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Lawrence W. Getz
Dec. 3, 1930 - March 24, 2007
Born and raised in Friday Harbor, Washington state. Served his life as a journeyman plumber - pipe fitter.
Retired to Apache Junction, Ariz., to live life and play golf in 1993.
He is survived by his sister, Donna MacKinnon; son, Mitch Getz; daughters, Michele Wilson and Melinda Adkins; lifetime friend, Sylvia Bednarz; nephews, Dale and Bruce; five grandchildren, Ryan, Tyler, Jesse, Alisha and Scarlet.
He was a loving, endearing, devoted father and grandfather. He will be greatly missed by all whom he touched in life.
Memorial service April 7, 2007, 2 p.m., at the Allen Funeral Home, 1130 S. Horne, Mesa, AZ 85204.
In lieu of flowers, please make a donation to your local chapter of the American Cancer Society in remembrance of Larry Getz.
— Family of Larry Getz
Ole Alfred Mathisen
Ole Alfred Mathisen died March 12, 2007.
He was 88. He was born in Oslo, Norway on Feb. 9, 1919 and studied zoology at the University of Oslo. During World War II, he served in the Norwegian Underground Service.
He came to the U.S. after the war to continue his studies at the University of Washington and earned his PhD in Fisheries Biology in 1955. He was a professor at the College of Fisheries, University of Washington, teaching and conducting research, from 1955 to 1982. During this time, he spent summers in Bristol Bay, Alaska studying the population dynamics of sockeye salmon.
In 1983, he became the dean of the College of Fisheries and Ocean Science, University of Alaska in Juneau. He served as a visiting scholar at the University of Moscow in 1960-61 and also was a Fulbright Scholar in Norway in 1965-66 and in Malaysia in 1988-89.
During his professional life, Ole participated in many scientific expeditions to regions ranging from the Bikini Atoll to the Antarctic to South America and the African continent. After his retirement from the University of Alaska, he built a log cabin near Friday Harbor on San Juan Island, Wash., where he continued his research and many professional activities.
He is survived by his beloved wife of 58 years, Randi; his two children and their spouses, Sven and Gro and granddaughters, Karine and Benedikte of Oslo, Norway, and Heidi and Klaus and grandchildren Kristiaan and Annika of Seattle; and many friends and former students all over the world.
Two memorial services will be held. On March 31, a service will be held at 1:30 p.m. in Friday Harbor Presbyterian Church, 425 Spring St., Friday Harbor, Wash. On April 3, a service will be held at 2 p.m. at Trinity Lutheran Church, 1200 10th Ave. East, Seattle, Wash., with a reception following at Lake Union Crew, 11 East Allison St., Seattle, Wash. His ashes will be interred in Norway later this year.
Remembrances may be sent to the Nordic Heritage Museum, 3014 NW 67th St., Seattle, WA. 98117, https://www.nordicmuseum.org
— Family of Ole Alfred Mathisen
Rishel, Anne L.
Anne L. Rishel died on Jan. 20, 2007 in Burlington, Wash., after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease.
She was born in North Union, Fayette County, Pa., on Oct. 1, 1915. She joined in marriage to Dale A. Rishel Sr. on May 5, 1940. She resided in Pennsylvania with her husband until March 1946, at which time they moved to San Juan Island, where she remained until July 2001.
Anne was a member of Friday Harbor Presbyterian Church, where she filled many positions over the years including, Sunday School director, Sunday School teacher, elder and clerk of session. She also volunteered at the Food Bank and San Juan Island Library.
Anne enjoyed reading, playing cards, writing stories and poetry, bird watching and gardening. Anne may, however, best be remembered for her wonderful baking skills. Over many years, she provided cookies, pies, bread, mouth-watering dinner rolls and beautifully decorated wedding cakes and birthday cakes, as well as a never-ending supply of cinnamon twists.
Anne was preceded in death by her husband, Dale A. Rishel Sr.; three brothers, Bud Lowe, Paul Lowe and Don Lowe; and one sister, Dorotha Garred.
