Local residents who have died recently include:
• Relly Davidson, 87, a resident of Davis, Calif. who was born in Bulgaria and worked for many years as the graduate secretary for the Knight Fellowship at Stanford University as well as in the university’s news and publications office, on July 9.
• W.J. McCroskey, 86, A Palo Alto resident, an accomplished engineer in the field of rotorcraft aerodynamics who conducted research at Moffett Field as part of a joint collaboration between NASA and the U.S. Army, and spent time in his personal life backpacking, hiking and attending Sierra Club service trips, on May 26.
• Robert Mueller, 94, a well-traveled Woodside resident who worked as a dentist who participated in numerous theater productions, was a part of the Woodside Players, and was known for his cooking, singing and piano playing, on July 2.
• Coleen Duncan, 57, who grew up and lived in Atherton and directed and choreographed local theater productions of “Twas the Night Before Christmas,” and whose passion for dance began at age 4 and continued through the decades, on July 5.
• Jayne Booker, 71, a Redwood City resident who spent years with the Peace Corps serving in West Africa, later lived and worked in Johannesburg, and eventually moved to the Bay Area in the late ’90s to join the David and Lucille Packard Foundation to support grantmaking to reproductive health organizations in Africa, on March 15.
• David Altman, 103, a Menlo Park man who did pioneering work developing solid fuel for rocket propulsion into orbit, contributing to the Apollo space program including the moon landing, worked on the Manhattan Project with Robert Oppenheimer and was tasked with investigating the cause behind the Challenger Shuttle explosion, and who was known by others for having sly humor and a love for music, on July 10.
To read the full obituaries, leave remembrances and post photos, go to Lasting Memories at AlmanacNews.com/obituaries.
