Lorna Spaulding Gentile 1921 to 2018

above July 30, 1937 with sister Carol and brother William


above 1940s with sister Carol and brother William and mother Viola





above, with her high school friend the admirably vigorous Nancy Rorty , about whose recent passing Lorna was upset, and not in a state to attend Nancy's memorial.

Summary for Los Angeles Times
Lorna passed away peacefully, and unexpectedly, in her sleep at home on May 2, 2018. A wake was held in her home on May 12, 2018. Apologies go out to those who we failed to notify.
She is survived by her husband Dr.Luigi Gentile originally of Sorrento, Italy.
As well as her son Francis of Los Angeles and son Marco, his wife and 3 grandsons of La Jolla.
Lorna attended Katherine Bransons, UCLA and graduated from Stanford '44
further information at http://www.luigigentilemd.com/


quote her own summary from 50th year book
Lorna Spaulding
"Summer of '42, after UCLA, the campus was SO FLAT! Buildings made me think of San Quintin (nr. my home- Belvedere). All this soon changed, due to wonderful atmosphere, the students and faculty. Even those black doors with white letters didn't turn me off any more (so glad they are changed!) I loved the name of the BioSc. profs "Blinks, Beatle, Tatum and Twitty & Beatle-tho. He once forgot to come to class (my sister, Carol '43, said he must have been "buried in the basement in his bread mold." She didn't live to know he won the Nobel prize for that work!) I spent 3 years at Med. Sch. Clinic- SF as Allergy Tech- having fun showing the students "Needle Art" and on weekends, the art of sailing near Belvedere, or learning to ski at Sugarbowl (still our favorite area). In '47 I took Med. Bacti. at Boston U. Med Sch., then 14 mo. at LA Co. Gen. Hosp. as Med. Tech. student. I have my National Registry but gave up Calif. lic. Over the years I was able to enjoy the first post war, (small ship!) cruises in the Carribian, Mediterranian, and Greek Isles & first tour bus into Austria. Then came another 4 years in Boston, often helping at the International Student Center in Cambridge- organizing dances, fairs and short trips around New Eng. In '54 it was back to Europe and Middle East for 2 yrs. living in Lausanne, Rome & Sorrento where I married my Ortho. Surg. husband. We spent a year in Boston area, then settled in LA in '58. We return to Italy often, always via some other interesting area. This year it will be a return to East Europe with no Iron Curtain! I've served on many boards- Medical, Republican, Homeowners, and 7 yrs. with Stanford Women's LA plus 10 with Eng. Speaking Union (VP for programs- now Advisory). Now I'm treasurer for a small Hollywood Bowl Patroness Comm. (We love the Hollywood Bowl!) We have two sons, "Marco" and Francis. Both are Cate Sch. grads. An icy winter at Cornell & "Mud Season" at Dartmouth sent each back to sunny UCSD for degrees in Engineering and Economics. Marco has "Marco Polo BMW" Serv. in La Jolla and has 3 little boys. Francis is in LA- into Property Managing, surfing, skiing, inventing medical equipment etc. etc.! "

Lorna graduated Stanford 44 Biology , Her sister Carol graduated Stanford 43 Bacteriology, and went on to Davis Medical school and to pediatrics at Letterman Army Hospital at the Presidio. Their mother Viola attended Stanford 1915,1916. Viola's mother Emily did not make it into available Stanford records . My mother said of the claim that she 'went' to Stanford was really about a short lived predecessor school. Such a situation is described about a short lived womens preparatory school at Adelante Villa, pdf page 34 and 35 of 'First Year at Stanford' and page 23 onward of President Hoovers memoir . These references speak of an influx of people of all ages wanting to attend 'Governor Stanford's new free school' and finding only a farm and a haunted house. In 1891 Emily would have been 33 and had children, but I believe my mother made comment that her personality was such that she wanted to seek education, and this is perhaps the source of her daughter Viola's somewhat overbearing zeal in the matter of education and Stanford.

Lorna remained friends with high school classmate Nancy Rorty who also recently passed away. Some memories about the Spaulding family with references The Katherine Bransons school are recounted by a 3rd party in an autobiography about Tiburon here.

