientist and a 50-year member of the Palo Alto church. She wore many hats multiple times; serving as reading room librarian, on the board, as head usher, on the care and music committees, in the children’s room, and playing piano for the Sunday school. She was ever present. She was preceded in death by her father John Harold Clay, husband Paul Clark Freeman, mother Edna Lemon Clay, and brother John Cordell Clay, Sr. She is survived by her sister (Laura) Jane Anderson, five children: Susan Freeman Gomez ’85 (Enrique), Wendy Richardson (Jonathan), Jay Freeman (Charlie), Andy Freeman (Jordana), and Bryce Freeman, and seven grandchildren: Sadie Puicon (Jaime), Abby Puicon, Sebastian Gomez, Isabel Gomez, Ryder Freeman, Hayden Freeman, and Clara Freeman. Julie will be missed by many, and lovingly remembered by all. In lieu of flowers or donations, please send a card to someone you love.

Peggy Phelps, of Claremont, California, on May 29, 2020.
Peggy Phelps, Longtime Patron of the Arts, died at 93. Ms. Phelps was a founding member and past president of the Fellows of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, past president of the Pasadena Art Alliance, and former board member of the Pasadena Gallery of Contemporary Art and the Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena. Once a trustee of the former Pasadena Art Museum, she was elected to the board of fellows of the Claremont University Center and Graduate School, where she was a longtime advocate for the arts. She was also a docent for the ArtCenter College of Design. She collected art not for the notoriety or worth but because she loved a particular piece. She owned a Josef Albers and a Jasper Johns but also a tall, wooden giraffe she bought on the streets of Johannesburg for $12 that she loved equally as much. Born Margaret Taylor in Buffalo, New York, on December 22, 1926, she went by Peggy from a young age. She was the middle of three children born to Reginald Taylor, who went by Commish, and Cecilia Evans, who went by Peach. Ms. Phelps attended boarding school at Miss Porter’s School in Farmington, Connecticut, then studied art history at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York. She met her first husband, Mason Phelps, a U.S. Marine during World War II, and they married in 1947 and had three children: Mason, Jr. Evans, and Taylor Phelps. It was when the family moved from Lake Forest, Illinois, to Pasadena, California, in 1959, that Ms. Phelps became involved in the art scene in Pasadena. Years later, her youngest son, Taylor, was diagnosed with HIV during the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s. He died of the disease in 1995. Ms. Phelps became a longtime supporter of the AIDS Service Center in Pasadena, which began as a hotline on an answering machine in 1987 and flourished into a multi-million-dollar social service agency that served thousands of people with AIDS. Her home away from home was an island in the northern channel of the Great Lakes in Ontario, Canada, called Campement D’ours, where her family first built a summer cabin in 1907 and where she spent nearly every summer of her life. This is the place where the true love of Ms. Phelps’ life, an acclaimed chemist named Nelson Leonard, proposed marriage in a canoe. Ms. Phelps responded, “I’ll have to think about it.” She said yes as soon as they pulled the boat into shore. This is also where her son Taylor’s ashes were scattered and where she most enjoyed drinking her iced tea on the deck, looking out over the water. She and Mr. Leonard traveled the world together and were happily married for 14 years until he died in 2006. Ms. Phelps had a prominent thirst for travel and adventure. She kept meticulous travel journals, documenting her exploits in Africa, India, Pakistan, Morocco, Bali, New Zealand, and Japan. She took many art trips and started an art travel program with the Pasadena Art Alliance. She even did wilderness courses with Outward Bound in her 40s and 50s, then joined the company’s national board and paid the way for her grandchildren to take Outward Bound, too. Ms. Phelps was generous beyond belief. Ms. Phelps is survived by her sister, Marion “Taddy” Dann, her two children, Mason Phelps, Jr., and Evans Phelps, her four grandchildren, Miles Michelson, Erin Thiem, Megan Michelson, and Larissa Roelofs, her great-grandchildren and many nieces and nephews. A service will be planned for a later date at All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, where Ms. Phelps was once a member of the vestry.

Judy Scalin, of Los Angeles, California, on Thursday, January 23, 2020.
Judy Scalin is a graduate of UCLA (B.A. in Dance, California State Secondary Credential) and Mills College (M.A. in Dance). She has danced with local dance companies in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area. She has taught at Mira Costa High School in Manhattan Beach, Scripps College, and Loyola Marymount University where she has been the Director of Dance for the past 34 years. As Director of Dance at Loyola Marymount University, she has established programs that enliven the connection of the University with the Los Angeles Dance community. Out of this on-going work has grown a number of residencies, dance works, master classes, and other significant linkages to local dance artists which benefit students and artists alike. Very active in the Los Angeles dance community, Ms. Scalin has served on the Dance Resource Center Board of Directors and on adjudication panels for the Music Center Bravo Awards, the William Couser Awards, Kaleidoscope and In-the-Works. In the summer of 1994, she served as a writer for National Examinations for K-12 Arts Education Assessment and received the Lester Horton Award for Sustained Achievement in Dance from the Dance Resource Center of Greater Los Angeles. In 1996, she taught for the Graduate School in Dance at CSULB, and was elected Policy Board Chair for the California Arts Project. In the spring of 1997, Judy was awarded the Lester Horton Award for Distinguished Teaching. In addition, Ms. Scalin has served as the Chair of the Arts Steering Committee for the Manhattan Beach Unified School District, where she currently works as a consultant. She has been the president of the California Dance Educators Association and has served as a curriculum writer for the California Arts Project. Judy has also served on the National Association of Schools of Dance Executive Board as chair of the Commission on Accreditation. Ms. Scalin received the Teacher of the Year Award from the California Dance Educators Association for 2001-2002 and the Loyola Marymount University President’s Fritz B. Burns Distinguished Teaching Award for 2003. In 2005 she received the Professional Educator’s Award from the California Association of Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance.