Good Obituaries Are About Life, Not About Death

After reading a well-written obituary, one should feel that she or he may have known, or would like to have known, the deceased. I have been collecting obituaries for over 10 years and, it's true, many of the people I read about feel like "old friends," people I would have liked to have known. What the obituaries that I collect have in common is called the "defining line." Carolyn Gilbert, founder of the annual Great Obituary Writers' Conference and editor of www.ObitPage.com, describes the defining line as "an insight into the heart and soul of a life." "When the defining line is missing the result is mediocrity, a long list of survivors but not much in the way of color. This is the common pitfall of most obituaries," says Gilbert. I think you'll agree that the 22 handpicked obituaries that I culled from the two 4" binders that contain the obits I've collected cross a spectrum of "color." (FYI: Letters "I", "Q", "U", and "X" are absent.) Let me know what you think in the 'comments' section.

Are You Living for the "Dash?"

In his book How to Live a Thousand Years, Giovanni Livera leaves us with a striking thought to help us make the most of our lives. He says: "On everyone's tombstone, there is a name, the year they were born, and the date of death. However, the most important item on that whole tombstone is not any of those things -- it is the dash between the dates of birth and death. The dash is your life. The quality of that life determines how many years you live -- not calendar years, but meaningful years. You could live a thousand meaningful years if your experiences are rich and fulfilling." If everything ended right now for you, what would your dash say about you? Starting with Phoenix's own glamorous B-movie actress Aquanetta to Herbert Zipper, who as an inmate at Dachau started a secret orchestra, let's find out how 22 unique people lived their dash. P.S. Carousel aficionado Charlotte Dinger's obituary is the first one I added to my collection back in 1996. I think you'll agree that she lived a "rich and fulfilling dash." Let's each aspire to that end until we expire. Also, acknowledgement should be made to Linda Ellis as the author of the poem,"The Dash," from which Mr. Livera bases his book. Linda can be contacted at www.lindaslyrics.com.

ACQUANETTA ~~ BASIL ~~ Herb CAEN

ACQUANETTA ~ 1921 - 2004 ~ Phoenix's first TV diva; her husband, Jack Ross, Sr., and she moved to Phoenix in 1956 and Jack opened a Lincoln Mercury dealership; Acquanetta soon achieved fame for the glamorous TV ads she did with Jack for the dealership, and for Acqua's Corner, her own TV segment that accompanied Friday night movies. She had four sons whom she called her "greatest success" and she devoted herself to charitable causes like the Heard Museum and the Phoenix Indian School. Never shy, Acquanetta would swing her trademark braids and sport silver and turquoise Native American jewelry, which was no affectation. The B-movie actress died of complications from Alzheimer's disease at age 83. ~~ BASIL ~ 1992-2005 ~~ "I was told once that after God banished Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, He gathered all the animals around Him to explain the situation. He said that man and woman were going to be all alone now and that they had much suffering ahead of them. He asked one of the animals to please go with them to keep them company and give them a little taste of the Garden every now and again. It was the least He could do. None of the animals wanted to go, so God asked again. He said that this was really very serious, that one of them had a duty to Adam and Eve. Very slowly, a dog walked forward." Thank you, Basil, for keeping me company. A more duty-bound dog I'll never find. You did a great, great job, which is really what you always cared most about. ~~ HERB CAEN ~ 1916 - 1997 ~~ Herb Caen's 60-year journalism career was devoted to doting on San Francisco. Mr. Caen enjoyed the status of a beloved Boswell by the Bay. Part of his appeal seemed to lie in the endless bonhomie he projected, always nattily turned out in suit and fedora, often with a martini glass in hand. Mr. Caen exuded a whiff of elegance from a bygone era. Born in Sacramento, he often said he had been conceived while his parents were visiting San Francisco. He began writing his current column on July 5, 1938 and wrote it six days a week until 1991. He wrote in the morning, held court in bars or cafes in the afternoon and took the pulse of the city at A-list events in the evenings. On Herb Caen day, when a 3-mile stretch of waterfront sidewalk was named in his honor, he said, "One day if I do go to heaven, I'm going to do what every San Franciscan does who goes to heaven--he looks around and says, 'It ain't bad, but it ain't San Francisco.'" Mr. Caen is survived by his wife and one son, from a previous marriage.

