Huge Marriages Search Engine!
Sheaffer photos captured Tucson
• He compiled them in a book after being seriously burned.
Funeral services for Jack W. Sheaffer, who had more than 40,000 of his photographs published during his 35-year career with The Arizona Daily Star, will be held Saturday.
Mr. Sheaffer, who also compiled a 20-year photographic history book of Tucson on the way to becoming a local legend, died yesterday morning in his midtown home. He was 69.
The formal cause of death has yet to be determined, but Mr. Sheaffer’s health suffered since he was seriously burned in a 1982 explosion at the Tucson Newspapers plant.
”Emotionally, I think he recovered but, physically, I don’t think he ever did. He always wanted to go back to photography (full time), but he couldn’t,” said his niece, Sandra Berry.
Mr. Sheaffer managed to compile his best local photographs for ”Jack Sheaffer’s Tucson: 1945-1965.”
Mr. Sheaffer, rarely seen without his trademark cigar, over the years photographed top-name entertainers such as Elvis Presley, Groucho Marx and Jayne Mansfield during their brief stays in Tucson to film movies or take vacations.
He snapped visits to the Old Pueblo by President Eisenhower, Sen. John F. Kennedy on the 1960 presidential campaign trail, and then-former Vice President Richard M. Nixon in 1965.
Mr. Sheaffer forever captured Tucson the way it was – as well as the way it would become.
”He was one of the finest news photographers this state has ever seen,” said Steve Emerine, a former Star columnist and assistant city editor.
”Newspapers don’t record news history the way they used to, and Jack was the last of the historical news photographers,” he said.
Mr. Sheaffer was chief photographer for the Star for 27 years, until an electrical explosion at the newspaper plant on July 22, 1982, nearly killed him.
The explosion killed Star controller and business manager Frank Delehanty and injured six people – including Mr. Sheaffer, who was bedridden for more than 90 days in a St. Louis, Mo., burn unit.
”But I outfoxed them all,” Mr. Sheaffer told the Tucson Citizen in 1984. ”Everyone thought I was dead, I’d never walk, I’d never come home. Now I’m going to prove I can shoot again.”
And Sheaffer did, using a camera mounted on a special tripod by friend and fellow photographer Bob Broder.
”It was wired so he didn’t have to push the button on the camera himself. He would just pull the wire, and it would take the photo for him,” said Berry.
”Photography was definitely in his blood. That and cigars.”
The contraption, which Mr. Sheaffer used at University of Arizona football and baseball games, also had a cigar holder.
Mr. Sheaffer credited the more than 15,000 letters, phone calls and visits during his rehabilitation for his recovery.
He underwent numerous surgeries to repair damage from burns that covered more than half of his body, but Berry said he refused to use painkillers. He would use assistance in walking only when necessary.
Although Mr. Sheaffer was unable to return to the newsroom, Emerine said his longtime friend was able to keep doing many of the things he loved until recently.
”He had been in ill health since last August,” Emerine said. ”He had been confined to his house and was in and out of the hospital since that time. I think 1998 was probably the first UA football season he had missed in 40 or 50 years.”
Mr. Sheaffer established and funded a scholarship at UA and contributed to a number of other charities.
”No matter how much pain he was in, or how much he suffered, he was always willing to help young photographers,” Emerine said. ”Whenever Jack heard somebody needed some help, miraculously he found some way to help them.”
Berry said she spent much of her childhood at her uncle’s home and considered him a father figure.
More times than she can count, her uncle would take her on photo assignments – including one in 1962 for an appearance here by then-Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall.
”I was really impressed because he was ‘somebody,’ and I had my picture taken with him,” she said. ”I don’t know why that one stands out, because I met a lot of people, but for some reason that’s the one that comes to mind.
”He was a fascinating and interesting man,” Berry said of Udall.
Mr. Sheaffer started taking photos while attending Tucson High School in 1945. He later graduated from the Fred Archer School of Photography in California.
Emerine said his fondest memories of his colleague are about helping compile Sheaffer’s book in 1984.
