Items for People in the News should...
Items for People in the News should be mailed to the Los Angeles Times, South Bay office, 23133 Hawthorne Blvd., Torrance, 90505.
Three South Bay residents have received Excellence in Arts Awards from the Torrance Fine Arts Commission. They are Lucy Agid of Palos Verdes and Paul Colaluca and Carolyn Indovina, both of Torrance.
Agid creates marble and bronze sculptures that have won many awards, such as the California Art Silver Medal Award in 1992.
Colaluca is director of the Esquires, a band featuring musicians from 15 to 18. He was awarded a scholarship from the Philadelphia Musical Academy at 16.
Indovina began painting in 1989 after a long career with Security Pacific Bank. Her watercolor florals have won her 22 ribbons in various competitions. Her work may be seen at Torrance Memorial Medical Center and Little Company of Mary Hospital in Torrance.
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Torrance resident Gus T. Dalis, director of the Center for Health Education at the Los Angeles County Office of Education for the past four years, received the Scholar Award from the Assn. for the Advancement of Health Education at its annual convention in Washington.
Dalis is one of the eight authors of “Health Education--A Conceptual Approach to Curriculum Design,” and his work has been published in the Journal of Health Education. Before joining the county health education center, he was an associate professor in health science at Cal State Northridge, a consultant in health education and teaching strategies for the Los Angeles County Office of Education, and a teacher of health education and physiology with the Alhambra elementary and high school districts.
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Dr. Burton H. Wachs of Rolling Hills has been named the 1993 Prostate Cancer Educator of the Year by the American Foundation for Urologic Disease. TAP Pharmaceuticals, sponsor of the award, contributed $5,000 in Wach’s name to the foundation to help fund its research scholars program. Wachs is with the Atlantic Urological Medical Group in Long Beach.
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Manhattan Beach resident Denis Ouellette of Klabin Co.’s Torrance office has received the industrial designation award from the Society of Industrial and Office Realtors, an international association of professional commercial real estate brokers. To get the SIOR award, Ouellette amassed more than 15 years of experience in industrialized real estate, passed a stringent written examination, and demonstrated professional ability, competence, ethical conduct and personal integrity.
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Karen Odom of Torrance is the new president of Vistas for Blind Children. The Vista volunteers raise money for blind and partially sighted children and their families by presenting an annual fall fashion show and the Mobil St. Patrick’s Day Run for the Blind.
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Torrance resident Nancy Michael, 18, of Narbonne High School, and Inglewood resident Frank S. Young Jr., 18, of the Thomas Jefferson Senior High School humanities program are among five high school students receiving 1993 American Honda/Mario J. Machado Scholarship Awards of $1,000 each in cash. They were asked to address the question: “If you edited a newspaper or produced a television or radio news or talk program, what innovations would you make?” The panel of judges for the scholarship awards included KTLA-TV’s Larry McCormick, KCBS-TV’s David Horowitz and La Opinion’s Gerardo Lopez.
The scholarship fund is tied in with the Los Angeles Unified School District, senior high division, and is designed to motivate financially disadvantaged students who wish to pursue careers in communications and provide them with a first step toward obtaining a college degree.
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James Conrad, formerly of Rancho Palos Verdes and a graduate of Rolling Hills High School and UC Berkeley, earned the Outstanding Thesis Award, presented at San Jose State University’s 133rd commencement exercises. Conrad, who received his master’s of science degree in geology, earned first place for his thesis, “Late Cenozoic Tectonics of the Southern Inyo Mountains, Eastern California.” He was praised by nominating geology professor Calvin Stevens for finding an area in which critical geologic relationships were exposed. Recognizing the significance of his discoveries, Conrad produced the first comprehensive view of Eastern California’s geologic development.
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Mark Sinaguglia has been elected president of the Inglewood/Airport Area Chamber of Commerce for the second time in three years. He served his first term during 1991-92. Sinaguglia, co-owner of the Mayflower Ballroom in Inglewood, is a commissioner for human affairs for the city of Inglewood and president of the Exchange Club of Inglewood. Other new board members are Peter Bastone, CEO of Daniel Freeman Memorial Hospital, Don Eiesland , president of Inglewood Park Cemetery; Carolyn Fowler, ethnic marketing manager at AT&T; Nancy Niles, director of community relations for the Los Angeles Department of Airports, and Sherry Hamilton, owner of Hindry Press.
