* Robert M. Abell; Auctioneer Helped Raise Millions

Robert M. Abell, 76, president of the A.N. Abell Auction Co., and former president and treasurer of the Southern California Auctioneers Assn. Born in Los Angeles, Abell graduated from USC with a degree in business in 1949 after serving in the U.S. Army medical corps. While running the family business started by his father in 1916, Abell donated his time to more than 1,000 charity auctions, raising millions of dollars for worthy causes. Abell was a member of the Los Angeles County Commission on Disabilities and served on Loyola Marymount University’s Board of Regents. A founding member of the Music Center, Abell was also a member of the President’s Circle at the L.A. County Museum of Art. In June 1999, after 36 years of tobacco abstinence, he found that he had cancer. “When the doctor called me, I broke into a cold sweat,” he told Los Angeles Times Magazine columnist James Ricci. “How could it happen to me?” Donations can be made to STOP CANCER, an L.A. research organization, or Good Samaritan Hospital. On Thursday of cancer at Good Samaritan.