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Charles Hargroder, political columnist
September 17, 2002
BATON ROUGE -- Charles M. Hargroder, a former political columnist and chief Baton Rouge correspondent for The Times-Picayune for almost three decades, died Sunday of heart failure related to diabetes and other illness at Lakewood Quarters in Baton Rouge. He was 76.
Mr. Hargroder, known to the Baton Rouge political establishment as "Charlie, " was born in Franklin and moved to Baton Rouge at age 11. He graduated from Baton Rouge High School and majored in journalism at Louisiana State University.
Although his career centered on politics and political reporting for The Times-Picayune, Mr. Hargroder launched his career as a reporter for The Advocate, Baton Rouge's daily newspaper, from 1947-50. From 1950-52, he served in the Army at Fort Gordon, Ga., where he was editor of the post newspaper, The Rambler.
Mr. Hargroder worked for the Monroe News-Star from 1952-53, then went to work for Gov. Robert Kennon as his executive assistant from 1953-56.
In 1956, he became a press aide to U.S. Rep. Hale Boggs, D-New Orleans. From 1957-59, Mr. Hargroder was the regional representative for the federal Inter-Industry Highway Safety Commission.
In 1959, he went to work for The Times-Picayune on its state desk, writing and editing stories. In 1961 he was named the newspaper's capital correspondent, assigned to cover the governor's office, the Legislature and state agencies. He wrote his last column for the newspaper in January 1988 and retired three months later.
In retirement, Mr. Hargroder wrote a novel, "Ada and the Doc, " which deals with a murder decades ago in Franklin. The book was published in 1999.
Mr. Hargroder was frequently denounced by the politicians he covered for his investigative stories. His reporting helped secure the public listing of unclassified, politically appointed state employees and their salaries, and helped convince state officials that money in the treasury must be invested and earn interest.
"I consider the newspaper as a check and balance often equal to the three departments of government, " he once told an interviewer. "An alert press serves to direct public opinion to those shadows of government which need the light of public pressure."
He was a "very respected and one of the most influential and trusted journalists" to work the political beat, said Jack Wardlaw, who retired as capital bureau chief of The Times-Picayune in February and worked alongside Mr. Hargroder for many years. "He was a good reporter who worked hard and was very good at what he did, " both investigative stories and daily news coverage of the Capitol.
During legislative sessions, Mr. Hargroder usually covered the 39-member Senate and became an expert on its inner workings. He was frequently referred to as "the 40th senator."
Mr. Hargroder was president of the Capitol Correspondents Association, an organization of journalists who cover the statehouse.
Survivors include a brother, Rivers Eugene Hargroder of Baton Rouge, an uncle, a niece and several cousins.
A funeral will be held Wednesday at 10 a.m. at Rabenhorst Funeral Home, 825 Government St., Baton Rouge. Visitation will begin at 9 a.m. Burial will be in Roselawn Memorial Park in Baton Rouge.
HALTER, HAROLD
08, 1, 2002
Harold Halter, 74, Halter Marine founder
Harold Halter, a son of the 9th Ward whose fascination with designing and constructing boats led him to create and run a shipbuilding empire, died Sunday at Memorial Medical Center of complications from a stroke. He was 74.
During its 27-year life, Halter Marine Services Inc. specialized in creating crew boats, tugboats and supply boats for the offshore oil industry. As that industry prospered, so did Halter Marine, which grew to employ 4, 000 people in four states. Mr. Halter sold it for $24 million in 1983.
"He was in the right business at the right time, " said Penny Hopper, one of his daughters.
"His boats dominated the market for years, " said A.J. Rizzo, Mr. Halter's longtime spokesman. "He really was responsible for the current types of supply boats that are operating in the Gulf. They became the standard for the oil and gas industry."
Mr. Halter, a graduate of Francis T. Nicholls High School who had been trained as a machinist, could instantly size up a design for a ship and correctly estimate how much material would be needed and how much the vessel would cost, Rizzo said.
"He often had vessel designs and production methods that were far advanced, " said Susan Halter, another daughter. "Sometimes people wouldn't listen, but years later, others would come up with the same idea."
It all started in 1956, with a 26-foot pleasure boat he and a friend, James Dubuisson, built in Mr. Halter's backyard. Hopper said the two had met at Praeger's Machine Shop, where they learned about working with iron and steel from men who had built ships at Higgins Industries during World War II.
