Huge Marriages Search Engine!
Flowing Wells school activist Richardson
Robert Stewart Richardson, founder of Nu-Art Photo Service in Tucson and a longtime activist on the Flowing Wells School District board, died Monday of pneumonia and other complications. He was 89.
Mr. Richardson founded Nu-Art at a downtown location in 1942 – the year he moved to Tucson with his family – selling cameras and greeting cards, and processing film. The business grew to three branches around the city before Mr. Richardson sold the business and retired in 1968.
Mr. Richardson was elected to the Flowing Wells School Board while his children were still young and in those schools, then devoted himself full time to that service after his retirement.
While holding various offices on the board, he took special interest in programs for gifted children, and was honored for his work with the naming of the Robert S. Richardson Elementary School in 1979.
The school continues to celebrate his birthday each year, said his daughter, Roxana Rhyne.
”He felt a warm and affectionate regard for that school, and a great sense of pride in it,” she said.
Born in 1909 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Mr. Richardson attended the University of California at Los Angeles, majoring in botany, and worked toward a doctorate degree at the University of Minnesota.
After a brief stint as conservation adviser to the Cuban government, he worked for the U.S. Department of the Interior (then called the Conservation Department), then did surveying work for the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs. While stationed in Albuquerque at that job in 1940, he married his co-worker, the former Clara Tabler.
In 1942, he formed a partnership with another co-worker, Carl Holzman, to launch the Nu-Art business in Tucson, and became a founding member of the Tucson Camera Club.
He also served in the Rotary Club, the Flowing Wells Parent-Teachers Association, and the American Red Cross of Southern Arizona. He was a charter member of the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, and a member of the Independent Order of Foresters, the National Geographic Society and the Pioneer Historical Society.
Mr. Richardson became an expert on Mexico, traveling there extensively. He often gave slide presentations on the country at the Arizona State Museum. He was an avid photographer, mountain climber, naturalist, carpenter and gardener.
He was deeply interested in the Southwestern Indian cultures, Mexican archaeology, astronomy, prehistoric plants and animals, and opera.
Mr. Richardson is survived by his wife of 59 years, Clara T. Richardson of Tucson; son Thomas S. Richardson of Mesa; daughter Roxana S. Rhyne of New York City; and two grandchildren.
No services are planned. Donations in Mr. Richardson’s name may be made to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum or the Robert S. Richardson Elementary School.
(Dated Jan 28, 1999)
=======
UA art museum director dies at 61
Peter Bermingham, director and chief curator of the University of Arizona Museum of Art, died Saturday after undergoing double-bypass surgery at St. Mary’s Hospital. He was 61.
He had a heart attack at work Thursday, said his wife, Eleanor. Mr. Bermingham had emergency surgery at St. Mary’s Friday but never regained consciousness, she said.
Mr. Bermingham joined the museum in 1978 after serving as curator of education at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Collection of Fine Arts.
During his tenure, more than half of the UA museum’s 4,000 pieces of art were acquired. The museum also increased its exhibitions, holding about a dozen a year.
”He was a great artist in his own right,” said Tucson attorney Richard Grand, who knew Mr. Bermingham, who painted.
But other artists came first.
”He was truly one of those people with no agenda,” Grand recalled. ”He wasn’t trying to climb, take advantage. He was a wonderfully nice, cultured man.”
Mr. Bermingham received his Ph.D. in art history from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
In addition to his wife, Mr. Bermingham is survived by five children, Christopher, Jason, Alexander and Nicholas, all of Tucson; and Noelle of San Francisco.
A vigil service is tentatively planned tomorrow at 7 p.m. at St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church, 5150 N. Valley View Road.
The family requests donations be made to the UA Museum of Art in care of the University of Arizona Foundation, Tucson 85721.
(Dated Feb 01, 1999)
=======
Longtime jeweler Herbert Silverberg, 69
Veteran jeweler Herbert Leonard Silverberg, who learned the art of handcrafting jewelry in the family business his father brought from Poland to Tucson in 1942, died this week of lung cancer. He was 69.
