Huge Marriages Search Engine!
Design was Salzman’s ‘true calling’
From his studio, Ray’s Interiors, he embellished many homes and businesses here.
A memorial service will be held April 16 for Ray E. Salzman Jr., a prominent interior decorator in Tucson and a founder of Catalina United Methodist Church and the Arizona Opera Company.
Mr. Salzman, 78, died Sunday of complications after esophagus surgery Feb. 21.
He and his wife, Martha ”Marty” Salzman, started an interior design studio in Tucson in 1955 called Ray’s Interiors.
”Always, his love was design. That was his true calling,” she said.
For 30 years, they ran the studio as Mr. Salzman designed the interiors of many Tucson homes and locales, including the original Old Pueblo Club, the Tucson Medical Center and the youth lounge of the Catalina United Methodist Church.
He was the church’s first minister in 1946. The church started in an old barracks building on South Country Club Road before moving to 2700 E. Speedway Blvd.
Mr. Salzman served as a minister for a year before he and his wife moved to California so he could continue his theology education at the University of Southern California.
He returned to the Chicago area – where he had graduated earlier from Lake Forest College with degrees in English and speech – and tried interior design work at a studio in Evanston.
Mr. Salzman learned the business from the ground up, working in the shipping, receiving, upholstery, drapery, slip cover and drapery rod departments.
He returned to Tucson in 1950 and worked for two more design studios before opening his own.
”He was always decorating something,” his wife said.
From 1963 to 1965, Mr. Salzman was president of the Arizona state chapter of the National Society of Interior Designers. He was treasurer for the American Institute of Interior Designers in 1968.
Mr. Salzman and his wife helped start the Arizona Opera Company – then called the Tucson Opera Company – in 1972.
”A lot of his money and energy went into keeping it alive. That was really a love for him,” his wife said.
Marty Salzman, once an opera singer, served 12 years on the Tucson Opera board – three as president.
The Salzmans hosted the opera company’s first fund-raising party in their East Fort Lowell Road in 1973. A Tucson Citizen article about the event described how ”Tucson’s opera aficionados” turned out for the party.
”Stars were there, and strings of lights twinkling in trees and reflecting in the pool in Ray Salzman’s beautiful patio on East Fort Lowell Road,” the article stated.
Besides his wife, he is survived by daughters, Janet Baron of Vashon, Wash., and JoAnne Briggs of Tucson; and brothers, William and Robert Salzman of Illinois and Joseph Salzman of Tucson.
The memorial service will be at 5 p.m. at Catalina United Methodist Church, 2700 E. Speedway Blvd.
(Dated Mar 21, 1997)
=======
Pressman Spencer devoted
Others who worked with him at Tucson Newspapers call him a perfectionist.
Tom Spencer, a pressman who worked for Tucson Newspapers for the past 27 years, died at 46.
He had a heart attack on his way home from work March 7. He was in a coma and died March 14. Services were held Sunday.
Mr. Spencer, born in Tucson on Sept. 11, 1950, started working in the pressroom after he graduated from Rincon High School. He ran the presses during the late shift, when The Arizona Daily Star runs its press.
”He was a good guy, a good worker,” said pressroom colleague Martin Riesgo, who worked with Mr. Spencer for five years. ”He was a specialist. He wanted everything perfect all the time.”
Sister-in-law Carolyn Spencer said being a perfectionist was just part of his nature.
”Whereas everyone would just do their job, Tommy would go farther,” she said. ”His colors were always brighter, his lines were always straighter. His papers were always better.”
She called him a ”ray of sunshine” who was able to cheer up people.
”He always had a smile on his face,” she said.
Mr. Spencer is survived by his daughter, Jennifer; his brother, Jerry; sister-in-law, Carolyn; niece, Sarah; and his sister, Nancy, and nephew, Bryan.
(Dated Mar 21, 1997)
=======
Civic leader James Douglas cared about Tucson
A memorial service is set for Friday morning at the rancher’s home.
A memorial service will be held Friday for James Stuart Douglas, a Tucson rancher, World War II veteran, banker and civic leader who died Monday. He was 75.
Mr. Douglas began working at Southern Arizona Bank in 1947 as a messenger. Over the next 20 years, he rose to chief executive officer. He retired in 1968 at 55.
As a prominent member of the Tucson business community, he served as president of the Development Authority for Tucson Expansion, the founding organization for the Greater Tucson Economic Council.
Also a rancher in Sonoita until 1972, Mr. Douglas was a past president of Junior Achievement of Tucson, the Tucson Chamber of Commerce and the Arizona Bankers Association.
In 1970, he was named Tucson’s Man of the Year by the downtown Sertoma Club. In 1973, he was named Man of the Year by the City of Hope.
He was always trying to keep Tucson moving forward, said Peter Douglas, his son.
”I can’t even name all the things he was on,” Douglas said.
