Lois Battle is a New York Times best-selling author of seven novels including:  Season of Change, War Brides, Southern Women, A Habit of Blood, The Past Is  Another Country, Storyville Bed & Breakfast, The Florabama Ladies Auxiliary and Sewing Circle.

She died at age 74, on June 17, 2014, at her home in Beaufort, South Carolina.

Before she began writing, Battle pursued an acting career in New York City. She landed several small roles in theater and film, including a speaking part in the 1964 film adaptation of the musical My Fair Lady. She also appeared in Something Evil (1972) and Louis Armstrong – Chicago Style (1976).

Battle began writing novels in the 1980s. She discovered Beaufort while researching “Southern Women,” a novel set in Savannah, and moved to town in 1993. Her novel “Bed and Breakfast” is set in Beaufort.

Known to many in Beaufort as a fiery, passionate woman and champion of the arts, Lois Battle is also remembered for her loyalty, generosity and fragility, according to her obituary in the Beaufort Gazette. Battle’s sister, Colleen Battle of Cleveland, described her as a creative spirit who was her mentor in the arts, introducing her to ballet, opera and literature.  She was also a woman known for her strong stances. Colleen Battle said her sister didn’t believe in credit cards, cellphones or the Internet.

“She thought they inhibited communication,” Coleen Battle said. “She felt like when people actually wrote a language, they communicated more fully.” As a result, Lois Battle corresponded with friends and family through painted postcards and handwritten letters.

Anaheim High Class of ’64 Virnell Bruce is the author of “Shells: A Cameo of Anne Morrow Lindbergh.” She is also a playwright and wrote a one-woman, two-act play based on Anne Morrow Lindbergh, one of the most accomplished women of the 20th century.

Her book won a Special Citation Awarded from The Colonial Dames of America, an organization that recognizes non-fiction books of merit that focus on American life—past, present, or future—that broaden the understanding of American history, politics, or culture.

Virnell, whose career in the aerospace industry spanned 36 years, teaches at the Christopher Wren Association, an educational program affiliated with the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. Virnell has a Master’s Degree in Journalism from the University of Southern California and holds a Bachelor’s Degree in English.

Thomas J. Cashman Sr. served his country in the US Air Force and became a Morse Code instructor.

He continued his education at CSU Los Angeles, where he majored in Education and Computer Science, paving his way to becoming a teacher and renowned author in the computer field.

He established one of the first business data processing programs in the nation at Long Beach City College, where he taught computer science for 33 years and served as department head. His first book on computer science was published by his own company. He later wrote for Thompson International Publishing of Toronto, Boston and London.

In 1969, he began collaborating with now best-selling author, Gary Shelly, to write more than 100 books on computer science that have sold over 20 million copies. His topics included Microsoft products, web design, business data communications, computer fundamentals and more.

Hans Otto Storm (1895–1941) was a German-American writer, novelist and radio engineer. His reputation quickly faded into obscurity after his early death, but in the 1940s received some positive praise from the legendary literary critic Edmund Wilson. Storm also holds the distinction of being the first person in the U.S. to die in WWII.

Storm was born in Bloomington, CA, to German parents who were refugees fleeing anti-socialist fervor in Germany following the failed Revolutions of 1848. His family made their way to Anaheim, taking up residence at 907 W. Broadway, one block north of Anaheim Union High School.

Storm graduated from AUHS in 1913. His senior quote in the school’s annual was certainly a self-fulfilling prophecy: “Fire in each eye, and papers in each hand, he raves, recites and maddens round the land.”

A top scholar, Storm studied engineering at Stanford University while supporting himself in the electrician’s trade. His education was interrupted in 1917 when the U.S. entered WWI and Storm was drafted into the Army. A biography on his life in Twentieth Century Authors states that he contracted various illnesses and was held two years in various hospitals as a patient and attendant.

Storm earned his bachelor’s from Stanford in 1920, and as a radio-telegraph engineer with Globe Wireless of San Francisco, he constructed radio stations in New York, Nicaragua and Peru.

His experience in South and Central America resulted in Pity the Poor Tyrant (1937). The novel about an American engineer who becomes involved in a Peruvian revolution is considered his best work.  The book made his reputation but so enraged Peruvian authorities that he was order out of the country in 1939 when he was there to install a communication system for the international “Good Neighbor” Conference in Lima.

Storm worked full time at his profession and was frequently ill, but still managed to write four novels, short stories, poems, plays, essays and articles. A collection of his works is housed at Berkeley’s Bancroft Library.

