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He’s Developed His Catalogue to Help Keep Things in Proportion

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Opening car doors or flipping light switches are simple tasks that turn into demanding chores for short people and the infirm, so four-foot-tall Richard Crandall of Huntington Beach has started a nonprofit, mail-order catalogue to help them.

As president of the Short Stature Foundation based in Huntington Beach, Crandall and his 10-member board have put together a catalogue of devices to make life easier for short people, as well as the arthritic, crippled or infirm.

Crandall, who is banking on his past experience in electronic and real estate sales to promote the venture, said: “We’re starting here but hope to go to other areas of the country when we expand the catalogue to 300 items.”

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There are about 2 million people of short stature (under five feet tall) in the United States, he said, and he has a list of 40,000 in California.

Crandall, who is working out of his home, said he expects to hire “a number of short-stature people for the venture, and that in itself is a big plus.” He said there is a nationwide 20% unemployment factor among short people.

The 35 items now listed in the catalogue are expected to sell for $25 or less. The items include mechanical arms to deposit coins into pay phones or reach for items on shopping market shelves, light switch extenders, door-knob grippers, and adapters for car doors and automatic transmissions.

Ron Sipple, athletic director of Troy High School in Fullerton, has a major problem. His son, Doug Sipple, 17, is starting fullback and linebacker for El Dorado High School in Placentia, which plays at Troy next Thursday. “On which side of the field do I stand?” the father asks. Joe Camacho, Troy’s trainer, has the answer: “He’s going to mingle a lot.”

“All we want is a smile and a ‘thank you’ to the waitresses,” said David L. Shultz, president of Local 681 of the 5,000-member Hotel and Restaurant Employees Union in Orange County-Long Beach, who singlehandedly decided to originate National Waitress Day Tuesday.

“My phone has been ringing virtually non-stop” from hotel and restaurant operators throughout the country who have vowed to give waitresses flower corsages and congratulatory cakes, he said.

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Shultz said there are 1.5 million waitresses nationwide. Waiters Day for the 190,000 waiters nationwide is next, he said.

Acknowledgments--A specially designed pendant pointing out city librarian Carolyn Johnson’s four decades of service in the Fullerton Library System was presented to her at a recent City Council meeting . . . . Bobby Johnson, 20, of Brea, a member of the Commodores Youth Band of Fullerton, was named top drum major at the recent Pacific Coast Youth Band Assn. championships held in Santa Ana Bowl . . . . Robert V. McDonald, 38, of Anaheim Hills was elected president of Cal State Fullerton Alumni Assn . . . . In a new recognition policy, Fullerton School District awarded safe driving plaques to Jean Rodabaugh, Buena Park, 30 years; Darlene Lambris, Buena Park, 24 years; Doreen Voccia, Fullerton, 23 years, and Barbara Tilford, Anaheim, 19 years, all for not having a chargeable accident during those years of driving.

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