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DAVIS, DENNIS OSCAR III
11/29/2002
Dennis Oscar Davis III, a construction worker, died Monday of a heart attack at University Hospital. He was 33. Mr. Davis was a lifelong resident of New Orleans. He graduated from O. Perry Walker High School. Survivors include a son, Dennis Hall; three daughters, Tatyana Henry, Deandra Hall and Tatyana Davis; his mother, Geraldine Davis; a brother, Miguel Davis; a sister, Loralyn Davis; and his grandfather, Cornelius Davis. A funeral will be held Saturday at 1 p.m. at D.W. Rhodes Funeral Home, 1020 Virgil St., Gretna. Visitation will begin at noon. Burial will be in Providence Memorial Park.
SERPAS, CARROLL JOSEPH
11/29/2002
Carroll Joseph Serpas, a retired accountant with Gulf Federal Savings and Loan, died Monday of complications from cancer at East Jefferson General Hospital. He was 68. Mr. Serpas was born in New Orleans and lived in Metairie for the past 42 years. He was a graduate of St. Aloysius High School and attended Tulane University and Soulé Business College. He was an Army veteran. He was a former teller at the National Bank of Commerce and manager of Public Storage. He was an honorary colonel in the State Police, a Jefferson Parish constable and a former president of the New Orleans Fraternal Order of Police, Crescent City Lodge No. 2. Mr. Serpas was a past president of the Louisiana Chapter of Controllers and Financial Officers of Saving institutions, a former treasurer of the Southern District Conference of Controllers and Financial Officers and a member of the National Committee for Operations, Systems and Procedures for Savings Associations. He was a member of the Italian American Society, the American Red Cross, the Civic Association of Jefferson, the Airline Lions Club, the St. Aloysius Alumni Association, the Touchdown Club and the Krewe of Argus. Survivors include his wife, Dolores Brue Serpas; a son, Carroll J. Serpas Jr.; a daughter, Dolores Mary "Dee Dee" Brue Serpas Albarado; two brothers, James and Albert Serpas; a sister, Claire Bonee; and four grandchildren. A Mass will be said Saturday at 11 a.m. at St. Philip Neri Catholic Church, 6500 Kawanee Ave. Visitation will be today from 6 to 10 p.m. and Saturday from 9 to 10:30 a.m. at Leitz-Eagan Funeral Home, 4747 Veterans Memorial Blvd., Metairie. Burial will be in Lake Lawn Park Mausoleum.
GALLE, WALDO JOHN SR.
11/18/2002
Waldo John Galle Sr., a custodian supervisor, died Tuesday at Memorial Medical Center. He was 85. Mr. Galle was a lifelong resident of New Orleans. He was a graduate of McDonogh No. 35 High School. He formerly worked at the Michoud Assembly Plant. Survivors include two sons, Waldo Galle Jr. of Port Gibson, Miss., and Edwin Galle; two daughters, Aloma Washington and Sylvania Jackson; two stepdaughters, Sharon Caliste and Ida Lewis; a sister, Melvina Rose; 12 grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren. A memorial service will be held Tuesday at 11 a.m. at Boissiere-Labat Family Funeral Services, 1703 N. Claiborne Ave.
FERNANDEZ, CLIFTON 'C.J.' JR.
11/18/2002
Clifton "C.J." Fernandez Jr., a self-employed electrician, died Friday of a heart attack at East Jefferson General Hospital. He was 65. Mr. Fernandez was born in New Orleans and lived in Metairie for many years. He received the Clem Award from St. Clement of Rome Parish. He was a member of the St. Clement of Rome Men's Club for the past 32 years, the Metairie Pigeon Club, the Greater New Orleans Combine and the Knights of Columbus of New Orleans. Survivors include his wife, Ethel Rita Fernandez; a son, Darren Joseph Fernandez; a daughter, Debra Fernandez Broussard; a sister, Margie Nichols; and three grandchildren. A Mass will be said today at 11 a.m. at Leitz-Eagan Funeral Home, 4747 Veterans Memorial Blvd., Metairie. Visitation will begin at 9:30 a.m. Burial will be private.
Dr. Jose Garcia Oller, senior neurosurgeon
05/25/2002
Dr. Jose Luis Garcia Oller, a neurosurgeon who founded the intensive care unit at Mercy Hospital and was a former chief of neurosurgery at Charity Hospital, died Thursday at Memorial Medical Center. He was 79.
Dr. Garcia Oller was born in Santurce, Puerto Rico, and lived in New Orleans for the past 55 years.
He served on the staffs of Hotel Dieu Hospital, Flint-Goodridge Hospital, Sara Mayo Hospital, St. Claude General Hospital and Montelepre Hospital, and was senior medical staff member in neurosurgery at Memorial Medical Center's Mercy Campus.
He was honored in January for more than 50 years of service at Memorial Medical Center and its predecessor, Mercy Hospital, where he was chief of staff in 1968 and specialized in the most challenging neurological cases.
Dr. Garcia Oller was the founder and chief executive from 1968 to 1988 of the Council of Medical Staffs, or CMS, later Private Doctors of America, the second-largest medical association in the United States at the time.
The organization was dedicated to preserving the freedom of private medical practice. As its CEO, Dr. Garcia Oller frequently testified before Congress, championing patients' and doctors' freedom of choice in medical decision-making, his family said. He also was a strong nurses' advocate.
He was the founder and head of the CMS Educational, Scientific and Research Foundation from 1972 to 1988 and also founded an Australian counterpart to CMS called Private Doctors of Australia.
In 1975, he helped draft the Louisiana Malpractice Arbitration Law.
