Ronnie Hillman, 31, Dec. 21
Among the best running backs in San Diego State University history.
Hillman started an unprecedented nine-year run in which SDSU had 11 players reach the 1,000-yard rushing milestone.
He ran for 1,532 yards and 17 touchdowns as a freshman in 2010 and 1,711 yards and 19 TDs as a sophom*ore in 2011 before declaring for the 2012 NFL Draft.
His rushing ranks among SDSU’s top 10 single-season efforts. His 3,243 total yards are fifth on SDSU’s all-time rushing list, behind Donnel “DJ” Pumphrey (6,405), Marshall Faulk (4,589), Rashaad Penny (3,656) and Larry Ned (3,792).
Hillman’s breakout performance came in a 2010 game at Missouri when he rushed for 235 yards, with touchdown runs of 75 and 93 yards. He capped the season by leading SDSU to a 35-14 win over Navy in the 2010 Poinsettia Bowl, running for 228 yards and three touchdowns.
The Denver Broncos drafted him in the third round of the 2012 draft. He played most of his six-year career with the Broncos.
Welton Jones, 86, Dec. 17
Theater critic, celebrant of the city’s arts scene and protector of San Diego’s cultural heritage.
Jones was an arts editor, writer, theater critic and critic at large for The San Diego Union-Tribune, and its predecessor, the San Diego Union, from 1966 until his retirement in 2001. He was also active in the historic preservation groups Save Our Heritage Organisation, the Balboa Park Committee of 100 and the Save Starlight campaign.
During his years as a theater critic, Jones founded the first incarnation of the San Diego Theatre Critics Circle; served nine years on the board of the American Theatre Critics Association; and was on the jury that awarded Neil Simon the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1991. Jones also founded New Heritage Theatre in the early 1970s, wrote several local history-inspired plays and musicals and served as an actor, stage director and props manager for many productions over the years.
As Jones moved from reviewing theater to working as the newspaper’s critic at large in 1993, he began writing more stories about local passion projects, like the history of the city’s 20th-century faded movie palaces, the Zoro Garden nudist colony at the 1935-36 California Pacific International Exposition in Balboa Park and a 19th-century female fencer known as “Jaguarina.”
Chuck Nicklin, 95, Dec. 7
Pioneering underwater diver and photographer whose work appeared in national magazines, Hollywood movies and television documentaries.
His credits included assignments for National Geographic and camera work for “The Abyss,” “The Deep,” and two James Bond films, “For Your Eyes Only” and “Never Say Never Again.”
His biggest legacy may be the mentoring he provided other soon-to-be giants in undersea photography — Marty Snyderman, Howard Hall, Nicklin’s son Flip, and others — after the store he helped open in San Diego, The Diving Locker, became a mecca for like-minded explorers from around the world.
The place quickly grew on him — in particular the waters off Point Loma and La Jolla. He started diving, using a crude mask with no snorkel, in the late 1940s.
He later managed a grocery store in Logan Heights, but when he wasn’t stocking shelves and helping customers, he was free diving, hunting fish and abalone. The La Jolla resident once speared a black sea bass that weighed 376 pounds.
Ofelia ‘Ofie’ Escobedo, 94, Nov. 19
Community activist who worked tirelessly to improve Carlsbad’s Barrio community.
Escobedo’s family arrived in Carlsbad in 1943, when her parents bought the small grocery store known today as Lola’s 7-Up Market and Deli, one of the city’s longest-running businesses. Lola was Escobedo’s mother.
In addition to helping to run the store, Escobedo turned her attention to community activism and helped reverse the decline in Carlsbad’s oldest neighborhood.
She organized the first Barrio Fiesta in 1991 and opened a small museum in the market’s original location to recognize the Latino community’s contributions to the city. She also started the Barrio Carlsbad Association to lobby city leaders for better lighting, streets and sidewalks in the Barrio.
