Fund-Raiser Is a Ringing Success

SAN DIEGO — The bells were ringing for Linc Ward and his girl at Friday’s March of Dimes salute to the long-time Pacific Bell official, community activist, and all-around good guy.

Sen. Pete Wilson (R-Calif.) called to offer his congratulations. And the switchboard lit up again when Gov. George Deukmejian rang with similar regards. (Or, at any rate, amplified recordings of calls made earlier were played during the festivities--they made quite a splash with a crowd that had grown accustomed to a thrill a minute.)

About 370 civic leaders, March of Dimes supporters and fans of Lincoln and Mary Ward saved the 20 cents it costs to make a telephone call by showing up in person at the U.S. Grant Grand Ballroom for the testimonial dinner and dance.

Their presence not only honored one of San Diego’s most effective one-man fund-raising machines but added a welcome $60,000 to the coffers of the San Diego-Imperial Chapter of the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation.

Because Ward spent 45 years with AT&T; and Pacific Bell (his entire work career, interrupted only by a World War II stint with the U.S. Army Signal Corps), the evening was endowed with a wildly clever and thoroughly tongue-in-cheek theme that revolved around Ma Bell, otherwise known as “the phone company.” Ward retired in January, after serving as vice president in charge of a five-county region that included San Diego County.

Thus every aspect of the party that could be related to the telephone was utilized. Invitations took the form of phone bills (with the blessings of the telephone company), dessert pastries were bell-shaped, the Bill Green Orchestra’s first number was “Pennsylvania 6-5000,” and the program not only was a facsimile of the Yellow Pages, but even was printed by the same company that produces that icon of the American way of life.

And speaking of the American way, guests encountered more graphic examples of it than they probably anticipated. Most of them noticed, when they gathered in the Grant lobby for cocktails, that a phone booth rather incongruously had been erected in the middle of that ultra-posh expanse of antiques and Oriental rugs.

Most probably accepted it as nothing more than a decor accent that referred to the evening’s honoree, but they gave up this illusion quickly when a trumpet sounded and event chairman Joe Neeper (an otherwise quiet and dignified member of the legal profession), raced into the booth and began ripping off his clothes.

He emerged more slowly than a bird, a plane or a speeding bullet, attired as the one and only Superman, who, as we all know, was incapable of changing into his outfit anywhere other than in a phone booth (it must be mentioned that Joe had his tights on under his tuxedo, which he said made for a tight fit indeed.)

After grabbing an Olympic-style, if flameless, torch from an assistant, Neeper ran a circuit of the lobby while the guests giggled and cheered. He then made an entirely competent hand-off of the torch to radio announcer Ron Reina, who cried “Soup’s on,” and led the crowd up to dinner.

Reina, too, had discarded his evening clothes for the moment, and was attired in shorts and the same T-shirt worn by Ward when he ran in the 1984 Olympic Torch Run through San Diego County. Ward organized the local segment of the cross-country event, which raised $600,000 for area youth groups. One of his most recent civic duties, serving as 1985 chairman of the local United Way/CHAD campaign, raised $22 million for that organization.

Reina’s cheery invitation prompted the guests to sit down to a meal that included mock turtle soup (at least for the present, Grant banquets seem to start with nothing else) and chicken piccata. The entertainment started with the first course, in the form of celebrity telephone calls and mock telegrams delivered to the unabashed and entirely delighted honoree.

Even the St. Vincent de Paul Society’s Father Joe Carroll got in the act: Before offering the invocation, he lifted a telephone from the podium and dialed heaven (or so he said), from which he received a dispensation that allowed those Catholics present to eat meat on a Lenten Friday.

Despite the frivolous tone, the evening had its serious hour or so, during which local March of Dimes board chairman Dick Daniels, Police Chief Bill Kolender, event chairman Neeper, San Diego Pops president Bea Epsten, Chamber of Commerce official Mike Madigan and others offered tributes to Ward and his wife, Mary.

By the time the speeches had ended, the Wards were weighed down with plaques, scrolls and gifts, including a citation naming Ward a Distinguished Eagle Scout (a lifetime supporter of the Boy Scouts, he founded the first American Boy Scouts troop in Europe during the occupation that followed the end of World War II.) Present to applaud her parents was Ann Ward; the Ward’s other offspring, James and Mary Beth, both live out of town and were unable to attend.

There were several notable out-of-towners in the audience, however, including national March of Dimes board chairman Richard Hallinan and national board member Peter Greenough, whose wife, opera star Beverly Sills, sent her videotaped greetings to the party.

