Friends Mourn UC Berkeley Student

Memorial Facebook page draws thousands; candlelight vigil slated for Friday.

Friends and classmates are mourning the death of UC Berkeley sophomore Henry Treadway, who died Tuesday evening at 20 after a fall from Towle Hall's sixth floor. A candlelight vigil is scheduled for 10 p.m. Friday in Sproul Plaza. At 9:48 p.m., campus police responded to reports that a man had fallen from the dormitory on Haste Street between Bowditch Street and College Avenue. He was pronounced dead at the scene, authorities said. About an hour beforehand, Treadway had updated his Facebook page to include the date of his death, spurring panicked responses. By Wednesday afternoon, flowers and candles served as makeshift memorials in the courtyard. More than 3,000 people encompassing a wide sweep of ages and ethnic groups had left messages …

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Fans Mourn the Passing of Ernest Callenbach

'Ecotopia' introduced environmentally sound practices in utopian novel.

Fans of Ernest Callenbach, the author of the 1975 novel “Ecotopia,” and legions of environmentalists influenced by it are mourning his passing. Callenbach died of cancer at the Berkeley home he shared with his wife, Christine Leefeldt, April 16. He was 83. The seminal novel about an ecologically sound Pacific Northwest utopia not only attracted a cult following but heralded the environmental movement. Ecotopia’s characters recycled, farmed organically, got energy from the sun and either biked or rode high-speed trains – ideas that may not have seemed plausible on a wide scale at the time but have since taken root in planning and politics. “Callenbach launched much of our thinking about these things,” Scott Slovic, a professor of …

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One of the Most Popular Artists in America and UCB Grad Died Saturday

Thomas Kinkade died of natural causes at 54.

U.C Berkeley graduate and “one of the most popular artists in America,” died suddenly at his home in Los Gatos Saturday. He was 54. Thomas Kinkade’s paintings hang in “an estimated one of every 20 homes in the United States”, says the Mercury News. Fans say his “prints of idyllic cottages and bucolic garden gates” feel warm and familiar feeling, while detractors see his work as “tacky” and mass-produced.  Kinkade was “not well-regarded by the fine art establishment,” according to the New York Times, but he built an “art empire by creating sentimental paintings that were…relatively inexpensive.” His paintings cost anywhere from “hundreds of dollars to more than $10,000,” says the Mercury News. In addition to selling work through his own …

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Tanya Jo Miller

3:07 pm on Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Wow, good to know. Especially since I'm a Dali fan. It's one of those things...love CD? Don't read the liner notes...well back when there were CDs and liner notes   more ›

Oikos Victim Profile: Shock and Grief Follow the Killing of El Cerrito Woman in Oakland Campus Massacre

The death of nursing student Sonam Chodon at Oikos University in Oakland Monday has shocked and grieved her friends in the local El Cerrito Tibetan community.

El Cerrito resident Sonam Chodon was remembered Tuesday, by saddened friends in the local Tibetan community as kind and devoted to caring for others. "The whole of our community is in shock," said Tenzin Tsedup, president of the Richmond-based Tibetan Association of Northern California. Chodon had been studying nursing at Oikos. She moved to El Cerrito to live here with her brother nearly two years ago, Tsedup said. Chodon, one of seven people killed Monday morning in the massacre by a gunman at Oikos University, had been living in the Tibetan community in exile in Dharamsala in India, where she was born and where her parents and grandparents had escaped after the Chinese Communist takeover of Tibet in 1950-51, he said. Before coming to …

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Voters Want Infrastructure Repair, but Not Enough to Pay for It

Survey shows Berkeley residents feel the economy is stable, but balk at bond measures.