Over the years, the museum became a meeting place for groups such as the North County Latinas Association, which awarded scholarships to local Latina girls, and for Encuentros Leadership, a group that helps Latino boys continue their education.
The San Diego County Library named Escobedo a “San Diego Legend” in 2014 in recognition of her many contributions to her community.
Greg Bear, 71, Nov. 19
Author who wrote such highly acclaimed and plausible science fiction novels as “Blood Music,” “Darwin’s Radio” and “Eon,” and who helped create San Diego Comic-Con.
He was born in San Diego and attended Crawford High School and earned a bachelor’s at San Diego State University.
He started writing at age 7 or 8, finished his first story when he was 10, began sending stories to magazines in his early teens, and published his first short story when he was 15.
Over the years, Bear won Hugo and Nebula awards, establishing him as one of sci-fi’s best and busiest authors.
In 1970, he helped launch the Golden State Comic Book Convention at the US Grant Hotel. The event eventually became the world-famous Comic-Con.
Tom Rice, 101, Nov. 17
World War II paratrooper who jumped into Normandy on D-Day and in his later years marked anniversaries of that historic day by jumping again.
He was born in Coronado and grew up in a house on H Avenue built by his father, a World War I veteran. He graduated from Coronado High School in 1940, worked as a lifeguard and started studying engineering at what was then San Diego State College before enlisting in the Army.
When he came home after the war he settled into a 44-year career as a social studies teacher and track coach at Chula Vista and Hilltop high schools.
Rice returned to Normandy in 1994 for the 50th anniversary commemoration of D-Day, then again in 2019 for the 75th. Both times he jumped out of airplanes, the first time on his own, the second time in tandem. He went, he said, to honor those from his 101st Airborne Division who died in the war.
There were other jumps on other D-Days, and a few at special events such as Veterans Day. His final tandem jump was last year, on his 100th birthday. He landed on the beach near Coronado’s Hotel Del in front of hundreds of cheering people.
Deanna Spehn, 74, Nov. 12
Longtime San Diego civic leader who advised state political leaders and published a community newspaper for nearly half a century.
She served as policy director for state Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins and for former state Sen. Christine Kehoe.
Spehn moved to San Diego with her husband in 1970. Within a few years, she became involved in a local community news sheet called the Tierrasanta Bulletin.
In 1977, Spehn and several other women transformed what had been an all-volunteer community publication into a free community newspaper, rechristened the Tierra Times, which she published until late September of this year.
Her work on the Tierra Times served as a springboard to positions in government. “Deanna was truly one of the most brilliant women I have ever worked alongside, and had a commitment to public service that was unparalleled,” Atkins said.
Sally Roush, 75, Oct. 7
San Diego State leader who served as the university’s interim president during the creation of the satellite campus in Mission Valley and the ultimate opening of Snapdragon Stadium.
“Sally Roush was truly one of SDSU’s visionary leaders who always led with deep compassion, courage and wisdom,” current President Adela de la Torre said.
The California State University Board of Trustees named Roush interim president in 2017, after President Elliot Hirshman decided to leave to become president of Stevenson University, a small liberal arts school in Maryland.
Roush was deeply familiar with the inner workings of SDSU.
She joined the school in 1982 as director of personnel services, quickly becoming a trusted adviser to President Thomas Day. In 1994, she was promoted to senior vice president for business and financial affairs, which put her in a position to advise the next two presidents, Stephen Weber and Hirshman.
Roush helped them figure out ways to diversify SDSU’s revenues at a time when CSU and UC campuses were struggling to get state funding.
Anthony Ortega, 94, Sept. 30
Sax great who collaborated with such musical heavyweights as Frank Sinatra and Frank Zappa, Tony Bennett and Tony Orlando, Marvin Gaye and Quincy Jones.
The Encinitas resident performed on film soundtracks, including playing the bravura improvised sax solo in the Oscar-nominated “An Unmarried Woman,” and was in the house bands for ABC’s “The Julie Andrews Show” and “The Redd Foxx Comedy Hour.” He also taught jazz master classes at universities in France and made cutting-edge albums that won international acclaim.
His debut album, “The Anthony Ortega Quartet,” was released in 1954. His 1961 album, “A Man and His Horns,” featured him double-tracking all of the multiple horn parts. His most recent album, “Afternoon in Paris,” came out in 2007.
His final performance took place Aug. 21 at Mr. Peabody’s Bar & Grill in Encinitas, where — since 2011 — he had led a Sunday jam session nearly every week until his health began to falter in August.
Natalie Sabin Gore, 77, Sept. 28
One of the first female special agents in the FBI.
Her stint with the bureau included counterintelligence work battling spies, but she is mostly remembered for the path she paved.
After graduation from the University of California Davis, where she majored in zoology, she worked as an elementary school teacher in San Francisco for six years. Then, to be closer to family, she moved to Sacramento. But a surplus of teachers there made it hard to find work.
The FBI, however, was looking for female agents. She flew to Quantico, Va., in April 1976 for the academy. On her first night in a dorm with three other women, a male classmate popped his head in and taunted them about the difficulty of the physical training. That only made her more determined. She became the group’s leader, pushing them through pushups, pullups and rope climbs. All four graduated and became among the first 50 women hired as agents.
She was married to former longtime San Diego County Sheriff Bill Gore.
Gene Trepte, 97, Sept. 13
Builder of the Pechanga Arena San Diego, a San Diego Zoo trustee and a passionate sailor.
The third-generation president of the Trepte Construction Co., founded in 1895, continued his father and grandfather’s record of building major landmarks in San Diego County — hospitals, university buildings, office towers, hotels and shopping centers.
But Trepte’s passion was sailing, a sport he took up when he was 7, and continued on in big-boat regattas. His victories were regularly noted in the sports pages.
As a past commodore of the San Diego Yacht Club, Trepte was involved in organizing America’s Cup races in the 1980s and ’90s.
He was born in San Diego, grandson of the company founder, German immigrant Moritz Trepte, and son of Walter Trepte. He graduated from Point Loma High School, joined the Navy in 1943, and attended Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, majoring in architectural engineering, before joining the company in 1948.
Robert D. “Bobby” DePhilippis, 72, Sept. 11
Longtime owner of Filippi’s Italian restaurants and promoter of boxing matches.
DePhilippis was born in Pennsylvania and moved with his family to San Diego when he was 15 and attended San Diego High School.
Following in his father’s footsteps, he took up boxing, but family restaurant duties kept him from advancing in the sport.
Bobby DePhilippis’ grandparents had preceded his family in moving to San Diego in 1949 and started what came to be the chain of Filippi’s Pizza Grotto restaurants.
But it was boxing that energized him the most, his friends said.
DePhilippis obtained his state promoter’s license in 1980 and put on his first event at the Palisades Garden roller rink in North Park the next year.
He staged more than 80 boxing shows in the 1980s at the convention center that once sat next to El Cortez Hotel downtown with some broadcasts on ESPN.
He was inducted into the California Boxing Hall of Fame in 2012.
Shelby Jacobs, 87, Sept. 5
Black aerospace engineer belatedly recognized by NASA as one of the “unsung heroes” of the American space program.
Over 40 years, Jacobs, who lived in Oceanside, worked his way up to the executive ranks on the Apollo and Space Shuttle programs. He was also responsible for one of the most iconic video images of NASA’s race to put a man on the moon in the 1960s. It’s the oft-seen, slow-motion color footage of a ring-like section of the Saturn V rocket separating from the unmanned Apollo 6 spacecraft and spinning slowly away toward Earth, 200,000 feet below.
Jacobs faced near-constant discrimination from his White colleagues and was never paid as well as other engineers doing the same work. But his intelligence, positive attitude and perseverance gradually paid off. It wasn’t until 2008, on the 50th anniversary of NASA’s creation, that the space agency recognized Jacobs as one of 21 “Unsung Heroes” of the space program.
