Search for celebrities on Ancestry.com!Ida Kay McMaster
Ida Kay McMaster, 82, died
Dec. 31 at Stanford Hospital.
Born in Glasgow, Scotland, she and her husband of 37 years, Ian, raised three children, sons Stuart and Colin, and daughter Ellenor.
In 1987, she came from San Diego to live with her son in Menlo Park.
There she actively participated in the adult day care program at Rosener House and in Bible study at First Baptist Church.
She is survived by her son, Colin McMaster of Menlo Park.
Services have been held.
Donations may be made to Rosener House, 1060 Middle Ave., Menlo Park 94025.
Obituary dated: Wednesday Jan 20, 1999
William Cary O'Mara
William Cary O'Mara, 56, died
Jan. 2 after a long illness.
A consultant specializing in semiconductor materials and devices, he was born
in St. Louis, graduated from Bellarmine College in Kentucky and received his doctorate from the University of Minnesota.
After holding positions at Bell Laboratories, Fairchild, Motorola and Siltec, he established the consulting firm O'Mara & Associates in Palo Alto.
He authored and edited several articles and books on the science and technology of silicon materials, and he held patents related to his research and engineering work.
He is survived by his wife, Francesca O'Mara of Fremont; and three daughters, Maureen O'Mara of Sacramento, Erin O'Mara of Menlo Park and Shannon O'Mara of San Francisco.
Services have been held.
Donations may be made to Bellarmine College, 2001 Newburg Road, Louisville, Ky. 40205, or by phone at (502) 452-8000.
Obituary dated: Wednesday Jan 20, 1999
Florence Fee Smith
Florence Fee Smith, 75, died
Jan. 5. Born in Pennsylvania and raised in Michigan, she lived in Palo Alto for the past 43 years.
Active in school and church affairs, she was also an avid gardener and two-term president of the Garden Club of Palo Alto.
She and her husband also co-founded the American High School of Zurich, Switz., in 1963.
She is survived by her husband, Robert Willard Smith of Palo Alto; her brother, Joseph M. Fee of San Francisco; three children, Dr. Robert Agramonte of Woodside, Susan Rynerson of El Cajon and Joan Domiter of Fremont; two stepchildren, Kirk Smith of Bend, Ore., and Creighton Smith of Bakersfield; and twelve grandchildren.
Services have been held. No donations are requested.
Obituary dated: Wednesday Jan 20, 1999
Roy Barnett Cohn
Dr. Roy Barnett Cohn, a world pioneer in human-organ transplants and professor emeritus of surgery at Stanford University Medical Center, died
Jan. 11 at Stanford Hospital. He was 89.
Cohn is credited by colleagues with performing the first kidney transplant on the West Coast and one of the first in the nation in 1960. He also developed the kidney transplant program at Stanford and in 1964 co-authored what colleagues consider a landmark paper in the field of transplantation surgery.
As the science of transplantation advanced, Cohn and his colleague Dr. Norman Shumway recognized the need for the government and medical community to rethink the criteria for harvesting healthy organs. They urged that the definition of death be based on the cessation of brain activity rather than on the absence of a heartbeat.
Cohn's work with kidneys, together with a pioneering method he developed for closing holes in the heart, helped doctors adopt new techniques that can now be applied to work with many other organs.
As a teacher, Cohn once described himself as "one of the last old-time classical professors of general surgery." Cohn's colleague and former surgery department chairman Dr. Robert Chase recalled Cohn as one who was "very demanding but got the best of students." The students would sometimes be frightened of him at first, Chase said, "but when they finished they realized he was soft-hearted. He was a true gentleman."
Cohn was born
in Portland, Ore., and raised in Southern California. He came to Stanford as an undergraduate in the mid-1920s, received his bachelor's degree in 1929 and graduated from Stanford Medical School (which was then located in San Francisco) in 1933.
After serving as chief resident in general surgery at Massachusetts General in Boston, Cohn returned to Stanford to join the faculty in 1938. He went to India as a Rockefeller Foundation Fellow in 1939-41, helping to establish a major hospital in Bombay.
