Search for celebrities on Ancestry.com!Dr. Arthur Ruskin
17-year Menlo Park resident
Arthur Ruskin, a Menlo Park resident since 1983, died July 5 after a brief illness. He was 89.
A native of Russia, Dr. Ruskin immigrated to the United States at the age of 13, arriving in New Rochelle, New York.
He attended the City College of New York and also New York University Medical School, later becoming a professor of cardiology at the University of Texas Medical School in Galveston.
After 21 years in Texas, he moved on to the Food and Drug Administration in Washington, D.C., where he spent 21 years before retiring and moving to Menlo Park in 1983.
Dr. Ruskin is survived by his wife Belle; daughter Lorraine and her husband Jim Adams of Denver, Colorado; son Robert and his wife Debby of Palo Alto; daughter-in-law Vicenta of Benecia; and seven grandchildren.
Philip L. Duecker
Church fund-raising consultant
Memorial services will be held Saturday, July 15, at Ladera Community Church for the Rev. Philip L. Duecker, 48, a consultant on a building campaign for St. Bede's Episcopal Church in Menlo Park. He died July 2 in a highway accident near Marysville, California.
The services will start at 10 a.m. at the church, located at 3300 Alpine Road.
A native of Columbus, Ohio, and a graduate of the University of Evansville and Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, the Rev. Duecker was a city planner for Huron, South Dakota; a pastor at Hamlet United Methodist Church in Hamlet, Indiana; and the founding pastor of the Polk City, Iowa, United Methodist Church.
A resident of Redwood City, he was president of Church Wise Consulting. Prior to that, he was a director with Ward, Dreshman and Reinhardt Inc., a philanthropic fund-raising firm.
Surviving are his wife Valerie and her children, Nathalie, Katharine and Stewart Alsop; his sister Cristine Isle; and his parents, Bishop and Mrs. R. Sheldon Duecker of Fort Wayne, Indiana.
In lieu of flowers, contributions may be sent to The Carter Center, One Copenhill, 453 Freedom Parkway, Atlanta, GA 30307; and/or MADD, Bay Area, 373 S. Monroe St., Suite 204, San Jose, CA 95128, or www3.madd.org.
Carol Dupell
Former Menlo Park resident
A memorial service for Carol Mattison Dupell, a former Menlo Park resident, will be held at 1 p.m. Wednesday, July 12, at the Menlo Park Presbyterian Church, 950 Santa Cruz Ave. in Menlo Park.
Mrs. Dupell died July 7 at her home after a battle with cancer. She was 50.
Born in Belvidere, Illinois, she lived in Palo Alto, Sacramento, Alamo and Menlo Park. Mrs. Dupell worked as a flight attendant, travel agent, and restaurant hostess.
She is survived by her children Jaime, Nate and Josh of Alamo; her parents Trim and Laurie Mattison of Menlo Park; a sister, Mary Courtney of Twin Falls, Idaho; brother Laurie Mattison of Los Altos; brother John Mattison of Salt Lake City, Utah; brother Richard Mattison of San Francisco; and her former husband Mike Dupell of Menlo Park.
The family prefers donations be made in her memory to Hospice and Palliative Care of Contra Costa, 2051 Harrison St., Concord, CA 94520.
Victor D. Wolfenbarger
Retired Raychem employee
A funeral service for Victor D. Wolfenbarger, a longtime resident of Menlo Park, will be held at 11 a.m. Wednesday, July 12, at the Woodside Chapel of Crippen and Flynn, 400 Woodside Road, in Redwood City.
Mr. Wolfenbarger died July 8 at his home in Menlo Park. He was 71. He was a native of Clovis, New Mexico, and worked as a beam operator for Raychem Corp.
Mr. Wolfenbarger is survived by his wife of 49 years, Terry; his children, Margo Colman of Belmont, Donald Wolfenbarger of Redwood City, Donna Zumbrum of Grants Pass, Oregon, and Vicki Wolfenbarger of Menlo Park; and five grandchildren.
A visitation is scheduled from 5 to 9 p.m. Tuesday, July 11, at the Woodside Chapel of Crippen and Flynn. Burial will be at Alta Mesa Memorial Park in Palo Alto.
Dale Ryman
Horseman, freeway engineer
Dale Ryman, one of Woodside's leading citizens, died July 27 of heart failure at his Woodside home. He was 87.
A memorial service for Mr. Ryman will be held at 3 p.m. Saturday, August 12, at Woodside Village Church.
The day of his service the Gary Ryman Memorial Speed Jumper Class, honoring Mr. Ryman's only son, will be held at 6 p.m. as part of the Menlo Charity Horse Show at the Menlo Circus Club.