In a 2008 article written for NASA by Christian Gelzer, Jacobs was recognized by the space agency as a quietly persistent innovator who helped make history.
“Shelby Jacobs, like so many Black people during this time, was met with social barriers. Though at first it seemed quite an uphill battle, with an uneven playing field, Jacobs persevered and went on to help NASA make space history,” Gelzer wrote.
Tim Murphy, 77, Aug. 18
Innovative force behind the Carlsbad 5000 and the Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon.
From 1986 to 2007, Murphy’s Elite Racing team changed the face of road running, adding music and charity running to road racing, turning the spotlight from the then-standard 10,000-meter and marathon distances to the 3.1-mile 5K and the 13.1-mile half-marathon.
Tracy Sundlun, Murphy’s partner with Elite Racing, said Murphy essentially created “spectator running” by changing the very basics of road running. Instead of having everyone running together, he had age group and gender-specific citizen races run first and then the world’s best ran alone for prize money on a spectator-friendly course during the post-race party.
Michael Tuck, 76, Aug. 17
The ultimate TV anchorman with a commanding on-air presence, the ability to move gracefully from breaking-news to human-interest stories, all with a resonate, self-assured, built-for-broadcasting baritone voice.
He presented news for decades to San Diegans on KFMB, KGTV and KUSI.
Tuck started at KFMB in 1978, launching an award-winning, ratings-generating career in local broadcasting that made him one of the most high-profile people in local media — and made his voice one of the most recognizable sounds in town. In 1984, he left for KGTV, where he spent six years and helped Channel 10’s local-news ratings climb from second place to first. In 1990, He left KGTV and San Diego for Los Angeles and its CBS affiliate, KCBS-TV.
Unhappy with the station’s high management turnover and what he saw as an obsession with celebrities and sensationalism, Tuck departed KCBS and returned to KFMB in 2000. In 2005, he moved to KUSI, where he stayed until 2007.
Tim Barnett, 84, Aug. 12
Marine physicist at the University of California San Diego who predicted in 1997 that a powerful El Niño was developing and that its effects might be felt worldwide.
Other scientists also were seeing distinct signs of El Niño. But Barnett and his colleagues candidly spoke about it during a workshop at Scripps Institution of Oceanography that August, and made it clear to the journalists present that people should prepare for possible trouble.
It was the clearest public declaration of its kind at the time, and it turned out to be right. The El Niño was one of the worst on record, inflicting pain from San Diego to Somalia. Time would show that Barnett and a colleague at Scripps, David Pierce, had produced a reliable way to forecast the rise, spread and strength of El Niños.
The breakthrough was one of several landmark findings by Barnett and Pierce. In 2005, the duo and their colleagues in Northern California published a paper that clearly showed carbon dioxide and other pollutants were contributing to the warming of the world’s oceans. The researchers said the greenhouse gases were tied to human activity, and could eventually lead to water shortages in the western United States.
Esteban Lopez, 61, Aug. 8
Hair and makeup artist and self-professed “queen” who was a staple in the beauty and LGBTQ communities.
“Estie was exceptional at his craft,” said Debbie Williams, his client of more than 35 years. “People came from all over San Diego and beyond to have him do their hair.”
Lopez treated clients like they were extended family.
Williams recalled that Lopez came to the hospital after she had surgery to cut her hair and lift her spirits. “You don’t get that with your everyday hairstylist,” she said.
James Samuel Milch, 84, July 28
Land-use attorney for more than 50 years, devoted board member of several Balboa Park institutions.
His clients included major companies, including Walmart, SeaWorld, Cox Cable and Waste Management, and developers, property owners and institutions. 4S Ranch and Del Sur were two of the many master-planned communities he represented.
In 1969, Milch married the former Estelle Davies, daughter of the Old Globe Theatre’s longtime board chairman, Lowell Davies, and quickly came to appreciate the arts. He served on the Old Globe’s board in the 1980s as well as that of the San Diego History Center and San Diego Museum of Art.
