Pulcini helped Vietnam war refugees
Shortly after graduating from LaVerne College in 1963, June and her husband Ron Pulcini were sent to Vietnam with the International Voluntary Services (IVS). When the Vietnam War escalated, the couple went to Laos, where they worked until 1970. June then settled in Hermosa Beach, where she married inventor Marvin May. Pulcini remained active in IVS as a member of its board.
In the aftermath of the Vietnam War, Pulcini helped many Vietnamese and Laos refugees immigrate to the United States, and played an important role in ending the U.S. embargo on Vietnam. She was also active in progressive Hermosa Beach movements.
Pulcini passed away on January 1, 2025, at age 84.
Savela was brilliant, compassionate
Mira Costa High Senior Ford Savela died in an auto accident on January 7 when a car he was riding in on Sepulveda Boulevard in Manhattan Beach was hit by a speeding car coming from the opposite direction. The driver of the other car fled, but was subsequently arrested.
Savela was 18.
“Ford was the embodiment of what every teacher dreams of in a student—brilliant, driven, and compassionate,” Mira Costa Computer Science and Engineering teacher Ken “Mr. B” Brenan said.
Costa’s eSports MVP trophy will be named after Savela. A GoFundMe campaign was established to fund the Ford W. Savela Legacy of Kindness Scholarship.
Feys was low key HB Man of the Year
Long time Hermosa Kiwanian and 2001 Hermosa Beach Man of the Year Earl Feys passed away January 16, at age 87.
“His life revolved around service to our community, his family and friends; preferably without recognition,” fellow Kiwanian Rick Koenig said.
Feys served as the Hermosa Kiwanis president in 1993-94, and subsequently was its representative to Kiwanis International.
In 2021, Leadership Hermosa recognized Feys with its Nonprofit Leadership Award. He also served as president of the Hermosa Beach Sister City Association.
Levy the reader
Sol Levy taught for more than three decades, with notable kindness, and knowledge. In retirement, he was known as the man reading while he walked along the beach, or enjoying coffee at Uncle Bill’s or Local Yolk. He surfed with his sons into his late 70s, and was a beloved companion, father of four, grandfather of 11, and great grandfather of 10.
Levy passed away in March, at age 95.
Parker Herriott credited with Noble Park
Parker Herriott was a relentless Hermosa Beach activist credited with blocking hotel development on the Hermosa Beach Strand, on the site of the former Biltmore Hotel. Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, Herriott led the fight against six, City Council-supported, ballot measures, asking voters to approve development on city-owned property at 14th Street and The Strand. Parker helped qualify a voter initiative to make the former Biltmore Hotel site a park. It passed overwhelmingly, 6,772 to 4,106.
He passed away in April, 2025. He was 86.
‘Be cool to everyone’ was Browning’s credo
Greg Browning was a filmmaker and former professional surfer when he was diagnosed with ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) in August, 2023. Over the following two years he embarked on a race to live as fully as the disease would allow. He had breakfast with friends once a week at Eat At Joe’s. He thanked 15 pages of friends during his induction speech into the Hermosa Beach Surfers Walk of Fame in 2024. He finished editing what he knew would be his last and most important film, “A Marble in the Jar,” about his close friend and World Surf League champion Tatiana Weston-Webb.
“His credo was, ‘Be cool to everyone.’ That is how you can honor his memory. It’s as simple as that,” Browning’s brother Jeff told mourners at Body Glove, where Browning worked for many years, and where his memorial was held.
Browning passed away on April 11, 2025, a week shy of his 50th birthday.
Beuder was born to be a Grammie
Gail Patricia (Currie) Beuder was a member of the first graduating class of Mira Costa High School (1953), where she was a song leader, and half of Melvin, the school mascot (the rear end).
She and her husband, Larry, had four boys within the first eight years of their 59-year marriage. After moving from Hermosa to Manhattan, they had a fifth boy.
Beuder was born to be a “Grammie” to her 10 grandchildren, her family said.
Beuder passed away peacefully on April 12, 2025 in her Manhattan Beach home of 60 years, surrounded by family.
