From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1998:

Leo K. Bustad, DVM, 78, died
from pneumonia on September 19 in Pullman,
Washington. Born in Stanwood, Washington,
Bustad earned a B.A. in agriculture at
Washington State University in Pullman in
1941, and on the same day became a lieutenant
in the U.S. Army. He married Signe
Byrd, a WSU classmate, in June 1942 at Fort
Benning, Georgia, shortly before shipping out
to fight in Italy and Germany. Captured by the
Nazis, Bustad spent 15 months at a Germanrun
prison camp in Poland. Reunited in June
1945, Bustad and Byrd thereafter remained
together until her death in March 1998.
Postwar, Bustad returned to WSU to earn an
M.A. in animal nutrition (1948) and his DVM
(1949). From 1948 until 1965, Bustad did
invasive radiation research on animals at the
Hanford National Laboratory, often collaborating
with faculty of the University of
California at Davis. Bustad himself headed
the radiobiology and comparative oncology
labs at U.C. Davis from mid-1965 until 1973,
helping direct work involving as many as
1,200 beagles at an off-campus location now
listed as a top-priority Superfund toxic waste
cleanup site. The experiments ended in 1986,
when the last beagle died. The dogs’ radioactive
remains were removed to Hanford in
1990. Rheem Araj, a beagle care technician
1972-1973, alleged in a 1994 lawsuit while
fighting a life-threatening lymphoma that news
coverage of the carcass removal was the first
word she received that she might have been
extensively exposed to radiation. Araj further
alleged that the radiation was responsible for
her cancer. ANIMAL PEOPLE found no
information about the outcome of either the
case or her illness. From 1973 until 1983,
Bustad served as dean of the WSU College of
Veterinary Medicine. Upon retirement, he
became president of the Delta Society, founded
in 1976 by Michael J. McCulloch, a psychiatrist
in Portland, Oregon, who pioneered
the use of animal-assisted therapy. Keeping
his main office at WSU, as dean emeritus and
professor emeritus of veterinary physiology,
Bustad moved the Delta Society to Renton,
Washington, where it maintains the National
Service Dog Center and carries out other programs
on behalf of service dog users and pet
keepers. Recipient of various humanitarian
awards late in life, Bustad wrote two books,
Animals, Aging, and the Aged (1980) and
Compassion: Our Last Great Hope (1990), as
well as co-authoring Learning and Living
Together: Building the Human-Animal Bond.

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1998:

Bill Blogg, 54, died of cancer on September
21 in Tiburon, California. Born in Australia, Blogg
qualified for the 1968 Australian Olympic track and
field team, but instead followed his father into a career
with Gestetner Corporation, a maker of printing equipment.
Transferred to the U.S. in 1974, Blogg married
his wife Tamara in 1979. One day in late 1991, Tamara
told ANIMAL PEOPLE, “while shopping for cat
food, we saw a sign asking us to help feed the cats
under the Golden Gate Bridge. We were both shocked
that cats lived there. We called and were shown eight
colonies totalling about 80 cats. We organized feeders,
trapped, took kittens, and founded the Cat Caring
Connection. We quickly found that it was nearly
impossible to find people willing to bottle-feed kittens
and stay up 24 hours a day for weeks. There were times
we had 40 kittens, all on a different schedule. Besides
me, Bill left our own 36 cats plus over 1,000 cats whom
we fostered and thousands more who were rescued due
to his efforts.” Said San Francisco SPCA president
Richard Avanzino, “I think Bill was a fabulous human
being––he exemplified a spirit which those of us who
love animals cherish. He and Tamara were belittled and
demeaned by some other animal groups who didn’t
believe in what they were doing, but they were willing
to commit everything they had to save lives.”

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1998:

John H. Prescott, 63, executive
director of the New England Aquarium 1972-
1994, died on June 30 in Weston, Massachusetts.
Recruited from Marineland of the
Pacific, now defunct, Preston turned the New
England Aquarium into a renowned research
center, but is best remembered for joining
Charles “Stormy” Mayo in forming the Marine
Mammal Stranding Network, and for directing
the first successful rescue, rehabilitation, and
release of stranded pilot whales. Taking in
three whale calves in December 1986, among
more than 60 who beached themselves along
Cape Cod, Prescott returned them to the sea
on July 29, 1987. Reputedly the first marine
mammals tracked by satellite, one was followed
for a then-record 95 days before the
transmitter failed. Prescott later headed both
the committee of scientific advisors to the U.S.
Marine Mammal Commission and the National
Humpback Whale Recovery Team.

Marietta Thornton, 59, telecommunications
director for the Massachusetts
SPCA and American Humane Education
Society since 1987, editor of the Angell
Memorial Hospital alumni newsletter, and
wife of MSPCA president Gus Thornton, died
from complications of surgery on July 10.

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1998:

Don Davis, 68, died June 5 in
Colorado Springs. Born in Columbus, Ohio,
Davis was son of the Columbus Zoo director
(his father) and gorilla keeper (his mother.)
Accepted for membership by the American
Zoo Association at age 17, Davis became
director of the Mesker Park Zoo in Evansville,
Indiana, in 1955, and after establishing his
credentials, became associate director of the
Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs
two years later, stepping up to director in
1962. During his tenure, which ended in
1981, he “expanded the zoo’s facilities, started
its now-famous giraffe collection, and
pushed its primate and hoofed animal collections
to world fame,” Denver Zoo executive
director Clayton Freiheit told Ovette Sampson
of the Colorado Springs Gazette-Telegraph.

Frank Awbrey, 65, died on May
31 of liver cancer. Remembered longtime colleague
Ann E. Bowles, senior staff biologist
at the Hubbs-Sea World Research Institute in
San Diego, “His career in bioacoustics
spanned 42 years,” beginning with studies of
frog sounds at Texas A&M University.
Relocating to San Diego State University in
1964, and later spending 21 years with the
Hubbs-Sea World Research Institute, Awbrey
studied “acoustical measurements of sonic
booms and seal-control devices, bioacoustics
of Antarctic killer whales and leopard seals,
auditory threshholds of beluga whales, and
acoustic techniques to reduce fishery impact
on marine mammals,” Bowles remembered.
Awbrey in 1990 founded the Environmental
Trust, Bowles said, “to protect what remains
of undeveloped native habitat in the San Diego
area.” His final project, she noted, was “a
groundbreaking effort to measure the longterm
population level effects of aircraft noise on
endangered passerines (songbirds).”

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1998:

Edwardjohn Shumak, 22, of
Sharon, Wisconsin, eldest son of JES Exotics
wildlife sanctuary founder Jill Shumak, was
killed early on April 7 as he drove to work in
nearby Delavan. “A deer crossed his path at
the crest of a hill,” Jill Shumak said. “Edward
swerved to avoid it,” but the car flipped. He
was thrown 20 feet, dying “instantly, of massive
head trauma. We will be having a candlelight
ceremony on August 14, his birthday,”
she continued, “at 8 p.m. at the sanctuary.
His ashes will be buried here with his animal
friends. I could always count on Edwardjohn
when I needed help with the animals. My husband
Jim, younger son Corey, and I will miss
his ever-present smile, dancing eyes and
eagerness to assist anyone who needed it.”

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