Claremont

Nathaniel Davis, a longtime diplomat who was the American ambassador to Chile when President Salvador Allende was deposed in a bloody coup, died of cancer Monday in Claremont. He was 86. His death was announced by Claremont's Harvey Mudd College, where he taught political science for 19 years until his retirement in 2002. Once described as a "brilliant career officer" by former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Davis also served as ambassador to Bulgaria, Guatemala and Switzerland.

Leaders of the Claremont School of Theology will announce Monday the gift of $40 million from an Arizona couple to help expand the Christian divinity institution into a university that will include training for Jewish and Muslim clergy. The donation from David Lincoln, a Claremont trustee, and his wife, Joan, is the largest ever to the 126-year-old theology school, which enrolls about 240 students in master's and doctorate programs in religion and counseling. The couple also gave $10 million to the school last year.

Address: 2105 N. San Marcos Place, Claremont 91711 Listed for: $623,900 Size: Four bedrooms and three bathrooms in 2,421 square feet Lot size: 0.26 acres Features: The single-story contemporary, built in 1965, has a family room, a den, a living room fireplace and an in-ground pool. MLS ID: C11022737 Address: 536 Berkeley Ave., Claremont 91711 Listed for: $575,000 Size: Three bedrooms and two bathrooms in 1,341 square feet Lot size: 0.12 acres Features: The updated Colonial Revival-style house, built in 1910, has 10-foot ceilings, hardwood floors and pocket doors.

About two dozen white supremacists took to the streets in Claremont on Saturday to protest what they view as an unbridled flow of illegal immigration into the region, including the small college town. Their demonstration along Foothill Boulevard was interrupted by a counter-protest of more than 200 immigrant rights activists, who decried the group as racist. The screaming confrontation appeared to be tense but nonviolent. Dozens of officers from several police agencies watched over both sides, but Claremont police could not be reached for comment on whether anyone was arrested.

Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden in Claremont displays the ravishing beauty of California's wild plants. But the setting is so operatic, it can be hard to imagine this flora on a smaller stage, say, a patio or apartment balcony. Unless you happen upon a nook where some of the native plants are potted up for a more intimate performance. On a foggy morning, a hummingbird swoops in for a sip of Cleveland sage ( Salvia clevelandii ). Impatiently, it probes the whorls of the petite lavender flowers.

Judith Merkle Riley, a longtime associate professor of government at Claremont McKenna College and the author of internationally bestselling historical novels, has died. She was 68. Riley died of ovarian cancer Sept. 12 at her home in Claremont, said her daughter, Elizabeth Riley. Riley, who taught under her maiden name, joined the government department faculty at Claremont McKenna College and the faculty of Claremont Graduate School in 1982. She taught organization and management, public and comparative administration, political ideologies, and healthcare and public policy.

Rupert J. Deese, a longtime Claremont ceramicist who began producing functional decorative pottery with shapely forms and silky glazes during the Southern California postwar design boom, has died. He was 85. Deese died July 12 at Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center in Pomona of complications from arteriosclerotic disease, his daughter Mary Ann Brow said. His death came barely a month after that of his wife of 59 years, Helen Deese, a former English professor at Mount St. Mary's College in Los Angeles and UC Riverside.

A prominent healthcare economist and former high-ranking administrator at Syracuse University will be the next leader of Claremont Graduate University, a 2,200-student campus that awards master's and doctoral degrees, university officials said. In an announcement scheduled for Wednesday, Deborah A. Freund, 58, will be named president of the private university, one of two graduate institutions in the seven-member Claremont Colleges consortium. The first woman to head the school, Freund is expected to take her position in the fall, replacing Joseph C. Hough, an interim leader who has served since Robert Klitgaard left the presidency in February 2009 after differences with the university's trustees.

Listing details: 4972 Webb Canyon Road, Claremont Location: 4972 Webb Canyon Road, Claremont 91711 Asking price: $3.5 million Size: Three bedrooms and 2 1/2 bathrooms in 4,000 square feet Lot size: 50.76 acres Additional features: New lightweight cement-tile roof; zoned air conditioning in main house; 2,000-square-foot, steel-framed barn-workshop with roll-up doors; 500-gallon propane tank that...

The former hunting retreat that Southern California Edison's first president, John Barnes Miller, built around 1918 is for sale in unincorporated Claremont. Three miles up Webb Canyon Road, Trails End Ranch offers a rare glimpse of early California from its nearly 51 wilderness acres, which include live oak, scrub oak, redwood, olive, peach and pepper trees, to name a few. Although the single-level U-shaped, hacienda-style home was built before Los Angeles County started tracking building permits, a 1918 announcement by Southern California Edison said the company would construct a number of rustic redwood residences.