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Dec 29

They were pioneers, champions of a cause and individuals who, enthusiastically or with reluctance, stood apart from the crowd.

They spent countless hours in the community, preserving the past and building the future. A cartoonist who blended humor with social commentary. A woman who made butterflies her passion. Political crusaders and humble men and women who reached out to others in need.

In 2008 there were many people of note in Monterey County whose lives, some would say, came to an end too soon. But not before they made their mark. The light in their eyes faded away, but their visions still burn.

Though they may have been ordinary men and women, their actions and achievements were extraordinary.

Here is a month-by-month look at residents who died in the past 12 months.

 

January

 

· Judge Russell Zaches died at age 99.

Zaches, who spent most of his life on the Monterey Peninsula and graduated from Stanford University and the University of San Francisco College of Law, served as Monterey city attorney from 1946 until his appointment to the Monterey County Municipal Court bench in 1962.

Zaches retired from the court in 1973. Colleagues remember him as a judge “who didn’t cut much slack.”

· Ro Vacarro, whose 1988 visit to Pacific Grove transformed her into a champion of all things to do with monarch butterflies, died after a long bout with cancer. She was 66.

Honda sedan and apartment with black-and-orange butterfly-themed items.

In 1990, she was instrumental in persuading nearly 70 percent of city voters to approve a bond measure to purchase the 2.7-acre butterfly sanctuary, which had been proposed for residential development.

 

February

 

· Gustavo “Gus” Arriola, the celebrated Mexican-American cartoonist who created the comic strip known as “Gordo,” died at his Carmel home after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease. He was 90.

Arriola’s cartoon depicted a bean farmer turned tour guide who taught Americans about life south of the border. “Gordo” ran for 44 years — from 1941 to 1985 — in as many as 270 newspapers, and was one of the first ethnic-themed cartoons.

· Brad Parker, a journalist at The Herald known for his commitment to community journalism and his quiet wit, died of natural causes at age 84.

Parker was a reporter, a copy editor, the food editor and the city editor at the paper. Shortly after moving to the Monterey Peninsula in 1953, he was hired by Col. Allen Griffin, then owner-publisher of what was then the Monterey Peninsula Herald. Parker retired in 1988.

· John Wilmot, who became Marina’s first black City Council member in 1993, died of complications from a brain tumor. He was 81.

Wilmot was a key player in civic and veterans affairs in Marina for about 40 years. He served in the Army for 23 years, leaving military service as a master sergeant in 1973.

His family moved to Marina in 1969 when he was about to ship out for South Vietnam and, after his return, he became active in the push to incorporate Marina and in local veterans groups.

· Frank Ray Vinyard, the first mayor of Marina, died after a long illness. He was 78.

Vinyard and his wife, Audie, owned and operated Marina Florist & Gifts when he was elected to the City Council in 1975. As the top vote-getter, he was appointed mayor of the newly incorporated city.

One of the first tasks Vinyard performed as mayor was to create a police department in Marina.

Vinyard resigned from the council in February 1980, sold his business and moved to Louisiana, where he had grown up.

 

May

 

· Ric Masten, the author of 23 poetry books who served as Carmel’s poet laureate, died after a nine-year bout with prostate cancer. He was 78.

Masten was a multi-faceted artist. In addition to his writing, he wrote 92 songs that were recorded by Warner Brothers’ musicians. He was also talented with a brush and in 1999 painted a self-portrait.

Masten was an ordained minister of the Unitarian Church and those he married had a tradition of embroidering something on his robe made of an old army blanket.

 

June

 

· Lloyd Addleman, a founding member of the Big Sur Land Trust, died after a long battle with cancer. He was 81.

Formed in 1978, the land trust has worked to conserve open space on the Big Sur coast.

Addleman was an electrical engineer, who started Microwave Engineering Laboratories of Palo Alto. In 1970, he retired from the company and began building a new home on the Big Sur coast when his interest in preserving the wilderness led him to help form the land trust.

 

July

 

· Thomas Tonkin, the first chief executive of Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula and the man responsible for developing it into a renowned healing environment, died at age 82.