Among the committee were Bill and Alma Spicer, Anne and Abe Ratner, Darlene McCray, Melvin and Dorothy Bartell, David Primuth, Sigrid Pate, Bill Peterson, Luba Johnston, Jack Berkman, John and Phyllis Parrish, Author and Marge Hughes, George and Kathy Pardee and Bent Peterson.

The guest list included Jeannette Maxwell, Dean and Marie Dunphy, Dick and Vangie Burt, Tom and Ann Day, Phil and Catherine Blair, Frank and Joanne Warren, Loraine and Jack MacDonald, Bill and Lollie Nelson, Rudy and Carla Rehm, Judge Mac Amos, Fred and Florence Goss, Dan and Marcia Hathaway, Bill and Beverly Muchnic, Lynn Schenk, Scott and Debbie Wright, and Ron and Mary Kaye Burgess.

For sheer elegance, few recent events have surpassed Saturday’s Gold and White Carnival Ball.

The Gold and White Ball is but a new addition to San Diego’s increasingly frenetic party scene--Saturday’s gala ranked as just the third in what is expected to be a long-running annual series--but it proved its drawing power by attracting 325 guests to the Sheraton Harbor Island East’s Champagne Ballroom.

A collaboration between the San Diego County Bar Assn. Auxiliary and the Crime Victims Fund, for the exclusive benefit of the latter group, the party turned its guests into so many Solomons by forcing them to choose between the equally compulsive attractions of dancing to a samba beat and gambling in the adjoining casino. But both those who chose to spend the evening whirling to the Latin rhythms of the Benny Hollman Orchestra, and those who devoted their time to listening to the whirring sound made by the roulette wheels, declared themselves the party’s big winners. And some had special reason to do so, namely those who carried home the handsome prizes awarded to the gamblers who hit it big at the casino tables.

Of course, the biggest winner was the Crime Victims Fund, which added more than $30,000 to its bank balance. This fact never was far removed from the party givers’--or the party goers’-- collective consciousness; the printed program recorded the remarks of Solon, the 6th Century B.C. Athenian statesman who wrote, “There can be no justice until those who are unharmed by crime become just as indignant as those who are.”

Many of those present avowed themselves victimized by crime in one way or another, including Crime Victims Fund vice president Gary Laturno, whose FBI credentials were taken in a burglary.

But the fun and glamour of the evening tended to eclipse the event’s more serious side. The Gold and White Ball, as emphasized by this year’s carnival theme, takes its mood from the Carnival ball of the same name in Rio de Janeiro, which explains both the orchestra’s repeated return to the samba, and a chic decor that stretched elegance to the limit of the word.

The party’s three chairmen, Stephen Schulman, Shelley Clayton and Karen Nugent, transformed the ballroom into a fantasy setting by dressing each table with centerpieces of tropical flowers and foliage, in each of which nested a colorful stuffed toy toucan or parrot. A nighttime sky, lighted by golden stars and other celestial bodies, hung over the orchestra, and exotic arrangements of gilded palm fronds lent a further tropical note to the room. (Nor, it turns out, were these arrangements easily come by. Committee member Melinda Willett personally shimmied up a palm tree in Solana Beach and hacked off the fronds, which then were spray-painted by other members of the committee. This was one way in which the party’s sponsors kept down the evening’s overhead.)

The casino opened promptly at 7 p.m. but was closed temporarily when the time arrived for the revelers to sit down to a dinner of mock turtle soup, tournedos Rossini and gateau St. Honore. This forced exodus from casino to ballroom had a somewhat explosive result when the guests delved into their gold foil favors sacks and discovered the poppers, noisemakers and horns.

The sacks also contained handfuls of confetti, which flew liberally in all directions and dusted more than a few shoulders with an unusually festive kind of dandruff.

The party later included the auction of a Buick Riviera and a Hawaii cruise, which added nicely to the net proceeds.

Among the committee were Pam Sullivan, Noreen Walton, Polly Jones, Judy Rees, Joy Poncie, Caroline Shea, and, serving as master of ceremonies, television newscaster Lorraine Kimmel.

The guest list included actress Theresa Saldana, whose own experience as a crime victim was well publicized several years ago; she was escorted by “Remington Steele” co-star John Driver. Also attending were Lynn and Gary Penrith (he heads the FBI’s field office in San Diego), Crime Victims Fund president Sidney Bolter, the group’s founder, Beverly DiGregorio, Gail and Bob Arnhym, Betty and John Mabee, Mel and Linda Katz, John and Elizabeth Brooks, San Diego Bar Assn. Auxiliary president Vera Campbell and her husband, John, Adriana and Joseph Blood, Kay and Bill Rippee, Mary Helen and Ivan Dirkes, Melinda and Steve Green, Margaret MacKenzie with Edwin Hodges, and Susan Karsh with Howard Matloff.