From Coast Guard reservist to an antiwar activist Marvin Cohen spent 6½ years in the U. S. Coast Guard reserve based at Coast Guard Island, part of the city of Alameda. He and a friend joined in 1954, when both were 17. “We thought that, maybe, if we were in the Coast Guard, we could save somebody’s life, and not kill people,” said Cohen, a 17-year...

Dr. Ike Ichikawa was at the forefront of research in treating kidney disease Dr. Iekuni Ichikawa showed photos of people he worked with at his last stop in the workaday world, treating seniors through the Harmony Clinic in Japan. One of them was of a 100-year-old woman who was an expert in calligraphy. “I was the only one from the ‘outside’ who vis...

Urcil Commons has a treasure trove of crisp black-and-white photos taken during the 2½ years she served as an Army nurse during World War II, on Adak Island, Alaska, which during the war was a strategic point from which the U.S. military was fighting Japanese forces in the northern Pacific. Some images show Commons with her colleagues, in action or...

Dick Hildebrand talks about public service and pickleball Dick Hildebrand doesn’t have the showy kind of personality that craves the limelight – he’s down to earth with a quiet-but-warm demeanor that charms. “He’s just a really nice human being,” said Bill Dough- Dick Hildebrand, a former Walnut Creek mayor, stands next to a photo of the Walnut Cre...

Fewer vendors part of COVID adjustments Another sign that life in Rossmoor and beyond is slowly returning to “normal” is the reemergence of the Fall Bazaar, coming back Saturday, Nov. 6, after the 2020 event became one of the myriad pandemic victims. Carol Lehr is thrilled the Fall Bazaar is back, and she’ll be there selling the fused glass windchi...

Several folks from a landscaping company were gathered on a recent Wednesday morning watching water gushing from a “fire line,” a pipe that provides water to a hydrant, adjacent to homes off Upper Golden Rain Road. It looked like a small river cascading into the entry driveway. A few minutes later, Doug Hughs drove up to assess the situation – one ...

Amajority of the GRF Board supports exploring possible shared pickleball courts at Tice Valley Park outside the gate but doesn’t want to bank entirely on a project that might never develop. So, the directors unanimously decided to continue investigating the Rossmoor sites at Creekside, Buckeye and Hillside. The Board voted at its meeting last Thurs...

Dog Park Is another fallout of the pandemic a busier and noisier Dog Park because residents adopted so many dogs, decided to stay home and now need a place for Fido to roam off leash? At least 100 residents spent about an hour Oct. 25 talking about how dogs, their persons and neighbors can co-exist. In the end, it was the consensus that there shoul...

First Diversity Festival packs a crowd The gloomy weather didn’t dampen the enthusiasm of the scores of residents who came together last Wednesday to celebrate what makes Rossmoor what it is – a community with diverse heritages, languages, customs, religions, sexual orientations and more. The Diversity Festival at Gateway easily had the biggest tur...

Golf course closed for cleanup until Thursday In the 13 years he’s lived in Rossmoor, Donny Pettibone had never seen anything like Sunday’s epic storm that dumped 6 inches of rain in the valley. “I saw rain before, but not like this,” said the resident of Entry 1 on Rossmoor Parkway. “It was constant, and at times it just rained harder.” Teddi Swan...