Holiday Ho!Ho!Ho! will be held for 55th year tomorrow, December 3, from 4:30 to 8:30 p.m., sponsored by the Pacific Palisades Chamber of Commerce. Santa will begin his VIP ride, escorted by the LAPD, from Fire Station 69 (Sunset and Carey) to Swarthmore at 5 p.m. He’ll be joined by Mrs. Claus, this year’s Miss Palisades Gilli Messer, Mr. Palisades Riley Karp and Buddy the Dalmatian. Children can visit with Santa on his sled on Swarthmore (north of Sunset) and receive a holiday toy compliments of the Palisades Chamber of Commerce. Please note: Santa must leave Swarthmore at 8 p.m. sharp in order to return to the North Pole. There will be festive entertainment for the entire family provided by the Oom PaPa Band (4:30 p.m.), D&T Studio (5:30 p.m.), the Methodist Church Children’s Choir (6 p.m.), Fancy Feet (6:30 p.m.) and the Marquez School Jazz Band, which will make its debut appearance at 7 p.m. Led by bandleader Dane Calcote, the crossing guard at Marquez, the Marquez band will perform Christmas tunes with a jazzy touch. The six student members include Casey on drums, Leo on bass, Louis and Stedman on trumpet, and Myles and Teddy on clarinet. Their sponsor is A2Z Educational Advocates. Remember how successful Movies in the Park was this past summer? That same big screen will be set up on Swarthmore and will show cartoons continuously until 8 p.m., thanks to Bob Sharka at Friends of Film. Sponsoring the cartoons are Boca Man and Boca Woman; Brentwood Art Center; Ivy Greene for Kids; A Rental Connection; and Swarthmore Merchants. Other attractions and sponsors: Balloon Lady (Michael Edlen of Coldwell Banker and Modo Mio Restaurante) and Face Painter (Coldwell Banker and June Sebree of Prudential California Realty/John Aaroe). Palisades- Malibu YMCA will supply and coordinate the Christmas trees that surround Santa. Helping to pay for the tree and sleigh decorations: Teraine; Mila Skin Care; Milestones; Kay n’ Dave’s Cantina; The Nest Egg; Pepperdine University Athletics; Imperial Awards; and Marcella Jennings. Paying for Santa’s traveling expenses are Sharon & Victoria Schammel and John Wild, all three from Coldwell Banker. For the eighth consecutive year, Tim Marschall and his team at TMC General Contractors will assemble the sleigh. Tim and his construction management team constructed the sleigh years ago and store it each year. Free hot chocolate will again be offered courtesy of Bobbie Farberow of Mort’s Palisades Deli. Danny of Village Photo & Digital Imaging will set-up a photo booth to take old-fashioned pictures of the children. Publicity pictures will be taken by Marianne Ullerich of Photography by Marianne. Santa needs helpers. Please call the Elf Hotline at 459-7963.
