Academy Award-winning filmmaker Robert Snyder died March 21 at home after a long illness. He was 88. A resident of Pacific Palisades since 1962, he produced and directed numerous films about some of the ‘greats’ of the past century: Pablo Casals, former Palisades residents Henry Miller and Buckminster Fuller, Anais Nin, Claudio Arrau, Will and Ariel Durant, Willem de Kooning and Michelangelo. He also made motion pictures ranging in subject matter from insects (‘The Hidden World,’ narrated by Gregory Peck) to an American ‘Sketchbook’ (on the lives of Igor Stravinsky, Willem de Kooning and Fuller) and ‘Looking at Modern Art’ (a 12-part series). In 1950, he won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature for his film ‘The Titan: The Story of Michelangelo’ and was again nominated in 1957 for ‘The Hidden World.’ In addition to his many film production credits, Snyder wrote three books: ‘This is Henry, Henry Miller from Brooklyn,’ ‘Anais Nin Observed: Portrait of the Woman as an Artist’ and ‘Buckminster Fuller, An Autobiographical Scenario.’ During World War II he was in charge of propaganda analysis on enemy film for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). ‘I got to know a little about filming because I was in charge of captured enemy film,’ he recalled in a 2001 Palisadian-Post interview about his start in the medium. ‘I still to this day say I just happened to get into it.’ Then in 1945 he was assigned by the OSS to the U.S. State Department to direct the inaugural UN conference in San Francisco. He went on to produce, in 1947, the first Billie Holiday concert at Town Hall in New York City and, in 1948, the first Louis Armstrong concert at Carnegie Hall. Last year he completed the definitive feature-length documentary ‘Pablo Casals: A Cry for Peace,’ on the great cellist and humanitarian. Born and educated in New York City, Snyder met Allegra Fuller, the daughter of architect Buckminster Fuller, on a blind date there when she was a Bennington College dance student spending a semester studying the filming of dance. They married on her graduation day, June 30, 1951. Allegra Fuller Snyder was professor emeritus and former chair of the Dance Department at UCLA until her retirement in 1991. Snyder was often called upon to lecture about film in general, as well as his own works, at museums, universities, film festivals and other events in this country and abroad. At one such event, a special screening of ‘Michelangelo, Self-Portrait’ at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., he said: ‘When this museum opened a one-month-only exhibit of Michelangelo’s drawings, director J. Carter Brown was quoted as saying he had a sense of awe in being involved with the show. We, too, share that sense of awe, for here we are doing the impossible by bringing the only kind of traveling exhibit of Michelangelo’s works that could be’on film. And with the master himself personally guiding us through it. All of the words you hear are carefully researched from his letter, diaries, and other writings.’ In 2001, Snyder told the Palisadian-Post, ‘The nonverbal are vital forms of our being. You can’t have words about important things, they come from the inside. In the case of Michelangelo, the images are so fantastic, you don’t have to think about them. You just feel them.’ In addition to his wife of 52 years, Allegra, he is survived by his daughter, Alexandra May; his son, Jaime; grandchildren Olivia and Rowan May; step-grandchildren Mira Speare and Elizabeth Demaray; and two sisters, Judah Shapiro of New York City and Roslyn Katz of Sebastopol, California.