Milch was also active in Congregation Beth Israel and largely responsible for saving, relocating and restoring the city’s first synagogue, now at the county’s Heritage Park in Old Town.
Willie Lee Morrow, 82, July 22
Hairstylist, chemist, entrepreneur, author and inventor of the Afro pick, a pioneer of the Jheri curl hairstyle, and an inspiring figure in San Diego’s Black community.
His daughter, Cheryl Morrow, said the salon her father established in San Diego in 1959 and the hair products he invented in the 1960s and 1970s came from his desire to serve the Black community by making resources available in their neighborhoods.
Morrow built out his hair products business and used the profits to start a radio station and newspaper. The media companies provided community engagement and affordable advertising opportunities for small-business owners.
Born to a family of sharecroppers in Tuscaloosa, Ala., Morrow taught himself basic barbering and chemistry, and used those skills to build the foundation of his hair care empire.
In the 1970s, the U.S. Department of Defense enlisted Morrow to teach haircutting and cut hair on military bases and in war zones. After his military service, Morrow went on to write numerous books about hair styling and cutting.
Sam Ridgway, 86, July 10
Created a legacy as a pioneer in marine mammal medicine and science.
Known affectionately by his colleagues as the “Dolphin Doctor” and as the father of marine mammal medicine, Ridgway continued that work up until his final days at his Point Loma home.
Throughout his career, Ridgway worked to understand the behavior, physiology and acoustics of marine mammals. He developed dolphin anesthesia and other marine mammal medicines, as well as techniques to study the animals’ hearing where no data existed previously. He pioneered methods for studying them while they swam freely in the open ocean.
In the early 1960s, he helped found the Navy’s Marine Mammal Program — a classified program to study the complexity and intelligence of dolphins, their sonar skills and their ability to descend to dizzying depths.
His book “Mammals of the Sea,” published 50 years ago, remains one of the most comprehensive and widely taught textbooks on marine mammal physiology.
Tom Mustin, 81, July 5
Larger-than-life Navy veteran and lawyer who was part of a storied military family that dates to the Revolutionary War.
Mustin is a name so revered in Navy circles that it’s twice been attached to warships. The most recent namesake, a guided missile destroyer commissioned in 2003 and homeported in San Diego, honors Mustin, his brother, his father and his grandfather.
The Coronado resident was cited for his service in Vietnam, where he did three tours on destroyers to the Tonkin Gulf and a year on river-patrol boats in the Mekong Delta. Among his decorations was a Bronze Star with a “V” for valor, awarded after he took control of a boat when the commander was killed in a firefight.
Born in Annapolis, Md., Mustin was the third child of parents who both had deep ties to the military. According to family history, ancestors of his fought in the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, on both sides in the Civil War, and World War II.
Mustin graduated from Coronado High School in 1958. He then followed a string of Mustins — great-grandfather, both grandfathers, father, uncle and brother — to the Naval Academy. After graduation, he served 11 years in the Navy, retiring as a lieutenant commander. He then went to Harvard Law School and became a litigator with Latham & Watkins in Los Angeles for 20 years.
Darlene Davies, 83, June 21
The first lady of the Old Globe.
Davies’ connection to the theater in Balboa Park began as a child actor. The Mission Hills resident went to serve as the Globe’s historian, a multi-term board member, volunteer and donor. Also, since 1985, the Globe’s outdoor festival theater has been named after her late husband, Lowell Davies.
But Davies’ work for the Globe was just one part of an active life that included chairing the speech pathology department at two local hospitals and serving on the San Diego Commission for Arts & Culture, the San Diego Advisory Board on Women, the Balboa Park Committee and the city’s Park & Recreation Board. She was also an award-winning writer whose published works included a 17-part series about the 1915 Panama-California Exposition in Balboa Park.
