PASSINGS

Albert L. Greene

Hospital president

Albert L. Greene, 59, president and chief executive of Valley Presbyterian Hospital in Van Nuys since 2006, died Thursday at his home in Calabasas. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in June, the hospital announced.

Greene, who had a reputation for reviving financially ailing medical centers, was the third chief executive of the hospital founded in 1958.

Under Greene’s supervision, Valley Presbyterian reportedly went from a $7.8-million deficit in 2006 to a $625,000 surplus the next year. He oversaw the installation of a new cardiac facility and the commencement of a major upgrade of the hospital’s operating rooms.

Previously, Greene spent five years as chief executive of Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center, where he increased the size of the medical staff by 50% in two years and established a teaching affiliation with the USC Keck School of Medicine.

Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Dec. 10, 1949, and reared in Wappingers Falls, N.Y., Greene earned a bachelor’s degree at Ithaca College and a master’s degree in hospital administration at the University of Michigan.

He worked as a hospital administrator in Detroit, Milwaukee and Berkeley before coming to Los Angeles.

Tharon Musser

Tony-winning lighting designer

Tharon Musser, 84, a Tony-winning lighting designer of more than 100 Broadway shows, including such legendary musicals as “A Chorus Line,” “Dreamgirls,” “Mame” and “42nd Street,” died Sunday at her home in Newtown, Conn., after a long illness.

Musser was nominated for 10 Tony Awards for lighting design, winning three -- for “Follies,” “A Chorus Line” and “Dreamgirls.”

During her career, Musser worked with a who’s who of Broadway theater: directors George Abbott, Michael Bennett and Harold Prince; playwrights Edward Albee, Neil Simon and Tom Stoppard; and songwriters Fred Ebb, Jerry Herman, John Kander and Stephen Sondheim.

Her work on “A Chorus Line” proved revolutionary, using for the first time a completely computerized lighting console instead of the manually operated “piano boards.” Although her last Broadway show -- “The Lonesome West” -- was in 1999, Musser’s lighting for “A Chorus Line” was used in the musical’s 2006 New York revival.

Born Jan. 8, 1925, in Roanoke, Va., Musser graduated from Berea College in Kentucky and then went to the Yale School of Drama. She began her design career off-Broadway in 1949.

Musser’s Broadway career began in 1956 with the original production of Eugene O’Neill’s “Long Day’s Journey Into Night.”

Benjamin Edwards III

Former head of A.G. Edwards

Benjamin Edwards III, 77, who presided over A.G. Edwards & Sons Inc. as it grew from a regional brokerage firm based in St. Louis to one of the largest in the nation, died of prostate cancer Monday at his home in Naples, Fla.

The great-grandson of the company’s founder, Albert Gallatin Edwards, he joined the firm in 1956, became managing partner a decade later and president in 1967.

Under his leadership, A.G. Edwards grew from 44 offices with 300 financial consultants in 1965 to nearly 700 offices and 7,000 financial consultants by the time he retired in 2001.

Wachovia Corp. acquired A.G. Edwards for $6.8 billion in 2007. The combined brokerage unit, Wachovia Securities, became the second-largest American retail brokerage by number of brokers.

Edwards, who had firm roots in his primary home of St. Louis, expressed shock at the deal to sell Edwards to Wachovia.

Wells Fargo acquired Wachovia Corp. late last year.

-- times staff and wire reports

news.obits@latimes.com