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Insurance man David M. ‘Mac’ Lovitt
David M. ”Mac” Lovitt, who made his living in the insurance trade but left his mark with numerous contributions to the Tucson community over the course of four decades, died Monday after a bout with heart disease. He was 79.
Mr. Lovitt entered the insurance business as a salesman after serving in the U.S. Air Force during the waning years of World War II. He went on to shape a firm – now called Lovitt and Touché – that became one of the largest independent insurance companies in the nation.
Over the years, Mr. Lovitt served on dozens of organizations, boards, and committees, leaving a legacy that touched many a Tucsonan, his family and friends said.
”He was very gentle and kind. He just had a great way with people. He treated everybody with respect – I mean everybody,” said his son, David Lovitt Jr. ”That’s the kind of role model he was to me.”
Retired attorney Jack Donahue was a friend of Mr. Lovitt’s for 60 years.
”He was involved in a zillion things, and everything he took on, he did so well,” said Donahue, who met Mr. Lovitt when both played on the University of Arizona tennis team in the years before World War II.
”When they organized the Friends of the Library at the UA, the first thing they did was get Mac Lovitt involved. This was a life well spent in every sense of the word – in the community, his family and among his friends.”
Mr. Lovitt was born Nov. 29, 1918, in Memphis, Tenn. He came to Tucson as a teen and graduated from the Southern Arizona School for Boys before going on to earn his bachelor’s degree from the UA in 1941.
After serving as a supply worker in the Philippines during World War II, Mr. Lovitt returned to Tucson and joined the Arizona Trust Co. as a salesman, his son said.
In 1951, Mr. Lovitt formed his own insurance agency, D.M. Lovitt & Co., and went on to earn his credentials as a Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriter in 1964.
In 1969, his firm merged with another Tucson firm, Snodgrass and Downey, and eventually became Snodgrass, Lovitt, Downey & Touché, his son said.
David Lovitt Jr., who formed his own insurance firm after working for many years with his father, said Mr. Lovitt found satisfaction in serving and helping people through his insurance company. But that was only part of what he offered generations of Tucsonans, his son said.
”Probably the most significant contributions he made were giving back to the community in which he lived,” David Lovitt Jr. said.
From 1951, when he served as president of the Tucson Festival Society, until the late 1980s when he served as president of the University of Arizona Foundation and the Tucson Botanical Gardens, Mr. Lovitt headed agencies and boards that aided Tucson residents in areas as varied as education, medicine, finance, and crime and fire prevention.
His political appointments included service on the Tucson Planning and Zoning Commission in 1954 and a stint as a referee in the Pima County Juvenile Court.
Among his favorite community endeavors were the Breakfast Club, a group of like-minded community leaders he formed more than 20 years ago, the Botanical Gardens and Friends of the Library, said Bill Creamer, retired director of the Arizona Training Center for the Handicapped and longtime friend.
”I think he’s one of the most highly-respected people I know or know of in town,” said Creamer, whose friendship with Mr. Lovitt also grew around a love of tennis. ”He did a lot of things even his best friends didn’t know about.”
Mr. Lovitt, though semi-retired from the insurance business, still went to the office every day up until he became ill with a heart infection, his son said.
He had been in Tucson Medical Center, where he died, off and on during his final weeks.
Mr. Lovitt is survived by his wife of 55 years, Cornelia; his son, David; daughter, Aleida Ann Howard; brothers, Lloyd and Fred Lovitt; sister, Harriet Damm; five grandchildren; and numerous nieces and nephews.
Services are scheduled for Saturday at 10 a.m. at St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church, 5150 N. Valley View Road. Burial will be at Holy Hope Cemetery.
Mr. Lovitt’s family asks that donations be made to St. Mary’s Hospital, the Carondelet Health Care Foundation, the Tucson Botanical Gardens or a charity of the donor’s choice.
CIVIC ACTIVITIES
David ”Mac” Lovitt served as president, chairman or director of many Tucson agencies:
• Tucson Festival Society, 1951
• Tucson Rotary Club, 1954-55
• Skyline Country Club, 1963-64
• Tucson Airport Authority, 1970
• St. Mary’s Hospital Advisory Board, 1970
• University of Arizona Alumni, 1971
• Tucson Urban Area Crime Commission, 1972
• Union Bank, 1974-75
• St. Mary’s Hospital 2nd Century Foundation, 1974
• The Breakfast Club, 1975
• Southern Arizona Chapter of Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriters, 1978
• Tucson Chamber of Commerce Committee on Aging, 1979-80
• Sierra Club of Tucson, 1980
• Tucson Country Club, 1981-82
• UA Foundation, 1981, 1986
• University Relations and Advisory Board, 1983-85
(Dated Nov 25, 1998)
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Thomas E. Matz owned rock-sand firm
Thomas E. Matz, a former owner of Tucson Rock and Sand Co., died Monday of complications from Alzheimer’s disease. He was 81.
