The Memorial Wall

Born in Yonkers, New York, to Albina and Charles Ott (and welcomed by older brother Charlie), the family moved to Bloomington Indiana, where his father worked for the Otis Elevator Company and his mother was employed by Indiana University. Lifelong friendships were formed during his University High School years; lifelong activities included travel and many reunions with UHS classmates. He spent his undergraduate years at Indiana University, studying theater and working as an actor in summer stock at the Brown County Summer Playhouse. By the time he graduated from IU in 1973, he had established his own theatre production company, Midwest Theatre Productions, based in Bloomington. Ken went on to earn an MFA in Directing and Management from the University of Montana. For his graduate thesis he researched and produced "A Director's Approach to Selective Naturalism in Tobacco Road." At age 27 he moved to Aurora, Illinois, to become the director of information at the Paramount Arts Centre, gaining national press attention for the restored community redevelopment project, attracting new audiences and Chicagoland celebrities to the arts centre, and initiating his long career as an arts advancement professional. He moved to Anchorage, Alaska in 1978 to become the Manager of the ACC Performing Arts Center. In Alaska he befriended many local luminaries, including noted dogsled musher and explorer Col. Norman Vaughan. Southern California was his destination in 1980, working in theater and film development, Ken authored a number of screenplays, and served as a Development Officer at the University of Southern California School of Medicine. He joined the Pasadena Playhouse in 1988 as Development Director, supporting productions including Other People's Money and The Twilight of the Golds, and later joined Loyola University as the Assistant Dean of the law school.

Parkinson's Disease forced his retirement from LLS in 2013.Ken was known for his intelligence, wit, and his gentle heart (evidenced by his weekend trips to the LLS campus to feed the stray felines), and for his unerring palate when recommending wines from every appellation.He became an active participant in Rock Steady Boxing in 2016, working out every week with his fellow PD boxers at the Kaizen studio in Monrovia.He passed peacefully in his Altadena home, lovingly tended by his wife of 31 years, Marilyn Delanoeye, and in the company of his two cats and many friends.

He worked on several other soap operas and was a familiar face in commercials for Marlboro, Old Spice, and Camel cigarettes.

Geoffrey Scott, who portrayed tennis pro, Mark Jennings, the first husband of Linda Evans' Krystle Carrington, on the 1980s ABC primetime soap Dynasty, has died. He was 79.

Scott died of Parkinson's disease on Feb. 23 — just after midnight on the day after his birthday — in Broomfield, Colorado, his wife, Cheri Catherine Scott, told The Hollywood Reporter.

The handsome Scott also played a U.S. marshal fighting aliens in 1880s Wyoming on "The Secret Empire" portion of 1979 NBC series Cliffhangers!; starred alongside Jerry Reed on the 1981 CBS series Concrete Cowboys (he stepped into the role originated by Tom Selleck in a TV movie on which the show was based), and was a quarterback on the 1984-85 HBO sitcom 1st & Ten.

On daytime soap operas, Scott portrayed publisher Sky Rumson on ABC's Dark Shadows in 1970, Jeffrey Jordan on CBS' Where the Heart Is in 1972, David McAllister on ABC's General Hospital in 1989, and Billy Lewis on CBS' Guiding Light in 1994.

And in commercials — he did nearly 100 of them — he played a Marlboro man as well as a sailor pitching Old Spice antiperspirant, "walked a mile for a Camel" in a cigarette campaign shot at the Taj Mahal, and starred with Margaret Hamilton in spots for Maxwell House coffee.

Scott joined Dynasty near the start of its third season in 1982 and worked on the fabled show for two years, appearing in 45 episodes. His character is brought to Denver by the conniving Alexis Colby (Joan Collins) after she learns that Mark and Krystle's divorce years earlier wasn't legal.

Later, Mark saves Krystle and Alexis from a fire, becomes Alexis' bodyguard, and is pushed off a terrace to his death, with Alexis emerging as the prime suspect.

Scott was born in Los Angeles on Feb. 22, 1942. His father, Reed, worked as a manager at Lockheed producing planes, and his mother, Jayne, was a housewife.

He and his brother Don, later a lawyer at Universal, were raised in the San Fernando Valley on the same street that John Wayne and Clark Gable lived, and he often jumped into Gable's pool uninvited.

Scott was signed by legendary agent Dick Clayton, who would also rep the likes of Jane Fonda, James Dean, and Burt Reynolds, and he got a deal at Universal.

Scott also appeared in Sidney Lumet's The Morning After (1986) and on such shows as Adam-12, Cannon, Barnaby Jones, Kojak, Dallas, Matt Houston, Night Court, Married … With Children, and Murphy Brown.

