Sierra Madre Sue 
has moved. 

 Page 10!

Our Favorite 

nonogenarian - 
Dorothy White is 
back! Page 16

PASADENA/ALTADENA

ARCADIA

SIERRA MADRE 

 

Wistaria Postmark

Dr. Castle To Speak On 

Aging Gracefully

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT

MONROVIA

PUSD Board Of 
Education Candidates

Remembering Robert 
Quenell

Arcadia’s Mardi Gras

King & Queen

 

Edison Replacing 
Towers

 

Post Office Closure

Rain Harvesting 
Workshop


Page 5

Page 6

Page 4 

Page 3 

Page 9

SATURDAY FEBRUARY 19, 2011

VOLUME 5 NO. 8

DICK SALE, LONGTIME 

SIERRA MADRE SEARCH AND 
RESCUE TEAM MEMBER PASSES

WHAT’S A LITTLE RAIN AMONG FRIENDS?

Despite Heavy Rains, Friends of The Sierra 
Madre Library Host Another Successful Event

MAYOR TO GIVE 
STATE OF THE 
CITY ADDRESS

On Monday, February 28, 2011 
from 6:00 – 7:00 pm the City of 
Sierra Madre will be hosting its 
first ever State of the City address 
at the Community Recreation 
Center in the newly renovated 
Sierra Madre Room at 611 East 
Sierra Madre Boulevard. This 
year’s theme is “Working Together 
the Sierra Madre Way” and this 
event will highlight programs and 
services the City has provided 
over the past year and give 
residents insight to the City’s 
goals for the next fiscal year. 

Mayor Pro Tem John Buchanan 
will emcee the evening. A special 
performance by Sierra Madre 
School Third Grade Students will 
precede Mayor Joe Mosca’s State of 
the City Address. Representatives 
from each City Department will 
have booths highlighting current 
programs and projects and 
will be available to answer any 
community questions. 

Although the event will not be 
aired live on SMTV3, the event 
will be recorded and rebroadcast 
on Channel 3 for Time Warner 
customers and will be able to be 
viewed on the City’s website no 
later than March 7. 

Child care will be provided by 
the Library and Community 
Services departments and 
refreshments will be provided by 
the sponsors of the event. For 
more information on this event 
please contact 626.355.5278

by Susan McCreary - SMSR Team 

 Alfred R. 
“Dick” Sale of 
Eagle Rock, 
a long time 
mountain rescue 
volunteer, 
died February 
14 at Huntington 
Memorial 
Hospital. He 
was 80. Dick, a 
renowned wilderness 
search-
and-rescue 
authority, electronics 
hobbyist 
and HAM 
radio operator, 
was easily recognized 
by his 
full beard, belt 
and red suspenders, 
bolo 
tie and his Stetson 
hat. 

His motto was: “Mountains and wilderness don’t care, you take care, be 
safe”. 

 He was born on September 15, 1930 in Altadena and spent his boyhood 
at Switzer’s Camp in the San Gabriel Mountains, where his mother was 
the camp cook. He worked at Rockwell as a photographer specializing 
in high speed photography and worked with the NASA space program 
in the 1960s and ‘70s. He married his first wife Barbara in 1950, and 
together they raised three sons. After her death in 1973, he carried on 
as a single father. 

 Always civic minded, Dick served on the Civil Defense Commission 
and the Traffic Commission for Temple City, and won election to Barbara’s 
seat on the Temple City School Board after she died.

 Sale enjoyed teaching children and adults about wilderness safety. 
From 1962 to 1971 he served as Scout Master of Boy Scout Troop 157 
in Temple City. He became an accomplished mountaineer and volunteer 
group leader for the Sierra Club Angeles Chapter’s Basic Mountaineering 
Training Course (BMTC) from 1971 to 1976. He then joined California’s 
first mountain rescue team, Sierra Madre Search and Rescue (SMSR). 
He enjoyed a long and storied affiliation with the American mountain 
rescue community and was active as an SMSR operations leader, working 
with the sheriff’s department, organizing wilderness searches and 
rescues both locally and internationally until his passing. From 2003 
onward he made regular trips to Taiwan as the lead instructor for that 
nation’s mountain rescue teams, which formed under his guidance, and 
whose members consider him the father of the Taiwan Mountain Rescue 
Association.

 He is survived by his beloved wife of 28 years, Melody Peterson of Eagle 
Rock, and his two surviving sons, Terry Sale of Denver, and Jeffrey Sale 
of Orange County, and six grandchildren. His is pre-deceased by his 
second son Donald. Memorial services will be announced, to be held in 
the local mountains in the spring. 


Wine and Cuisine Co-Chair, De Alcorn doesn’t let a little rain stop a 
thing. With his coat a little wet, favorite hat and glass of wine, he smiles 
for the camera with guest Debbie Sheridan. 

 Photo by S. Henderson/MVNews

More than a hundred people came 
out on Friday night, despite heavy 
rains, to attend the Friends of the 
Sierra Madre Library’s 41st Annual 
Wine and Cuisine Tasting at Alverno’s 
Villa del Sol d’Oro. Attendees 
had the opportunity to please their 
palates with wines from more than 
20 vendors and food from 22 restaurants 
including a sneak preview 
from the new Wisteria Restaurant 
and Bar that will open soon in 

Sierra Madre.

