OBITUARIES
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1994:
Toledo Edison Company stationary
engineer Kris Kohn, 41, of Toledo, Ohio,
died February 17 of a heart attack, shortly after
he and off-duty fire Lt. Eric Renzhofer spent
two hours rescuing 132 canvasback ducks who
were trapped in the East Toledo generating
plant’s water intake. “Kris had raised Canada
geese, pigeons, and a rabbit. We have three
Labrador retrievers, whom he loved very
much,” his widow Pamela wrote to ANIMAL
PEOPLE. “He also was a beekeeper. He
would get very mad when someone mistreated
an animal or child. He loved his children and
nieces, and is very deeply missed.”
Entertainer Dinah Shore, 76, win-
ner of 10 Emmies and a longtime supporter of
Actors and Others for Animals, died February
24 at her home in Beverly Hills, California.
Richard Van Gelder, 65, a curator
at the American Museum of Natural History
from 1969 until 1986, died of leukemia on
February 23 in Westwood, New Jersey. Van
Gelder was arch-adversary of Henry Spira and
Animal Rights International during the 1976
campaign against the museum’s sex experi-
ments on cats, Spira’s first campaign and first
victory, but they remained friendly. Van
Gelder had a strong record on endangered
species, as a member of the New York
Endangered and Non-Game Species Council.
Dog trainer Job Evans, 53, died of
AIDS on February 19 at home in Key West,
Florida. Evans was president of the Dog
Writers’ Association of America, author of five
books on dog training, and just before his death
won the Ken-L-Ration Fido Award as 1993 dog
writer of the year.