Dr. Garcia Oller graduated at 19 from the University of Puerto Rico. He received his medical degree from Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia and a master of medical science in neurosurgery and a doctorate in physiology from Tulane University. He also was a fellow in neuropathology at Yale University.
He was an instructor of physiology at Tulane Medical School, a longtime member of the New Orleans Area Health Planning Council, and the holder of several patents for devices used in neuroradiology.
He was a member of the Army Medical Corps during World War II and a commander in the Naval Reserve Medical Corps from 1954 to 1956 and the New Orleans Medical Reserve Unit from 1956 to 1962.
Dr. Garcia Oller was a member of many medical organizations and the Club de Puerto Rico de New Orleans and a parishioner of St. Rita Catholic Church.
He received the Ochsner Medical Foundation Excellence in Medical Writing Award in 1950, the George Washington Honor Medal of the Freedoms Foundation of Valley Forge, Pa., in 1984, and the Special Leadership and Service Award of the Louisiana State Medical Society in 1988.
Survivors include two sons, Antonio Jose Garcia of Richmond, Va., and Jose Luis Garcia II; four daughters, Ana Garcia Burr of Jackson, Miss., Teresa Garcia Payne of Hot Springs, Ark., Margarita Garcia Sims of Galveston, Texas, and Maria Garcia Kron; two sisters, Norma Marin of Hialeah, Fla., and Irma Garcia Serrano of Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico; and seven grandchildren.
A Mass will be said Tuesday at 12:30 p.m. at Lake Lawn Metairie Funeral Home, 5100 Pontchartrain Blvd. Visitation will be Monday from 7 to 9 p.m. and Tuesday from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Burial will be in Metairie cemetery.
GROESCH, GARY
11/12/2002
Gary Groesch, consumer advocate
Gary Groesch, an impassioned consumer advocate on energy issues and frequently a thorn in the side of government and utility officials, died Monday at Ochsner Clinic Foundation of pulmonary fibrosis. He was 50.
Mr. Groesch was co-founder and executive director of the Alliance for Affordable Energy, a nonprofit organization started in 1985.
Among the organization's achievements were a $144 million refund to New Orleans ratepayers, the scaling back of a proposed gas-rate increase from 18 percent to 2 percent, and creation of a fund to help people make their homes energy-efficient and pay their utility bills.
Friends said Mr. Groesch was fascinated by the fine points of utility law, a topic others often find mind-numbing.
"He just slurped it up with a big spoon," said Micah Walker, the alliance's program director.
His love of facts dated to his childhood in Springfield, Ill., said Betty Wisdom, a charter member of the alliance's board and a close friend.
"He would go down to the public library and read on Saturdays and look things up, and it continued ever since," Wisdom said. "He had a devouring curiosity about the world."
Mr. Groesch earned a bachelor's degree in geology from the University of Illinois and was a carpenter before shifting to energy issues.
Mr. Groesch was an early opponent of the Waterford 3 nuclear power plant and led a successful referendum to return utility regulation to the New Orleans City Council.
In 1997, the Legislature appointed Mr. Groesch to a commission to study the effects of global climate change on Louisiana. A year later, he was named a director of a three-year project for the Ford Foundation that showed the compatibility of economic development and social justice.
Mr. Groesch received many honors for his work. Gov. Foster praised him in 1996 for helping create the state's Energy Efficient Commercial Building Code, and the Greater New Orleans African Methodist Episcopal Ministerial Alliance gave him the Martin Luther King Award this year for his work on behalf of low-income ratepayers.
The Louisiana Environmental Action Network gave him an award for his work Saturday, but he was too ill to attend the ceremony.
In taking on the corporate and political establishment, "Gary was probably the most passionate person I've ever known," Wisdom said. "When things went wrong, he minded it terribly, and he wanted to do what he could to put it right. Maybe he couldn't, but he'd damn well try."
Former Mayor Marc Morial agreed.
"He was tireless, vigorous and fearless," Morial said. "His passion and fire on behalf of the electricity consumer in New Orleans made him a very important figure in the history of the city."
Survivors include his companion, Karen Wimpelberg; his parents, Lubert and Lorene Groesch of Springfield; a brother, Glenn Groesch of Virginia Beach, Va.; and a sister, Carole Jones of Moscow, Idaho.
A potluck memorial service will be held Sunday at 4 p.m. at Rock 'n' Bowl Cafe, 4135 S. Carrollton Ave.
LaCAVA, ALFRED TRAVIS
12/01/2002
Alfred Travis LaCava, a retired self-employed salesman, died Thursday at St. Tammany Parish Hospital. He was 75. Mr. LaCava was born in New Orleans and lived in Covington for the past 17 years. He formerly was a produce salesman at the French Market. He was an Army veteran. Survivors include his wife, Angelina Maniscalco LaCava; a son, Alan Jude LaCava Sr.; a brother, Anthony LaCava; a sister, Josephine Hussey; two grandchildren; and a great-grandchild. A funeral will be held today at noon at E.J. Fielding Funeral Home, 2260 W. 21st Ave., Covington. Visitation will begin at 10 a.m. Burial will be in Pinecrest Memorial Gardens.
SCHMITT, CLAIRE KOKEMOR
12/01/2002
Claire Kokemor Schmitt, a homemaker, died Wednesday of cancer at her home. She was 61. Mrs. Schmitt was born in New Orleans and lived in Mandeville. Survivors include her husband, Victor Lucien Schmitt Jr.; two sons, Stephen and Victor Lucien Schmitt III; two daughters, Stacy Schmitt and Stephanie Schmitt Popovich; her mother, Claire Langhauser Kokemor; and nine grandchildren. A memorial service will be held Monday at noon at E.J. Fielding Funeral Home, 2260 21st St., Covington. Bagnell and Son Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.