His wife said he and Selleck often competed for roles.

Scott retired after 45 years in show business and moved to Colorado with his family to pursue skiing, his lifelong passion. He had lived in the Boulder area for the past 10 years.

In addition to his wife, he is survived by twin sons Christopher and Matthew.

Don Dietrich, a former Brandon Wheat Kings defenceman and longtime supporter of the game in his hometown of Deloraine, has died.

He was 59.

Dietrich, who played 28 games in the National Hockey League, battled Parkinson’s disease and cancer.

On his Facebook tribute page, which was active in the weeks before his death, his son Tristan posted the news on Tuesday morning.

"We are sad to announce that Don, Dad, Dins, Beaker passed away this morning peacefully," Tristan wrote. "He fought hard till the end. The ‘I can’ in him stayed true right till the end."

Don’s immediate family also includes his wife Nadine and sons Jacob and Nick.

Dietrich, who was profiled in the Brandon Sun’s Wheat Kings alumni series in 2016, said at the time that hockey played an instrumental role in his ability to fight the health issues that plagued him in his later years.

"The game is the main reason I’m here today for sure," Dietrich said. "If I could give back a tenth of what the game’s given me … I don’t think I’ve done that. There’s a saying that you’re only as good as your last shift and a lot of those things I take with me in life. And a lot of them I learned right here in Brandon."

He skated with the Wheat Kings for three seasons from 1978 to 1981 before embarking on a 10-year pro career that included stints with the Chicago Black Hawks and New Jersey Devils.

He retired after the 1990-91 season, and the family moved back to Deloraine in 1994. He was diagnosed with Parkinson’s a year later.

His health took another turn for the worse in 1999 when doctors found an aggressive type of cancer called leiomyosarcoma. He was given six months to live, but took an experimental drug for six months and then returned to work with Canada Customs.

Two years later the cancer was back, this time in his liver, but again an experimental treatment worked.

Despite his health issues, he never stopped giving back to the game of hockey.

He worked with the Deloraine Royals senior team and the Southwest Midget AAA Cougars. And as a member of Canada’s national coach mentorship program, he developed a breakfast club that allowed young players to come out twice a week to work on skill development.

He was elected to the Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame with the 1978-79 Wheat Kings in 2007, and Dietrich was inducted in the builders’ category in 2011.

His story was told in a 2007 book called No Guarantees, a collection of Dietrich’s memories assembled by Nadine and freelance writer Brad Bird.

Dietrich said he made $365,000 in 10 pro seasons, but the experiences his time in the game provided are priceless.

"I made a living at it, I didn’t make a fortune," Dietrich said. "But I wouldn’t change that for anything. That’s part of looking at that man in the mirror. Are you satisfied with him? Can you honestly look at him and say you did your best?

"I’d say I did."

Lucy Roucis is a living, breathing, and tremoring example of "turning something adverse around and making it work." Her young-onset Parkinson's disease actually helped get her a part in the film, "Love and Other Drugs." Director and writer, Ed Zwick, after reading over 40 actors for the role, was so impressed with Lucy's audition that he asked her to write for the scene and add her own dialogue. Lucy portrays a woman doing a stand-up routine, poking fun at having Parkinson's, and helps Anne Hathaway's character, Maggie, begin accepting her own diagnosis.

A native of Denver, Colorado, Lucy is the daughter of a dentist and a homemaker. She and her five siblings all received a private education. She attended Loretto Heights College in Denver, receiving a B.A. in theatre, Magna cum Laude. She immediately moved to Los Angeles to start her career. There she became a long-time student of Roy London, the late acting teacher who revolutionized acting technique.

She began getting work in the film, television, and modeling world as well, being tall and slender. She had parts on "General Hospital," "Santa Barbara," the CBS pilot "Domestic Life" with Martin Mull, and on-screen in "Better Off Dead" with John Cusack and "The Party Animal." On the theatrical stage, she was a member of the Los Angeles-based Radio City Music Hall Rockettes Christmas Spectacular and the Colony Theater's "The Robber Bridegroom." She co-starred and produced the Celtic Arts Center's "A Tragedy You Can Dance To" by Ric Matheson. Several television commercials and print ads later, she was breaking ground as an actor when the Parkinson's reared its head.