Bill Abbott, the longtime general manager of Regal Cleaners on Via de la Paz and a Pacific Palisades booster, passed away on March 22. He was 64. Born in Simpson, Illinois on February 15, 1940, Abbott was one of five children. His history in the dry cleaning business dates back to his childhood, as his father was also in the same industry. Abbott worked for the Green family at Carriage Trade, in Brentwood, and Regal Cleaners for 35 years; according to Steve Green, ‘he was a part of our family, not just an employee. He was dearly loved by his employees and by the Palisades community.’ The Palisades was Abbott’s home away from home. He was a true member of the community. Along with Regal Cleaners, he was an avid supporter of the local schools and of local sports teams. He was truly a man dedicated to serving his customers, who were not customers to him but friends. At the annual 4th of July parade you would see Abbott and his wife and daughter out in front of the store, and would be surprised at how many celebrities and notables in the parade would yell out greetings to him, such as ‘Hey, Bill, how are you?’ and ‘Hey, Bill, keep it clean!’ Away from the Palisades, Abbott was a ‘mean barbecue machine.’ At his memorial service last Sunday at Aldersgate Retreat Center in the Palisades, one of his friends told the story of how he even had a way of barbecuing in the rain. You would look out the window and there he would be with an umbrella hooked to his belt loops, grilling away. He was also a true wine connoisseur. Family and friends would call and ask his opinion before making that special wine purchase for special events. Abbott and his wife also loved to go on motorcycle road trips with friends, traveling from Mexico to the Oregon coast. Abbott is survived by his wife Sheri; daughter Lindsey, 8; and two brothers. Sheri and Lindsey left Monday morning to take him home to finally rest in his home town in Illinois.
Bill Simon in the library of his home in the Huntington, where he lives with his wife Cindy and three of his four children. In the background is a painting of his father, Bill Sr., who passed away in June 2000 at the age of 72. Photo by Rich Schmitt, Staff Photographer
It’s official: Palisadian Bill Simon is running for California state treasurer. Although the election is not until November 2006, Simon is already campaigning. Last Saturday evening he spoke to the California Republican Assembly in Sacramento, and he plans to continue his weekly radio commentary, which is syndicated through Radio America to approximately 400 stations in the U.S. (including KRLA 870). He will also make his views known on talk radio, a forum he used extensively during the gubernatorial race. ‘I wanted to declare my intention to run early,’ Simon told the Palisadian-Post. He is, of course, expecting competitors but hopes to get the support of key Republicans, including Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, whom Simon presumes will run for reelection. It was just two years ago in March that Simon, a newcomer to politics, shocked both himself and the Republican party when he overcame a 40-point deficit in just eight weeks to win the nomination for governor in a landslide. ‘Simon Trounces Riordan, Storms to GOP Nomination,’ read the headline in the L.A. Times. Simon spent the next eight months campaigning against incumbent Gray Davis. Happily traveling the state, his down-home ‘meet ‘n’ greet’ style was often compared to that of former president Ronald Reagan, whom Simon greatly admires. Even after losing the governor’s race last fall by a surprisingly close margin, Simon continued to travel the state, speaking ‘two to three times a week’ as head of his own political action group called the California Grassroots Leadership Committee. Then came the California recall election. ‘My wife Cindy and I have been saying for two years that we need to recall Gray Davis,’ Simon said at a Palisades Republican Club fundraiser at his home in the Huntington last June. ‘It makes me feel as if we were right all along!’ Simon decided to run, but three weeks later he quit, saying there were ‘too many Republicans’ in the race. Whether an L.A. Times poll at the time showing Schwarzenegger in the lead influenced Simon’s decision, he won’t say. But he does say he is supportive of the new governor, whom he considers a friend. Both are parishioners at St. Monica’s Catholic Church and both have vacation homes in Sun Valley. ‘I think Arnold is doing a good job,’ Simon said, ‘and should be given a chance to work through his financial recovery plan. I voted in favor of both Proposition 57 and 58 [the government’s $15-billion bailout bond to deal with the state deficit] because I didn’t see that there were many alternatives.’ Simon also said that if he had been elected he ‘probably’ would have proposed the same solution. ‘While what I would like to see the governor do, ultimately, is to cut government and government spending, we all know something needed to be done in the short term.’ Simon, 52, who is back managing his family investment firm, William E. Simon & Sons, when not campaigning said he sees job creation as key to California’s economic recovery. Asked why he is now running for state treasurer, after investing some $9 million of his own funds on the governor’s race, Simon said he feels he has the ‘skills to handle the job.’ While Simon’s experience as a litigator is well known (after graduating from Boston College Law School in 1982, he served as assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York under then-U.S. Attorney Rudy Giuliani), his experience on Wall Street, which is ideally suited to being state treasurer, is not. From 1973-1978 he worked as a foreign exchange trader and manager in the municipal bond department of Morgan Guaranty Trust, now known as J.P. Morgan Chase. During that same period his father, Bill Sr., served as both Secretary of the Treasury under President Nixon, and U.S. energy czar, giving Bill Jr. access to the likes of George Schultz, Henry Kissinger and Alan Greenspan, who at the time was an economic advisor to the government and is now Chairman of the Federal Reserve. Those years, and the family’s escapades (including a visit to the Middle East, where Bill Jr. was gifted with a camel) are detailed in Bill Sr.’s autobiography, ‘A Time For Reflection,’ which was released in February, almost three years after his death at the age of 72 from heart disease. Was Bill Jr. greatly influenced by his father? ‘Yes, I was. He was a remarkable man. That’s why both my brother [Pete] and I wanted to go into business with him.’ Asked how he is like his dad, who has been credited with bringing an end to the energy crisis in 1974, Simon said: ‘We are both very results oriented. We don’t suffer from ‘analysis paralysis,’ which can often bog down the decision-making process.’ Asked why he wants to get back into the political fray after two disappointing tries, Simon said: ‘Cindy calls it getting out of our ‘comfort box.’ I think it’s a good thing to do, to serve your community, if you can. I applaud Jerry Brown as an example of a humble public servant. He was California governor [1975-83], now he’s mayor of Oakland, and I hear he’s going to run for attorney general.’ Asked who will tend the business (which he manages with Pete) while he’s off campaigning, Simon said: ‘One thing the gubernatorial campaign proved is that I am not necessary to this company for it to survive and continue to do well.’ His business advice to clients these days? ‘To be cautious. And focus on the cash flow.’
If citizens want significantly more police officers on city streets, they should root for a proposed initiative to raise the L.A. County sales tax by half a percent, City Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski told the Community Council last Thursday. The initiative, supported and promoted by Sheriff Lee Baca and LAPD Chief William Bratton, will go on the November ballot if enough signatures are gathered by June, said Miscikowski, and it would raise ‘a significant amount of revenue.’ One-third would go to the Baca’s office, one-third to the LAPD and one-third to the remaining cities in the county. ‘Bratton has vowed, over time, to build up an additional 2,000 officers on top of his current 9,100 officers,’ said Miscikowski, who chairs the City Council’s public safety committee. She argued that a sales tax increase is the ‘best way’ to reach this goal, given the city’s bleak financial condition. The City Council hasn’t yet endorsed Baca’s initiative, Miscikowski said, pending a review by the city’s financial analyst, and she warned that because the measure would require a two-thirds vote, ‘there will have to be a significant effort by community support groups.’ Community Council member Larry Jacobs wanted to know, ‘How do you ensure that this becomes a net increase for the police and doesn’t end up in the general fund?’ Miscikowski replied, ‘There obviously has to be a guarantee of ‘new money’ for the police department. We also want to know who will be on the oversight committee for the distribution of funds.’ In the meantime, Miscikowski said, Mayor Hahn will present his budget in April, and ‘will make public safety his number one priority’no matter how dire the [fiscal] situation.’ Council member Arthur Mortell asked Miscikowski if the city is being reimbursed by the federal government for anti-terrorism efforts that drain LAPD resources. ‘Some,’ she said. ‘The stations where traffic is stopped before entering LAX are manned by LAPD officers on overtime; the city is reimbursed by the airport and they are reimbursed by the Department of Homeland Security. But by no means are we getting reimbursed for everything. We now have a whole Home Security Bureau [with about 200 employees] that never existed before, and there are security costs at the ports and elsewhere. We have to absorb these costs.’ Miscikowski reiterated that Captain Vance Proctor, the LAPD’s new West L.A. commander, has committed to maintaining a second patrol car in Pacific Palisades (2 p.m. to 2 a.m.), a move instituted early this year in response to complaints about increasingly scarce police coverage in the community. She also reminded the audience that she and fellow councilman Jack Weiss are sponsoring a motion to ban smoking at public beaches in Los Angeles, similar to the ban passed recently by the City of Santa Monica. ‘Are there resources to patrol the beaches?’ Community Council member Marguerite Perkins Mautner wondered. ‘When we passed the no-smoking ban in restaurants and bars,’ Miscikowski said, ‘we heard the same kind of question. But we’re largely a law-abiding society’as we’ve seen with public acceptance of seat-belt laws’and the smoking ban at beaches should not require a significant police patrol to enforce. Ultimately, it’s a matter of changing the culture over time.’
