The Memorial Wall

Donald Arthur Brown, known by all as Don, died following a long battle with Parkinson's Disease on December 13, 2023.

The youngest of three, Mr. Brown's father Samuel was one of the ten 'California Brothers' who were renowned for their exploits in the booming herring trade and for taking part in the Dunkirk evacuation.

After finishing school, Mr. Brown briefly followed his father by spending time at sea.

As a teenager, Mr. Brown was taught the skill of butchery at Hunns in Caister. After carrying out National Service, Mr. Brown returned to butchery, working for David Greggs and eventually becoming a manager at a shop on Bells Road, Gorleston.

While he was in his 40s, Mr. Brown became his own boss, establishing Don's Family Butchers on Church Lane, Gorleston, which he ran until his retirement.

A Norwich City Football Club season ticket holder, Mr. Brown loved the beautiful game.

Closer to home, he was known as a great supporter of Gorleston Football Club, sponsoring the team during the 1980s and providing players with a free pound of sausages and a steak for every goal they scored and making it on the pitch.

Mr. Brown also loved the great outdoors and was a keen gardener, with his sizeable rose collection being among his greatest prized possessions.

He served in most officer positions, including chairman for many years, and assisted the annual November poppy collection in Caister, often seen rattling a collection box in local supermarkets, and helped raise thousands of pounds for the charity.

Mr. Brown was also the legion standard bearer, attending the funerals of many ex-servicemen in the area, and flying the standard on behalf of the legion at many grand occasions.

He also took the Caister standard to Ypres and participated in a remembrance service at the Menin gate.

His final deed for the legion, before he could no longer actively participate, was closing the local branch and working with the parish council to return the standard from the legion and rest in its rightful place in Caister church.

Mr. Brown's first love was his wife of 67 years, Iris, whom he met when aged 17 at a dance held at the Britannia Pier. Mr and Mrs Brown had two boys, Michael and Ian, four grandsons and four great-grandchildren.

Mr. Brown is remembered as a true gentleman and a well-loved member of the local community, whose motto was “It is easier to please than to tease”.

Sanford "Sandy" Bothman, 94, of Santa Barbara, California, passed away on November 19, 2023 from cancer and Parkinson’s disease. Sandy is survived by his loving wife, Annette, daughter Sharon, sons David and Danny, daughter-in-law Teresa, and grandsons Aron and Sean. He was preceded in death by his parents and by his sister Barbara (Bothman) Meyer.

He was born on July 22, 1929, in Los Angeles, California, to Jacob and Ethel Bothman, who had moved there with their extended families in the 1910s from Missouri and Illinois. Sandy’s father, Jacob, lost his business during the Depression, and when he began to travel extensively as a salesman, Sandy’s uncle Sam stepped forward to mentor him. Sam took Sandy to ball games and bought him his first car, a 1931 Ford which Sandy restored to operating condition at the service station where he worked.

Sandy met Annette Friedman at a college party, and they dated for a few months before Annette left for a nearly year-long post-graduation trip to Europe and Israel. Smitten, he persuaded Annette to return to the U.S. and they were married three weeks later. They spent their honeymoon on a scenic road trip to Great Falls, Montana where Sandy reported for active duty at Malmstrom AFB. Annette remembers that on the way Sandy practiced saying “Lieutenant Bothman reporting for duty, Sir!” as directed by the Air Force manual.

Family, friends, and community groups relied on Sandy for his intelligence and care. He was calm and generous and maintained a wonderful sense of humor – even in difficult situations. Sandy was a role model and teacher to his children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews – helping them see problems from different perspectives. Always charming, he made friends easily and maintained relationships throughout his life, even continuing to meet regularly with his basketball buddies from high school. Nothing made Sandy happier than helping others. He would always ask “What can I do for you?”.

He attended elementary and middle school in La Cañada and Los Angeles and later graduated from Beverly Hills High School, where his claim to fame was a (minor) role in The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer with Shirley Temple and Carey Grant. Sandy furthered his education at UCLA, UC Berkeley, and USC on an ROTC scholarship majoring in journalism. After active duty in the USAF Sandy attended the UCLA School of Law, graduating in 1959. Sandy was a life-long student; throughout his adulthood, he earned his real estate broker’s license, his instrument rating as a pilot, and a master’s degree in mediation from Pepperdine Law School.