Charlotte DINGER ~~ Dorothy Covey EVANS ~~ Anne FRATELLINI

CHARLOTTE H. DINGER ~ 1930-1996 ~~ In 1972, Mrs. Dinger, a New Jersey housewife paid a chance visit to a Philadelphia antiques shop and walked out with the foundation of an unlikely career. She was known as the nation's leading collector and foremost authority on antique carved horses and other carousel art. Over the next two decades Mrs. Dinger tracked down, bought and restored scores of horses and other carousel figures. She became familiar with the history of the American carousel and she became an expert in the subtle distinctions of the work of many carousel masters. She helped found the American Carousel Society. She started her own publishing company to produce a definitive coffee table book, "Art of the Carousel." She established a permanent home for more than 100 of her best pieces at Carousel World, a museum and working carousel she helped establish at Peddler's Village, outside of New Hope, Penn. The United States Postal Service has twice used Mrs. Dinger's collection as the basis for an issue of commemorative stamps depicting carousel animals. She campaigned to keep the dwindling supply of working carousels intact. Mrs. Dinger never forgot her initial childhood fascination with the fairy tale experience of whirling around on a noble horse. Mrs. Dinger was never content just to look at the many carousels she visited across the country. She always climbed aboard and took a ride. Mrs. Dinger died of a heart attack and is survived by her husband, two sons and two granddaughters. ~~DOROTHY COVEY EVANS ~ 1922 - 2006~~ Dotty Evans died May 10th due to old age. Born in Fresno, she moved to Globe, AZ in 1925 and then to Inspiration, Ariz. She married Lt. Redmond (Dusty) Evans in 1942. After Dusty's return, she lived the life of an Air Force wife until they retired in Tucson. Dusty died in 1993 and Dotty moved to Peoria, Ariz. We shall miss her perfume bottles, her Japanese art and her neat and tidy home. We shall miss her soft voice, hugs, strong will and sense of humor, especially the belief that the Cubs could win the Series. We shall miss her love of bridge, her fashion sense and sharp dressing, her perfect hairdo and beautiful nails. We shall miss her interest in our lives, her advice, her influence, her style and her presence. But we are comforted by the knowledge that she is now at peace where she has a perfect hairdo and a perpetual manicure. ~~ ANNIE FRATELLINI ~ 1932 - 1997 ~~ France's first female clown, who founded the nation's first school died of cancer in Paris at age 64. Under the Big Top, few could match this funny ladys pratfalls or pedigree. She was descended from circus entertainers of the 19th century. She once said, "To be a clown means more than just putting on a costume and making funny faces at the audience. The clown must take the audience on a unique adventure in a strange dimension." Miss Fratellini is survived by her husband and one daughter.

Spalding GRAY ~~ Lorraine HANSBERRY ~~ Stuart JEWELL

SPALDING GRAY ~ 1941 - 2004 ~~ On March 8, the body of self-effacing monologist and actor Spalding Gray was pulled from the East River two months after he disappeared. Gray's best work offered a sublime mix of personal confessions and politically charged insights. He mingled performance art with comedy in acclaimed monologues like "Swimming to Cambodia" and "It's a Slippery Slope." Gray was known to have been deeply troubled and had attempted suicide before. His life took a sudden downturn when he suffered a frightening head-on car crash during a 2001 vacation in Ireland to celebrate his 60th birthday. He suffered a cracked skull, a broken hip and nerve damage to one foot and although he recovered physically, the incident left him traumatized. He was last seen leaving his Manhattan apartment on January 10 and witnesses had reported a man fitting Gray's description look despondent and upset on the Staten Island Ferry that evening. He is survived by his spouse, Kathleen and two sons, Forrest and Theo. Editor's Note: For more on Spalding Gray, see my blog tribute at www.ripspaldingray.blogspot.com ~~ LORRAINE HANSBERRY ~ 1930 - 1965 ~ Born in Chicago, American playwright Lorraine Hansberry's parents were civil rights activists and moved into a white neighborhood when she was eight years old. They were met by an angry mob. A civil trial ensued and it was this experience that formed the basis for her most successful 1959 play, "A Raisin in the Sun." Hansberry died in 1965 from cancer and her friend James Baldwin wrote about the last time he saw her: "...she was seated, talking, dressed all in black, wearing a handsome wide, black hat, thin and radiant. I knew she had been ill but I didn't know, then, how seriously. I said, 'Lorraine, baby, you look beautiful, how in the world do you do it?' She was leaving and she turned and smiled that smile and said, 'It helps to develop a serious illness, Jimmy!' and waved and disappeared." She wrote in 'Raisin:' "We have decided to move into our house because my father earned it for us brick by brick. We don't want to make no trouble for nobody or fight no causes and we will try to be good neighbors. And that's all we got to say about that." ~~ STUART JEWELL ~ 1913 - 1997 ~~ Celebrated cinematographer was best known for his time-lapse photography in Walt Disney's landmark nature movie, "The Living Desert," which won the Academy Award for best documentary in 1953. A man of almost obsessive patience, he once spent virtually every daylight hour for more than three weeks perched in an oak tree near a populous beehive in a hooded hollow of the tree. A man of intense wonder, he had a boundless curiosity that took him and his cameras around the world several times. Although something of a loner, he was far from a recluse. He outlived two wives and almost ran his third ragged. For all his interest in nature, Mr. Jewell had developed a recent obsession with steam locomotives. Recognizing that the magnificent engines were an endangered species that would soon disappear he tracked them down and filmed them throughout the world, including a memorable wintertime trip to China where he worked outdoors in subfreezing weather. A man so at one with his work that he rarely went a day without filming something and routinely shot tens of thousands of feet a film a year. Although he and his wife enjoyed the friendships they made on their foreign trips, they rarely had time to socialize at home. It would be getting on toward evening, his wife recalled and her husband, who had filmed dramatic sunsets all over the world, would be drawn to the beach one more time. "If we don't go," he would say, "we might miss a killer sunset." Mr. Jewell is survived by his wife and died in Costa Mesa, Calif. of cancer.

