Steven Chris Dundee, BHS 1972

Steven Chris Dundee, BHS 1972

Published in the Los Angeles Times, Saturday, January 23, 1999

Steven C. Dundee, 44, of Palmdale, printer. Aftercare California Cremation and Burial Society.

No other details at this time.

Gary Stacy Hart, BHS 1959

Gary Stacy Hart, BHS 1959

The Signal, Santa Clarita, California, Wednesday, May 26, 1976

Services For Gary S. Hart

Memorial services will be held at 11 a.m. tomorrow (Thursday) for Gary S. Hart at Echerman-Heisman Funeral Service Chapel, Burbank. Bob Watson will officiate.

A 1959 graduate of Burbank High, Mr. Hart was a plumber for seven years with Yerton Plumbing. Born in Glendale, he has lived in Saugus for fourteen years. He died Sunday in a Glendale hospital at the age of 35.

He is survived by his wife, Deborah; his parents, Mr. and Mrs. James Hart of Burbank; a daughter, Candee, and two sons, David and Brian, all of Saugus; and a brother, James S. Hart of Marina del Rey.

The funeral chapel is located at 333 E. Magnolia, Burbank. Interment will be at Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills.

Dr. Paul Earl Ward, BHS 1954

Dr. Paul Earl Ward, BHS 1954

JANUARY 30, 1937 – DECEMBER 19, 2018

On Wednesday, December 19, 2018, Dr. Paul Earl Ward passed away at the age of 81. 

Born on January 30, 1937, in Albuquerque, New Mexico to Albert and Lovera Ward, Paul is survived by his brother, Dr Bob Ward and sister, Marilyn Lovejoy. Other surviving family members include a sister-in-law, Joyce, and nieces, Shannon Lichty, Erin Symmank and Dana Ward, plus nephews Ron Lovejoy, Stephen Lovejoy and Brad Ward. 

Preceding Paul in death was his other brother, Maurice Ward, who passed away August 30, 2012, as well as siblings Albert and Loraine who died as infants. Paul’s generosity and the quality of standards he set for himself will be fondly remembered by the countless friends made during his life’s journey.

After attending Burbank High School, Paul earned his Bachelor’s Degree from Whitworth University in Spokane, Washington, his Masters from the University of Washington, and his Doctorate from Indiana University in 1973. After receiving his Bachelor’s Degree he served in the US Marines Corps 1958-1961, attaining the rank of Captain, and played on USMC football teams before playing for the NFL Detroit Lions 1961-1962, thus becoming the first Whitworth University graduate to play in the NFL. He went on to teach and coach at numerous colleges, and has served in the following capacities:

• Director of Education, Research & Development for Health and Tennis Corporation of America 1974-89

• Elite Athlete Coordinator, Track and Field—Men & Women Throwers 1972-84

• Exercise and Sports Performance Consultant e.g. Dallas Cowboys Biomechanics Study 1977

• Sports Scientist & author of numerous scientific articles (Biomechanics & Exercise Science)

Paul’s overwhelming passion for life and future thinking had a tremendous influence on sports, coaching and the fitness industry of America during his professional career that spanned

over 40 years. He was passionate about personal fitness and training, winning multiple Masters Olympic lifting championships. In addition, he was devoted to training and coaching many of US Olympic & Elite Track & Field athletes. Paul co-authored with his brother, Bob, a definitive and comprehensive book entitled—ENCYCLOPEDIA OF WEIGHT TRAINING—Understanding the Scientific, Theoretical and Practical Basis of Weight Training.

We will all miss Paul’s compassion, devotion, and commitment to achieving higher goals in every aspect of his life. His sense of humor, his zest for life and his Dare Devil Attitude from his youth to his later years is a trademark to be remembered and emulated by all. A passionate and committed follower of Jesus Christ, Paul’s journey to Heaven is one to be celebrated and one of only peace and joy!

Paul's memorial website is here to celebrate his life so we encourage you to share your memories and stories of Paul as well as share any photos. 