The Sea Cat, the name they gave to the boat they built, was so large that the two men had to take down the fence to get it out of the yard, she said. "They sold it and used the money to buy a lot of land in eastern New Orleans and build a second boat, and expanded from there."
By 1978, Halter Marine was responsible for nearly half of the world's production of supply boats, Rizzo said. At 10 sites in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida, Halter employees also designed and built yachts, sport-fishing boats, cable-laying ships, marine research and oceanographic vessels, patrol boats, racing boats and boats that float on a cushion of air just above the water's surface.
Mr. Halter sponsored the Halter 200 Offshore Races in Lake Pontchartrain and was owner of a team of racing boats.
He sold his company to Trinity Industries in 1983, but he kept busy researching and developing boats and equipment.
Mr. Halter also founded a job-training program in public schools.
He was founder and a former president of the Louisiana Shipbuilding and Repair Association, and was a member of the City Club of New Orleans, International Trade Mart, Southern Yacht Club, the Plimsoll Club and St. Paul's Episcopal Church.
He served in the Air Force and the Air National Guard.
Survivors include his wife, Pamela Broome Halter; a son, Eric Halter; two other daughters, Jody Halter and Shaney Cefalu; and eight grandchildren.
A funeral will be held Thursday at 11 a.m. at Lake Lawn Metairie Funeral Home, 5100 Pontchartrain Blvd. Visitation will be today from 6 to 9 p.m. and Thursday from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Burial will be in Metairie cemetery.
Edward Hall, 96, civil rights activist
May 18, 2001
Edward Hall, a retired worker at Godchaux Sugar Refinery, died Wednesday at his home in Reserve. He was 96 and a lifelong resident of Reserve.
Mr. Hall was the founder of the St. John the Baptist Parish branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
In 1944, he filed a federal lawsuit challenging the discriminatory registration procedures of the registrar of voters in St. John. Before his lawsuit, African-Americans had been required to pass a test before being allowed to register to vote.
Mr. Hall also helped organize the first employees union, the Congress of Industrial Organizations Union, at Godchaux Sugar Refinery, and served on the negotiating committee until he retired in 1970. He is one of the original board members of the St. John Parish Council on Aging.
For his civic efforts, Mr. Hall was chosen as 1987 honorary Grand Marshal for the Martin Luther King Celebration Committee. He received the Order of St. Louis Medallion, which was presented by Archbishop Francis Schulte in 1991.
Mr. Hall was also honored by St. John the Baptist Parish Council members, who renamed East 27th Street in Reserve as Edward Hall Street.
Mr. Hall was a member of the Knights of Peter Claver Council No. 73. In his spare time, he played standup bass in Marshall Lawrence's band.
Survivors include three daughters, Sister Cornelia Hall, SSF, of New Orleans, Esma Brougham of Baton Rouge and Reah Bernard; a son, Robert Hall of New Orleans; 11 grandchildren; 23 great-grandchildren; and four great-great grandchildren. A Mass will be said today at 11 a.m. at Our Lady of Grace Church on River Road in Reserve. Visitation will begin at 9 a.m. Burial will be in St. Peter's cemetery in Reserve. Robottom Mortuary is in charge of the arrangements.
GOODEN, BISHOP R. HEBER
February 15, 2003
R. Heber Gooden, Episcopal bishop
Episcopal Bishop R. Heber Gooden, who for 27 years supervised the Episcopal Church over a vast swath of Latin America and briefly served as acting bishop of the Diocese of Louisiana, died Tuesday in Shreveport. He was 92.
The son of Episcopal Bishop Robert Gooden, a bishop of California, Heber Gooden was educated at Stanford University and did his theological studies at Berkeley Divinity School at Yale University. He was ordained in 1935.
Bishop Gooden spent most of his career in Latin America, starting with nine years in Cuba. At 35, he became bishop of the missionary diocese of Panama, which later included oversight of Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Colombia. Later he became bishop in charge of Ecuador.
At one time he estimated that various transfers of jurisdictions left him with supervision of eight republics under nine flags with nine monetary systems. He retired as bishop of Panama and the Canal Zone.
On his retirement from Latin American service in 1972, Bishop Gooden became assistant bishop to Bishop Iveson Noland of the Diocese of Louisiana. When Bishop Noland was killed in a 1975 plane crash, Bishop Gooden became acting bishop until Bishop James Brown was chosen as his successor the following year.
