Cyril Nigg to Get United Way Award

United Way directors, supervisors and Chamber of Commerce stalwarts are among those invited to a select luncheon of community leaders today in the Music Center Blue Ribbon Room. They’ll be there to see philanthropist Cyril C. Nigg receive the Victor M. Carter Humanitarian Award. The first award was bestowed on Carter last year. He will present the second to Nigg.

The honor was inaugurated last year by United Way to salute annually a person whose life is a “humbling example of public service and commitment to his fellow man.”

Ann Shaw chairs the luncheon. Roy A. Anderson, United Way chairman, will welcome guests, and Larry McCormick will laud the recipient in a tribute.

Nigg serves on the boards of St. John of God Hospital, Maryvale, numerous Catholic charities, the California Institute for Cancer Research. He’s a past president of United Way, the University of California Alumni Assn., the Vernon Rotary Club and the Sales Executive Assn. He’s a trustee of the Catholic Welfare Bureau, a trustee of St. Vincent’s Hospital Medical Building, former regent at Immaculate Heart College and the University of California. And, he’s Knight Commander of the Order of St. Gregory the Great and a Knight of Malta. On the business side, he’s retired chairman and chief executive officer of Bell Brand Foods, Ltd. And that’s not small potato chips, you know.

Let’s set some big dates:

Barbara Bush, the wife of the vice president, has agreed to speak Jan. 28 on “The Eradication of Illiteracy,” for the USC General Alumni Assn.’s Women’s Day on campus. Marilyn Zumberge is honorary chairman, and Women’s Day dynamos are Linda Dean Maudlin and Sharon Wilson Merz. Hundreds are expected for a day full of seminars. . . .

The vivacious trio of co-chairmen for the upcoming Gourmet Gala, that fun night with celebrity chefs, designers, artists and judges, has exciting news: their date is March 4 at the Sheraton Premiere. Edward William Carter of Carter, Hawley, Hale, has been named dinner chairman to benefit the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation.

Furthermore, First Lady Nancy Reagan has said yes to be Special Honorary Chairman. And more honorary illuminaries will be the Armand S. Deutsches, Mrs. Virginia Milner, the William French Smiths, the James M. Stewarts and the Harry Wetzels. The gala committee, too, is illustrious: Mmes. J. Michael Hennigan, Jack Quinn (she’ll do the aprons for auction), Thomas Wachtell, Richard Zanuck, Gordon Davidson, John Hotchkis, Steven Thomas, John King, Bruce Ludwig, Gerald Parsky, Sidney Petersen, Donald Tronstein, John Mueller, Douglas Kranwinkle, LeRoy Rahn, Harold Keith, Walter Weisman, Iris Caplan, Timothy Childs, Frank Johnson, Gwynn Robinson, Robert Maguire III, Earl A. Powell and Mr. and Mrs. Brooks Firestone. . . .

It’s coming up poinsettias, the 37th Los Solteros Annual Charity Christmas Ball. The gala is Saturday in the Crystal Room of the Beverly Hills Hotel, and the goal, as always, will be to raise funds for Boys Republic, the organization that prepares and sells those beautiful Della Robbia Christmas wreaths.

Los Solteros is the bachelor group of business and professional men. Ball chairman Robert Schoelkopf heads arrangements. He, John Burke, Jack Seifert (president), John Steinlage, Craig Enright, Ron Tinero, Matt Sullivan and Spencer Smith, have tipped their top hats to the ladies and asked the Mount Saint Mary’s College Carolers to sing for the occasion. Mary Blanche and Margaret Gross are in the group.

Boys Republic is the Chino nonprofit school community of youths between 14 and 18 who were referred by the Juvenile Court or their parents because of societal or family-adjustment problems.

Nearly 1,000 saw B. Donald (Bud) Grant, president of CBS Entertainment, toasted and roasted brown, tan and pink at Friends of the Los Angeles FREE Clinic’s annual benefit dinner at the Beverly Wilshire. In one roast, Brandon Tartikoff called Grant and Harvey Shephard (senior vice president of CBS programming) the “ ‘Jacoby and Meyers’ of programming.” Lots of celebrities turned out to net more than $300,000 for the clinic, whose Friends are headed by Mimi West. Among them: Linda Evans, Michael Ogiens, vice president of comedy at CBS (who shared a part in the roast), financier Marvin Davis, Steve Allen and Jayne Meadows.