Impromptu Maternity Ward at Station 69
Photo by Rich Schmitt, Staff Photographer
By BILL HOBIN Special to the Palisadian-Post My good friend Ram Miller, a Palisades resident and happy father of two young boys, Jake and Cole, was sound asleep early Monday morning, November 22, when Carolyn, his past-due pregnant wife, awoke to find her water had broken. Casually and calmly, she tapped her husband on the shoulder and mentioned that she would gather her things and take a shower, while he should call her doctor and notify her that the couple would be coming to the hospital in a few hours for a delivery. Since Carolyn was previously scheduled for an early Monday morning epidural and inducement, the Miller family thought they were well ready for the arrival of their new child. Little did they know that all hell would soon break loose when ‘Baby Gigi’ decided she was coming out, and coming out now. Only three minutes after Carolyn told Ram that she would start getting her things ready, she suddenly cried out, ‘It’s coming! It’s coming!’ Ram sprung from his bed and raced around the house, threw on his clothes and tried to help his pregnant wife to the car. Now bent over and screaming, Carolyn could barely walk. Ram did his best to carry her without adding further pain and hoisted her into the front seat of his Suburban, all the while she was screeching out at the top of her lungs. They raced down Via de la Paz from the home they are renting, towards the hospital. Like many other homes in Pacific Palisades, their permanent house on Embury Street is under construction, being built by Ram’s construction company, Miller Construction. They turned right on Sunset at approximately 1:35 a.m. and Ram gunned the car eastbound, headed for the hospital. Frantically, Ram tried to dial the doctor on his cell phone, while Carolyn screamed ‘Ram! Ram, the baby is here NOW!’ Knowing he would not make it all the way to St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica, Ram decided to pull into Fire Station 69 for emergency help. With the horn blowing he raced into the alley and came to a screeching stop behind the fire station. He jumped out of the car and screamed for help: ‘Firemen! Firemen!’ He banged on the back door and yelled ‘Help’my wife is having a baby!’ The station was dark. No light could be seen or any movement within the station. Carolyn was in full labor. No doctor. No warm hospital bed. No medications to help with the pain. It was the middle of the night, in the alley behind the station and alone, with her husband running around trying to awake those inside. Her screams became louder as the pain intensified. Ram ran around the station to the front door, where he found the red house phone and dialed 911. When someone came on the line, Ram yelled ‘We’re having a baby in your driveway!’ A half-asleep respondent set off the internal alarms that woke the firemen, while Ram ran back to rejoin his wife. In what seemed like an hour, he had been gone all of two minutes. When he returned to the car, the back door to the station rolled up and three men were dressed for action and ready to deal with the commotion that pulled them from their bunks. Paramedic John Keys stepped forth, and upon investigation was staring face to face with baby Gigi’s head. He calmly told Carolyn to relax as he proceeded to untangle the umbilical cord from around the baby’s neck and delivered the baby girl in the front seat of Ram’s car. Within one minute the baby was out naked in the 55-degree weather. Like ‘The Old Man and the Sea,’ Keys pulled out his pocket knife, cut the umbilical cord and handed the baby off to one of his assistants. The other firemen quickly wrapped her in blankets and raced new mom and child off to the hospital with proud papa following behind in what was known as the family car and now the birthplace of their daughter, Gigi Miller. About 15 minutes after their arrival, the beautiful 8-lb. baby girl was washed, warmed up, and happily cuddling in a hospital bed next to her mother. This week, Carolyn and Ram Miller met the firemen of Station 69 and gave them all a big hug for their heroic efforts and calming nature in what was a very traumatic moment. (Editor’s note: The fireman in charge of the evening shift was Capt. Robert Espinosa. Those playing assistant nursing roles to paramedic John Keys were firemen Mark Tostado and Bill Hertz and paramedic Gary Johnson. Ram Miller held his wife’s head up as she was lying across the front seat of their Suburban. Author Bill Hobin is president of The William Warren Group, a Santa Monica based self-storage development and operations company. After living in Pacific Palisades for seven years, he now resides in Malibu with his wife and three children. The family members are close personal friends of the Miller family.)