Bishop Gooden's first wife of 27 years, Elena Fernandez deMendia, died in 1982. He married
Sandra Roberts in 1988 and moved to Shreveport, where he was bishop in residence at St. Paul's Episcopal Church.
Besides his wife, survivors include two sons, Reginald and Richard Gooden; a stepson, Marshall Roberts; two sisters, Frances Beckwith and Murial Badger; and five grandchildren.
The Holy Eucharist will be celebrated at St. Paul's in Shreveport on Saturday at 2:30 p.m., with Bishop Bruce MacPherson of the Diocese of Western Louisiana officiating. Bishop Gooden's ashes will be interred at St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral in Shreveport.
Leroy R. Garrison Jr., mechanic, counselor
September 29, 2001
Leroy Raymond Garrison Jr., a certified master mechanic and a drug-abuse counselor, died Sept. 21 of heart failure at Ochsner Foundation Hospital. He was 52. Mr. Garrison was a lifelong resident of New Orleans and a graduate of George Washington Carver High School.
Mr. Garrison was an Army veteran of the Vietnam War and received the National Defense Service Medal and the Vietnam Service Medal. He was a volunteer in many veteran support organizations, including the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder program and Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter No. 384. Mr. Garrison volunteered as a facilitator and sponsor in substance-abuse programs at Bridge House, Veterans Affairs Medical Center and the Christian Community Youth Against Drugs Foundation.
He received the National Volunteer of the Week Award from the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in 1994 and the Jewish War Veteran Memorial Award in 1997. He was made a Lifetime Member of Vietnam Veterans of America in 1999 and received the Louisiana State Council of Vietnam Veterans of America's Point Man Award, Volunteer Service Award and Jerome K. Murry Service Award.
Survivors include a son, Leroy Raymond Garrison III; a daughter, Jessica Victoria Garrison; a brother, the Rev. Charles Edward Garrison; two sisters, Barbara Coleman Watson and Kathleen Marie Garrison; and three grandchildren.
A funeral will be held today at 12:30 p.m. at D.W. Rhodes Funeral Home, 3933 Washington Ave. Visitation will begin at 10:30 a.m. Burial will be in Resthaven Memorial Park.
Dr. Jose Garcia Oller, senior neurosurgeon
May 25, 2002
Dr. Jose Luis Garcia Oller, a neurosurgeon who founded the intensive care unit at Mercy Hospital and was a former chief of neurosurgery at Charity Hospital, died Thursday at Memorial Medical Center. He was 79.
Dr. Garcia Oller was born in Santurce, Puerto Rico, and lived in New Orleans for the past 55 years.
He served on the staffs of Hotel Dieu Hospital, Flint-Goodridge Hospital, Sara Mayo Hospital, St. Claude General Hospital and Montelepre Hospital, and was senior medical staff member in neurosurgery at Memorial Medical Center's Mercy Campus.
He was honored in January for more than 50 years of service at Memorial Medical Center and its predecessor, Mercy Hospital, where he was chief of staff in 1968 and specialized in the most challenging neurological cases.
Dr. Garcia Oller was the founder and chief executive from 1968 to 1988 of the Council of Medical Staffs, or CMS, later Private Doctors of America, the second-largest medical association in the United States at the time.
The organization was dedicated to preserving the freedom of private medical practice. As its CEO, Dr. Garcia Oller frequently testified before Congress, championing patients' and doctors' freedom of choice in medical decision-making, his family said. He also was a strong nurses' advocate.
He was the founder and head of the CMS Educational, Scientific and Research Foundation from 1972 to 1988 and also founded an Australian counterpart to CMS called Private Doctors of Australia.
In 1975, he helped draft the Louisiana Malpractice Arbitration Law.
Dr. Garcia Oller graduated at 19 from the University of Puerto Rico. He received his medical degree from Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia and a master of medical science in neurosurgery and a doctorate in physiology from Tulane University. He also was a fellow in neuropathology at Yale University.
He was an instructor of physiology at Tulane Medical School, a longtime member of the New Orleans Area Health Planning Council, and the holder of several patents for devices used in neuroradiology.
He was a member of the Army Medical Corps during World War II and a commander in the Naval Reserve Medical Corps from 1954 to 1956 and the New Orleans Medical Reserve Unit from 1956 to 1962.