His first novel, Full Measure (1929), a book about industrial expansion strongest on the subject of radio engineering and its equipment, received mildly positive reviews but sold little over a 1,000 copies.

His third novel, Made in the USA (1939), is a “social fable” about a tramp steamer full of passengers that becomes stuck on a sand-bar in the South Pacific. Civilized behavior deteriorates and the passengers break into two warring camps. 

In the forward of “Of Good Family,” a collection of Storm’s writings on Spanish America published in 1948, he is described by editor David Greenhood as “an astonishing and brilliant man . . . one of our finest engineers” and “the author of some of the most penetrating novels and prose about Spanish America ever written by a North American.”

A curious combination of artist and practical scientist, Storm was described as possessing
“a dry wit and bubbling humor that didn’t often emerge in print.” He is reported to have said that he disliked “meetings, folding chairs and mimeographed leaflets.” A man who studied Chinese for fun, Storm built a boat in the backyard of his home in Palo Alto, where he lived with his wife Grace Cleone Camp. The couple sailed the boat along the Pacific Coast.

Storm met an untimely death when, on Dec. 11, 1941, three days after Congress declared war on Japan, he was accidentally electrocuted while rushing to complete a giant radio transformer for the Army Signal Corps in a laboratory in San Francisco.

Terence J. Troup is the author of This Day in Football – A Day-by-Day Record of the Events That Shaped the Game, which contains a full football season of facts, history, and nostalgia. It will tell you the date the passes-attempted record was broken (94 on Nov. 1, 1953) as well as the game in which a defensive tackle lined up as a tight end and made the only touchdown reception of his career (William Perry, Chicago Bears, Nov. 3). You will learn, for example, that Oct. 14, 1951, is notable for being the day Detroit Hall of Famer Jack Christiansen set a new record for most punt return yards in a game against the Rams―a record broken again later that same day by Emlen Tunnell of the Giants. (What are the odds?)

He also wrote The Birth of Football’s Modern 4-3 Defense: The Seven Seasons That Changed the NFL. From 1953 to 1959, professional football’s offensive and defensive tactics were in a transitional phase. As teams developed innovative strategies to attack the 5-2-4 defense, passing efficiency improved. In an attempt to counter this newfound passing success, the 4-3-4 defense evolved. This crucial shift in strategies is often overlooked in histories of the NFL, yet its impact on the game is still seen today.

Donald G.  Zarlinga  is a doctor of theoretical physics, as well as a world traveler, writer and author who recently published a book of poetry titled The Edge Of The Soul. Zarlinga speaks six languages and has lived in Costa Rica and Puerto Rico. His book of poetry was written in Spanish then translated to English.  He has also written and published numerous papers through his business career with NASA and other major companies.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-donald-zarlengo-vp-cio-71a2031a

Dave Bourn was a man of many talents. Foremost a musician best known for his work as a professional pianist, Bourn also created a book on the history of Knott’s Berry Farm’s Ghost Town.

While attending USC, where he earned a degree in music education, he worked at Knott’s, first as a piano player in the Calico Saloon and later he played string bass with the Wagonmasters. A group of musician cowboys who entertained in the Knott’s Wagon Camp from 1955 until 1968, the Wagonmasters were honored by the Western Music Association with the Pioneer Trails Award. Dave’s from memories of his years at Knott’s led him to publish a pictorial retrospective that contained images of the park’s ghost town from 1940 to 1968.

From his first job playing piano for Knott’s, Bourne played piano professionally until his death Jan. 30, 2015. He headed his own bands and western singing groups and recorded CDs of authentic old west saloon piano music. His music can also be heard extensively on the HBO series “Deadwood,” where he can also be seen as the piano player in the Gem Saloon.

An Anaheim High Hall of Famer, his complete biography is available at www.anaheimcolonists.com/dave-bourne-class-of-1957.

Dennis Bateman Is a professional sportswriter and historian who has spent more than a dozen years covering high school sports all over Southern California, from San Clemente to San Luis Obispo. He has written full-time for the Orange County Register, the Los Angeles Times, and the Santa Barbara News-Press. He is the author of Anaheim Colonists Football – A Century of Tradition and The Orange County Football Book and is currently working on a book chronicling the Los Angeles Rams’ return to Southern California.

Together with his twin brother and fellow Anaheim High alum Tom Bateman, Dennis helped guide “Bring Back the Los Angeles Rams,” a highly successful social media campaign that paved the way for the Rams franchise’s triumphant return this year.