Edmiston Vows: ‘No Oil Wells’ Ever In Temescal
Residents need not panic that oil drilling might one day come to Temescal Canyon, Joe Edmiston assured Temescal Canyon Association members Monday night at their annual meeting in the canyon’s historic dining hall. ‘People have been going around town saying, ‘They’re going to put oil wells in Temescal,’ Edmiston said, referring to critics of the Palisades-Malibu YMCA’s efforts to acquire the 3.9-acre parcel they currently lease at the corner of Sunset and Temescal Canyon Rd. ‘Well, the YMCA doesn’t own mineral rights. The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy owns the mineral rights. So there will never be an oil well there, okay?’ Edmiston, a resident of Pacific Palisades, is executive director of the Conservancy. When TCA board member Maria Bane asked him how the community can be assured that these mineral rights are granted to the Conservancy and will never wind up with the YMCA or an oil company, he said: ‘Find yourself a good title lawyer. It’s in the title report [for Temescal Gateway Park]. Reading the title report is a challenging endeavor, so appoint somebody you trust and they’ll find that the mineral rights are specifically reserved to the Conservancy. In fact, that’s a policy throughout the state.’ Edmiston added, ‘The SMC board specifically made it a condition that mineral rights will be reserved’ in negotiating the YMCA’s lot-split application with the City of Los Angeles. This application to acquire the Pumpkin Patch/Christmas tree property is currently under appeal by opponents within the Palisades (including members of the Temescal Canyon Association) and must also work its way through the Coastal Commission. ‘The YMCA doesn’t want the mineral rights; they want to stay as far away from that issue as possible,’ Edmiston said. ‘So let’s put that issue to bed.’ He also praised Mark Elswick, the local Y’s executive director. ‘I have to say, I like Mark Elswick a lot; he’s a straight-shooting kind of guy and he wants to get along with the community. I think he also understands what it takes for the Y to get along with the community.’ Referring to the YMCA’s 10-year, no-build agreement on the option property (once it has been acquired), Edmiston said: ‘I hope that if there is a need to improve the swimming facility, that they don’t consider moving it anywhere else. Just leave it where it is. Don’t threaten a giant commotion in the community by saying we’re going to build a new swimming facility or athletic facility. Moving on to other Temescal issues, Edmiston praised the work of Joyce Whitehead, the Conference Center Coordinator, who he deemed ‘the brightest part of our vision for where the Conservancy is going with our property.’ He continued: ‘Our vision has been to restore, historically as much as we can, the feeling of this wonderful canyon, and to have it be used as much as possible, consistent with the idea that we are custodians of a wonderful natural resource. The restorations that we’ve done here’the dining hall, the dormitory buildings, various other things’have been consistent with that theme. But one thing that we have not done is take a look at the restoration of the natural environment here as opposed to the historical environment. ‘So our major new initiative for Temescal Canyon is going to be an Urban Streams Restoration Grant from the Department of Water Resources, added to by Prop 40 and Prop 50 money which the Conservancy already has, in order to have this be a natural gem of the mountains. This will mean (1) gradually taking away some of the eucalyptus’not of all it, since eucalyptus has historically been here’and introducing more sycamores, (2) making the stream more of a natural channel, and (3) removing the arundo and cape ivy.’ Edmiston also called on TCA members to spread the word and use peer pressure to bring about better enforcement of the regulations within Temescal Canyon. ‘We’ve done a safety study here and the bad news is that this canyon was never designed to have the number of people that are here, and never designed to have the kinds of vehicles that we now have, speeding along the canyon. The good news is, if we can keep everybody at 15 miles an hour, if they stop at the stop signs and don’t think because they’re in a park area that the vehicle code doesn’t apply’we may be able to make it without killing somebody in this canyon.’ The second major issue revolved, of course, around dogs’especially dogs that are allowed to run off-leash along the trails, which is illegal. ‘When a dog jumps up on an elderly couple, they don’t know if the dog is friendly or not. So what we need are trail users who warn people: ‘Keep your dog down low in the canyon; don’t have your dog up on top of the trails.”
Kickers Aim for City Title
When asked if she thought her team could win the Western League this season, Palisades High varsity soccer player Alex Michael had a loftier goal in mind. The Dolphins’ senior captain smiled and replied: ‘We want to go all the way!’ And there is plenty of reason to be optimistic. Equipped with skill and depth at every position, Palisades seems primed for a serious run at the City Section championship under second-year coach Kim Smith. Along with fellow captains Tia Lebherz and Kirsten Schluter, Michael leads a talented squad that includes returning forwards Lucy Miller, Sara Newman and Teal Foster and a solid defense headed by senior Diana Grubb, sophomore Sarah McNees and freshman Jazmyn Anderson. Freshmen Kelly Mickel and Evanne Gordon will contribute at forward and in the midfield. Schluter is charged with the task of replacing four-year starting goalie Laura Bailey. ‘I’m looking forward to it,’ Schluter said. ‘That’s where the team needs me right now so I’ll do the best I can.’ Joining Michael in the midfield will be senior Jennifer Wong and junior Danielle Rochlin. ‘We have really good chemistry this season,’ said Michael, who teamed with Miller on the Westside Breakers’ under-17 gold squad in the summer. ‘We all get along great, we have more size and speed and our offense is stronger.’ Palisades opens the season at Marymount High today at 3:15 and plays a first-round game in the El Segundo Tournament Friday night. Next Tuesday, the Dolphins travel to Chatsworth for a nonleague rematch against the team that eliminated them from the playoffs last season. ‘I think we’ll be a pretty balanced team,’ said Grubb, who was the starting setter for the varsity volleyball team, which lost in the second round of the City playoffs in the fall. ‘We have good players all the way around. I hope we can do better than volleyball did.’ The Dolphins open Western League play January 12 at Westchester.