In 1951, the 11-year-old Darlene Geer moved from Los Angeles to San Diego with her parents. At 14, she began acting in the Old Globe’s Junior Theatre Wing. In college, she decided to major in speech-language pathology rather than theater. She went on to teach in San Diego State University’s speech pathology department, chaired the speech pathology department at (now-Rady) Children’s Hospital and was the first speech and hearing clinic director at the (now-Balboa) Naval Medical Center in Balboa Park.
Whenever she had free time, she volunteered at the Old Globe, where her husband, attorney Lowell Davies, served on the Globe board for 43 years. Darlene Davies served on the Old Globe’s board of directors and on the Globe Guilders auxiliary and chaired a Globe gala and fashion show.
Robert Tambuzi, 69, June 16
Social justice advocate for San Diego’s Black residents.
Tambuzi was born in Illinois, where he grew up as the oldest of seven children until his father returned from serving in the Korean War and his family relocated to San Diego.
Early on, the Skyline Hills resident recognized the racial disparities evident in his southeastern San Diego neighborhood and began fighting to correct them.
He became involved in activism at Lincoln High, walking out with other students who were demanding the school hire Black teachers and administrators and that they incorporate culturally appropriate food and curriculum. Then while at UC San Diego, he and other students took over the chancellor’s office to again demand that the university increase Black faculty and staff members.
He served on the board of Project New Village. He was instrumental in the creation of the Mount Hope Community Garden on Market Street. After working for former San Diego Councilmember George Stevens in the late 1990s, Tambuzi served as executive director of Harambe House, a treatment center in Encanto that helped boys ages 12 to 17. He also ran the Unified African American Ministerial Action Council and volunteered for dozens of other organizations across San Diego.
Franklin Antonio, 69
UC San Diego graduate who co-founded Qualcomm.
“I’m very sad to share that Franklin Antonio, EVP & Chief Scientist, Emeritus, has passed away,” Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon told workers in an internal message on May 13. “Franklin was one of Qualcomm’s original founders and our longest-serving employee. He was personally involved in so many of Qualcomm’s early technology breakthroughs and, simply put, we would not be the company we are today without his contributions.”
Chipmaker Qualcomm helped fan the growth of everything from cellphones to social media to wearable medical devices. The company did not say when he died.
He was a prolific inventor with hundreds of patents. Antonio also was one of San Diego’s well-known philanthropists. In September, UC San Diego opened a $180 million engineering center — Franklin Antonio Hall — that was seeded with an initial $30 million gift from him. He also donated to Father Joe’s Villages, and the lunch program was renamed in his honor several years ago.
Bishop Robert Henry Brom, 83, May 9
Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego for 23 years.
Brom was appointed bishop of San Diego in 1990, retiring in 2013.
He oversaw the development of several Catholic churches and schools. He helped establish the $12 million Pastoral Center on Paducah Drive in the Bay Ho neighborhood, replacing the diocese’s previous offices at the University of San Diego. Two Catholic high schools, each costing about $80 million and accommodating about 2,000 students, were also established on his watch: Cathedral Catholic in Carmel Valley and Mater Dei in Chula Vista.
Brom’s legacy was also tied up in the international sexual abuse scandal that rocked the Catholic Church two decades ago.
After The Boston Globe launched its investigative series into the church in 2002, Brom revealed allegations against 23 priests at the San Diego diocese.
Hundreds of lawsuits were filed in California and that number included more than 120 cases against the San Diego diocese. Brom publicly urged victims to speak out. Then he directed the San Diego diocese to file for bankruptcy in 2007 on the eve of trial. The church in San Diego eventually reached a nearly $200 million settlement with victims, and the bankruptcy was dismissed.
Jim Dietz, 83, March 27
Former San Diego State baseball coach and the winningest coach in Aztecs history.
Dietz coached the Aztecs for 31 years from 1972-2002, compiling 1,230 wins, ranking in the top 40 all time. He averaged 40 wins over 31 seasons with a winning percentage of .620.
San Diego State inducted him into its Athletic Hall of Fame in 2019.
Dietz retired after the 2002 season. He was inducted into the America Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame the following year.