Tonkin served the hospital for 47 years, 35 as top administrator.

He began his work for the hospital in 1955 at what was then Peninsula Community Hospital in Carmel. Faced with aging facilities in scattered buildings, Tonkin launched an ambitious fundraising effort to build a new hospital. In six years, $1.75 million was raised and a year later, the 100-bed, 210,000-square-foot facility opened.

He retired as chief executive in 1990 and became president and CEO of the Community Hospital Foundation and its endowment and property companies. In 1995, he became president of Community Hospital Endowments, a position he held until his retirement in 2002.

 

August

 

· Loren Phillips, who became an advocate for families affected by violent crime after his stepson was murdered at Lovers Point, died after suffering a stroke. He was 53.

Phillips, who lived in Carmel, became active as a crime-victim’s advocate after Kristopher Olinger, his 17-year-old stepson, was stabbed 30 times while taking photos for a class project in Pacific Grove in September 1997.

Phillips worked with groups such as the Community Restorative Justice Commission.

 

September

 

· Enid Sales, longtime activist in the cause of historic preservation on the Monterey Peninsula, died at age 85.

Originally from Salt Lake City, Utah, Sales lived in Carmel off and on since 1933, and she moved to the town in 1986. In 1991, she was named Citizen of the Year by the Carmel Residents Association for her efforts at civic betterment and historic preservation.

Sales was the first chairwoman of the city’s Historic Resources Board and was active in saving the “First Murphy” cottage from demolition, a 1902 prototype that defined the “Carmel cottage.”

Sales also helped save the George Marsh Building at 700 Camino El Estero in Monterey.

 

October

 

· Marcia Frisbee DeVoe, a founding member of Monterey’s historic preservation commission and a longtime preservation activist, died after a long period of failing health. She was 91.

Born in Pacific Grove, she grew up in Monterey and, after attending college, taught kindergarten and first grade for 41 years in Monterey and Carmel schools.

An accomplished photographer and writer, DeVoe wrote a monograph history, “The Hattons and the Martins,” about two Monterey-area pioneer families.

Her book, “An Entrance to the Past,” illustrated with her photographs, detailed restoration of the Cooper-Molera adobe in downtown Monterey.

· Joe Kamp, a Central Coast contractor who left a six-figure salary to become a youth minister and regional director of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, died while hiking on Mount Lassen. He was 51.

As director of the fellowship, Kamp raised funds for his own salary, a fraction of what he had been earning. He devoted all of his time to organizing and promoting the local fellowship, speaking to children and leading Bible studies. Kamp, a Corral de Tierra resident, also donated time to local food shelters and other charitable causes.

 

November

 

· Edie Karas, an influential force in several Monterey area organizations, died at age 87.

A native of Monterey, she was an instructor of English and the humanities at Monterey Peninsula College for more than 20 years. She was also a founder of the Gentrain program at MPC.

Her late husband, Sam Karas, was a county supervisor for a dozen years. With her husband and Morgan Stock, Karas opened the Wharf Theater in Monterey.

She wrote three college textbooks, and she and her husband were also invited to take bit parts in Clint Eastwood’s Oscar-winning motion picture, “The Unforgiven.”

Dec 29

CRAWFORD, Texas (AFP) – US First Lady Laura Bush said Sunday she was “not amused” when an Iraqi journalist hurled his shoes at US President George W. Bush during a surprise trip to Baghdad earlier this month.

“Of course I was not amused,” she told Fox News in an interview when asked about the December 14 incident. “It is an assault, and I think it should be treated that way.”

Asked whether the footwear flinger, Muntazer al-Zaidi, should be released, Laura Bush replied: “I don’t know about that. And that’s going to be up to the Iraqis. And they’ll do whatever.”

“But I know that if Saddam Hussein had been there, the man wouldn’t have been released. And he probably would have been executed. So as bad as the incident is, in my view, it is a sign that Iraqis feel a lot freer to express themselves,” she said.