Scoring is Primary Goal
With a lineup chock full of gifted scorers, the Palisades High boys’ varsity soccer team figures to score plenty of goals this season. For the first time in years, head coach Dave Williams has true offensive players to complement a traditionally strong midfield and he hopes that combination will lead to victory when the Dolphins travel to Cleveland for their season opener at 2:30 this afternoon. ‘I think this team has some legitimate scorers and the key will be how well we can get them the ball,’ Williams said after practice Tuesday. ‘I like what I’ve seen so far but we’ll find out more on Thursday. It’s one thing to play well in practice… now let’s see how we look in a game situation.’ Lack of conditioning was a problem last year when the Dolphins were outplayed numerous times in the second half. To correct that problem, Williams has had his team run three days a week since school started to build their endurance. ‘We worked with the ball two days a week and ran three days a week,’ Williams said. ‘They started at two miles a day and worked up from there. I don’t want them getting tired late in games.’ Though the Dolphins lost several key players to graduation, including top scorer Kevin Seto, it returns senior midfielder Michael Larin, who will be the captain this season. Other key returners include junior midfielder Ben Tom, junior sweeper Brock Auerbach-Lynn, senior midfielder Fabio Gonzalez and junior midfielder Ever Barrios. Sophomore Travis Park and junior Rudy Romero will share the goaltending duties. ‘We’re pretty strong at every position,’ said junior midfielder Francesco Coco. Added Tom: ‘We’re stronger than last year. Everyone has progressed and the new players we have are fitting in well.’ Larin said the key will be how well the team sticks together: ‘I’m looking forward to the season. We have a strong offense and a solid defense but in order to play well we need to work as a team.’ Palisades beat Cleveland, 1-0, last season and Williams is hoping for a similar result today but perhaps with a few more goals. ‘Our defense is young but we’ll see how it holds up. The main problem I see in scrimmages is that we need to communicate better out there.’ After Palisades hosts Reseda next Tuesday it won’t play again until after winter break when it hosts Westchester to start Western League play January 12. The Dolphins finished 5-6-3 last season and lost in the first round of the City Playoffs for the 11th time in 12 years.