Dale Ryman served as a civil engineer with the California State Transportation Department for 30 years and was the head construction engineer overseeing the building of Interstate 280. He also worked on massive projects such as Route 101 and Route 17.
Many Woodside residents knew Mr. Ryman for his work within the horse community. He became a member of the first Woodside Trails Committee in 1979. He was voted "Horseman, Citizen of the Year" by fellow Mounted Patrol members for building and providing maintenance for miles of trails and bridges. He served as captain of the San Mateo County Mounted Patrol in 1978.
"He's given us many years of free engineering advice," says Rick DeBenedetti, who is also a member of the Woodside Trails Committee. "Many, if not all the (trail) bridges in the town of Woodside, Dale has designed." Mr. Ryman also served on the town's roads committee, and as road commissioner during the 1980s. His long service to Woodside was recently recognized when the Town Council presented him with a proclamation saying, "Dale Ryman is an asset to the town and its equestrian community; (he) is a dynamic example of the spirit of volunteerism."
Raised on a farm in South Dakota, Mr. Ryman learned to ride a horse by the time he was 5 years old. He graduated from South Dakota State University with a degree in civil engineering. During the Depression, he worked with the Civilian Conservation Corps building irrigation systems.
He served as a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy's Combat Construction Battalion (Seebees) during World War II. During his professional career, he also worked on the Panama Canal.
Mr. Ryman loved horses and enjoyed golf and dancing. He was active for years in the Mounted Patrol and Shack riders.
Mr. Ryman is survived by his wife, Beverly Ryman of Woodside; sisters May Ryman of Lake San Marcos, California, and Castle Zick of Sioux Falls, South Dakota; stepson Bruce Singleton of Auburn; stepdaughters Carolyn Sullivan of Chico and Deborah Anderson-Smith of Eagle River, Alaska; and five grandchildren.
William Ayers
Active in youth ministry
Services will be held at 2 p.m. Wednesday, August 2, at First Baptist Church of Menlo Park, 1100 Middle Ave., for William "Will" Ayers, who died July 27 from injuries suffered in a rock climbing accident in Pinnacles National Park July 22. He was 22.
Mr. Ayers grew up in Menlo Park and attended Laurel, Encinal and Hillview schools; he graduated from Menlo-Atherton High School.
While attending Menlo-Atherton, he became involved with the high school youth group at Menlo Park Presbyterian Church. He also volunteered to help run the junior high ministry and made five mission trips through the church -- four to Mexico and one to the Dominican Republic.
Mr. Ayers graduated from Wheaton College in Illinois, where he majored in philosophy. "William learned quite a bit of theology in his philosophy classes. He enjoyed talking ... with people, and his education helped him share his beliefs and his love for Jesus," says his brother Michael, who was with him at the time of the accident.
Since college, Mr. Ayers had worked as an information services analyst at the law firm of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. He also continued to work with the high school youth group at Menlo Park Presbyterian Church.
Mr. Ayers is survived by his mother, Nancy Ayers of Menlo Park; father, David Ayers of Garland, Texas; brother, Michael of Menlo Park; and grandparents, Lois and Don VanDeventer of Prescott, Arizona. Memorials may be made to the Scholarship Fund of the First Baptist Church of Menlo Park 1100 Middle Avenue, Menlo Park 94025.
Anthony Bajada
Former machinist, musician
Anthony Bajada, a resident of Menlo Park since 1968, died in Scottsdale, Arizona, July 20. He was 97.
Born in Hamrun, Malta, Mr. Bajada served in the British Army during World War I and moved to the United States at the age of 17. He marriage Elizabeth J. Waldvogel at St. Paul of the Shipwreck in San Francisco in 1925.
He worked as a machinist, making tools and dies, but his passion was for playing the guitar, his family said. He joined the Silver Strings Orchestra in San Francisco in 1945, and when the family moved to Palo Alto in 1961, then to Menlo Park in 1968, he played with the Aurora Orchestra. He was also a member of Little House Senior Center.
Mr. Bajada is survived by his wife, Elizabeth Bajada; his daughter, Evelyn "Lynn" McCarthy of Scottsdale, Arizona; his son, George A. Bajada of San Jose; six grandchildren; 15 great-grandchildren; and one great-great-grandson.
A funeral Mass was held at St. Raymond Catholic Church, with Burial at Holy Cross Cemetery in Colma. Arrangements were by Spangler Mortuary.