Dr. Garcia Oller was a member of many medical organizations and the Club de Puerto Rico de New Orleans and a parishioner of St. Rita Catholic Church.
He received the Ochsner Medical Foundation Excellence in Medical Writing Award in 1950, the George Washington Honor Medal of the Freedoms Foundation of Valley Forge, Pa., in 1984, and the Special Leadership and Service Award of the Louisiana State Medical Society in 1988.
Survivors include two sons, Antonio Jose Garcia of Richmond, Va., and Jose Luis Garcia II; four daughters, Ana Garcia Burr of Jackson, Miss., Teresa Garcia Payne of Hot Springs, Ark., Margarita Garcia Sims of Galveston, Texas, and Maria Garcia Kron; two sisters, Norma Marin of Hialeah, Fla., and Irma Garcia Serrano of Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico; and seven grandchildren.
A Mass will be said Tuesday at 12:30 p.m. at Lake Lawn Metairie Funeral Home, 5100 Pontchartrain Blvd. Visitation will be Monday from 7 to 9 p.m. and Tuesday from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Burial will be in Metairie cemetery.
Paul W. Galmiche, computer specialist
October 19, 2001
Paul Wallace Galmiche, a gifted computer specialist before, during and after the glory days of the Space Age, died Monday of congestive heart failure at his home. He was 71.
Mr. Galmiche retired from the Naval Oceanographic Office at Stennis Space Center in Hancock County, Miss., in January 1994 as head of the corporate resources directorate, a post he held since 1987. He joined the agency in 1980 as director of the information systems department.
Mr. Galmiche was responsible for acquiring and installing a Class VII Cray Supercomputer -- then the most powerful computer in the world when it began operation in October 1990. But he didn't even own a home computer at the time.
He was born in New Orleans and lived in Covington for the past 14 years. Mr. Galmiche's varied interests included law, the study of insects, sports and agriculture. He was a member of Louisiana State University's 1950 Sugar Bowl football team, studied law there but eventually got his degree in entomology in 1953.
But computers and programming them to navigate as many roads imaginable along the information superhighway were to become his main interest and his career, even though he didn't take his first computer course until 1956 while working for the Department of Agriculture.
"I was in the right place at the right time for the computer generation, " Mr. Galmiche said shortly after his retirement. "I was never a great mathematician, but computers were something I was fortunate enough to see how it worked."
While attending LSU, he said, "your hand was a digital computer." At the Department of Agriculture, he said, "the computer ran in milliseconds. The supercomputer runs in gigaflops or billionths of a second" and supercomputers eventually reached speeds measured in trillionths of a second.
"The changes I've seen since 1956 are unbelievable, " he said. "I've seen them go from vacuum-tube computers to integrated circuits cooled in cryogenics. I've gotten so I'd believe they can do anything they tell me."
Mr. Galmiche joined Boeing Corp. as a programmer during its early days and worked through the ranks to become head of the computer department.
His contributions to the Saturn program earned him a place on the Lunar Roll of Honor, which was put on the moon and recorded in the Smithsonian Institute and the Library of Congress. He received an Apollo II Manned Flight Awareness Medal. It commemorates the first lunar landing and contains metal from the spacecrafts Columbia and Eagle.
In 1975, he was hired as director of information systems at the Hebert Defense Complex, then by NAVOCEANO five years later.
Survivors include his wife, Mary Alice Galmiche. A funeral will be today at 2:30 p.m. at E.J. Fielding Funeral Home, 2260 W. 21st Ave., Covington. Visitation will begin at noon. Burial will be in Pinecrest Memorial Gardens.
Joseph W. Flounders
December 1, 2001
Joseph W. Flounders, a New York broker who wooed a New Orleanian woman away from her hometown 21 years ago, died in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. He was 46.
Mr. Flounders was born in Bryn Mawr, Penn., and graduated from Dartmouth College. He worked in New York's financial district for 22 years. For the past 12 years he was a money market broker for Euro Brokers.
He married
Patricia Vallette in 1982 and they lived in Brooklyn Heights. A few years ago, the couple moved to the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania.
"I was a cancer survivor, and he wanted me to have quality of life, so he brought me to the mountains, " said Patricia Flounders, who was born and raised in New Orleans. "It was a valiant attempt to give us a little bit of peace and fresh air.
