Obituaries - July 15, 1999
* Louis N. Desser; Real Estate Writer
Louis N. Desser, 75, who worked at The Times for 32 years, specializing in coverage of real estate. Desser was a writer and copy editor in the real estate section when it was named best in the nation five times from 1967 to 1989. He began his journalism career at the age of 12 by writing for and publishing a community newspaper for his Hancock Park neighborhood. He attended Los Angeles City College, where he edited the campus newspaper, and Cal State L.A. and served in the Army during World War II. After retiring from The Times in 1989, he volunteered with the Red Cross Disaster Assistance Team, the Pasadena Police Department Victims Assistance Program and the Los Angeles Zoo. On Friday in South Pasadena of cancer.
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Harold S. Elberg; S&L; Executive
Harold S. Elberg, 86, founder and longtime head of First Federal Savings & Loan Assn. of San Rafael, Calif. Elberg attended the University of San Francisco, and during World War II was superintendent of the outfitting docks at the Marin shipyard, working closely with government agencies to prepare ships to carry troops. He had been chief executive and chairman of the board of First Federal for the last 36 years. In addition to its San Rafael headquarters, the institution has branches in San Francisco, Oakland and elsewhere in Marin County. An art collector, Elberg was a member of the Trustees Circle and was a major donor to the California Academy of Science. On Sunday in Tiburon, Calif.
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Earl W. Foell; Monitor Editor
Earl W. Foell, 69, veteran journalist for the Christian Science Monitor and onetime foreign correspondent for The Times. Except for his work for The Times in the early 1960s, when he was based at the United Nations and wrote from various countries, Foell spent his entire career at the Boston-based Monitor. He began as a copy boy, and in the 1950s covered Boston City Hall and the Massachusetts Statehouse. After his stint with The Times, Foell also covered the United Nations and foreign countries for the Monitor. From 1970 to 1983, he moved up the ranks as the paper’s managing editor, editor and editor in chief and then was editor in chief of World Monitor magazine. He also served as the paper’s chief editorial writer and editorial page editor before an appointment in June as the Monitor’s contributing editor. Foell earned a Boston Press Club award for a series about American cities and a Sigma Delta Chi award for his coverage of the United Nations. He was a juror who helped choose winners of the Pulitzer Prizes for several years. On Saturday in Cambridge, Mass.
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Roberto Quintana; Vineyard Developer
Roberto Quintana, 46, viticulturist and estate manager for Moraga Vineyard in Bel-Air. A native of Durango, Mexico, whose grandfather grew table grapes, Quintana was hired as a ranch foreman in 1978 by Thomas V. Jones, former chairman and chief executive of Northrop Corp., to help manage Jones’ rustic 14-acre canyon retreat in Bel-Air. Noticing that the soil and climate conditions in that patch of Los Angeles were similar to those found in France’s wine-producing Medoc region, Jones asked Quintana to plant a vineyard. Quintana knew nothing about wine grapes but immersed himself in the science of viticulture. He planted 40 experimental vines, and they grew so well that what had been envisioned as a family wine adventure for Jones soon became a commercial enterprise. Quintana was the architect of the vineyards, dividing the steep, rocky terrain in Moraga Canyon into seven vineyards, each with different soil, sunlight and drainage. The vineyards, Jones said, are beautiful as well as functional, and earned Quintana a reputation as one of the great artists of the grape-growing craft. On June 22 of a heart attack.
