By FRANK LANGEN Special to the Palisadian-Post When I decided to join Mossler, Deasy & Doe almost three years ago it was to nourish my esthetic soul. In the last 30 years the company, which sells architectural and historically significant properties, has developed a loyal and international following. Owners of houses designed by masters of the past and present call us for our opinion on potential restoration and value. Weekly we are invited to actually walk through these works of art. Los Angeles provides us with a rich range of styles and has a plethora of architecture reflected by the diversity of its population. Last year I was asked to represent one of the original Uplifters log cabins at 36 Haldeman Rd. in the heart of Rustic Canyon. I knew the cabin but hadn’t spent time there since the mid-’70s, when it still belonged to women’s national tennis champion Dodo Cheney. Ironically, as a teenager I attended local tennis league meetings at her home. As I slowly walked up the road on an overcast day to reacquaint myself with the house, it reminded me of the rain forest and high country in Africa. I found the depth of field’the view of the canyon filled with mature eucalyptus trees against the California blue sky’breathtaking. Then as I walked through the front door, cool air enveloped me. My eyes focused immediately on the majestic fireplace built of river rock in the center of the room. It was obvious that this was a wonderful opportunity for some lucky individual to own and live in this piece of history. To me the house felt lived in, and not a museum. While the cabin is not a designated cultural landmark, the last two owners have poured their love and money into it. The main cabin and guest house over the garage were tastefully modernized and added on to by owner/architect Bret Thoeny in the late ’90s. The current owners continued to restore and lovingly landscape the surrounding grounds and hillsides with a wide range of local flowers and plants. They are moving because they have the opportunity to live where it is even more tranquil than it is here. As a realtor my challenge was to find a buyer who would preserve the cabin and at the same time not compromise the price for the current owner. Because of the size of the house (a 2-bedroom, 2-bath in less than 2,500-sq.-ft.), the $2,750,000 asking price was close to land value which also made it appealing to developers. Unfortunately, many architecturally worthy properties are sold for near-land value, often adding to the difficulty of finding the right steward. When I held the first public open house over a year ago, close to 200 individuals passed the threshold to get a glimpse. Stepping back in time, neighbors and potential buyers enjoyed the space and views while imagining who had celebrated and lived inside these walls. While it took some time, I am happy to report that it seems we have found worthy new keepers of the cabin. Escrow is scheduled to close later this month. I congratulate the new owners on their choice, welcome them to the neighborhood and invite them to enjoy the tennis courts and Monday night potluck dinners in Rustic Canyon Park. Personally, I am thankful for the whole experience. Every time I showed the cabin I was transported back to that happy time in my life. I will miss spending time there. (Editor’s note: Designated cultural landmarks in the Palisades area include: the Eames House on Chautauqua, the Kappe House on West Rustic, Villa Aurora on Paseo Miramar, the Bradbury House on Ocean Way, a Neutra house on Mabery Road, and the Uplifters Clubhouse in Rustic Canyon Park.)