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The Japanese American Citizens League, Gardena Valley Chapter, has announced the names of 1993 Freshman Scholarship Awards winners. The scholarship winners, all graduates of Gardena High School, and the universities they plan to attend are: Marian Chie Miyahara, UC Irvine; Karie Dee Matsuno, Cal State Fullerton; Stephanie Nagami, UCLA; Bayan Takizawa, Cornell.
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A charter member of the Historical Society of Centinela Valley, Father Michael Engh, Society of Jesuits, has received the Scholastic Award from the Conference of California Historical Societies. The award is based on his recently published book, “Frontier Faiths: Church, Temple and Synagogue in Los Angeles, 1846-1888.” Engh is on the faculty of the history department of Loyola Marymount University.
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Don Plummer is the new president of Manhattan Beach Friends of the Library. His board members are Robert Hull, Francine Gelbwachs and Genie Zirbel, vice presidents; also Cy Zoerner, Trudy Smart, Rockie Elkind, June Palmer and Fran Freeman. The Friends of the Library maintain a library book outlet in Room 7 at Robinson School, 80 Morningside Drive, Manhattan Beach. It is open 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. every Wednesday and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. the second Saturday of each month. A large selection of books in many categories are available for prices ranging from five cents to several dollars.
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Lenny Herst, of Gardena Nisei Memorial Post 1961, Veterans of Foreign Wars, is the new commander of the VFW 4th District. The district includes the southern half of Los Angeles County with 33 posts and more than 11,000 wartime overseas veterans. Other newly elected district officers from the South Bay are Joe Wedemann from Redondo Beach Rocky Versace VFW Post 2828; Masaomi Jim Mita of Gardena Nisei Memorial VFW Post 1961, and Lawrence V. Fritzen of Torrance VFW Post 11045. Trustees are Art Jeffery of Inglewood VFW Post 2122 and Jim Buttcane of Hawthorne VFW Post 2075.
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Redondo Beach resident Ziad Edward Zakharia, a graduate of Loyola Marymount University, was named recipient of three major academic awards, including 1993 University Scholar of the Year. He also was named the College of Science and Engineering Scholar and awarded the civil engineering departmental scholar award, which means he earned the highest grade-point average among graduating seniors in his major and his college. He is the son of Edward and Chake Zakharia.
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Carmen T. Donohue, daughter of George Lee C. and Andreana Grillis Donohue of San Pedro, is one of eight graduating college seniors to be appointed as a chapter consultant for Kappa Kappa Gamma fraternity. A graduate of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Va., she has been awarded a scholarship for graduate study at Akron University in Ohio, where she will live with and consult with members of Lambda Chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma during the 1993-1994 school year.
She graduated from VPI with a BA in liberal arts and sciences. She has also studied Shakespeare and Victorian and romantic literature in England and Scotland. Donohue was a recreational coordinator of youth activities for Ft. MacArthur Youth Center, at Los Angeles Air Force Base, and served as an intern for the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Transportation and Hazardous Materials.
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Angi Ma Wong has received a Distinguished Service Award from the Los Angeles office of the Coordination Council for North American Affairs. Wong, author of “TARGET: The U.S. Asian Market, A Practical Guide to Doing Business,” was presented the award “in recognition of her promotion of intercultural understanding and contributions to the Chinese-American Community.” A resident of Palos Verdes, Wong has served as a volunteer in both the Los Angeles and South Bay communities for more than 23 years, is a founding member and past president of the Chinese Historical Society and is active in numerous organizations.
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Korean veteran John Musurlian has been elected commander of Veterans of Foreign Wars, Torrance Post 11045. Others elected to leadership positions in the Torrance VFW Post are Tom Walsh, Jerry Nausadis, Gene Wiehe, Irwin Groce, Norman Webb, Norman Workman, Dominic Didado, Emery Rockwood and Ron Kelly.
