PASSINGS: 'Chick' Lang, Warren Farlow, Doug Speck, Charlie Gillett, Johnnie High, Barry Brief
Matthew Kruk
latimes.com
PASSINGS: 'Chick' Lang, Warren Farlow, Doug Speck, Charlie Gillett,
Johnnie High, Barry Brief
'Chick' Lang, Preakness executive, dies at 83; Farlow, track coach, 69;
Speck, Arcadia Invitational director, 62; Gillett, music journalist, 68;
High, country music promoter, 80; Brief, developer, 68
11:11 AM PDT, March 22, 2010
'Chick' Lang
Preakness executive
Charles John "Chick" Lang, 83, the longtime head of Baltimore's Pimlico
Race Course who helped make the Preakness a must-watch for sports fans
around the country, died Thursday of natural causes in a medical
facility on Maryland's Eastern Shore, his family said.
Known as "Mr. Preakness," Lang is credited with bringing the Preakness
national attention at a time when the Kentucky Derby overshadowed it. He
tirelessly promoted the Baltimore race, traveling to the Kentucky Derby
with "Next Stop Preakness" signs. He once floated hundreds of yellow and
black balloons over the Kentucky Derby Parade.
The opening of the infield was Lang's idea. In 1965, he brought a school
bus full of his daughter's friends to the infield to watch the races and
some lacrosse games. That evolved into the all-day party, complete with
rock bands and drinking, that marks today's Preakness.
Lang had deep family roots in horse racing. His great-grandfather, John
Mayberry, was a Kentucky Derby-winning trainer in 1903 and his father,
Chick Lang Sr., won the 1928 Kentucky Derby riding Reigh Count.
Lang started as a successful jockey's agent. He worked at Pimlico from
1960 to 1987, holding several management positions.
He later worked as a racing consultant for tracks around the country and
as a racing analyst on radio.
Warren Farlow
Kennedy High track coach
Warren Farlow, 69, who started the Kennedy High School track program in
Granada Hills in 1971 and coached for more than 25 years, died March 12
at a San Fernando Valley hospital after a bout with cancer.
Farlow grew up in Hollywood, ran track with his twin brother, Wayne, at
Hollywood High and was a member of USC's 1961 NCAA championship track
and field team. He and his brother were also child actors.
Farlow helped build a top track program at Kennedy, winning a state
girls' title in 1980. In recent years, he served as a consultant on work
experience with the Los Angeles Unified School District.
Doug Speck
Arcadia Invitational director
Doug Speck, 62, a former teacher, track and cross country coach and
athletic director at Arcadia High School who was also the longtime meet
director of the well-regarded Arcadia Invitational track meet, died
March 4 after a long battle with melanoma. He lived in El Segundo.
Speck coached and taught social studies at Hueneme and Channel Islands
high schools before being hired to do the same at Arcadia in 1976. He
was Arcadia's athletic director from 2000 to 2004, and he retired in
2007.
A native of North Dakota, Speck graduated from Cal Poly Pomona and had a
master's degree in education from Azusa Pacific University.
He also was a writer for track publications and an announcer for various
meets.
Charlie Gillett
Disc jockey, music journalist
Charlie Gillett, 68, a disc jockey, journalist, producer and music
historian who highlighted an eclectic blend of world music, died
Wednesday at a London hospital, the BBC announced. He had an autoimmune
disease and suffered a heart attack.
"Charlie Gillett's World of Music" played everything from Cajun boogie
to Nigerian soul. He was credited with launching the careers of several
artists, including Dire Straits by playing the group's "Sultan of Swing"
when they were still unknown in 1976.
Charles Thomas Gillett, born Feb. 20, 1942 in England, was teaching at
Kingsway College in London in 1968 when he started writing a column in
Record Mirror magazine. That led to television appearances and his radio
career.
His 1970 book "The Sound of the City: The Rise of Rock and Roll" grew
out of a master's thesis he wrote at Columbia University in New York. He
co-founded the Oval record label in 1972.
"When I first met him, it was like meeting the rock 'n' roll equivalent
of Dickens or Shakespeare," said BBC broadcaster Mark Lamarr.
Johnnie High
Country music promoter
Johnnie High, 80, whose country music revues helped launch the careers
of LeAnn Rimes and Boxcar Willie, among others, died Wednesdayat his
home in Bedford, Texas, from heart disease, said his daughter, Luanne
Dorman.
High started the shows in 1974, converting an old movie theater in
Grapevine, Texas, into the Grapevine Opry. High moved the revue to Fort
Worth and Haltom City before settling in Arlington in 1995. The show is
now televised nationally.
Johnnie Ray High Jr. was born May 1, 1929, and grew up in McGregor,
Texas. He had his own radio show in Waco at 14, radio historian Dorothy
Hamm told the Forth Worth Star-Telegram.
Rimes was only 6 when she first performed on High's revue. Other artists
who have performed there include singer Lee Ann Womack and fiddler Shoji
Tabuchi.
Barry Brief
Orange County developer
Barry Brief, 68, a developer of the Monarch Beach community along the
south Orange County coastline, died March 3 of cancer at his home in
Laguna Beach, his family said.
Brief was a longtime builder and marketer who worked for the Lawrin Co.,
Leadership Housing in Newport Beach and before starting his own firm,
the Brief Corp., in 1974.
He joined with developer David Stein to form the Stein-Brief Group,
which in 1983 bought more than 500 acres between Laguna Beach and Dana
Point. More than 200 acres were sold in 1989 to the Australian firm
Quintex.
Brief was born July 17, 1941, in Los Angeles and graduated from Millikan
High School in Long Beach. He received a bachelor's degree in marketing
from Cal State Fullerton and started his career in 1963 with the
marketing division of Kaufman and Broad.
Stein-Brief was renamed Laguna Monarch Group in 1996. Brief continued to
work as a developer and was active in philanthropy. He helped lead a
fight to keep the Laguna Art Museum in Laguna Beach in 1996.
-- times staff and wire reports news....@latimes.com
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