An Iraqi judge decreed last week that al-Zaidi, 29, would go on trial December 31 on charges of “aggression against a foreign head of state during an official visit,” which carries between five and 15 years in prison.

Al-Zaidi missed Bush, who ducked the throws, but Iraqi and US security officials grappled with him and hustled him off while the US president tried to joke his way out of the incident.

“The president laughed it off. He wasn’t hurt. He’s very quick. As you know, he’s a natural athlete,” said Laura Bush.

 

Dec 29

A Turkish shoe firm says it’s had to take on 100 extra staff to cope with demand after an Iraqi threw shoes at President Bush.

Istanbul-based Baydan Shoes claims it made the shoes which were thrown at the president, reports the BBC. It now has tens of thousands of orders from around the world - including the US and Iraq - for the shoe which was called Model 271 but has now been renamed the Bye Bye Bush shoe.

Oner Bogatekin, Baydan Shoes’ export representative, said the staff recognised their handiwork from the news reports.

“We saw it on videos and also in newspapers. We have been producing this shoe for 10 years, so know it very well and we can recognise them

anywhere,” he told the BBC. Mr Bogatekin said the firm was pleased with the publicity it was getting, but insisted the shoes would not have done President Bush any serious harm.

“Actually, they are not heavy shoes so they wouldn’t hurt him,” he said.

Meanwhile, an online game giving people the chance to throw virtual shoes at President Bush has become a surprise hit - and made thousands for its creator on eBay.

Alex Tew, 24, from London, thought up Sock And Awe a week ago and within days 45 million shoes had been thrown by 4.5 million unique users. He sold it for ?,215 to web company Fubra. – Courtesy of Ananova.com

Dec 29

 

 

Sardis is a small rural community in Saline County. It’s quite and just big enough for a country store a church and fire department, but for several decades they’ve been known as the community with the mysterious shoe tree.

 

From a distance it’s just an oak tree, but take a closer look at the bare limbs and it’s hard to ignore dozens of shoes hanging by there laces.

Retha Crisler says, “We’ve lived here about 50 years and the best I can remember is shoes have been thrown in it since about 71 or 72.”

For three decades it’s been fittingly called the ’shoe tree,’ Crisler says she doesn’t mind traffic stopping across the street from her home to view the adorned tree.

She explains, “We just think it’s kind of unique I don’t know of any other around.”

Crisler says normally there are a lot more shoes swaying in the wind and the unusual sight has created several memorable moments.

“I’ve seen them in the street there that’s fallen out in fact I have seen a truck going down Houge Road and it stopped there beside the tree and one fellow got out and climbed up on the side and pulled a pair of shoes off the tree,” Crisler laughs.

Eleven-year-old Madeline Douthit adds, “The shoes fall off when it’s really windy it’s really funny and you always think oh no it’s going to hit the car!”

Madeline and her siblings say on a special occasion they might take part in the tradition.

“There are itty bitty shoes and huge shoes and everything it’s really really cool,” they say.

Folks in the Sardis community may never find out the mystery of why the shoe tree got started, but they say it’s now an icon that makes this small community unique and as long as the tree stands the shoes will be a fixture.

Crisler says, “I don’t know any reason for it not to be.”

“I just think it’s awesome and it’s amazing that we have it there because it’s so old,” Madeline says.

There are currently about 70 shoe trees in the U.S. The most memorable Arkansas shoe tree fell with the weight of hundreds of shoes in a storm in 2000.

 

Dec 29

ISTANBUL, Turkey – For the past 10 years, model 271 has been the bestseller of Ramazan Baydan’s Ducati line of shoes. It’s got all the attributes of a workhorse – affordable and durable, chunky, yet presentable. To these winning qualities, now add another one: throwable.

According to Mr. Baydan, it was a black pair of his shoes that Iraqi journalist Muntazer al-Zaidi threw at President Bush during a Dec. 14 press conference. Mr. Zaidi now stands accused of “aggression against a foreign head of state during an official visit,” an offense that carries a prison term of between five and 15 years under Iraqi law. His trial begins Wednesday.