When Peter Devereaux’s firm, Fields Devereaux Architects and Engineers, finishes the restoration of the historicWill Rogers ranch house, you won’t notice a thing. That’s the golden rule for historic restoration, and FDAE are specialists in the field. California State Parks selected Fields Devereaux for the job with a phone call last October, but the deal wasn’t as casual as it may seem; after all, the firm has a sizable portfolio of historic restorations, including the El Capitan in Hollywood, the Green Library at Stanford and the Doheny Memorial Library at USC, all of which have received preservation awards, from the National Trust, the Los Angeles Conservancy and the California Preservation Foundation. Peter Devereaux, a Palisadian, is the principal and chief executive officer, overseeing the firm’s portfolio of projects and its 170 employees. One of the largest in California, FDAE is sort of a one-stop shop. With architectural and design engineering expertise, the company has partnerships with other firms, including I.Q. (Investment in Quality), which assists other architects with cost estimating and plan reviews; GreenWorks, a sustainable building firm; and Building Consensus, a general construction company. Devereaux, an Easterner by upbringing and schooling, found his way West, as so many have, following the opportunities. A native of the Philadelphia area, he graduated from Yale School of Architecture and was invited by the dean, Cesar Pelli’recognized as one of the 10 most influential living American architects’to stay and work at Cesar Pelli & Associates in Connecticut, which Devereaux did for a year. It was then the mid-1980s, when the economy was strong and the world at peace. Lured by the vigorous building spurt in Southern California, Devereaux accepted an offer from Edwin Fields to join his firm in 1985. ‘There was a lot of building going on, and it seemed there was a crane on every corner,’ Devereaux recalls. ‘I thought there would be many opportunities to design.’ And there were. From building condominiums to schools, the firm has been steadily expanding both in Los Angeles and farther afield to San Diego, Bakersfield and Riverside. The plan is to add new offices in Phoenix and Las Vegas. Over the course of his career, Devereaux has carved out an expertise in historic preservation and school design. He has built several facilities for the UC Santa Barbara campus and UCLA, and undertook much of the rebuilding at Cal State Northridge, which was severally damaged in the 1994 earthquake. Devereaux, his wife Sarah and daughters Jacqueline (a Louisville 9th grader) and Caitlin (a 7th grader at Corpus Christi) have made their home in the Palisades for the past 14 years. He has followed the news of the town’s ambitious civic projects, including the new gym and the library, and understands the intelligence of community involvement. ‘I get very excited about getting projects off the ground,’ Devereaux says, ‘and a big part of that is figuring out what the client wants and helping him define it.’ Not to be ignored are his skills in working with the challenge of balancing the wishes of the client or community and, in the case of public buildings, the often stringent government requirements. A good example is the public library in Park View Terrace, a semi-rural community near Hansen Lake in the northwest San Fernando Valley. Devereaux participated in workshops with the public and staff to collect information and ideas from stakeholders, and the design process was guided by frequent public review. The final product was cited by the American Institute of Architects as an outstanding example of an architectural design solution that protects and enhances the environment. To the layman, the building with its distinctively long east-west axis and handsome tower is aesthetically pleasing, but it is much more. A joint project with GreenWorks, the library is a model of a sustainable environment, where the air is clean, the temperature modulated and everything is energy efficient. Situated to take advantage of daylight, but no direct sunlight, about 80 percent of the building is naturally ventilated. Many of the construction materials are recycled, such as bamboo and cork flooring, and runoff water is captured and used for irrigation. Devereaux has broad experience building schools. Currently, the firm is designing a three-story elementary school for the LAUSD at Western and Third St. that will accommodate 600 children, all of whom will live within walking distance of the school. He has had conversations with LAUSD on the use of the Ambassador Hotel site, where the district is planning to build a high school in the densely populated mid-Wilshire area. A perfect example of the debate between historic preservationists and cost-analysts, the decision on the best use for the Ambassador site is still undecided. ‘The Ambassador could be adapted for a school,’ Devereaux agrees, ‘but I think I take the middle-of-the-road position, and am therefore hated by both sides. That building has more significance because of the events that took place there rather than for its architectural stature. It may be wiser to preserve pieces of it, such as the Coconut Grove, than to make LAUSD shoehorn the existing space into a learning environment.’ As the city becomes increasingly congested, more planning revolves around retooling existing structures. Devereaux is already engaged in the debate of redefining the neighborhood that downtown Los Angeles will become. With 3,500 units on his design boards in Little Tokyo and Chinatown,”really a drop in the bucket considering the size of Los Angeles”Devereaux still believes that the key is people not only working but living downtown. ‘Picking up the pace of building housing, that’s what’s going to make it happen,’ he says.