Elisabeth KUBLER~ROSS, M.D. ~~ Frances LEAR ~~ David McCORD

ELISABETH KUBLER-ROSS , M.D. ~ 1926 - 2004 ~~ Doyenne of death and internationally known psychiatrist, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross was reknown for her groundbreaking study of more than 500 dying patients in the 1960s, giving her the material to write "On Death and Dying," the classic study of the stages of death. The people who attended her funeral painted her as a woman who was feisty, compassionate, stubborn, mischievous, silly and serious. She was a "guru," and like most gurus, she had her quirks. A series of strokes hit Kubler-Ross in 1994 and she had been partially paralyzed and unable to move very far from her recliner, where she spent most of her day. She was angry with God for the strokes and was not afraid to let him know. "The strokes were terribly unfair of God. After helping mankind all of my life, I finally retire and have more pain than I can imagine. I gave God hell and told him that this was the biggest insult he could ever give me." When Lady Di was killed, and in the days after, Kubler-Ross was mesmerized and grief-stricken. She couldn't leave the television set. On the night of the funeral, when the services were aired between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m., Kubler-Ross wept the entire time. "I have studied the terminally ill for 30 years and have shed few, if any tears," she said. But I realized that I had always taken care of the grief of others and not my own. I have issues I need to deal with, too. So when the funeral came, it was wonderful timing. I had asked God to give me a sad movie so I could cry my eyes out. It was really wonderful to cry so freely." "Life is strange," she said. "And death is stranger." Editor's Note: I was in attendance at Kubler-Ross's funeral in Scottsdale on September 4th and wrote about it. When I figure out how to link sites to this blog, I will do so and you will be able to read my observations. ~~ FRANCES LEAR~ 1923 - 1996 ~~ Ms. Lear was a mercurial figure in the media world who spent some $25 million she received in a divorce settlement to start a magazine named after herself. Ms. Lear was married to Norman Lear for 28 years. In recalling her years as a Hollywood wife, she said she had felt constantly ignored and undervalued, had had little self-esteem and had often been depressed. Ms. Lear was born at the Vanderheusen Home for Wayward Girls in Hudson, New York, the child of an unwed mother and an unknown father. She pulled no punches in her autobiography, "The Second Seduction," (1992), laying out in harrowing details her personal history and most intimate experiences. She was 33 and a buyer for better active wear at Lord & Taylor when she married Mr. Lear and moved to California. She turned down a buyer's job with a store in L.A. and concentrated on homemaking and rearing her two daughters. "I believe the second half of one's life is meant to be better than the first half," she said. "It is certainly true of me." Ms. Lear died of breast cancer at home in Manhattan, survived by her two daughters and two grandsons. DAVID McCORD ~ 1892 - 1997 ~~ Talented essayist, anthologist, watercolorist and trout fisherman, David McCord was most highly regarded for his children's poetry. To generations of Harvard graduates like himself, Mr. McCord was also known as the executive director of the Harvard Fund Council. He wrote or edited more than 40 books of poetry and prose. In the realm of light verse, Mr. McCord was also the often quoted author of the light verse titled "Epitaph for a Waiter," which consisted of its entirety of these lines: 'By and by, God caught his eye.' Over a 25 year period, Mr. McCord talked to more than 100,000 fourth and fifth graders across the country. He died in Goddard House, a nursing home in Boston and is survived by his companion, Harriet Parker of Boston. Editor's Note: In 1986, I had the pleasure of hearing Mr. McCord speak at the Harvard Club on Commonwealth Avenue. He was curious about the language of young people and pointed out the common and, often unusual, use of the word "like." Like wow. Like cool, etc. Several days later I happened to be in Kinko's on Boylston Street and noticed a sign on one of their big copiers that was being worked on by a technician. It simply said: "Like dead." I wrote Mr. McCord a letter to tell him what I saw and he sent back a kind and appreciative note on beautiful engraved letterhead. I still have the letter.

