Search for celebrities on Ancestry.com!Edelgard Wolfert
Longtime Portola Valley resident
Edelgard K. Wolfert, a resident of Portola Valley for 37 years, died May 23. She was 73.
Born in Singen, Germany, she immigrated to the United States in 1958.
Mrs. Wolfert is survived by her husband Paul Wolfert, her daughter Maria Celentano of Redwood City, her sons Paul J. Wolfert of Danville and Peter Wolfert of Westlake Village, and eight grandchildren.
A memorial Mass was held May 29 at Our Lady of the Wayside in Portola Valley.
Sister Mary Musante
Corpus Christi Monastery prioress
Sister Mary of the Trinity, O.P. died May 24 at the age of 92.
Born Catherine Antoinette Musante in San Francisco, the daughter of Antoinette Draghjcevich and Dr. Attilo Musante, she graduated from St. Brigid's Academy in 1928 and earned a bachelor's and master's degree from Stanford University.
For nine years she taught languages. She was the director of the Catholic Theatre Guild, a leader in the study club movement in the archdiocese, and a pianist and mezzo-soprano soloist.
Sister Mary entered the Dominican cloister at Corpus Christi Monastery in Menlo Park in 1942 and made her profession of vows in 1947. She filled many charges, including mistress of novices.
She was elected prioress for six terms, for a total of 18 years. As prioress, she guided the community through the changes of Vatican II.
Her life was acknowledged in the 14th edition of "Who's Who of American Women."
Sister Mary is survived by her brother Victor Musante, a nephew, a niece, a grandniece and three grandnephews.
A Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated May 26 in the chapel of the Dominican Nuns at Corpus Christi Monastery.
Arrangements were by Cusimano Family Colonial Mortuary, Mountain View.
Nellie Jo Iverson
Bay Area volunteer
Nellie Jo Iverson of Menlo Park died at her home May 23. She was 73.
Mrs. Iverson supported many organizations, including the Republican Women, the Children's Health Council, and Hope House in Redwood City.
"Nellie had the gift of helping people overcome tough life challenges and move on with their lives in productive ways," said Karen Francone, program director of Hope House. "She impacted many people and touched many hearts."
Mrs. Iverson and her husband Milton contributed to Stanford University athletic programs and facilities, including Maples Pavilion. They supported many athletes in basketball, football, volleyball and water polo. Originally from Lancaster, Texas, Mrs. Iverson lived on the Midpeninsula for 52 years with her husband.
Mrs. Iverson is survived by her four children: Steve Iverson of Redding, Kristine Valk of Redwood City, Ann Iverson of San Carlos, and Bruce Iverson of Salt Lake City; her sister Martha Jean Kolar; and her brother Sheldon Smart.
Services were held May 29 at Unity Palo Alto Community Church in Palo Alto.
The family suggests donations to Pathways Hospital, 201 San Antonio Circle, Suite 135, Mountain View 94040; Hope House, 3789 Hoover St., Redwood City 94063; or Unity Church, 3391 Middle Road, Palo Alto 94306.
Arrangements were by Menlo Park Chapel of Spangler Mortuaries.
Steven Gerolde
Purple Heart recipient
Steven Gerolde of Menlo Park died May 19. He was 86.
A native of El Paso, Texas, he was a graduate of the University of Southern California. He served as a navigator in the Army Air Corps and received the Purple Heart.
Mr. Gerolde was a designer of fine contemporary jewelry and used the lost wax casting method.
He was preceded in death by his wife, Sue L. Gerolde. He is survived by his child, Leslie Gerolde of Palo Alto.
Services will be held in July in Fort Worth, Texas.
Arrangements were by Roller, Hapgood & Tinney, Palo Alto.
Howard W. King
Menlo Park Presbyterian Church elder
Howard W. King, former resident of Menlo Park since 1950, died June 1. He was 93.
Mr. King was born in Owensdale, Pennsylvania.
He was an active member of Menlo Park Presbyterian Church, where he served as elder, taught Sunday school, and participated in the church jail visitation ministry.
Mr. King was preceded in death by Georgette King, his wife of 64 years; his daughter Claudia Morriss; and grandson Brian Falkenberg.
He is survived by son David L. King of San Jose; daughter Donna Giboney of Dayton, Nevada; and four grandchildren.
Services were to be held at 10 a.m. June 4 at Menlo Park Presbyterian Church in Menlo Park, with final Interment services at Alta Mesa Cemetery, Palo Alto.