She is survived by four children and their families: Dale A. “Butch” Rishel Jr. (Dorothy Stone), of Friday Harbor; Gary Rishel, of Mi Wuk, Calif.; Dorian (Lynn) Langum, of Everett, Wash.; and Clark Rishel, of Fort Bragg, Calif.
She has nine grandchildren: Kari Rishel, Donald (Debbie) Rishel, Tammy Colgazer, Carl (Shannon) Rishel, Shelly (Jeff) Suth, Jeff (Melissa) Rishel, Jayson (Mollie) Langum, Sarah Langum and Tommy Langum.
She has 14 great-grandchildren with one more on the way.
She is also survived by four sisters, Lois Elleard, Mary Williams, Doris Gilroy and Vi Young; and two sisters-in-law, Lorraine Larson of Friday Harbor and Cookie Lowe, as well as numerous nieces and nephews.
By her request, there will not be a memorial service at this time. However, a gathering of family and friends is being planned for a later date.
— The family of Anne L. Rishel
Lindsay, Hazel Velma Taylor
Hazel Velma Taylor Lindsay was born on October 13, 1915 in St. Louis, Mo., and passed away on Dec. 5, 2006.
She lived 91 years surrounded by love from countless family members and friends. She left school at the age of 14 to work in a dime store to help her family in lean times.
She married
William Spencer Lindsay at 18 and moved to California with him when their son, Bill, was a toddler. Their daughter, Janice, was born in 1943, and the four Lindsays lived happily for many years in Compton, Calif.
When Bill was 52 and Hazel 49, he died suddenly, leaving her grieving and alone, with no skills to earn a living.
She went to work as a saleslady for Desmond's and supported herself on a small salary until she retired. Hazel was proud of her self-sufficiency and her adaptability to change.
She was a traditional woman with boundless love for her husband and children, who knew comfort and security in the life she lived wholly for them. She knew that God watched over her every day of her life.
As the years began to take their toll, Hazel moved to assisted living in Vista, Calif., and then to beautiful San Juan Island to live with Janice and her husband, Rich.
At the end of a year and a terrible time with hip surgery and pneumonia, Hazel moved to Islands Convalescent Center. It became home.
She celebrated her 90th birthday and then her 91st, growing healthier and more beautiful every day in the care of the outstanding ICC staff.
Hazel’s children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren were here with her to celebrate the 90th anniversary of Nana’s birth.
Hazel’s last year was a gift to us all. She was the queen of the ICC float on July 4, relishing every minute of that magic day.
She suffered a stroke in October that diminished her physically but did not impair her spirit. Speech was difficult. One day, her daughter asked her to try and say her name. Hazel said clearly, “I love Janice.”
She loved us all and we knew it. We all loved her and she knew that too.
One life ends and those left behind live on. Two grateful children, Bill and Janice, a devoted son-in-law, Richie, four grandchildren, Eric, Kira, Spencer, and Joe, and four great-grandchildren, Audrey, Eric, Kaya, and Kenna, will live on with precious memories of their beloved Nana. She is with Daddy now.
Toth, Andor
Andor Toth, world–renowned violinist and founding director of Chamber Music San Juans, has died.
Toth was 81, his daughter-in-law, Lynn, said. He had had a stroke and died Nov. 28 in Los Angeles, where he was living near his youngest son, Chris.
The family is planning a memorial service at the Valley Church. The maestro will be interred next to his wife, Louise, at the Valley cemetery.
In a career that spanned more than six decades, Toth earned international celebrity as a soloist, concert artist, conductor and music educator.
During his career, Toth played his violin to comfort wounded soldiers on the World War II battlefields of Aachen, Germany; performed with the NBC Symphony under Arturo Toscanini; formed several musical groups, most notably the Oberlin String Quartet; conducted symphonies in Cleveland, Denver and Houston; was founding concertmaster of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra; and recorded for Vox, Decca and Electra.
Born in Manhattan in 1925, Toth began playing violin as a child and launched his career at 17 as solo violinist with the original Ballet Russe, while he was still a graduate student at Juilliard.
