Huge Marriages Search Engine!
Scottsdale mourns ex-mayor
• City officials are planning a community celebration of Herb Drinkwater’s legacy.
SCOTTSDALE – They called him ”Mr. Scottsdale,” a man whose easy manner and foresight helped this Phoenix suburb retain its character as its population skyrocketed.
Yesterday, politicians and residents alike mourned Herb Drinkwater, a four-term mayor who was rarely seen without his trademark cowboy hat and always made sure his phone number was in the book.
Drinkwater died Sunday of salivary-duct cancer, which he was diagnosed with last year. He was 61.
”In many ways Mayor Drinkwater was Scottsdale,” said Sam Campana, the current mayor. ”He looked like, sounded like and dressed like he was mayor of the ‘West’s Most Western Town.’ ”
City officials planed a community celebration of Drinkwater’s legacy. Details were pending yesterday, but officials said it will be held at 4:30 p.m. Saturday at WestWorld.
”It is comforting to know that the community loved Herb Drinkwater with the same intensity and feeling as his family,” the family said in a prepared statement.
Drinkwater, known for his humor and his salt-and-pepper beard, served as mayor from 1980 to 1996. During that time, Scottsdale grew from a sleepy Phoenix suburb into a major city. Its population more than doubled, and Drinkwater helped lure the Mayo Clinic and luxury resorts such as the Princess.
He was known for his efforts to preserve Scottsdale’s natural beauty, including pushing for a preserve near the McDowell Mountains and a park system along Indian Bend Wash, which runs through much of the city. He lobbied for less-dense development in the city’s growing northern portion.
”The legacy of Herb Drinkwater is we have a foundation in the community to build on that very few communities have,” said longtime friend Lou Jekel, a Scottsdale zoning attorney.
Former council member Charlie Smith called Drinkwater ”the greatest goodwill ambassador and the greatest booster we will ever see.”
Drinkwater spent nearly three decades in local government as a commissioner, councilman and mayor.
The owner of a home-building business and a liquor store, he was elected to the City Council in 1970, telling voters he would safeguard the small-town character. Scottsdale grew and merged with Phoenix, but Drinkwater’s home phone number was always in the book.
Drinkwater’s family moved from upstate New York to Scottsdale when he was 7 on the advice of doctors. Drinkwater suffered from asthma and rheumatic fever, and he credited Arizona’s climate with saving his life.
He waged a public battle against his cancer, inviting reporters to his home and speaking openly of his disease.
”How you face it is a measure of the man, in my opinion,” said longtime friend Dick Campana. ”He kept strong faith. That’s not easy to do.”
Drinkwater is survived by his wife, Jackie; his daughter, Jaime; and his son, Mark.
A private funeral is scheduled for Friday. A public ceremony is planned, but Scottsdale officials were still working out details yesterday.
(Dated Dec 30, 1997)
=======
Service Saturday for Loveless Gardner, ex-city recreation chief
One sure way to annoy Loveless N. Gardner was to mention the city of Tucson’s parks department.
”It’s parks and recreation,” he would always firmly correct such offenders.
Mr. Gardner, a longtime city recreation director and active community volunteer, died Christmas Eve after a brief illness. He was 84.
A memorial service is scheduled for 1 p.m. Saturday at Catalina United Methodist Church, 2700 E. Speedway Blvd. Mr. Gardner and his wife, Marcia, were members of the church for many years.
When Mr. Gardner retired from the city of Tucson in 1977, he had worked there for 41 1/2 years, starting as a clerk and meter reader with the Water Department.
He became the third director of the city’s Recreation Department. He held the post for 20 years, with a three-year break during World War II when he served in the U.S. Navy in the South Pacific.
”Those were the times when you stayed with a job, and he enjoyed what he was doing,” said Mr. Gardner’s daughter Marsha Blish, who lives in Tucson.
”He tried to know all the (city recreation) employees. When he went to the ball diamonds, the janitors knew him, and so did the people working in snack bars.”
During his tenure running the recreation department, Mr. Gardner made his mark with unprecedented city-sponsored activities such as a marbles tournament, a kite-flying contest, a fiddlers’ contest and square dance classes.
Born Aug. 30, 1913, in Big Springs, Texas, he moved to Hayden at age 9. Four years later, he moved with his family to Tucson.
A 1932 graduate of Tucson High School, Mr. Gardner was twice a state high school tennis champion.
”He was a strong believer in recreation to keep healthy and alert. To him, bowling was dumb – I used to bowl – because it wasn’t exercise,” Blish said.
Until last month, when he fell and broke his hip, Mr. Gardner was doing regular upper arm exercises and deep knee bends at the same East Seneca Street home he had resided in since 1955.
An avid fisherman, hunter and golfer, he was a longtime volunteer with the Tucson Junior Chamber of Commerce and the first president and founding member of the Arizona Recreation Association.
He and his wife were active members of the Tucson Awareness House Auxiliary Inc., and helped form the Parent-to-Parent group for parents of teens involved with drug abuse.
”He didn’t know a stranger,” Blish said. ”(But) no matter where we went, it seemed everyone knew my dad.”
Mr. Gardner first joined the city of Tucson as an employee in 1936, the same year he married Marcia.
He was appointed recreation director in 1940, replacing Harold ”Porque” Patten, who had held the job for six years.
Until 1963, the city had separate parks and recreation departments. But that year, city voters approved a ballot proposition combining the two divisions, and Mr. Gardner stepped down to the assistant supervisory position for recreation.