Roller Hapgood and Tinny of Palo Alto were in charge of arrangements.
Edward R. Verga
Veteran and Jaguar enthusiast
Edward R.Verga, a World War II veteran and an active member of the Italian-American community, died Friday, June 7, at his residence in Menlo Park, where he lived for 48 years. He was 78. A memorial service will be held at 8 p.m. Wednesday, June 12, at the Menlo Park Chapel of Spangler Mortuaries at 655 Live Oak Ave.
Mr. Verga, a native of San Francisco, served in the U.S. Army 75th Infantry Division during World War II, relatives said, adding that Mr. Verga returned to Europe not long ago to revisit war-time sites in Belgium and France.
He marriage his wife Fernanda (Fern) Ferrari in 1949 in San Francisco. They moved to Menlo Park in 1955 and he went to work for what was then called the Menlo Park Sanitary District, since renamed the West Bay Sanitary District, from which he retired in the 1980s as an assistant foreman.
Mr. Verga was a member of the Jaguar Club, a club for owners of the British cars, and he owned a white 1961 Mark III Jaguar, which he restored and which won several prizes, relatives said.
Mr. Verga belonged to the Italian-American Social Club of Menlo Park and the Italian Catholic Federation #351 of Menlo Park.
His wife, Fernanda, died in 1993. Mr. Verga is survived by his daughter Carla Fagnini of Menlo Park; his son Robert of Menlo Park; and five grandchildren.
The family requests donations be made to: Mission Hospice, 151 West 20th Ave. in San Mateo, CA 94404-1301; or to the St. Raymond School, 100 Santa Cruz Ave., Menlo Park CA 94025.
Victoria Jadez
Retreat Center program coordinator
A memorial service will be held Sunday, June 16, at 1:30 p.m. at Vallombrosa Center, 250 Oak Grove, Menlo Park, for Victoria Jadez, a former resident of Palo Alto, who died June 2 in Claremont, California, at the age of 75.
Ms. Jadez was the program coordinator for 27 years at Vallombrosa Retreat Center, where she was known as "VJ," until she retired to Claremont in 1999.
Born on Long Island, New York, she started her career at the American Broadcasting Co. in New York City in the News and Special Events Department.
Ms. Jadez became a member of The Grail, an international laywomen's ecumenical movement, at age 23 and worked in Grail centers in Ohio, New Jersey and New York.
She embodied the true spirit of hospitality with her welcoming smile, and listening heart, said her friend Carol Nosko. Ms. Jadez was a Zen mediator with the Mercy Center group, said Ms. Nosko.
She is survived by her sister Florence Luckey of Morris Plans, New Jersey, and two nieces and two nephews.
Memorial gifts can be sent to The Grail of California, PO Box 3045, San Jose, California 95116.
Marcie Patricia Corcoran
Woodside schools graduate
Marcia Patricia Corcoran, daughter of Pat and Bernice Corcoran of Menlo Park, died June 6 in Oakdale, California, after a long illness. She was 43.
Born in San Francisco, Ms. Corcoran graduated from Woodside elementary and high schools. She lived in Tuolomne County for 25 years.
Ms. Corcoran is survived by her parents; daughter Georgiana Corcoran of Utah; sister Diane Serrano of Sonora, with whom she lived for many years; sister Carol Williams of La Honda; brother Pat Corcoran of Hollister; and nieces and nephews.
Services were to be held June 10 at Tuolomne Chapel in Tuolomne City. Internment was to be at Carter's Cemetery in Tuolomne City. Arrangements were made by Terzich & Wilson Funeral Home of Sonora.
John A. Turner
Industrial psychiatry pioneer
John A. Turner, a longtime resident of Woodside and Menlo Park, died May 29 at the age of 84.
A pioneer in the field of industrial psychiatry, Dr. Turner spent half of his career consulting with some of the largest corporations in the world. In the 1960s he was instrumental in restructuring San Francisco General Hospital. For many years, he served on the San Francisco Board of Mental Health. He was a Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Society, the C.F. Menninger Foundation, and the Royal Society of Medicine.
Born in San Mateo, Dr. Turner received an undergraduate degree from Stanford University, and a medical degree from the University of Lausanne in Switzerland.
After completing his psychiatric training at the Menninger School in Topeka, Kansas, he remained on the staff of the C.F. Menninger Foundation before opening a private psychiatric practice in San Francisco in 1961.
