AP Obits--7/9
ObitsMan
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Obituaries in the News
Wed Jul 9, 8:31 PM ET
By The Associated Press
KIRKLAND, Wash. - Theodore "Ted" Henry Allegri Sr., a prominent industrial
engineer and later a local history columnist for The Herald of Everett, died
June 14 of cancer. He was 83.
Allegri worked three decades for the government, including as a specifications
branch chief and general supply officer with the General Services
Administration.
He was executive director of the International Materials Management Society and
editor of the Washington, D.C., Professional Engineering newsletter.
He also published five engineering textbooks, a novel and several articles for
magazines, trade journals and Academic American Encyclopedia.
After moving to Washington state, where he opened a consulting business in
Bothell, Allegri wrote his "Past Tense" local history column for The Herald in
the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Born in New York's Greenwich Village, Allegri earned a master's degree in
industrial engineering at George Washington University and did graduate work at
Georgetown University and the Virginia Polytechnic Institute.
Besides working for the government and being a consultant, Allegri was a
material handling manager for Caterpillar Tractor Co. in Illinois.
___
Paul Wilson Brand
SEATTLE (AP) — Dr. Paul Wilson Brand, who pioneered the use of reconstructive
surgery to ease the ravages of leprosy and diabetes on hands and feet, died
Tuesday of complications from a blood clot in the brain. He was 88.
Born in India to a missionary family, Brand was sent to England at age 9 to be
educated. He attended medical school at London University, where he met his
wife, classmate Margaret Barry.
They married immediately after graduation in 1943 and in 1946 went to India,
where Brand taught surgery at Vellore Medical College. He became a specialist
in orthopedic surgery, specializing in hand reconstruction.
Brand began using reconstructive surgery to help people with leprosy in the
late 1940s. He later adapted the work for patients with diabetes, which, like
leprosy, deadens the sensation of pain.
In 1966, the Brands were invited by the U.S. Public Health Service to work at
the National Leprosarium in Carville, La. Paul Brand became chief of
rehabilitation at the facility, and for more than 20 years conducted research
and taught surgery and orthopedics at the Medical College at Louisiana State
University.
The couple retired in the mid-1980s and moved to Seattle, where he became
clinical professor of orthopedics emeritus at the University of Washington.
Brand served on the Expert Panel for Leprosy of the World Health Organization
and as president of the London-based Leprosy Mission International. He
co-founded the All-Africa Leprosy and Rehabilitation Training Center in Addis
Ababa, Ethiopia.
___
Jake Gunther III
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Assemblyman Jake Gunther III, a conservative Democrat who
played key roles in environmental, rural and property tax reform legislation,
died of cancer overnight Tuesday. He was 50.
Gunther was a rarity in Albany, a lawmaker admired on both sides of the aisle,
whose respect from opponents survived some of the chambers' most contentious
debates.
Pataki ordered flags flown at half-staff in honor of Gunther until his funeral.
Gunther was first elected to the Assembly in 1992 to a district that includes
Sullivan County and part of Orange County.
He sponsored the law that requires the state to reimburse local governments for
some lost tax revenue on state park land. The payments in lieu of taxes help
the Catskills and other areas gain some revenue from expansive tax-exempt state
parks.
Gunther was born and raised in Middletown and graduated from Orange County
Community College.
___
Chester M. "Chet" Murphy
MISSOULA, Mont. (AP) — Chester M. "Chet" Murphy, a longtime Missoula
broadcaster, died July 5 of complications from lung cancer. He was 77.
Murphy was born in Powell, Wyo., and was the former owner of KYSS-AM and
KYSS-FM in Missoula. Prior to buying out his partners at KYSS-AM and starting
Missoula's first commercial FM station, Murphy worked in cable television in
Wenatchee, Wash., and at KXLY-TV in Spokane, Wash.
Murphy's son, Max, and daughter-in-law, Sheila Callahan, own KMSO-FM in
Missoula.
Murphy is survived by his wife of 58 years, Marty; four children, six
grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
___
Sorrells Pickard
KEYSTONE HEIGHTS, Fla. (AP) — Sorrells Pickard, an actor and country
musician-songwriter who later became a gourmet peanut butter entrepreneur, died
Saturday at his home after a heart attack. He was 63.
Pickard had a varied career that included writing four of the songs and playing
guitar on former Beatle Ringo Starr's 1970 album "Beaucoups of Blues."
Born James W. Bazzell Jr. in Jacksonville, Pickard launched his career after
high school by singing in Jacksonville clubs.
He moved to Nashville, where he appeared on the Grand Ole Opry television show
and later moved to Los Angeles, where he appeared in the movies "Hardbodies,"
"Hardbodies II" and "Running Hot."
Pickard wrote more than 100 songs recorded by artists including David Rogers,
Roy Clark, Hank Thompson, Kitty Wells, Slim Whitman and the Statler Brothers.
With former television film editor Herb Dow, Pickard launched Sorrells Pickard
Gourmet Peanut Butter in 1999, which sold 6 million jars in 11 Western states
before production was halted for economic reasons.
___
C.C. Wang
NEW YORK (AP) — C.C. Wang, a Chinese-American art expert who sold classical
Chinese paintings and created his own works, died Thursday. He was 96.
Born Wang Jiqian near Suzhou, China, Wang began studying skills associated with
the Chinese art expert as a teenager.
He learned collecting, selling and painting, and believed personal mastery of
painting techniques was necessary for a complete knowledge of classical Chinese
painting.
After studying painting in Shanghai, Wang assisted organizers of a 1936 London
exhibition of art from Beijing's Palace Museum and became the first private
citizen to examine all the paintings in the imperial collection.
In 1949, Wang moved to Manhattan, where he taught, consulted at Sotheby's,
dealt in real estate and collected and sold art, including various pieces to
the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Wang's art, which was included in several museum exhibitions, transformed him
into a cultural hero in China. Many admirers consider him the last of a
centuries-old line of Chinese scholar-artists.