Anais NIN ~~ Georgia O'KEEFFE ~~ Lucia PAMELA

ANAIS NIN ~ 1903 - 1977 ~~ Writer and diarist, born in Paris, of a Catalan father and a Danish mother, Anais spent many of her early years with Cuban relatives. Later a naturalized American citizen, she lived and worked in Paris, New York and Los Angeles. Author of avant-garde novels in the French surrealistic style, she is best known for her life and times in "The Diary of Anais Nin" and "The Early Diaries of Anais Nin." The legendary relationship between Anais and Henry Miller produced letters that reflect nearly a 10-year liaison. When Nin met Miller she was living in France and married to Hugo Guiler. The marriage was hardly conventional and she and Miller began a passionate love affair. Nin said, "There is not one big cosmic meaning for all. There is only the meaning we each give to our life, an individual meaning, an individual plot, like an individual novel, a book for each person." GEORGIA O'KEEFFE ~ 1887 - 1996 ~~ Born in Sun Prairie, Wis., O'Keeffe graduated from the Chatham Protestant Episcopal Institute in Williamsburg, Va. in 1904. She then studied art at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Art Students League in New York. With her paintings she vividly portrayed the power and emotion of objects of nature. This was first seen in her charcoal drawings of silhouetted bud-like forms exhibited in 1916 that brought her fame. During the 1920s, she explored this theme in her magnified paintings of flowers which to this day enchant people amorously. After spending a summer in New Mexico, Georgia O'Keeffe, enthralled by the barren landscape and expansive skies of the desert, would explore the subject of animal bones in her paintings of the 1930s and 1940s. Just as with the flowers, she painted the bones magnified and captured the stillness and remoteness of them, while at the same time expressing a sense of beauty that lies within the desert. Georgia O'Keeffe was married to the pioneer photographer Alfred Stieglitz in 1924. It was at Stieglitz's famed New York art gallery "291" that her charcoal drawings were first exhibited in 1916. The union lasted 22 years, until Stieglitz's death. O'Keeffe died on March 6th in Santa Fe, New Mexico. "When I think of death, I only regret that I will not be able to see this beautiful country anymore, unless the Indians are right and my spirit will walk here after I'm gone." ~~ LUCIA PAMELA ~ 1904 - 2002 ~~ Best known for recording a music album "Into Outer Space With Lucia Pamela" in 1969 about her fictional travels to the moon, Ms. Pamela was a one-of-a-kind entertainer. Born in St. Louis, she moved to Fresno, Calif., where she managed the Fresno Storyland Amusement Park, where she also played Mother Goose. Ms. Pamela formed what some say was the country's first all-female orchestra, Lucia Pamela and the Musical Pirates, in which she claimed to play 15 instruments. One of Ms. Pamela's proudest accomplishments was building a rocket, touring the Milky Way and stopping on the moon to record her album. With the feel of a warped bebop children's album, it features Ms. Pamela on all instruments -- piano, accordion, drums, clarinet, and probably various household appliances -- accompanying herself as she tells, with gee-whiz glee, tales of amiable lunar roosters, trips to Mars and blue winds. She also created a coloring book that tells the story of a moon trip in which she meets cows, Indians and anthropomorphic cashews. "Some of the people there spoke Almond," she wrote. Ms. Pamela is survived by a son and one daughter, Georgia Frontiere, owner of the St. Louis Rams.

