Joe Stone, 87; Boxer, Referee, Professor of English, Screenwriter

Joe Stone, 87, boxer and boxing official, English professor and screenwriter who shared an Oscar nomination for “Operation Petticoat,” died Oct. 5 in Bellingham, Wash.

Born in Carstairs, Canada, and reared in Redlands and Long Beach, Calif., Stone became a boxer, winning the state amateur lightweight boxing championship. After Navy service in World War II, he served 13 years as a boxing referee and judge, officiating at such major bouts as the Art Aragon-Chuck Davey fight. He refereed some 5,000 fights and judged about 2,000, earning induction into the World Boxing Hall of Fame in 1994.

But Stone also earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English at Loyola and USC, and for 40 years taught English and writing for the screen and television at Loyola and Loyola Marymount University.

In the 1950s, Stone worked as a writer for Universal and MGM Studios, scripting episodes for such television series as “Bonanza” and co-writing the highly successful comedy film “Operation Petticoat,” starring Cary Grant and Tony Curtis, in 1959.