Amarillas was HB Woman of the Year
Low profile, high performer, Hermosa Beach community activist Yvonne Amarillas passed away on Monday, April 21, 2025 at age 77.
Amarillas was born in Scheveningen, a seaside resort in the Netherlands, which she often compared to her adopted home. Her community work earned her Hermosa Beach Chamber of Commerce Woman of the Year honors in 2000.
Amarillas was a Realtor with Shorewood Realtors and Strand Hill for many years, and before that sold advertising for Easy Reader.
“Yvonne was an old school, old soul person who was always calm, always smiling and who always had a kind word for everybody she met,” recalled Easy Reader publisher Kevin Cody.
Midstokke served as clerk, councilmember
Kathy Midstokke is the only person in Hermosa Beach’s history to have been elected city clerk (in 1984, and 1987) and city councilmember (in 1989). She was praised in both positions for her poise and moderation.
Midstokke passed away on April 27, 2025.
Levi was inspirational high school tennis player
Braun Levi, an 18-year-old Loyola High School tennis star, was killed by a suspected drunk driver while crossing Sepulveda Boulevard, in Manhattan Beach, shortly after midnight on Sunday, May 4, 2025.
Levi and his family were from Pacific Palisades but had relocated to Hermosa Beach after losing their home to the wildfires in January. Levi was ranked 50th nationally as a tennis player and was committed to the University of Virginia next fall. Just days before the accident, he and his doubles partner had won their fourth consecutive Mission League championship. He was a four year varsity player and team captain.
But beyond his athletic feats, Levi was known as an exuberant, kind-hearted young man who was the life of every room he entered.
“Braun was a shining presence in our Loyola family, bringing light, joy, and inspiration to everyone he touched,” wrote Loyola Principal Jamal Adams in an email sent to the school community.
Chhabria’s success built on trust
Raju Chhabria’s eulogizers credited his success to the trust he inspired in his clients.
“In India, we have a saying. If you don’t know jewelry, know your jeweler,’” childhood friend Rajan Kapali said at Chhabria’s memorial. After immigrating to the South Bay from his native Bangalore, India, in the early 1980s Chhabria became the most successful residential Realtor in South Bay history. He was the area’s number 1 residential Realtor for over two decades, with over $3 billion in sales.
Chhabria passed away on June 18, at age 69, at his home in Palos Verdes.
Del Rio charged life
The impact artist and surfboard builder Zen Del Rio had on the South Bay surf community was evident in the hundreds of surfboards that lined the chain link fence at RAT Beach on the day of his memorial paddleout, Sunday, August 17.
Each of the boards bore Del Rio’s black trident laminate. He co-founded Trident Surfboards in 1975, and never stopped shaping boards. But he also was a widely exhibited artist and designer. For over two decades he designed the shirts for the Catalina Classic Paddleboard Race.
Mourners at the paddleout spoke of annual surf trips with Del Rio to Puerto Escondido, the Mexican Pipeline. His commitment to surfing was equaled by his commitment to art and friends.
Del Rio was 68 when he died on June 30, 2025.
Bath was Ercole’s heart and soul
Allison Bath learned she had stage four squamous cell carcinoma while sitting at a booth in Ercole’s Bar & Grill, where she had been a bartender for 13 years. She was surrounded by co-workers and patrons when she broke down in tears as she hung up the phone with her doctor.
“I wanted to be surrounded by my second family when I made the call for my test results,” Bath said.
The subsequent outpouring of support, friend Autumn Maher Raia said, was the community returning the love Bath has given to everyone around her for so many years.
“Allison was the heart and soul of Ercole’s,” Maher Raia said. “It was easy for the community to step up and help with everything and anything possible.”
She passed away July 23, 2025. She was 55.
Theater maven Maggie Moir
When Maggie Moir was a drama student at Pepperdine College she rebelled against the post WWII ethos by vowing never to marry and never to have children.
“I was going to New York to work in the theater, ” she told friends. Moir’s New York journey was waylaid by three husbands and five children. But nothing could deter her commitment to theater. More than any other person, Moir helped shape theater in the South Bay.