A Memorial Service for Paul will be held on February 16, 2019 2pm at the Pacific View Chapel, 3500 Pacific View Drive, in Corona Del Mar, CA. We welcome everyone who knew Paul to attend to honor, share and celebrate Paul's life.

NOTE: Paul was buried in Pacific View Memorial Park, Corona Del Mar, California.

David Wayne Salisbury, BHS 1963

David Wayne Salisbury, BHS 1963

Published in The Napa Valley Register, Napa, California, Tuesday, November 5, 1968

Flier Dies In Crash Of Jet 

BEEVILLE, Texas - Marine Reserve Lt. David W. Salisbury, 23, of Pensacola, Florida, was killed instantly when his F-9J Cougar Jet crashed late Monday at Chase Field here in South Texas.

A Navy spokesman said the aircraft went out of control during a landing pattern and crashed on the runway.

Survivors include his widow the former Bonnie Jean Covan of Pensacola, Florida, and his mother Mrs. Lois B. Salisbury, Burbank, California.

NOTE: David Salisbury is listed on the City of Burbank's War Memorial, because he was in military service during the Vietnam War and died in training. His mother Lois worked at Burbank High School.

Robert Russell Pence, BHS 1964

Robert Russell Pence, BHS 1964

Published in The Signal, Santa Clarita, California, Wednesday, July 18, 1984

Funeral services have been scheduled for 2: 30 p.m. today (Wednesday) for Robert Russell Pence at Chapel of the Oaks, Eternal Valley Memorial Park.

Born in Burbank, Mr. Pence lived in Canyon Country for 18 years  He was a U.S. Navy veteran of Vietnam and was self-emplyed at Sierra TV in Canyon Country. He died Friday after a brief illness at the age of 38.

He is survived by his wife, Audrey; two sons, Edward and Matthew; a daughter, Lynnette Ann; his father, Leon; two brothers, Alan and Raymond; and a sister, Delena R. Coleman. All reside in Canyon Country. 

Gerald Dennis Hopper, BHS 1960

Gerald Dennis Hopper, BHS 1960

Published in The Californian, Salinas, California, Tuesday, September 30, 1969

Burbank Man Dies at Soledad

Soledad - Gerald D. Hopper, 27, of Burbank, a prison inmate, died at the Correctional Training Facility dispensary last night.

Death apparently was caused by an overdose of a narcotic, Coroner Chris Hill said.

The death was reported at 7:30 p.m., and he died despite attempts of facility physicians to save his life. Toxicology tests will be made to determine the nature of the narcotic.

The body was taken to the Terry Mortuary in Soledad.

Sandra Lynn Sterger Harper, BHS 1962

Sandra Lynn Sterger Harper, BHS 1962

1944 - 2021

Saint George, Utah - Sandra Lynn Harper 76, was surrounded by family in her home when she returned to her Father in Heaven March 30, 2021. Sandra was born the second of four children to May and Roland Sterger on June 20th, 1944.

She was married to Ralph Harper in the Los Angeles Temple in 1965 and lived true to her covenants till the end. Sandra was born in Long Beach California and later had the blessing of living in southern Utah for over 50 years. She has 5 loving children, 23 grandchildren, and one great grandchild. Numerous others were nurtured in her Saint George home over the years.

Sandra loved to travel and experience new things. She and Ralph have filled many photo albums with memories of their foreign and domestic travel adventures. Her entrepreneurial spirit was professionally displayed by the ownership of the Homespun Restaurant in Leeds Utah. Her amazing cooking attracted all family, friends, and neighbors for fun-filled gatherings. Sandra would pride herself on being a great homemaker. She loved having specific food and decorations for every holiday and special occasion.

She was her grandchildren's biggest fan. You would find her in the front row of all their activities to show her support. Sandra Harper was a kind, loving, and inspirational woman. She was very involved in the lives of her loved ones and her church. She will be missed by everyone who knew her.

