Community activism rarely takes a summer hiatus in Pacific Palisades, as reflected by the agenda for next Thursday’s Community Council meeting beginning at 7 p.m. in the Palisades Branch Library community room, 861 Alma Real. The public is invited to participate in the following discussions, as arranged by chairman Norman Kulla and fellow board members. 1. Paul McGlothlin, founding director of the new Renaissance Academy, will talk about his high school’s mission, faculty and enrollment prospects. He will also address community concerns about traffic and parking impacts on Alma Real and neighboring streets. The school (grades 9-12) will open September 9 at 9 a.m. in the 881 Alma Real building and is anticipating upwards of 300 students. (See story below.) 2. Kulla will given an update about the proposed creation of a preferential parking district for neighborhoods bordering the Palisades Recreation Center and the Village business district. The issue was discussed at the July 22 meeting. 3. Verizon representives will give a brief PowerPoint describing their proposal to have Pacific Palisades serve as an early ‘test community’ as Verizon begins to replace all its copper wiring with high-speed fiber optics in a $40-50 billion national project. ‘Huntington Beach is already aboard and they’re also talking with Malibu and Topanga Canyon,’ Kulla said. ‘Verizon wants the community to invite this buildout, subject to their agreeing to abide by community concerns.’ 4. Council member Patti Post and resident Steve Lantz will discuss the threatened cancellation of Commuter Express Route 430 between Pacific Palisades and downtown L.A., the Department of Transportation’s August 11 hearing on the matter, and proposed follow-up action. 5. Chamber of Commerce representatives will evaluate their inaugural four-week Movies in the Park series (which concluded at the Palisades Recreation Center last Saturday) and respond to community input. 6. Dan Hackney, executive liaison to neighborhood councils for the L.A. Bureau of Sanitation, is expected to give an update on the polluted ‘mystery pond’ at PCH and Chautauqua, and will bring someone expert on the problem. 7. Area Representative Stuart Muller will report on his Car Wash Noise Committee, based on communications with Inspector Jay Paternostro (L.A. Department of Building and Safety, South Region Noise Abatement) and Palisades Gas and Wash operations manager John Zisk (USA Petroleum Corporation). 8. Kulla will update arson coordination between LAFD and LAPD regarding the Palisades Letter Shop dumpster fire that was set by vandals on June 4. 9. Charlene Baskin of Palisades Beautiful will announce a tree-trimming fundraising proposal. For more information about the Community Council, visit www.90272.org
Angels Attic Spends Six Figures for Mexican Antique Doll House
The real estate market on the Westside is hot. Multiple offers in this frenzied time drive the prices into the stratosphere for all properties, as Angels Attic founders Jackie McMahan and Eleanor LaVove discovered when they set their sights on a diminutive Mexican mansion. Eager to add the 7 1/2 ft. high and 6 ft. wide house to their collection, the two bought it at auction for a record-breaking $217,000 in June. For years the two women had known about and coveted the house. When LaVove was living in Mexico, she even went in search of the house upon which it was modeled. ‘I rented a driver and went out to see what I could find out,’ LaVove said. ‘ButI didn’t find a thing; everything is built behind walls.’ The small mansion, believed to be is a copy of a house which once stood in Puebla, was discovered in an antique shop in Puebla in the spring of 1977. Although the facade of the house has some Moorish features, it is French in flavor, a reflection of many full-sized mansions in Puebla and Mexico City built over the years after the arrival of the troops of Napoleon III in 1862. In 1922, the house was wired and redecorated, giving the interior some feeling of the 1920s. The Paige automobile in the driveway is, along with a pair of early radio towers, from this period. A friend of McMahon and LaVove who was closing her miniature museum in Washington, D. C., held the auction in June to sell all the contents of the museum, including the Puebla house. ‘We wanted it so badly we were determined to get it,’ LaVove said. ‘The competition was from people we knew, including Mary Harris Francis and Barbara Marshall, cofounders of the Toy and Miniature Museum in Kansas City. Mary bid against us, but quit when she saw that we really wanted it, and another phone bid didn’t go as high as we did.’ Fully furnished, the house contains a drawing room, dining room, kitchen, bedroom, bath, music room, and chapel. A section of the removable facade covers each of these. The interiors are furnished primarily with fruitwood tables and chairs. Of particular note is the carved master bedroom suite done in the European style set against French-style panel wallpaper in pale pistachio green and ivory. Typical of the ’90s, the house has German marble elaborate beadwork fringe. The house is generously accessorized with milk glass, soft metal and porcelain decorative art objects. The imaginative roof garden with aviary, gazebo, various bird houses and four-awninged art gallery lends tremendous animation to the facade as does the working exterior enclosed elevator that passes up through the three-story filigree stairwell. The house comes complete with six dolls dating from 1890-1920. ‘I think it’s a wonderful house and great fun. It’s very big for a little house,’ LaVove said. She and McMahon each kindled their passion for dolls and dollhouses as children.’While they have donated their collections to the museum, each stubbornly retains one favorite doll house at home. The museum, which opened 21 years ago in the distinctive blue Queen Anne-style home on Colorado, is the only repository for doll houses on the West Coast. It consists of seven rooms filled with not only doll houses and doll house furniture, but also mini collections of antique children’s toys, such as stoves, baby carriages, china and tea sets as well as antique dolls and porcelain doll heads. It was originally created to benefit autistic children and now has expanded to assist all children and seniors in need. The Puebla house has already moved into the pink gallery at Angels Attic where visitors can see it from 12:30 to 4:30 p.m. Thursday through Sunday. Contact: 394-8331.