Steve Guttenberg in the back garden of his home in the Highlands, with his golden Lab Bucky and Bucky’s friend, Buddy. The honorary mayor has lived in the Mediterranean-style house since 1989. Photo by Rich Schmitt, Staff Photographer
In 1989, after the phenomenal box office success of ‘Three Men and a Baby,’ actor Steve Guttenberg was in the market for a new home. While he didn’t have a clear idea of what wanted, he knew that he did not want ‘a modern house’ or ‘a house that the Beach Boys had lived in, which is not my style.’ For weeks his real estate agent had him looking all over L.A., ‘mostly at houses I knew I couldn’t afford, like the Houdini mansion in the Hollywood Hills.’ Then one day his agent said he had just the right house for him in the Pacific Palisades, a place Guttenberg had visited a couple of times but ‘didn’t really know anything about, other than it had this great Mediterranean climate.’ Then, as he and the agent made their way up Palisades Drive to the Highlands, Guttenberg remembers he suddenly felt enveloped by the mountains, ‘like we were being transported into another world. I loved the winding road and, coming from New York, the natural light and ocean air. And that was even before we got to the house. Then, as we were driving up the street I noticed that everyone’s garden was so beautiful and I thought, ‘There’s no way I can afford this! What’s my agent thinking?” By the time the two men got out of the car in front of a two-story, Mediterranean-style house, which ‘had great curb appeal,’ Guttenberg says, ‘I was already sold. And then when I walked through the front door and saw this explosion of green [the house being completely open to the back garden], I instantly knew this is where I wanted to live. The pool was full of happy kids, the garden butted up against Topanga State Park, and a circular staircase in the foyer looked like it came right out of ‘Dynasty.’ When I saw that, I was SURE I could not afford the house.’ As they walked back to the car, Guttenberg asked the agent ‘How much?’and was surprised when it turned out to be exactly the amount he knew he could afford. He immediately bought the house and has since become not only the town’s honorary mayor (since 2002) but also one of its most responsible citizens. Currently he is spearheading an effort to slow down speeders on Palisades Drive, which he says some residents have taken to ‘using as a raceway. They think they’re at the Grand Prix, or something.’ As for living in the Palisades, and his home in the Highlands, Guttenberg says: ‘It has brought me such pleasure that I think it has added years to my life. I like it so much that sometimes I don’t leave for days, unless I have to go to New York. I love the Palisades. It’s a real resort town, very different from where I come from.’ Guttenberg, who commutes regularly between New York and L.A., grew up in the working- class neighborhood of Massapequa, on the south shore of Long Island, where his parents and one of his sisters still live (the other sister lives in New Jersey). Other actors from Massapequa include Alex and Billy Baldwin and Jerry Seinfeld. ‘Jerry’s father Cal was a signmaker,’ Guttenberg recalls. ‘I used to deliver signs for him when I was a teen.’ As a teenager, Guttenberg got interested in acting after working one summer with a local children’s theater group. That fall he started taking acting classes in New York and after graduating from high school he came out to California, where within weeks he landed a Kentucky Fried Chicken commercial, and a low-budget teen flick called ‘The Chicken Chronicles.’ Within a decade he had roles in several film hits, including ‘Diner,’ ‘Cocoon,’ ‘Short Circuit,’ and ‘Police Academy.’ His latest film, ‘P.S. Your Cat Is Dead,’ which he produced, directed and co-wrote, was adapted from the Broadway hit by the late James Kirkwood, co-author of ‘A Chorus Line.’ The black comedy, with its frank exploration of sexual role playing, opened to mixed reviews. ‘The film is more deeply felt than fully realized,’ said the L.A. Times. ‘Despite strong portrayals by Guttenberg, it doesn’t come alive until it’s drawing to a close that’s unexpectedly touching.’ Guttenberg still loves the stage, where he starred in ‘The Boys Next Door’ in London’s West End, and the Tony-award winning ‘Prelude to a Kiss.’ When in New York, he takes acting, dancing and singing lessons, making the 45-minute commute back and forth to Massapequa, where he stays with his close-knit family. Asked about being bicoastal, Guttenberg says he basically has no choice. ‘Obviously I like the weather better here but my family is there, which is why I spend about half of my time in New York. But people don’t do lunch there,’ he jests. ‘There’s no Cafe Vida, which is why I have to come back to the Palisades.’ When home in the Highlands, Guttenberg, who lives alone with his 9-year-old Lab Bucky, enjoys his pool, his home gymnasium and hitting golf balls that sometimes land in the state park. He also enjoys the quiet and the privacy of his garden. ‘In fact, it’s so private I could go naked out there but I don’t, you know, being the honorary mayor and all.’ These days the actor is in rehearsals with Angelica Huston and Ben Kingsley, preparing for this Sunday’s reading of ‘Sunset Boulevard’ at the Pantages Theater to benefit the Actor’s Fund. This weekend Guttenberg also plans to do some entertaining. He’s not sure if he will cater (usually from Mort’s or the nearby Hidden Cafe), or if he’ll cook. ‘Lately, it’s been with my new wok. I might do pad thai noodles, or kung pao chicken, or sizzling vegetables. Or maybe I will grill some Chilean sea bass or wild king salmon. And I like to keep things really informal. Whether I’m entertaining a CEO or the guy who delivers my groceries, I want everyone to feel comfortable in my home.’ Guttenberg had the same attitude with GuttenHouse, a halfway house he bought and renovated for young women who have grown up in foster care and are ready to make the transition into the real world. The two-story duplex in Culver City features marble-tiled bathrooms and hardwood floors. ‘I wanted it to be a beautiful place, with positive energy,’ Guttenberg explains. In the almost three years GuttenHouse has been in operation ‘we have helped about a dozen of the girls get jobs, and get ready to go to college,’ says Guttenberg, who regards the project ‘as one of my best investments’investing in the futures of these young women. But I want to say I did not do it alone. I had a lot of people help me make it happen.’ Another investment Guttenberg would like to make, with the help of other Palisadians, is in the village, specifically on the corner of Swarthmore and Sunset. ‘Imagine if we had a multiplex movie theater where the Mobil station is now? We’d also build a donut shop, a record store and have lots of parking. It would be a place that everyone could enjoy. You know, there’s a reason I was drawn to the Palisades. There’s a real energy here. You can feel it everywhere you go. That’s why I’m proud to be the honorary mayor of this town.’ Asked how he happened to acquire this prestigious position without having to spend one dollar on campaigning, Guttenberg explains that ‘it all started with a pastrami sandwich at Mort’s!’ He later accepted the offer extended by the Chamber of Commerce.