He was born May 24, 1929, in the Bronx, N.Y., and at age 13 came to Tucson with his family. He started an apprenticeship in S. Silverberg & Sons jewelry shop on East Congress Street while still in school.
Several years after graduating from Tucson High School, Mr. Silverberg became a partner with his father, Sol, in the family business.
Mr. Silverberg, along with his brother, Bernard, and his sister, Roslyn, carried on the family business as it grew and relocated numerous times – including a period in the former Pioneer Hotel building at Pennington Street and North Stone Avenue – before finally settling at 5420 E. Broadway.
”He worked all his life doing what he loved and knew so well,” his wife, Jeanne, said in a written statement issued by Evergreen Mortuary. ”Herb is best remembered by his family, friends and customers for his generosity and fun-loving spirit.”
Aside from his wife of 20 years, Mr. Silverberg is survived by two sons, Stanley of Tucson and Daniel of Encino, Calif.; a sister, Rosalyn Silverberg-Pilkington of Tucson; a brother, Bernard Tucson; and numerous nieces and nephews.
Family and friends gathered yesterday for services at Congregation Anshei Israel. Donations may be made in Mr. Silverberg’s name to the Angel Charity for Children, in care of Gail Larocca, 5373 E. Calle Bosque, Tucson, Ariz. 85718.
(Dated Feb 04, 1999)
=======
Mo. plane crash claims entrepreneur Fernàndez
• The former Tucson resident was in the process of returning to live here.
Edward ”Ed” Fernàndez, an entrepreneur who built a computer programming business from a spare bedroom into a $72 million consulting corporation, was killed Sunday when his Cessna plane crashed in southeast Missouri. He was 54.
Mr. Fernàndez was flying his Cessna C205 Stationair to Tucson when he reported a vacuum pump failure. At the time, the veteran pilot was flying by instrument panel because of rain and clouds.
The National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration are investigating.
Mr. Fernàndez was founder, president and chief executive officer of SHERIKON, a Chantilly, Va.-based professional services and solutions firm with more than 800 employees in 19 states. He was on his way to join his family in Tucson, where he had been transitioning into retirement.
He and his wife had recently bought a home here.
His wife, mother, brother and two children live in Tucson. His company, which was founded in New Orleans in 1984 and moved to Virginia in 1986, did substantial contracting business with federal, state and local governments.
It is ranked as one of the country’s top 100 federal information technology contractors.
”SHERIKON had expanded rapidly but it was still a family environment,” said company spokeswoman Carla Parks. ”In my office we saw Ed every day. He was very personable and well-liked. His success didn’t impact the way he dealt with people. He was very down to earth.”
Parks was unaware of his exact Tucson roots, but said he had lived here as a young man. His father, who passed away last year, and his mother are longtime residents of the Old Pueblo. His children, Erik, 18, and Sharon, 21, attend the University of Arizona.
SHERIKON chief operating officer Steve Wilkes will oversee company operations until the board of directors decides who will take over, said Parks.
In all likelihood it will be his wife, Carol.
”Carol is very capable of running the company on a day-to-day basis,” said Parks. ”She was heavily involved in it until a couple of years ago.”
Last year, Hispanic Business magazine named SHERIKON the country’s 48th-largest Hispanic-owned business. It also named Fernàndez one of the 100 most-influential U.S. Hispanic leaders.
Fernàndez served two tours in Vietnam with the U.S. Air Force and graduated from California State University at San Jose with a finance degree. In 1981, he earned a master’s degree in business administration in international finance from Seattle University.
He is survived by his wife, Carol; their two children, Sharon and Erik; his mother, Aida Fernàndez; a brother, Robert, and sister Lisa-Marie Seulke of Placentia, Calif.
A memorial service was held last night in Virginia.
(Dated Feb 06, 1999)
=======
Longtime political journalist Kolbe, 58
PHOENIX – John Kolbe, a political columnist and reporter for two Phoenix newspapers for 26 years, died yesterday at his home following a short battle with colon cancer. He was 58.
Kolbe, the dean of Arizona political writers, spent most of his career with The Phoenix Gazette, an afternoon newspaper that shut down in 1997. He then joined the Gazette’s sister, The Arizona Republic.
