Obituaries - Feb. 4, 1995

* Maurice Buerge; Santa Monica Community Benefactor

Maurice Buerge, 86, Santa Monica community benefactor and lay leader of the city’s First United Methodist Church. Born in Mena, Ark., Buerge moved to Santa Monica as a child. He began working for the local Ford dealer when he was in high school, and in 1941, acquired his own dealership, Walker-Buerge Ford. When he built his home in Pacific Palisades in 1938, he graded the property with a tractor he assembled from spare Ford parts. Buerge helped create the Santa Monica church and served as chairman of its board of trustees. He was also president of the Santa Monica YMCA and the Santa Monica Exchange Club, and was active in Polio Plus, an organization dedicated to stamping out the disease. Sometimes a patient at Daniel Freeman Memorial Hospital, Buerge, who used a wheelchair, became a benefactor of that facility. His gifts included a car equipped for handicapped drivers. Because of his philanthropic efforts and the example he set, Buerge was inducted into the California Assn. of Rehabilitation Facilities’ Hall of Fame. On Monday in Pacific Palisades.

* Mark Cullingham; Theater and Television Director

Mark Cullingham, British theater and television director who handled shows for U.S. public broadcasting and cable networks. An English scholar at Oxford, Cullingham worked as assistant director at Britain’s National Theatre from 1964 to 1968. His later London stage work included “The Two of Us,” “Lulu” and “A Streetcar Named Desire.” For British television he directed “Casanova,” “Put Out More Flags” and “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.” Relocating to the United States, he worked extensively in television. His productions included “Medea” and “Eleanor: In Her Own Words” for PBS; “Cinderella” for Showtime, “Pilobolus on Broadway” for CBS Cable, “It’s No Crush I’m in Love” for ABC and “Dead on the Money” for TNT. On Sunday in Los Angeles of complications of AIDS.

* George W. Edmonds; Former California Air National Guard Chief

George W. Edmonds, 73, a retired Air Force major general and former commander of the California Air National Guard. Edmonds enlisted in the Army Air Corps in 1942. As a fighter pilot in World War II, he earned the Distinguished Flying Cross with Oak Leaf Cluster, among other awards. He joined the California Air National Guard in 1949 and rose through its ranks until he was named commander in 1964. He served as Guard commander until his retirement in 1976. At Travis Air Force Base in Northern California of cancer on Sunday.

* William E. Edwards; Rescued George Bush During World War II

William E. Edwards, 78, the retired Navy commander who rescued Lt. George Bush when the future President’s plane was shot down during World War II. Edwards’ submarine, the Finback, saved Bush after his plane crashed in the Pacific, and Edwards pulled the flier from the wreckage. Edwards later commanded the VA196 Fighter Squadron, was operations officer on the aircraft carrier Hancock and was commandant of the Navy Marine Training Facility in New Orleans. After retiring from a 26-year career in the Navy, he spent 25 years with New York Life Insurance Co. In Bay St. Louis, Miss., on Tuesday of cancer.

* Dr. Bernard Nathan Fields; Harvard Professor, Prominent Virologist

Dr. Bernard Nathan Fields, 56, Harvard professor and nationally prominent virologist. In 1992, Fields led a task force of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which set strategies for future research in infectious diseases including AIDS. He worked in Atlanta for the National Communicable Disease Center, which is now called the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He joined the faculty at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York in 1967. Moving to the Harvard faculty in 1975, Fields became chairman of the school’s microbiology and molecular genetics department. He was principal author of the textbook “Virology” and a co-founder of Virus Research Institute, a Cambridge-based biotechnology company that develops vaccine technologies. On Tuesday in Newton, Mass., of pancreatic cancer.

* Diane Goodman Grant; City of Hope, Hadassah Fund-Raiser

Diane Goodman Grant, 98, a fund-raiser for Hadassah and the City of Hope. A native of New York, the former Mrs. Jack Goodman lived in Los Angeles and Beverly Hills after she was widowed. Later becoming Mrs. Samuel W. Grant, she was a travel agent who specialized in tours for senior citizens. Many of the cruises and other tours she organized well into her 80s served as fund-raisers for her charities. She was honored on her 90th birthday by the City of Hope for her volunteer efforts. On Sunday in Arlington, Va.

* Richard L. Roudebush; Former Congressman, Veterans Affairs Chief

Richard L. Roudebush, 77, a former Republican congressman and head of the Department of Veterans Affairs. Roudebush was elected to the House of Representatives in 1960 and served five terms, representing Indiana. President Gerald R. Ford named him VA administrator in 1974, a post he held until 1977. On Jan. 28 in Sarasota, Fla., of pneumonia.

* Don Tobin; Creator of ‘The Little Woman’ Comic Strip

Don Tobin, 79, who created the syndicated comic strip “The Little Woman.” A native of Austin, Tex., Tobin grew up in Long Beach and attended Long Beach Junior College and UC Berkeley. He worked as an animator for the Navy during World War II and later for Walt Disney Studios. He also free-lanced cartoons for such magazines as Collier’s and the Saturday Evening Post. Tobin created his own strip in 1953 for King Features Syndicate. The daily comic ran in about 224 newspapers until Tobin’s retirement in 1981. Many of his original works are housed in the Collection of Memorabilia and Cartoons at Syracuse University. Active in his community, Tobin served as president of the Laguna Beach school board in the late 1960s and was on the Laguna Beach Youth Shelter’s board of directors. On Jan. 19 in Los Angeles.

* George Woodcock; Prolific Canadian Writer

George Woodcock, 82, one of Canada’s most prolific and celebrated writers. Woodcock wrote and edited almost 150 books, including “Anarchism,” considered a definitive text on the subject, and “The Crystal Spirit,” a biography of his friend George Orwell. The biography won a Governor General’s Award. A poet, critic and essayist, Woodcock was the founding editor of the journal Canadian Literature. In 1940, he started the journal Now about anarchy. He taught at the University of Washington in Seattle in 1954 and 1955 and at the University of British Columbia from 1956 to 1963. Vancouver celebrated George Woodcock Day on May 7. On Jan. 28 in Vancouver of heart problems.