Chuck ‘Be-Bop Charlie’ Niles, who was regarded as the voice of L.A. jazz radio, died March 15 at Santa Monica/UCLA Medical Center of complications from a stroke. He was 76. A resident of Marina del Rey at the end of his life, Niles had a great love for the beach and thoroughly enjoyed the 18 years he lived in Pacific Palisades (1966 to 1984). ”’Chuck had the perfect deeJay’s attributes’a marvelously mellifluous voice, a great sense of pacing and an innate, cool dude manner,’ said L.A. Times jazz critic Don Heckman. ‘But what really made him special was his knowledge and respect for the music, his capacity to present it with the sort of rich communicative understanding that could only have come from someone who, like Chuck, was a musician himself.’ ”Niles spun tracks on a succession of jazz radio stations, beginning with the pioneering jazz station KNOB in Los Angeles and ending on KKJZ-FM in Long Beach. More than an announcer, he was a one-man jazz university, introducing the music and its lore to generations of Southern Californians. He also served as an unofficial jazz ambassador, emceeing countless concerts, memorials and other jazz-related events. A former colleague, Ken Borgers, once called him ‘the Vin Scully, the Chick Hearn of jazz.’ A musician by training, Niles counted many of the jazz greats among his friends, and was the inspiration for several songs, including ‘Niles Blues’ by Louie Bellson and ‘Be-Bop Charlie’ by Bob Florence. That song memorialized one of his several nicknames; he also was known as ‘Carlitos Niles’ when playing Latin jazz, and Country Charlie Niles during a brief, unhappy stint on a country music station. One of the few septuagenarians who could refer to someone as a ‘cat’ without sounding foolish, Niles had a voice that seemed perfectly suited to jazz: a deep, smooth, lilting baritone that he deployed as a virtual musical instrument. He brought an extraordinary depth of knowledge to his radio broadcasts, which he sprinkled with telling anecdotes, heartfelt tributes and lots of exclamations of ‘Oh, man!’ Aside from music, his principal passion in life was acting, and his biggest regret was not having achieved greater success on stage or screen. He appeared in many local theatrical productions in the 1950s and ’60s, and had a bit part in ‘Teenage Zombies,’ which was released in 1958 and eventually won cult status as one of the worst movies ever made. Niles was proud to have been awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, although he might have preferred that it be adorned with a camera, not a microphone. Still, he took a journeyman’s joy in his radio work and resented anyone who suggested that it was a fallback career. Born Charles Neidel in Springfield, Massachusetts on June 24, 1927, Niles began playing clarinet at age 7 and was playing professional jobs on the saxophone by age 14. He broke into professional radio at WEAT in West Palm Beach, Florida. ”In 1945, with World War II nearly over, Niles enlisted in the Navy. The war ended while he was still in basic training in Florida. Niles was sent to San Diego and was briefly stationed in the South Pacific. After the Navy, he returned to music full time, playing alto sax in a jazz band, the Emanon Quartet”no name’ spelled backward. ‘How hip can you get?’ he later mused. Back in Springfield, Niles earned a degree in sociology from American International University and, in 1951, landed a job playing music on a local radio station, WTXL. By 1953, growing bored, he drove to Los Angeles. Failing to find work, he drove on to West Palm Beach, where he quickly found a job on radio station WMVD. He stayed there a year, then did a stint as a television sportscaster and dance show host before another bout of restlessness sent him back to California. It was 1956. This time, he would stay. His first job was on KFOX radio, playing rock & roll-tinged pop that wasn’t exactly his style. Next came KHJ-TV Channel 9, where he hosted afternoon movies and the ‘Strange Lands and Seven Seas’ program”You know… some guy goes to Africa, films a herd of elephants, comes back and tells me about it.’ But his real break came in 1957, when Sleepy Stein recruited him to be an announcer on what claimed to be the first all-jazz radio station in the United States: KNOB, ‘the jazz knob.’ In the meantime, Niles was pursuing acting jobs and hanging out at the Masquers Club, a theatrical club in Hollywood where, he said, he spent ‘the happiest times of my life.’ He landed roles in regional theatrical productions of ‘Harvey’ and ‘Dial M for Murder,’ among others, and played Biff in a summer stock production of ‘Death of a Salesman.’ In 1965, Niles left KNOB for KBCA, another all-jazz station that changed its call letters to KKGO in 1979. KKGO switched to classical music in 1990, and Niles left immediately for KLON-FM, the station of Cal State Long Beach, which had an all-jazz format. The station changed its name to KKJZ in August 2002. There, Niles continued to play the music that he loved, introducing Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Dexter Gordon, Horace Silver, Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald, Lionel Hampton and hundreds of other jazz luminaries to yet another generation. He is survived by his wife, Nancy Neidel, and daughter Tracy Neidel, who inherited her father’s love of music, becoming a pop and blues singer who uses the stage name Tracy Niles.
