Obituaries - May 16, 1996

Benjamin Nnamdi Azikiwe; First President of Nigeria

Benjamin Nnamdi Azikiwe, 91, first president of Nigeria after its independence from Britain. Affectionately known as “Zik,” he was governor general of the Nigerian Federation at independence in 1960 and president from 1963 to 1966, when his brief tenure ended in a military coup. He was considered the father of modern Nigerian nationalism and a champion of independence for all African nations from European colonial rule. Educated in missionary schools, Azikiwe earned degrees from Howard, Lincoln and Columbia universities in the United States, where he helped support himself as a dishwasher and boxer. A teacher and journalist before entering politics, he published a series of newspapers, using them to campaign against British rule. Azikiwe joined the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons, Nigeria’s first political party, and in 1959 teamed up with the Nigeria Peoples Congress to form a federal government. He was the recipient of Nigeria’s highest national award, the designation as Grand Commander of the Federal Republic. On Saturday in eastern Nigeria.

Paul C. Masterson; TV Executive and Charity President

Paul C. Masterson, 78, television executive who served as president of Permanent Charities. A native of Hardin, Mont., who grew up in Long Beach, Masterson began his broadcasting career with KECA in Long Beach and ABC radio in Los Angeles. He served in the Armed Forces Network during World War II and later went into television announcing. He emceed a local daytime show involving a scavenger hunt called “Masterson’s Madhouse” on KABC. He later became a vice president of ABC Television and helped create the network’s Entertainment Center in Century City. After his retirement in 1983, Masterson devoted himself to travel and charitable causes with his second wife, actress Gale Storm. Masterson was a past president of the Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters organization. On Friday in Laguna Beach of cancer.

Helen Waterford; Holocaust Survivor and Lecturer

Helen Waterford, 86, Holocaust survivor who lectured on the evils of Nazism. Waterford paired up with Alfons Heck, a former member of Hitler Youth, to tour the United States speaking and writing about their vastly different experiences as a Jew and zealous young Nazi during World War II. The two unusually aligned speakers became friends as they visited more than 150 universities over a nine-year period, urging youths to avoid Hitler-type brainwashing. Colorado publisher Eleanor Ayer, who published Waterford’s autobiography “Commitment to the Dead” in 1987, wrote Waterford and Heck’s intertwined stories in her 1995 book “Parallel Journeys.” Choosing to believe in chance rather than fate, Waterford frequently related how she had come before Josef Mengele three times and inexplicably received his “thumbs up” signal that she should live. Of Lithuanian descent, Waterford grew up in Frankfurt, Germany, and fled with her husband to Holland, where they hid for two years before being captured by Nazis in 1944. Their daughter escaped only because Waterford had the foresight to place her with friends two years earlier. Her husband died in Auschwitz. Although nightmares haunted her after the war, Waterford always urged audiences to avoid hate and to “turn a black experience into a valuable one.” On May 4 in Tel Aviv.