In 2003, Tony Gwynn, who played for Dietz, succeeded him as coach of the Aztecs. Gwynn honored his predecessor by retiring his No. 4.
Gen. Robert Cardenas, 102, March 10
Local and national military legend who led bombing missions during World War II and helped test pilots break the sound barrier.
Retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Robert “Bob” Cardenas attended San Diego High School and San Diego State University. He became a community leader in his retired years, helping to create Miramar National Cemetery and serving on panels focused on economic growth and at-risk youth.
Cardenas was command pilot of the aircraft that famously launched Chuck Yeager’s Bell X-1 into supersonic flight in 1947, but most of the glory went to Yeager.
Richard Sells, who worked with Cardenas on establishing Miramar National Cemetery, said Cardenas deserves enormous credit for the eight-year quest that ended successfully in 2010. Sells said establishing the 313-acre cemetery with 162,000 gravesites required the difficult tasks of assembling land, sometimes with donations, and working with environmental groups.
The accomplishment was so important to Cardenas that he was buried at Miramar instead of Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.
Janet Cooling, 70, Feb. 25
Nationally renowned contemporary artist who helped bring gay and lesbian imagery into the mainstream art world.
Cooling hit it big in 1984 when she was curated into the American pavilion at the Venice Biennale. The exhibit — titled “Paradise Lost/Paradise Regained: American Visions of the New Decade” — featured 24 artists who were intended to reflect the diversity and energy of American art.
After the Biennale, Cooling considered several teaching opportunities and moved to California to become a professor at San Diego State University, where she taught from 1984 to 2013.
At SDSU, Cooling became known for her unconventional teaching methods and her direct style of communicating with students.
Two of Cooling’s most important paintings are now a part of San Diego’s Civic Art Collection and are on permanent display at two branches of the San Diego Public Library in the Point Loma and College-Rolando locations.
Tracy Morris, 54, Feb. 17
Community advocate and mentor.
He was the executive director and founder of the Blue Heart Foundation, a nonprofit aimed at empowering and educating underserved young men.
The foundation began by helping a handful of boys in a classroom on San Diego State University’s campus, and now it serves more than 80 male students ages 13 to 19, offering education and empowerment programs. Since Morris founded Blue Heart in 2013, more than 50 young men have completed the program and gone on to college.
He grew up in the Skyline neighborhood of southeastern San Diego and attended Morse High. While attending San Diego City College, he joined Phi Beta Sigma, a historically African American fraternity that emphasizes community service. He went on to graduate from SDSU in 1997.
Morris was inspired by his own upbringing. He and his two brothers grew up in an abusive household, without their father. Morris wanted to create something he never had: a safe place to learn and grow.
Dorothy L.W. Smith, 82, Feb. 16
Longtime education leader and the first African American woman elected to public office in San Diego County.
Smith was the first Black woman to serve on the San Diego Unified School District board in 1981. She served about eight years on the school board and was its president twice. She introduced policies to improve academic offerings in city schools and promoted equity to ensure more students would qualify for college. She also trained and mentored teachers.
She taught at Grossmont College and San Diego City College, where she taught English and African American literature. She was a professor at San Diego City College for 24 years and a lecturer at San Diego State.
She said in a 2017 interview that the biggest problem she saw in education was the lack of equity for students, particularly Black and Latino students who were not being given enough opportunities to thrive.
She was inducted into the San Diego Women’s Hall of Fame in 2019.
Morris Casuto, 79, Feb. 11
Founded the local chapter of the Anti-Defamation League and became the go-to voice in favor of tolerance and equity.
Casuto was a high-profile advocate for Jews during a period when the community was subjected to repeated attacks.
He was a friend to law enforcement across the region, helping train police officers and sheriff’s deputies in dealing with antisemitic graffiti at local synagogues and hate-filled flyers posted around the community.
He created a regional registry that analyzed hate crimes and documented the incidents in annual reports to the community. He served on task forces and joined committees aimed at preventing and responding to antisemitism.
