Pacific Palisades Post, January 22, 2009
Jeanne Ryan Fonda, a former resident of Pacific Palisades, passed away peacefully in her home in Pebble Beach on January 1, with her beloved husband of 65 years, Bill, at her side. She was 87.
Born in Ashville, North Carolina, Fonda graduated from Stephen’s College for Women in Columbia, Missouri, and later was proud of being one of the original American Airlines stewardesses from World War II, during which time the airline ferried only dignitaries and military leaders. She continued her relationship with her airline colleagues in the Kiwi Club, within which she formed a dance troupe, staging performances for charity that included the famous Ebsen sisters, Helga and Vilma, sisters of Buddy Ebsen.
Jeanne and Bill were wed shortly after his return from piloting 50 combat missions in the Mediterranean theater during World War II. They had three children: Lynne Fonda of Colorado Springs; Robert Fonda, M.D., of Newport Beach; and Laurie Fonda Gile, who predeceased her mother.
After moving to Pacific Palisades in 1954 and raising their children, Jeanne and Bill relocated to Pebble Beach, where they opened a small business. Fonda found joy as an active member of the Jesters Club, the fundraising arm of the Monterey Museum of Art. Her charm, exquisite taste, and joie de vivre were blessings to everyone she met.
Fonda loved and enjoyed her grandchildren, Zoe Dombrowski, Beka Chinery, Jeremy Caraway, Jason Caraway, Scott Gile, Jacob Gile, Zak Phillips, Clark Fonda and Emilia Fonda; and 13 great-grandchildren.
A service will be held at 1 p.m. on January 24 at the El Carmello Chapel in Pacific Grove. Memorial donations can be made to Hospice of the Central Coast, P.O. Box HH, Monterey, CA 93942.
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\\ tags: America, Miltary, World War I, World War II
The Independent – January 9, 2009
Rensselaer, NY – Stop by the Rensselaer Area Senior Center any day of the week to find a bunch of senior citizens doing anything but acting their age. You’re more likely to find a flurry of activity from Tai Chi and yoga, to line dancing or belly dancing. There’s bowling and aqua aerobics, music and laughter everyday.
On Tuesdays you’ll find a group of ladies, often dressed in long skirts with headscarves and jingly belts involved in a belly dancing class. Often considered a dance of seduction, belly dancing is more like a folk dance, an ancient art form that for centuries has been a celebratory dance people would do to commemorate special occasions such as weddings, the birth of a child or community festivals in the Middle East.
 Seniors Olive Felio, (l-r) instructor Lynn Buell, Irja Riano and Phyllis Kearbey practice belly dancing every Tuesday at the Rensselaer Area Senior Center, a lively dance class with a Middle Eastern twist. Photo by Catherine Sager. It is a dance that men, women, and children do for fun, not necessarily as a performance for the entertainment of an audience. Just like at a wedding reception where guests might do waltzes, the electric slide, Macarena, or even the chicken dance. But for the participants of the Rensselaer Senior Center, it’s just one of many activities offered to active seniors.
“It’s a great way for seniors to get a workout,” said Lynn Buell, dance instructor. “It combines low-impact steps with gentle flowing movements, but is a surprisingly effective form of exercise.” Ms. Buell says the measured movements involve all major muscle groups and help with circulation, posture and balance. The music is soothing and the movements are so graceful and repetitive that it’s a stress reliever, she said. And it’s easy to learn. Anyone can do it. All that’s needed to know are a few simple steps. With slow and gentle movements, it’s the perfect exercise and a unique form of dance that doesn’t require a partner.
Gloria Fonda, the director of the center, wants it known that all Rensselaer County seniors 60 years or older are invited to visit the center. The center is an active, vibrant community where seniors can gather to take a class, catch up with friends or have a hot lunch every day at noon, for a suggested donation of $2.50. She said there is no fee for any activities on the calendar at the center at the corner of East and Herrick streets.
“It’s through the [Department of Aging] agency’s genuine concern for the health and welfare of our elders that the center serves so many so well,” said Ms. Fonda.
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The Leader-Herald, December 20, 2008
Johnstown, NY – After waiting more than 40 years to receive official recognition for heroic military service, Joseph Fonda had a tough time waiting one more night. “He couldn’t sleep at all,” said his wife, Charlene, with a laugh.
 U.S. Rep. Michael McNulty presents the Bronze Star Medal to Joseph F. Fonda in Johnstown on Friday. The Montgomery County man served heroically in the Vietnam War in 1967 and ’68. (The Leader-Herald/Bill Trojan) On Friday morning, Fonda was finally honored. At the Fulton County Office Building, U.S. Rep. Michael McNulty presented a Bronze Star Medal to Fonda as his family watched with tears in their eyes. “It is my honor to make this presentation,” McNulty said. “The Bronze Star Medal is presented to very few individuals.” The act of Congress that established the medal says it recognizes “heroic or meritorious achievement or service … in connection with military operations against an armed enemy.”