In the early 1930s, actor Will Rogers was the largest individual landowner in Pacific Palisades. In his ’50s at the time he owned over 400 acres, which included his ranch in Rustic Canyon, the west side of Chautauqua from Corona del Mar down to PCH, and over a mile of beachfront property that extended from Santa Monica Canyon to Temescal Canyon, and which is named after him. ‘Will also owned part of the Riviera and Rivas Canyon, as well as Evans Road and the land where Villa Woods, Villa Grove and Villa View are today,’ said local historian Randy Young. How Rogers came to own these properties is well documented by Young, who continues to work closely with the Rogers family to protect the actor’s main real estate legacy’Will Rogers State Historic Park. One-quarter Cherokee, Will Rogers grew up on his family’s 60,000-acre ranch in Oklahoma where he learned to ride horses and toss a lasso at an early age. His show business career began in his early 20s when he toured with Texas Jack’s Wild West Show. Called the ‘Cherokee Kid,’ he was known for his roping prowess. In 1915, while performing with the Ziegfield Follies in New York, Rogers was offered a job acting in silent movies, which is what brought him to California. He later appeared in talkies, and by the early ’30s had a contract to make three films a year for Fox Studios. In 1934 his career was at its height. ‘Will was really the first multimedia star,’ said Young. ‘He was busy writing both a weekly and daily syndicated newspaper column, entertaining audiences with his witty commentary on American politics, as well as being on radio and in the movies. After Shirley Temple, Will was the leading box-office attraction at the time.’ Rogers, who had the good fortune of working all through the Depression, wrote his column at his ranch house in front of a large window which looked out over the land that he was painstakingly developing. Known for his kind and generous spirit, he became America’s ambassador of good will, exemplified in quotes such as ‘I never met a man I didn’t like.’ Rogers had been living at his beloved Rustic Canyon ranch for less than a decade when, on a trip to Alaska with his friend Wiley Post, he was killed in an airplane crash in August 1935. Will Rogers’ Ranch Holdings In 1925 Rogers, his wife Betty and their three children (Will, Jr., Mary and Jimmy) were living in Beverly Hills when he made his first real estate purchase in the Palisades. Rogers bought 176 acres from Alphonzo Bell on the western slopes of Rustic Canyon, north of Beverly Drive (now Sunset). At the time there was only a narrow, hilly dirt road which led to a clearing, and the canyons beyond were densely covered with native chaparral. Rogers immediately had a mile-long winding road built up to the mesa, as well as a simple one-story weekend cabin, a roping corral, a temporary stable and a polo field. Delighted with his acquisition, in 1928 he announced that he and his family would make the ranch their permanent home. His crews went to work building a six-mile system of roads, five miles of bridle paths, and a nine-hole golf course. He eventually enlarged the house and purchased 60 more acres of land. In August 1935, on the Sunday before he left on his fateful trip to Alaska, he and Betty took a long ride around the ranch discussing the work that needed to be done while he was away. Rogers was always improving the ranch, which at that point consisted of nearly 240 acres. The massive landscaping alone had already gone through three stages. During the first stage (1926-30) rows of eucalyptus were planted along the roads and around all the corrals and fields. During the second stage (1930-32), large trees were planted in front of the ranch house and the lawn was installed. Then came the vine period (1932-35), when an arbor was built in front of the patio to hold the large number of climbers. Betty continued to live at the ranch after Will died, and in 1944 gave the buildings and 127 acres of land to the state for a park as a memorial to her husband. For a time the family retained the property on the western mesa overlooking Santa Monica Canyon, which later became the site of several architecturally significant residences, including the world-famous Eames house. This 60th anniversary of Will Rogers State Historic Park finds the ranch in the midst of a major restoration. While hikers can still enjoy Inspiration Loop Trail and picnic on the grounds, the ranch house and stable are slated to reopen early next year ‘and will look exactly as they did when Will and his family lived here,’ said Young, who along with the Rogers family is involved in every aspect of the restoration, from approving the new irrigation system to picking up a hammer to help rebuild the horse barn. ‘We have to be,’ he explained. While the ranch was donated to the state, it includes a ‘reversionary’ clause, which means that if the property is not restored, maintained and used as Betty Rogers intended it to be, it could be taken back by the family. While there have been problems in the past (most recently regarding the boarding of horses at the ranch), ‘right now things are going well,’ Young said. ‘I think Will would be proud of what we are trying to do here.’ Will Rogers’ Beach Quest In 1926, Rogers bought his first piece of beach property for $977,372. Dr. Charles Holmes Scott, founder of Pacific Palisades, and developer Robert C. Gillis arranged for the sale of 2,000 feet of beach frontage at the mouth of Santa Monica Canyon that belonged to the Pacific Land Corporation and the Pacific Palisades Association, which had both fallen on hard times. At the time a string of newly built beach clubs lined the sand from Santa Monica to the Palisades. Within two years, Rogers’ holdings extended both east and west along the beach at Santa Monica Canyon. He subsequently acquired the new Bundy bathhouse at the base of Chautauqua and entered into negotiations to purchase five acres of land that extended up the west side of the hill, opposite Vance Place. But Rogers soon found he had some formidable competition for the beach. By 1930 the State of California had acquired over a mile of beachfront, the result of a countywide study that encouraged public agencies to acquire as much unimproved beach property as possible while it was still available. At the mouth of Santa Monica Canyon, on a parcel of land purchased for public use from Rogers that same year, the state built one of the first ‘modern’ lifeguard stations’a two-story, tile-roofed facility with public restrooms and a food concession. However, Rogers’ development plans for his own beach property collapsed in 1931 when he tried, and failed, to have his land rezoned for commercial use. So he ceased payments, arguing that commercial prospects for his beachfront had been misrepresented to him. As a result of this action, he lost title to the bathhouse, but retained his beachfront, even though it was now of limited use to him. Interestingly, the zoning setback did not deter Rogers from investing in more beach property. Having once made a handsome profit on one particular piece of Santa Monica beachfront (which he sold to William Randolph Hearst for three times what he had paid so Hearst could expand the estate he had built for his mistress Marion Davies), Rogers later purchased a much larger parcel at the base of Temescal Canyon, which he saw as an investment in his family’s future, implying plans either for resale or eventual development. That anticipated transaction took place in 1940, in a land swap in which the Rogers family agreed to exchange their remaining beachfront property for a piece of land in downtown L.A. Sand for cement? What kind of real estate deal is that? ‘Well, as it turns out, a good one,’ said Young, who is currently writing a book on Will Rogers. ‘The family had the building they were given by the state, which was opposite City Hall on Flower Street, torn down and turned into a parking lot, providing much-needed cash for the estate. They sold the lot in the ’60s for a sizable profit. Will Rogers himself called real estate ‘the greatest game I ever saw. You can’t lose.’ Well, he turned out to be right on this one.’

As its third offering, the inaugural Movies in the Park series will feature ‘Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark’ this Saturday, August 7, on the grass outfield at the Palisades Recreation Center, 861 Alma Real. Admission is free. Under the blue moon, more than 600 people of all ages came to see ‘Grease’ last Saturday night, about 200 more than had seen ‘E.T.’ the week before. ‘It was amazing how many people knew the ‘Grease’ songs,’ said Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Arnie Wishnick. ‘About half the audience sang along and applauded at the end of each song. We’re projecting another happy crowd this week.’ He continued, ‘It was a wonderful feeling; people were arriving quite early this time, having a picnic on the Field of Dreams, kids playing Frisbee, fathers playing baseball with their kids. The Boy Scouts sold candy and soda and David Gadelha, the park’s new senior director, helped hand out 250 free hot dogs.’ ‘We thought it was such a good event, we wanted to lend some support,’ said Gadelha, who barbecued hot dogs along with his staff. ‘We wanted to let people know what activities we have in the fall. Families are coming to the park on a Saturday night who have never been here before. I think it’s a great event, unique in Los Angeles. I think it’s something other parks can emulate in other parts of the city.’ Movies on the 15-by-20-foot screen start at dusk, with seating on the grass beginning at 7 p.m. Bring your own picnic and blankets, but please no chairs with stick legs. And no alcohol. Snacks and drinks will be sold by the Boy Scouts and the park will again provide hot dogs. Wear warm clothing. In ‘Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark,’ renowned archeologist Dr. Indiana Jones is hired by the U. S. government to find the Art of the Covenant, which is believed to hold the Ten Commandments. Unfortunately, the Nazis are also after the Ark. There are fist fights, gasoline explosions, runaway trucks, runaway planes and snakes’lots of snakes’in a film that travels from Africa to Nepal to Egypt. It stars Harrison Ford as the fearless Indiana and Karen Allen as tough gal Marian, Indy’s main squeeze. Also look for Alfred Molina (Dr. Octopus in ‘Spider-Man 2’). The movie is directed by Steven Spielberg, with story by George Lucas and Philip Kaufman, screenplay by Lawrence Kasdan and music by John Williams. The last film in the series will be ‘The Wizard of Oz’ on August 14. ”The Wizard of Oz” will be a great singalong,’ Wishnick predicted. ‘We’re expecting a big crowd of 1,000-plus to end this season. ‘We had six speakers this time in order to cut down on the noise, once again trying to please our neighbors,’ Wishnick added. As the evening ended, people left the park under the full moon, carrying blankets, food baskets and sleeping children. ‘It’s all about being under the stars, being with friends and having a good time,’ said Palisadian Corrine Bourdeau, who attended along with her husband Andy Koski, daughters Dominique, 7, and Michaela, 2, and three other couples and their kids. ‘We planned an evening around it. It’s an easy way to get together with people, and the movies have been great.’ Families had already arrived for their picnics when Movies in the Park committee members Bob Sharka, Andy Frew and John Wirth came to set up around 5 p.m. ‘They have been working hard setting up the screen and sound system,’ said Wishnick. ‘Mike Skinner was out there again helping along with David Gadelha from the park.’ Chamber President David Williams is committe chairman. The Chamber bought the screen for $7,000 and the sound system for $5,000; the projector belongs to Friends of Film, a Palisades organization. The event’s major sponsor is Wachovia Securities. Other sponsors are Friends of Film, American Legion Post 283 and the Palisades Junior Women’s Club. Helping to make the evening safe is Palisades Patrol, while Chrysalis cleans the park afterwards. Committemember Roberta Donohue rented ‘Grease’ and ‘Indiana Jones’ through Paramount Pictures, who waived all fees, and only asked the committee to show several trailers for upcoming films. Movies in the Park committee members chose this year’s movies, and community members can contact palisadeschamber@earthlink.net or 459-7963 with ideas for films to see next summer.

Used to be if you wanted to prepare Jamaican Jerk Chicken for dinner, you’d make sure you had all your ingredients at the ready: chicken breasts, spices, onions, an orange, a lime and a nice hot habanero pepper. Making sure you had an hour to marinate the chicken meant you would start this recipe a couple of hours before you planned to sit down to eat. Today, you’d simply run over to Gelson’s and pick up a Classic Entree from the meat department. With the chicken already marinated, all you’d need to do is fire up the grill. Ready-to-go foods distinguish the Gelson’s of 2004 from the store that opened here in the Palisades 25 years ago, and will celebrate the event this Saturday. (See story, page 1.) The service deli, which amounts to between 17 and 20 percent of total store sales, offers a wide selection of hot and cold dishes for the shoppers who are not cooking. ‘More and more we are catering to the consumer who is tired of coming home and preparing a meal,’ says store manager Ray Stockton. He knows his customers pretty well, having worked at the Palisades location for the past nine years. Comparing the typical Palisades customer to others, Stockton, who has 32 years with the company at many different locations, is a committed fan. ‘Palisades customers are genuine, easy to talk to and to help. They are not trying to say ‘look at me’ because they are established, grounded.’ Between 2,000 and 3,000 customer transactions occur daily, according to Stockton, whose main challenge over the years has been accommodating their parking needs. ‘The parking lot is too small for what we need it for,’ says Stockton, adding that he understands that he shares customers with other businesses so he tries to oblige those who park in Gelson’s while they run may an errand at the cleaners or pharmacy across the street. In his tenure, Stockton has seen the store add the Wolfgang Puck Pizza Express, remodel the deli service counter and move the liquor department into a gondola (aisle, in market jargon). Its former niche was replaced with a flower shop that not only sells individual stems and potted plants, but also assembles custom arrangements, which can be seen around the store, especially at the bakery. All but one of the 18 Gelson’s markets contract with Viktor Benes Continental Bakery, which is a very popular service, especially during the holidays. Holidays put the pressure on the meat department too, according to manager Jimmy Crenshaw, who says that Gelson’s sold 4,600 turkeys last Thanksgiving. In 24 years with the company, four in the Palisades, Crenshaw has seen the meat business move to a more customer-oriented operation, with $20,000 worth of packaged meat ready to sell on a daily basis. ‘ I think customers are eating more meat than I thought, especially because it’s all natural, no hormones and grain-fed,’ says Crenshaw. Filet and prime rib are the most popular cuts. Other frequent purchases are organic chicken and fish, especially wild salmon and Chilean seabass. Even though Crenshaw’s department may seem more streamlined than 25 years ago, the trade still follows the historic guild system. There are three categories of meat cutter: the meat clerk, who waits on customers and fills special requests; the apprentice, who is learning the trade; and the journeyman, who is a professional meat cutter. Organics have also swept the produce department, which according to manager Richard Brown continues to occupy more and more display area. ‘Organic fruits and vegetables have grown in the last five to seven years and occupy their own rack as well as being identified by their red labels at other locations,’ says Brown, referring to the lettuces, broccoli, tomatoes, peaches, bananas and apples. This summer has brought a surge of interest in organic heirloom tomatoes, those odd-shaped, tasty specimens that come in colors from yellow to purple. Responding to customer wishes is what Brown and his staff of 20 specialize in. ‘We developed the diamond-shaped display stations, with the prep work done inside, instead of in the back. This way we have more personnel on the floor to help customers.’ Much of the produce these days is packaged for easy storage and to maintain freshness, Brown says. ‘In the early days, most of the fruits and vegetables were stored loosely, like bunched grapes. But, then we started getting too many lawsuits because somebody had slipped and fallen on a squashed grape, so we packed them up.’ One entire section of the produce department is dedicated to individually packed cut fruit and vegetable portions, reflecting the ease and the number of smaller households. Still, the Palisades Gelson’s is located in a bedroom community, says Stockton, and is one of the chain’s top-selling markets.

A two-month project to restore the Clearwater Mural of the Palisades and to add a new section of the mural is under way on the north side of the Sav-on building on Swarthmore. Last Thursday, Palisades artist Terri Bromberg began inspecting and cleaning the mural that she completed in 1999. Assisted by Merry Ealy, the two are removing stickers, graffiti, and rubber and grease deposits left by skateboarders (who used the base of the mural to slide or ‘grind’ along). ‘The grinding scraped off the paint and caused significant damage to the base of the mural,’ said Stuart Muller, who conceived of the paroramic scene to serve as a backdrop to the Village Green, eliminate the urban blight that had been endemic to the area and create an open public space. ‘We installed anti-grinding devices several months ago, and they seem to have eliminated the grinding problem.’ After the mural is cleaned, the damaged areas will be repaired and a new anti-graffiti coating applied. Albertson’s/Sav-on is funding the anti-grinding devices, the paint and coating, supplies and the painter’s lift. In addition, the company will make lighting and other improvements to the area, according to Muller. The new mural section will provide a view towards Santa Monica Canyon, and will include the east end of Santa Monica Bay and the Ysidro Reyes Adobe (formerly near the intersection of Sunset and Chautauqua). This work, which Bromberg began Monday, has been funded by a grant from the Pacific Palisades Junior Women’s Club and an anonymous donor. The estimated cost of the entire project is $16,000 and ‘will totally drain our existing mural maintenance fund,’ said Muller, who represents this area of town on the Community Council. ‘Residents and business people can help insure the healthy future of this magnificent community asset,’ he said, by sending a donation to Palisades PRIDE (with the notation Clearwater Mural Maintenance Fund), 15330 Antioch, Pacific Palisades, CA 90272.