Berenice Alexander
Portola Valley architect
Berenice Lapin Alexander, a resident of Menlo Park and Portola Valley since 1946, died August 5 at her home at the Sequoias. She was 88.
A celebration of her life will be held at 4 p.m., Sunday, August 13, at the Stanford Faculty Club.
Mrs. Alexander, who was known as "Bunny" since childhood, was born in Chicago. Her summers at camp fostered her love of nature, swimming, riding, and tennis, sports she pursued until she was in her 80s, according to her daughter Karen Hunter.
Mrs. Alexander graduated from Wellesley College, where she was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. After a year of study in Florence, Italy, she worked for the U.S. Soil Conservation Service in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She returned to the University of Chicago to earn a masters degree in sociology and statistics. She later worked for the Defense House Administration in Washington during World War II.
After her marriage to Myron Alexander, the family moved to Menlo Park at the war's end. Mrs. Alexander returned to school to study architecture at Stanford University and practiced architecture part-time for the next 28 years.
Specializing in residences, she designed the family's Portola Valley home, where they moved in 1959. She also designed homes in Westridge and Los Altos Hills. Her work was influenced by a love of the architecture of Japan, where she traveled many times, according to her daughter. She was also interested in Japanese sumi-e painting and calligraphy.
Mrs. Alexander was a member of the League of Women Voters, the Palo Alto Auxiliary to Children's Hospital, and Stanford University's community committee for international students and office for international visitors. She was an early president of the West Bay Wellesley Club.
Survivors include her husband, Myron of Portola Valley; daughters, Karen Alexander Hunter of Tallahassee, Florida; Eden Alexander and husband, Tim Wahl, of Bellingham, Washington; and two grandchildren. A son, Jonathan, preceded her in death.
Memorials may be made to the Berenice Lapin Alexander Architectural Fund, Wellesley College, 106 Central Street, Wellesley, Massachusetts 02481.
Jean Simpson
Menlo Park author
Jean Marshall Simpson, who lived in Menlo Park for more than 40 years, died August 5 at the Los Altos Sub-Acute and Rehabilitation Center in Los Altos. She was 89.
Mrs. Simpson was a native of Tuxedo Park, New York, and a descendant of Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall. As a young woman she worked as a writer for Family Circle magazine and wrote a Family Circle publication on "youth and charm." She also co-authored a book, "Talk It Out with Your Child." Between the 1930s and 1950s she was well-known in New York's literary and cultural circles, according to longtime friend, Robert Rockett.
She was marriage to Baron Peter Von Simpson, a member of a prominent German family, who preceded her in death. The couple lived in San Francisco and Beirut, Lebanon, before moving to Menlo Park in the late 1950s.
In Menlo Park, Mrs. Simpson continued her writing and had recently completed her memoirs. She was "a people person" and noted for her Christmas and St. Patrick's Day parties which she continued until her last illness, says Mr. Rockett.
Mrs. Simpson leaves no survivors. Private services were held with arrangements by the Los Altos Chapel of Spangler Mortuaries. Memorials may be made to the First Congregational Church of Palo Alto, 1985 Louis Road, Palo Alto 94303.
Mildred Murphy
Menlo Park businesswoman
Mildred "Midge" Murphy, who had lived in Menlo Park and Atherton for the past 48 years, died August 2 at her Menlo Park. She was 96.
A widow for 50 years (her husband P.J. Murphy died in 1950), Mrs. Murphy was active in her business, Miller-Murphy Properties, until recently.
A second-generation Californian, Mrs. Murphy was born in Jamestown and grew up in Modesto. As a young woman she worked for a country doctor, even delivering babies on her own, according to her son Pat. In her youth she enjoyed dancing, performing in plays, and flying a private plane. When staying at the family Lake Tahoe summer home, she swam in the lake every day up into her 80s, her son recalls.
Mrs. Murphy is survived by son Paul C. "Pat" and his wife Patty of San Francisco; son Covert and his wife Beth of Oakland; four grandchildren; and longtime caregiver Margaret Paulo. Two sons, John W. and Peter Dixon, preceded her in death.
A Mass of Christian Burial was held August 7 at St. Denis Catholic Church in Menlo Park, with Burial in Holy Cross Cemetery, Menlo Park. Donations may be made to the American Cancer Society, 1650 South Amphlett Blvd., Suite 110, San Mateo, 94402; or Hanna Boys Center, P.O. Box 100, Sonoma, 95476-0100, or a charity of choice.
Dale W. Gruye
Former Portola Valley resident
Dale W. Gruye died July 12 at his home in Bigfork, Montana, of cancer. He was 70.
