Obituaries Obituaries (August 07, 2002)

Kathryn Cleland

Married 70 years

Kathryn "Kay" Cleland of Menlo Park died at her home in Menlo Park on July 26, surrounded by her family. She was 89.

Mrs. Cleland was born in Sand Point, Idaho, and raised in Palo Alto. She was a graduate of Palo Alto High School.

Survivors include her husband, Al, with whom she recently celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary; son Donald Cleland of Montana; daughters Alyce Mae Goodman of Huntington Beach and Ann Shine of Mesa, Arizona; eight grandchildren; and 10 great-grandchildren.

At Mrs. Cleland's request, no funeral services were held. Interment was private. Arrangements were under the direction of Roller Hapgood & Tinney of Palo Alto.

Joan A. Damm

Portola Valley teacher for 32 years

Joan A. Damm, a teacher in the Portola Valley School District for 32 years, died August 1 at her home in Hollister after a lengthy illness. She was 62.

Services for Ms. Damm will be held at 11 a.m. Wednesday, August 7, at Black Cooper Sander Funeral Home, Seventh and Monterey streets in Hollister. At her request, there will be a party after the service.

Ms. Damm had grown up in Hollister, graduated from San Benito High School and later received her bachelor's and master's degrees from San Jose State University. She taught school in Watsonville and at Kaiserlautern military base in West Germany before coming to teach in the Portola Valley School District in 1968.

"Joan was a child's advocate," said colleague and friend Earlyne Mund, who met her the first day she taught sixth grade at Portola Valley School 32 years ago. "She loved her students, had a happy attitude and walked down the halls singing," said Mrs. Mund.

Ms. Damm taught in all three Portola Valley schools -- PVS, Corte Madera and Ormondale -- before retiring from the district at the end of the 2000 school year. Most recently, she taught kindergarten at Ormondale, but earlier had taught sixth and eighth grades.

She loved to travel, spending time in Europe, Africa, India and Mexico over the years. Her plans for retirement were to travel and write children's stories.

Ms. Damm is survived by her mother May Damm, who resides at 528 A Sixth St., Hollister, CA 95023; two brothers, Bill Damm and Jerry Damm; a sister, Judy Caporgno; and six nieces and nephews.

Her family prefers that memorial contributions be made to Ronald McDonald House at Stanford, 520 Sand Hill Road, Palo Alto, CA 94304.

Albert 'Bert' Allen Coddington

49-year resident of Atherton

Albert "Bert" Coddington of Atherton died July 29. He was 82.

A native of San Francisco and a graduate of Stanford University School of Engineering, Mr. Coddington served in the U.S. Navy during World War II and later worked as an engineer for Consolidated Aircraft in San Diego and New Orleans.

From 1946 to 1969, he was a partner and principal of Coddington Company Consulting Engineers.

In 1969 he worked for the federal government's Health Education and Welfare agency, and from 1985 to 1990 he worked for the U.S. Navy as an engineer.

Mr. Coddington was a deacon of Menlo Park Presbyterian Church. He enjoyed Dixieland jazz, ballroom dancing, lapidary, photography and gun collecting, said family members.

He is survived by his wife, Arleen, of Atherton, sons Kent Coddington and R. Brent Coddington; daughter Dale Ann Hisnanick; and five grandchildren.

Memorial services were held August 3 at Menlo Park Presbyterian Church.

The family prefers donations to the San Francisco Theological Seminary Scholarship Fund, 2 Kensington Way, San Anselmo, CA 94960; or to the Menlo Park Presbyterian Mission Department, 950 Santa Cruz Ave., Menlo Park 94025.

Arrangements were provided by Spangler Mortuaries of Menlo Park.

Col. Richard Ware Mabee

West Point graduate

Col. Richard Ware Mabee died July 26 of a massive heart attack at his home in Atherton. He was 86.

A 1940 West Point graduate, he fought in World War II in the Aleutian Islands and later served as battalion commander in the 11th Airborne Division in the Philippines.

Col. Mabee continued on to Japan for occupation duty at the end of the war.

He received a graduate degree in East European studies from Indiana University and taught military science at the University of California at Santa Barbara.

Later he was selected as military attache for duty in Finland. Col. Mabee retired from active duty in 1962.

He settled in Atherton in 1962, working first in defense electronics and later becoming assistant director of personnel for San Mateo County.

He originally aspired to be concert violinist but his plans changed after he won an appointment to the military academy, family members said.

He is survived by his daughters, Anne E. Murase of Tokyo and Marie-Alice DuMabeiller of San Francisco; and one grandson.

A funeral Mass was held at the Church of the Nativity in Menlo Park on August 2. Burial will be in Warrenton, Oregon, beside his wife Mildred, who died in 1995.

The family requests that, in lieu of flowers, memorial donations be made to a charity.

Spangler Mortuaries of Menlo Park provided funeral arrangements.

Elizabeth F. Targ

Psychiatrist; medical researcher

Almost 150 people gathered at the Hayfields in Portola Valley on July 25 to mourn the passing of Dr. Elizabeth Targ, a leading researcher in the field of mind/body medicine, who died July 18 of a brain tumor at age 40.

After a service at the Targ house, mourners filed to the organic garden planted by her mother, the late Joan Targ, who died just four years ago.

Dr. Targ spent her last two weeks in Portola Valley, according to her father, Dr. Russell Targ of Palo Alto. She died at her mother's house, which has a beautiful view of San Francisco Bay. A flowering pear tree has been planted in her memory.

At the time of her death, Dr. Targ was a practicing physician, a professor of psychiatry at the University of California at San Francisco, and director of the Complementary Medicine Research Institute at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco.

Elizabeth Targ was born in New York, grew up in Palo Alto, and attended Palo Alto schools before going to Stanford for 10 years. There she became fluent in Russian as a translator, completed medical school, and earned a master's degree in neuropharmacology.

While practicing psychiatry at UC San Francisco, Dr. Targ was drawn to probe the possible role of mind, body and spirit in medical healing. Her interests spanned the range from schizophrenia to the health benefits of meditation and contemplative prayer.

Based on a study of the use of alternative medicine in treating women with late-stage breast cancer, Dr. Targ helped create a center sponsored by the Department of Defense at UC San Francisco, which she helped direct.

According to her family, Dr. Targ's greatest passion was her continuing study of the possible efficacy of prayer in healing. Her study suggesting that victims of HIV and AIDS who received prayers from distant healers of a variety of faiths had better outcomes than those who did not receive supportive prayers, won wide recognition, her family said.

Results were reported and discussed widely, including in Time magazine, the Wall Street Journal, and The News Hour with Jim Lehrer. The topic is expected to be addressed in a soon-to-be-published article in Oprah magazine.

Dr. Targ also translated her research in a monthly column, "Open Mind -- Open Heart" in Spirituality and Health magazine.

Dr. Targ had just received funding from the National Institutes of Health for a study intended to teach distant healing and prayer to nurses and other health professionals. The study would have examined the efficacy of prayer on patients with a rare form of brain cancer, the same kind that killed her.

Dr. Targ is survived by her father, writer and laser pioneer Russell Targ of Palo Alto; her uncle, chess champion Bobby Fischer; her husband, futurist Mark Comings; and brothers Alexander Targ of Palo Alto and Nicholas Targ of Washington, D.C.

The family suggests donations to the Institute of Noetic Sciences, 101 San Antonio Road, Petaluma, CA 94952, or www.noetic.org.

Dr. Targ's papers can be seen at www.etarg.net.