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Lynton McKenzie, renowned firearms engraver
Tucson resident Lynton Stuart Munro McKenzie, considered one of the world’s finest master engravers of firearms, died Tuesday after a long battle with cancer.
He was 58.
”I would have ranked him among the top two in the world, along with (engraver) Winston Churchill, the only American engraver of his class,” said Bill Quimby, director of publications for Safari Club International and former Tucson Citizen outdoor writer.
Mr. McKenzie, a quiet, soft-spoken and intensely private man, maintained a low profile in Tucson while working on some of the most valuable antique firearms in existence – many of them hundreds of years old.
”He was world-renowned for his fine English Victorian scroll, probably the finest in the world,” said Phil Quigley, another Tucson-based master engraver who apprenticed under Mr. McKenzie for five years.
”He’s cut (engraved) for heads of state all over the world – the Sultan of Brunei, the Saudi royal family, English heads of state, work for some of the wealthiest men in Japan, including the (emperor).”
In an interview several years ago, Mr. McKenzie said the British royal family had arranged for shipment of some of the firearms to him for repair, even though British law forbade removal from the country of its treasures – including antique firearms encrusted with gems and precious metals.
”The last major firearm that he worked on was done on a Louis XIV that sold for just a tad under $1 million, built in 1652 at the Royal Armory at Lyon, France,” Quigley said.
Mr. McKenzie was born in Rockhampton, Queensland, Australia, Dec. 21, 1940. He took up gunsmithing at age 11 and by his late teens was regarded as his country’s leading gunsmith.
He later traveled throughout Europe, with letters of introduction from the premier and prime minister of Australia that opened doors of Europe’s museums.
He studied engraving with the masters in Belgium and Italy, eventually spending six years in London, embellishing double rifles and shotguns for such firms as Holland & Holland, Rigby and others.
He was encouraged to move to North America by a New Orleans collector who hoped the move would raise the quality of American arms decoration.
Mr. McKenzie’s love of hunting – he favored finely crafted black-powder rifles – eventually brought him to Tucson, and he moved here with his family in 1980.
When the dove and quail seasons were on, he would be afield with a 150-year-old double-barrel Manton flintlock shotgun, declaring, ”The people who made these guns meant for them to be used.
”They are far better than anything being produced today, and it would be a shame to retire them.”
Mr. McKenzie devoted some 3,500 hours of work engraving a finely crafted rifle built for Safari Club International by another Tucsonan, David Miller, in 1980. The rifle was sold at auction for $42,000, and the owner later declined an offer of $108,000 for it.
Though primarily a firearms engraver, Mr. McKenzie devoted some of his time to engraving fine knives with accompanying custom belt buckles – something he called ”functional male jewelry.”
Survivors include his wife, Pamela; two daughters, Michaela McKenzie of Omaha and Fiona McKenzie of Tucson; and his mother and a brother, both of Sydney, Australia.
In keeping with his wishes, his wife said the family would hold a small, private ceremony, with his cremated remains to be returned to his homeland.
(Dated Feb 11, 1999)
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Cancer claims Savannah Vail
Little Savannah Elaine Vail, whose valiant, 19-month battle against the cancer won the hearts of many Tucsonans, has died.
Savannah, the 2 1/2-year-old daughter of Tucsonans Erik and Michelle Vail, died Thursday of posterior fossa ependymoma.
The rare form of brain cancer that attacks fewer than 75 children a year in the United States was discovered in Savannah’s brain just days after her first birthday.
Savannah’s father, a Tucson firefighter, said she was so young when her disease was diagnosed that she accepted the repeated surgeries, chemotherapy treatments, the permanently implanted intravenous catheter in her chest and other medical procedures as normal.
”If she were older, she would know what it was like before cancer,” he said in an April Tucson Citizen interview. ”Now she thinks this is what life is supposed to be like – she thinks it is totally normal to have a tube coming from her chest.”
Tucson fire Capt. Brian Delfs said today, ”The family is very thankful to the community for supporting them through what was a very trying time.
”All the prayers, and the thoughts and the money that has been donated (to help with medical expenses) allowed them to enjoy their last seven months with their daughter.”
Delfs said family members asked that they not be contacted by reporters during mourning.
Doctors performed operations, but were able to remove only 92 percent of the tumor because it lay too close to the brain stem.
Chemotherapy proved ineffective, and she underwent an alternative treatment involving use of amino acids and peptides to stimulate tumor-suppressing genes.
In an obituary notice, the family wrote: ”Although Savannah’s life was short, she truly knew how to live each moment to the fullest.”
Savannah was born July 23, 1996.
Funeral services were held yesterday at East Lawn Palms Mortuary Chapel. Private entombment followed at East Lawn Palms Mausoleum.
Besides her parents, survivors include her grandparents, Elaine and Bob Draves, Sheila and Floyd Ottwell and Nancy Willingham and Boston Vail ; and her great-grandparents, Edith and Stan Bluhm and Ann Vail.
The family suggests memorials be sent to Special Wish Foundation, 880 S. Craycroft Road, Tucson, Ariz. 85711 or Tu Nidito Children’s Hospice, 555 N. Wilmot Road, Suite 255, Tucson, Ariz. 85711.
(Dated Feb 16, 1999)
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Bill De Long served public for 25 years
Former state Sen. Bill De Long, a Tucsonan whose commitment to public service included working in city and county government before serving in the Legislature for a decade, died Monday after a short battle with cancer. He was 68.
”He lived his life with three words – duty, honor and country – and to Bill that was pretty much it,” said his wife, Loretta ”Sam” De Long. ”He was a man of tremendous strength and character.”