Jackie ROBINSON ~~ Deborah SNODGRASS ~~ John THAW

JACKIE ROBINSON ~ 1919 - 1972 ~~ Jack Roosevelt Robinson became the first African American Major League Baseball player of the modern era in 1947. Born in Cairo, Georgia, he moved with his mother, Mallie Robinson, and four siblings to Pasadena, Calif. in 1920, after his father deserted the family. At UCLA he was a star player of football, basketball, track and baseball. He left college in 1941 because of financial problems, not many credits from a bachelor's degree. Robinson also met his future wife, Rachel, at UCLA, whom he married in 1946. In 1946, Branch Rickey was the general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers and had the secret goal of signing the Negro Leagues' top players to the team. His scouts were told that they were seeking players for a new all-black league Rickey was forming; not even the scouts knew his true objective. Robinson drew national attention when Rickey selected him from a list of promising candidates and signed him. Robinson was a slightly curious candidate to be the first black Major Leaguer in 57 years. Not only was he 27, he also had a fiery temperament. Rickey chose Robinson, feeling that Jackie's outspoken nature would, in the long run, be more beneficial for their cause. However, to ease the transition, Rickey asked Robinson to work hard to restrain his temper and his outspokenness. Aware of what was at stake, Robinson agreed. Robinson's debut at first base with the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947, was one of the most closely watched events in baseball history and a profound moment in the history of the Civil Rights Movement. During that first season, Robinson suffered considerable abuse. He generally conducted himself very well, though his composure cracked from time to time. For example, he punched an umpire in the face after the ump supposedly told him "go back to the jungle you little nigger!" Throughout the season, Robinson experienced considerable harassment from both players and fans. Robinson was regarded as a fierce competitor in the truest sense. Robinson's final few years were marked by great difficulty. The diabetes that plagued him in middle age had left him virtually blind and contributed to his severe heart troubles. He died on October 24th and was interred in the Cypress Hills Cemetery in Brooklyn, NY. In one of his most famous quotes, he said "I'm not concerned with your liking or disliking me, all I ask is that you respect me as a human being." Robinson was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962. In 2003, the United States Congress posthumously awarded Robinson the Congressional Gold Medal. He is survived by his wife, Rachel and two children; son, Jackie, Jr. was killed in a car accident. ~~ DEBORAH SNODGRASS ~ 1968 - 2002 ~~ Deborah Lea Snodgrass passed away on October 12, 20o2. Her life was tragically ended by the terrorist bombings that took place in Bali, Indonesia on that date. Born in Springfield, Missouri, Debbie and her family moved to Phoenix in 1975. She attended St. Simon and Jude Elementary School and graduated from Xavier College Prepatory in 1987. Debbie's free spirit and love of adventure inspired her to pursue an international career as a teacher of English as a Second Language. In addition to working in Santa Monica and Washington, D.C., she taught in Italy, Greece, Korea and Indonesia. During her years in Bali, Debbie also worked with a number of design and manufacturing firms in the fashion industry. She is survived by her parents, one brother, her grandparents and innumerable friends throughout the world. ~ JOHN THAW ~ 1942 - 2002 ~~ The British television actor known to millions as the crusty, music-loving Chief Inspector Morse of Oxford died at his home in Wiltshire, England at age 60 of throat cancer. His series, based on novels by Colin Dexter, began in 1987; its 33 two-hour episodes were broadcast over 15 years. Idiosyncratic characterization rather than fast action or complex plotting was what fascinated regular viewers of "Inspector Morse," and the inspector gave them plenty. He was said to have graduated from Oxford but was bone lazy. He ignored forensic science and could not stand the sight of blood. He drank too much and drove a bright red Jaguar. Born in Manchester, Mr. Thaw was the son of a truck driver. After dropping out of school, he worked as a laborer and a baker until a teacher who had seen him perform in school plays urged him to audition for the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. He was accepted at the age of 17. The role of Inspector Morse brought fame and fortune to Mr. Thaw. In 1993 he was honored as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire. He is survived by his wife and two daughters.

