The Memorial Wall

George Tcharos, 87, of Cathedral City, California passed away on March 11, 2017 in Cathedral City. He was born on April 17, 1929, to Nikolaos Tsororos and Aristea Loumakis in Quebec City, Canada.

He married Emily Pappas on April 17, 1966 in Quebec City. He was a restaurateur and sales representative in the wholesale foods business (Center Meat Company) for over 45 years. He was Provincial Scout Commissioner and Troop Master in Canada, a Master Mason-Scottish Rite 33rd degree, founder and community organizer for both the Greek Orthodox Church communities of the Annunciation in Quebec City, Canada & St. George Greek Orthodox Church in Palm Desert, CA. He served in the Royal 57th Battery from 1944-1948 as a Reservist.

He is survived by spouse, Emily Tcharos of Cathedral City; daughter, Stefanie Tcharos (Matthew) Kourakis; son; Nicolas (Ariadne Sarros) Tcharos; grandchildren, Jacob Kourakis, Anisia Kourakis, Theoharis Tcharos, and Alexander Tcharos; as well as many nieces, nephews, cousins, godchildren, and loving friends.

Bill was born on May 13, 1937 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - the oldest of four children. His education consisted of graduating from Villanova University with a degree in Electrical Engineering.  He graduated from Notre Dame with his Masters and then went on to receive his doctorate in Electrical Engineering at Notre Dame.  After obtaining a fellowship at Purdue University he went on to work for the state department overseas for several years in Moscow in the 60’s and later Frankfurt Germany.  He was never able to tell us what his job was overseas. He came back to the states and continued working for companies that contracted with the US Government until his retirement.  

He was an avid Sculler and rowed in college on the Schuylkill River and then rowed regularly on the Potomac.  When he wasn’t rowing he cycled and walked everywhere! He bought his first house in Arlington, Virginia where he met and married Rosanne. He was 50 years old.  They traveled extensively and it seemed it was blissful for them - until he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s at age 55.  He had gone to see a physician for bone spurs because he was having trouble walking and his one foot was dragging…

Bill had Parkinson’s for 25 years and never once complained.  He never gave up hope that he would beat this hideous disease.  His spirits were always good and his wife, Rosanne, along with the family, were there and gave him much support.  Our mother was in her 90’s by the time Bill and Rosanne sold their home and moved to Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania to be near her and our brother Bob and his wife, Deni, who were also living there.  Unfortunately, there was no support for the family or spouse so what we learned about Parkinson’s we learned through our own research and muddled about as much as we could.  Our mother passed away in 2004 and his three siblings are still alive.  His wife, Rosanne passed away on Thursday February 10, 2022.

We miss Bill every day and whenever his name is mentioned it always brings a smile…

Elliot M. Finkle: October 16, 1940 – January 31, 2017. Resident of Los Gatos Elliot Finkle died peacefully in his home. Born in Newport News, Virginia, he attended medical school at the University of VA in Charlottesville, specializing in radiology. He served in the U.S. Army as a physician in the Vietnam war. He married the love of his life, Betty, and moved to California soon after. Elliot was a respected radiologist for 30 years with the San Jose Radiological Medical Group. He and his wife of 48 years raised two loving children in Los Gatos.

He was a very adventurous man. He loved sailing, whitewater kayaking, flying small airplanes, scuba diving, motorcycle riding, rock climbing, hang-gliding, among many other outdoor activities. Elliot fought a courageous battle with Parkinson’s. He will always be remembered for his quiet, kind, selfless, and gentle ways as well as all of the laughter he brought through his wit and dry sense of humor.

He is survived by his wife, Betty, his son Kevin, his daughter Amy, his granddaughter Makiah, and two grand-doggies Willow and Ginger.

