Philanthropist

Katherine "Kit" Tremaine, 89, an author, philanthropist and social activist who was on Richard Nixon's enemies list. During her lifetime, Tremaine donated about $30 million to Democratic political candidates and causes. She campaigned against the Vietnam War in the 1960s, standing in silent protest once a week outside the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. In 1973, she learned that she was on Nixon's list because of her support of Democrats and opposition to the war.

A prominent local entrepreneur and philanthropist has purchased Doheny Glatt Kosher meat market as controversy about its products continue to swirl through the Los Angeles Jewish community. Shlomo Rechnitz, who, according to his tumblr blog, has spent years in the healthcare and medical supply industry, is also an "extraordinarily huge player in the international Jewish world of philanthropy," Rabbi Meyer May said. Rechnitz purchased the business from former owner Michael Engelman on Sunday, May said.

A funeral service for John E. Anderson, a billionaire businessman, philanthropist and namesake of UCLA's graduate school of management, will be held at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday at Westwood United Methodist Church, 10497 Wilshire Blvd. He died Friday at 93.

George Aratani, a Los Angeles businessman who donated millions of dollars to Japanese American causes, and with his wife endowed the nation's first academic chair to study the World War II internment of people of Japanese descent and their efforts to gain redress, has died. He was 95. An entrepreneur who founded the Mikasa china and Kenwood electronics firms, Aratani died Tuesday at Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center of complications of pneumonia, his daughter Linda Aratani said. He had lived at the Keiro nursing facility in Lincoln Heights since last summer.

Victoria Nebeker Coberly, 74, art collector and philanthropist who was formerly married to the late Harvey Mudd College benefactor Henry T. Mudd. Mrs. Coberly, a sixth-generation Californian, lent her paintings for exhibition at the Huntington Library and the California Club. She was active in many philanthropic organizations and was an overseer of the Huntington Library and a California director of the Robert E. Lee Memorial Assn. On Wednesday in Los Angeles after a long illness.

Carlotta Kirkeby, a philanthropist who with her late husband owned or once owned a string of 25 hotels including the Beverly Wilshire, is dead of cancer. She died Nov. 19 at home in Bel-Air and was believed in her late 60s or early 70s. A founder of both the Music Center and a charitable group called the Colleagues, she was known for the charity sales she staged at her palatial six-acre home on Bel-Air Road which was filled with such modern French master artists as Monet, Cezanne and Matisse.

The inquiry into a gift of Stradivarius instruments to the Smithsonian Institution took a dramatic turn this week when the donor, Herbert Axelrod, was arrested in Germany. The multimillionaire philanthropist had fled the United States in April for Cuba and was arrested Tuesday night in Berlin after taking a flight from Zurich.

Roy Valentine Titus, 79, a philanthropist and former chairman of the cosmetics company founded by his mother, Helena Rubinstein. Titus was the elder of Mrs. Rubinstein's two sons by her first husband and moved with his family to the United States in 1914. After earning degrees from Oxford and the Harvard School of Business Administration, he joined a British affiliate of the cosmetics company and served as an executive of the business in New York until he retired in 1974. Titus served as chairman of the Helena Rubinstein Foundation, on the board of the Children's Blood Foundation and the board of governors of the Tel Aviv Museum, and was a trustee of the Oil, Chemical & Atomic Workers Union-Industry Pension Fund.

Mae Lenore Markham, a philanthropist whose late husband was publisher of the Valley News, predecessor of the Daily News of Los Angeles, has died at an Encino hospital. She was 95. A longtime resident of Encino, Mrs. Markham died Thursday of a heart attack, according to her granddaughter. Born in Rossville, Kan., she graduated from Emporia Teacher's College. In 1932, she saw an advertisement offering for sale a controlling interest in a Van Nuys paper and encouraged her husband, Maurice W.

Wilma Day Mallmann, 94, a charter life member of the Pepperdine University Associates, one of the school's leading support groups and a philanthropist who worked for and donated to the Music Center, the National Charity League of Los Angeles and the Assistance League of Southern California. She devoted most of her professional life to managing such hotels as the Beverly Hills, the Hotel Del Mar, the Fairmont in San Francisco and the Feather River Inn. In Los Angeles on Nov. 11.

