Huge Marriages Search Engine!
Naturalist Douglas J. Fulton
He co-authored the Michigan Wilderness Law and was a writer and editor.
Douglas J. Fulton, a campaigner for preservation of natural areas and co-author of the Michigan Wilderness Law – the first of its kind in the country – is dead at age 68.
Mr. Fulton died Thursday. Cause of death was not given.
Born April 5, 1928, in Illinois, he came to Tucson 11 years later.
He attended Mansfeld Junior High (now Mansfeld Middle School) and graduated from Tucson High School (now Tucson High Magnet School).
In 1949, he graduated from University of Arizona with honors. He attended University of Chicago and University of Michigan, where he earned a master’s degree in linguistics.
Mr. Fulton served in the Air Force during the Korean War, returning to Ann Arbor, Mich., to work as a staff photographer for the Ann Arbor News.
He also wrote the Naturalist’s Journal, a column, for the newspaper for more than 20 years, and served as outdoor and environmental editor.
He was named conservation communicator of the year in 1970 by Michigan United Conservation Clubs, and was awarded the Audubon Society’s Diamond Jubilee Award.
Following retirement, Mr. Fulton returned to Tucson, where he worked as a free-lance writer, photographer and editor. He served for a decade as editorial assistant for Safari Magazine, and served for a year as interim director of Tucson Botanical Gardens.
He was a member and one-time president of Tucson Blues Society.
Survivors include his wife, Anna, of Tucson; a son, Bruce, of Tucson; and a daughter, Andrea, of Pacific Grove, Calif.
A memorial service was held at St. Philip’s-in-the-Hills Episcopal Church.
The family suggests memorial contributions be sent to: Nature Conservancy, 300 E. University Blvd., Tucson, Ariz., 85705.
(Dated Dec 11, 1996)
=======
Tucson attorney Albert R. Gamble, at 77
Albert R. Gamble, an attorney in Tucson for 26 years, will be remembered for his continual fight against what he saw as injustice and prejudice.
Mr. Gamble died a week ago of cancer. He was 77.
”He would take up any cause that others would shy away from. He felt everyone deserved to be represented . . . whether they had 15 cents or nothing,” said his widow, Lois Gamble.
Mr. Gamble was born on Jan. 7, 1919 in Clexton, Ga., near Savannah.
He entered the National Guard in 1939 and was stationed temporarily at Fort Huachuca.
He served through World War II in the United States and left the National Guard with an honorable discharge in 1944.
Although he had intentions of becoming a career military man, Mr. Gamble decided to enter law school because he was disenchanted by the unfair treatment of African-American officers in the military, his wife said.
Mr. Gamble moved to Cleveland, where he worked during the day and went to school at night at Western Reserve University. He earned a bachelor’s degree in biology, then attended Marshall Law School in Cleveland.
He went on to practice law for nearly 20 years in Cleveland.
Mr. Gamble acted as defense attorney in several high-profile criminal cases in Tucson.
Notable clients included:
• Benny Dixon, charged with second-degree murder in the 1972 heroin overdose death of another man. Dixon allegedly supplied the drug. The murder charge was dismissed in 1973.
• David Wayne Dale, sentenced in 1975 to at least 20 years in prison for the rapes for a 17-year-old girl and 22-year-old woman.
• Robert L. Toney, who at 15 was convicted in 1974 of killing Tucson antiques dealer W. Kurt Kremers. Toney was sentenced to 60 years to life in prison.
Mr. Gamble also spoke out for racial equality.
”The majority of people are ready for racial peace,” Mr. Gamble said in a 1971 speech to the Tucson chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. ”We are headed in that direction, and the pace will be accelerated.”
He also pushed to ”strike down the medieval regulations” against narcotics, saying drugs are no worse than alcohol.
Gamble is survived by his wife, Lois, of Tucson; daughter Ranelle of Cleveland; stepchildren Jonathan Horn of Houston, Valerie Horn Price and Anita Allyn of Tucson, Janis Horn Stevenson of Las Vegas, Leslie Horn Williams of Phoenix, Miriam Long Simmons of Los Angeles and seven grandchildren.
(Dated Dec 11, 1996)
=======
Westenburg, an avid outdoorsman
Tucsonan Charles Edward ”Chuck” Westenburg was an avid outdoorsman all his life – and so his family planned a special campfire ceremony today to remember him.
Mr. Westenburg died in his sleep Friday while on an elk-hunting trip in the White Mountains. He was 63.
Family and friends were to gather at noon at the family’s home for the unusual outdoor campfire memorial.
This morning, a traditional memorial service for Mr. Westenburg was held at Bring’s Funeral Home’s Broadway Chapel, 6910 E. Broadway.
Mr. Westenburg was born Aug. 3, 1933, in Alamosa, Colo., to Peter and Jeanette Westenburg. After graduating from high school in Alamosa and being named class valedictorian, he worked in construction.