After law school, Sandy embarked on a successful career as an attorney, practicing as part of the firm Bothman Angus and Talcott. In the early 1980s he left to serve as Corporate Counsel at the Friedman Bag Company. After retiring as a lawyer he worked as a mediator.

Aviation was a passion for Sandy. He learned to fly as a teenager in Los Angeles, and he liked to tell us that his first flight instructor’s license was signed by Orville Wright. As a journalist in the Air Force, he enjoyed flying with fighter pilots on training missions. Later in life he and his flying partner purchased a Beechcraft Debonair, and Sandy enjoyed flying throughout the western United States while Annette white-knuckled it all the way.

In 2015 Sandy and Annette moved to Maravilla, a senior community in Santa Barbara. Sandy was active in the Men’s Club, Fireside Chats, and various book and writing groups. He was especially fond of his close friends in the ROMEO Wednesday lunch club.

Annette and Sandy were active at Leo Baeck Temple in Los Angeles, where he served as board president; they joined Congregation B’nai B’rith after moving to Santa Barbara.

Sandy was fortunate to receive excellent medical care at Sansum Clinic and Cottage Hospital. The family is grateful to the caring staff at Casa St. James where Sandy lived for several weeks, and to the staff at Serenity House in Santa Barbara where Sandy spent his last days in hospice care. Susan Dickenson’s guidance in finding these and other care resources for Sandy was invaluable. The McDermott Crockett Funeral Home in Santa Barbara, CA, is assisting the family with burial arrangements.

Farewell Sandy – you will be deeply missed by all who had the privilege of knowing you. Your legacy of kindness, generosity, and love will forever live on in the hearts of those you touched.

The family encourages all of Sandy’s friends to do something kind for another person. We feel that this is what he would have wanted. 

Restaurateur, owner of Antonio's Mexican Restaurant. In the 1970's, he changed the perception of how people thought of Mexican food, beyond tacos and burritos, and started a trend that continues to this day, where more traditional dishes were brought to the mainstream as Mexican Cuisine. He was born in Monterrey, Mexico in 1937. The fifth child (of seven brothers and three sisters) to Maria and Antonio Sr. In the 1950's, he came to Los Angeles not yet able to speak the language, but eager to learn and make his dream of owning his own restaurant a reality. He worked in almost every restaurant and nightclub in town, as a dishwasher, busboy, and eventually when he learned enough English, as a waiter. He met the love of his life Yolanda, and together they raised five children. In the early 1960's, he worked in the commissary of Warner Brothers studios. As a waiter, he took care of Frank Sinatra, Jane Fonda, Barbra Streisand, Francis Ford Coppola, and even took care of the head of the studio Jack Warner. When having asked Mr. Warner advice about him opening a restaurant, Mr. Warner told him "don't go into the restaurant business! You won't make any money!" After working at the studio,he'd come home, have a bit of dinner, take a short nap and then get ready for his second job as a waiter at "The Chianti" a popular Italian restaurant on Melrose Avenue. He would often times, come home very late and very tired. Next day, he'd start his routine working at the studio. He did this for ten years, until he saved enough money to open his own restaurant. In 1970, on April 6, he finally opened his restaurant "Antonio's" on Melrose Avenue, only a few blocks away from The Chianti! The same day he opened his restaurant, his youngest child was born. A son, named Antonio Jr. After many years of hard work and struggles, his dream came true, and people loved the cuisine, and many celebrities enjoyed it as well. After 50 years in operation, his restaurant closed. He had been in declining health because of Parkinson's disease and dementia. He passed away peacefully, at home, surrounded by his loving family who cared for him till the end. He is survived by his wife of sixty plus years Yolanda, and their five children. The youngest having died in an auto accident at the age of twenty. He is also survived by his seven grand children and five great grand children. He was an incredible human being, very much loved, and will be truly missed by all who knew him.

Richard Lewis, the stand-up comedian who also starred alongside Larry David in “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” died Tuesday night at his Los Angeles home due to a heart attack, Variety has confirmed. He was 76.

Lewis announced last April he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and was retiring from stand-up comedy. He most recently appeared in Season 12 of “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” currently airing on HBO.

In 2021, Lewis announced he would not appear in Season 11 of “Curb” in order to recover from three surgeries. He surprised viewers by returning to set for one Season 11 episode, telling Variety at the time, “When I walked in and they applauded, I felt like a million bucks. Larry doesn’t like to hug, and he hugged me and told me how happy he was after we shot our scene.”