She had a double diagnosis of young-onset Parkinson's disease and thyroid cancer, undergoing thyroid removal and the cancer being eradicated. But Parkinson's is incurable so, defeated, she returned home to Denver, giving up on Hollywood. She reinvented herself as an actress with a disability and found work. Denver Audiences know Lucy well and her Parkinson's is just part of her package. She's a long-time member of the world-renowned PHAMALY (Physically Handicapped Actors and Musical Artists League, Inc.) where her Parkinson's is an asset, alongside her fellow cast members who each have a disability of his/her own. The award-winning company produces quality plays at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. Roucis has starred in 20 productions, winning Best Supporting Actress in a Musical from WestWord Magazine for her Adelaide in "Guys and Dolls." She was cast in the pilot, "One Step Ahead," a Washington, DC-based weekly disability news program, as its Cultural Correspondent. In 2008, Lucy received the Mayor's Award for being an Unsung Hero.

In 2008 Lucy underwent deep brain stimulation at the Cleveland Clinic. This procedure, although temporary, lessens the symptoms of her now advanced Parkinson's disease.

Like Michael J. Fox, Lucy found her voice as an advocate for Parkinson's and disability awareness. She also found an outlet for her wit as a stand-up (or sit-down) comic, working fundraisers with comedian Josh Blue    

Irene "Rene" J. Motta Taught physical education and English in San Jose and Los Angeles for 36 years. She was our beloved and generous "feisty little Italian" who gave Parkinson's a good fight for many years. Rene will be greatly missed by her many friends, niece Leslie Mancebo, nephew John Marshall and especially by her loving partner of 48 years, Francine Savery.

Beloved husband of Allison (nee Skully). Loving father of Jeremy (Melissa) Levine, Jamie (Elan) Levine Daniel, Adam Mesnick and Mara (Victor) Bendersky. Devoted grandfather of Noah, Vida, Mayla, Leia and Mallory. Dear brother of Stu (Leslee) and Bill (Nancy) Levine. Private family services will be held Sunday, February 7, 2021 at 11 AM at the Berkowitz-Kumin-Bookatz Memorial Chapel. 

Les Levine had been battling Parkinson’s disease for several years, but continued to work until late December, 2020.

Les Levine, whose wit and opinions graced the Cleveland sports radio and television airwaves for decades across multiple stations, has died at the age of 74 after battling Parkinson’s disease & diabetes for several years.

Born and raised in Cleveland, Levine graduated with a political science degree from the Ohio State University, but had his sights set on being a sportscaster from a very young age. He got his start DJing and doing high school play-by-play in Jasper, Indiana, before returning to Northeast Ohio at Akron’s WNIR in the early 1970s to call local basketball games and double as the station’s sales manager.

In the 1990s he had his own show complete with his signature self-deprecating title: “More Sports & Les Levine.” His sense of humor was also a staple of his broadcasts, especially with his famous “How Come Quickes.” For example: “How come you park on a driveway and drive on a parkway?”

Victor passed away at age 79 in Manhattan Beach, California on February 3, 2021 with family at his bedside following complications from Parkinson's. He was the eldest son, second of seven children of Setsuo Jim and Haruko Helen (nee Fujikawa) Masaki. At the age of nine months his family was relocated along with others of Japanese ancestry living on the West Coast. After a few months at the Santa Anita Assembly Center (race track), they were sent to the Rohwer Relocation Center, an Internment Camp near McGehee, Arkansas.Within a year, the family was able to move out of camp on a work permit to Brigham City, Utah.

At the end of the war the family returned to their farm in Torrance, California. Vic attended Torrance schools, graduating with the class of 1959. He was active in student government serving as Student Body President in his Senior year. Vic attended UCLA before acceptance to the School of Pharmacy at USC. After graduating, he continued at USC for an MBA in Finance.Vic assumed the role of family patriarch after his father's passing in 1965. He admirably attended to the family's welfare especially in financial matters. Professionally he was accomplished as the Business Manager for Western Radiology Medical Group in Culver City. He had exceptional talent and knowledge in financial matters.He was a proud member of the Manhattan Beach Country Club, and for many years enjoyed playing tennis and socializing with other members. Downhill skiing was another love which allowed him to travel with family and friends to many ski resorts (Mammoth, Whistler, Sun Valley, Beaver Creek, Park City, Steamboat, as well as Switzerland and Austria). Off road motorcycling was another favored activity of which there are many stories of his misadventures.

Vic is survived by his son, Craig (Charity) and grandson, Alexander. He is also survived by his sisters: Irene (Carl) Christensen, Christine (Larry) Chen, brothers: James and John (Jeanne), an uncle, Nori Uyematsu, as well as many cousins, nieces, nephews, and friends. He is preceded in death by his parents, brother Richard (D'Ann) and sister Aki/Helen (George) Yamaoka.A Celebration of Life will be held at a later date when it is safe for family and friends to gather.