Lillian Wasserman, 106, Feb. 1
Billed herself as the region’s oldest working comedian.
From her 70s to her late 90s, the La Costa resident billed herself as the region’s oldest working comedian. She was also the region’s oldest woman to celebrate her bat mitzvah, which she received at the age of 100 in 2015. Most Jewish teens mark this religious rite of passage at age 13, but Wasserman didn’t embrace her faith until late in life, so she said it meant more to her 87 years later.
She was known for her big smile, flaming red hair, outgoing nature and ever-ready supply of jokes.
Wasserman was born Dec. 9, 1915, in the Bronx. Her electrician father would perch her on his lap as a little girl and they’d sing popular songs together at Broadway theaters, the movies or at hotels in the Catskill Mountains. At 15, her long legs helped her land a job as a Broadway chorus girl, and at 16, she started touring as a singer and tap dancer on the Orpheum vaudeville circuit.
Bob Wilson, 93, Jan. 24
Developer and philanthropist.
During his long career as a developer in Los Angeles, Wilson built 63 shopping centers and launched the Fish Market restaurant chain. But the job that gave the gregarious Rancho Santa Fe retiree the most satisfaction was giving his fortune away.
In San Diego County, he donated to Interfaith Community Services in Escondido, Escondido History Center, Palomar College, Escondido Community Foundation, The Monarch School, the San Diego Zoological Society, Father Joe’s Villages, the USS Midway Museum, Maritime Museum of San Diego, San Diego Symphony and First United Methodist Church of San Diego, among others. In 2010, Wilson also underwrote much of the $2 million cost of renovating the stadium at Escondido High School, where his exploits as a teen football player earned him a full-ride college scholarship.
But Wilson’s most famous charitable effort — for which he sought no publicity but TV news reporters tracked him down anyway — was the gift of $1.1 million in individual $1,000 checks to students and faculty at Paradise High School, following a wildfire that razed the entire Northern California town in 2018. Tom Wilson said his father delightedly signed every single check by hand.
William Washington, 83, Jan. 22
Known as “Shoeshine Willie,” a beloved character of Ocean Beach.
For nearly 50 years, he had been an Ocean Beach fixture, repairing and polishing shoes and dispensing advice. His shoeshine business moved around but, for the past two decades, it was anchored in the parking lot of Mallory’s Furniture store at 4905 Newport Ave.
“He made life better for thousands of people,” said Michael Haas, Washington’s longtime landlord and friend. “Always there to talk or give some advice. He just loved being there for others.”
Bob Vetter, 71, Jan. 22
Hall of Fame baseball coach at Palomar College.
Vetter was the head coach at Palomar for 24 years and compiled a 542-393 record, winning eight conference championships and finishing second in the state in 2005.
He was inducted into the California Community College Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2007.
Vetter was the driving force behind Palomar’s recent on-campus baseball field, one of the best in the county.
Rayburn John Bentley Jr., 64, Jan. 4
Maranatha Chapel founder, prolific Christian author and longtime pastor.
Bentley grew a local evangelical Christian church from a few dozen people to a congregation of more than 7,000.
“Pastor Ray” grew up in El Cajon and attended El Cajon Valley High School, where he began his first ministry, a high school Bible study. In 1984, he began Maranatha Chapel, a midweek Bible study at the Mira Mesa Recreation Center. A year later, the church had taken over the auditorium at Wangenheim Middle School, where crowds eventually spilled outside to hear his Sunday sermons.
By 1990, Maranatha Chapel was ready to break ground on a 4.5-acre facility in Rancho Peñasquitos. And six years later, the church moved to another venue on 15 acres in 4S Ranch, this time building a 3,000-seat sanctuary with Sunday School buildings, a bookstore and cafe. Bentley also established Maranatha Christian Schools in 1992, which now has its own, expansive campus two miles west of the church and serves 1,050 children in pre-K through 12th grade.
