Norma Lorre Goodrich
CLAREMONT, Calif. (AP)–Norma Lorre Goodrich, a prolific author and former professor who unearthed what she called the true story behind the legend of King Arthur, died Sept. 19, her longtime assistant told the Los Angeles Times. She was 89.
Goodrich died of natural causes at her home in Claremont, Darin Stewart told the newspaper.
The author spent many years researching books on King Arthur, Merlin, Guinevere and the Holy Grail, traveling to Scotland with John Hereford Howard, following routes in ancient maps, and studying clues gathered from artifacts and writings.
Goodrich determined that King Arthur was a real person who once lived in Scotland, not a mythical hero in southwestern England or Wales as others had thought, while Guinevere was a Pictish queen and Lancelot a Scottish king.
Goodrich graduated from the University of Vermont in 1938 with a bachelor’s degree. She later earned doctoral degrees in French and Roman philology from Columbia University.
In 1964, Goodrich married Howard and began teaching French and comparative literature at the University of Southern California. She became dean of the faculty at Scripps College in Claremont seven years later.
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Norman Lewis
WHITTIER, Calif. (AP)–Norman Lewis, an authority on English grammar and usage who catalogued obscure words and counseled correct pronunciation in dozens of books, died Sept. 8, his daughter told The New York Times. He was 93.
Lewis died of natural causes, his daughter, Debbie, told the newspaper.
In the books “Word Power Made Easy,” “30 Days to Better English” and “30 Days to a More Powerful Vocabulary”–all still in print–Lewis promised to expand readers’ vocabularies and improve their lives.
Lewis used other books to guide readers into the far reaches of the English language. He introduced them to the meaning of “mulct” (to bilk, tax or punish by fine); the difference between an anthropologist and a polyandrist; and more than 100 “esoteric phobias,” including aichmophobia (fear of pointed objects), taeniophobia (fear of tapeworms) and cibophobia (fear of food).
Lewis was a longtime faculty member at Rio Hondo College in Whittier and previously taught at New York University and the City College of New York.
He had earned degrees from City College and Columbia University. He joined the Rio Hondo faculty in 1964.
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Concha Ortiz y Pino de Kleven
SANTA FE (AP)–Concha Ortiz y Pino de Kleven, a Spanish culture activist and former New Mexico state legislator, has died. She was 96.
She died Saturday of pneumonia in a Santa Fe retirement community, according to Ana Pacheco, a friend who published her biography two years ago.
Born Maria Concepcion Ortiz y Pino in Galisteo in 1910, two years before New Mexico became a state, she was educated at the Roman Catholic Loretto Academy in Santa Fe.
She later founded the state’s first vocational school in Galisteo and taught traditional New Mexico arts and crafts, including woodworking and weaving.
She was elected to the Legislature for three terms, in 1936, 1938 and 1940. In 1941, at age 30, she became Democratic majority whip–the first woman to hold such a position in state government.
Among her causes: letting women serve on juries, equalizing funding for urban and rural schools and mandatory Spanish-language instruction in seventh and eighth grades. She also encouraged the preservation of traditional arts and crafts helping to set up workshops during the Depression.
Five presidents–Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford and Carter–appointed her to national boards such as the National Commission on Architectural Barriers, the National Advisory Council to the National Institutes of Health, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
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Andras Suto
BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP)–Andras Suto, a writer and human rights advocate for his fellow ethnic Hungarians in Romania who was persecuted by Nicolae Ceausescu’s regime, has died. He was 79.
Suto died Saturday night at a Budapest hospital where he was being treated for cancer, said Laszlo Cselenyi, Suto’s son-in-law.
Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany described Suto as a “creator, a sufferer and nearly a martyr of our common history.”
Western Romania, including Transylvania, was part of Hungary until World War I and still has a large ethnic Hungarian population, whose fate has since often defined relations between the two countries.
Suto for decades spoke up when the human rights of ethnic Hungarians in Romania were threatened, including attempts at forced integration, efforts by Ceausescu’s communist regime to eliminate Hungarian-language schools and plans to bulldoze villages, many of them predominantly Hungarian.
In March 1990, Suto was nearly beaten to death and lost an eye during clashes between Romanians and ethnic Hungarians in the Romanian city of Tirgu Mures after Ceausescu was ousted in December 1989.
In his works, Suto wrote much about the ordeals of living as a minority–often in humorous, melancholic tones–but he also called for the peaceful coexistence between ethnic groups.
From 1980, the Ceausescu regime banned his books and plays, but they continued to be published and performed to great critical and popular acclaim in Hungary.
Among his best-known works are the semi-autobiographical “My Mother Promises Light Dreams,” the essay collection “Let The Words Come To Me” and a play “Advent On Harghita.” His diary “An Eye For A Word” was published in 1993.
Suto was a member of the Romanian parliament from 1965 to 1977 and vice president of the Romanian Writers’ Association from 1974 to 1982. He received numerous state and literary awards both in Romania and Hungary.
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