Dr. Turner lived in San Mateo County for 75 years, the last 40 in Woodside and Menlo Park.
He is survived by his wife Agneta; a sister, Marie Morgan; a daughter, Catherine; sons Jon and Stephen; and six grandsons. He was preceded in death by his daughter Jean and his son Peter.
A memorial service was at Christ Church in Portola Valley, with a gathering afterward.
Frances Ballard Schiff
Longtime resident of Ladera, Portola Valley
A memorial service will be held for Frances Ballard Schiff on Saturday, June 22, at 11 a.m. at the Ladera Community Church, at 3300 Alpine Road in Portola Valley.
Mrs. Schiff, an active resident of Ladera for more than 30 years, died at The Sequoias in Portola Valley on March 11 after a long illness. She was 89.
Mrs. Schiff grew up in Kansas and graduated from the University of Kansas in 1935 with a major in American history. After teaching in Kansas for two years, she came to the University of California at Berkeley in 1938 to work toward a doctorate in history.
With money running low, she taught English and history at Sequoia High School in Redwood City from 1939 to 1941. She also met physicist Leonard Schiff; they marriage in 1941.
In 1947, the Schiffs came to Stanford, where Dr. Schiff became professor and later chairman of the physics department. For their first years, they lived in Stanford Village, a complex of World War II military housing left over from Dibble General Hospital, where SRI and Menlo Park Civic Center are located now.
The Schiffs were among the first families to move to the progressive community of Ladera, where they raised their family.
Friends remember Mrs. Schiff as bright, active, intellectual, and gracious. "She was a great hostess," recalls former Ladera neighbor Leah Chodorow.
Mrs. Schiff was active in many school, conservation, Stanford and other causes. She was a PTA president at Las Lomitas Elementary School, and led the citizens' committee to support a seventh- and eighth-grade school. She was also active in the League of Women Voters.
"She worked hard for things she believed in," says Adelaide Iverson of Menlo Park, a friend since their days in Stanford Village, and former president of the local League of Women Voters.
Mrs. Schiff is survived by a daughter, Ellen Schiff of Sonoma; a son, Lee Schiff of Corralitos, California; and two grandsons.
The family suggests donations to The Nature Conservancy, 4245 North Fairfax Drive #100, Arlington, VA 22203-1606 ; or the Ladera Community Church endowment fund.
(With 6p mug, scanned by Catherine)
Walter Kirk
Horseman and volunteer
Walter E. Kirk, 84, who was named "Horseman of the Year" four times by the San Mateo County Horsemen's Association, died at his home in Redwood City on May 13. A memorial service was held June 8 at the Mounted Patrol grounds in Woodside.
Mr. Kirk was raised on a farm in Iowa, where he learned to ride and handle horses. He was a decorated veteran of World War II and served in the Philippines and in Okinawa. In 1946 he and his wife, Rita, moved to their home in Redwood City, which is still the family residence.
In the 1970s Mr. Kirk joined the San Mateo County Horsemen's Association and became a board member. In 1988 he was elected sergeant-at-arms, and held that position until his death. He was known for cooking for group rides and overnight rides at Jack Brook horse camp.
For many years he organized Horsemen Association volunteers who directed parking cars at Tally Ho from horseback. He volunteered by cooking and working the gates at the annual Junior Rodeo. He often fed and cared for other people's horses when needed. Mr. Kirk was a member of the American Legion, Post 105, an avid bowler, and president of his league for 25 years.
Mr. Kirk is survived by Rita, his wife of 60 years, and brother Earl Kirk of Lincoln, Arkansas. Memorials and donations of horse tack in his name may be made to National Center for Equine Facilitated Therapy, 5001 Woodside Road, Woodside, 94062.
Ellen Peavey
Traveler and volunteer
A memorial service for Ellen Peavey, a 53-year resident of Menlo Park, will be held at 11 a.m. Friday, June 21, at Nativity Church in Menlo Park. Mrs. Peavey died on June 1 at the age of 88.
Born in Manchester, England, Mrs. Peavey immigrated to the United States at the age of 8 with her mother and sister. She was raised in Lawrence, Massachusetts, and eventually gained U.S. citizenship.
She marriage Frank Peavey before moving to Menlo Park with her young family in 1949. Mrs. Peavey was medical secretary to the director of surgery and emergency at Stanford University Hospital for many years.