Nancy McClish Reinsch, a 65-year resident of Pacific Palisades, died peacefully in her home on March 17, after a long illness. She was 85. Born in San Francisco, Nancy spent her childhood among Sacramento, Healdsburg and Santa Cruz. Her father, Frank McClish, was a pharmacist. Her mother, Claudia Thorne, taught the developmentally disabled. After studying bacteriology at UCLA and graduating in 1939, Nancy worked at California Hospital in Los Angeles, where she met her future husband, Dr. Paul John Reinsch. Their marriage in 1941 was the first service to be held in the new parish of St. Matthew’s in Pacific Palisades. Nancy lectured in botany and bacteriology briefly at Oregon State University in Corvallis. The couple then lived in Madison, Wisconsin, following World War II, before settling permanently in the Palisades in 1948. Nancy’s greatest love was her family. In addition to her husband of 62 years, she is survived by 12 of her 14 children, 14 grandchildren, and 6 great-grandchildren. Her sons are Stuart (who lives in Berkeley), John (Fresno), James (deceased 1979), Fred (deceased 1996), Peter (Amsterdam, the Netherlands), and Michael (Los Angeles). Her daughters are Mary Sackett (Encino), Erica Dedon (Dublin), Anne (Oakland), Sigrid (Santa Clara), Jennifer Chaffiotte (Madison, CT) Molly Maguire (La Selva Beach), Maureen Montgomery (Lake Tahoe), and Lindsay Albert (Malibu). She is also survived by her sister Mary ‘Dede’ Flinn of Napa. Nancy’s other passion was her beautiful garden full of ornamental shrubs and flowers. The large garden surrounding her home expressed her love of English formal and cottage gardens as well as her knowledge of California natives. Funeral services will be held privately at St. Matthew’s Church. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to a charity of one’s choice.
The St. Matthew’s 6-8th-grade girls’ softball team has begun its season with three consecutive victories, sweeping Harvard-Westlake’s 7th- and 8th-grade teams by 3-1 and 7-5 scores and defeating Brentwood 9-0 last week in nonleague games. The Falcons are being led by returning starters from last year’s Pacific Basin League runner-up team: Katie Zacuto (8th grade), Sarah McMahon (8), Nora Crowell (8), Lizzy Porter (7) and Anne Turner (7), along with newcomer Codie Dicus (7). Pitchers Zacuto and Dicus dominated on the mound so far, combining for 20 strikeouts and allowing only two earned runs in three games. Dicus has also been a force at the plate, hitting a double, triple and home run, while Crowell has been an effective leadoff hitter with an on-base percentage of .800 and six stolen bases.’ Filling in for injured catcher Haley Greenberg is Anne Turner while sixth-grader Kristen London (6) has stepped in to start at second base and right field.’Cali Spradling, Erin Booth, Eliot Drieband and Drake Williams are also returning 8th- graders while Rylee Ebsen, Sheridan Hathaway and Clare Soley return as 7th-graders from last year’s PBL finalist squad.’
Junior Teddy Levitt placed sixth out of 132 fencers in the Cadet Men’s Sabre and 21st out of 146 fencers in the Junior Men’s Sabre class at the Junior Olympics in Cleveland, Ohio. Levitt is ranked 10th nationally for Cadet Men’s Sabre and is a potential alternate for the U.S. National team. Levitt aso took first place in his class at a tournament in San Diego last weekend. Fellow junior Mike Groth also competed at the Junior Olympics in the Cadet Men’s Sabre division and freshman Caroline Merz placed 51st in Cadet Women’s Sabre, a division with 71 fencers. Twelve-year-old Jessica L. Hammes, granddaughter of Palisadians Darlene Hammes and Jim Robinson, won her age group of the Indiana state girls swimming championship for the third straight year last Sunday. Hammes won gold medals in each of the seven events she entered (five individual events and two relays), all in top-16 national times, and set a new state record in the 100-yard breaststroke. Also a straight A student, Hammes is active on her school’s student council and has been invited to attend a political seminar in Washington, D.C. where the guest speakers will be Newt Gingrich and Janet Reno. Hammes hopes to swim at Stanford University and make the U.S. Olympic team.
