Claremont Obituaries
Great-grandfather, competitive skier, traveler, volunteer Beloved husband, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, Lynn Joseph (Joe) Rhodes died April 21 in Claremont after a four-year struggle with Alzheimer’s disease. He was 89 and resided in Claremont for 44 years with his wife, Marilyn Rhodes. A native Californian, he was born on November 21, 1935 in Alhambra to […]
CHS graduate, pilot, son, brother Beloved son and brother Rob Poling died of natural causes on April 28 at the age of 59. A native of Claremont, he was born May 7, 1959. He was a member of Claremont High School’s class of 1977, and played football for the Wolfpack. He graduated from the University […]
Great-grandfather, longtime Pomona resident Edward D. Westerdale, 90, died May 5. He was a Pomona resident since 1965. Mr. Westerdale was preceded in death by his daughter, Ruth. He is survived by his wife, Dorothy J. Westerdale; sons Paul and Jim Westerdale; four grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. Services were private.
Grandmother, social worker, seamstress Susan Palmer, a 33-year Claremont resident, died May 5, surrounded by family, just short of her 65th birthday. She had been battling brain cancer, which was diagnosed in May 2017. She was born May 19, 1953 in Englewood, New Jersey to John Henry Deckenback and Elizabeth Hughes Deckenback. When young Susan […]
Great-grandfather, longtime UCC minister and Claremont resident Reverend David M. Held died peacefully in his home at Pilgrim Place in Claremont on May 10. He was 97 years old. Mr. Held lived in Claremont for 44 years. In his capacity as a minister he served in United Church of Christ churches for more than 40 […]
Grandmother, homemaker, devout Catholic Betty Jane Rensch died quietly in her sleep on May 6. She was 90 years old. Born Elizabeth Jane Dooley on June 10, 1927 in Ramona, South Dakota, she was the youngest of Patrick and Bertie Dooley’s five children and was the valedictorian at her high school graduation in 1945. Her […]
Father, engineer, US Navy veteran, avid sailor, musician Albert J. “Jack” Mallinckrodt died peacefully on March 2, 2018. He was 91. Born April 24, 1926 in St. Louis, Missouri, young Jack joined the Navy in 1944 and was chosen for the V-12 Navy College Training Program, which sent him to Notre Dame University in South […]
Husband, former Pitzer College president, liberal arts champion Former Pitzer College?President Paul Byers Ranslow died April 9, 2018 in Lincoln, California from complications caused by prostate cancer. He was 70 years old. Mr. Ranslow was born in September 1947 in the Republic of the Philippines. He was raised in Southern California and graduated from North […]
Devoted grandmother, opera singer, pianist Harriette Jean Schneider, 78, died peacefully at her Claremont home on April 20. She was born April 5, 1940 in Mt. Clemens, Michigan to Donald B. and Stella R. Patterson. She was raised in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and graduated from Columbia, Missouri’s Stephens College in 1960, and from the University […]
College professor, homestead farmer, ‘grampa,’ powder ski hound A longtime resident of Claremont, Ralph Henry Miller, 73, died peacefully on April 19 following a long battle with a rare genetic strain of cancer, with his wife, son, and daughter-in-law at his side. The recent recipient of Claremont Graduate University’s Lifetime Achievement Award for Evaluation “was […]
Dr. William Henry Gordon, Jr., 89, of Upland, died peacefully at his home on April 22. He was born June 14, 1928, in Detroit, Michigan. He graduated from the University of Michigan and from Cornell University Medical College (now Weill Cornell Medicine). Following his service as a lieutenant commander in the United States Navy and […]
Michael “Maniac Mike” Stewart, 62, died April 16 from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Mr. Stewart was the longtime owner of Maniac Mike’s Cafe located at Cable Airport. A memorial service is scheduled for Wednesday, May 2 from 6 to 8 p.m. in the parking lot of Maniac Mike’s Cafe at Cable Airport, 1749 W. 13th […]
Great-grandmother, beloved ‘Mimi’ to her grandchildren Sharon Sue Berkey died peacefully in her Claremont home with her family and loved ones by her side on April 17, 2018 at the age of 73. “It is with immense sorrow that we declare the passing of Sharon Sue Berkey,” Ms. Berkey’s family reported. She was born October […]
Father, longtime Claremont resident, devoted Episcopalian Thomas W. Donaldson, a 38-year Claremont resident, died peacefully on Tuesday, April 17 at the age of 90. He was born in New York City in 1928, and grew up in Park Ridge, New Jersey. He later lived in Suffern, New York, where he met his wife Cherry when […]
Virginia Georgine Blackwell died peacefully at Claremont’s Mt. San Antonio Gardens Magnolia Grove on January 26. She was 97 years old. She was born February 22, 1921 in Morris, Minnesota, the fourth child of Clara Julia Rolstad and Reuben Kornelius Johnson. Young Virginia married Walter Lee Blackwell, Jr. on October 4, 1943 in Chicopee, Massachusetts. […]
Mother, concert violinist, beloved music teacher, friend, longtime Claremonter Marjorie Cofer Marth, a Claremont resident for more than 60 years, died March 31 at the age of 94. “Howdy, you all,” she wrote shortly before her death. “What a wonderful life you have made for me. This is a letter of joy and appreciation and […]
Elementary school teacher, church choir member Nancy Mae Whitham, longtime elementary school teacher, died of cancer on April 11, 2018. She was 81. Nancy Blaisdell Whitham, the second of four daughters born to Helen Ann Vojacek and Charles Oswald Blaisdell, was born in Oak Park, Illinois on October 24, 1936. In 1950, the family moved […]