OBITUARIES

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1996:

Nancy Sue Clark, 71, of South
Bend, Indiana, a frequent contributor of photographs
to ANIMAL PEOPLE and president
of the Coalition of Hoosiers Encouraging
Ethical Treatment of Animals, died January 5
of an apparent aneurism as she drove to a
medical appointment after mailing us her last
packet of photos. Born in Ohio, raised in
Detroit, Clark (then Nancy Sue Tarbell)
began her career in activism in 1943, as a
member of the Detroit Interracial Committee,
working to peaceably resolve issues that had
sparked race riots earlier in the year. Earning
a degree in sociology from Wayne State
University, Clark worked with welfare children
in Detroit and Pittsburgh, served with
the American Red Cross in Johnstown,
Pennsylvania, and after marriage to Robert
Thomas Clark in 1952, spent nearly 40 years
as a child welfare caseworker in South Bend.
Also active for animals throughout her life,
Sue Clark volunteered at the Orphan Animal
Care Shelter in South Bend until it closed,
and was vice president of the Indiana
Campaign for Animal Welfare, a forerunner
to CHEETA. The South Bend Tribune
recalled that she personally paid for anti-fur
newspaper ads. The day before her death, she
met with Indiana officials at the statehouse to
urge the use of immunocontraception to stabilize
deer populat ions in state parks. “Sue was
in great spirits on our return home,” remembered
longtime friend Kaye Bauer, “talking
about plans for letters she would write and
activities to be organized. The day was cold
and blustery, but we were thrilled by a line of
about a dozen whitetails crossing a snowy
meadow. Sue had a marvelous sense of
humor, was compassionate always, but had a
feisty sparkle in her eye. As a friend stated at
her funeral, ‘Sue was loved and respected by
almost everyone, except by a few people who
wrote nasty replies to her letters about deer.’”

Corinne Boyer, 58, International
Fund for Animal Welfare liaison to Canada
since 1990, died from cancer on September
12, 1995, in Toronto. Born in The
Netherlands, she worked at various times for
the governments of Spain, Colombia, and
The Netherlands before moving to Canada in
1970, after marriage to Patrick Boyer. She
held posts in the Ontario government until
1984, when Patrick was elected to the House
of Commons.

Jesse R. White, DVM, 61, died of
a heart attack on January 23 in Dunnellon,
Florida. Serving as veterinarian and dolphin
trainer for the television series Flipper in the
early 1960s, White became staff veterinarian
for the Miami Seaquarium in 1967; wrote the
Florida state regulations for marine mammal
capture and maintenance in 1969-1970, which
were incorporated into the federal Marine
Mammal Protection Act in 1972; and served
as marine mammal veterinarian at the
Homosassa Springs Wildlife Park from 1987
until his death. White was probably best
known, however, for his longtime volunteer
advocacy on behalf of manatees.

Betty S. Rosen, 66, founder of
Greyhound Pets of America/Maryland
Chapter, died December 31 of cancer at her
home in Lutherville, Maryland. Originally a
dog breeder, Rosen cofounded the Tibetan
Spaniel Club of America in 1971, and as proprietor
of Bet-R-Kennels, produced awardwinning
spaniels and miniature pinschers.
Becoming aware of the destruction of tens of
thousands of culled racing greyhounds, she
turned from breeding dogs to placing former
racing dogs in homes in 1984. At her death,
Greyhound Pets of America/Maryland chapter
had placed more than 1,800 dogs. Rosen in
1987 won the Gaines Medal, given by
Greyhound Pets of America for distinguished
work on behalf of retired greyhounds, at the
nomination of the Baltimore County Kennel
Club and WJZ-TV.

Yu Gong, a leading Chinese cryptozoologist,
was killed in a traffic accident in
northern China during mid-January, while
organizing yet another of a decade-long series
of expeditions to find the origins of the
“Bigfoot” myth. His searches and all-night
vigils in remote locations netted hairs, footprints,
feces, and apparent nests, but not
either a live specimen or a carcass from which
a biological identity could be established.

John Parsons, 43, founder of the
Nova Scotia Marine Mammal Stranding
Network, died from cancer on October 1,
1995. Parsons was remembered by the
Canadian Federation of Humane Societies for
research into “birth control by vaccine and
deworming of grey seals on Sable Island, and
rescue and hands-on rehabilitation of marine
mammals from the shores of Scotia-Fundy.”