During World War II, Cohn served in the U.S. Army's 59th Evacuation Hospital, bringing medical service to fronts in Africa, Italy, France and Germany. Cohn was among the first doctors to assist survivors of the Nazi concentration camp at Dachau and received a Purple Heart for his valor during the war.
After the war, he returned to Stanford to teach. It was there that he met Ruth Wood, a registered nurse. They would marry and have five children. When the Stanford hospital moved from San Francisco to Palo Alto in the early '60s, the Cohns moved to Atherton.
In 1974, Cohn was honored with an endowed professorship, the Walter Clifford Chidester and Elsa Rooney Chidester professorship in surgery. Even after he retired in 1989, his colleagues recall, he was always one of the first to arrive at the hospital each morning, where he continued to consult.
Cohn is survived by his wife, Ruth Wood Cohn of Atherton; four sons, Jeffrey Wood of Seattle, Stephen Wood of Menlo Park, Warren Wood of Santa Barbara and Marcus Wood of Palo Alto; his daughter, Annalisa Wood of Palo Alto; and three grandchildren. Services are pending. Donations may be made to the Division of Human Anatomy for the Roy B. Cohn Bioskills Laboratory in Human Anatomy, 1215 Welch Road, Stanford 94305.
Obituary dated: Wednesday Jan 20, 1999
Albert John Pellizzari
Albert John Pellizzari, owner of Pellizzari and Co. and a lifelong Palo Alto resident, died
Jan. 7. He was 69.
He grew up in a large, extended Italian-American family, and went to the old Mayfield School and Palo Alto High School. At Paly he met his high school sweetheart and future wife, Beverly. They were married
for 48 years and lived on Magnolia Drive in a home built by his grandparents.
In 1947, his junior year, he left school to help his uncle Joe Simonini with the family cement business. Their company name is stamped on concrete sidewalks on University and California avenues in Palo Alto. Then, in 1950, he went to serve in the Korean War, marrying Beverly before he left. After the war, he returned to Palo Alto and started his own contracting business.
His son, Mick, who now heads Pellizzari and Co. and is a fourth-generation contractor, describes his father as a "straight-ahead and straight-answer" kind of man. What he loved most about living in Palo Alto was having his family and friends around him, said Pellizzari. "People are at their house all the time. He was very good about spending time with younger people and older people. He had kept many of his friends since elementary school and loved to mix family and friends at his Fourth of July parties."
He also became an avid hunter, fisherman and taxidermy expert, and he enjoyed teaching his hobbies to others. He was profiled in a 1994 Weekly article for his interest in taxidermy.
For the past 10 years, Pellizzari and his wife also had a ranch in Gustine, where watusi cattle and fallow deer could wander freely. They ran a duck hunting club there and were active in environmental affairs and animal protection issues, which Pellizzari viewed as a responsible part of being a hunter.
He is survived by his father, John Pellizzari of Redwood City; his wife, Beverly Pellizzari of Palo Alto; his brother, Bob Pellizzari of Willows; two daughters, Pam Cabezas of Roseville and Sandee McKnight of Palo Alto; his son, Mick Pellizzari of Palo Alto; and six grandchildren. Services will be in February. Donations may be made to a children's charity of the donor's choice or to the family, which will select a charity. Send donations in care of Beverly Pellizzari, Box 147, 3790 El Camino Real, Palo Alto 94306.
Obituary dated: Wednesday Jan 13, 1999
Marie Green
Marie Green, who recently celebrated her 100th birthday at Lytton Gardens, died
Dec. 26. Affectionately known as "Ma Green," she taught in the Palo Alto school district for 29 years and was active in many civic affairs. She was born
in Shawnee, Okla., and recalled traveling by covered wagon at the age of 5. Her family settled on a large cattle ranch, where she lived until attending the University of Oklahoma, where she earned her bachelor's degree in biology.
She married
George Green in 1924 and accompanied him to Mexico, where he worked as a geologist, despite objections that it would be inappropriate for a woman to venture into the rough countryside of the Yucatan Peninsula. Marie overcame these objections by securing a job as a teacher at a Mayan school run by Christian missionaries. "She was a determined one. She did things her own way," recalled Mary Bulf, a longtime friend of Green.