Taking Their Shots
With one of his most experienced teams in years, Palisades High boys varsity basketball coach James Paleno had high hopes of challenging perennial powers Westchester and Fairfax for the the Western League title. But leading scorer D’Andre Bell was diagnosed with a stress fracture in his right foot over the summer, meaning the rest of the Dolphins may have to play a tough preseason schedule without him. Bell, a 6-5 senior forward who averaged 25.5 points, 11.9 rebounds and 6.2 assists last season, was heavily recruited by UCLA, Michigan State, Georgetown and Arizona before deciding to sign with Georgia Tech. ‘D’Andre had an MRI exam last Wednesday and we’re still awaiting the results from his doctor,’ Paleno said. ‘I’m guessing he won’t be able to play for at least two or three weeks but that just means the other guys are going to have to step it up a notch.’ Palisades’ lineup consists of nine seniors, including four-year starting point guard Corey Counts and 6-5 returning forward Carl Robertson. Fresh off the varsity football team, 6-5 forward Justin Page will be a presence in the paint while the team’s lone freshman, Drake Stewart-Crowley, has impressed the coaching staff in practice. Paleno’s assistant coaches will be Mike Sutton, Mike Teller and Olin Simpliss, an All-City player for the Dolphins in 1992-93. Despite missing 20 free throws, Palisades opened the season with a 66-60 overtime victory over Narbonne Monday in the first round of the Pacific Shores Tournament at Redondo Union High. The Dolphins played Long Beach Jordan yesterday but results were unavailable at press time. ‘We’re going to have to play hard without D’Andre,’ Counts said. ‘We need to do all the little things right, rebound, and play scrappy defense. If we do those things, we’ll be fine.’ Counts scored 19 points in the opener while Cassidy Nelson added 15’including the first eight points of the game. Crowley started and contributed seven points and five steals. Forwards Vertis Hayes (a 6-5 junior), Charles Bowles (a 6-5 senior) and Peter Schroeder (a 6-4 senior) add size and depth to the lineup while sophomore Brian Barner, junior Justin Goodman and senior Jared Cooper will rotate at guard. ‘Last year I think we relied a little too much on D’Andre,’ Paleno said. ‘This year I’ve gone back to an aberration of the triangle offense that [former coach Jerry Marvin] used to run. We’ll spread the floor a little more which will hopefully allow us to take advantage of our mismatches.’ Palisades travels to Washington, the 12th-ranked team in the state, for a nonleague game next Wednesday, then plays in the Top of the World Tournament December 17-21 against quality competition like Compton Centennial, Compton Dominguez, Lynwood and Woodland Hills Taft. ‘Our rebounding needs a little work, but I like the resiliency of this group and I think we have good chemistry,’ Paleno said. ‘Hopefully, not having D’Andre out there will give the rest of the guys more minutes so that when he does come back, we’ll be that much better.’ Palisades opens Western League play January 12 at Westchester.
New Hoops Regime
With a trio of new coaches and a dozen new players, the Palisades High girls basketball program is off to a fresh start. The sister-brother tandem of Ronda and Sheldon Crowley are heading the varsity and junior varsity squads while Torino Johnson is coaching the frosh/soph squad, which was absent last year under former coach Kevin Hall. To prepare for the season, Palisades’ varsity team participated in a fall league at Santa Monica College and psoted an 8-2 record, losing close games to Venice and Santa Monica while beating the likes of St. Monica, Torrance and Malibu. ‘If the girls perform like I believe they can, we should finish first or second in league,’ Sheldon Crowley said. I expect us to be a well-balanced team that is able to run, able to shoot and able to hit the outside shot. And I think we’re capable of scoring well over 40 points a game, but that remains to be seen.’ The Dolphins are hosting the Palisades Beach Invitational this week at the PaliHi gym. They played St. Bernard in the first round of pool play Wednesday night, they play Inglewood tonight at 6 p.m. and they play New Roads Friday at 7:30 p.m. The final round will be on Saturday. Leading Palisades will be senior forward Jasmine English, junior center Lupe Maciel, junior guard/forward Megan Coulter, sophomore guard/forward Elane Roepke, junior forward Tylisha Trapp and junior guard/forward Zedra Slaton. Palisades hosts Washington in a nonleague game at 4 p.m. next Tuesday and travels to Woodland Hills Taft for a nonleague game Thursday. The Dolphins are scheduled to play in two tournaments over winter break, the Tournament of Champions in Chandler, Arizona, December 19-23 and the West Coast Jamboree in Antioch, California, December 26-30. While the varsity team is hosting its own tournament, the Pali junior varsity team is participating in the Washington High JV Shootout against Washington, Carson, Compton Centennial, Venice, South Gate and Jordan.