Fonda, who grew up in the village that shares his name, went to Vietnam on July 20, 1967, as part of an infantry unit. He was 17 years old. “I volunteered to draft, and I volunteered to go to Vietnam. After that, I learned not to volunteer anymore,” he said, laughing.
On Nov. 7, 1967, 4th Spc. Fonda’s unit was stationed between a cemetery and a bridge in a Vietnamese village. “When the engineers left it that night, it kept getting blown up, so we were platoons on it every night to guard it so it got built all the way,” Fonda said. Fonda’s platoon was attacked. His men moved to go past the bridge, but Fonda stayed behind to try and protect them.
“They were doing good, but I just figured that, to get it so those guys could get out of there, I had to stay there and give them cover fire until they got past the bridge,” Fonda said. Fonda remained at the site and used up all of his ammunition in order to defend his position, throwing grenades behind him to try and defend his men. He also ordered his men to evacuate a wounded soldier that night.
He left Vietnam in July 1968. Years later, Fonda had settled in Glen. His old lieutenants encouraged him to try and pursue the award. Fonda thought paperwork detailing his accomplishment that could have made him eligible for the award was lost in the Tet Offensive. “All I know is I didn’t get it,” he said. McNulty aide Terri Jasewicz said she helped Fonda put in a request for the award through the National Personnel Records Center, but she said the process was “very time consuming.” “They needed more information. They went through that four or five times,” she said.
Finally, earlier this week, Jasewicz received a call that the request was finally successful. She called Fonda immediately. Preparations were made quickly, and McNulty, D-Green Island, was able to come and present the award before he leaves office Jan. 3. “Usually, it isn’t in a circumstance like this, when the individual being honored should have been presented with the award years ago,” McNulty said.
Thankfully, Fonda said, he has family to share in his joy. “It’s kind of more scary now, when you think about it, than when I done it, because you’re younger, and you just go for it,” he said. “Later on in life, when you have kids, grandkids, you start to think about it, thinking about the guys that died that don’t have what I got. That’s the sad part.”
Fonda said he has recently noticed others taking stock of sacrifices soldiers make. On Thursday, as he was getting a haircut in Scotia before his big day, his barber noticed his jacket emblazoned with a Purple Heart logo. The two got to talking about the war, and when Fonda went to pay for his trim, his young barber told him that the service was free, thanks to the service he had provided for his country.
“It’s like everyone’s starting to realize something, getting more patriotic,” Fonda said. “And that makes me feel good. People are starting to recognize what people do in the military.” He said he would be able to move on emotionally from receiving such an honor. “It means a lot to me, but it’s not going to change my life, I know that,” Fonda said. Still, Charlene Fonda said her husband might finally get some peace. “He’s very deserving of it,” she said, dabbing away tears. “He’s waited a long, long time. I hope this puts some of it to rest.”
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The Harvard University Gazette, November 23, 2008
Two Harvard College students and a Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) doctoral student have received Rhodes Scholarships. Thirty-two Americans were chosen from among 800 applicants for the scholarships to the University of Oxford in England.
 Kyle Q. Haddad-Fonda Kyle Q. Haddad-Fonda, Issaquah, Wash., is a senior at Harvard College where he majors in history and near-Eastern languages and civilizations. Well-versed in Mandarin and Arabic, the Pforzheimer House resident conducted research in China and Egypt for his senior thesis on Sino-Arab relations. Haddad-Fonda was captain of the Harvard 2008 National College Bowl Championship team and plays the harp in the Mozart Society Orchestra. He plans to do a doctorate in Oriental studies at Oxford.
“I’m absolutely thrilled at the prospect of studying at Oxford next year,” he said, “and humbled by the caliber of the other students who went through the process as well.”
Haddad-Fonda said an early interest in geography and “the world and understanding other places” led him to his concentration. Current events, like the recent deal between Iraq and China in excess of $3 billion that will allow China to develop an oil field southeast of Baghdad, he noted, point to the increasing importance of Sino-Arab connections.
While at Oxford, he plans to continue his research and explore how this and other connections have developed in recent times.
“It’s a topic that is very current and very important. And it’s something that I want to understand and to understand in a historic perspective as well.” (…)
Elliot F. Gerson, American secretary of the Rhodes Trust, in a press release called the Rhodes Scholarships “the oldest and best-known award for international study, and arguably the most famous academic award available to American college graduates.” The scholarships were created in 1902 by the will of Cecil Rhodes, British philanthropist and African colonial pioneer. The first class of American Rhodes Scholars entered Oxford in 1904; those chosen this weekend will enter Oxford in October 2009.