”It gave him something to look forward to every day, because he couldn’t go into the office to work, and I think it kind of provided a sort of therapy for him,” Emerine said. ”I was lucky enough to be able to help him select the pictures and also do the writing and editing.”
Mr. Sheaffer is survived by sisters Lucille Young of Tucson; Bertha Kennedy of Saratoga, Calif.; Sarah Sheaffer and Dorothy Del Nero of Green Valley, Valerie Johnson and Edith Craig of Tucson; and brothers David Sheaffer of Santa Cruz, Calif., and Steve Sheaffer of Green Valley.
Visitation will be Friday from 6 to 8 p.m. at Bring Funeral Home, 6910 E. Broadway.
Funeral services will be held at the same location at 10 a.m. Saturday.
(Dated Mar 17, 1999)
=======
Services tomorrow for Amphi’s Cross
A memorial service will be held tomorrow for Lawrence W. Cross, a longtime Amphitheater Public Schools educator for whom Cross Middle School is named.
Mr. Cross died Tuesday night after a brief hospitalization.
He was 91.
In his 23 years of service with Amphi, Mr. Cross helped the district grow from a single high school and a few schools south of the Rillito to one serving thousands of families, with schools from Grant Road north to the Pima County line.
Born in Kingfield, Maine, on Sept. 4, 1907, Mr. Cross began his career in education in 1930 in Boone County, Iowa, where he was a high school math teacher, principal and basketball coach.
After serving as a naval officer during World War II, Mr. Cross returned to education in Iowa for a few years.
”He still kept in touch with former students in Iowa,” said his daughter, Ardith Grady. ”One of them lives in Green Valley and is probably 80.”
Mr. Cross and his family moved to Tucson in 1949, with Mr. Cross accepting positions as counselor and math teacher in the Tucson Unified School District.
In 1951, he changed districts and became principal of Amphitheater High School. He later would serve as associate district superintendent and acting superintendent.
As acting superintendent, Mr. Cross won the prestigious American Educators Award for his contributions to youth leadership and for projects focused on teaching the American way of life in our nation’s schools.
On Dec. 12, 1973, Mr. Cross participated in a ground breaking for a junior high school named in his honor. He retired the following April.
”He was very dedicated and very loyal to the district and really a credit to teaching and the teaching profession,” said Harold Porter, a former Amphi district administrator.
”He was very forthright. You always knew where you stood with Larry. He didn’t play games . . . . There was no question on where he stood on issues and where you stood with him. I think people admired that about him,” Porter said.
Grady said her father, as a teacher, was very straightforward.
”He was highly respected. He let people know what was expected of them and had a lot of dignity in what he did,” she said.
Mr. Cross’ involvement with youths was not limited to his job. He also devoted many hours to youth activities and education in the community. He served as the local chairman of the Boys State Committee for 19 years.
Mr. Cross’ family said he was an avid golfer and accomplished bridge player, and an enthusiastic fisherman who proudly displayed a photo, taken while he was in the Navy, of a monstrous fish he caught.
He enjoyed his family and kept up with his many friends over the years.
”He had a Christmas card list of about 80 people,” his daughter said.
Mr. Cross is survived by his daughter and son-in-law, Ardith and George Grady; grandchildren Debbie Kontess and Philip Grady; and four great-grandsons, Alex, Danny, Joe and Chris.
Remembrances may be made in the form of donations in his name to the library at Lawrence W. Cross Middle School, 1000 W. Chapala Drive, Tucson 85704.
Services will be held at 4 p.m. tomorrow at First United Methodist Church, 915 E. Fourth St.
(Dated Mar 26, 1999)
=======
Sculptor Rivera remembered for talent, creativity
Alfredo Rivera was very modest about his art.
But those who knew Mr. Rivera, who died of cancer Friday at his Tucson home, speak in glowing terms about his glass and found-object sculptures.
”He was extraordinarily creative,” said Carlos Nagel, longtime companion to Mr. Rivera, 55. ”He kept it very quiet, but his talents were great.”
”Alfredo has been in many shows in the gallery here in the last 10 years,” said Tom Philabaum of Philabaum Glass Gallery & Studios. ”His work always attracts attention for its originality and thoughtfulness. He uses glass solely as one material in an arsenal of materials. He loves glass, but isn’t bound by the glass, which makes his work very strong.”
