Obituaties Obituaties (March 30, 2005)

George G. Kirchner

Longtime Woodside resident

George G. Kirchner, a retired general contractor and longtime Woodside resident, died March 16 at his home in Willow Glen Villas in San Jose. He was 93.

Mr. Kirchner was born in San Francisco and raised in San Carlos. He graduated from Sequoia High School in 1930 and attended community college in San Mateo.

He was one of the original employees of Ampex Corp., then worked 10 years with the architectural firm of Martin Stedman.

For the next 30 years, he was a self-employed general contractor, and then spent five years as a Woodside-based real estate agent.

Mr. Kirchner had a lifelong love of baseball, which he played in college, and he had season tickets to the San Jose Giants, family members said. He attended many Stanford baseball games, and treasured his extensive baseball card collection.

For the past three years, Mr. Kirchner lived at Willow Glen Villas, a senior facility where he was an active member of the Resident Council. He was well known for his trademark saying, "Keep smiling," family members said.

He is survived by his wife of 49 years, Helen Kirchner; his children William Kirchner and Carol Jones; his stepson Jeffrey McCabe; four grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

At Mr. Kirchner's request, no services will be held and burial arrangements were through the Neptune Society. His family prefers contributions in his memory be made to the charity of the donor's choice.

Alice Phillips Rose

Red Cross volunteer

Alice Phillips Rose, a longtime member of the American Red Cross, died March 6 at her home in Atherton. She was 97.

Known as Bindy to her friends, she was a third-generation San Franciscan.

She attended the University of California at Berkeley, Yale University graduate school, the Smith College School of Social Work and earned a degree in administration from Columbia University.

She was married to Dr. Milton Rose, a prominent Peninsula psychiatrist, for 55 years, until his death in 1984.

Beginning the 1950s, Ms. Rose was an active member of the American Red Cross and assumed many leadership positions at the local, national and international levels, family members said. Locally, she was appointed the consultant in social services to the board of the Palo Alto chapter of the American Red Cross, and honored with the chapter's lifetime achievement award in 1999.

She served as a delegate to national and international Red Cross conferences, as a panelist to national conventions, and was a technical presenter on the structure of the International Red Cross.

In 1987, Ms. Rose received the National Harriman Award, the highest volunteer award given by the Red Cross. Ms. Rose's research led her to discover the original, handwritten founding documents of the League of Red Cross Societies in the archives of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.

She was appointed the American representative to the Henri Dunant Institute and a consultant to the ethics committee of the League of Red Cross Societies, both in Geneva. She also was a member of the advisory board of the historical resources division of the American Red Cross in Washington, D.C.

Ms. Rose is survived by her daughters, Belinda Rose of Menlo Park and Allison Rose of New York City.

In lieu of flowers, her daughters prefer that donations be made to the Cleo Eulau Center, 415 Cambridge Ave., Suite 21, Palo Alto, CA 94306-1608.

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