His brother, Jim Kolbe, is a Republican congressman from Tucson.
”John was as central a figure in Arizona’s political scene as any politician,” Gov. Jane Hull said. ”As a political columnist, John could make or break a politician with the stroke of his pen. He was the eyes and ears of the people.”
Pam Johnson, executive editor and vice president/news of The Republic, said Kolbe ”loved writing and he loved dissecting the political scene and the policy debates over the 26 years of his service to our readers.”
Kolbe was hired as a columnist and reporter by Eugene C. Pulliam, the Phoenix newspapers’ owner, in 1973. He was a confidant to powerful state political leaders such as Sen. Barry Goldwater, Reps. Mo Udall and John Rhodes, former state House majority leader Burton Barr, and state Sen. Sandra Day O’Connor, who went on to become a U.S. Supreme Court justice.
”In our professions, someone comes along every once in a while who is transcendent because of his honesty and integrity – that was John Kolbe,” said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.
Kolbe’s columns generally reflected his strongly held conservative beliefs. He also brought a more aggressive style of reporting to the Capitol, where politicians’ relationships with reporters had tended to be easygoing and chummy.
He said it was difficult to have to help disclose in 1996 that his brother was gay. His column came as a national gay magazine was about to ”out” the congressman.
”Jim Kolbe is about to lose something far more precious than an election, something that unlike the short end of a ballot count cannot be undone by another campaign, or more commercials, or shaking 10,000 more hands . . .,” Kolbe wrote. ”He’s losing his privacy. And it is painfully ironic that he should lose it, even if with his full cooperation, partly at the hands of his older brother.”
Survivors include his wife, Mary; son David and daughter Karen; stepchildren Erin Simmons and James Simmons; two brothers, Walt and Jim; sister Beth, and two grandchildren.
(Dated Feb 09, 1999)
=======
Businessman Augustine Jàcome
Augustine E. ”Teen” Jàcome, the youngest son of pioneer Tucson businessman Carlos Jàcome and a longtime executive at the department store his father founded, died Sunday of complications of Alzheimer’s disease.
He was 86.
Mr. Jàcome was born July 24, 1912, at the original Jàcome family home on Stone Avenue in downtown Tucson, the last of 13 children born to Carlos and Dionicia Jàcome, who emigrated from Mexico to found Jàcome’s Department Store in 1896.
”As the last surviving sibling, his death marks the end of an era and closes an important chapter in the history of contributions by Mexican immigrants to Tucson,” said his niece, Tina Jàcome. ”For all of the family, it’s touching because all of those aunts and uncles are now gone, all 13 of them.”
Mr. Jàcome attended the Marist Brothers and Safford schools in Tucson, St. John’s Military Academy in Wisconsin and the University of Arizona for two years before going to work for his father.
”His entire career was dedicated to the family store that his father founded,” Tina Jàcome said. ”Along with his brothers and sisters, Teen learned the merchandising trade from the ground up – from stock boy, shipping and receiving, to inventory control, buying and selling, selling, selling.”
Mr. Jàcome spent three years in the U.S. Army Air Corps, serving on the island of Tinian in the Marianas during World War II.
He was affiliated with the Optimists’ downtown chapter, and was a charter member of the Caballeros del Sol. He was a member of the Tucson Chamber of Commerce and attended Ss. Peter & Paul Catholic Church.
When Jàcome’s Department Store closed in 1980, 84 years after his father opened its doors, Mr. Jàcome was vice president.
”Teen was just Mr. Personality,” his niece said. ”Everybody loved him – man, woman and child. He just had so much charisma. He will truly be missed.”
Mr. Jàcome is survived by his wife of 65 years, Margot Turney Jàcome; sisters-in-law Estella Jàcome and Alberta Jàcome, and many nieces and nephews.
A memorial Mass will be celebrated at 9 a.m. Saturday at Ss. Peter & Paul Church, 1946 E. Lee St. Interment will be private.
The family suggests memorial donations be made to Casa de los Niños, 1101 N. Fourth Ave., Tucson 85705.
(Dated Feb 09, 1999)
=======