Architect’s Fantasy Takes Shape
Once a week, Harry Newman travels from his Thousand Oaks home to lunch at Terri’s on Swarthmore. Now a familiar fixture at the restaurant, where he’s been dining for five years, the architect spends about 30 minutes eating and illustrating what he calls ‘architectural fantasies’ on Terri’s white paper tablecloths. ‘I saw the paper and crayons, and started doodling,’ says Newman, an Illinois native who moved to California in 1975 ‘because I loved the weather.’ In Chicago he had worked as an illustrator, doing full color renderings of architectural plans for various publications. Fluent in acrylic, watercolor, charcoal, pencil and ink, Newman says, ‘I hadn’t used crayons since I was 6 years old.’ He explains that ‘most people don’t know how to use crayons’ and that ‘if you know what you’re doing, you use them the same way you use charcoal.’ Ripping back the paper wrap from a black crayon, Newman demonstrates how he uses the side of the crayon to make the long, sweeping strokes that create so many of his cityscape images hanging on the walls of Terri’s. ‘ ‘Some are blocky, some are ethereal,’ says Newman, describing the variety of solid color illustrations in blue, purple, turquoise, red and carmel-brown. ‘They’re big visions of roadways, building shapes, bridges, automobiles and trains.’ About a month ago, Terri Festa told Newman she wanted to have an exhibit of his work at her restaurant. Her husband, Chip, mounted Newman’s illustrations on stiff but lightweight black foam core with double-faced tape, and Newman helped arrange his pieces on the walls. Then, when Terri opened her new restaurant, Terri’s Cafe, in Agoura a few weeks ago, Newman did an illustration opening night and gave it to them. ‘It’s the only original I’ve given away,’ says Newman, who estimates that he’s done about 300 illustrations so far. While they are fantastical images, with futuristic themes defying gravity and rational landscape, Newman says, ‘There’s logic behind every one. I do them so that structurally, they could hold up in a fantasy-type world.’ With a bachelor’s degree in engineering from the University of Illinois, Newman got his first California job as an architect designing and constructing a small recording studio. He started his own architectural business and got his break when he designed Herb Alpert’s studio at A&M, which led to more studio jobs with the record company. Now, Newman says most of his work is on the Westside and in the Palisades, where he designs ‘highly important homes’ for celebrities. He is currently working on a large project on San Remo. ‘I can’t come to Terri’s and eat and not do an illustration,’ says Newman, who usually works while he eats, with his lunch plate on the drawing. ‘I’m somewhat obsessive, so I have to sit outside to eat if I’m not going to do one.’ One of Terri’s customers recently called Newman’s illustrations ‘tablecloth art,’ though Newman says that a good amount of thought goes into each piece. ‘I have to be really thinking about what I’m doing,’ he says. On the back of each illustration, Newman writes the date and a little something about what he was doing before he came to Terri’s that day. He also has started to sign the new ones ‘at Terri’s’ to distinguish them from the older pieces. While Newman says he enjoys using all different colors, he admits, ‘Black is a favorite because it’s like charcoal. And there’s something so pure about it’like black-and-white photography.’ When asked if he has a favorite illustration, Newman quotes Frank Lloyd Wright and says, ‘the next one.’ Then he continues, ‘Doing these illustrations when I’m not working on homes is part of what keeps me honed in. Each one keeps me sharp.’ For more information, visit Terri’s Restaurant at 1028 Swarthmore.
Give A Cheer!
Photo by Rich Schmitt, Staff Photographer
Everyone needs a cheerleader’someone to lift you up when you’re down and to give you the spirit to hang in there. Even the Palisades High School cheerleading squad needed their own cheerleader earlier this year. The PaliHi cheerleaders say their sport takes more athletic ability than people think. However, the activity, which has always been a part of the high school program, is not funded by the athletic department. And this spring, the program was in danger of coming to an end. The former coaches, Cellia and Cat Whiteford, had found other jobs and were no longer available for practices. The program had become disorganized. And due to the high cost of cheerleading, girls didn’t want to spend the money ($1,200 this year for new cheerleaders, $400 for returning ones) for a program that was falling apart. Many team members quit. Junior Bridget Bruner, who was planning to switch schools, was one of them. But when four freshmen came to her and said that no one showed up for practice besides them’she started calling the other girls one by one. All of the returning members on the squad came back. There are now 37 cheerleaders, and this summer a new English teacher at Pali, Olivia Castro, was hired as cheerleading coach. So the sounds of ‘Let’s go, Pali, let’s go!’ will again be heard again as the cheerleaders, bright in their blue and white uniforms, perform at all the school’s football and basketball games Loud voices are important in cheerleading, so in practices, captains Bruner, Morgan Brown and Jasmine Thomas have the squad continually repeat, ‘C’mon, C’mon yell defense go, yell defense go!’ loud enough to be heard by the crowd. ‘I’m a loud person,’ says Bruner. ‘It’s okay to be loud in cheer.’ She and the other two captains lead the practices, which have taken place twice a week at PaliHi for the past month. Cheerleading fees cover uniforms’which this year includes a new A-line skirt to replace the pleated fly-away skirt of previous years’mats, sound system, cheerleading camps, buses to away games and all related costs of the program. Kim Thomas, a special education assistant who has been the faculty sponsor of the team for 22 years, organizes the paperwork, orders uniforms and arranges for the buses. The team raises money and takes private donations, in hopes that no one who wants to cheer will be turned away because they lack the funds. Two tryouts were held this spring before the new coach came aboard, and although boys have been a part of the squad in the past, no one tried out this year. The importance of the program is not lost on the athletic department. ‘They are a large part of spirit on our campus,’ says Leo Castro, Pali’s athletic director and football coach, who is also Olivia’s father-in-law. ‘Cheerleaders get the fans involved in the game. The crowd motivates the game and motivates the players.’ Castro would also like to see a drill team and marching band perform during halftime. During a recent practice, the girls were practicing some football season cheers. ‘Tighten up that defense, you say hold, hold that, that line,’ moving in unison with precision arm and leg movements and claps. The squad comes up with many of their own cheers, and also performs stunts, such as forming pyramids, by holding up three girls at shoulder height. The girls watch the game and respond to the action with an appropriate cheer. During halftime, they turn on the portable sound system, and perform dances as well as cheers and stunts. They also ‘rally’ to get the crowd going. ‘Dolphins, Defense, You say, Stop that drive!’ During basketball season, they do sit-down cheers on the front row bench during the game, and also perform between quarters, at halftime and during time-outs. Castro came to the team in July with a background in dance drill, from Hollenbeck Middle School in East L.A., where she coached the drill team. ‘The girls will get a sense of being part of a team’something bigger than themselves, representing their school and their community and looking out for each other,’ Castro said. Some of the cheerleaders come with experience from elementary school and middle school squads, others with a dance or gymnastics background, and still others with natural ability and attitude and the desire to learn. ‘I started off as a beginner,’ said junior Victoria Choi, who worked her way up to the varsity squad and likes cheer because ‘it lets me express my energy and spirit.’ The squad members continuously come up with new cheers and routines: ‘Who rocks the house? The Dolphins rock the house! And when the Dolphins rock the house, they rock it all the way down.’ The camaraderie of the squad is a draw for the girls. ‘I like that not everyone is from the same group of friends,’ says junior Nicole Tirosh. ‘The stereotypical cheerleader is ditzy. Some people don’t know us, and they say we’re like that.’ Bruner says, ‘If two cheerleaders talk in class, the teachers think the cheerleaders talk a lot. If one person slips up, it’s all of us.’ A Palisadian, Bruner adds that ‘most of my friends I met through cheer. The hard part is I have to go far to see some of my new friends.’ The squad members come from all over Los Angeles. Candy Brown, mother of team captain Morgan Brown, had a sleepover for 36 cheerleaders last year at her house in Baldwin Hills, and has helped organize garage sales to raise money to help those who can’t afford the team dues. ‘Cheerleading is very necessary for the school too,’ she says. ‘If they didn’t have cheerleaders, even though [some students] like to tease them, it wouldn’t be as much fun.’ While some of the cheerleaders agreed that Pali’s school spirit is strong, others feels there needs to be some improvement. ‘It feels good to pump your team up,’ says senior Jessica Santos, who joined the team as a freshman, took a break and is back this year. ‘You have to be loud and proud’put some attitude into it. At games, we compete against other cheerleaders, try to have fun and see who can do better stunts.’ Senior Nikita Hearns is fulfilling a long-time dream by being part of the squad for the first time this year. ‘It makes you more outgoing,’ she says. ‘It makes you happier. You express your feelings by cheering for the team.’ For junior Jasmine Thomas, competition is what makes cheerleading fun. The competitions take place in the spring and summer at amusement parks and major high schools. As a captain, she wants to lead the squad to its best potential. Strong motions and good personalities make for a successful squad. ‘We’re not a part of the athletic program but we work just as hard and get hurt just as much.’ In addition to afterschool practices three afternoons a week, they work on their conditioning three days a week’doing ab work, lunges and squats in the fitness center. For their new coach, the goal this year is no injuries, and that ‘we all stay on the team and treat each other right.’ She’s ordered two-inch thick cheerleading mats that velcro together, for the team to practice stunts on. ‘We’ll also be stretching out and warming up ahead of time, and working on getting down safely from stunts,’ Castro says. Next week, the Cheerleaders of America camp will come to Pali to instruct the squad for a week, then junior varsity and varsity squads will be selected, and then it’s ‘Go, big blue!’ for the football season opener on September 10 at Sylmar High School. (Donations for the program can be made out to Palisades High School, earmarked for cheerleading, mailed to 15777 Bowdoin St., Pacific Palisades, CA 90272.)
Relaying A Gold Message
Palisadian Ulis Williams Has Gone from Olympic Champion to College President
Photo by Rich Schmitt, Staff Photographer
Forty years have passed since Ulis Williams won a gold medal as a member of the United States’ 4 x 400 meter relay team at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. And while that was clearly his defining moment as an athlete, the man once dubbed ‘The Compton Comet’ is just as proud of his achievements off of the track. Williams has not rested on the laurels of his gold medal victory. Instead, he has invested his time and energy into education and is now the President and Superintendent at Compton Community College. ‘Just as I did not anticipate running track, I did not at first aspire to become a college president,’ Williams says. ‘I just put forth my best effort the same as I had in track and, through dedication and hard work, I eventually acquired the qualifications to be where I am today.’ While living in Santa Monica, Williams and his wife Sandra used to walk to Pacific Palisades and eventually they grew to enjoy its relative tranquility. In 1998, they leased a home on Haverford and two years later moved two blocks from the Via bluffs. And while he enjoys the community in which he lives, Williams has not forgotten the one from which he came. ‘Compton has changed a lot since I was in high school, but there’s still a lot of pride,’ Williams says. ‘I always wanted to give back to the community that gave me my start in life and I’m glad I have the opportunity to do that. I want to help make others’ dreams come true.’ The son of a sharecropper, Williams spent his childhood years on a cotton plantation in Mississippi with no dreams of a better life on the horizon. That changed when his family moved to Compton in 1957 and the 15-year-old was introduced to the sport he would go on to dominate. ‘I started running track because friends on my block ran track,’ Williams remembers. ‘At the time, the only sports I knew about were baseball and basketball. But Fred Kennedy, a P.E. teacher at Enterprise Junior High where I was going recognized I had potential and told the coach at Compton High about me. So when I got there, the coach said he wanted me to try out for cross country. I didn’t even know what that was… I thought it was some sort of treasure hunt.’ It didn’t take long for Williams’ God-given talent to surface. He quickly established himself as one of the top prep runners in Southern California and in 1961 he won the state championship for the 440 yards. The following year he was named Amateur Athlete of the Year and Freshman Athlete of the Year at Arizona State University. In 1963, Williams was first in the 400 meters at the NCAA national championships. ‘That Olympic year was difficult for me because I won every race from the time I was a junior in high school until I was a junior in college,’ Williams recalls. ‘Then, in January I pulled a muscle in my left leg during the Los Angeles Times Indoor Games at the Sports Arena. I remember the pain vividly. It was like someone had hit me with a baseball bat. I had never been injured before so it was a new experience for me. I didn’t run for about six months but fortunately the Olympics were later in the year, so I was able to run in the Olympic Trials and I finished second.’ At the Olympics, Williams ran third in a foursome that finished in 3:00.7 and set a new world record. A broad smile still crosses his face every time Williams relives that cloudy October day when he raced into the history book. ‘I had been running the anchor leg all the way up to the finals,’ Williams remembers. ‘Right before the final, we huddled and suggested a new running order to our coach [Bob Giegengack]. Ollan Cassell would lead off, followed by Mike Larabee, myself and Henry Carr. I think it gave us a psychological advantage because our opponents had to readjust to us running in a different order.’ Williams has vivid memories of the race. ‘Mike [Larabee] gave me a two or three-yard lead, but the guy from Trinidad-Tobago passed me on the backstretch, but not by enough to cut in front. I was holding the baton in my right hand and he was hitting my arm as we rounded the last turn. We ran side by side for awhile, then I accelerated to open a seven or eight yard lead.’ It appeared the United States was on its way to an easy victory, but Carr started his run too late and Williams was forced to pull up, almost causing him to drop the baton (which would have meant automatic disqualification). Williams fell as he handed off to Carr, sliding on the crushed brick track, but he had maintained the team’s lead and Carr went on to win by nine yards, almost a full second ahead of silver medalist Great Britain. ‘Standing on the victory platform was sort of an anti-climactic feeling,’ Williams says. ‘For the first time in years, I had no immediate challenge. I was wondering what I would do next.’ Upon returning to America, Williams became involved with the Boy Scouts of America, though he longed to return to his roots one day. He got his chance when he was hired as the assistant track coach at Compton College in 1970. The team tied for the conference championship and won it outright the following year. In 1975, he received his master’s degree in Urban Studies and Planning from Antioch College in San Francisco. He was hired as Compton’s Director of Community Services and Athletics and has remained at the college ever since. ‘When he became President, Ulis invited all of his Olympic teammates here and it was so special to see the camaraderie between them,’ says Compton College’s Director of Public Information Stan Myles, who remembers watching Williams compete in the Compton Relays’once among the country’s premiere track and field events. ‘He is such a positive role model for the students because he’s from here and they can see what someone can do if they set goals and work hard to achieve them. He was a phenomenal runner but more importantly, he’s a nice human being.’ Williams took over as President on an interim basis in 1996 and became Compton College’s 11th permanent President the following year. Since then he has overseen construction of a new Vocational/Technology Center, plans for a new math/science building, raised $3.2 million for an Olympic track and has worked out an agreement with Major League baseball to build a youth academy on campus’a project expected to break ground at the end of the month. Under his leadership, the College is finalizing a long-range institutional plan, ‘Renaissance 2000,’ to meet the needs of future residents. ‘I believe success is where opportunity meets preparation,’ Williams says. ‘The most important resource in any country is the people. An educated society is really what maintains civilization. Ignorance and greed will cause its demise. Everyone cannot be a leader but education will enable citizens to hold their leaders accountable.’ When he’s not influencing the lives of his students, Williams is making a difference here in the Palisades. An active member of Palisadians for Peace for two years, he mans the booth every Sunday during the Farmer’s Market. ‘I understands unfairness and racial inequality because I grew up in a segregated society,’ he says. ‘Everyone should want peace. Governments seem to think war is the way to solve problems, but if we spent as much time developing sophisticated minds as we do developing sophisticated weapons, perhaps peaceful resolutions would be easier to find.’
Scouts Kayak for Badges
By HOWARD GOULD Special to the Palisadian-Post Over 50 boy scouts from Troop 23 (based at Palisades Methodist Church), under the guidance of Scoutmaster John Wilson, recently returned from a five-day, four-night kayaking trip in Seattle to fulfill their summer ‘high adventure’ as they work towards becoming Eagle scouts. Most of the Troop consists of Palisadians who attend Paul Revere Middle School, Palisades High, Pilgrim School, Lighthouse School and, in the fall, Rennaisance Academy. These scouts all spent the two previous summers at the Boy Scout camp on Catalina Island at Emerald Bay. The troop spent two days in Seattle visiting the Pacific Science Center, the Experience Music Project, the Space Needle, Bill Speir’s Underground Tour, Pioneer Square and the Pike Street Market and the Museum of Flying with Air Force One and the Concorde. After Seattle, the boys traveled to Anacortes and took the ferry to Friday Harbor, where they camped at Lakedale Campground and packed their dry bags in preparation for kayaking. In all, they kayaked about 35 miles over four days and, on the off day, hiked five miles. The first day was a send off from Jackson Beach with a landing on Turn Island for lunch. Passing across Friday Harbor with its many ferries, yachts and sailboats entering and exiting, Troop 23 then crossed over toward Shaw Island and by the Wasp Islands to Jones Island, a nature preserve where it camped for two nights. The second day saw the troop paddling around Jones Island and across open waters to the northeast side of San Juan Island to investigate tide pools and work on individual paddling and group interactions on the water. The boys returned to Jones Island for the night. Day three was a long paddle through the Speiden Channel and around Speiden Island to Reid Harbor on Stuart Island, the northernmost land in the continental United States. The fourth day included a five-mile hike to the lighthouse at the northernmost point of the island with a view across the water to Canada. Rising at 5 a.m. on the fifth day for a 6:30 departure (in order to miss the peak tides on an exciting paddle to Henry Island), Troop 23 then paddled down the Haro Strait with a view out to the Pacific Ocean through the Strait of Juan De Fuca. Ocean-going vessels, including huge cargo ships, entered Puget Sound right in front of them. After packing away the kayaks and gear, and after lunching on a high promontory above Smallpox Bay, the boys were treated to a glorious send-off as a pod of Orca whales headed north along the coast, playfully breeching and cavorting as they swam the same channel the troop had just paddled. Each day, scouts took turns guiding the group along the course by selecting appropriate points of bearing. They learned to take into account the ebb and flood tides which dominate Puget Sound and dictate the direction for each segment of the trip. The scouts also learned to use proper formation as they crossed open stretches to minimize their exposure to larger vessels and to navigate the waves and boat wakes rocking their kayaks on the open water. Editor’s Note: The author serves as an assistant scoutmaster for Troop 23.