Mr. De Long was born March 27, 1930, in Albany, N.Y. He served in the Army in the Korean and Vietnam wars, ending his military career with the rank of major.
After moving to Tucson in 1966, Mr. De Long held several positions in city government, including city clerk and assistant city manager. He also served as Pima County’s chief deputy treasurer.
Mr. De Long, a Republican, won election in District 14 to the state House of Representatives in 1980, a seat he held for two years. He then went on to represent the same East Side district in the Senate for eight years before retiring in 1991.
Gov. Jane Hull, who served with Mr. De Long on the Legislature, recalled him as ”one of the most respected and intelligent members of the Legislature.”
”When he was in charge, everyone was confident things would go well because he had no hidden agenda,” Hull said.
Mr. De Long was an advocate for laws to help nurture small businesses and he was a champion for transportation issues in southern Arizona, said Tucson Republican John Mawhinney, a former Senate majority leader.
”As a legislator, I think he’s the kind of guy they need more of,” Mawhinney said. ”He was a very relaxed, calming influence on a lot of people. Things moved a lot smoother when he got involved with them.”
During his time as a lawmaker, Mr. De Long also was instrumental in passing bills that provided enhanced funding for kindergarten through third-grade education and a grandparents’ bill of rights.
After leaving the Legislature, Mr. De Long became president of Catalina Professional Recruiters, a physician recruiting firm. He and his wife later opened their own similar firm.
He also was an enthusiastic volunteer, working with a host of civic and professional organizations including the Optimist Club, Boys Club of Tucson, District 5 Little League Baseball, the Southern Arizona Mental Health Center, the Sahuaro Girl Scout Council and the Tucson Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce.
Only recently was Mr. De Long’s primary liver cancer diagnosed, his wife said.
”He fought it valiantly with a sense of humor and never gave in,” she said.
Mr. De Long’s love of University of Arizona athletics was evident even in his final days at home, Sam De Long said, noting that he followed the Wildcat basketball team on television.
”The last coherent thing he did was sit there and watch the Wildcats beat Louisiana State University on Saturday,” she said, ”and he enjoyed it immensely.”
Besides his wife of 21 years, Mr. De Long is survived by six children, six grandchildren, two nieces and an aunt.
Visitation is tomorrow from 4 to 8 p.m. at Bring’s Broadway Chapel, 6910 E. Broadway.
Funeral services will be held Friday at 10 a.m. at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base Chapel No. 1, with burial at Fort Huachuca at 1 p.m.
Donations to the William J. De Long Undergraduate Scholarship Fund, an endowment to assist undergraduates in any discipline at the University of Arizona, can be sent to the attention of Kathy Westerhaus, Department of History, Social Sciences Building, Room 215, University of Arizona, Tucson, Ariz. 85721.
(Dated Feb 17, 1999)
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Ex-reporter Dick Wilbur, 82
• The Yale graduate covered WWII and worked at the Tucson Citizen for 20 years.
Richard E. Wilbur, a reporter at the Tucson Citizen for 20 years, died Sunday. He was 82.
Mr. Wilbur was born in 1916 in Cleveland.
After graduating from Yale, where he was editor of the Yale Record, Mr. Wilbur covered World War II in London and Paris for Stars & Stripes, a military newspaper.
Over his career, he wrote about business and mining, medicine and science, courts, and state, federal and city government .
”Newspaper work was his life,” said Roberta ”Bobbie” Wilbur, his wife of nearly five decades. ”He liked reporting in depth and was never afraid to ask questions. Instead of just quoting people, he would try to find out what they meant.”
George Leaming, principal consultant and owner of Western Economic Analysis Center, agreed.
”It was a delight to work with him, he took great pains to understand the subject he was writing about.
”He was, for me, a reporter I could trust. He wouldn’t let me get lost in economic jargon; he kept pushing until I got it downto human language. And then he’d get it right.”
Mr. Wilbur worked at a variety of newspapers across the country, including Sun Newspapers of Omaha, the Rocky Mountain News in Denver, the Albuquerque Journal and the Albuquerque Tribune. He joined the Citizen in 1968 – when it was called the Tucson Daily Citizen – and retired in ’88.
”Dick was the consummate journalist,” said Judith K. Lefton, a former assistant managing editor at the Tucson Citizen. ”He was supremely skilled and talented as a reporter and writer. His integrity, his ethics and reputation were impeccable.”
Because he enjoyed reporting, Mr. Wilbur continued working until he was 72.
”He loved learning and looked at every day as an opportunity to learn something new and tell the readers something new,” Lefton said.
Tom Duddleston, who hired Mr. Wilbur at the Citizen, praised his efforts at the newspaper.
”Dick did his work quietly and professionally without any fanfare, and this gave confidence to his news sources that he would treat them with respect and honesty,” said Duddleston, a former news and business editor at the Citizen.
”’More so than some reporters, he spent most of his time out of the office and on his beat.”
Many people mentioned Mr. Wilbur’s curiosity as a driving force in his life.
”He was always reading and gathering information on some new topic that had caught his eye,” said longtime fried Sam Negri. ”I could never predict what he would zero in on next. For a month or two he’d be collecting material on low-cost HUD housing, then it was UFOs, desert architecture, Billy the Kid, Malcolm X, Christopher Wren’s 17th century church architecture and the cathedrals of Paris.”
Mr. Wilbur is survived by his wife.
A memorial service will begin at 4 p.m. Friday at Arizona Mortuary, 7 E. University Blvd. The family requests that, instead of flowers, memorial donations be made to any charity.
(Dated Feb 24, 1999)
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