He moved to Tucson in 1957 to take advantage of the area’s long construction season.
Opening Chuck Westenburg Inc. in 1969, he specialized in concrete work, and spent more than 25 years working in the construction industry.
His work can be seen all over the city, his wife, Rena Westenburg said. His business supplied concrete for several major projects around town, including Tucson International Airport and the Desert Diamond Casino.
But Mr. Westenburg is probably best known in the community for his love of hunting, fishing and outdoor cooking.
”Chuck always had a fishing pole or a rifle in his hand. That was his life,” his wife said.
He regularly hunted around the Tucson area, and as far away as Africa, she said.
Mr. Westenburg served as president of the Association of Builders and Contractors, now known as the Arizona Builder’s Alliance. He was a past president of the Tucson Rod and Gun Club, and a charter member and four-term president of the Arizona Chapter of the Safari Club International.
As a member of the Safari Club, Mr. Westenburg initiated the Sportsmen Against Hunger program, in which gaming meat was processed and packaged for the needy. The meat went to soup kitchens and other such organizations.
Mr. Westenburg and his wife were recognized in national hunting magazines for their camp recipes, and he regularly cooked outdoor meals for large groups, including rod and gun club gatherings.
In addition to his wife, he is survived by daughters Victoria Enderle of Tucson and Leah Hendrix of Selah, Wash.; sisters June Terpstra of Alamosa, Colo. and Mary Lou Hof of Escalon, Calif.; stepdaughter Nichole Ransom and stepson Paul Rios, both of Tucson, and five grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his daughter, Barbara.
(Dated Dec 11, 1996)
=======
Range expert Ervin M. Schmutz, at 81
Trying to control shrubs, the UA prof mixed chemicals used later as Agent Orange.
Memorial services will be Sunday for former University of Arizona Professor Ervin Marcell Schmutz, who parlayed his love for the Western range into a career in range-management research.
Mr. Schmutz died Dec. 7 after a long illness, said his son-in-law, Thomas Harlan. He was 81.
Mr. Schmutz was raised on a ranch in St. George, Utah, that reached all the way to the Grand Canyon’s Tuweep Point in Arizona, Harlan said.
”Tuweep Point was the south boundary of their ranch, so they didn’t need a fence,” he said. ”He dearly loved that country. He was a Westerner.”
Mr. Schmutz turned that affinity for the range into his livelihood after receiving degrees in range management and animal nutrition from Utah State University.
He came to Tucson in 1955 to pursue his doctorate in range management, which he received in 1963.
Mr. Schmutz, who taught at UA from 1956 to 1982, became an authority on poisonous plants, a subject he covered in his book, ”Plants That Poison.”
”He was very much an authority on poisonous plants for livestock and for people,” said Phil Ogden, a former colleague.
”He was a good professor,” Ogden said. ”He really put the students first. If it hadn’t been for Erv, a lot of his students wouldn’t have gotten jobs when they graduated. He was very well-rounded as a researcher and a teacher.”
Ervin Zube, retired director of UA’s School of Renewable Natural Resources, remembered Mr. Schmutz as a quiet and thoughtful man ”who took his responsibilities very seriously.”
Harlan said Mr. Schmutz traveled around the world to study range issues, and espoused the virtues of native plants in Tucson.
”He was very interested in getting people to use native landscaping in this area,” he said.
In 1986, Mr. Schmutz wrote a self-published book titled ”Charley Chick Chicken,”based on his childhood in northern Arizona and southern Utah, Ogden said.
”We’re sure going to miss him. He’s been retired for a while, but we remember him as a strong member of the faculty,” Ogden said. ”He kind of kept things running around here for a while.”
Annita Harlan said her father was an avid hunter who enjoyed stalking mule deer. He also was a skilled carpenter, displayed a green thumb and enjoyed photography.
While researching herbicides to control shrub growth in grasslands, Mr. Schmutz combined the two defoliants that were later used in the Vietnam War and called Agent Orange, she said.
”My father was a very scrupulous person,”Harlan said. ”He knew he was working with stuff that kills things, but I’m not sure he ever knew what happened with those chemicals when they got to Vietnam.”
Besides Harlan, Mr. Schmutz is survived by his wife, Velda; a brother, Dewayne Schmutz of New Mexico; a sister, Pauline Cox of Utah; a grandson, Thomas Harlan; and numerous nieces, nephews and cousins.
A memorial service for Mr. Schmutz will start Sunday at 3 p.m. at the Adair Funeral Home Dodge Chapel, 1050 N. Dodge Blvd.
He will be cremated and his remains scattered over mountains here, in Pine Valley, Utah and at Texas’ McKittrick Canyon.
Contributions may be made to one of two scholarship funds in his name at the University of Arizona’s department of rangeland and forest management.
(Dated Dec 12, 1996)
=======
