Gary Avey, age 65, passed away in his Phoenix home on December 20, 2005, of complications from lung cancer. In 1979, he was selected editor of Arizona Highways. Under his direction, the magazine grew to its all-time-high circulation of 500,000. In 1985, he was appointed deputy director of the Heard Museum, where, among his other duties, in 1987 he launched a modest quarterly museum magazine called Native Peoples. He served on the boards of the Arizona Commission on the Arts, Arizonans for Cultural Development, Arts and Business Council of Greater Phoenix, and Maricopa Partnership for Arts and Culture's arts and cultural development committee.
Sam Chu Lin, age 67, trail-blazing Asian-American journalist, died March 5, 2006 after collapsing upon landing at the Burbank, CA Airport. Sam was one of the first and most well-known broadcast journalists of Chinese heritage. His tenure at CBS was successful and long (including a stint as anchor and reporter for KOOL-TV in Phoenix), and blazed a path for many Asian-Americans who succeeded him. During the past several weeks, Sam spent many hours researching and learning about the Save SunMerc Coalition's efforts to preserve Phoenix's Sun Mercantile Building and develop an Asian-American museum. His Sun Merc story, his last, was published in several national Asian print and electronic media.
Byron S. Harvey, III, age 73, of Boston, MA, formerly of Chicago, died December 20, 2005 of a heart attack. A noted collector and scholar of Native American art and culture, Byron was responsible for donations to museums, libraries, and cultural centers throughout the U.S., including the gift to the Field Museum while in his youth of an important group of Hopi kachina dolls. His major legacy was the gift of over 2,000 objects to the Heard Museum in Phoenix, where he also arranged for the donation of the major collection of Native American art formed by the Fred Harvey Company, founded by his great-grandfather.
George Hormel, owner of the Wrigley Mansion and heir to the meat-packing Hormel Foods Corp., died February 12, 2006 at his home in Paradise Valley. He was 77. In 1992, he bought the historic Wrigley Mansion, built by the chewing-gum magnate William Wrigley Jr. in the late 1920s, as a 50th wedding anniversary gift for his wife. He restored it to its original splendor featuring his private art collection.
