Obituaries - Oct. 5, 1999

* Walter Bergman; Civil Rights Activist

Walter Bergman, 100, civil rights activist and member of the Freedom Riders. On Mother’s Day, 1961, Bergman was among the group known as the Freedom Riders who were attacked in Anniston, Ala., by Ku Klux Klan members and other vigilantes. He was knocked to the floor, pounded with fists and stomped on the head, neck and shoulders. Doctors believe a stroke Bergman suffered months later stemmed from the beating. He was 61 at the time and spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair. In 1977, the American Civil Liberties Union sued the government on behalf of Bergman after it was learned that the FBI knew about but did not prevent the 1961 attack. Bergman, who helped found the Michigan chapter of the ACLU and the Michigan Federation of Teachers, taught at Wayne State University and the University of Michigan. On Wednesday in Grand Rapids, Mich.

* Dr. John J. Conley; Pioneer in Larynx, Facial Surgery

Dr. John J. Conley, 87, a surgeon who helped improve speech of larynx cancer victims. An otolaryngologist, Conley developed several surgical techniques to aid those who had lost their voice boxes or jaws to cancer. He pioneered reconstruction methods for the cheek and face as an Army surgeon in World War II, and developed further innovations in the 1960s and 1970s. After retiring at 80 from Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons and associated hospitals, he founded the John Conley Foundation for Ethics and Philosophy in Medicine. On Sept. 1 in New York City.

* Charles A. Federer Jr.; Astronomer, Magazine Editor

Charles A. Federer Jr., 90, a self-taught astronomer who founded and edited Sky and Telescope magazine. Federer taught himself the study of stars and planets as a child growing up in Redding. He earned a physics degree from the City College of New York in the 1930s and founded his magazine in 1941 by combining two money-losing journals, the Sky and the Telescope. His magazine for amateur astronomers, which he edited for 33 years, now has a circulation of about 125,000. On Sept. 28 in Mystic, Conn.

* Tony Miller; Actor, Film

Workshop Co-Founder

Tony Miller, 72, actor on stage, in television and in such films as “Return to Peyton Place.” Also a director, writer and co-founder of the Film Industry Workshops, Miller began his acting career in 1941 on Broadway as a teenager in “Life With Father.” With time out for service in World War II, he performed in several other plays, including “I Remember Mama,” in which he replaced Marlon Brando. Miller also began acting on live television in such theater presentations as “Playhouse 90” and on New York radio. He moved to Los Angeles in 1955 for work in motion pictures including “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea” and “North to Alaska.” He appeared in such television series as “Three’s Company,” “Cagney and Lacey,” “Dallas,” and the soap operas “General Hospital” and “Days of Our Lives.” As a writer, Miller wrote screenplays, radio and television scripts and the novels “Starting Now” and “Night Calls.” He and his former wife, Patricia George, founded the Film Industry Workshops in 1962 to train actors and directors for television and film. They also co-wrote a textbook, “The Craft,” and a glossary of film terms, “Cut-Print.” On Sept. 12 at the Motion Picture and Television Hospital in Woodland Hills of cancer and Parkinson’s disease.

* Sal Salvador; Jazz Guitarist

Sal Salvador, 73, a guitarist who performed with leading jazz artists and wrote about guitar technique. Born Silvio Smiraglia in Monson, Mass., Salvador taught himself to play guitar and became known as a bebop improviser. Intrigued by jazz as a teenager, he played with Terry Gibbs and Mundell Lowe in New York City in the late 1940s. In 1952, Salvador joined Stan Kenton’s orchestra and later led bop groups that included such players as Eddie Costa and Phil Woods. Salvador performed in the motion picture “Jazz on a Summer’s Day” in 1958 and led a big band from 1958 to 1963. In the 1970s, he played in a guitar duo with Allen Hanlon, and in the 1980s re-formed his big band. Salvador also taught jazz at the University of Bridgeport and Western Connecticut State University and wrote several guitar methods including “Sal Salvador’s Complete Chord Method for Guitar” and “Sal Salvador’s Single String Studies for Guitar.” On Sept. 22 in Stamford, Conn., of cancer.

* Marilyn Silverstone; Photographer, Buddhist Nun

Marilyn Silverstone, 70, international news photographer who became a Buddhist nun. The London-born Silverstone grew up in Scarsdale, N.Y., and graduated from Wellesley College. After photographing for art and design magazines, she earned news assignments for Life, Newsweek, the London Sunday Times, the New York Times and the Magnum photo agency, photographing everything from Albert Schweitzer to the coronation of the late Shah of Iran to the arrival of the Dalai Lama in India. But in 1977, Silverstone abandoned that successful career to become a nun with the Buddhist name Ngawang Chodron. Silverstone spent the rest of her life working with the nunnery she founded in Katmandu, Nepal, one of the first Tibetan Buddhist nunneries outside of Tibet. She strove to improve the lot of women and specifically women’s role in Tibetan Buddhism. On Sept. 28 in Katmandu of cancer.

* Doreen Valiente; ‘White Witch’ Leader

Doreen Valiente, 77, a Wiccan or “white witch” leader who worked to revive paganism in Britain and wrote books on modern witchcraft. Born in London and reared as a Christian, she claimed to have experienced psychic episodes in her youth and become clairvoyant in her teens. In 1952, a year after Britain repealed its Witchcraft Act, Valiente met Gerald Gardner, who ran a coven practicing what he termed traditional witchcraft, a religion worshiping the god and goddess of fertility. Valiente was initiated as a witch in 1953, after assurance that the “Old Religion” involved no devil-worship, and became the coven’s high priestess. She collaborated with Gardner on his 1959 book “The Meaning of Witchcraft,” but later went her own way and formed her own coven. Among her books were “The Charge of the Goddess” and “The Rebirth of Witchcraft.” On Sept. 1 in Brighton, England.