Her involvement in local theater began in the early ‘60s when she convinced five PTA’s to donate $1,000 for what would evolve into the South Bay Youth Theater Guild, at Pier Avenue Junior High (Now the Hermosa Beach Community Theater).
She served on the Hermosa Beach Arts Foundation for 16 years, and helped bring numerous theater productions to the Hermosa Community Theater, including children’s puppet shows. Moir passed away August 8, 2025, at age 93.
In the early ‘70s, she and theater patron Bonnie Anderson started South Bay Jr. Programs. They teamed with Dr. Bob Haag at El Camino College’s Center for the Arts to bring children’s programs to Marsee Auditorium. In addition, they produced the Nutcracker Ballet at El Camino every holiday season from 1972 to 1997.
In subsequent years she enlisted the support of the Hermosa Cultural Arts Foundation in producing plays at the Hermosa Community Theater, including Angelo Massimo’s “No Justice, No Peace,” and Steven Sondheim’s “Into the Woods.”
Moir also worked as the entertainment and dining editor for Easy Reader during the mid ‘70s.
Allen Vos was lifeguard, paddler
Lorie Allen Vos became the first female beach lifeguard in Redondo Beach at age 18.
The Redondo Beach resident started swimming competitively at six years old, and went on to compete in the Junior Olympics. In high school she set multiple school records. She was a long time member of the Lanakila Outrigger Canoe Club and was on her way to the qualifiers in Samoa for the U.S. Women’s National Team when she was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer.
She passed away August 25, 2025 surrounded by family. She was 60 years old.
Linda Kingdon broke rules
with a wink and a smile
Linda Kingdon, a wife, mom, grandmother, sister, mother-in-law, aunt, friend, justice protester, pool-hopper, drag show connoisseur, and tennis ace, passed away in October at 77.
In 1971, Linda married Steve Kingdon and for 53 years, they shared a partnership full of travel, laughter, dancing — the kind of love that grew stronger with every trip down Mammoth’s slopes and every road trip taken in their Volkswagen van or bug.
The couple raised their family in Hermosa Beach on 9th Street, where she’d organize block and holiday parties, and was always around to help neighbors with whatever they might need. Kingdon was a parent volunteer at the South Bay Adult School preschool and the Hermosa schools.
She ruled the Live Oak tennis courts in Manhattan Beach, where she earned a spot in the A-level Marine League, not just through skill, but also sheer determination and love of the game.
She backpacked through Central America in her 60s, sleeping in hostels, and living with a family in Nicaragua to learn Spanish. She was a fearless adventurer with a soft spot for hotel pool hopping.
She believed drag queens deserved dollars, Real Housewives deserved admiration, and social justice protests deserved her presence.
She left behind a legacy of bold living, generosity, compassionate love, and slightly naughty rebellion.
Spiritus brought calm to chaos
Pat Spiritus had a background in finance and marketing with Mattel when she met Hermosa Beach Council candidate Robert “Burgie” Benz in 1990. She brought order to his campaign, leading to her husband serving two terms on the Hermosa Council.
She also brought something resembling order and even respectability to the Hermosa Beach Ironman, an event that had no organization, but which her husband was rumored to be involved in. The competition, involving running, paddling, and chugging a six pack, has been woven into the community fabric, in large part through its distribution of proceeds to local charities, which Spiritus-Benz instituted.
Spiritus-Benz passed away Sunday, October 5, at age 70, after a decade-long battle with pancreatic cancer.
“Patricia was a mystical presence who would bring calm to chaos, a presence to which everyone would gravitate. Life with her was a constant display of kindness, warmth and the true meaning of bonhomie,” her husband said.
James embraced freedom, refused to be chained
On October 14, 2025 Ryan James had a seizure in the middle of the night in his dorm at UCLA, where he was a first year student. The Mira Costa High graduate had not experienced a seizure since June 2023. Perhaps the transition to college life, with its new pressures, and tendency toward sleep deprivation, triggered a large seizure. It took Jame’s life.