Gerson said 3,164 Americans have won Rhodes Scholarships, representing 309 colleges and universities. The number of Harvard College students who have won American Rhodes Scholarships is now 323, more than from any other college. That number does not include Rhodes Scholars who were Harvard students who were citizens of other countries, and also does not include scholars who were selected while attending Harvard’s graduate schools.
In addition to the 32 Americans, Rhodes Scholars will also be selected from Australia, Bermuda, Canada, the nations of the Commonwealth Caribbean, Germany, India, Jamaica, Kenya, New Zealand, Pakistan, Southern Africa (South Africa, plus Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, and Swaziland), Zambia, and Zimbabwe. About 80 Rhodes Scholars are selected worldwide each year. Some countries have not yet announced their Rhodes Scholars.
The value of the Rhodes Scholarships varies depending on the academic field and the degree (B.A., master’s, doctoral) chosen. The Rhodes Trust pays all college and university fees, provides a stipend to cover necessary expenses while in residence in Oxford as well as during vacations, and transportation to and from England. Gerson estimates that the total value of the scholarship averages approximately $50,000 per year.
The Associated Press, by Dan Robrish, Monday, November 24, 2008
An Issaquah man who is studying history and Chinese and Arabic languages at Harvard University is among this year’s winners of the Rhodes Scholarship.
Kyle Q. Haddad-Fonda joins Mallory A. Dwinal, of Gig Harbor, and 30 other men and women from across the United States in winning the prestigious scholarships for study at England’s Oxford University.
The winners – announced publicly on Sunday – were picked from 769 applicants endorsed by 207 colleges and universities nationwide. The scholarships are the oldest of the international-study awards available to American students. They provide two or three years of study at Oxford University in England, commencing in October.
Haddad-Fonda, 22, grew up in Bellevue and graduated from Lakeside School in Seattle, where he studied Chinese and learned to play the harp. He plays in Harvard’s student orchestra and served as captain of the school’s College Bowl team, for the academic-oriented quiz competition along the lines of “Jeopardy!”
His senior thesis at Harvard focused on China-Arab relations in the 1950s. He plans to pursue the British equivalent of a doctorate in Asian studies. (…)
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Whidbey Examiner – September 26, 2008
The first complaint from a Front Street property owner about restrictions imposed by Coupeville’s new shoreline master plan has officials at Coupeville (WA) Town Hall barely holding back a big “I told you so.” “This is exactly the kind of situation we were trying to avoid,” Coupeville Mayor Nancy Conard said.
 Coupeville property owner Millie Fonda stands in front of her building on Front Street. Fonda said restrictions placed on her building by Coupeville’s new shoreline master plan are putting her finances in dire straits. Millie Fonda, the owner of a historic three-story building, recently inquired whether or not she would able to move into the bottom floor of her building. The space, which once housed Great Times Espresso, has been vacant since the Coupeville Coffeehouse closed last spring. Fonda said she has been unable to find someone who wants to rent the space for a business, in part because it needs considerable renovation.
But the work will take several months, and Fonda needs to earn an income from her building as soon as possible. “I need the revenue from that space to be able to pay my mortgage,” she said. The solution Fonda came up with was to make up the lost revenue by renting out the upstairs apartment where she currently resides. Her plan was to move her belongings into the former coffee shop and live there while she works on fixing it up.
Fonda said the building’s previous owner had once used the bottom floor as a residence, which led her to believe she could do the same. But when Fonda asked Coupeville Town Planner Larry Kwarsick for a permit to use the commercially zoned space for a residence, she was told her request would likely be denied. Fonda said she thinks the rejection is unfair.
“I am being denied the use of my property in a way it has previously and historically been used,” Fonda wrote in a statement she delivered to the Examiner. According to Conard, Fonda has not been denied the permit because she never actually applied for one. Conard said Fonda was simply advised that an application would likely be denied.
“Her right to apply has not been denied,” Conard said. “We just know what the law would support.” Fonda could apply for a conditional-use permit under the current shoreline plan, but Kwarsick said the process takes months and requires the approval of the state Department of Ecology. And based on the agency’s input regarding the recently approved shoreline plan, Kwarsick said he thinks the agency also would turn down Fonda’s request. (…)
Conard echoed those sentiments, saying that many of the people who criticized the plan probably didn’t realize all the consequences those complaints would have. She speculated that most would see Fonda’s request as legitimate. “This just breaks my heart,” Conard said. “I really feel bad for Millie.”
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