The Greens' son, Leroy, was born
in 1929. In 1930, Green began teaching at the old Mayfield School, near El Camino Real and Page Mill Road, and later went to Jordan Middle School, where she taught science and became dean of girls. "She loved kids. She was a big advocate for education and for girls being recognized in their own right," said Bulf. Retired principal Bob French described Green as a teacher of great enthusiasm and initiative, who actively combined her community interests with her teaching.
Green's other passions included her work for the American Association of University Women and her activities with the Palo Alto Garden Club. Bulf recalls Green speaking before the City Council (which included some of her former students) when the Garden Club petitioned to have property given for the creation of the Gamble Garden Center. Green also helped with the club's Roots and Shoots program, in which seniors ("roots") helped children ("shoots") learn about plants. During World War II, she helped local students plant victory gardens, then harvest the produce for school lunches.
During her retirement, Green was honored with several awards, including the city of Palo Alto's 1993 Community Activity Award.
Recently, in preparation for Green's 100th birthday, French visited Diane Rolfe's social studies class at Jordan Middle School. After he told the students about her remarkable life, they wrote and illustrated birthday cards for her. On Dec. 21, they joined old friends, retired teachers and former students at a party in her honor. French told them that though she could no longer hear well, she could move her hand across their cards. "Just take her hand," he told them, and when they did, "she smiled. They wrote the way kids write, and when they came, there was a sparkle in her eye that, only if you are a teacher, you can know."
She is survived by a granddaughter, Shelly Green, of Albuquerque, N.M. Services will be held Jan. 7 at 4 p.m. at First United Methodist Church, 625 Hamilton Ave., Palo Alto.
Obituary dated: Wednesday Jan 13, 1999
Vernon Stewart Appleby
Vernon Stewart Appleby, 76, a pioneering producer at KPIX television and a longtime Los Altos Hills resident, died
Jan. 29. He spent his career in communications, beginning during in World War II, when he went behind enemy lines in China to provide weather information to the Pacific Fleet. A graduate of UCLA, he helped to start KPIX in San Francisco. He later became public relations director and TV production manager at Hewlett-Packard. He later joined Moran, Lanig and Duncan of Palo Alto as an account executive. He retired in 1988 and became interested in doing travel photography. His photos have appeared in books, newspapers and magazines. He also collaborated with his longtime companion, Antoinette May, on the Harper Collins "Voices" book series, which included "Voices of San Francisco." After residing for many years in Los Altos Hills, he recently lived at Arden Wood in San Francisco. He is survived by May, who lives in Palo Alto; three sisters, Janet Parker of Arizona, May Smith of Saratoga and Nancy Alden of San Jose; a son, Mark Appleby of Oregon; and a daughter, Robin Thompson of Geyserville. Services have been held. Donations may be made to the Arden Wood Benevolent Association, 445 Wawona St., San Francisco 94116.
Obituary dated: Wednesday Feb 10, 1999
Marjorie Brown
Marjorie "Midge" Brown, 79, a longtime resident of Menlo Park, died
Jan. 17. She grew up in Rumsey, in the Capay Valley near Clear Lake. Married for 52 years, she was a homemaker and an avid golfer. She volunteered with the Atherlons, a women's group dedicated to helping battered women. She is survived by her husband, Edward N. Brown of Menlo Park; a brother, Chester Lloyd of Fremont; and a son, Stephen Brown of Mount Shasta. Services have been held. Donations may be made to the Atherlons, 11 Garland Place, Menlo Park 94025.
Obituary dated: Wednesday Feb 10, 1999
Roy B. Cohn
A memorial service will be held Thursday for Dr. Roy Barnett Cohn, 89, a longtime resident of Atherton and professor emeritus of surgery at Stanford Medical Center who died
Jan. 11. He developed Stanford's kidney transplant program and performed the first successful kidney transplant on the West Coast in 1960. The services will be at 4:30 p.m. in Stanford University Medical Center's Fairchild Auditorium, near the intersection of Campus Drive West and Panama Street.
Obituary dated: Wednesday Feb 10, 1999
