March 30, 2005

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Obituaries

Jan E. Dupre, 84, of Mountain View, died in her home March 8 of metastatic breast cancer.

She was involved in many organizations including the Senior Center, El Camino Hospital Auxiliary, Performing Arts Center in Mountain View, Palo Alto Elks, Shoreline Park, Women's Club and various festivals and fairs in Mountain View.

She is survived by her sons, Daryl of Mountain View and Rick of Phoenix, Ariz.; daughter, Cheryl of Ft. Brag, Calif.; brother, George of Braslton, Ga.; brother, Wink of Forest Lake, Minn.; sister, Lori of Los Altos; two nieces, one grandson and one great-grandchild. She was preceded in death by her husband, Herbert J. Dupre.

The family requests that in lieu of flowers donations be sent to Pathways Hospice Foundation, 585 N. Mary Ave., Sunnyvale, CA 94085.

George Peter Hartman

George Peter Hartman, 65, a math teacher and tutor at Pierce College, was killed March 7 in Tacoma, Wash.

He lived in Palo Alto or nearby from 1978 to 1990, and both of his sons attended school in Palo Alto. He graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in math, and later earned master's degrees in education and math. He held a variety of jobs starting in the early 1960s, from carpenter to welder to counselor for troubled youth to computer programmer to math teacher. He loved teaching and students found his excitement about math infectious. His passion for reading was highlighted by his personal book collection of several thousand volumes.

He was preceded in death by his wife of 12 years, Marcia Avery Hartman, who passed away in 1980. He is survived by his mother, Helen Hartman of Tacoma; sons, Jed Hartman of Mountain View and Jay Hartman of Manhattan Beach; daughter, Gabrielle Jennings; brothers, David, John and Paul Hartman, all of Washington; and one granddaughter.

In lieu of flowers, the family prefers donations to the Pierce College Foundation, Peter Hartman Fund, 9401 Farwest Drive SW, Lakewood, WA 98498. All funds will be used to purchase math books for disadvantaged students.

Alice Phillips Rose

Alice "Bindy" Phillips Rose, national, international and community volunteer, died March 6 at her home in Atherton.

She was born June 14, 1907, in San Francisco. She was married to Dr. Milton Rose, a prominent Peninsula psychiatrist, for 55 years. Dr. Rose died in 1984.

She received her graduate and professional education from the University of California, Berkeley, the Yale University Graduate School, the Smith College School of Social Work and Columbia University. Since the 1950s, she was an active member of the American Red Cross and assumed many leadership positions at the local, national and international levels. She was appointed a consultant in Social Services to the Board of the Palo Alto Chapter of the American Red Cross and honored with their Chapter Lifetime Achievement Award in 1999.

She was a delegate to National and International Conferences, hostess to International Delegates, panelist at National Conventions and Technical Presenter on the Structure of International Red Cross.

In 1987 she received the highest award of the American Red Cross, the prestigious National Harriman Award for Distinguished Volunteer Service, which included her research and discovery of the original, hand-written Founding Documents of the League of Red Cross Societies. Copies of the documents were subsequently presented to the executive committee of the League of Red Cross Societies, the Henri Dunant Institute in Geneva, Switzerland, and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

She was appointed American representative to the Henri Dunant Institute, consultant to the Ethics Committee of the League of Red Cross Societies and member of the Advisory Board of the Historical Resources Division of the American Red Cross.

She is survived be her daughters, Belinda Rose of Menlo Park and Alison Rose of New York City. In lieu of flowers, her daughters request that donations be made to the Cleo Eulau Center at 415 Cambridge Ave., Suite 21, Palo Alto, CA 94306-1608.

Nita C. Verhaaren

Nita C. Verhaaren, a longtime resident of Palo Alto, teacher and active member of the community, died March 29 in Provo, Utah.

She was born Feb. 17, 1911, in Bendigo, Australia, and spent most of her 94 years in the United States, more than 50 of them in Palo Alto.

After completing high school in Bendigo, she came to America in the company of her brother in 1928. They established themselves in Salt Lake City, where she met Theodore Verhaaren, newly arrived from Germany. She served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Canada from 1935-36, and they married upon her return.

The two, along with their eldest daughter, Joy, arrived in Palo Alto in 1942. She worked as a bookkeeper at Stanford and walked there daily from their apartment. Their three remaining children, Norma, Lois and Bruce, were born in Palo Alto.

She joined the pre-school faculty at Harker School in 1955 and taught pre-school and kindergarten there until 1975. She was active in her church and the community and served as a Girl Scout leader. She directed the girls camp of the Palo Alto Stake of the LDS Church for 10 years and later served as regional camp director for the girls camp programs and assisted in the translation of an early ethnographic study of the Samoan Islands.

In 1980 she and her husband served their church as representatives behind the Iron Curtain in Budapest and in 1981 they were transferred to the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean.

In 2001 she left Palo Alto to live near her children. She spent time in Hawaii and Illinois before moving to Utah in 2004.

She loved the ocean, the mountains and traveling. She is survived by her four children, Joy Westra of Lehi, Utah, Norma Evans of Hilo, Hawaii, Lois McAllister of Morton, Ill., and Bruce Verhaaren of Naperville, Ill.; 19 grandchildren and 31 great-grandchildren.

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