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The Peninsula Chapter of the American Business Women’s Assn. has awarded scholarships to five South Bay residents. The funds are designated for tuition, books and fees. Scholarship recipients and their colleges and universities are Kim Olson of San Pedro, Cal State Dominguez Hills; Lori Ann Eddy of San Pedro, Harbor College; Sandra Norman of Torrance, Cal State Dominguez Hills; Shannon Oberholzer of Torrance, San Diego State, and Kristen M. Nereson of Redondo Beach, UC Santa Barbara.
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Dr. Gildon N. Beall, director of Harbor-UCLA Medical Center’s AIDS program and member of the UCLA AIDS Institute, has received the 1993 Sherman M. Mellinkoff Faculty Award for clinical and teaching excellence. A professor of medicine at UCLA School of Medicine and chief of allergy and clinical immunology at Harbor-UCLA, Beall was recognized for more than 30 years of dedication to students and for his commitment to AIDS patient care. Through his leadership in advocating AIDS patient care in county hospitals, Beall has been instrumental in creating federal, county, hospital and private support to establish a new building for outpatient HIV and AIDS care at Harbor-UCLA. The building was dedicated May 27. AIDS patient care was established at the medical center in 1982 and an AIDS clinic was formed in 1987, with Beall as its director. The new outpatient building doubles the clinic space and number of patient exam rooms from nine to 19 and will make it possible for patients to schedule appointments sooner.
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Laurie Blue Lundberg is the new president of the Torrance Coordinating Council for the 1993-94 year. Lundberg, who is director of public relations for Torrance Memorial Medical Center, has served on the board of the Coordinating Council for five years.
Also serving as coordinating council officers are George Chalekson, Torrance Unified School District; Herb Masi, South Bay Children’s Health Center; Judy Senter, Assn. of Retarded Citizens, South Bay; Cindy Hammond, League of Women Voters, and Toni Sargent, Suicide Prevention Center. The council, a networking group for area social service groups and businesses, meets at 7:30 a.m. on the third Wednesday of each month at Pacific Inn, Torrance. For reservations call (310) 378-7856.
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Amy Benson of Rancho Palos Verdes represented the South Bay District at the recent 1993 National Red Cross Convention in Nashville. She was one of six youth delegates from the Los Angeles area. This fall, after a two-month stint in Holland as a foreign exchange student, Benson will pursue her interest in disaster relief by taking related classes through the South Bay chapter of the Red Cross.
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Two Hermosa Beach residents, Mitchell Skelly and Noel Castle, have been recognized by the American Red Cross Blood Services Marrow Program for their donation of marrow to help a critically ill patient. The American Red Cross Blood Services Marrow Donor Program recruits potential marrow donors for the National Marrow Donor Program Registry. The registry contains the names of approximately 870,000 persons who may be contacted to donate marrow for patients with life-threatening illnesses such as leukemia or aplastic anemia. For information about becoming a marrow donor, call (213) 739-4594.
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Gordana Swanson of Rolling Hills is the president of a new South Bay chapter of the National Women’s Political Caucus. Executive board members are Nanette Pastor, Vivian Shimoyama and Marianne Wishner. The South Bay Caucus is focusing on female candidates running in the next round of city council and school board races. The caucus’ top priority will be fund raising and grass roots campaigning for women the caucus endorses. The caucus intends to support who support abortion rights, affirmative action, affordable child care and the Equal Rights Amendment.
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Five South Bay area women have been elected to leadership positions on the board of directors of the League of Women Voters of California. Marlys Robertson from the Beach Cities League is president. Other executive board members are Doris Rosenberg, Beach Cities League; Cindy Hammond, Torrance League; Kay Conrad and Mimi Horowitz, Palos Verdes Peninsula League. Local area leagues were training grounds for each of the newly elected state board members. Rosenberg and Hammond have served on the board of directors of the Los Angeles County League, and Robertson and Conrad have seen previous service at the state level. The League of Women Voters is a nonpartisan organization dedicated to objective study and education on political issues and ballot measures, to acting on issues on which member agreement has been reached, and to promoting greater citizen participation in the political process. For information about the South Bay area League of Women Voters, call (310) 372-1828.