The James family and the entire Mira Costa community had lost a shining star who seemed to have only begun his rise.
He had chosen freedom, and both he and his parents knew this was a gamble — an unavoidable gamble, given Jame’s expansive nature. He did not want to live a life of confinement.
“The gamble didn’t turn out as we had hoped,” his father Chris said. “But honestly, I can tell you, the only thing that maybe might get me through this is there’s not many things I would have done differently.”
Hankus’ Java Man, Ocean Diner were ‘baked’ into the community
Rick Hankus opened Java Man in 1992, the same year Seattle’s Starbucks went public with its minimalist, cookie cutter coffee houses.
Hankus’ vision was a beatnik-era coffee house, like Hermosa’s Insomniac in the ‘50s, a place where writers wrote, musicians performed, and artists exhibited their paintings. But he wasn’t stuck in the past. With the advent of wifi in 2000, Java Man became a shared work space. Shared work space chains have since bloomed and burst, but Java Man still offers wifi, a chair and a table for the price of coffee and a muffin.
Starbuck’s opened and closed three coffee houses within blocks of Java Man. Java Man, as well as Hankus’ Ocean Diner endured because as Hankus put it, they were “baked into the community.”
He passed away November 19, 2025, at age 67.
Botelho was grateful to Manhattan
Yuri Botelho, a former engineering technician for the City of Manhattan Beach, was fatally struck by lightning on November 26, while mountain biking in Peru’s Cusco region during an annual family vacation with his wife, Kelsey, and their 15-month-old son, Tyson. Botelho was with an American friend, and a Peruvian tour guide at nearly 14,000 feet above sea level when a lightning storm struck the mountainous area near the border of the Paruro and Cusco provinces. He was 36.
“Yuri came to us from Brazil, bringing with him a remarkable work ethic, an infectious smile and a warmth that touched everyone he encountered,” Manhattan Beach Mayor David Lesser said.
In July of this year, Botelho left Manhattan Beach to accept a position with the City of St. Louis Park in Minnesota, relocating his young family to be closer to Kelsey’s relatives.
“Yuri’s life was defined by love,” Lesser said, “love for his family, his community, and the work he did in service to others.”
“He was proud of his journey from a small coastal city in Brazil to becoming an American citizen just this past May.”
Mortimer surfed and practiced law with passion
After a morning spent surfing a friendly south swell in Manhattan Beach, Tom Mortimer, Jr. passed away unexpectedly of natural causes on November 26, 2025.
“Morty” was known for his booming laugh, signature dance moves, and “matador” surf style. He could talk knowledgeably on topics from Neruda poetry to politics and had a Jeopardy-worthy recall of obscure facts. He practiced law with a relentless pursuit of justice, but was always a gentleman. He was 61.
McCurdy was longest serving Hermosa trustee
Cathy McCurdy served on the Hermosa Beach School Board for 18 years, from 1991 to 2007, the longest tenure in the district’s history. She was a strong proponent of bonds for funding district schools, including the successful, but controversial 2002 Measure J bond. Opponents of the bond objected to Measure J funds being used to build a gym, which wasn’t mentioned in the bond measure.
McCurdy was named Woman of the Year in 1998. She was also active in the Hermosa Kiwanis Club as an advisor to its youth Builders’ Club for nearly three decades.
McCurdy passed away December 3. She was 74.
White trumpeted life in Manhattan
“Bob lives what is special about Manhattan Beach, and in doing so, makes Manhattan Beach special,” Manhattan Beach Mayor Steve Napolitano said on the occasion of Bob White’s 95th birthday.
White co-founded the Hyperion Outfall Serenaders Dixieland band, the official band of the City of Manhattan Beach. The band performed annually at civic events, such as the Manhattan Beach Hometown Fair, the MB 10K and the Skechers Manhattan Beach holiday fireworks show for nearly five decades. Every Christmas Eve White led Ercole’s patrons in singing “It’s Christmas Eve at Ercoles,” which he composed, to the tune of ‘Oh Christmas Tree. Ercoles is the oldest bar in Manhattan. It was founded in 1927, the same year White was born.
