Obituaries - April 5, 1999

* Gladys Hasty Carroll; Wrote ‘As the Earth Turns’

Gladys Hasty Carroll, 94, Maine writer remembered for her best-selling 1933 novel “As the Earth Turns,” a nominee for the Pulitzer Prize. A native of Rochester, N.H., Carroll spent her childhood and much of her adult life in the farmhouse her grandfather built during the Civil War in Dunnybrook, Maine. She became popular for her portrayals of rural life in Maine during the early 20th century. Her writings included 21 works of fiction and nonfiction ranging from short stories to novels to children’s books. On Sunday in South Berwick, Maine.

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* Viacheslav Chornovil; Ukrainian Opposition Leader

Viacheslav Chornovil, 61, the longtime leader of the opposition Popular Rukh movement and a key figure in Ukraine’s fight for independence from the Soviet Union. Chornovil worked as a journalist, became active in the Soviet human rights movement and was ousted from a newspaper in 1966 for refusing to testify at a political trial. He was arrested in 1967 for his dissident activities and sentenced to three years in prison, a term later cut in half. In 1972 he was again arrested, this time as publisher of an underground newsletter, and sentenced to six years in prison and three years in Siberian exile. In the late 1980s, he became the leading advocate of Ukrainian independence and was instrumental in forming the pro-independence Popular Rukh in 1989. Chornovil ran for Ukraine’s presidency in 1991 but finished second. On March 25, when his car collided with a truck near Ukraine’s capital, Kiev.

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* Harold Greenwald; Psychologist, Author of ‘The Call Girl’

Harold Greenwald, 88, a free-thinking psychotherapist and expert on the psychology of prostitutes. Greenwald was most noted for his 1958 book, “The Call Girl: A Social and Psychoanalytic Study,” which began as a doctoral dissertation and became a best-selling book that was translated into seven languages. Greenwald’s book broke ground in humanizing prostitutes by tracing the family experiences and social forces that led women to that life. The book was later made into a film, “Girl of the Night,” starring Lloyd Nolan and Anne Francis. In a career that spanned five decades, Greenwald’s work evolved from psychoanalysis, where he was a leading student of Freud disciple Theodore Reik, to a short-term approach he termed direct decision therapy, which studied a patient’s decision-making as a way to understand dysfunctional behavior. A native of New York City, Greenwald graduated from City College of New York and later earned a doctorate from Columbia University. Early in his career, he was president of the National Psychological Assn. for Psychoanalysis. He taught at Hofstra University in the late 1960s and at United States International University in San Diego in the 1970s. On March 26 at his home in Santa Monica.

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* Jim ‘Jug’ Jackson; Quinault Indian Chief

Jim “Jug” Jackson, 81, hereditary chief of the Quinault Indian Nation. A logger and shake mill operator, Jackson served for more than 20 years as chairman of the Olympic Peninsula. His great-grandfather, Chief Taholah, and another ancestor, Chief Kape, were the first two signers of the 1855 Quinault River Treaty with the United States. The treaty established a 10,000-acre reservation that today covers 211,000 acres of rain forest and rugged coastline about 75 miles north of the mouth of the Columbia River. A Democratic Party activist, Jackson and his wife Mary were seated among the dignitaries at the 1960 inauguration of President John F. Kennedy. On Friday in Taholah, Wash., of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

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* Sheldon E. Kopp; Psychologist and Author

Sheldon E. Kopp, 70, a psychologist and author of 17 books, many of them serving as guides to discovering meaning and importance in one’s existence. Best known among his books is “If You Meet the Buddha on the Road, Kill Him,” published in 1972 by Science and Behavior Books. The book advocated letting go of the notion that spiritual teachers could provide meaning for one’s life and encouraged the idea that life is a pilgrimage with lessons to be learned along the way. Kopp was a staff psychologist with the New Jersey Institute for the Criminally Insane before beginning his private practice in Washington in 1961. He also served as an associate clinical professor of psychology at George Washington University from 1964 to 1970. Kopp, a native of New York City, was a graduate of New York University and received his doctorate from the New School for Social Research in New York City. On March 29, his birthday, of cardiac arrhythmia and pneumonia at Georgetown University Hospital.

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* Gil Perkins; Actor, Stuntman and Double

Gil Perkins, 91, actor and stuntman who doubled for such stars as Spencer Tracy and Yul Brynner. A native Australian, Perkins came to Hollywood at age 21 and became a champion swimmer, football player, lifeguard, sailor and tennis player. The athlete found action parts in “King Kong,” “Moby Dick,” “Robin Hood” and “Mutiny on the Bounty.” He became known as the “stuntman’s stuntman” for his eclectic abilities and doubled for such actors as William Boyd, Red Skelton, Van Johnson, Van Heflin, Danny Kaye and Gene Hackman as well as Tracy and Brynner. In 1960, Perkins helped found the Stuntmen’s Assn. of Motion Pictures and worked for recognition of stuntmen as professionals. Perkins performed his final stunt work at age 65 in the 1973 film “Walking Tall” starring Joe Don Baker. Perkins worked as an actor in the movies “The Alamo” and “Spartacus” and in the television special “Buster Keaton: A Hard Act to Follow” and such series as “Perry Mason,” “Batman” and “Wagon Train.” He served on the board of the Screen Actors Guild for 27 years and was treasurer for 17 years. On March 28 at the Motion Picture & Television Hospital in Woodland Hills.