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‘Jack’ Maul, painter and writer
John C. ”Jack” Maul, whose paintings, writings and energies helped mark the ”early modern art” period in Tucson during the ’50s, died of cancer last week at his Nogales home. He was 80.
Services are slated for Wednesday in Nogales.
”Jack was one of the great artists of his time in this area,” said Maurice Grossman, a retired University of Arizona art professor and co-curator of ”Tucson’s Early Moderns,” a UA Museum of Art exhibit shown earlier this year. The show included some of Mr. Maul’s abstract paintings.
”He was an experimenter,” continued Grossman. ”His art was on the edge all the time. He was always experimenting with new forms, new ideas. He was always searching.”
Mr. Maul, who received his fine arts degree from the UA, grew up in Nogales, but spent much of his life in Tucson painting, writing (he was the Tucson Citizen’s art critic for a few years in the ’50s), and pouring his energy into Ash Alley, a small downtown back street that burst with art galleries and life during the ’50s.
”His articles were really from the heart,” Grossman recalled of Mr. Maul’s art reviews. ”This man just had real insight about the artists he wrote about. I still have copies – they were so well written they were keepers.”
Artist Harold Friedly remembers when he moved to Tucson in 1949, Mr. Maul was one of the first people he met.
”My first impression was here is a gregarious person with a great sense of humor,” said Friedly, whose work was also featured in the UAMA show. ”He was very positive, and you could talk to him about everything. He was a very unique person.”
Lifelong Nogales resident Fannie Courtland, who attended grade school with Mr. Maul, remembers his eclectic interests and keen eye.
”He had a great sense of aesthetics,” she said. ”His sense of balance and color and symmetry were the driving force of his life. His knowledge of literature and music was tremendous, but above all, he knew art. He had strong, strong opinions, based on a profound history of art and its development. He was an artist through and through.”
Services for Mr. Maul will be at 2 p.m. Wednesday at Adair’s Carroon Mortuary Chapel, at 1191 N. Grand Ave. in Nogales. A reception at Hilltop Gallery, 730 Hilltop Drive, immediately follows the service.
The family requests that contributions in his memory be made to the Tucson Museum of Art, or to a charity of your choice.
(Dated Jul 27, 1998)
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Coatsworth, preacher of drive-in sermons, called ‘giving, selfless’
The Rev. John E. Coatsworth, the inspiration behind Tucson’s only drive-in church service at the Park Avenue Christian Church, died Wednesday.
He died of a brain tumor at Sonoran Desert Homes. He was 83.
Pima County Attorney Barbara LaWall, who met the Rev. Coatsworth six years ago, called his death ”an enormous loss” to Tucson. ”He was giving, selfless, kind and charming,” LaWall said.
The Rev. Coatsworth ministered at Park Avenue Christian Church for 22 years. He retired in 1982, but helped minister at Marana’s Community Christian Church from 1985 to 1988.
In 1964, he began the drive-in sermons at the Rodeo Drive-in Theatre. He stood on a flatbed trailer and preached as worshipers sat in their vehicles, listening to the sermon on movie speakers.
The idea began as a way for the elderly and disabled to attend services without leaving their cars.
Still today, 15 to 20 cars show up for the service, and that number increases in the winter, said the Rev. Yvaughn Boling, pastor at Park Avenue Christian Church.
The Rev. Coatsworth was born in Spencer, S.D., in 1914. He and his family moved to Tucson in 1960 from Sloan, Iowa, four years after he entered the ministry there.
He was an active member of the Pueblo and Cholla Optimist clubs, and devoted much of his time to the youths of southern Arizona.
Near his death, he was concerned about whether he had really helped people, said Hazel Coatsworth, his wife of 54 years.
”I told him, ‘We certainly tried’ and it’s all a person really could do,” she said.
His son Bill Coatsworth, 51, said ”he was concerned because (helping people) mattered to him.”
In addition to his wife and son, he is survived by son David Coatsworth of Chandler, Ariz.; daughters Terry Bagwell and Cindy Lewis of Tucson, Melanie Alexander of Spokane, Wash., and Wendy Young of San Diego, Calif.; sister Gay Schoepf of Sioux Falls, S.D.; and 18 grandchildren.
A visitation will be held from 2 to 6 p.m. tomorrow at Evergreen Cemetery and Mortuary, 3015 N. Oracle Road. A memorial service is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Monday at Park Avenue Christian Church, 4635 S. Park Ave.
A graveside service will be held at 2 p.m. Monday at Evergreen.
Donations may be made to the Park Avenue Christian Church, P.O. Box 22917, Tucson, Ariz. 85734-2917.
(Dated Jul 11, 1998)
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Barrington Long, 76, of Long Realty dies
Friends and co-workers of Barrington L. ”Barry” Long said he was doing what he loved best – working in the real estate business – right up to his death Wednesday.
Mr. Long, 76, served as a president of Tucson-based Long Realty Co. for 28 years and supervised its growth into one of Tucson’s largest real estate firms.
He was working at the company’s Oro Valley office just a few hours before he died at his home about 5:30 p.m. of an apparent heart attack.
Mr. Long was the son of Roy H. Long, the founder of Long Realty.
When Mr. Long took over the business from his father in 1952, it was a small, one-office company with five salespeople. He built the company into a firm with nine offices and 250 salespeople prior to stepping down as company president in 1980.
John Riley, who was hired by Mr. Long and for many years managed Long Realty’s Casas Adobes Office, described him as a compassionate leader who knew how to get the best out of others.