Viewing will be held at Pineview Mortuary, April 09, 2021 at 11:00 AM to 12:30 pm. Service and burial and will be held at Saint George City Cemetery at 1:00 pm. Arrangements entrusted to the care of Pine View Mortuary 435-986-4222. Please visit our website www.pineviewmortuary.com for full obituary and funeral service listing.

Clyde Edward Argo, BHS 1951

Clyde Edward Argo, BHS 1951

1933 - 2021

Clyde Edward Argo, born May 4, 1933, passed away on May 3, 2021, in Lancaster, California just one day before his 88th birthday. Clyde was a loving husband, father, grandfather, and friend.

Clyde was born in Joplin Missouri to Ray Benjamin Argo and Ena Irene Argo (Spencer) in 1933. Clyde was raised by his mother in Burbank, California, along with his younger brother Larry, after the untimely passing of their father when Clyde was just 3 years of age. He attended John Muir Junior High School and Burbank High School (Class of 1951) and at the age of 16, met Dolores (age 14). Both attended Burbank High and lived on the same block. They became high school sweethearts and were married June 12, 1954.

At age of 18 Clyde started working at a sheet metal company in Burbank. At age 22, he began working with Hoffman-Atchley Cabinet Company. Clyde loved fishing, football, camping, and travelling with his family. When his sons were youngsters, Clyde managed/coached Little League Baseball. Throughout their marriage, Clyde and Dolores lived in Burbank, Encino, Chatsworth, and Simi Valley. They remained close with many of their long-time high school friends, raising families, travelling and vacationing together, and attended a number high school reunions throughout the years.

After raising two sons and working for more than 40 years, Clyde retired and set out to travel with Dolores in their 5th wheel, where they visited state parks, beaches, and many casinos, until they finally settled and moved to Lancaster in 2000. Clyde was invited to join the Elks by his brother-in-law, Joe Warder, and has remained active over the past years, acting a Greeter, and participating in the Camping Club.

Clyde is preceded in death by his father, mother, and brother Larry. He leaves behind his loving wife of 67 years, Dolores Joan Argo, their two sons, Thomas E. Argo and David C. Argo, Grandsons, David Argo and Dennis Argo, sister-in-law Pat Warder, and nieces, Christine Widmer, Kathy Wells, and Julie Aguilar.

A memorial service will be held on Friday, June 11, 2021 at 1pm at B.P.O. Elks Lodge in Lancaster, California.

Posted by Valley of Peace Cremations & Burial 

Kelly Tungfeth Wyatt, BHS 1971

 Body of Burbank man found at cliff bottom

The Burbank Daily Review, Tuesday, December 4, 1973

The body of 21-year-old Burbank resident Kelly T. Wyatt was discovered Monday afternoon at the bottom of a 600 foot cliff off Angeles Crest Highway near Wrightwood, the California Highway Patrol reported today.

A county coroner's deputy estimated Wyatt had been dead since about 9 p.m. Sunday. The CHP said Wyatt's pickup truck had left the icy roadway and plunged down the cliff, throwing him from the vehicle.

Wyatt's body was discovered at 2 p.m. by a California Division of Highways employee who was grading the highway in the area.

The CHP said Wyatt of East Groton Drive, either died when thrown from the truck, or exposure.

-----------------------------------------------

The Burbank Daily Review, Wednesday, December 5, 1973

Kelly T. Wyatt

Kelly Tungfeth Wyatt, 21, died Monday, December 3, 1973, in Azusa. He was born in Fort Hood, Texas, and had lived in Burbank for 19 years.

Mr. Wyatt was a member of the First United Methodist Church of Burbank. He was a graduate of Burbank High School and a former member of the Young Republicans Club of Burbank.

He is survived by his parents, Spencer L. and G. Diana Wyatt; twin brother, Kerry Tungfeth of Burbank; two sisters, Kathleen Wyatt of Glendale and Karyn Wyatt of Burbank; a step-brother, Michael Suggs of Hot Springs, Arkansas; and his grandfather ,Roscoe Wyatt of Oklahoma City.