Lewis, who played a semi-fictionalized version of himself throughout the 24 years of “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” was known for his neurotic, self-deprecating style of comedy. After making his screen acting debut in 1979’s “Diary of a Young Comic,” Lewis rose to prominence in the 1980s and ’90s with appearances on “The Tonight Show” and the “Late Show With David Letterman.” He showcased his dark, yet brightly animated persona in his 1985 Showtime comedy special “I’m in Pain,” following it up with the HBO specials “I’m Exhausted” (1988), “I’m Doomed” (1990) and “Richard Lewis: The Magical Misery Tour” (1997).

In 1989, Lewis landed a leading role in the ABC sitcom “Anything but Love,” in which he starred opposite Jamie Lee Curtis as coworkers at a Chicago magazine who fall in love and fail to uphold a strictly professional relationship. The series ran for 56 episodes across four seasons before ending in 1992. Lewis landed other ’90s sitcom roles in the short-lived “Daddy Dearest” starring Don Rickles and “Hiller and Diller” featuring Kevin Nealon.

Lewis’ film roles include the 1993 comedy “Robin Hood: Men in Tights,” the 1995 drama “Leaving Las Vegas” and the 1997 rom-com “Hugo Pool.” In “Drunks” — starring an ensemble including Faye Dunaway, George Martin, Parker Posey, Howard Rollins, Spalding Gray and Dianne Wiest — Lewis played a struggling alcoholic and drug addict.

Throughout his career, the comedian has also been candid about his own battle with drug and alcohol addiction, referencing his recovery and struggles with depression and anxiety in his comedy. Lewis, formerly a user of cocaine and crystal meth, said his decision to get sober was partly inspired by John Candy’s 1994 death.

In 2021, upon returning to “Curb Your Enthusiasm” after various health struggles, Lewis told Variety, “I’ve devoted my life to comedy and my sobriety the last almost 27 years. I’m overwhelmed with joy right now. I never learned how to keep joy in my head for more than a minute, but I’m breaking all records for my life today.”

In a statement shared with Variety by HBO, David said of his longtime co-star and friend, “Richard and I were born three days apart in the same hospital and for most of my life he’s been like a brother to me. He had that rare combination of being the funniest person and also the sweetest. But today he made me sob and for that I’ll never forgive him.”

HBO added in a statement, “We are heartbroken to learn that Richard Lewis has passed away. His comedic brilliance, wit and talent were unmatched. Richard will always be a cherished member of the HBO and ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ families, our heartfelt condolences go out to his family, friends and all the fans who could count on Richard to brighten their days with laughter.”

Lewis is survived by his wife, Joyce Lapinsky.

Thomas Boyd didn’t learn how to read until he was in Lufkin High School in 1948. It was then his teachers found out he had dyslexia. Due to this, Tom, as friends and family called him, grew to love playing outside rather than staying at school.

Seeing he wasn’t learning very much, his mother read to him and taught him about language through poetry and storytelling. 

“This was the (academic) secret to Tom Boyd. His inability to read until he was in high school forced him into memorizing,” Barbara Boyd, Tom’s wife, said. “Then he became a master storyteller.”

Later on, Tom became an OU philosophy and religious studies professor, a public speaker, writer, preacher and a very well-loved member of the OU community.

On Feb. 13, Tom died from Parkinson’s disease at the age of 90. A memorial service is scheduled for March 23 at the First Presbyterian Church in Norman, a place where he and his wife used to preach.

Family members and colleagues reflect on Tom’s life and the many achievements he accomplished. A loving father, an affectionate husband and an esteemed colleague who never stopped caring for others.

Tom had a very positive childhood, Barbara said. He had a special relationship with his parents and was close to his two brothers. 

“This family was so full of laughter,” Barbara said. “They laughed and told stories. They would fall on the floor and roll.”

His family lived in Nashville, Tennessee, until Tom was 13. He moved to Texas for a year to live with his grandparents while his dad built a house in Lufkin, Texas, where he would live until he went to college.

At the age of 15, Tom started preaching. Raised in a Nazarene household, Tom was always drawn to religion and philosophy. 

While the Nazarene religion prevented him from doing activities such as going to the movie theater or playing games like dominoes, Barbara said this environment never affected Tom.

“I asked him if that scarred him many times,” Barbara said. “The reason why it never scarred him to be reared in such a conservative environment was because his parents were so loving, … (their) world was full of bike rides and picnics.”

After graduating high school in 1956, Tom moved to Oklahoma to attend Bethany Nazarene College, now known as Southern Nazarene University, where he earned his bachelor's degree in philosophy in 1960 and later his master's at OU in 1962.

