OBITUARIES
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1992:
Phyllis Wright, 65, Humane
Society of the U.S. vice president for com-
panion animals 1983-1991, died of cancer
October 3. Wright had worked for HSUS
since 1969, and though officially retired,
continued to head the organization’s “Until
there are None, Adopt One” campaign to
promote pet adoptions from animal shelters.
Wright became professionally involved with
animals as chief of the U.S. Army War
Dogs Receiving and Holding Station during
the Korean War. Leaving the military in
1954, Wright ran a boarding kennel in
Washington D.C. until 1960, when she
became manager of the Washington Animal
Rescue League shelter. She simultaneously
served, first as a staffer and then as a board
member, with the D.C. Tail Waggers
Animal Clinic. In 1965 Wright left W ARL,
and was appointed to the Animal Control
Commission in Prince George’s County,
Maryland. She served in that post until
1972, during which time she helped found
the Montgomery County Humane Society.
Animal protection movement historian Ann
Cottrell Free recalled that, “Wright’s
biggest contribution was that she pushed
very hard to get shelters to clean up their
acts on euthanasia. She was the ice-breaker
in getting pounds to abandon antiquated
methods such as decompression chambers,
and go to lethal injection. She was also the
one who coined the phrase, ‘Everyone
wants to let their pets have litters to demon-
strate the miracle of birth; let’s invite them
into the shelters to see the miracle of
death.'” HSUS has established a scholar-
ship in Wright’s name to the organiation’s
Animal Control Academy, where she was a
longtime instructor. She was survived by
her neice, Linda Nelson Torres, and her
companion, Kate Rindy.
Karen Koritz, 39, copywriter for
numerous animal and child protection TV
spots, died of cancer October 19 in Boston.
Born in Boston, she relocated to Los
Angeles and became a top copywriter in the
commercial advertising industry, but want-
ed to accomplish something more in life.
“She appeared in my life and in the animal
rights movement in 1987,” longtime associ-
ate Patrice Greanville of the Voice of Nature
Network recalled, “when she wrote to me
and offered her services. Karen went on to
participate in many campaigns.” Working
on projects for Friends of Animals through
VNN, Koritz helped script an award-win-
ning spot on saving the African elephant, a
spot on dolphin protection that contributed to
securing international regulation of driftnet-
ting, and a controversial spot on pet over-
population that used black-and-white footage
to dramatize euthanasia of unwanted healthy
animals. Koritz also contributed to famine
relief efforts by Save The Children. She was
survived by her husband of five months,
Bob Estock.
An unknown soldier for kindness,
an old man in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herze-
govinia, was gunned down by sniper fire
October 7. “No one in the neighborhood
seemed sure of his name,” New York Times
correspondent John F, Burns reported. “All
that was certain as he lay face down in the
drizzling rain with bullets in his back, was
that his fancy for feeding pigeons, even
amid heavy gunfire, had made him the latest
victim… People recalled seeing the slight fig-
ure appearing about mid-morning every day,
always alone…Always tucked under his arm
was a loaf of bread in a white plastic bag…
Part of the loaf was gone, and what
remained, still grasped in his right hand,
attracted flocks of pigeons that settled near
the body, seemingly oblivious to volleys of
tank fire that had everyone within blocks
running for cover.” The bread, hard to come
by in the beseiged city, undoubtedly came
out of the man’s own food ration.
Petra Kelly, 44, cofounder of the
German Green Party, and her companion,
retired general and pacifist Gert Bastian,
69, were found shot to death in their home
near Bonn circa Oct. 23. The shootings,
ruled a murder/suicide by police, apparently
occurred circa Oct. 5. Police said Bastian
shot Kelly in bed, then shot himself.
