1968 Year

The life of Pete Axthelm wasn't especially long--he died the other day at 47--but it wasn't devoid of action. Pete flourished on action. It was the fuel that propelled him. As early as high school, he would make his way to Belmont Park, matching his science against the forces confronting him. For a man eager to get down a bet, horses offer matchless opportunity because they never stop running, except maybe between midnight and noon.

Howard H. Marcou, a retired Saddleback College administrator, died of cancer Dec. 17 at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach, college officials announced this week. He was 66. A resident of Newport Beach, Marcou became Saddleback's first chairman of the Business Science Division in 1968. A year later, he was promoted to dean of admissions and records. In 1974, Marcou rejoined the teaching ranks at the college, and he taught accounting until his retirement in 1984.

The Fair Housing Council of Orange County recently launched a Web site providing detailed information about state and federal fair-housing laws. Online services include information about education programs, mediation services and landlord-tenant legal assistance. The Web site also offers links to the National Fair Housing Alliance, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Orange County courts' Web sites.

The Vatican on Thursday denied a German television report that its bank once held shares in a drug company producing birth control pills. However, a spokesman at the Geneva headquarters of the pharmaceutical company Serono, named in the report, said the Vatican did hold stock in its Rome subsidiary in the 1960s and possibly into the early 1970s. The spokesman, however, denied the company made birth control pills. "We're just the opposite.

Jack Nicklaus says he'll make his first Phoenix Open appearance since 1968 this year, tournament officials said. Nicklaus had said at the Skins Game in Murrieta, Calif., in November that he'd try to make this year's Phoenix Open, and tournament organizers the Phoenix Thunderbirds said last week they got his phone call. Nicklaus won the Phoenix Open in 1964.

Tom Lewis was the scoring sensation and Rich Branning was a point guard extraordinaire. LeRon Ellis was the graceful center, and Wayne Carlander was a powerful blue-collar forward. Matt Beeuwsaert was the ultimate team player, and Mark Wulfemeyer was a legend. For the past 20 years, some of the Southern Section's most talented basketball players have gained fame, notoriety and scholarships to some of the nation's top major colleges while playing for Orange County high schools.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s son, Dexter, on the eve of the anniversary of his father's 60th birthday, was named president of the institution established to further the nonviolent philosophy espoused by the slain civil rights leader. Coretta Scott King, the current president and chief executive officer of the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, named the younger of King's two sons president Saturday and said she will retain the CEO title.

Kimo McVay, 73, longtime entertainment manager and entrepreneur who at one time counted Don Ho among his clients, died June 29 of complications from prostate cancer at a hospital in Honolulu. Born in Washington, D.C., McVay's father was a Navy officer, and his mother, Kinau Wilder, a respected name in island theater and society. The pinnacle of McVay's career was the Hawaii of the 1960s and '70s, when he ran the Duke Kahanamoku nightclub at the International Market Place in Honolulu.

The ex-wife of admitted spy John A. Walker Jr. testified Monday that she told Jerry A. Whitworth as early as 1973 that she knew her husband "was recruiting him to spy" and warned him that John Walker "couldn't be trusted."

George E. Fessenden, a retired general manager of a lumber company who owned a convenience market in Palmdale, has died in a Palmdale hospital. He was 75. A longtime resident of Palmdale, he died Thursday of complications from heart problems, said his son, George E. Fessenden II. Born Oct. 3, 1915, in Searchlight, Nev., Fessenden came to California as an infant and graduated from San Bernardino High School in 1936. He was later hired by the Hayward Lumber Co.