After getting his master's, Tom was part of a one-year philosophy fellowship at Yale University, which Barbara said changed his view of religion. Having been raised with more conservative views, Barbara said, after attending Yale, Tom began to call himself a “bleeding heart liberal.”

At Yale, Barbara said he was put in the hands of some of the world’s best philosophers, which turned his world upside down as he questioned a lot of his own beliefs. 

“(Tom) began to behave very differently and think very differently,” Barbara said. “During that time, he realized he could no longer be a Nazarene.” 

As a very religious man, Tom began to look into a more open-minded and liberal denomination and chose the Presbyterian religion.

After his fellowship at Yale, Tom attended Vanderbilt University and got his doctorate in philosophy of religion in 1973. He also became ordained as a Presbyterian at Vanderbilt.

Tom started teaching philosophy at OU in 1969, while he was still working on his dissertation for his doctorate.

As Tom was used to public speaking due to his preaching, Katrina Boyd, Tom’s daughter and a film and media studies professor at OU, said his philosophy classes were very popular and dynamic. As time passed, the number of students kept increasing in his classes to eventually having 400 students in his Introduction to Philosophy course.

Tom first married in 1955 to Beverly Walker and divorced in 1975. They had two children, Katrina and Timothy “Kyle” Boyd.

Growing up, Katrina said Tom was very popular among students who would always come up and talk to him. 

“I’m a professor now. Students will come up and say, ‘I had your class, I enjoyed it.’ But with my dad, they’d come up (hold out their hand) and say ‘Dr. Boyd, you’ve changed my life,'” Katrina said.

When she was a kid, Katrina said Tom was a movie fanatic and would take her to the movie theater every Friday night. 

“My dad grew up very strictly in the Nazarene church and was not allowed to go see movies at all. He didn't see his first movie until graduate school (when) he was in his 20s,” Katrina said. “My parents had been so censored that they didn't censor us very much.”

Because Tom was a philosophy professor at the time, Katrina said Tom would find any interesting detail about the movie they watched on Fridays and use it for his lectures to keep his students engaged with the class.

Tom could talk about anything in his lectures and keep his students engaged. Barbara said Tom’s classes were casual and he made an impression on everyone, often teaching in a pair of blue jeans, a jean jacket and bingo boots.

Barbara and Tom's relationship started in the summer of 1979 when the two saw each other during a 4th of July party, which also happened to be Tom’s birthday, something that Barbara didn’t know at the time. 

“We ended up in a conversation. I was supposed to be the host of this party. It was between 11 (p.m.) and midnight when I looked up and there was nobody left from the party,” Barbara said. “Everybody was gone. I never even knew when they left because Tom and I were so engrossed in this conversation. … That was the beginning”

The couple married in May 1980 and were married for 44 years. 

Barbara said they had a very happy marriage. The couple would go on hiking and backpacking trips during the summers and talk to each other for hours, always in the company of each other. Barbara said those were some of the things that made their marriage stronger.

“A lot of people over the years say, ‘How are you and Tom doing this? What makes y’all able to click like that?’ And it is talking,” Barbara said. “I think that's what built such a strong marriage because we could just talk about everything, and we did. We had all the romance and all the love.”

Barbara said they decided to not have kids because she and Tom each had two kids from their previous marriages. This didn’t affect them or their family dynamic, she said, as the couple treated all four as their own.

Katrina said she and Tom had a great relationship. Even though her parents divorced when she was nine, Katrina said she would visit Tom and Barbara during the summers or throughout the year via train or airplane. She said she immediately felt a part of their renewed family. 

After working in the department of philosophy for 29 years, Tom decided to retire in 1996 when Barbara was offered a position as a head of staff pastor at a church in Aurora, Colorado.

The couple lived in Colorado for five years and moved to New Mexico for another year.

In 2002, then OU President David Boren, called the couple to come back and help develop the university’s religious studies program, with Barbara as the director of outreach and Tom lecturing and attracting students to the program.

“Tom and Barbara were kind of the godparents,” Thomas Burns, OU sociology professor and family friend, said. 

Burns met Tom at a faculty meeting in fall 2002. During that meeting, Burns said there was a disagreement among several of the members, but realized he and Tom were on the same side and shared the same points.

“I just felt his spirit and his energy and I thought, ‘Who is this guy?’” Burns said. “I stuck around after the meeting and introduced myself, and we started talking and getting acquainted for probably two hours.”