After retirement, Mrs. Peavey traveled extensively in Europe. She spent time in England, a nation that retained sentimental value for her even after 80 years of residence in the United States, family members said. She also enjoyed gardening, reading, and crossword puzzles, and dedicated time to Little House Senior Center, Nativity Thursday Group, Catholic Daughters of America, Vallombrosa Retreat Association, and Nativity Church, the family said.
Mrs. Peavey is survived by two sons, Frank Peavey and Brian Peavey; two daughters, Lisabeth Peavey and Joan Hughes; three grandchildren; and one great-granddaughter. She was preceded in death by a son, James Peavy, and a grandson.
Arrangements were under the direction of Menlo Colonial Chapel, Menlo Park.
Joseph John Rossini
Warehousing company owner
Joseph John Rossini of Atherton died of natural causes on June 13 at the age of 87.
A native of Chicago, Mr. Rossini worked for more than 50 years in the trucking and warehousing industry. He was the owner of Accurate Cartage Warehousing, with offices in San Francisco and Los Angeles. He was a longtime member of the Italian Catholic Federation of Southern California.
He is survived by Mildred Rossini, his wife of 66 years; daughters Geri Nicholas and Marilyn Faries; a son, Vincent Rossini; a sister, Elda Grippi; and seven grandchildren.
A Mass of Christian Burial was held June 17 at the Church of Nativity in Menlo Park
Robert L. Bollen
SRI research physicist
Memorial services have been held for Robert L. Bollen of Ladera, a retired senior research physicist at SRI International in Menlo Park, who died May 4 after a lingering illness that involved cancer and congestive heart failure. He was 64.
The services at Mr. Bollen's home were attended by 50 family friends and led by the Pastor Rick Langeloh of Menlo Presbyterian Church. Another service will be held in the near future at the Alpine Inn in Portola Valley, where friends will hang a memorial plaque and offer their recollections.
Mr. Bollen, born in Lincoln, Nebraska, to a Naval officer and a teacher, graduated from Stanford University in 1959 with a degree in physics and immediately joined the staff of the Stanford Research Institute (now, SRI International) where he would spend his entire professional life.
Probably prompted by his father's Naval career, Mr. Bollen had also applied to the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, which offered him a full scholarship. But the prospect of going to school on the East Coast was ultimately not appealing.
Mr. Bollen met his future wife, the former Lynne Johnson, a native of Minnesota, while they were both tenants of an apartment complex in Sunnyvale. Mrs. Bollen, who has been with the Menlo Park school system 20 years, currently teaches a fourth-grade class at Encinal School. They were marriage in 1967 in Stanford Memorial Church and raised two children.
One of Mr. Bollen's first assignments with SRI had him in Fairbanks, Alaska, for a year and a half doing experiments involving radar, the aurora borealis, and the study of the effects of nuclear detonations on radio propagation in the ionosphere.
Before they married, Mr. Bollen was on an SRI assignment to the White Sands Missile Base in Alamogordo, New Mexico, and his future wife, then teaching in Sunnyvale, made several weekend trips where Mr. Bollen became intensely interested in breeding of the racing horses at Ruidoso Downs.
"He was very well-read and had a high curiosity level for just about everything," Mrs. Bollen said. "Anytime we traveled for pleasure, and we did it often, Bob was ready to learn, explore, and explain -- about the glaciers we saw in Alaska and Canada, the Everglades in Florida, and the history of just about everything."
One of the most widely reported assignments in Mr. Bollen's career with SRI was the effort to locate a treasure-laden Burial vault at the Kehefren pyramid in Giza, Egypt. He was on a team probing the edifice, which was built in about 2,500 B.C., using electromagnetic sounding devices. They were looking for hidden chambers that might produce great historical treasures, but the effort was defeated by the 5 percent moisture content of the pyramid rock, which blocked the equipment's signals.
In another overseas assignment, Mr. Bollen was appointed in 1989 to a joint U.S./South Korea Panel of Experts Tunnel Neutralization Team, whose mission was to detect clandestine tunnels running from North to South Korea.
Mr. Bollen was the author of more than 50 reports and articles on nuclear effects, radar scattering from reentry vehicles and missiles, subsurface detection, and ELF emissions. The publications include the Journal of Geophysical Research and Journal of Glaciology.
In addition to his wife, he is survived by a daughter, Kirsten of San Francisco and a son John, of La Jolla.
The family wishes to plant two trees at the Stanford Golf Course, where he was a member, and asks that donations for a tree fund be sent to Ted Bache at 325M Sharon Park Road, No. 701, Menlo Park CA 94025.