Claude Michel Steiner PhD, Clinical Psychologist, was born a Jew in Paris France, January 6th 1935. He died, on January 9 th 2017, in comfort and with dignity, on the shore of Pennyroyal Lake on his Round Mountain Ranch in Ukiah California, surrounded by family and nature’s beauty. For over a decade he struggled with the subtle and brutally relentless disability from Parkinson’s disease. His final words before peacefully dying were “Love is the Answer” and “I’m so lucky”. He is the author of the Warm Fuzzy Tale and Achieving Emotional Literacy among numerous other books. These two books embody his theories of emotional intelligence, about which he lectured and gave workshops around the world. He is survived by his children, Noemi Mimi Doohan, Eric Steiner and Denali Nicholson Lumma; his wife Jude Steiner Hall; his grandchildren Matthew Doohan, Bella Doohan, Alex Steiner, Mariel Steiner, Adric Lumma and Dylan Lumma; his siblings Miguel Steiner and Kati Quibell; and his nieces Allyson Quibell Wilinsky, Valeska Steiner, Cecilia Steiner and nephew Julian Quibell. 

John F. Stone, age 79, of Palm Desert, CA, formerly of Minneapolis, MN,  joined our Heavenly Father in the early morning hours of December 31, 2016.

John was the love of Phyllis’ life, and will be remembered by his kids as a committed, loving father and grandfather.  John was born on December 24, 1937, in Bismarck, North Dakota. He attended the University of North Dakota for both his undergraduate degree and law degree. During his college years, he had his own dance band called “John Stone and the Pebbles.”

He was invited to play his trombone for Lawrence Welk, but declined the opportunity to follow his dream of practicing law, a profession he enjoyed for over 30 years. John had a passion for volunteer activities.

He served for many years with the Minneapolis Aquatennial, the Minneapolis YMCA, St. John’s Ecumenical Institute,  Colonial Church of Edina, and Silver Sands Racquet Club in Palm Desert, CA.

He is survived by wife, Phyllis; children, Brad Stone (Claudia), Shelley Appel (Todd), and Pamela Stone; grandchildren, Cameron, Michael, Devin, Brittany, Brooke, Kyle, and Alexander;  and brother, Richard Stone.  He was preceded in death by parents, J. Lloyd and Grace Stone, and brother, Jim Stone.

Loving memories of John: 

• Floating on the dance floor with Phyllis to the tunes of  big bands
• Poppy playing with his grandchildren in the swimming pool.
• Returning Dad’s frustrating, spinning drop shots on the tennis court.
• Riding a float in the 1976 Rose Bowl Parade as Commodore of the Minneapolis Aquatennial.
• December 24 was a celebration of John Stone’s birthday first, and Christmas Eve second.
• John was revered for his holiday punch, BOOM!
• Dad was the best Santa ever: cookies and milk left by the fire, Christmas mornings with presents stacked to the ceiling. He always exclaimed ‘Santa had come!’
• En route to the family cabin in Detroit Lakes, MN we always stopped at our favorite restaurant in Little Falls for chocolate milk shakes and greasy burgers. The cabin was the place for many family reunions and lasting memories.
• John enjoyed membership in several Minneapolis area clubs, where he entertained his clients and spoiled his family and friends. John loved backgammon and gin rummy. He  had a passion for travel.
• He had an uncomplicated faith in God, a generous spirit, and a steady, unconditional love for all.
• Rest in Peace Poppy.

In John’s honor, the Stone family requests donations be made to the Parkinson's Resource Organization. All proceeds go toward continuing our outreach, support and educational efforts for those dealing Parkinson’s. Thank you in advance for remembering John and honoring his request.

Leonard Hirsch Rudolph, 89, of Palm Desert, California, died on December 31, 2016.

Len was born and raised in Superior, Wisconsin, the son of Maurice and Evelyn Rudolph. After attending the University of Minnesota and serving in the U.S. Army, he returned from Japan and moved to Duluth, Minnesota. There he worked in the family owned retail furniture business, becoming the General Manager from 1955 - 1971. What started as a small operation grew to become one of Duluth's largest home furnishings centers.

In 1971, Len changed careers and opened his own firm called "Len Rudolph Insurance". He was the proprietor of this company until 1990 when he merged it with another agency, forming Young and Rudolph. After moving from Duluth to Palm Desert in 1992 he continued working as an independent insurance agent. He was still working in this capacity, tirelessly serving his clients, just prior to his death.