The two started what would be a very long and beautiful friendship. Over the years, Burns and Tom wrote several academic articles together and saw each other regularly until becoming best friends. 

Burns said Tom’s classes were very popular and saw how he acted as a mentor for several of his students. He said he was one of the most prepared and engaging professors he has seen. 

During his teaching career, Tom received nine teaching awards, including the Oklahoma Award for Teaching Excellence in 1996 and the David Ross Boyd Professor Emeritus of Philosophy. Tom wrote several articles and book chapters where he focused on religion and culture, including his book “Lusting for Infinity” in 2015 and “Where Wild Rivers Meet,” a fiction novel he co-authored with Barbara in 2020.

Tom also participated in the 2013 TEDxOU and the 2016 “Last Lecture” series, in which OU community leaders had the opportunity to reflect on their life lessons.

During this time, Tom preached at the First Baptist, First Christian, First Presbyterian and Memorial Presbyterian churches in Norman and almost all ministries on campus. He also preached in other states such as Arkansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Hawaii and many others.

Burns said he attended Tom's sermons several times and pointed out the emotions Tom brought to preaching.

Barbara said he was a very active, passionate and well-delivered preacher.

“Tom was a giant personality. When he preached, he made you cry, he made you laugh, he made you think. You walked out with a moral lesson, there was no sermon he ever delivered that didn’t have a moral lesson in it,” Barbara said.

Tom and Barbara worked in the religious studies program for 11 years and retired in 2013 when they were 80 and 67, respectively. The couple moved to New Mexico where they lived for five years, before Tom’s Parkinson’s disease progressed.

“I'm glad that I made that decision because, if I kept on working, by the time I retired, Tom would have already been sick and we wouldn't have ever had those years to ourselves out our beloved mountains,” Barbara said. “I'm grateful it worked out that way.”

Barbara said Tom started showing small symptoms when he was in his 60s, but the couple didn’t pay attention to it until he was in his 70s, when they decided to get him a neurologist.

Barbara said they saw four different neurologists from his 70s to his 90s and his Parkinson's remained undiagnosed.

The couple kept backpacking and hiking, and while Tom still showed symptoms like vertigo or tremors, Barbara said she thinks the physical activity helped him as a form of physical therapy for the disease they didn’t know he had.

It wasn’t until, at 88, Tom went to the hospital for aspiration pneumonia and a bowel blockage that he was finally diagnosed and told he was in the fifth, and last, stage of Parkinson’s disease. 

The couple then decided to go back to Norman, where Katrina and all of his friends were.

Barbara said she always tried for him to keep doing physical activities and made sure he kept moving.

“We've got bicycles, and then he took a bad fall. So we got rid of those bicycles and got those recumbent bikes. We rode recumbent bikes for a couple of years,” Barbara said. “We had to quit backpacking. So what do we do? We started walking trails. Then when he began to stumble on trails, we stopped that and we found trails that were paved, and we just kept walking.

“Even when we moved here in Norman, … we would walk in this neighborhood and he literally pushed his walker around this block as long as he could, and then he just couldn’t do that.”

Barbara said even on the days he wasn’t feeling well, Tom kept trying to get out of bed and participating with his family and friends. 

Barbara said Burns went to their house every Sunday and visited Tom, where the pair would talk for hours. She said the two had a true friendship and considered them soul brothers.

After two-and-a-half years, Tom died on Feb. 13 after he contracted pneumonia. Barbara said it was their positive attitude and desire to keep living that gave him a long and very happy life.

“He was very loving, kind and generous with people,” Katrina said. “He would sit down and talk to anyone who approached him and give them his full attention.

Burns said he would love people to remember Tom as a peaceful warrior who brought out the best in people and knew how to find goodness in anyone he met. 

Tom's greatest achievement, Barbara said, was the legacy he left in the hearts of all the students, friends and audiences who got to meet him. It was his uniqueness and the love trail he had left behind.  

“He was probably the most engaging, warm, authentic human being that I've ever known. Most folks say that's their experience of Tom,” Barbara said. “It didn't matter their religion. It didn't matter their color. It didn't matter their gender preference. He counseled a lot of students when he was a professor. Why? They always knew that they could go to Dr. Tom Boyd."

Tom is survived by his wife, Barbara; his two children, Kyle and Katrina; his two stepdaughters, Heather Ford and Jennifer Pool; and his eight grandchildren.