Mr. Gruye, a native of Minneapolis, Minnesota, moved to the Bay Area in 1960. He was an industrial design engineer with Hewlett-Packard in Palo Alto, and the family resided in Portola Valley.
In 1966 he co-founded Gruye-Vogt Organization (GVO), an industrial design and product development firm. After 18 years with GVO, he formed his own firm, Gruye Associates.
In 1995, the Gruyes moved to Bigfork, Montana, where he constructed a home and studio and continued his professional design consultation.
Mr. Gruye is survived by his wife Ann of Bigfork; daughter Dana Pittman of August, Georgia; son Eric of Santa Cruz; brother Glenn of Minneapolis; and sister Virginia Cates of Antioch.
Donations may be made to the American Diabetes Association, P.O. Box 996911, Washington, D.C., 200990-6911.
Dr. Alec MacKenzie
Palo Alto surgeon
Dr. Alec MacKenzie, a general surgeon who practiced at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation for more than 40 years, died of cancer at his Menlo Park home on August 7. He was 85.
Born in Yokohama, Japan, he came from Scotland to California in 1927 when his family established a home in Palo Alto. He graduated from Stanford University and the Stanford School of Medicine, after which he served in the U.S. Navy Medical Corps during World War II. After the war, he returned to Stanford for advanced surgical training, joining the Palo Alto Medical Clinic in 1950.
The family recalls Dr. MacKenzie as a caring, optimistic and generous man, who derived great pleasure from his large and close-knit family. He loved the High Sierra and all aspects of the natural world, says his son David MacKenzie.
Dr. MacKenzie is survived by his wife of 59 years, Miriam of Menlo Park; daughter Alexandra Standing of Sunnyvale; five sons: David of Palo Alto, James of Atherton, William of Menlo Park, Duncan of College Station (Texas), and Donald of Newark; eight grandchildren; and brother David MacKenzie of Los Altos Hills.
A private family gathering was held. Memorial donations may be made to: the Stanford Hospice, 300 Pasteur Drive, mail code 5520, Stanford, 94305; the Peninsula Open Space Trust, 3000 Sand Hill Road, Building 4, Suite 135, Menlo Park 94025; or to a charity of the donor's choice.
Walter Carl Brune Jr.
PG&E executive
Walter Carl Brune Jr., a longtime resident of Atherton and Menlo Park, died August 6 at age 76.
Mr. Brune was born in Manila, Philippines, and moved to San Francisco with his family at age 10. He was a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley and Stanford University, where he received an MBA. He was a member of Alpha Delta Phi fraternity.
An officer in the U.S. Marines, he ended his duty in China just after World War II.
Mr. Brune worked for Pacific Gas & Electric Co., where his 30-year career included jobs in advertising, public relations, lobbying and marketing.
After he marriage his high school sweetheart, Mary Lou Patton, in 1947, they raised four sons while living in Atherton. They later retired to Menlo Park where they resided in Sharon Heights.
Mr. Brune was an active Stanford University alumnus, serving as co-chairman of the class of 1946 for 50 years, and corresponding secretary of the MBA class of 1949 for more than 25 years. For the past six years he was a patient relations associate at Stanford Medical Center.
Mr. Brune is survived by three sons: Peter of Vista, Philip of Roseville, and Michael of Antelope; and three grandchildren. His wife, Mary Lou, died in 1990.
Private services were held. Memorials may be made to Community and Patient Relations, Stanford Medical Center, Suite H1401, 300 Pasteur Drive, Palo Alto, 94305.
Daniel Patrick Grady
Former Portola Valley resident
Daniel Patrick Grady, a medical technician and former resident of Portola Valley, died July 10 in Lake Comanche, California. He was 41.
Mr. Grady was born on May 16, 1959, in Redwood City, and later attended elementary school in Portola Valley. He graduated from Woodside High School in 1977, and served in the U.S. Navy from 1977 to 1980. He moved to Amador County in 1985, and was a medical technician assistant at Mule Creek Adult Correctional Facility in Ione at the time of his death.
Mr. Grady was active in the California Correctional Peace Officers Association and the Correctional Peace Officers Foundation. He also served as the chief job steward for the Medical Technical Assistant Union, and was a volunteer firefighter for the Jackson Valley Fire Department for several years.
He is survived by his wife Marilou of Volcano; son Rory and daughter Kayla of Volcano; brothers Ed of Sutter Creek and Mike of Redwood City; and his parents, Pat and Agnes of Sutter Creek.
A memorial service was held at the Church of the Nazarene in Sutter Creek. Mr. Grady was buried
at the Sunset View Cemetary in Jackson.