McArthur Catching on at Cal
Ex-Palisades Star Becomes Golden Bears’ All-Time Receptions Leader
If given a dollar for every defender he has faked out since he first put on pads, Geoff McArthur would be rich by now. Although he has yet to make a dime playing the sport he loves, it may only be a matter of time before he’s earning millions in the National Football League. Whether or not that happens, McArthur can be proud of what he has accomplished up to now. On November 20, the senior wide receiver became the career receptions leader at the University of California, Berkeley. Five years ago, he set the same record at Palisades High. “Choosing Cal is the best decision I ever made,” said McArthur, who first opted for Oregon State but changed his mind when the Beavers asked him to red shirt. “But choosing Palisades is a close second. I had a great time there and it really prepared me for the next level.” Cal’s senior captain could not have asked for a better stage to make his record-breaking catch than a nationally-televised game against Bay Area rival Stanford, and when McArthur snared a three-yard pass in the fourth quarter to move past Dameane Douglas (1995-98) on the Golden Bears’ all-time list with his 196th reception, no one was happier than Cal head coach Jeff Tedford. “It’s a great accomplishment for Geoff and he really earned it,” Tedford says. “He’s our captain, he’s our leader and he’s been a big part of the success we’ve enjoyed this season.” McArthur turned 22 on Tuesday but he received a surprise birthday present the day before when he was named to the Pacific 10 Conference first team, an honor he claims he was not expecting but felt honored to accept. More important to him than personal milestones, however, is the success of his team. If the fourth-ranked Golden Bears (9-1) beat Southern Mississippi in their season finale Saturday, they will likely play in their first Rose Bowl since 1959. “This next game is huge,” McArthur says. “It’s definitely the biggest of my career so far because there’s so much riding on the outcome. But that’s what makes it fun.” McArthur, a Heisman Trophy candidate when the season began, has played hurt without complaint for the last month and that’s nothing new for him. In fact, the two games he remembers most from his days at Palisades were in the playoffs his senior year in which he played with two broken ribs. “The first one was in the first round against Locke when I scored the game-winning touchdown in the final seconds,” McArthur recalls. “But I broke my ribs during that game and had to go to the hospital. I remember it hurt so bad that I couldn’t breathe but there was no way I was coming out.” Then, in the quarterfinals against Chatsworth, McArthur made one of the most spectacular plays of his high school career when he broke eight tackles on his way to the end zone. “That was pretty special,” he says. “I still remember it like it was yesterday.” McArthur led the nation with 1,779 receiving yards, 91 catches and 28 touchdowns his senior year at PaliHi and won the Palisadian-Post Cup Award as the school’s outstanding athlete after setting the Dolphins’ all-time receptions record. Always modest, McArthur credits his success to the quarterbacks he’s played with and he sees both similarities and differences between Cal’s Aaron Rodgers and former PaliHi signal-caller David Koral, who now backs up Drew Olson at UCLA. In 1999, McArthur and Koral led one of the most prolific prep offenses in the state. “Dave is more of a long-armed guy whereas I’d say Aaron has a quicker release and likes the shorter passes,” McArthur explains. “But they are both phenomenal quarterbacks and I’m glad I’ve had those two guys throwing me the ball.” McArthur learned a valuable lesson at the start of his sophomore season at Cal. He was so upset with himself after what he felt was a subpar performance in the season opener that he punched through a glass window, lacerating his tricep muscle. The wound required 35 stitches and sidelined him for the year. The Golden Bears finished 1-10 and the incident matured McArthur quickly. He vowed never to let his emotions get the best of him again. “I felt terrible about it,” McArthur says now. “I felt like I let the team down. I should’ve been playing but I wasn’t. When I found out I’d be okay, I was determined to make up for it. I owed that to my teammates.” McArthur responded with two productive seasons in which Cal vaulted from a pretender to a serious contender in the Pacific 10. McArthur was the nation’s second-leading receiver last year behind Larry Fitzgerald of Pittsburgh. In addition to his receiving prowess, McArthur is reputed to be one of the best blocking wideouts in college football. The player who once terrorized secondaries at Stadium by the Sea is doing the same thing now in Strawberry Canyon. “You would almost rather see Geoff catch the ball than block for a teammate because at least you know where he is,” says former PaliHi receiver Greig Carlson, a punt returner for USC who, ironically, shares an apartment in Westwood with Koral. “He hits like a linebacker. He also runs the most precise patterns of any receiver.” McArthur will graduate in May with a degree in social welfare and no one is more proud of his academic accomplishments than Ron Price, Palisades’ head coach from 1996-2000. “I’m absolutely elated for Geoff and I’m happy that he’s getting his degree because that’s quite an accomplishment at a school that stresses academics,” says Price, who graduated from Cal himself in 1960. “I’ve coached football for 41 years and he’s one of the toughest players I ever had–and he has the bumps and bruises to prove it. He came along at the right place, at the right time, and in the right offense and he flourished in the spread formations we ran.” Waiting beyond graduation is rigorous training, followed by combines and the NFL draft. But McArthur is careful not to look too far into the future: “I’ve learned to take things a day at a time and always work as hard as I can. That way, no matter what happens I can say I gave it my best.” So far, his best has been more than enough.