Mr. Matz was born in Chicago to Italian parents. He served in the U.S. Army Air Corps and moved to Tucson in 1946.
Once here, he found work as a bookkeeper at Tucson Rock and Sand Co., and eventually became its owner.
”He always told us he was just lucky and he knew really good people,” his daughter, Mary Matz, said. ”He had the ability and worked hard.”
Mr. Matz’s company poured the concrete for Pima Community College West, the Tucson Community Center and most of the runways at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base.
Mr. Matz was quick to adopt innovative developments that would assist his business.
”They were the first big construction company to put two-way radios in trucks to communicate along the job,” Mary Matz, a retired school administrator, said. ”Service was his motto.”
Mr. Matz was a part-owner of Sundt Construction Co. when he sold Tucson Rock and Sand in 1976 to Tanner Companies. He remained as general manager until his retirement in 1981.
Mr. Matz was a defendant in an antitrust suit that alleged he and other ready-mix concrete companies conspired to fix prices.
Mr. Matz’s part of the lawsuit was settled in 1979 before he and the manager of another Tucson concrete maker went to trial. At the time, the Arizona Republic reported the settlement totaled millions of dollars.
Mr. Matz was preceded in death in 1986 by his wife of 43 years, Dorothy. He is survived by children Virginia Jones, Mary Matz, Trish Campbell, Thomas Mazzocco, Paula Donley, and Judy Valenzuela. He also is survived by his brother, Edward, and 11 grandchildren.
Visitation will be held at Abbey Funeral Chapel, 3435 N. First Ave., from 5 to 7 p.m. today.
A funeral Mass will be held tomorrow at 11 a.m. at Saints Peter and Paul Church, 1946 E. Lee St., followed by burial at Holy Hope Cemetery.
(Dated Dec 02, 1998)
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Banker, civic leader John C. Neil
• He’s remembered as ‘a great personality,’ someone who had a knack for having fun.
John C. Neil, a veteran Tucson banker described by colleagues as a consummate professional who had fun at everything he did, has died at age 49.
Mr. Neil died Sunday of a sudden cerebral hemorrhage.
”He was just a wonderful, wonderful guy, a lot of fun, and really loved life,” said former City Councilman Brent Davis, a longtime friend. ”He had a real knack for having fun at whatever he approached, including banking.”
His son, John Neil Jr., said, ”He was a great fan of UA athletics, and he loved to go to football and basketball games. His family was his highest priority, but he had a large network of professional and social relationships throughout the city.”
Mr. Neil was born March 7, 1949, in Lockport, N.Y., and moved to Tucson with his family in 1963. He graduated from Catalina High School, where he excelled as a trumpet player, earning all-state, first-chair position.
He was awarded a music scholarship to the University of Arizona, where he played in the UA marching and symphonic bands and earned a bachelor of science degree in business administration.
He also was a graduate of the American Bankers Association’s National Compliance School and National Commercial Lending Graduate School.
He went to work for Southern Arizona Bank while still in college – the start of a 30-year career in banking here.
In 1979, he was promoted to manager of the Tucson Medical Center office of First National Bank of Arizona. In 1981, he was named assistant vice president and loan officer in the commercial loan department of First Interstate Bank of Arizona. Three years later, he was named vice president in charge of quality assurance and compliance at Union Bank.
In 1986, Mr. Neil was promoted to senior vice president, branch administrator and regional manager of the Eastside Regional Banking Center of InterWest Bank.
At the time of his death, he was executive vice president of Arizona Bank, which was merged this week with Compass Bancshares Inc., a $14.5 billion interstate bank based in Birmingham, Ala.
Lewis Murphy, former Tucson mayor and longtime director of Arizona Bank, said, ”John’s death was just an incredible, terrible tragedy.
”John played an incredibly valuable part, both personally and professionally,” Murphy said. ”He’s going to be so missed.”