Services will be at 1 p.m. Friday at the First United Methodist Church of Burbank. Interment will be at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Hollywood Hills, Fillbach-Bailey directors.

William Smith, BHS 1950, Actor

William Smith, BHS 1950

March 24, 1933 – July 5, 2021

William Smith, the rugged actor who starred on television on Laredo, Rich Man, Poor Man and Hawaii Five-O and went toe-to-toe with Clint Eastwood and Rod Taylor in two of the more remarkable brawls in movie history, has died. He was 88.

Smith died Monday at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, his wife, Joanne Cervelli Smith, told The Hollywood Reporter. She did not want to reveal the cause of death.

The 6-foot-2 Smith, who was a champion discus thrower at UCLA, an arm-wrestling champion and a black belt in the martial arts, had 18-inch biceps and could do 5,100 continuous sit-ups and reverse curl 163 pounds. As prolific as he was strong, he had a whopping 289 credits on IMDb, seemingly in everything from the ’60s onward.

Smith starred with fellow bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger in Conan the Barbarian (1982) and spoke fluent Russian as a colonel in Red Dawn (1984) — both those films were directed by John Milius — and, as a gang leader named Carrot, battled Yul Brynner with a ball and chain in The Ultimate Warrior (1975).

He was a go-to-guy when casting for biker films, starring in director Jack Starrett’s Run, Angel, Run! (1969) and The Losers (1970); in Angels Die Hard (1970), from Roger Corman’s New World Pictures; in C.C. and Company (1970), starring Joe Namath and Ann-Margret; in Chrome and Hot Leather (1971), opposite Marvin Gaye; and in Gentle Savage (1973) and Eye of the Tiger (1986).

On NBC’s Laredo, Smith starred as gunfighter turned Texas Ranger Joe Riley during that Western’s two seasons (1965-67), and he joined CBS’ original Hawaii Five-O for its final year (1979-80) to portray Det. James “Kimo” Carew.

ABC’s Rich Man, Poor Man, which premiered in February 1976, was the first miniseries broadcast on American television (it preceded Roots by 11 months) and was an adaptation of the Irwin Shaw novel about two German-American brothers (Peter Strauss and Nick Nolte) and their lives after World War II.

Smith appeared late in a vicious turn as the hired thug Anthony Falconetti, then returned the following year for the sequel.

As a sadistic bodybuilder in Darker Than Amber (1970), he participated in a violent free-for-all with Taylor that is regarded as one of the most realistic of all time. Taylor broke three of Smith’s ribs and Smith busted Taylor’s nose during the scene.

“Fight choreography and staging went out the window when Rod decided to really hit me,” Smith remembered in a 2010 interview. “And so the fight was on. That was a real fight with real blood and real broken bones. Rod is a skilled fighter and at the same time a real scrapper. Now that was a good fight!”

After they healed, they worked again in the Western The Deadly Trackers (1973).

In Any Which Way You Can (1980), Smith’s Jack Wilson squares off with Clint Eastwood’s Philo Beddoe in a long bare-knuckle bout through the streets and restaurants of Wyoming. The trailer called it “the most knuckle-busting, gut-wrenching, brain-scrambling, butt-bruising, lip-splitting brawl of all time.”

“It has to be one of the longest two-man fights ever done on film without doubles,” Smith said in an interview for Louis Paul’s 2014 book Tales From the Cult Film Trenches. “We shot it in Jackson, Wyoming, which is about 8,000 feet high in altitude, and I was smoking so hard at the time.”

Speaking of smoking, Smith was the last “Marlboro Man” in commercials before cigarette advertising was discontinued.

Born on a cattle ranch in Columbia, Missouri, on March 24, 1933, Smith and his family moved to Southern California after the Dust Bowl. He was an uncredited child extra on set with Bela Lugosi and Lon Chaney Jr. in The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942) and showed up in The Song of Bernadette (1943), Going My Way (1944), Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945).

