PASSINGS

Dean Brower, a contract operator for the Water Reclamation Plant in Burbank, was killed Sept. 12 in the Chatsworth commuter train collision. He was 51.

Brower worked for the past five years out of the city’s Water Reclamation Plant.

City officials described him as a hard worker whose presence would be missed.

Brower was survived by his wife and their three children.

Alan Buckley, a Burbank Public Works mechanic, also was killed in the Sept. 12 Metrolink commuter train crash in Chatsworth. He was 59.

He worked on the heavy-duty fleet of trucks, such as those used for refuse, at Public Works.

Buckley moved to the city in 1952, graduated from Burbank High in 1966 and later moved to Simi Valley.

He was a longtime Metrolink rider who traveled to and from work and home.

Buckley was survived by his wife of 38 years, Tish; his son, Jeff; his daughter, Diane; and five grandchildren.

Joseph Cordero, a collection systems journeyman in Burbank Public Works, died Aug. 22 after he was injured while working at the city’s Water Reclamation Plant. He was 43.

Cordero was fixing a sewer line Aug. 20 when he was crushed under his truck.

He worked 23 years for the city.

A day before his death, he received the highest level of certification for collection system maintenance.

Friends, co-workers and family members described him as a mentor.

Walter Fuller, an air traffic control manager for Bob Hope Airport, was killed in a Sept. 12 train collision in Chatsworth. He was 54.

Fuller and 24 others were killed when a Metrolink commuter train collided with a Union Pacific freighter.

The Moorpark resident worked at the airport since 2006.

Airport officials described him as a friendly and professional colleague who always donated blood at their annual drive.

Fuller was survived by his wife, Jennifer, and three children.

Glen Giles, whose murder rocked the quiet Hillside community near Brace Canyon Park in late February, was mourned by neighbors and co-workers this year.

Giles, 47, was stabbed several times in his home late Feb. 25. Apparently in search of help, the Burbank resident stumbled across the street to his neighbor’s house — a former Burbank Police lieutenant — who found the naked body the next morning.

The Burbank resident was remembered as a prominent member of the media world who, until his death, served as the director of new business development at Hallmark Data Systems, a company that helps businesses publish industry specific magazines.

Associates remembered him as a “great guy” who was a model employee.

Others who had worked with him described Giles as a peaceful man.

“I cannot believe that somebody murdered him,” said Rita Stanley, 70, who worked with Giles in the publishing industry for more than 30 years. “He was very kind and good at what he did. I can’t see how the man had any enemies.”

Harry and Patricia Gunn, a couple of dedicated community servants, each died this year.

Patricia Gunn was 73 when she died of natural causes July 5 at Glendale Memorial Hospital.

Her husband, Harry Gunn, died Oct. 9 of unknown causes at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center. He was 79.

The pair was instrumental in helping with community causes that ranged from the Holiday Basket Program, which provides food and gifts for Burbank residents in need, to preparing meals for Burbank Rose Parade volunteers.

Patricia Gunn began volunteering in the early 1970s as a classroom volunteer at local schools, then as a PTA and Girl Scout mom, and eventually served as president of the Burbank Coordinating Council, which organized and collected holiday gift and food donations for 500 local families.

Harry Gunn was actively involved in his wife’s endeavors. He served, as did his wife, as a Salvation Army board member and, with two tours of Army service as a chef during the Korean war, was known for his cooking.

He would prepare a batch of “float soup” for Rose Parade volunteers each year, his daughter, Wendy Gunn, said after his death.

City officials and community servants remembered the Gunns as a tireless couple of volunteers who worked together to help others in need.

Dios Marrero, who as Bob Hope Airport’s executive director oversaw some of the airport’s biggest projects, died Feb. 13 at the age of 57, following complications from surgery he underwent to remove a brain tumor.

Remembered as a peacemaker and innovator, Marrero led the airport through its tumultuous expansion agreement with Burbank in 2003 and the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001, when Bob Hope was beset by stringent security concerns.

Marrero was born in 1951 and attended City University of New York, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1971.

He went on to receive a Master of Business Administration degree from Columbia University in 1973 and a Master of Arts degree from Occidental College in 1975.

But in the spring of 2007, Marrero was forced to suspend his duties when he had surgery to remove a brain tumor.

Though he returned to work later that year, he left the airport for what proved to be the last time in January.

“We lost a friend,” Burbank Commissioner Charles Lombardo said at the time. “We lost someone who loved the airport.”

Former Mayor William B. Rudell, who led the city and Bob Hope Airport through some of its most formative changes, died in his Burbank home Nov. 26. He was 69.

An attorney by trade, Rudell was first elected to the City Council in 1973, serving as the city’s mayor for two years before leading the airport for seven years.

His five years on the council resulted in a number of developments that raised the standard of living in Burbank and increased protection for the city’s hillside community, friends and officials said.

Rudell was born in 1939. He graduated from Burbank High School before finishing Princeton University near the top of his class in 1961 and enrolling in Yale Law School, which he completed in 1965. Rudell returned to California, was admitted to the state bar in 1969 and immediately flexed his civic muscle, first as a Planning Board member in 1970, then its chairman.

After his election to the council in 1973, a race that colleagues remembered fondly, Rudell helped lead the council by supporting or helping to pass a number of significant measures.

He was instrumental in acquiring federal revenue-sharing funds to protect Burbank’s hillside community and helped institute the city’s first paramedic services.

But Rudell’s biggest contribution, friends and city officials said, was in helping to pass the joint powers agreement between Burbank, Glendale and Pasadena — three cities that assumed control of Bob Hope Airport in the late 1970s.

“He was a great guy,” said Vincent Stefano, 69, a former Burbank two-term mayor who served with Rudell.

“His passing is a great loss certainly to Burbank, but also to lots of people who were his friends and his enemies.”