Paddling back out to the lineup after catching one of the best waves of my life, I sat up on my surfboard in awe of my surroundings. Drifting away from shore with the smooth current created by the lazy Fuipisia River, I watched my friends pulling into and out of beautiful Samoan currents. It was powerful surf to be sure, only for the skillful and brave… It’s been almost three weeks since we returned from our journey to paradise and now all I can think about is going back. At first glance, the cast of characters I had assembled for my latest tour would appear as motley a crew as they come’as different a group of people as anyone could put together. There was Greg Young, a builder. There were Peter Wheeler, owner of a financial institution, and John Adams, a sales representative. Also there were environmental consultant Maureen Erbeznik, rocket scientist Tom Sprafke, commodities trader Andy Barton, fireman Brian Price, travel agent Amber Ringler and professional surfer Josh Hoyer. Lastly, there were myself, a tour operator, and my wife, Stephanie, a property manager. And while each of us had pursued a different career path, we were all drawn together by three things: ties to our hometown (collectively we have lived hundreds of years in Pacific Palisades), a love of surfing and an insatiable appetite for adventure. When I reflect on the seven-day trip, the first few days come to mind as they seemed to offer endless crystal blue ocean waves, perfectly groomed by offshore winds. We enjoyed full afternoons of surfing right- and left-hand waves directly in front of our sanctuary, Salani Surf Resort on the South Pacific island of Samoa. Of course, we had just as much fun on land. Visiting O Le Pupu-Pue National Park, home of Togitogiga waterfalls, was breathtaking, and jumping off steep cliffs into a pool created by the cold fresh water cascading down hot lava rocks was exhilarating. Standing amidst the salt-water blowhole of Tua Sua trenches afforded all of us plenty opportunity to click off photos of huge ocean waves crashing into the seaside crevices. And what would a vacation be without a day on the links? Playing golf to get through an onshore day’with no scorecards, no course map, one set of clubs for five of us and only two balls each. I even remember betting that we were the lucky group to christen the pristine course. Then, there was the camaraderie. The girls enjoying their time on the white sand beach while Peter got a massage in a shaded fale. The hot sun tanning the backs of us pale Southern Californians as we shared jokes and traded stories of with old and new friends over a delightful dinner that quenched all of my hungry desires. I remember, too, spending Sunday at Lalumanu, lounging in the shade of our fale as we drank ice cold Vailimas (Samoan beer) from the bar just a short walk away. Snorkeling in the calm coral lagoon, we were all amazed by the diversity of fish and the color and vastness of the reef, the crystal-clear water inviting time spent immersed. The cool air on my face from a woven pandanus grass fan and the adrenaline rushing through my veins while I pedaled a mountain bike to the resort and coasting down hills on the rough Samoan roads and the awe of standing at the edge of the raging Fuipisia Falls as the water circled around my ankles before plummeting down 180 feet’experiences I will relive forever. The village church service that morning was especially enlightening. The bright white hats and dresses of the Samoan women who sang beautifully in chorus with the deep-voiced Samoan men. Perhaps for our benefit the Pastor shared his powerful message in both English and passionate Samoan. But perhaps the highlight of our trip was the pure Polynesian cultural experience of Friday night’s Fia Fia celebration, a smorgasbord of traditional Samoan food, song and dance that reminded us all ust how far we were from home. Flying home relaxed, refreshed with a mind filled with memories of places, experiences, new acquaintances and old friends, waves, beaches, waterfalls and smiling Samoans, I remember most of all drifting ever so gently back into the lineup to ride a few more waves like a missile across the shallow coral reef. Editor’s Note: President of WaterWays Surf Adventures in Malibu for the past 10 years, Sean Murphy is a 35-year resident of Pacific Palisades. He grew up in the Alphabet Streets, playing in the PPBA and attending Pali Elementary, Paul Revere and Palisades High, where he graduated in 1983. His travel company offers year-round trips to exotic vacation spots like Samoa, Indonesia, Fiji and El Salvador. To book a reservation, call 888-669-SURF.
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