Len was very involved locally in both Duluth and Palm Desert. In Duluth he volunteered with many organizations: He was an active member of the Rotary Club; founded in 1968 and Co-Chaired the University Artist Series from 1968-1971 at the University of Minnesota, Duluth; served on the Board of Trustees of the College of St. Scholastica from 1983-1992; was a member and eventual President of Northland Country Club; worked as a member and President of the Board of Directors of the Woodland Hills Residential Treatment Center for Boys and Girls from 1973-1981; and was on the Board of Directors of the Jewish Federation and Community Council of Duluth from 1979-1986.

One of Len's keen interests was developing Duluth as a convention and tourist center. He was a leader in the establishment of the Duluth Arena Auditorium and served as a Member and President of its Administrative Board from 1968-1974. Other organizations with which he was involved were the Duluth-Superior Symphony Opera Presentations (1963-1965); Temple Israel Congregation (Board of Trustees 1967-69); Board of Directors of the Northland Capitol Corporation (a small business investment company) from 1967-1975; and Board of Directors, Duluth Athletic Club (1969-1972).

Len and his wife Phyllis Rudolph moved to Palm Desert, California full time in 1992. There he continued his civic involvement in a number of ways. He remained an active member of the Rotary Club, serving on the Board of Directors of the Rancho Mirage Club from 1995-1997. He also served as a Board Member of Ironwood Country Club, as well as of its Homeowners Association #8, of which he was President from 1995-97. To diversify his activities, he volunteered as a Docent at the Living Desert from 1995 until 2015. He also assisted with financial management as a volunteer at the local Parkinson's Organization office and was a member of Temple Sinai.

Leonard was known for his honesty, warmth, kindness, generosity, sense of humor, and willingness to work hard for those organizations and causes that were important to him. He was a true gentleman who deeply loved his family and friends.

Len is survived by his wife of 68 years, Phyllis Rudolph, of Palm Desert, CA; his daughter Paula Rudolph and her partner Mark French, of Santa Barbara, CA; his grandson Adam Whiteley and wife Rhyana, of Bozeman, Montana; his granddaughter Sara Whiteley Crompton and her husband Chris, of Denver, Colorado; and his great grandson Beckett Crompton of Denver, Colorado. He was pre-deceased by his brother Burton Rudolph in 2007 and his son James Alan Rudolph in 2011.

Leonard was the Bookkeeper, Insurance Agent, and a great friend to Jo Rosen and her dog Missy at the PRO Office for 23 years. He is missed every day.

If life were simply the sum of career titles and industry awards, Gordon Hunt, who left us this past Saturday, December 17th, would have already won the game. From New York to Hollywood, he directed for stage, film, and television, winning a Director's Guild of America Award for his work on the hit comedy, Mad About You.

For over a decade, he was casting director for LA's Mark Taper Forum. He taught a master acting class that produced such talents as his Academy Award-winning daughter Helen Hunt and Emmy Award winner Jonathan Banks. He was a pioneer of voiceover recording at the legendary Hanna-Barbera Studios. His summer musicals at the Hollywood Bowl always drew full houses and rave reviews.

A master of reinvention, when television work slowed, he turned to video games and became a pioneer in the field of motion capture technology, which included the "Uncharted" series, one of the best-selling video games of all time. And as a voice actor, he was Wally in the animated adaptation of the comic strip "Dilbert." But, as anyone who ever knew him will attest, Gordon was so much more than his work and his awards. Born on April 26, 1929, in Pasadena, California, he was the third of four children. His father George was a successful furniture designer.

His mother Helen died when the boy was only four, the victim of a drunk driver. At age five, the self-described "shy kid" discovered Rachmaninoff, listening incessantly with his best friend, art historian, Helen Kellogg. He grew up fascinated by music and the theatre, leading to a Liberal Arts degree from UCLA. From 1947 to 1949, he stage-managed a small theatre in Pasadena, developing an interest in directing which paid off in surprising ways.

