Peter Abeles; Multinational Transportation Tycoon

Peter Abeles, 75, a poor immigrant to Australia who became one of that country’s most influential businessmen. Born in Vienna and brought up in Hungary, Abeles emigrated in 1949. With his Hungarian friend George Rockney, Abeles bought two trucks, named them Samson and Delilah and created the Alltrans transport company. In 1967, Alltrans merged with Thomas Nationwide Transport to form TNT Ltd., which Abeles rapidly expanded. He moved into the airline industry and added projects in Europe and the United States, building the company into a multinational corporation that reached 180 countries bythe 1980s. Abeles added Ansett Transport Industries to his empire in 1979 when he joined News Corp. chief Rupert Murdoch in a takeover. Abeles, head of TNT Ltd. and Ansett Transport Industries Ltd. until his retirement in 1992, was knighted in 1972 by Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II for his services to transportation, charities and universities. In 1991 she made him a companion of the Order of Australia. On Friday in Sydney, Australia, of cancer.

Linda Mitchell; Advocate for Immigrants

Linda Mitchell, 52, an immigrant rights activist. Mitchell was an ardent advocate for immigrants and refugees in Los Angeles, serving as spokeswoman for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles from 1988 to 1992 and as director of development and communications for the International Institute of Los Angeles, a social services agency, beginning in 1994. A native of Toledo who earned a degree in early childhood education from Ohio State University in 1969, she was instrumental in establishing a computer lab and a teenage pregnancy prevention program at the Pico-Aliso housing project. She also helped set up parenting classes for refugees from the former Soviet Union in the San Fernando Valley and a support center for Alzheimer’s disease victims and their families in East Los Angeles. She was a frequently quoted expert on immigrants’ welfare, particularly on issues related to the rights of day laborers and efforts to help undocumented immigrants obtain legal status. On June 22 of a heart condition at her home in Pasadena.

Julius Tobias; Artist Created Minimalist Environments

Julius Tobias, 83, a painter and sculptor known for abstract minimalist environments he created in the 1970s. Tobias, a native New Yorker, served in Europe as an Air Force bombardier during World War II after dropping out of school during the Depression. After the war, he used money from the GI Bill to study in France with Fernand Leger, whose politically charged humanism had a lasting impact on his work. Tobias explored Abstract Expressionist and constructivist styles, and produced wall-size, all-white paintings in the 1960s. Then Tobias created cubicle structures that often held geometric sculptural forms, beams and curb-like forms. Tobias returned to figurative painting in the 1980s, with works that reflected memories of war, the Holocaust and his perception of escalating violence. In the 1990s, he began a series of abstract geometric black paintings. He also had an active teaching career that included stints at the University of Indiana, the University of Minnesota and, in 1983, UCLA. Tobias received two Guggenheim fellowships and National Endowment of the Arts grants. On June 16 at the Veterans Affairs Hospital in New York City.

Emery Walker Jr.; Official at 2 Claremont Colleges

Emery Walker Jr., 81, former dean of admission and financial aid for two Claremont colleges. A native of Oak Park, Ill., Walker earned a bachelor’s degree in English and a master of arts at Brown University in Providence, R.I., where he was captain of the swimming team. After two years as an agent for the Equitable Life Assurance Society in Chicago, Walker returned to Brown as an admission officer, and in 1946 was promoted to dean of admission. In 1957, Walker moved to California as the first dean of admission and financial aid at Claremont McKenna College and at the then-new Harvey Mudd College. He remained in the post for both colleges until his retirement in 1982. He served on the college board of trustees for three years and earned its Edward S. Noyes Award for service. Walker, also awarded an honorary doctorate from Claremont McKenna, was a member of the board of governors of the Harvey Mudd Galileo Society. He was a former president of the National Assn. of College Admission Counselors, was co-founder and first president of the Western Assn. of College Admission Counselors and served on several scholarship committees. On June 22 in Claremont.