Longtime Resident Branka Sondheim, 67
After a long struggle for over two years with a rare disease (fewer than 100 reported cases worldwide), longtime resident Branka Sondheim passed away on August 10 at UCLA Medical Center. She was 67. Born in Zagreb, Yugoslavia (now Croatia), on December 9, 1936, Branka survived the Holocaust with her mother in Vienna, by means of false papers after her father was taken to a concentration camp, where he died. After the war, her mother remarried, and in 1949 Branka came to Chicago with her brother and family. She attended Waller High School and won a scholarship to the University of Chicago, where she met her husband, Harry. They were married on March 30, 1958. Harry was an attorney in the California State Attorney General’s Office and later the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office while Branka finished her education at UCLA and graduated in 1959. She then began working as an Employment Security Officer for the state, helping the unemployed find jobs. After the Sondheims moved to the Palisades in 1960, she staffed the Youth Employment Service. Operating out of the Palisades-Malibu YMCA facility, she helped find jobs for Palisades youths until the operation was closed by the state. After the birth of her two children, Branka occasionally worked for the state on a part-time basis until her retirement in 1986. Harry retired from the L.A. District Attorney’s office after a 34-year career and began an active volunteer life, including serving as chairman of the Community Council from 2000-2002. Branka never really ‘retired,’ but devoted her life to things she loved: her family, friends and community activities. She was a volunteer in the Museum Service Council at the County Museum of Art, a member of the Palisades Garden Club and a persistent swimmer at the YMCA pool. In her ‘spare’ moments, she enjoyed cooking, traveling, participating in a knitting group and tending to her garden. She once wrote that ‘a garden, just like a marriage, is always a work in progress, constantly evolving, requiring tending and caring, with the hope that it will be improving all the time.’ In a writing class at Emeritus College in Santa Monica, Branka wrote many stories about her childhood years in Vienna during and after the war, following the example of her own mother Onkel Mayer, who had also participated in the class before her death. In the following story, Branka describes the days in 1944 during the bombing of Vienna. ‘I am transported back about 60 years to the many hours my mother Onkel, my soon-to-be-stepfather, and I spent in the cellar of 106 Gumpendorferstrasse in the 6th district of Vienna. We had no gas mask, no survival kit, nor did anyone in the building….What we and some of the other occupants of the apartment in the building might have taken along, depending on the time of year, were blankets, maybe a valise with one’s important papers, maybe jewelry or gold coins, which were always something you could trade in for food or favors from officials, should that ever become a necessity. ‘There were some benches or old crates in the cellar to sit on, and we brought a cot or two, for I remember sometimes lying down there, especially during the last few days of the war when the Russian army was marching in, when it wasn’t safe to be on the street or even near a window. ‘Even among all the destruction and fear one could always find a bright side. Towards the end of the war, when bombing attacks were more and more frequent, schools closed. I guess the idea was to allow children to stay close to home, to be with their parents. My mother was still going to the office downtown, however, and just took me with her. ‘In the office, I met some of my mom’s co-workers. …I especially liked Anny, a young woman of Czech background. She was always cheerful, talkative, lively and loved to cook and eat. When the air raid sirens announced another bombing attack, while we were in the office, everyone had to scramble down into the catacombs underneath and near the famous Vienna landmark, St. Stephen’s Cathedral. Nowadays, and I think before the war, visitors were led through these catacombs on tours of downtown Vienna. Queens and emperors and their families are buried there. The belief was that these underground caves were safe, that no bomb could penetrate these vaults. ‘It was in one of these cavernous rooms that my mother, Anny and others from the office were sitting and waiting for the all-clear signal again. Leave it to Anny! It was lunch time and she pulls out some pawidltatschkerln, a triangular pocket of dough filled with plum mousse, a typical Czech dish which not everyone can make to perfection. It may have rained bombs outside, but for a little while, I enjoyed this treat and forgot to be afraid.’ In addition to her husband, Branka is survived by her son Daniel and his wife Chalon Bridges and children Sam and Lucy in Sonoma; her daughter Rebecca Martin, who lives with her husband Robert and children Noah and Rachel in Pacific Palisades; and her brother Marcel Mayer (wife Vicki) of Waldorf, Maryland. The family will celebrate Branka’s life at a memorial close to her birthday in December at Kehillat Israel. For more details, contact Harry at 454-1088. The family suggests that any memorial contributions may be made to the Palisades Garden Club, P.O. Box 261, Pacific Palisades 90272 or the Palisades-Malibu YMCA Aquatic Program, 821 Via de la Paz.