When he entered the U.S. Army in 1954, he got out of a good amount of basic training by telling his commanding officer that he wanted to make a documentary about him. Going on to helm a series of talent showcases with some of his Army buddies, he took the show on the road, which brought him to Hollywood in 1956 as an associate producer on the Oscar Levant Show. And a career was born. From his early days sipping Remy Martin in piano bars and cruising the streets of Los Angeles in a Corvette, to his later years of meditation, Pilates, and reading Ram Dass, everything he did, he did full-out -- because he was passionate about life. About art. About people.

Before he became a casting director for The Taper, actors needed an agent to audition and a specific role to read for. So Gordon initiated a policy of regular, open auditions for both equity and non-equity actors who merely wanted to be seen. That love of the acting profession and his support and encouragement for those who do it was evident in his approach. He advised every actor to plan something fun for right after their audition. And if a nervous actor said, "I hope they like me", he suggested they say "I hope I like them" instead. He later compiled those lessons into How To Audition, the definitive how-to manual in the field, being re-issued this week as an e-book with a foreword by his daughter Helen.

Beyond his work, Gordon was an avid body surfer, a regular visitor to Santa Monica Bay from the age of six and on into his 80's. He worshipped Bruce Springsteen and was a brilliant wordsmith himself, writing songs including the beautiful "Errol Flynn" about his childhood hero, with music by Grammy-winner Amanda McBroom. He was the consummate host and chef, friends counting themselves extremely lucky to be invited to the house for an evening concert-with-tacos or a brunch of "Opera and Omelets", the eggs from Gordon and the opera from his loving wife, BJ Ward. As he left us this past weekend, BJ asked what his final wish might be. What could she do for him? "Laugh," he said. For all who knew and loved him, that is so Gordon.

He is survived by wife BJ Ward; devoted daughter Helen Hunt; step-daughter Colleen Morrison Hunt; brother George Hunt III; brother Peter Hunt and Peter's children Max, Daisy, and Amy; grandchildren Makena Lei Gordon Carnahan, Emmett Carnahan, and god-daughter Lizzie Gordon. A documentary film, Pebbles, Ripples, and Waves, which chronicles Gordon Hunt's life is set to be released in 2017.

Janet Reno, who has died aged 78, was the first woman attorney general of the US. Appointed by Bill Clinton in 1991, she served throughout his two terms of office, the second longest tenure in American history. It made her a figure of stability in a cabinet often in flux and frequently rocked by the steady stream of partisan attacks on both President Clinton and the first lady, Hillary Clinton, most notably the Whitewater investigation.

Never part of Clinton’s inner circle, Reno displayed great independence, and her courage to stand behind decisions she felt were right often left her vulnerable to critics from both sides of the political fence. Her controversial decisions included the assault on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas; the return of the six-year-old Elián González to Cuba; the anti-monopoly prosecution of Microsoft and a racketeering lawsuit against the tobacco industry to recover the healthcare costs of treating smokers. Each time she would stand behind her actions publicly, often quoting Harry Truman’s “the buck stops here”.

Born in Miami, she was the daughter of two of the city’s journalists. Her father, born Henry Rasmussen, came to the US as a child from Denmark; his parents reportedly chose the more American name Reno from a map. He worked as a crime reporter on the Miami Herald for 43 years. Her mother, Jane Wood, was a reporter on the Miami News, and a naturalist famed locally for wrestling alligators. When Janet was eight and she and her three siblings moved to a home on the edge of the Everglades, her mother built their new house herself.

Janet was debate champion at Coral Gables high school and left Cornell University in 1960 with a degree in chemistry; commentators sometimes noted her almost scientific approach to both the law and to the facts of a case. She graduated from Harvard law school in 1963, one of only 16 women in her class, but when she returned to Miami she was turned down by the city’s most prestigious firm, Steel Hector & Davis. After opening her own firm, in 1971 she was appointed counsel to the Florida state house of representatives’ judicial committee and, in 1972, she lost in a race for a state house seat.

But she was offered a job by Richard Gerstein, the state attorney for Dade County, which includes Miami. She informed Gerstein that her father thought he was a crook; he replied that that was why she had been offered the job. Although she left the office briefly in 1976, when offered a partnership by the same firm who had rejected her 13 years earlier, she returned, and when Gerstein retired she was appointed to his job, a difficult one given Miami’s high crime rate and racial conflicts.