”He had a great feel for people and excelled at building rapport and trust,” he said.
Stephen Quinlan, also hired by Mr. Long and now the company’s president, said Mr. Long was calm in crisis and knew when to intervene in matters.
”He had this gift to know when to leave things alone and just let them work out on their own,” Quinlan said. ”Barry always had a smile and a gentle word for everyone. His family and friends adored him.”
Kay Yokley, branch manager of the Oro Valley office, said Mr. Long showed homes to clients the day before his death and was helping at the office until about 2:30 p.m. on the day he died.
”He was a very classy friend,” she said. ”He loved life, lived to the fullest and enjoyed his profession.”
Mr. Long was born May 12, 1922, in Tucson.
He was among the first students to attend Sam Hughes Elementary School, and he graduated from Tucson High School.
Mr. Long attended the University of Arizona, studying civil engineering for three years before joining the U.S. Army during World War II. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant.
Prior to going overseas in 1944, he married Marjorie Louise Perrin. The couple remained together for 54 years.
During World War II, Mr. Long served in Germany and France. He built bridges allowing the Allied Forces to enter Germany, and he was involved in the liberation of German concentration camps.
He was awarded the Bronze Star with a V for Valor for bravery in battle.
Following the war, Mr. Long graduated with honors from the University of Arizona and built homes in Tucson with his brother, Bob. Mr. Long and his wife later moved to Houston, where he worked as a field engineer.
He went back into the U.S. Army for two years during the Korean War.
Returning to Tucson, he became president and owner of Roy H. Long Realty following his father’s retirement in 1952.
Mr. Long retired as president of the independent real estate company in 1980. He and his wife then founded and built Long’s Apple Orchard near Dragoon. They also owned Long’s Peak Restaurant at Picacho Peak.
He and his wife re-entered the real estate business in the mid1990s, becoming million-dollar producers for the company he once ran.
Mr. Long was involved in a variety of community, professional and religious organizations. He was past president of the Catalina Rotary Club and was active in the Tucson Board of Realtors and the Boy Scouts of Tucson. He was also a deacon, elder and trustee of Trinity Presbyterian Church.
He was a pilot and an avid hunter and fisherman.
Mr. Long is survived by his wife; four sons, Russell, Steven and Roy, all of Tucson, and Randolph, of Indianapolis; granddaughters Jennifer and Emily; a brother, Ted, of Glendale; and several nieces and nephews.
He was preceded in death by his brother, Bob.
FUNERAL
Services for Barrington L. ”Barry” Long will be held at 10 a.m. Monday at Trinity Presbyterian Church, 400 E. University Blvd.
Burial will be at Evergreen Cemetery, 3015 N. Oracle Road.
(Dated Jul 11, 1998)
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‘Greatest Teacher’ did so for 31 years
During his 31-year career at San Manuel High School, Walter Wdowiak jokingly referred to himself as ”The Greatest Teacher in History.”
Few of the more than 5,000 students who passed through Wdowiak’s history class would dispute that claim.
A memorial service for Mr. Wdowiak, who died last week of lung cancer at age 69, will be held tomorrow.
The 10:30 a.m. service will be at El Conquistador Resort, 10000 N. Oracle Road.
During his teaching career at San Manuel, from 1959 through 1990, Mr. Wdowiak logged more than 500,000 miles commuting daily from his home in Tucson – and was never involved in an auto accident.
He challenged his students to match that dent-free record.
Mr. Wdowiak was born in Wilbraham, Mass., and attended the University of Arizona. He earned a bachelor’s degree in history and a master’s degree in counseling. After completing the latter in 1959, he began teaching at San Manuel.
Mr. Wdowiak told each new crop of students they would fail his class if they could not spell his name correctly.
Unbeknownst to the students, he tossed in the name Aloysius, because it is hard to spell, and added his confirmation name, Antonio. Thus the moniker ”Walter Aloysius Antonio Wdowiak” became legendary at the school.
Among his students was Lina Rodriguez, who credits Mr. Wdowiak with inspiring her in 1968 to not only attend college, but also to aim for law school.
Rodriguez is now a Pima County Superior Court judge.
Mr. Wdowiak, who also taught history at the Aravaipa campus of Central Arizona College and at a state prison in Tucson, said he wished he could inspire all of his students to better themselves.
Of his prison teaching experience, he told the Tucson Citizen in 1984, ”The first day I walk into the place, I hear some guy yell, ‘Hey, Wdowiak!’ It was a student I had flunked in high school – I flunked him again in prison. Some time later he was released, and they arrested him a week later in a killing.”
Over the years Mr. Wdowiak and his wife, Karen, anonymously sponsored scholarships for San Manuel students who couldn’t otherwise afford to attend college.
Mr. Wdowiak’s efforts were recognized when he was guest of honor at a multiyear reunion of San Manuel High School graduates.
His proudest moment, and one of the few times in his life when he was left speechless, occurred when the several hundred former students in attendance rose and gave him a lengthy ovation.
Donations to the Walter Wdowiak Memorial Scholarship Fund may be made at any Bank of America branch.
Mr. Wdowiak is survived by his wife, Karen; daughters Catherine Wdowiak of Tucson and Leslie Marley of Westminster, Md.; son William Wdowiak of Tucson; sisters Ruth Lamar Ponchetti of Tucson and Irene Setterstrom of Ludlow, Mass.; and 2-year-old grandson Jordan Daniel Marley.
(Dated May 08, 1998)
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