“I have seen this shoe for 10 years. I know it very well,” says Baydan, during an interview in his small shoe factory, located in a scruffy neighborhood on the edge of Istanbul.

“I have a sensitive relationship with this shoe. I designed it myself, so it’s like a father and a child. I was very happy when I saw it on the video,” he adds.

Baydan’s claims are hard to verify. Several other cobblers, from China to Lebanon, have claimed the now famous shoe as their own, and video footage of Zaidi’s shoe toss fails to yield a clear image of the shoes.

Still, Baydan says that demand for the shoe – now renamed the “Bye Bye Bush” model, wholesale price $27 – has been booming. Orders are coming from Iraq, other parts of the Middle East, and even the United States and Europe.

The shoemaker says he is even preparing a new advertising campaign aimed, for now, at the Turkish market. It will feature the shoe held aloft on a stick, with the words “Bye Bye Bush, Hello Peace,” below it.

“This was the shoe that was thrown at Bush. People want to have it. Maybe they want to keep it as a kind of memento or souvenir,” Baydan, who has dark hair and weary-looking brown eyes, says.

Zaidi’s hurl has certainly touched off a kind of shoe mania in the Middle East. Shoes are now becoming de rigueur at protests in Iraq and other countries. In Iran, some 70 people recently gathered to throw shoes at a caricature of Bush.

There is a precedent for this intersection of politics and fashion – if that’s a word that can be used in connection with Baydan’s very chunky, though surprisingly light, pair of shoes.

In late 2005, Istanbul suitmaker Recep Cesur made headlines and then reaped a harvest of increased sales after Saddam Hussein appeared in a Baghdad court wearing a pinstriped Cesur suit. Mr. Cesur’s sales skyrocketed in Iraq and other parts of the Middle East, his suits now having Mr. Hussein’s perverse star power behind them.

Down in the Baydan shoe company’s workshop, about a dozen men are feverishly churning out pairs of model 271 in light brown leather for an order heading to Iraq.

The operation is a decidedly low-tech one, with ancient machines stamping out leather parts and most assembly being done by hand.

Baydan carefully inspects a finished pair of model 271, a lace-up shoe with a square toe and a thick polyurethane sole.

“It’s aesthetic, comfortable, and suited for younger people and older people,” he says, extolling the shoe’s virtues.

“The sole is light, but it wasn’t made for throwing,” adds Baydan, who has been working in the shoes business since the age of 11, when he came to Istanbul from a small mountain village in Turkey’s impoverished southeast region.

Since the shoe toss incident, Baydan says he has had little rest, between fielding calls from interested buyers and visits from curious journalists. Although he sympathizes with the Iraqi shoe thrower, the Turkish cobbler says he is looking at his newfound success strictly in business terms.

“I’m a shoemaker. I’m not getting involved in politics,” he says, adding, “The politics are just opening up the way for business.”

Dec 19

NEW YORK (CNN) — The Iraqi journalist who hurled his shoes at President George W. Bush has won some hearts in neighboring Iran, where one cleric dubbed the act “the shoe intifada (rebellion).

Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati — leading Friday prayers in Tehran — hailed journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi’s now-famous fling last Sunday, when Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki were holding a news conference in Baghdad.

His remarks — reported by Iran’s state-run Islamic Republic News Agency — reflect the support many Middle East people have shown for al-Zaidi, an Iraqi correspondent for Egypt-based Al-Baghdadia TV.

“The shoe intifada in Iraq should not be overlooked easily,” Jannati said. “Well done to the Iraqi journalist for throwing the shoes at the U.S. president.”

Speaking to worshipers at Tehran University, Jannati labeled the shoes “more valuable than crowns, medals and signs” and believes they should be placed in an Iraqi museum.

CNN spoke to world affairs expert and author Fareed Zakaria about the shoe-throwing incident

CNN: Do you think the shoe-throwing incident shows that Iraq is becoming an open society?

Fareed Zakaria: Yes, and President Bush was right that it represents a huge advance in freedom in the Middle East. There is quite simply no other Arab country in which that scene could have taken place.

