Narcisco Platero Abeyta; WW II Encoder, Navajo Painter

Narcisco “Ciso” Platero Abeyta, 79, a World War II code talker and painter of Navajo themes. Abeyta’s watercolors are included in collections at the Museum of the American Indian in New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, the Philbrook Museum in Tulsa, Okla., the Museum of New Mexico in Santa Fe and the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian in Santa Fe. During World War II, Abeyta was among the 450 Navajo soldiers whose encrypted messages in the Navajo language were never broken by the Japanese. Abeyta studied at Santa Fe Indian School and later at the University of New Mexico with modernist painter Raymond Johnson. On Monday in Albuquerque of a cerebral hemorrhage.

Sheldon Gunsberg; Film Producer, Distributor

Sheldon Gunsberg, 78, New York film producer and distributor who headed a theater chain. After serving in the Merchant Marine during World War II, Gunsberg began his career promoting the 1945 version of “Henry V” starring Laurence Olivier for United Artists. Later he worked as a publicist for Universal Pictures. In 1954, he joined the Walter Reade Organization, owners of the Ziegfeld, Coronet and Baronet theaters in New York City and at one time about 80 movie theaters nationwide. He was promoted to chief operating officer in 1971 and president in 1973. Gunsberg stayed on after Columbia acquired the chain but retired shortly before it was sold to Cineplex Odeon in 1987. On June 18 in New York of a heart attack.

Richard Orion Stock; Family Service Assn. Director

Richard Orion Stock, 84, former executive director of Family Service Assn. of Los Angeles. Born in Terre Haute, Ind., the lifelong social worker earned degrees from DePauw University in Greencastle, Ind., and what is now Case-Western Reserve University in Cleveland. He earned a Case-Western distinguished alumni award in 1966. Stock worked as a caseworker, psychiatric social worker and supervisor in Cleveland, Milwaukee and Manchester, N.H., before joining the Family Service Assn. He headed its offices in Ann Arbor, Mich., Boston, St. Louis and Cleveland, as well as in Los Angeles from 1954 to 1962. He retired in 1976 as executive director of the Family Service Agency in Morristown, N.J. In his retirement in Michigan, Stock founded the Benzie County chapter of the American Assn. of Retired Persons and helped start an Alzheimer’s caregivers’ support group. On Monday in Traverse City, Mich., of congestive heart failure.