"He was the most generous person I'd ever known. He saw me through cancer and heart conditions."
The two met in 1977 over the phone when he was the broker for her banking firm, located in New Orleans. They would meet for dinner when she was in New York on business.
In addition to his wife, survivors include his mother, Lila May Flounders of Lantana, Fla., and a stepson, Christian Croner of New York.
The morning of Sept. 11, Mr. Flounders was working on the 84th floor of the south tower. After seeing the first plane crash on television, Patricia Flounders called her husband.
"I said, ‘Joe, get out of there, ' and he said, ‘I will.' " Mr. Flounders had survived the 1993 bombing of the twin towers with a co-worker, to whom he rushed while on the phone with his wife that morning. Both died when the second plane crashed into their tower.
A memorial service will be held today at 11 a.m. at Trinity Church in New York. A reception will follow at Fraunces Tavern. His body has not been recovered.
Claude Dussel, 68
November 18, 2002
Claude Dussel, a noted artist and French Quarter personality, died Nov. 10 of heart failure at Touro Infirmary. He was 68. Mr. Dussel was born in Mont de Marsan, France, and after a successful career there he moved to New York in 1969, to Key West, Fla., in 1980 and to New Orleans in 1994.
Mr. Dussel served in the French army and was a member of the Rosicrucian Order. He was a self-taught artist who painted in the style of the Fantastique movement, which included Leonor Fini and Jean Pierre Alaux, and was exhibited at galleries in Paris such as Andre Weil and Galerie de Paris. He developed his talents to include theater set designs and had worked on projects by Jean Cocteau, Jean Marais and Fernando Arrabal.
When Mr. Dussel moved to New York, he changed his style of painting from the figurative to the abstract, and after he moved to Key West, his art reflected the influences of his diving experiences, which he translated into sculptures and fine jewelry. In New Orleans he still concentrated on the abstract but blended the style with figurative influences and a distinctive French Quarter expression.
Survivors include his companion, Yumi Lin; two daughters, Sophie Martin of Mont de Marsan and Dominique Lesperance of Santa Cruz, Calif.; a sister, Nicole Parent of Paris; and three grandchildren. A private service was held. United Funeral Service handled the arrangements.
Charles E. "Chase" Dickey Jr.
June 06, 2002
Former New Orleans Planning Commissioner Charles E. "Chase" Dickey Jr., a longtime Carnival captain and West Bank civic activist, died Monday at Meadowcrest Hospital. He was 83.
A lifelong resident of Algiers, Mr. Dickey was a graduate of Martin Behrman High School. An Army officer who served in the European theater during World War II, he earned a Bronze Star and Purple Heart. After the war, he returned to Algiers and opened his own insurance business and later became a commercial real estate broker.
"I adored Chase Dickey, " said New Orleans City Councilwoman Jackie Clarkson, who represents Algiers. "He was one of my role models."
Mr. Dickey was a founding member of the Algiers Kiwanis Club and the Krewe of Janus Carnival organization, where he served as captain for 50 consecutive years.
He was a longtime member of Timberlane Country Club, where he served as president in 1972. He also served several terms on the New Orleans Planning Commission and was its chairman in 1968. He was appointed to the Mayor's Mardi Gras Advisory Committee in 1993. He was a past chairman of the Louisiana chapter of Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and a member of the Sons of the American Revolution and Trinity Lutheran Church.
"I have great admiration for his brand of leadership, " Clarkson said. "He led the Planning Commission when it was the ultimate in good city planning.
"He incorporated Algiers into the planning of the city, " she said. "Before then, we were forgotten sometimes."
Clarkson also pointed to Mr. Dickey's leadership of Janus, a non-parading krewe, as important to the community life of Algiers. She said Mr. Dickey's creation of a formal ball for the Janus organization "brought Algiers into the mainstream of Mardi Gras."
He is survived by two sons, Stephen Donner Dickey and Charles E. Dickey III; two daughters, Ailie D. Kraemer of Waveland, Miss., and Elizabeth D. Hobbs; a brother, DuVal Dickey of Houston; and eight grandchildren.
A funeral will be held Friday at 11 a.m. at Trinity Lutheran Church, 620 Eliza St., Algiers. Visitation will be tonight beginning at 6 and Friday from 9 to 10:30 a.m. at Mothe Funeral Home in Algiers. Burial will be at Westlawn cemetery.