The clinic last year provided health and mental care, and legal counseling, for more than 30,000 in the county.

We hear the 50th annual Candlelight Ball sponsored by the Juniors of Social Service Auxiliary was glorious and nostalgic, with loyal past presidents and ball chairmen attending in droves for the gala Mrs. John F. Bernard, president, and Mrs. Michael C. Parker, ball chairman, staged at the Beverly Hilton. The duo thinks $100,000 net will go to Regis House, the community center in West Los Angeles.

Among past presidents and ball chairmen joining the festivities were Mmes. Ted Barry, Clark Smith, Stephen Ackerman, Peter Vogelsang, Mark Overland and Thomas P. Hodgkiss, as well as Josephine Wayne, Alice O’Neill Avery, Michael Wayne, Joseph Hegener (she’s Mary Jo Bernard’s mother and staged the 25th annual Candlelight Ball), Felix McGinnis, Thomas Armistead, Daniel Burschinger, Thomas McCarthy, Frederick Fletcher and Miss Diane Downey.

White doves, a dove ice sculpture were meant by decorations chairman Mrs. Daniel Walker to convey the theme, “The Spirit of Love.”

Dancing long into the night is planned by Andre C. Adam, consul general of Belgium, for the Los Angeles Consular Corps on Thursday evening in Le Grand Trianon of the Beverly Wilshire. The flavor most definitely will be international, and it’s black tie. Belgian chanteuse Mrs. Bern Campbell (grandniece of the late Maurice Chevalier) will sing. So will mariachis, around Haitian dancers.

Adam became dean of the consular corps Nov. 1 (the position is awarded by seniority, and Adams has been in Los Angeles 3 1/2 years). Among special guests will be Ret. Gen. Thomas Riley, chairman of the Orange County Board of Supervisors; Secretary of State March Fong Eu, Los Angeles city protocol chief Bee Lavery, Sen. Diane Watson. About 200 consular corps leaders are expected. They’ll give raffle proceeds to Childrens Hospital.

Festivities:

With a $100 donation to Richstone Family Center, 13620 Cordary Ave., Hawthorne, you can give a child there a month of counseling and give someone special a holiday gift certificate for Tamara, the elegant event Richstone plans Jan. 31. Reservations are limited to 125. . . .

The Adoption Guild of Los Angeles honored past presidents at a luncheon meeting at the Hancock Park home of Susan Coneys. Caroling for residents of the Rossmore Retirement House preceded Mrs. Santa Claus . . .

Beatrice Banning Braun hosted cocktails at her home in Bel-Air for special friends. Among the crowd were the Lee Atwoods, the Chandler Harrises, Scott Carpenter, the William Lowber Bannings, William Frederick Banning, Polly Helm, Randolph Karr, Harry Brandel, Frederick Bishop, Anne Brooks, Alice Anderson, the Ronald Rauchlaubs, the Harold C. Ramsers, the junior Ramsers, Ethel Whiting and Michael Travis.

Kudos:

Carl Terzian, public relations executive, was recognized by President Reagan for his leadership with the U.S. Information Agency, and he’s been reelected as a regent at California Lutheran College. . . .

Television personality Tom Kennedy has been named 1986 campaign chairman for the Southern California chapter Arthritis Foundation by the board of directors. He’ll be raising the consciousness of the public about arthritis and the foundation. . . .

Past perfect: About 200 enjoyed Kentucky carved hams, Christmas confections, an omelet bar and 30 different pastries including sauteed bananas on ice cream and croquenbouches (traditional French Christmas cakes) and meringue snowballs (all catered by Ambrosia Caterers with Abbey Party Rents) at the party the William Shatners hosted at their home. The Jamaican steel drum band was accompanied by champagne and eggnog, too.

Today at 385 North Restaurant, more than $600,000 will be distributed to Southern California charities by the Permanent Charities Committee of the Entertainment Industries. PCC president Paul C. Masterson and 1986 honorary campaign chairman Steve Allen and his wife, actress Jayne Meadows Allen, will do the honors with Georg Stanford Brown, Kevin Dobson, Marty Ingels, Shirley Jones, Florence LaRue, Janet Leigh, Cheryl McMannis, Leslie Nielsen, Lee Meriwether and Gary Owens.