Mara Russell, a 1975 Palisades High School graduate, joined the Land O’Lakes Foundation in Arlington, Virginia, as Title II Institutional Capacity Building Manager in June. Having worked in food aid in the U.S. and overseas in Iraq, Somalia and Moscow, Russell is now managing a grant that supports food aid programs in Zambia. Russell says the objective of the USAID/Food for Peace grant is ‘to improve coping with food insecurity and using dairy as a coping mechanism.’ While Land O’Lakes has been involved in developing food aid programs since the early ’80s, Russell says, ‘this is different from what they’ve done in the past because we’re not just providing technical support, we’re working with people.’ For example, the program will be providing Zambians with dairy cows, or ‘food aid on legs.’ Having recently returned from a four-day trip to Zambia, Russell says ‘many people are caring for relatives and kids who don’t belong to them’ as a result of sickness or death in the family. Therefore, families receiving extra food rations would benefit from the livestock option, which could provide milk and an income for the family. Russell first became interested in Africa while attending UCLA, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in anthropology. Specifically intrigued by social organization and political anthropology done by Africanists, she attended a summer volunteer program called Operation Crossroads in Kenya, then went on to earn her master’s in anthropology from Columbia University. ‘Up until age 16, I wanted to be an actress,’ says Russell, but ‘I did a good job in U.S. history and went the social studies route.’ Originially from New York, she grew up in Detroit and Baltimore before moving to the Palisades with parents Claryce and David in 1974. Russell joined CARE (a humanitarian organization fighting global poverty) as an intern in 1986, performing administrative work before negotiating food aid programs. She helped initiate monetization programs with CARE, working in Honduras and the Dominican Republic, then became deputy and acting director in the old Food Unit in New York. Russell’s desire to go back overseas took her to northern Iraq in 1991, after the first Gulf War, where she worked in a three-month food distribution program. Stationed in Zacho, near the Turkish border, she helped provide food rations for people coming over the border into Iraq. She was amazed that some of the food she distributed included pate and Belgian chocolate. ‘We were not recognized by the Iraqi government,’ she says. ‘We didn’t get visas in Baghdad.’ However, in comparison to the recent Iraq war, Russell says, ‘aid came in from all over the place’it was a broad coalition, a joint initiative.’ Another difference Russell sees is that when she was working in Iraq in ’91, ‘there was a real partnership between the NGOs and the military…the military knew when to take their hands off. My concern [now] is that the military is in charge and sometimes their approach is not as appropriate as it could be. We’re draining resources that could be used in more appropriate ways.’ At the end of 1991, Russell went to Mogadishu, Somalia, where there was no social framework and a lot of civil strife. ‘It was the first war zone I’d been in and I was terrified most of the time,’ says Russell, who had to evacuate to Nairobi three or four times in the six weeks she was there. ‘It was a crapshoot whether [food] distribution would be successful on any given day.’ Now, Russell says, ‘work has been done to manage and secure situations [in countries] where aid is required, but it is still a very inexact science.’ Having known aid workers who were killed, she admits that some of the work she has done is ‘not for the faint-hearted and people who have nervous reactions to gunfire.’ Though Russell had never anticipated working in a war zone, she says, ‘I wanted to try it out and see what it was like…I did my best, it just didn’t suit me.’ She chose to go on to Russia in 1992, and worked in Moscow as distributing food manager for a couple years. She also wrote a proposal for food coming into Armenia after visiting the area of the 1988 earthquake. ‘It had been four years [since the earthquake] and nothing had been fixed at the epicenter,’ Russell says. ‘Everything was the same’the housing complex where people had died and the clock still on the time of the earthquake. People were living in big water pipes even in cold weather.’ Russell rejoined CARE in 1999, and worked as coordinator for Food Aid Management (FAM), the 16-member PVO consortium that programs USAID/FFP Title II food resources. FAM is a USAID/FFP-supported project, and CARE has served as the project holder for the consortium since FAM’s inception more than 15 years ago. (The FAM project will end September 15.) As FAM coordinator, Russell and her staff had the responsibility of coordinating/facilitating with FAM consortium members the implementation of strategies and activities related to improving and strengthening the Title II programs. ‘Mara [did] a remarkable job bringing together managers and staff from 17 disparate organizations to accomplish FAM’s work,’ said Bob Bell, Food Resource Director, on June 4, her last day of work. Having worked in food aid for almost two decades, Russell believes people ‘need to recognize more clearly that needs are changing constantly. There’s a growing recognition that there’s no such thing as a steady state’things improve and then get worse again. In some ways, what’s really challenging is the degree of resilience to which we’re able to respond to food emergencies, different kinds of disasters, droughts and civil strife.’ She says the main focus becomes, ‘How can we best develop systems to respond better and provide [these countries needing food aid] with the capacity to deal with these problems themselves.’ Mara Russell currently resides in Bethesda with her 10-year-old daughter, Rebecca.