She prosecuted a number of high-profile child abuse cases where doubts over convictions led to changes in the ways such cases were handled. Most tellingly, she brought charges against five white policemen for beating a black insurance salesman to death. Their acquittal in 1980 (by a judge and jury in Tampa) sparked rioting in Miami during which 18 people died. Reno resisted calls for her resignation, instead working for improved relations with the black community.

Bill Clinton offered Reno the attorney general’s post after his first two choices, Zoë Baird and Kimba Wood, both withdrew because they had hired undocumented immigrants as nannies.

Before she had taken office in 1993, David Koresh and his Branch Davidian sect of the Seventh Day Adventist church began a showdown against federal agents seeking to search their Waco compound for illegal weapons. Ten people, including four agents from the ATF, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, were killed when they tried to serve a warrant in February. In April, Reno ordered a full-scale assault on the compound in which Koresh and 75 other people, many of them children, died. She was criticized fiercely by the right, for murdering American “patriots”, and by the left for claiming she feared children were being abused by the Davidians. Reno took full responsibility; in 2004 she said that “the tragedy is we will never know what was the right thing to do”.

In 1994 Reno appointed a special prosecutor, the Republican Robert B Fiske, to investigate the Clintons’ real estate deal known as Whitewater, but Fiske was viewed by the right as too bipartisan, and Congress empowered an independent counsel, George HW Bush’s former solicitor general Kenneth Starr, to replace him. Starr’s investigations ran for five years, resulting in the impeachment and acquittal of Bill Clinton for lying about his sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky. In the middle of Whitewater, Reno refused to appoint another prosecutor to investigate the Clintons’ campaign financing, saying the was no evidence to justify such calls.

Her efforts against Big Tobacco ran head on into powerful voices in Congress funded by the industry in the states they represented. In 1998 she pursued the suit against Microsoft despite critics who claimed the issues were “too complicated” for juries to understand.

But her political legacy was again sealed by a raid, in the case of González, the Cuban boy found in an inner tube off the coast of Florida after his mother was one of 10 people who drowned when the small boat in which they left Cuba sank. González’s relatives in Miami refused to send him back to his father (from whom his mother was divorced) in Cuba. The boy, who later said he had wanted to return, became a political football, until the family refused to follow a court order, and Reno ordered a pre-dawn raid on their house in which Elián was seized and returned to his father. The attorney general who believed so strongly in the facts and the law was again left with no option but the use of governmental force.

Over six feet tall and resolutely lacking glamour, Reno was a figure of cruel abuse on rightwing talk radio, and a somewhat gentler satire on Saturday Night Live, where Will Ferrell’s skits of “Janet Reno’s Dance Party” were a running gag. After leaving office in 2001, Reno showed a more relaxed side to her character by appearing on the show alongside Ferrell.

In 2002, Reno mounted a challenge to Florida’s Republican governor, Jeb Bush, but she lost the Democratic primary to Bill McBride.

Reno had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 1995. In later years she served on numerous boards, including that of The Innocence Project, and devoted herself to her extended family.

She is survived by her sister Maggy. Loretta Lynch, the second woman to serve as US attorney general praised Reno, saying “She was guided by one simple test, to do what the law and the facts required... regardless of which way the political winds were blowing.”

From The Guardian

Harriet Neufeld Williams, a co-founder of Literary Women and its annual Festival of Authors and a former longtime Long Beach Unified school board member who advocated for children and championed literature to generations of new readers, died Oct. 14 after battling Parkinson’s disease and rheumatoid arthritis. She was 89.

Williams was the eldest of five children, born in Oakland to Katharine and William Neufeld on Dec. 4, 1926. Her father was a military man, and the family moved back and forth across the country. Her mother, a school teacher, died when Williams was just 8 years old. It was a transformative time in her young life, said Kit Williams, one of her children.

“After her mother died, she figured she was the mother of the house,” Kit Williams said. “After the funeral, she came home and cleaned the house, and that set the stage for her life. She was always taking care of other people, helping others and putting others first. That’s her legacy.”