Dr. Robert Rodman, 70, Psychoanalyst and Author
Dr. Robert Rodman, M.D., a 36-year resident of Pacific Palisades, noted author and scholar, died on November 15 in Santa Monica. He was 70. ”Born in Boston on February 3, 1934, Rodman graduated from Harvard, attended medical school at Boston University and completed his residency at UCLA. ”He served as a captain in the army from 1966 through 1968, stationed at Fort Lewis, Washington. ”Rodman trained at the Los Angeles Psychoanalytic Society and Institute and remained a member of the faculty. Throughout his career, he practiced in Beverly Hills. An accomplished author, he also published many papers and lectured internationally. ”In his leisure time, he was a runner and enjoyed painting and writing. He was also a voracious reader. In the last few years, he and his family were involved in raising money for Tibetan refugees, and offered their Palisades home to Tibetan monks visiting Los Angeles. ”Dr. Rodman is survived by his wife Katherine and seven loving children: Greg Pynn of Santa Barbara, Ingrid Rodman-Holmes of Sweden, Simone Rodman of Los Angeles, Christian de Oliveira of Australia, Angela de Oliveira of Venice, and Sarah Rodman and Nick Rodman of the Palisades. His two grandchildren are Jonathan and Daniel Holmes of Sweden. ”In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made in Dr. Rodman’s name to The Lucy Daniels Foundation, 9001 Weston Parkway, Cary, NC 27513-2201.
Jerry Stell, 76; A Humanitarian
Longtime Palisadian and humanitarian Jerome (Jerry) David Stell, beloved husband of Carol Anne Stell, passed away on November 8. He was 76. ”Born in Little Rock, Arkansas, on July 25, 1928, Stell graduated from both the University of Iowa and the College of Puget Sound in Tacoma. He became an ordained minister within the American Baptist Association and spoke throughout the country, giving a speech titled ‘I Am a Graduate of Central High School in Little Rock.’ His speech was considered a ‘new theory’ concerning prejudice and segregation. He was quoted as saying, ‘People must come to realize that prejudice is a blindness, an attitude that prevents them from accurately evaluating their fellow men.’ This in a time in the South where segregation was still the norm. ”After moving to Pacific Palisades in the mid-1960s, Stell created a trash-hauling business called Jerry Stell Industries. His company slogan was ‘Call Today, Haul Today,’ and his little advertisement had a permanent place in the Palisadian-Post. ”In a 2001 feature story, writer Laurel Busby described Stell’s humanitarian efforts to clean up Pacific Coast Highway between the Palisades and Santa Monica. He gave out-of-work people a large plastic garbage bag and paid them $10 when they filled the bag with trash from along the highway. In his business, Stell tried to recycle as much of his haul as possible by donating furniture and clothing to whomever was in need. ”Stell was often seen riding at the end of the Fourth of July parade on his motorcycle with Boots, his faithful canine companion. He was always in high spirits and never let anyone or anything get him down. He will always be remembered as the man who did it his way. He wouldn’t have it any other way. ”He is survived by his wife of 38 years, Carol, and their two daughters, Juliet of Pacific Palisades and Cindy of Toronto, both of whom graduated from Palisades High.