And Iraq has, in other ways, become a reasonably open and democratic society — though still a long way from a liberal democracy as we would define it.

CNN: So not a big deal — just fodder for late-night comics?

Zakaria: Not quite — what the shoe-throwing incident also reminded us of — and this is something that Americans often forget — is that whatever the gains in Iraq recently — and they are undeniable and real — the costs for Iraqis have been huge.

We focus on the costs to America — hundreds of billions of dollars spent, more than four thousand American lives lost there.

But the costs to the Iraqis have been staggering

2.5 million Iraqis — 10 percent of the population — have left the country, and only a few are trickling back. Another 2 million have been displaced from their homes. Tens of thousands of Iraqis have been killed and wounded — and that may be underreported.

Maybe in the long run, if Iraq becomes a more decent society, these costs will fade into memory and the benefits will endure. But for now, as Muntadhar al-Zaidi’s actions showed — it is the costs that remain front and center in the Iraq consciousness.

CNN: How are Iraqis responding to the incident?

Zakaria: For many it is embarrassment –as former U.S. Ambassador to Iraq and the current U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Zalmay Khalilzad says on our show — “I know it was painful to Prime Minister Maliki and many Iraqis who have been in touch with me since.” And the Iraqis are going to prosecute al-Zaidi within their court system — though they aren’t completely sure how yet.

CNN: But it seems like he’s become a hero for many in the Middle East.

Zakaria: Yes — and that goes back to the enormous costs that the Iraqis have faced. However, his celebrity is not limited to the Middle East. In an act of reverse cultural imperialism, his act of frustration is now taking hold in the United States.

Dec 19
MIAMI, Florida - The high-flying Kobe Bryant will ply his trade in low-cut shoes.

Bryant unveiled his latest Nike signature shoe on Friday - a low-cut sneaker the league’s reigning MVP donned in a game for the first time when his Los Angeles Lakers visited the Miami Heat. At 11.6 ounces (329 grams), Nike says it’s the lightest basketball shoe it has created, and Bryant is convinced the switch makes the most sense for his game.

“It feels great, feels great,” Bryant said. “I’m excited about it.”

Many NBA players use braces on their ankles to prevent sprains, and virtually the entire league plays in mid-cut or high-top shoes. But Bryant is sticking with plain old athletic tape for ankle support, and says that’s enough.

“High-tops really don’t do much for you,” Bryant said. “If you’re going to roll your ankle, you’re going to roll it. It kind of is what it is. If you come down on somebody’s foot, nothing you can do really about that. I wanted to have more mobility in the ankle, more movement at the foot and a lighter weight shoe, and I got it.”

Lakers coach Phil Jackson has no qualms about Bryant’s decision, which is understandable.

After all, he played in low-cuts.

“The only thing about low-cuts, I think some people started saying low-cuts are a detriment to the game because if you get stepped on on the heel, they can come off on the floor,” Jackson said. “But I wore low-cuts, taped. A ton of players had low-cuts and taped their ankles. It doesn’t really matter.”

Some Heat players raised their eyebrows when told of Bryant’s switch, with a few saying they wouldn’t feel comfortable without the extra protection that a high-top shoe might provide.

Miami forward Shawn Marion, though, said he wore low-tops in high school. He no longer does in games, but said there’s some advantages to the lighter shoe.

“Low-cut shoes, they support an ankle more than high-tops,” Marion said. “You’ve got all that high-top coming over the ankle, but you’ve got more stability to move around a little more quickly in low-tops.”

Bryant was directly involved in the design of the shoe, which will be available in US stores in February.

He said he didn’t consult any other players who have worn low-cuts, either now or in the past, about the specifications of the sneaker, which he said has special technology to keep a player’s heel in place - something that was among his most important requests, he said. - AP

Dec 19

Protesters shook their shoes at the U.S. Embassy in London on Friday in a show of support for a jailed Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at President George W. Bush during a news conference in Iraq.