In 1942, Toth formed the Alma Trio with Adolph Baller and Gabor Rejto. At 19 in 1944, Toth performed for wounded Allied troops on the battlefields of Europe, a medical experiment with music therapy believed to calm wounded soldiers and aid in their recovery.
Following the war, Toth joined the NBC Philharmonic under the direction of Arturo Toscanini. Toth was one of the youngest members to ever join the philharmonic and was in the pit for the original Broadway performance of “West Side Story.”
In 1955, Toth formed the Oberlin String Quartet with violinist William Berman.
In the ensuing years, Toth performed with the New Hungarian String Quartet and briefly directed the Morrison Artists Series in the San Francisco Bay area.
Toth premiered Beethoven’s “Grobe Fuge Op. 133” in Carnegie Hall in New York on Feb. 16, 1975. Toth performed the number with the New Hungarian Quartet, accompanied by Richard Young, violin; Denes Koromzay, viola; and Toth’s son, Andor Toth Jr., on cello. Toth’s son became an accomplished musician in his own right, before dying unexpectedly in 2002.
In a Sept. 28, 1982 review in The New York Times, John Rockwell wrote of Toth’s first New York recital in four years, in the Abraham Goodman House.
“Mr. Toth’s principal virtue is his ability to invest even the most brilliant of passages with thoughtfulness; every phrase sounded shaped and considered, with a rich, ample tone. If, at times, in the Bartok and Saint-Saens (pieces) especially, this seemed purchased at the price of impulsiveness and excitement, the gains were still worth savoring -- especially in this era of soulless virtuosity.
“… Mr. Toth is hardly one of those violinistic poets who wins one over despite an erratic technique; his intonation and articulation were secure in a way that was continually impressive yet never called undue attention to itself.”
In 1983, Toth co-founded the Stanford String Quartet with Stephen Harrison, performing until his retirement from Stanford University in 1989.
During his educational career, Toth taught at five major universities and is a professor emeritus at Stanford.
Toth also toured Europe in 1993, playing first violin with the Takacs String Quartet, before founding Chamber Music San Juans.
Shortly before his retirement, Toth said he had had a wonderful career “and I wouldn’t trade a minute of it for anything. This has been the most amazing career I could have ever imagined. It’s been a marvelous experience.”
In a December 2005 story about Toth’s retirement, local entertainer RuthE Wells commented on performing on the local stage with Toth. “It was fun being a part of the ensemble. Andor is very much a perfectionist, but at his core he’s an educator.”
Wells also talked of how Toth discovered a musical prodigy as well.
Jonathan Chan, now 15 was discovered by Toth at age 9 during a musical competition that Toth was judging. Chan has performed several times at the San Juan Community Theatre since being discovered by Toth, and now lives in Vancouver, B.C.
Toth retired in December 2005 from Chamber Music San Juans and passed the musical direction to Patricia Kostek, a clarinetist from University of Victoria. Kostek had performed with Chamber Music San Juans for 12 years. At the time she inherited Toth’s leadership, she recalled being “a bit awestruck” by the fact that she was invited to play with such a renowned musical figure as Toth.
“His genius and artistry were cemented in my mind from having heard his many string quartet recordings, all of them a brilliant display of wonderful music-making and crystalline technique, ” Kostek said at the time.
“I could hardly believe my good fortune. Musicians go to great length to perform with Andor Toth. He is a great, yet humble artist. Performing with Andor is like being guided down a path by an expert traveler, a Sherpa guide through the mountain of great classical masterworks.”
Kostek continued with her praise.
“He possesses an innate ability to inspire us to stretch beyond a good performance, to reach for a higher level of expression and communication. For Andor, it’s always about the music and not the role he plays. It’s about the journey, the excitement of creating music with friends.”
Toth’s retirement came shortly after his wife of 58 years, Louise, passed away. She was an internationally acclaimed soprano, a graduate of Julliard and, with her husband, performed chamber music, lieder and art song concerts in the U.S., South America, and major European capitals. She known for her first performances of contemporary composers solo works and operatic roles. She also taught voice and vocal diction at several colleges and universities, including Oberlin Conservatory.
In September 2002, their oldest son, Andor P. Toth, a cello professor at Oberlin Conservatory, passed away and the event took its toll on both parents.