Mr. Rivera’s sculptures are in private homes from Mexico City to Washington, as well as in Tucson Heart Hospital’s chapel and the Nogales City Hall clock tower.
His work is currently on exhibit at Tucson Botanical Gardens during its Art Attack, TBG’s annual art exhibit/silent auction. In fact, the event is largely due to Mr. Rivera’s energies.
”Alfredo was one of the first that led us into seeing the Botanical Gardens as a place for art,” said Marty Eberhardt, TBG executive director.
In the early part of this decade, she explained, Mr. Rivera organized the first Art Attack. He also donated art to each of the events and helped design TBG’s gift shop and gardens.
In addition to creating art and volunteering at TBG, Mr. Rivera worked with local AIDS organizations and co-sponsored exchange students from Mexico City, providing them with a home and guidance during school years.
”It was always a joy to be with him because of his vitality and humor,” said Philabaum. ”Just to be in his presence was to be in the presence of a very good, solid, warm human being. It always felt good to be around him.”
Mr. Rivera was born in Tucumcari, N.M. He earned a degree in art from Western New Mexico University and served in the U.S. Army before moving to Tucson in 1974. He came here to be near his parents, said Nagel.
Mr. Rivera is survived by: Nagel; his parents, Merced and Maria Rivera ; and his sisters, Jane Gutierrez of Tucson, Rita Rivera and Marianne Maestas, both of Albuquerque, N.M., and Toni Sarry of Las Cruces, N.M. Private services are planned.
(Dated Apr 08, 1999)
=======
Brooks recalled as caring, hard-working
Donald Lee Brooks, 42, was the kind of person who threw himself into everything he did, friends and family members say.
That passion led him to found and build a successful civil engineering/environmental consulting firm, rock climb, play the electronic keyboard and ride his motorcycle.
Mr. Brooks died Sunday after he crashed his new Harley-Davidson on a highway 10 miles west of Arivaca, traffic investigators said.
”He was a kind, gentle person with a big social conscience and a lot of love for his family,” said his wife, Jill Blondin, assistant editorial page editor and columnist at the Tucson Citizen.
Blondin also described him as ambitious and hard-working.
In 1993, Mr. Brooks started ICON Consultants USA, a civil engineering and environmental consulting firm at 1931 W. Grant Road.
The company, which employs 13, posted revenues of about $750,000 last year.
”He was quite interested in the environment,” Blondin said. ”That was one of the philosophical goals of his job and it was moving in that direction.”
Last year, Mr. Brooks traveled to the Philippines and Central America to provide environmental engineering consulting services. The firm, which offers environmental cleanup, flood control, land-use planning and wastewater engineering, also has many local clients.
”Most engineering firms have a narrow focus,” Mr. Brooks said in a 1998 interview with the Tucson Citizen. ”Our firm is founded on the premise that environmental problems require a cluster of solutions.”
Mr. Brooks’ colleagues at ICON recalled him as a hard-working businessman with a sense of caring, both for the environment and his employees.
”If there was any possible way to help you out, he’d bend over backward to do what he could,” said Ken Bartels, a senior project designer at ICON since 1995. ”He did his best to help employees.”
Mr. Brooks worked for several civil engineering firms before striking out on his own in late 1993.
From 1984 to 1989 he worked for Pima County. He held various positions with the county Transportation Department and Flood Control District.
Mr. Brooks came to Arizona in 1979 and worked as a research biologist for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. The job duties entailed helping cottonwood trees grow along the Colorado River.
He received his undergraduate degree in biology and environmental studies from Earlham College, a small Quaker college in Richmond, Ind. He also attended the Berkeley School of Music in Boston.
In addition to his wife, Mr. Brooks is survived by son Nathan, 7, and daughter Kylie, 4; three brothers: Chris, Allen and Ken; and his parents, Douglas and Elizabeth Brooks of Bloomfield, Conn.
A Tucson prayer service is planned, but no date or time has been set. Private services will be held in Bloomfield.
(Dated Apr 13, 1999)
=======