John Hamilton Forbes, 73, of Holmdel, passed away on January 31, 2021. He was born in Baltimore, Maryland, grew up in Fallston, Maryland on Rochelle Farm be-fore settling in New Jersey 42 years ago. He was the son of two thoroughbred race-horse trainers, Nancy Shakespeare Forbes and John Hamilton Chew Forbes. John worked as a Thoroughbred Racehorse Trainer for over four decades. He began his career in his home state of Maryland in 1972 but soon thereafter switched his operation to New Jersey. He was lured to the Garden State by the charms of Mon-mouth Park.

He was a five-time leading trainer at Monmouth and topped the standings seven times at the Meadowlands. Among many successes over his career, in 1978, he won 109 races and followed that up with a career-best 233 in 1979. In 1995, Forbes and longtime assistant and friend, Pat McBurney, formed a limited partnership, Phan-tom House Stables, that raised nearly $2 million to purchase yearlings. He was named President of the New Jersey Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association in 2010, after having helped launch the umbrella organization, the THA, comprised of six states in the mid-1990s, and served until 2021. John built the Blue Grass Mini-Golf Course in 2012 at Monmouth, which hosted the 2014 and 2017 U.S. Open for Mini Golf. He was inducted into the U.S. Pro Mini Golf Hall of Fame in 2020.

He is survived by his beloved wife of 40 years, Vicki (Duckworth) Forbes, his loving children, Anne and her husband Damian Zajac, John Truxtun Forbes and his wife Nicole and Carrie and her husband Dr. Eric Oberdorf, his cherished grandchildren, Avery Grace Forbes and Estella Anna Elizabeth Zajac and his siblings, Catharine Ishii and her partner Jim Valdy and Anne and her husband Jim Taylor. Also surviving are Jamie Ishii, Christopher Ishii, Nathanial Taylor, and Amanda Steg-mann Taylor, and Ellis Taylor.

Allan Burns escaped this mortal realm on Saturday, January 30 at the age of 85. His family suspects he willed it so if only to avoid watching a second failed impeachment of Donald Trump. Allan leaves behind an amazing life, his beautiful wife Joan Bailey Burns, two loving sons, Eric and Matt, his daughters-in-law Ana and Lee, and five doting grandchildren. Born in Baltimore to attorney Donald L. Burns and Paulene (Dobbling) Burns, Allan lost his father at 9 due to complications of mustard gas poisoning from the Battle of Belleau Wood during WWI. Three years later, Allan and his mother fled Baltimore for the sweet song that is Hawaii in 1947.

Allan blossomed at Punahou School in Honolulu and discovered a talent for animation and writing, eventually having cartoons published in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin.In 1953, Allan began attending the University of Oregon, hoping to become an architect but dropped out after his sophomore year because he wasn't the physics and engineering whiz he needed to be to complete an architecture degree.

In need of work, Allan drove to Los Angeles and eventually landed a job as a page at NBC, which would change the trajectory of his life. Television was a new medium in those days, and having the opportunity to watch back-to-back live broadcasts (first East Coast, then West Coast) fascinated him. He made a decision then to start writing in earnest, and quickly was recognized as a prodigy and hired on staff....oh let's be real, he-like all writers in Hollywood before him-passed around his work and it mostly went nowhere. After his page stint at NBC and in need of further employment, Allan began creating humorous greeting cards and eventually did enough work to make his way into the cartoon world of Jay Ward Studios, helping create The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, Dudley Do-Right, George of the Jungle, Tom Slick and the character Cap'n Crunch for General Mills (only to see zero residuals). This eventually segued into television, co-creating The Munsters, Get Smart, and his most misunderstood masterpiece - My Mother the Car. Later, he worked on He and She and the groundbreaking Room 222. Then came his most well-known work, when he co-created The Mary Tyler Moore Show with James L. Brooks, which won multiple Emmy Awards. Later came the spin-offs Rhoda, Phyllis, and Lou Grant. After several years of the successful, serious tone of Lou Grant, he went back to sitcoms, creating two shows, FM and then Eisenhower & Lutz. One night at the Comedy Store, Allan discovered a young Jim Carrey and created The Duck Factory, coming full circle: a show about writing cartoons. Allan also wrote for the silver screen, highlighted by his nomination for an Academy Award for A Little Romance, starring Diane Lane and Lawrence Olivier. He also wrote and directed Just Between Friends with his old friend Mary Tyler Moore. Allan's work was bestowed with honors, including the prestigious George Peabody, Valentine Davies, and Paddy Chayefsky Awards. Allan also helped an untold number of aspiring hopefuls get their start in the entertainment business. In his home office sit his Emmys and other keepsakes that are a testament not only to his talent as a writer but his works in the community.