PaliHi ’60s-’70s Reunion August 21
Submitted by Palisades High Alumni Association Edited by BILL BRUNS The Palisades High Alumni Association will celebrate 10 years by hosting a ’63 to ’79 graduates/administrators/ teachers picnic Saturday, August 21. Everyone who was at PaliHi during those years is invited to join old friends and make new ones at this bring-your-own picnic that will run from noon to 5 p.m. on the school quad. A hot dog, chip and drink combo will be for sale, while supplies last. This inaugural event is intended to bring awareness of the Palisades High Alumni Association (PHAA) and Dolphins After Dark (DAD) because there is an urgent need to inform alums about how they can help the association achieve its goals. While admission to the event is free, all alums attending are encouraged to donate at least $10 and become an ‘active’ member of the PHAA. In the future the association would like to host a picnic for the ’80s and ’90s alums, but volunteers must step forward to form a committee. PHAA president Jeanne Jensen (’76) has long wanted to form a Pali All-Star Band for events such as this, as well as the Fourth of July parade. At the picnic, alumni musicians from the ’60s and ’70s will come together to play for the first time as a group. If you play an acoustic instrument, bring it for an open jam-session. ‘Come on out’we can still rock the house!’ says Pali All-Star Band committee chair Richard Wayman, who sings, and plays keyboards and bass. The PHAA was formed in 1994 by a group of dedicated seniors, alums and parents. This group started the alumni newsletter, Dolphins, and on Alumni Night each year, recognizes current and past teachers, administrators and volunteers. In 2002, Jensen formed the social events committee, naming it Dolphins After Dark. With that she became the PHAA’s event coordinator and, soon thereafter, created the Dolphins After Dark Web site. That fall, Jensen also became the president, when Maggie Ghodes Nance (’90 and faculty) departed. Other members of the the PHAA’s board of directors are communications director Jan Gong, secretary Richard Wayman (’76) and treasurer Georgia Dent-Inferrera (’76). Pat Boren (’72) volunteers whenever she is available. The group wishes other ‘Palisadians’ would lend their assistance, since each person plays a vital role in getting things accomplished. Simply maintaining what they do isn’t enough anymore. Jensen has been pushing forward by having meetings this past year with Charlotte Atlas, Atlas, one of PaliHi’s vice principals. ‘Ms. Atlas has a lot to oversee within her job, yet she makes the time to keep current with what we do,’ Jensen says. ‘She sees our enthusiasm and is extremely supportive’for that we are grateful. And what can I say about Mr. Jefferson [plant manager] and Mr. Braithwaite [finance office]? They are simply wonderful. The alumni association has come to rely on all three of them for our meetings and events. They help us make it all happen!’ Over the next year, the PHAA will focus on creating an Alumni Wall of Fame, as well as development of a scholarship program for seniors and a ‘gifts’ program for the school. Until recently, the group (by necessity) had put many ideas on hold. Then, earlier this year Jensen and coach James Paleno (basketball and golf) began discussing ideas and the ‘Wall of Fame’ came up’an old idea to her, a new one to him. ‘It was as if a dimmed light bulb suddenly was glowing to its true potential’100 watts,’ Jensen says. ‘From that moment plans started moving in the right direction.’ The PHAA feels it is important to let alums know that those who will appear on the future Wall of Fame are being ‘invited’ by the alumni association to take part in this recognition. This is by no means a ‘buy-in’ where alums (or families thereof) can donate money to be recognized. While there is always the hope for and necessity of donations to fund and further develop programs, the board of directors is developing guidelines on how they want to see this all transpire, in true accordance with their beliefs. One of Jensen’s ideas is to retire uniform numbers worn by prominent athletes who have passed away. This will be an invitation that is extended to the athlete’s family. ‘The PHAA cannot retire every number of a great player who passed through PaliHi, but eventually we’d like to see them recognized on the Wall Of Fame,’ Jensen says. In an agreement solidified a few weeks ago between the school and the alumni association, any type of fundraising made though an outreach program directed at alumni must be developed by and carried out by the PHAA’s board of directors. After all, these are the ideas of their group who will do the work to bring it about. Another goal involves assisting programs already in existence at PaliHi. The new scholarship program will provide Pali’s alums with the opportunity to help the various programs at the school by making a donation to any individual department, sport or a general fund. In the fall, the PHAA will learn more about the needs of the school and will include this information on the Dolphins After Dark Web site. This year, the PHAA started making adjustments and cut out the return envelope (for donations) in the newsletter, saving $1,000. That money was thereafter awarded to five seniors at Senior Awards Night’a great start since, for years, the association only had funds for the newsletter and even had to cut back to a single annual Dolphins edition. By making similar adjustments, the association is further freeing up funds. As Dolphins After Dark grows, the Dolphins newsletter will be reduced to a flyer. Last week the Web site opened its bulletin board, which can be accessed for a minimum donation of $10. ‘We set up a PayPal account that allows alums to make donations online, rather than having to send in a check,’ treasurer Dent-Inferrera says. ‘This year is critical and while we are anxious to move forward, the number of alums who make donations has dropped sizably. While that is indeed discouraging, we’ve also received two of the largest donations ever!’ The association has also set up sponsorship levels on their DAD Web site. They know it’s a simple equation, but without the support of alums, they have nothing from which to work. There is a lot of truth to the saying ‘every dollar helps,’ and what the PHAA wants to achieve absolutely requires funding. ‘I’ve seen so much movement within the PHAA/DAD in this last year’some great things are happening!’ Richard Wayman says. ‘It is sometimes overwhelming, but we go forward.’ ‘Each board member currently has between two and 10 years invested and they hope to keep right on going,’ says Jensen, who is frequently asked why she does this when she only attended PaliHi for one year. ‘I feel fortunate to have had friends since my sandbox days at Marquez Elementary. Often I meet people in my age group who don’t see or even speak with anyone from their school years. For me, the ties are binding…I still carry the passions of those school friendships that were the basis of so many firsts’ crushes and relationships. Much of our core as individuals was formed together, and that is something that can never be taken away.’ ‘Memories Do Matter!’ has been Jensen’s slogan since 1998. ‘That plea just hit me at the right time I suppose,’ she says. With 41 years of PaliHi graduates, the PHAA is trying to create something of interest to everyone, so that more alums will play an active role. The important fall meeting will set the tone for the rest of the year. The Awards and Development Committee will meet for the first time October 21 at 5 p.m. in the school library, with the regular PHAA meeting at 7 p.m., the same night, same place. Alums, administrators, faculty are all welcome to join us. ‘We’d love to hear everyone’s input. If others come up with the same ideas we have, then we’ll feel like we are on the right track,’ Jensen says. ‘And if they come up with something entirely new that we can put into action, that’s fantastic.’ Jensen then refers to an e-mail Paul Edmonds (’76) recently sent her: ‘As Mr. Mercer said opening day back in ’73, ‘What you’ll get out of Palisades High School will be in direct proportion to what you put in.’ Mercer’s words certainly apply to Jensen, who frequently puts in some 25 hours or more a week, and is grateful for the endless support of her husband, Jonas Ahlm. ‘Is there really life after high school?’ Jensen asks jokingly. ‘Once a Dolphin, always a Dolphin!’ The PHAA wants to thank the many Palisades business owners and alums who have donated items for Alumni Night and the upcoming picnic, including Georgia-Dent Inferrera and Wendy Price Anderson (’64) for hitting the pavement, as well as the rest of the picnic committee who have donated their time and have secured donations. Thanks also to the many people within the administration, the faculty, the Booster Club and volunteers who have played a vital role in the PHAA over the years. ‘We also a warm welcome to PaliHi’s new principal, Dr. Gloria M. Martinez,’ says Jensen. The new alumni association Web site is at www.dolphinsafterdark.org, or e-mail PHAA at PaliAlumniAssoc@aol.com for more information about involvement, donations and programs.
Former Nixon Counsel John Dean Indicts Bush White House Secrecy
Photo by Rich Schmitt, Staff Photographer
‘Everybody knows that corruption thrives in secret places, and avoids public places, and we believe it a fair presumption that secrecy means impropriety.’ Although this observation came from President Woodrow Wilson, former Nixon White House counsel John Dean recognizes the same secretive behavior in Washington these days that he saw Nixon employ to cover up the Watergate break-in’behavior that ultimately led to Nixon’s resignation 30 years ago. In his book ‘Worse Than Watergate’ (Little Brown), Dean, now 64, characterizes the Bush-Cheney administration as operating with obsessive, unjustified and disproportionate secrecy, ‘far worse than Watergate.’ While he told nearly 200 members and guests of the Palisades Democratic Club Sunday afternoon that he unabashedly calls his book a polemic’a first-person, strongly felt, and relatively brief form of discourse’he eschewed writing a diatribe. Instead, he has provided detailed documentation systematically tracking 11 potential areas of scandal’from Bush’s character issues and prior business conduct, to civil rights violations in squelching dissent and his misleading Congress regarding war with Iraq. After his White House years, which he described in his best-selling account ‘Blind Ambition,’ Dean wrote numerous books and has read deeply on the American presidency. He recently retired from a career as a private investment banker, fulfilling the promise he made to himself that ‘when I turn 60, I would turn my attention to writing.’ Perhaps the comparison Dean makes between Richard Nixon and George W. Bush is most revealing and largely unknown to the American public. ‘Bush and Nixon seem like very different personalities,’ Dean said, but then proceeded to describe many shared traits. ‘Both Nixon and Bush invested greatly in projecting carefully crafted public images. Nixon appeared the master of extemporaneous speaking, when in fact such talks were the product of great diligence, for he had all but memorized his material.’ Bush, he suggests, is not as intellectually handicapped and inarticulate as many think. ‘Bush is ignorant by design, not stupid. He is not a particularly good speaker, but has gotten better at reading the teleprompter.’ Dean notes that both men learned from other presidents how to do (Continued on Page 5) the job’Nixon from President Eisenhower, Bush from his father. ‘But neither of them quite fills the shoes of the men they learned from and are rather uncomfortable in the job, which explains the secrecy and attention to image.’ Each of these men also politicized the office, bringing a posse of advisors in media manipulation with them into the White House and running ‘a perpetual campaign.’ But it is the issue of secrecy that has even more serious consequences, according to Dean. ‘No president can govern in a fishbowl, but there is a difference between privacy and secrecy, and with Bush and Cheney there has been intentional concealment, beginning with their backgrounds. Dick Cheney and George Bush would have trouble passing a full-fledged FBI investigation to work in the White House,’ each having taken their past personal and business life off the table. Each man brought a lot of baggage that the media decided to ignore, Dean said. To achieve secrecy, it is necessary to control all means of communication both in and out of the White House, something the current administration managed from the outset, Dean said. ‘They have shrink-wrapped the White House, which operates on a need-to-know basis. ‘I would have expected the Fourth Estate to jump in and dig some of this out. It has happened in the prisoner scandal [Abu Ghraib and Guant’namo], but nowhere else.’ Dean asserts that at no time in our history has the vice president held so much power, stating that Cheney has even set up a shadow National Security Council, equipped with a staff of experienced national security experts, which is part of the Executive Office of the President with zero accountability. Cheney dismays Dean, whom he calls ‘a man with a dark view of human kind and a distressingly secretive man by nature.’ He questions the legality of his relationship with the oilfield service company Halliburton, which he served as chief executive officer before becoming vice president, and wonders about the stability of his health. A registered Independent, Dean told the highly partisan group that he is a social liberal and a fiscal conservative but since the beginning of 2004 has become ‘an outspoken critic of George W. Bush,’ who ‘worries about the safety of our Constitution.’ He writes: ‘My goal is to raise several important, if not critical, issues now being hidden from the public and place them on top of the table of public discussion.’