Gianni VERSACE ~~ Beatrice WOOD ~~ Judith YEE ~~ Herbert ZIPPER

GIANNI VERSACE ~ 1946 - 1997 ~~ Giovanni "Gianni" Versace was born in Reggio Calabria, Italy and was a charismatic and accomplished designer of clothing and theater costumes. He was influenced by Andy Warhol and modern and abstract art and considered one of the most colorful and talented designers of the late 20th century. Versace was among the first to revive the cat suit, to bring back the mini skirt, to show tights worn as trousers, to bring the bustier out at night and bead it. In 1982 his dresses made with fine metal mesh first appeared and were a hit. In less than 10 years, Versace built an empire worth $807 million. He used celebrities, including Madonna, as models for both the runway and print ads. The designer battled with a rare cancer of the inner ear. He was presumed to be in remission when, one July morning in the summer of 1997, returning from his customary walk on Ocean Drive, he was gunned down outside his ocean-front mansion in Miami Beach. He was murdered by the spree killer Andrew Cunanan, who committed suicide shortly after killing Versace. Madonna said, "I'm going to miss you, Gianni. We're all going to miss you. But I've got a pocketful of memories in my Versace jeans and they're not going anywhere." ~~ BEATRICE WOOD ~ 1892 - 1998 ~~ A ceramic artist who was known as much for her irreverent quips, beauty, bohemian lifestyle and famous lovers as for her luminous luster-glaze chalices and who inspired at least two movie characters died in Ojai, Calif. on her 105th birthday. An independent woman inclined to say whatever was on her mind, Ms. Wood famously attributed her longevity to "chocolate and young men" and just as memorably titled her 1985 autobiography, "I Shock Myself." In fact she was a lifelong vegetarian who neither smoked nor drank and who remained clear-minded enough to take up the computer at the age of 90. Until 1995, she worked at the potter's wheel every day, following a strict daily regimen in her studio. A member of the Theosophy movement since 1923, she had moved to Ojai to be near its leader, the Indian sage Krishnamurti. For the last four decades of her life, she dressed exclusively in bright Indian saris and wore large amounts of silver-and-turquoise jewelry, even when throwing pots, with her thick, hip-length gray hair twisted into braids or a bun. She was born in San Francisco and reared in New York and demonstrated an early affinity for art and nonconformity, much to the dismay of her wealthy parents. In the 1920s, two of her closest friends were photographer Man Ray and artist Marcel Duchamp. In 1993, she was the subject of a documentary, "Beatrice Wood, the Mama of Dada." ~~ JUDITH YEE ~ 1943 - 1996 ~~ Using DNA testing, medical investigators identified another victim of the crash of TWA Flight 800. The remains of the victim, Judith Yee, were recovered by divers four months after the crash. Miss Yee was a retired systems analyst for Mobil Oil who had lived in NYC for more than 30 years. Friends recalled how one of Miss Yee's main interests was her volunteer work in the Washington Square area on behalf of causes benefiting animals, especially dogs. Miss Yee helped establish the dog run in Washington Square park. Her dog, Max, a Cairn terrier, was killed with her in the crash off the southeastern coast of Long Island on July 17. ~~ HERBERT ZIPPER ~ 1905 - 1997 ~~ An inmate at Dachau, Herbert Zipper, started a secret orchestra and with a friend composed a song that became an anthem of the death camps. Born in Vienna, the son of a prosperous engineer and inventor, his family moved in intellectual circles and he studied at the Vienna Music Academy with Maurice Ravel and Richard Strauss. In the spring of 1938, Mr. Zipper was arrested by the Austrian police and handed over to the SS and sent to Dachau and given the job of pushing cartloads of stone. He found himself in the company of other musicians, including members of the Munich Philharmonic. The musicians began scavenging for bits of wood and metal to make instruments. At one point, Mr. Zipper asked a sympathetic guard for wire and later found it under his pillow. The inmates were able to fashion 11 instruments in all. They formed an orchestra, playing regular Sunday afternoon concerts for the other prisoners in an abandoned outhouse. In September 1938 Mr. Zipper was sent to Buchenwald. Before Hitler devised his plan for mass executions, some Jews were still able to buy their way out of the camps and in February 1939 Mr. Zipper's father secured his release. From Buchenwald , Mr. Zipper went to the Philippines, where his fiancee, a Viennese ballerina, had fled. There, the two were married. Mr. Zipper became the director of the Manila Symphony but in early 1942, the Japanese invaded and he was imprisoned once again, this time for refusing to conduct the symphony for occupying forces. When the Japanese were defeated in 1945, Mr. Zipper conducted a celebratory concert of Beethoven's "Eroica" and Dvorak's "New World" symphonies in the bombed-out ruins of Manila's Santa Cruz church. In 1946, he came to the U.S., where he was a founder and the conductor of the Brooklyn Symphony Orchestra. In 1953, he moved to Chicago and founded the Music Center of the North Shore in Winnetka. Mr. Zipper moved to L.A. in 1972 and became projects director of the School of Performing Arts of the University of California. For the last 20 years of his life, he conducted concerts for children in the L.A. public schools. He is survived by a niece and a nephew.