An Angeleno for 65 years, Allan loved the Arts and worked hard for many causes: the Joffrey Ballet, Center Theater Group, The Music Center, The Jazz Bakery, The Henry Mancini Institute, and the Rape Treatment Center in Santa Monica. He also served on the Board of the Writer's Guild and sat for decades on the Board of the Writer's Guild Foundation. His dedication to advancing the human condition was inherent to who he was. Allan died of complications from Parkinson's disease and Lewy body dementia.

Following his wishes, there will be a family service held in private. There will be a memorial in the months ahead - even Allan would have never guessed that his planned future memorial would be dependent on the concept of "herd immunity," but there you have it. 

Lecturer in medieval history who explored the work of Peter Abelard served Penguin biscuits to his students and was once trapped on Lindisfarne

How and why did we start to write things down? It was a question that Michael Clanchy, a lecturer in medieval history at the University of Glasgow from 1964 to 1985, endeavored to answer in From Memory to Written Record: England 1066-1307 (1979), a ground-breaking book that considered the rise of the signature as a guarantee of authenticity on contracts.

My dad watches, worries about his new Parkinson’s diagnosis, the dystonia in his neck,

which presses his chin to his chest, his cancer, resurgent again, and always, his depression.

Each day we walk the same loop round the meadow and each day he finds it longer.

                                                                                                                                       ~ Kate Clanchy

For several centuries the signature was mistrusted, with people preferring methods such as plunging a sword into the earth or cutting each other’s fingers and exchanging blood. Even when the written contract came to carry more weight, a wax seal was used to indicate originality and as a liquid metaphor for the blood that might have flown.

Clanchy, a leading light among medievalists, also produced England and its Rulers 1066-1307 (1983), another authoritative work that has become a classic textbook.

Although Clanchy’s specialism was English medieval history, the broad curriculum at Glasgow meant he was teaching European history. Thus he came to discover Peter Abelard, the medieval French philosopher who seduced his student Heloise, was castrated, stood accused of treason, and was twice condemned as a heretic. Clanchy wrote Abelard: A Medieval Life (1997), which he dedicated to the students.

Clanchy’s students, who recalled being served coffee and Penguin biscuits during tutorials, told of his “gentle, thoughtful approach to teaching . . . something of a contrast to the norm at the time”. They once visited Lindisfarne, which is only accessible by causeway at low tide. Somehow they managed to misread the tide table and were trapped on Holy Island for several hours on a cold, February day. “Even that turned into good fun and was part of the enjoyment of the whole weekend,” one recalled.

Michael Thomas Clanchy was born in Reading in 1936, the son of Henry Clanchy, a Royal Navy captain from an Irish Catholic family, and his wife Virginia (née Cane), who was from New Zealand. At a few weeks old he traveled to Moscow, where his father had been appointed naval attaché; they returned on one of the last trains back through Nazi Germany in 1939. He had an older brother, John, and a sister Elizabeth; both died in the 1980s.

At Ampleforth College, North Yorkshire, his interest in history was encouraged by Basil Hume, the future archbishop of Westminster and cardinal, and as a teenager, he wrote a letter that was published in History Today.

While reading modern history at Merton College, Oxford, he was president of the archaeological society. Emerging with a second meant being unable to secure funding for a full-time Ph.D. He instead taught at Presentation College, a Catholic boys’ school in Reading, before returning to Merton College for a DipEd and then becoming a lecturer at St Mary’s University, Strawberry Hill. In 1961 he started a part-time doctorate at Reading University that led to his first two books.

At Oxford, he had met Joan Milne, a fellow historian, and a Scot They were married in 1963 and the following year moved to Glasgow, where he would spend the next 21 years at the university. When Joan moved to North London Collegiate School, Clancy left his secure post at Glasgow. With the success of his books, he had hoped for a life free from academic bureaucracy. However, the loss of tenure, the absence of colleagues, and the stress of tackling dry rot in their house in West Hampstead brought on depression, an illness that periodically returned.

He held an honorary position at Westfield College and taught at University College London, but remained essentially an independent scholar. Some years after Joan retired, they returned to Oxford, in part because they both enjoyed cycling. Joan predeceased him by two weeks, and he is survived by their son, James, a lawyer, and daughter Kate, a teacher and writer.