The evening began with a Premier 
Event designed to give selected 
guests an early entry into the Villa. 
The premier also included a presentation 
by Oeneologist Michael 
Riboli, a 4th generation winemaker 
from the San Antonio Winery and 
Riboli Family Wine Estates who 
spoke about winemaking and discussion 
some of his family’s favorite 
wines.

Guests were greeted by a welcome 
line that included Mayor Joe Mosca, 
Mayor Pro Tem John Buchanan, 
Council members Nancy Walsh, 
Mary Ann MacGillivray and Josh 
Moran. Students from Alverno 
High School and Boy Scout Troop 
#110 also helped host what turned 
out to be a perfect evening, rain 
and all.

Entertainment was provided by 
Mario Lalli of Cafe 322 and included 
performances by Steve Vargas 
and Friends, The Echo Park Hot 
Club, 2 Frets Lower and Vincent 
Meghrouni & the DownBeats Trio. 

The enchantment of the evening 
was further enhanced by magicians 
Steve Silverman and Will Chandler 
of The Magic Castle.

Co-chaired by De and Pat Alcorn, 
“profits from the event are used by 
the library to provide children’s 
evening and summer programs; to 
purchase books, magazines, computers 
and to supplement the Library’s 
general budget.”

WISTARIA FESTIVAL 

VOLUNTEER 
MEETING

TUESDAY, 

FEBRUARY 22, 2011

7:30 P.M.

HART PARK HOUSE 

SENIOR CENTER

SIERRA MADRE

 By all measures, the focal event of 
Sierra Madre’s One Book One City 
celebration this year, was an unqualified 
success. The concept of taking a book 
discussion to a city level, developed in 
Seattle in 1998, was adopted by Sierra 
Madre in 2002. The city has had five 
book choices over the years, including 
Sierra Madre visits by bestselling 
authors, Ray Bradbury and T.C. Boyle 
in years past. 

 “One of our priorities is to promote 
literature, the love of reading and 
conversation based around a common 
point of reference,” said Polly Bonnett, 
Sierra Madre’s Deputy Director of 
Library Services. “Our goal is to select 
a title and author with broad appeal to 
a diverse group of readers, is critically-
acclaimed, has subject matter that will 
inspire meaningful discussion and 
has local appeal. Lisa See’s On Gold 
Mountain fits all of these criteria and is 
our first non-fiction selection. 

 Bonnett continued, “The book 
chronicles Ms. See’s family history 
beginning with her great-grandfather, 
Fong See, and his role as a founding 
father of Los Angeles’s Chinatown. 
On Gold Mountain provides the 
historical and cultural perspective of 
the Chinese-American experience 
and the transition and evolution of a 
city (Los Angeles) and its people. The 
impact of her memoir and 
her talent as a storyteller 
is evident in her colorful 
family characters, the 
descriptive historical, social 
and cultural details, the 
eye-opening recognition 
of injustices and the 
importance of a culture 
contributing to the identity 
of Los Angeles.”

 Acclaimed, bestselling 
author, Lisa See, engaged 
the standing room only 
audience immediately with 
candid, humorous and 
occasionally scandalous 
backstory details of her 
research, writing and 
aftermath of her book, 
On Gold Mountain. See’s 
biography of her ancestors’ 
journey and life on two 
continents, a tiny village 
in China and on the west 
coast of the United States 
had been read by virtually 
everyone in attendance, 
so See didn’t waste any time with a 
“reading.”

 Instead, she dug in right away to the 
fun details of how the book became 
a reality, citing many, many family 
banquets in LA’s Chinatown where 
reference to stories and history were 
made, but often glossed over.

The topic and the book offered added 
attraction to locals as one of the See 
family stores, the F. Suie One antiques 
store mentioned extensively in the 
book is still located in Pasadena at 
1335 E. Colorado, near Hill Street. See 
chuckled that the store isn’t open very 
often, however, as it seems her family 
has a hard time parting with many of 
the store’s items.

Her discussion of growing up in 
a Chinese (continued on page 3)

APPRECIATIVE SRO CROWD SOAKS UP THE BACKSTORIES BEHIND LISA SEE’S ON GOLD MOUNTAIN 

By Chris Bertrand


Also Inside...

CALENDAR Page 2 

FEATURES

Good Food & Drink Page 7

Education & Youth Page 8

Arts & Entertainment Page 10

Legals Page 11

Left Turn/Right Turn Page 12

Opinion Page 13

The World Around Us Page 14

Homes & Property Page 15 

The Good Life Page 16

SPORTS Page 17

 Bobby Eldridge - On The Course

 FYI Page 18 

Library Trustee Catherine Adde,(Back row L to R) joined Meegan Tosh (Library), 
Polly Bonnett (Library), Catriona Shafer (Library), Ada Hennessy (Library) and Erica 
Blodgett (One Book One City committee) in welcoming best-selling author, Lisa 
See, to Sierra Madre on Saturday, February 12. Photo by Chris Bertrand


Read The Paper Online At: www.mtnviewsnews.com