Arizona Bank chairman Jim Click took time during the board meeting yesterday, where Compass Bancshares’ acquisition of Arizona Bank was finalized, to eulogize Mr. Neil.
”Jim praised John for all his personal and professional contributions to the success of the bank,” Murphy said.
Click later said, ”I think if anyone epitomized our bank and what we stood for, as far as providing customer service, it was John Neil. John absolutely loved the banking industry, he loved his customers, and he loved everyone within the bank – all the people he worked with.
”He was obviously one of my favorites, and a lot of my personal friends, a lot of my contacts, always turned to John because he was the person they would fall in love with, and he always got the job done.”
Another longtime Arizona Bank director, William J. Polson, agreed.
”I don’t know anybody who didn’t think he was a great guy, a great personality. We looked forward to seeing him. He’s going to be really missed by everybody,” Polson said.
Mr. Neil’s numerous civic contributions included board membership with the YMCA and Palo Verde Mental Health Services. He was a member of the VIP Breakfast Club, Quarterback Club, Boys and Girls Clubs of Tucson, Catalina Rotary and alumni associations of Catalina High School and UA.
A memorial service is scheduled at 2 p.m. Saturday at Christ Church United Methodist, 655 N. Craycroft Road.
Survivors include his wife of 30 years, Peggy; a daughter, Teresa Nowak of Tucson; a son, John Neil Jr. of San Francisco; his mother, Lucy Neil of Tucson; two brothers, Jim Neil and Tom Neil of Tucson; and two grandchildren.
(Dated Dec 02, 1998)
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Spiro Papanikolas ran 3 businesses
Spiro E. Papanikolas, who helped bring youth football to Tucson and oversaw the family businesses of El Con Shopping Center, 49ers Golf and Country Club and 49ers Country Club Estates, has died at age 71.
Known affectionately as ”Uncle Spitz” to many nieces and nephews and beloved by more than a dozen grandchildren, he died Tuesday of complications from cancer, said his daughter, Mary Drachman.
”One of my cousins said, ‘Everybody should have an Uncle Spitz,’ ” Drachman said. ”He was the favorite uncle of all the cousins. When my son, Phillip, became aware of his death, he said, ‘Papu was so much fun.’ ”
Mr. Papanikolas was born Aug. 24, 1927, in Salt Lake City. He graduated from Cyprus High School in Magna, Utah, and attended Utah State University, the University of Utah and Westminster College.
He served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, returning to join his three older brothers, John, Nick and Gus, in the family construction business.
Because of the scarcity of lumber following the war, Mr. Papanikolas was dispatched to Oregon in 1951 to establish and oversee a lumbering and logging operation to supply the construction business.
He remained in Baker, Ore., until 1964, when he moved to Tucson to oversee El Con in partnership with the Kivel family. He also ran the country club operations here.
Son Skip Papanikolas said, ”My dad was an interesting guy, very generous, and would go to disadvantaged parts of town for the holidays and provide food for needy families. He did that on his own.”
He said Mr. Papanikolas was an avid outdoorsman who had horses and hunting dogs all his life. ”At the time of his death, he was just getting into pecan farming and ranching down in Cochise County. He had a 100-acre pecan farm and horse ranch.”
Mary Drachman said, ”He enjoyed life, and enjoyed his family – enjoyed having his family nearby. We all lived within a quarter-mile of him.”
His concerns for disadvantaged youths prompted Mr. Papanikolas to become one of the founders of what is now Pop Warner football in Tucson, said son Skip.
Mr. Papanikolas was a 32nd degree Mason and a senior member of the Tucson Conquistadors.
Visitation is scheduled from 6 to 8 p.m. today, with a service at 7 p.m. at Adair Funeral Home Dodge Chapel, 1050 N. Dodge Blvd.
A funeral service will begin at 11 a.m. tomorrow at St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church, 1145 E. Fort Lowell Road, with burial to follow at East Lawn Palms Cemetery, 5801 E. Grant Road.
Survivors include his wife, Dorothy; a daughter, Mary Drachman of Tucson; three sons, Skip of Phoenix and Gus and Nick, both of Tucson; a brother, Nick E. Papanikolas of Salt Lake City; three sisters, Bertha Cononelos of Las Vegas and Ida Collard and Willa Dean Cocorinis, both of Salt Lake City; and 13 grandchildren.
The family suggests memorial donations be made to Casa de los Nie±os.
(Dated Dec 04, 1998)
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