He was a member of National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Tucson Airport Authority, American Red Cross, National Alliance of Businessmen, Up with People and United Way of Tucson.
”He really cared that Tucson become a better place,” Peter Douglas said. ”And it was not for self-aggrandizement or to better himself financially, he really cared about the city.”
He raised funds for Junior Achievement, Planned Parenthood, the Chamber of Commerce, Tucson Symphony Society, and Winston Churchill Foundation.
Mr. Douglas came from a long line of bankers and ranchers. His great-grandfather, James Douglas, founded the Copper Queen, a smelter, in Bisbee, and Phelps Dodge mining interests in Arizona.
His grandfather, James Stuart Douglas, discovered the United Verde Extension, an ore body, in Jerome. His father also founded the Bank of Douglas, which later became Arizona Bank.
He was born June 20, 1922, in New York City. He attended Amherst College in Massachusetts for a year, before joining the Army.
He served in World War II and received an Air Medal, three Oak Leaf Clusters and three battle stars during his 21 months of service in Europe. He was honorably discharged as a first lieutenant.
He enjoyed riding horses and playing the guitar. He also was an accomplished sculptor who worked with bronze, his son said.
Mr. Douglas is survived by his former wife, Mary Peace Hazard Douglas; a son, Peter Douglas; two daughters, Bronwyn McGregor Douglas Rubenstein and Morgan Peace Douglas; and five grandchildren, Summer and Megan Douglas, Neil and David Rubenstein, and Philip Rosenberg.
He was preceded in death by his oldest son, James Stuart Douglas III.
Friday’s memorial service is scheduled for 4 p.m. at his home, 5005 E. Fort Lowell Road.
Memorial contributions may be sent to the United States Dressage Federation, 130 N. 10th, Lincoln, Neb. 68508.
(Dated Apr 02, 1997)
=======
Air park co-founder Stanley Trachta, 85
Memorial service for the Pearl Harbor survivor will be held April 9.
A memorial service will be held Wednesday for Stanley W. Trachta, a survivor of the Pearl Harbor attack, co-founder of La Cholla Air Park Inc. and Tucson attorney.
Mr. Trachta, 85, died March 16.
He commanded the Marine detachment on the USS West Virginia until the ship was sunk at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.
Mr. Trachta was not aboard the ship when it was attacked, said Margaret Trachta, his wife of 58 years.
The Marine Corps had lost so many aviators that it asked him whether he would become one.
He did.
He went on to serve as a fighter pilot in World War II and the Korean War.
During his 22 years in the Marines, he flew almost every kind of plane made, family members said.
He retired with the rank of colonel in 1958, and he and Margaret made Tucson their home.
Before enlisting in the military, Mr. Trachta had earned a bachelor’s degree and a law degree from the University of Montana.
When he moved to Tucson in 1958, he passed the Arizona bar exam and helped start the firm of Hall, Jones, Hannah & Trachta. Over the next 35 years, the firm grew from five partners to 40. He retired at age 79.
His love for airplanes did not end with his military retirement.
He helped found La Cholla Air Park Inc., where his family still lives. He was one of the founders of the Pima Air Museum. He also flew with the Civil Air Patrol.
Margaret Trachta said while he was always contributing to the community, he was never too busy for his children and two grandchildren.
”There isn’t anything that he wouldn’t do for his family,” she said.
Mr. Trachta was always volunteering to help out some cause or another, said Pam Hale Trachta, his daughter-in-law.
”I think he gained a lot of respect for all of that,” she said.
He was a founding member of Skyline Country Club, a life member of the YMCA board and a member of the Kiwanis Club and the Episcopal Church of the Apostles.
”He’s really part of the history of Tucson,” she said.
For all his accomplishments, Mr. Trachta came from humble beginnings.
He was born Aug. 16, 1911, in a wagon on the way to Meeker, Colo.
Mr. Trachta and Margaret were married Jan. 6, 1939, in Pennsylvania after he came back from his first stint in the Marines in China, where he spent three years in Peking.
He is survived by his wife; a daughter, Mary Glenn Winscott; a son, Stanley Jon; a daughter-in-law, Pam Hale Trachta; a brother, Joseph of Carlsbad, N.M.; a sister, Anne House of Brownsville, Texas; and two grandchildren, Mary Michelle Winscott and Michael Winscott of Portland, Ore.
He was preceded in death by his brother Eldred and a son-in-law, James Winscott.
A memorial service will be held for Mr. Trachta at 10 a.m. Wednesday at La Cholla Air Park Inc., 1777 W. Cessna Way.
Memorial donations may be made to the University Heart Center, P.O. Box 245046, Tucson, Ariz. 85724; the Episcopal Church of the Apostles, 9800 N. Oracle Road., Tucson, Ariz. 85737; or to the Challenger Program at Pima Air and Space Museum.
(Dated Apr 03, 1997)
=======