The essence of much effective horror is an ability to tap into the churning fears of a moment in time. The low-budget, grimly realized "Would You Rather" is explicit about this approach, introducing us to a young woman (Brittany Snow) in dire financial straits with a terminally ill brother to care for. She agrees to attend a dinner hosted by an eccentric, wealthy philanthropist (Jeffrey Combs, enjoying himself) who promises a form of help. Instead, she and seven other guests find themselves coerced into playing a cruel version of the titular game, predicated on committing atrocious acts upon one another (or oneself)

Erika Glazer came of age at Wilshire Boulevard Temple, listening to the preachings of the late Edgar Magnin -- the "rabbi to the stars" who envisioned a grand sanctuary west of downtown Los Angeles and persuaded Hollywood notables to help fund it. "He was always speeding things up," said Glazer, the daughter of shopping mall developer Guilford Glazer. "I remember as a kid he would skip [Torah] pages. " Now it's Glazer's turn to move things along. The philanthropist has pledged $30 million over the next 15 years toward the synagogue's ongoing restoration and redevelopment.

The family of philanthropist Max Palevsky has sold his mansion in Malibu for $36.5 million. The Mediterranean villa sits on 6.62 acres with 339 feet of beachfront, a swimming pool, a spa, a lighted tennis court with a half bathroom and a guesthouse. There are two offices, a theater, seven bedrooms, 8.5 bathrooms and 11,313 square feet of living space. Palevsky, who died in 2010 at 85, was an early computer magnate and an arts supporter. He helped found Scientific Data Systems and establish chip maker Intel.

Bruno Serato strolls down the middle of a narrow street, his signature white chef's coat illuminated by the headlights of a cargo van. A light rain falls as he yells into the boxy homes that line the road at the Golden Skies Mobile Home Park in Anaheim. He stops each passing person - a man driving home from work, a woman pushing a child in a stroller. "Turkey," he calls out, the Italian in his voice still thick. "Turkey!" The van is loaded with 12- and 13-pound turkeys, and the 56-year-old owner of the Anaheim White House restaurant is on another mission to help Orange County's neediest.

Dame Elisabeth Murdoch , mother of News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch, has died at her home outside Melbourne , Australia , at the age of 103. The matriarch of the world's most prominent media family was well-known in Australia for her philanthropy, and she remained active late into her life. News Corp. confirmed her death Wednesday. "Throughout her life, our mother demonstrated the very best qualities of true public service," Rupert Murdoch said in a statement published in the News Corp.-owned Wall Street Journal . "Her energy and personal commitment made our country a more hopeful place and she will be missed by many.

Tall, sinewy women, their necks thin and erect, mingle in wispy dresses on the arms of broad-shouldered men under the twinkling white lights of the canopied back patio at the Beverly Hills Four Seasons. As dusk fades and cocktails are served, the black-tie crowd moves with a particular rhythmic elegance. Maybe that's because some of the country's biggest names in dance are here. There are Debbie Allen, Diavolo Dance Theater's Jacques Heim, choreographer and one-time Joffrey prima ballerina Jodie Gates, as well as Complexions Contemporary Ballet co-founder and dancer Desmond Richardson.

Jack Levand, 79, Westside businessman, real estate agent, philanthropist and past president of the Big Ten Club of California. A native of Cleveland, Levand graduated from Ohio State University and later moved to California as a steel industry executive. In 1965 he founded Levand Steel & Supply Co. Entering real estate in 1959, he set up Jack J. Levand Realty, dealing in celebrity homes and studio property.

Ruby Hale Field, 100, philanthropist who aided libraries and landscaping efforts. Born in San Jose, she earned a degree in English and journalism at Stanford University before her marriage to Oliver C. Field. The young couple moved to Belmont Heights in Long Beach, where he was a founder of Chevron Oil Co. The couple later became among the earliest residents of Palos Verdes Estates. Field died in the ocean-view home where she had lived for 70 years.

Martin Richards Stage producer and philanthropist Martin Richards, 80, a prominent stage producer who won an Oscar for producing the 2002 film "Chicago" decades after bringing it to Broadway, died Monday after a battle with cancer, said his publicist, Judy Jacksina. Plays and musicals he produced over several decades won 36 Tonys. They include the 1978 musical "On the Twentieth Century"; Stephen Sondheim's "Sweeney Todd" in 1979 and the 2005 revival; Tommy Tune's "Grand Hotel" in 1989; the 1984 "La Cage Aux Folles" and 2004 revival; and "The Will Rogers Follies," which debuted in 1991.

Victorino Noval and his family are enthusiastic supporters of Alan Jackson's bid to become Los Angeles County's next district attorney. The self-styled philanthropist has given $3,000, the legal maximum, to Jackson's election campaign. His three adult sons have donated thousands of dollars, with one son giving $100,000 to the California Republican Party a day before the party spent nearly $80,000 on voter mailers championing the prosecutor. Posted on a Facebook page for Noval's foundation are photographs of a fundraiser Noval says he held for Jackson at his Beverly Hills mansion earlier this year, with guests mingling as a mariachi band played.