In 1941 Lorna was at UCLA to witness air raid scare and viewed it from a dormatory, while attempting unsuccessfully to goad the school newspaper editor, and jounalism major and future journalist in her dorm, to wake up to see it.
A real attack occurred near Cayucos upon an oil tanker, the captain ordered the crew to lifeboats were picked up by a tug which landed at Cayucos pier and survivors were served tea by Lorna's grandmother Emily A. Cass Burroughs . video
Emily the daughter of James Cass founder of Cayucos, inventor and builder of piers and steamship lines up and down the California coast after gold rush businesses and runaway child sailship crewing out of England. Chased Jauquin Murrieta, shot twice in other incidents, once by three fingered jack. obit

Lorna sought early arrangements for Luigi's US practice in Quincy Massachusets, St Vincents Hospital Los Angeles (notably with the Birthistles) , Offices on Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood Presbeterian and then St Josephs Burbank where he served as chief of staff '95 and after on the board.

Lorna enjoyed skiing and traveled the world making lifelong friends wherever she went. She called Los Angeles her home since 1957 and was very active and supportive in many organizations and clubs including The English Speaking Union, The Sisters Servants of Mary Guild, The Los Angeles Tennis Club and The Marrakesh Country Club community where she had a second home.

Lorna Spaulding Gentile was born in 1921 , to parents William Holmes Spaulding and Viola Burroughs Spaulding.

Lorna spoke of wishing the Packard would stop in Hollywood so she could see the stars she read about in Photoplay, but instead drove down to stay at the house of "Henry" Irvine ( presumably James Irvine 2nd) where she had to listen to him grouse about the government taking his best lima bean land for El Toro air station. During the depression Henry Irvine made a loan to W.H. Spaulding to cover his stock margin call, and Lorna said that the paying back of this loan was a serious matter in the household for a long time. Henry Irvine also paid W. H. Spaulding with pieces of land in Oakland from time to time, instead of paying in cash, my mother recalled the periodic selling of said pieces. This Reference document of the El Toro issue also appears to sensationalize Henry's purported penury but elsewhere documents generosity. Henry seems to have been generous to W.H. Spaulding and family.

The Packard was driven by Lorna's mother Viola, because W.H. did not drive, despite being a sportsman, fisherman and hiker (of erupting volcanos) who decried the new Sierra Club hikers for leaving trash. W.H. came from a time before automobiles or electrical power. Lorna also did not drive, presumably taking after her father in her ways, perhaps described in this third party reminiscence

The Spaulding house in Belvedere was one of the first 'All Electric' homes, as W.H. was involved in the 1906 fire aftermath, and at that same moment, the creation of the electrical power grid that eventually became PG@E. Here in Los Angeles my mother insisted on an electrical Stove and electrical clothes dryer (I recently switched clothes dryer back to gas to free electrical for modern larger consumption, the gas pilot light water heater and old gravity heaters in the basement have been very handy during electrical power outages, hopefully Los Angeles is less sensitive to post earthquake fires). The Wake was attended by a descendent a friend and engineer of the electrification who had lived on or near Belvedere, and I hope to have further information from him posted here.

W.H. had graduated Berkeley, and having arrived at Harvard for law school, was forced to redo undergrad at speed because Harvard was suspicious of the weird Berkeley. Upon W.H.'s death in ?1947? death, Lorna first found out that W.H. had established and ran a law school in San Francisco for the less fortunate, as he had never mentioned it. (school history links)

If you read further on the above link to Herbert Hoovers reminisces, and shockingly in the witheld and recently published book, you may begin to see the charitable and humantarian and anti-war, anti-propaganda stance of Hoover that contradicts what we are taught, and has remarkable similarities to some of the perspectives of 'left wing' heretic Naom Chompsky. These references and others associated with the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace, might help to explain the stern and desperate measures W.H. took to try to keep his son, Lorna's brother W.H. Junior, from joining into WW2. Junior enlisted in the Merchant Marine, which somehow allowed his young age, and was perhaps perceived as less risky by W.H.. The Merchant Marine turned out to have the highest casualty rate of any service in the war and the least veterans benefits. W.H. Junior narrowly survived a deadly strain of malaria contracted near Guadalcanal. Epidimiology has indicated that early infections can cause later heart disease, perhaps by immune response damage to the lining of blood vessels. William died of heart disease at a fairly young age. A few years earlier Lorna's sister was lost, both of her parents were gone, so Lorna was alone, in some ways, for much of her life.
Lorna's husband's father lost one lung to a bullet in World War 1 , and contracted pnumonia in the other lung an died when Luigi was 4. Moving to the United States put Luigi almost alone, so Luigi and Lorna needed each other.
Also from all of this I concluded that the burden of proof for war should be on those that advocate it, not on those who oppose it, somehow we have the reverse, that has terrible consequences for so many families.

hi@retroproto.com

Dr Gentiles website under construction as interpreted by son Francis