Smith enlisted in the U.S. Air Force in 1951, won a boxing championship and served in the Korean War. Fluent in Russian, German, French and Serbo-Croatian, he caught the eye of the CIA and NSA, which gave him a teaching position within the agencies. But while working on his doctorate in foreign-language studies, he landed an acting contract at MGM.

In 1961, he starred on the studio’s ABC police drama The Asphalt Jungle opposite Jack Warden. Two years later, he worked on the BBC series Zero One (its title was the call-sign of the International Air Security Agency) with Nigel Patrick.

An inductee into the Muscle Beach Venice Bodybuilding Hall of Fame, Smith was perfect for the role as Adonis, a henchman for Zsa Zsa Gabor’s evil Minerva on Batman. On the ABC show’s final episode in 1968, he was on the receiving end of a Whamm!!, Zowie!, Splatt!, Crash! and Sock! from Batman, Robin and Batgirl.

He also was unforgettable in the blaxploitation films Hammer (1972), Black Samson (1974) and Boss Nigger (1975).

Smith used a ball-and-chain belt on Brynner in the climax of The Ultimate Warrior, and his character ends up falling down a chute filled with rodents. (They smeared Karo syrup and peanut butter on his face to keep the critters in the shot.)

He also played the father of the title character in Conan the Barbarian, writing his own lines for his monologue that opens the film. “No one, no one in this world can you trust … not men, not women, not beasts … this you can trust,” he says pointing to the movie’s iconic steel sword.

Smith remembered besting Schwarzenegger in an arm-wrestling contest and never working with him again. “As he walked out my front door, he turned around and said in German, ‘I will be a movie star,’ and was and is — and now so much more!

“The one thing about Schwarzenegger that I will never forget is that nobody could double him, be his stunt double, because of the shape he was in. He did all his own stunts. He worked 12 hours a day and then he walked two miles. Then he would work out for two hours.”

Smith appeared in the cult movies Piranha (1972), where he said his stunt with a very large anaconda almost cost him his life, as an FBI agent in Invasion of the Bee Girls (1973), and as a drag racer in David Cronenberg’s Fast Company (1979).

He was a spiteful sergeant in Twilight’s Last Gleaming (1977), a con man in Robert Aldrich’s The Frisco Kid (1979) and a cop in Francis Ford Coppola’s Rumble Fish (1983).

In addition to his wife of 31 years, survivors include his children, William E. Smith III and Sherri Anne Cervelli.

For all the toughness he demonstrated onscreen, Smith showed off a softer side in his 2009 book, The Poetic Works of William Smith. In an excerpt from “The Reaper,” he wrote:

“You’ve done some bad and you’ve done some good

You wouldn’t change things even if you could

‘Cause through the years you’ve run a good race

The Reaper chased and couldn’t keep your pace

So toast those that live and those that die

And while you can, spit in the Reaper’s eye.”

Published in the Hollywood Reporter, July 9, 2021

NOTE: William Smith came to the Senior Bulldogs on one occasion to promote his book.

Melvin Roy Duke, BHS 1949

Published in The Signal, Santa Clarita, California, Wednesday, June 5, 1996

Melvin R. Duke, Steam Engineer

Melvin R. Duke, 64, died Monday in Los Angeles after a lone illness. He was born October 15, 1931 in Long Beach and lived in Burbank. He was a former resident of Santa Clarita. Duke worked as a steam engineer for the city of Burbank for 40 years.

He is survived by his wife, Joan of Burbank; two sons, Steven Roy Duke of Northridge and Kenneth William Duke of La Crescenta; one daughter, Jan Hope of Salt Lake City, Utah; one brother, Glen Duke of Burbank; one sister, Eileen Fowler of Burbank; and 13 grandchildren.

Graveside services are scheduled 9 a.m. Saturday, Glen Haven Memorial Park in San Fernando, with a memorial service set to follow at 11 a.m., Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day- Saints, 11830 Saticoy Street, North Hollywood. Arrangements are being handled by Santa Clarita Mortuary.