Obituaries - Feb. 5, 1999

Marion Boyars; Pioneering British Publisher

Marion Boyars, 71, one of Britain’s first female publishers, whose writers included five Nobel laureates. The daughter of a German book publisher, Boyars bought into independent publisher John Calder’s business in 1964 to create Calder & Boyars. The publishing house prospered in London’s Soho district until 1980. The two gained worldwide attention in 1966 when they were taken to court on obscenity charges for publishing “Last Exit to Brooklyn,” by Hubert Selby Jr., in a case they eventually won on appeal in 1968. They also published the long-banned Henry Miller novel “Tropic of Cancer.” Boyars eventually parted ways with Calder and set up her own publishing house with an office in New York. She published about 500 titles, including the Ken Kesey bestseller “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and works by such authors as Eudora Welty, Ingmar Bergman and Pauline Kael. On Monday in London.

Kurshiah Burhanuddin; First Queen of Malaysia

Kurshiah Burhanuddin, 87, the first queen of Malaysia. She took the throne Sept. 13, 1957, after Malaysia gained independence from Britain, when her late husband, Tuanku Abdul Rahman, was named the country’s first king. The king and queen hold no political power. Each of the nine states in peninsular Malaysia has a royal family, and the title of king rotates among them every five years. Kurshiah was the eldest sister of the country’s current queen, Permasuri Tuanku Najihah, wife of King Tuanku Ja’afar. On Tuesday in Kuala Lumpur.

Ed Herlihy; Commercial, Radio Announcer

Ed Herlihy, 89, the mellifluous announcer who touted Cheez Whiz and Velveeta on “Kraft Television Theatre.” Herlihy began his 40-year association with Kraft on radio in 1947 and was one of the first announcers on early television. He was also familiar to filmgoers in the 1940s, reporting news of World War II in movie theater newsreels. His voice was heard on several 1930s and 1940s radio shows, including “America’s Town Meeting,” “The Falcon,” “Mr. District Attorney” and “Just Plain Bill.” On television, he worked on Sid Caesar’s “Your Show of Shows” and the soap operas “As the World Turns” and “All My Children.” He also appeared in the Woody Allen films “Hannah and Her Sisters,” “Zelig” and “Radio Days.” On Saturday in New York.

Werner Heuschele; Aided Endangered Species

Werner P. Heuschele, 69, a San Diego Zoo bus driver who became its top veterinarian and champion of endangered species. A native of Ludwigsburg, Germany, Heuschele grew up in San Diego and drove a bus at the zoo during summers when he attended Cal State San Diego. He graduated with honors from veterinary school at UC Davis and returned to the San Diego Zoo as a vet. Heuschele left San Diego for several years to work for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, earn a doctorate in medical microbiology from the University of Wisconsin and teach at several universities. He returned permanently to the San Diego Zoo in 1981 as director of its Center for Reproduction of Endangered Species. Heuschele championed the need for laboratory animal research but at the same time worked for stricter controls over how the animals are treated to minimize suffering. He was a specialist in infectious disease research. On Monday in San Diego after a long illness.

Meryl Ruoss; Civil Rights Leader

Meryl Ruoss, 79, a civil rights leader who worked with Martin Luther King Jr. Born in Steelton, Pa., Ruoss began his work in Harlem while studying at Union Theological Seminary in New York. He earned master’s and doctoral degrees in public administration at USC and taught there and, from 1974 until his retirement in 1992, at Cal State Bakersfield. In 1997, the Bakersfield university named its Meryl Ruoss International Repository for Public Administration Documents in his honor. In 1965, Ruoss was working for the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles when he was asked to help organize King’s march to the Capitol steps in Montgomery, Ala. He moved to Montgomery to coordinate volunteers who flocked there from around the country for the civil rights demonstration on March 24, 1965. He also assisted United Farm Workers organizer Cesar Chavez. Because of his civil rights activities, Ruoss, who was white, was investigated in the 1950s by the House Committee on Un-American Activities. A fall in 1981 rendered Ruoss a paraplegic. On Jan. 10 in Bakersfield.

Claude Vealey; Killed Union Reformer

Claude Vealey, 55, the confessed killer of United Mine Workers of America reformer Joseph “Jock” Yablonski. Vealey was part of a team of three gunmen who stalked Yablonski for three months in late 1969. They broke into his home in Clarksville, Pa. on New Year’s Eve, and shot the 59-year-old Yablonski, his 57-year-old wife, Margaret, and their 25-year-old daughter, Charlotte Jean. Just three weeks before his death, Yablonski had lost a hotly contested election for the presidency of the union and had asked the Justice Department to investigate the outcome. Vealey’s courtroom confession was a key link in a series of prosecutions that led to the first-degree murder conviction of UMW President W.A. “Tony” Boyle. Nine people were eventually convicted in the murder conspiracy. Vealey said that he and his fellow gunmen were paid a total of $5,200 for the murders. Of brain cancer on Tuesday at the State Correctional Institution at Laurel Highlands, Pa.

J.C. ‘Koos’ Viviers; South African Journalist

J.C. “Koos” Viviers, 61, a South African journalist who helped direct a probe that led to the downfall of an apartheid-era prime minister. As deputy editor of the now-defunct Sunday Express, Viviers advised and encouraged a team of reporters from his paper and a sister paper, the Rand Daily Mail, in uncovering a secret multimillion-dollar fund used to purchase newspapers at home and abroad, said Mervyn Rees, one of the reporters. The project was aimed at changing public opinion in favor of white rule. “It was South Africa’s Watergate,” said Rees, who was with the Rand Daily Mail. “Koos was very much an influence in terms of the background and how the investigation was conducted.” The probe led to the resignation of Prime Minister John Vorster in 1978. The Rand Daily Mail and the Sunday Express closed in 1985 because of financial pressures. At the time of his death, Viviers was a board member of Independent Newspapers, a publishing chain. On Tuesday of cancer in Johannesburg.