The Toths’ second son, Tom, remembered his father as a devoted dad who gave up touring and took a teaching job at Stanford so he could spend more time with his family.
“He still traveled a good bit, but not all the time, ” Tom said.
Tom said his father was not the type to throw a ball with his sons; he didn’t want to risk injuring his fingers. But he enjoyed sailing, briefly owned a boat that he didn’t get out on much, sold it and then “enjoyed fantasizing about sailing, ” the son said. The concertmaster also enjoyed relaxing with a mystery or a non-fiction book.
“He is probably remembered best for chamber music. He is known throughout the world. He played solo, he was a concertmaster, he performed on every continent on the world except Antarctica. I don’t think there was a violinist with a better sound than him when he was at his peak.”
Anne Haskins, secretary of Chamber Music San Juans, remembers Toth for his sense of humor and gracious way. “He always opened the car door for you and he always picked up the tab at lunch, ” she said. “He had a great gift of bringing people together.”
Toth is survived by his sons and their wives, Thomas M. and Lynn Toth, and Christopher F. and Abby Toth; and grandchildren, Daniel C. and Ruby R. Toth.
— Journal Editor Richard Walker contributed to this story.
Brant, Bill
Sept 25, 1915 – Nov. 26, 2006
Bill was born in Seattle. His parents were Edward Lee and Lucy Brant, early Northwest pioneers.
Bill attended Lincoln High School and the University of Washington School of Architecture. He married
Beverley Dorr in Tacoma in 1938.Â
With World War II approaching, he did tool design work at Boeing, later moving to Santa Monica where he became involved in the first atomic bomb project.Â
After the war, he did store design work while studying photography. In 1949, Bill and Beverley opened the Brant Photographers, Inc., in Bellevue Square.Â
They operated their studio for more than 30 years until retiring to San Juan Island.Â
His photographic work consisted of portrait, commercial, aerial, magazine, textbook and more than 2, 000 wedding assignments.Â
In the early 1950s, Bill became fascinated with British sports cars and raced his MGTD and later a Jaguar XK 120 when not busy photographing races for Road and Track magazine.Â
Time permitting, many happy days were spent at their Mitchell Bay cabin with lots of salmon fishing. He was a member of the San Juan Island Golf Club and a charter member of the San Juan Island Yacht Club; he served as commodore in 1979.
Many wonderful trips were made north on the “Starduster” and later the cutter “Tangerine."Â
Six years were spent as a port commissioner and recently four years on the Marine Resources Committee.
Bill’s love for the islands was so strong he felt he must have salt water in his veins.Â
Survivors are his daughter, Becky Shull of Burns, Ore.; grandson, John Workman and great-grandson, Shade Noble Workman of Friday Harbor; and sister, Peggy Donahue of Honolulu, Hawaii.Â
Interment will be in the San Juan Valley cemetery. Arrangements are in the care of Evans Funeral Chapel and Crematory, Inc., Anacortes, Wash.
Hymer, Carole
Carole Hymer has sailed off island. She died peacefully, Nov. 18, 2006 in the arms of close friends Dana and Melody Rice. She was born 1936 in Kansas City, Kan.
Carole’s career in the U.S. military as a surgical and burn unit nurse sent her to Japan during the Korean War. She was honorably discharged from the U.S. Army.
While raising a family in Lafayette, Calif., Carole also enjoyed her work as a dedicated surgical nurse in the San Francisco Bay area. After retirement, she and her husband, Warren, fell in love with the San Juan Islands and moved to Friday Harbor with their youngest son, Carl.
Carole and Warren became active participants in the Friday Harbor community.
Her husband, Warren, preceded Carole to Heaven. She is survived by a large and loving family, including her children, Cathy, John, Cheryl and Carl; her brother, Joe; and her sister, Norma. “Grandma Kay” has six lovely grandchildren: Amanda, Erica, Megan, Vivian, Michael and Maxwell.
The family will hold a private memorial service. They would like to thank all the members of the Friday Harbor community who have touched Carole and Warren’s lives. They loved you!