Up to 50 demonstrators, some carrying shoes mounted on sticks, protested the arrest of journalist Muntadhar al-Zeidi and called for his release.

Dec 19

LONDON – Protesters shook their shoes at the U.S. Embassy in London on Friday in a show of support for a jailed Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at President George W. Bush during a news conference in Iraq.

Up to 50 demonstrators, some carrying shoes mounted on sticks, protested the arrest of journalist Muntadhar al-Zeidi and called for his release.

“He has stood up against the silence and the lies that we have been forced to take all too often in the British and international media,” said David Crouch, the chairman of Media Workers Against The War, a group representing anti-war journalists.

“Our role is to give a voice to people who don’t have a voice and for that reason al-Zaidi might as well have thrown 27 million shoes at George Bush, because he was speaking for the vast overwhelming majority of the Iraqi population,” Crouch said.

The protest ended when demonstrators dumped their shoes — including high heels, sneakers, and slippers — into a box in front of the U.S. Embassy at London’s Grosvenor Square.

 

Dec 19

BAGHDAD — The Iraqi journalist who hurled his shoes at President George W. Bush intends to press charges against the people who he says beat him as he was taken into custody, said a member of the Iraqi parliament who’s urging his release.

Bahaa al Araji , a member of parliament from a party tied to Shiite cleric Muqtada al Sadr , said journalist Muntathar al Zaidi earlier on Friday had presented his case that he was beaten to an Iraqi judge.

Zaidi’s outburst at a news conference that Bush held with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki on Sunday has sparked rallies all around the country, and now Sunni leaders are lionizing the Shiite journalist.

Facing charges of attacking a head of state, Zaidi could be sentenced to as many as 15 years in jail. Zaidi’s family wants him tried under a different law that would carry a maximum sentence of two years, his brother said.

Araji joined more than 70 protesters outside Baghdad’s International Zone , a secure area that includes the Parliament and Maliki’s residence. Araji said Zaidi should appear in court no later than Thursday.

“We know that the judges themselves feel for him and, God willing, he will be with his family soon,” Araji said. “Tomorrow we will submit a formal request that Zaidi should be allowed visits by his family.”

Iraqis in different cities have protested every day this week for Zaidi, and Friday’s rally brought together a handful of politicians, Zaidi’s siblings and a mix of protesters from several provinces outside of Baghdad .

“Because of Muntathar, I lift my head high. And to be frank, I haven’t been proud to be an Iraqi for five long years of humiliation,” said Sheikh Mohammed al Inizi , a leader in the Sons of Iraq movement, which brought Sunni tribes together with American forces to fight terrorist cells.

“We should call him Muntathar al Iraqi — not Muntathar al Zaidi; all of Iraq is his tribe now,” Inizi said.

Munthatar’s younger brother, Maythem, 28, said the family would take part in the protests until the court allows them access to him. “I affirm that his was a heroic act, and we as a family are proud of him. He was able to unite all of Iraq , all its Sunnis, Shiites, Arabs, Kurds, Turkomen and Christians.”

Muntathar al Zaidi is a reporter for the Baghdadiya satellite television channel, which has stood by him and demanded his release. It also appointed a lawyer to defend Zaidi, but Zaidi’s siblings said the government hasn’t allowed the lawyer to meet him.

Others, such as Maliki’s media office, have called Zaidi’s actions “barbaric” and an embarrassment for Iraq .

Zaidi has asked Maliki for a pardon and apologized, Maliki’s office said.

Yassin Majid , Maliki’s media adviser, quoted from the letter on an Iraqi television program on Friday.

“Zaidi said in his letter that his big ugly act cannot be excused,” Majid said. He quoted Zaidi as writing: “But I remember in the summer of 2005, I interviewed your Excellency and you told me, ‘Come in, this is your house’. And so I appeal to your fatherly feelings to forgive me.”

Zaidi’s sister, Um Saad , is skeptical that Zaidi wrote the apology.

“He would never apologize for insulting the man who occupied our country,” she said.

(Issa is a McClatchy special correspondent in Baghdad .)

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