Obituaries - July 6, 1999

Carolyn Thomson Casanave; Broadway Actress

Carolyn Thomson Casanave, 51, an actress who performed on stages from Southern California to Broadway. She began acting in high school and then took leading roles in productions of “Funny Girl” and “Sweet Charity” at Rio Hondo College in Whittier. Further trained at the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera Musical Theater Workshop, she performed with the improvisational theater group L.A. Cabaret at the Ice House in Pasadena. She performed locally as Daisy Gamble opposite John Raitt in “On a Clear Day You Can See Forever.” Billed as Carolyn McCurry, she appeared with Barry Bostwick in “The Robber Bridegroom” on Broadway. She remained in New York, often appearing in dinner theaters in such roles as Miss Adelaide in the musical “Guys and Dolls.” In 1986, Casanave earned critical acclaim as one of the leads in the Off-Broadway musical “Angry Housewives.” On June 23 in Ridgefield, Conn. of breast cancer.

Rick Douglas; Advocate for the Disabled

Rick Douglas, 56, an advocate of the rights of the disabled who from 1991 to 1995 was executive director of the President’s Committee on Employment of People With Disabilities. Douglas, who had multiple sclerosis and had used a wheelchair since 1980, offered a message to disabled people that employment was the key to independence and participation in society. He urged them to be assertive in demanding to be treated fairly and to report businesses that had not complied with the Americans With Disabilities Act. His talks were often grounded in personal experience. In 1993, he went to Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C., to board a United Express commuter flight to Allentown, Pa., where he was to give a speech. Airline officials first told him that he could not board the plane because he used a wheelchair, then said he could board if he could get himself into the aircraft without assistance. Douglas’ wife, Nancy, snapped a picture of him dragging his body up five stairs into the plane while other passengers and airline officials watched. The photograph and story became news around the country and prompted renewed attention to the problems of disabled people’s access to public transportation. On June 28 in Washington of colon cancer.

Richard Pack; Westinghouse Broadcasting Executive

Richard Morris Pack, 83, former executive with Westinghouse and editor of Television Quarterly. Born in New York City, Pack began doing programs without pay for small radio stations when he was still in high school. He graduated from New York University and worked his way up from publicity jobs to director of programming in major New York City radio stations, taking time out to serve in the Army Air Corps during World War II. He was vice president of programming for Westinghouse Broadcasting Co. in New York from 1955 to 1965 and then was senior vice president for programming and production until 1972. He was also president of Group W Films from 1966 to 1972 and was executive advisor to the chairman of Westinghouse from 1972 until 1976. As head of Group W, Pack was executive producer of the feature films “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” and “Outback,” which was a Cannes Film Festival selection. Pack was co-author of two books, “Opportunities in Radio” in 1948 and “Opportunities in Television” in 1950. In the late 1970s, he served as creative consultant to the Washington Post-Newsweek radio stations. In 1981, Pack began more than a decade as editor of Television Quarterly. On Thursday in Los Angeles of heart problems.

John E. Pluenneke; BusinessWeek Manager, Editor

John E. Pluenneke, 66, former editorial page editor and international editor of BusinessWeek magazine. The son of an Army doctor, Pluenneke was born in San Antonio and studied history at the University of Virginia. After service in the Air Force, he returned to San Antonio to work in public relations for the Frederick Refrigerator Co. and later worked for the now-defunct Houston Press. Pluenneke joined BusinessWeek in 1963 in the Houston bureau. He was named manager of the Minneapolis bureau in 1965, and a year later moved to New York, where he served as a key editor and bureau manager. He became London bureau manager in 1975, returning to New York six years later as senior editor in charge of international coverage. After a stint in Europe as a correspondent and Bonn bureau manager, he was named editorial page editor in 1987. In 1993 he became senior editor of the international edition, a post he held until 1995. On June 28 in Wimberley, Texas, of hepatitis C contracted from blood transfusions in 1983 during open-heart surgery.

John W. Rogers; Movie and Television Producer

John W. Rogers, 82, motion picture and television producer. Born in Buffalo, N.Y., Rogers moved to Beverly Hills as a child when his father, independent producer Charles R. Rogers, became an executive with Universal Studios. After graduating from Black Fox Academy and attending USC, the younger Rogers served as a master sergeant in the Army Signal Corps during World War II. Moving into the entertainment business, he became a production executive at 20th Century Fox and later Warner Bros. Television. Among the films under his production guidance were “Law and Order” in 1953, “Black Horse Canyon” in 1954, “Mission Impossible vs. the Mob” in 1969, “How to Beat the High Cost of Living” in 1980 and “Blade Runner” in 1982. For television in the 1980s, Rogers supervised production of such movies as “Special Bulletin” and “Starflight One” in 1983, “Starcrossed” in 1985 and “Northstar” in 1986. Rogers, one of the original members of the Directors Guild of America, retired in 1990. On Thursday in Tarzana.

Eugene E. Sax; Retired Superior Court Judge

Eugene E. Sax, 92, former Los Angeles County Superior Court judge and sought-after jurist in the “rent-a-judge” system. Sax, who served on the bench for 13 years, formally retired but turned immediately to adjudicating cases brought to him under a new and controversial private system. In 1980, Sax was hired to settle a dispute between the California Air Resources Board and several oil companies in a case that attracted widespread attention. He ruled that the board must rescind stringent sulfur dioxide and sulfate standards because the state had failed to prove that the standards were necessary to protect the public health. Although Sax said he spent five months studying the complicated case, the private trial lasted only 19 days, and Sax was criticized for charging $80,000. His ruling was later reversed by the California Supreme Court. Sax maintained that the “rent-a-judge” plan disenfranchised nobody and that his decisions were of the same sound quality as in private or official trials. A native of Chicago educated in Los Angeles and at USC, Sax served on the State Bar of California Board of Governors, was a president of the Lawyers’ Club of Los Angeles, was vice president of the board of directors of the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles and was active in the Elks and B’nai B’rith, among other organizations. On Saturday in Los Angeles.

Frederick L. Skidmore; Opera Singer, Movie Publicist

Frederick Lee Skidmore, 66, an opera singer who became a motion picture publicist for Warner Bros., Universal and Orion Pictures. Born in Merom, Ind., Skidmore began as an opera tenor performing in New York and Germany. In 1968, he joined the publicity staff of United Artists Pictures, where he worked with such films as “Midnight Cowboy” and “Yellow Submarine.” He then worked as a publicist for such entertainers as Jerry Lewis, Gina Lollobrigida, Catherine Deneuve and Melina Mercouri, and after moving to California, for Lorimar Productions and its hit television series “The Waltons.” Moving to Warner Bros., Skidmore helped launch such films as “Chariots of Fire.” At Universal, he publicized “E.T.: The Extraterrestrial” and “Missing,” among others, and for Orion, he supervised campaigns to promote “Amadeus,” “The Falcon and the Snowman” and “Something Wild.” On June 28 in Ensenada of heart-related problems.