Palisades Couple Host Two Orphans from Kazakhstan
Photo by Rich Schmitt, Staff Photographer
By MARIE-CLAUDE HAMEL Palisadian-Post Contributor When Palisadians Shirene Miller and Mike Robinson got married in 2003, adopting a child was a desire they both naturally shared. Although the simple dream of having a family may seem like an easy goal to achieve, Robinson and Miller knew that for many children, this hope remains beyond reach. Now turning their dream into reality, 10-year-old Nikolay is joining the Miller-Robinson family, finally completing the circle they say they all so wanted in their lives. Miller and Robinson, longtime Palisades residents who met two years ago and were married 11 months later, viewed adoption as a wonderful way to have a family. For them, looking to another country for adoption was a logical choice. ‘If you think about how fortunate we are here and that we had the opportunity to give a child a family’it seemed like such a wonderful way to get to have a family,’ Miller says. Considering that there are millions of children around the world who live in orphanages or are shuffled through the foster care system, Nikolay from Kazakhstan was one of the lucky ones. Nicknamed Kolya, he’s ‘sensitive, analytical and enjoys taking things apart and putting them back together,’ Robinson says. Sponsored by Kidsave International’s Summer Miracles program, this little boy was one of about 180 children who were selected to come to the United States this summer in the hope of getting adopted by a loving family. Kidsave, a Washington, D.C.-based organization that reaches out to older orphans between the ages of 5 and 15 from Russia, Kazakhstan and Colombia, provides a chance for these children to experience family life and hopefully find the right match. Miller and Robinson are hosting both Nikolay and another boy from Kazakhstan, 7-year-old Marat, at their Via Bluffs home. The two boys, who arrived July 6, have enjoyed Movies in the Park on Saturday nights, the Sunday farmers market, hiking in Temescal Canyon and outings to the beach. Although the couple would love to also adopt Marat, Miller says that she was afraid that two children would be too great a responsibility to take all at once. She is hoping that the little boy, whom she describes as very intelligent, engaging and active, will be able to find a loving family to adopt him. Robinson, an executive for an aerospace firm, describes Marat as ‘energetic, musical and a very happy boy.’ For many of these Kidsave youngsters, the feeling of a real family is something they have never previously experienced. ‘Although some of these children are true orphans, most of them are social orphans, which means that their parents could not take care of them,’ says Liz Zeigler, program assistant for Summer Miracles. She adds that in certain countries, when children are abused or neglected by their parents they are often placed by the state in an orphanage after the parental rights have been removed. Since 1999, more than 1,000 of those children have been sponsored by Kidsave and brought to the United States for its Summer Miracles’ six-week program, which gives the child the experience of a family life but also has the ultimate goal of adoption. Zeigler, however emphasizes that Kidsave is careful about not giving the children an expectation to be adopted, therefore minimizing the risk of psychological stress if no match is found for a particular child. After placing the children with various host families in the U. S., Kidsave then actively tries to make a match between children and families, understanding the fact that every child will have different needs and may not be adequately matched with a host family to begin with. Although this sometimes occur, according to Zeigler, more than 90 percent of the children in the summer program find permanent families in the U. S. Miller explains that the children who are sent back to their country without having found an adoptive family receive the help of psychologists and therapists when they return home and participate in programs that allow them to perform better in society than most children who are brought up in an institution. ‘They are learning skills that they may not be able to learn in an orphanage, allowing them a chance at a better future,’ Miller says. But the parting is not an easy one, especially for the adults. ‘It’s often harder on the host families. [The children] miss their caretakers back home and are often looking forward to seeing their friends again. But the real young ones and the older ones are sadder.’ Miller adds that even if they find an adoptive family, each child must go back to their country of origin until the adoption has officially been approved, and cannot stay in the United States past the six-week program period. In order to enhance the chances of adoption, Miller, who with her husband hosted a little girl named Tanya last summer, stresses that the process of being a host family is crucial to finding out more about the child and the dynamic needed for a good match. ‘On weekends we have events where [the children] can get to meet other families. The kids get to also see each other and interact.’ Although the match was not ideal for the Miller-Robinson family and little Tanya, she was eventually adopted by a family in Moscow, Idaho, who already had a daughter. Miller says that Tanya had always wanted a sister and found herself right at home with her adoptive family. Little Marat and 28 other children between the ages of 5 and 14 hosted in Southern California have not yet found a home. With the August 16 deadline approaching, Miller, who is now a full-time employee at Kidsave’s West L.A. office, says she hopes that families interested in adopting a child will step forward and take action. ‘There is still time for people to get involved.’ Kidsave has also established a Summer and Winter Miracles programs in Russia to help children find families and long-term mentor relationships in their own countries. The organization is in the process of establishing similar programs in Kazakhstan and Colombia. Kidsave has also launched a Weekend Miracles program in the U.S. for children in the foster care system in Fairfax County, Virginia. ‘We are developing Weekend Miracles programs in three other U.S. cities, including Los Angeles,’ Miller says. If you are interested in adopting a child or if you wish to donate time or money to Kidsave, you may call 479-5437 or visit their Web site at www.kidsave.org