Whoever said talk is cheap may have been tipped off by pollsters. Nearly 80 percent of Berkeley residents feel the economy is stable or improving, 57 percent are doing well or excellently, and 58 percent think the city’s leaders are doing an excellent or good job, according to a 17-minute telephone survey of 430 likely voters conducted between March 14 and 17. But the survey by Lake Research Partners showed that while voters may be feeling optimistic about the economy, they are not feeling flush enough to finance the improvements they consider important – at least, not yet. For instance, most voiced support for parcel taxes that would pay for housing and homeless services. And more than the necessary two-thirds majority considers upgrades …

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Star Wars Artist Died Saturday at his home in Berkeley

McQuarrie created many of Sci-Fi's most beloved characters.

Ralph McQuarrie, 82, died Saturday at his home in Berkeley. He came up with the look of Darth Vader, R2-D2, Stormtrooper, and many of the most famous Star Wars characters. According to the Los Angeles Times,  “His artwork helped persuade 20th Century Fox to green-light the film.” The LA Times quotes McQuarrie as saying of Star Wars: "My impression was it was too expensive. There wouldn't be enough of an audience. It's just too complicated," he recalled in a 1999 interview with the San Diego Union-Tribune. "But George knew a lot of things that I didn't know." Lucas certainly did know. Star Wars went on to be one of the highest grossing films in history. One of the characters McQuarrie most cherished was R2-D2. The LA Times quotes him saying…

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Beloved Telegraph Market Shop Owner Dies of Heart Attack

Locals remember a man of compassion who dispensed kindness and self esteem from behind the counter of his small store.

Hamid Houweidi, owner of Telegraph Market on the corner of Dwight Way and Telegraph Avenue, died of a heart attack approximately three weeks ago. According to locals, he was about 53 and is survived by a wife and two sons. In addition to a private funeral, some 60 locals held a memorial outside Houweidi’s storefront to commemorate the person they say tied everyone in the Telegraph community together. April Stewart, who works at The Berkeley Hat Company, says Houweidi was the nicest person she’d ever met. Stewart says Houweidi is the reason a lot of the people on Telegraph Avenue have jobs and a place to live. He let locals down-on-their-luck purchase food at his store on credit. They could pay him back when they had the money. In fact, …

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Tanya Jo Miller

9:51 am on Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Hey Dan, thanks for your comment. Are there any stories you remember about Hamid that you care to share?   more ›

Tears, Laughter, Love at De Martini Vigil in Berkeley

Scores of Tyler De Martini's friends, along with family and concerned community members, took over a Berkeley corner Wednesday night to hold a candlelight vigil near the site of his skateboard crash into a car Monday.

Tyler "Active Ty" De Martini was spontaneous about his plans, driven about his skateboarding and a friend to everybody, recalled many who knew him, at a vigil for him in Berkeley on Wednesday night.  "He'd walk through the hallways at school and shake everybody's hand," said friend Elliot Spector, a 17-year-old student at El Cerrito High School. De Martini, 18, was critically injured Monday when he was struck by a car while skateboarding down Marin Avenue near the Albany-Berkeley border at about 7 p.m. His family took him off life support Wednesday after doctors were unable to detect brain activity, and he was pronounced dead at 4:10 p.m. For many friends at Wednesday night's impromptu vigil, which drew 60-80 people throughout the evening…

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UC Berkeley Hormone Expert Dies at 91

Howard A. Bern, professor emeritus of integrative biology, researched a synthetic hormone's connection to cancer

Remembering BUSD Retired Board Member Terry Doran

Doran spent more than four decades working in the Berkeley Unified School District. He died on New Year's Day after a battle with cancer.

From the Berkeley Unified School District Terry Doran began teaching in the Berkeley Unified School District in 1966, serving Berkeley students as a classroom teacher until he retired and ran for the school board in 1998. A cancer survivor, he joined the Board with a sparkle in his eye and high hopes for the eight years he hoped to be on the Board. He was re-elected to a second term, and in his eight years served as board president twice. Upon his retirement from the Board in November 2006, he received a proclamation from the Board, noting his "efforts at passing the school parcel taxes Measures BB in 2000, Measure B in 2004 and Measure A in 2006, the improvement of the food quality in the Berkeley public schools, his defense of the …

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