The City of Tucson Retirees’ Association honored Mr. Gardner’s long service to Tucson recreation in 1994. About 100 people attended a surprise dinner in his honor at the BPO Elk’s Lodge No. 385, 2404 E. River Road.
”It was a living honor of him, going through his life – kind of a toast and a roast,” said Emeline Helten, a former city parks and recreation employee. ”He was very instrumental in getting the recreation department started years and years ago.
”He was a wonderful person, and he certainly deserves recognition,” she said.
Helten said one of Mr. Gardner’s more well-known accomplishments was founding the Old Time Fiddlers’ Contest, which still takes place here before the annual La Fiesta de los Vaqueros rodeo.
Though he didn’t play the fiddle himself, Mr. Gardner emceed the event for years and quickly became familiar with popular fiddle tunes such as ”Cotton-Eyed Joe” and ”Boil Them Cabbage Down.”
Mr. Gardner also worried that such fiddle tunes were often passed down by memory and in danger of being lost to a younger generation that wasn’t playing them.
”He had his own band in the South Pacific,” Blish said. ”And he played the clarinet, the harmonica and saxophone.”
Although Mr. Gardner remained in good physical health until recently, Blish said his spirits had dropped significantly since 1995, when he lost his wife and a son within two months.
In 1982, Mr. Gardner also lost his grandson, Todd Craft, 16, who was killed in a car accident.
”We’re a very close family, and it was really hard on my father,” Blish said. ”My dad loved kids. He would sit and tell stories about growing up.”
Mr. Gardner’s unusual first name came in honor of the Texas physician – Dr. Loveless – who delivered him. Mr. Gardner was the youngest of nine children and his parents were starting to run short on names, Blish said.
”His sisters called him ‘Lovey,’ ” she said. ”He ended up liking his name.”
He was preceded in death by his wife Marcia in 1995. He was also preceded in death by grandson Ricky Craft in 1963, son Douglas Gardner in 1977, grandson Todd Craft in 1982, and son Jerry Gardner, a local dentist, in 1995.
In addition to his daughter, who lives in Tucson, Mr. Gardner is survived by sister Helen Gardner of Turlock, Calif.; grandson Darrin Craft of Tucson; and granddaughter Wendy Jones of Mesa.
(Dated Dec 30, 1997)
=======
Hugh Harelson called versatile journalist
Hugh Harelson, an Arizona journalist for more than four decades and the man credited with rescuing Arizona Highways magazine, is dead at age 67 after a battle with cancer.
He died Thursday at his home.
Mr. Harelson, born in Phoenix Oct. 25, 1930, attended school in Glendale and later earned a bachelor of arts degree at the University of Arizona.
After graduation, he served for two years in the U.S. Army, returning to Arizona to accept a job as news editor of the Bisbee Daily Review in 1954.
From there, he moved to the Arizona Republic, where he worked until 1961, serving as a sports writer and southern Arizona correspondent.
Harelson spent a year as news editor of the Scottsdale Daily Progress and returned to the Arizona Republic from 1962 to 1970, serving as day city editor, sports editor and news editor.
In 1970, he became news director of KTAR-TV in Phoenix and stayed in that job until 1973, when he returned to Tucson to become director of public information for the Arizona Health Sciences Center.
He later served as executive director for university relations at UA and as director of the school’s information services department.
Mr. Harelson helped guide UA through a rocky period that included widespread criticism of the medical school’s surgery department and the indictment of Tony Mason, the school’s football coach, on charges of filing false travel vouchers.
In June 1982, Gov. Bruce Babbitt asked Harelson to become interim publisher of Arizona Highways magazine, which was losing circulation and revenue.
Mr. Harelson, with the quiet, affable and effective managerial style that characterized his career, reversed the downward spiral of the state’s stylish tourism magazine and was appointed publisher in November 1982.
He served in that capacity until his retirement in 1995.
”He was not only an immensely competent editor, but he was also just a really decent human being and a good friend,” said Sam Negri, a longtime Tucson writer and regular contributor to Arizona Highways.
”He was an unusual person, in some ways almost like somebody from another era. There was not a vindictive bone in his body.”
Retired UA journalism professor Donald Carson called Mr. Harelson ”one of the most honest, decent, thoughtful and kind people I’ve ever known. He had hundreds of friends, through a series of different jobs, and never forgot his old friends. He always kept track of people and did what he could to help if he was in a position to help.”
Mr. Harelson, Carson recalled, ”was the consummate professional, a very fine editor, very sound reporter and writer.”
When the university threatened to eliminate the journalism department in the early ’90s, Mr. Harelson became co-chairman of the Save Journalism Committee.
Mr. Harelson was deeply involved with several organizations outside the journalism field, including the Arizona Boys Ranch and the Arizona chapter of The Nature Conservancy, where he served as vice chairman of the board of trustees.
He also was a member of the board of directors of the Walter Cronkite Endowment for Journalism at Arizona State University and a former president of the UA Alumni Association.
UA presented Mr. Harelson with its Alumni Achievement Award in 1991.
A memorial service is scheduled at 10 a.m. Friday at Unitarian Universalist Church, 4027 E. Lincoln Drive, Paradise Valley.
Survivors include his wife, Jan; two sons, Scott Harelson of Phoenix and Matt Harelson of Los Angeles; and a granddaughter.
The family suggests donations to the UA Journalism Department, care of University of Arizona Foundation/Hugh Harelson Memorial Fund, UA Foundation, 1111 N. Cherry Ave., Tucson, AZ 85721.
(Dated Jan 03, 1998)
=======
