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In the San Fernando Valley secession election in 2002, state Assemblyman Keith Richman received the most votes and would have become the first mayor of the newly formed sixth-most populous U.S. city if voters had allowed the split. Richman died Friday of cancer at age 56. He was a physician who served three terms in the Assembly as a Republican. He graduated from Birmingham High School and UCLA.
More notable deaths:
- Real estate broker Jon Douglas died at home in Brentwood at age 73. The Jon Douglas Co. was one of the biggest brokerages in the country when it was bought by Coldwell Banker in 1997, says the Times. He co-founded Douglas Emmett, a real estate investment trust with properties around the area. Douglas was a star athlete at Santa Monica High School and Stanford.
- Economist Earl Thompson, a UCLA emeritus professor, died in his office at Bunche Hall on July 29. Thompson, 71, was married to former UC Regent and Reagan White House official Velma Montoya. "Thompson is the last of the economists brought to UCLA by Armen Alchian in the 1960s to create the famed UCLA school of economics," says the school.
- Max Lawrence, co-founder of Architectural Pottery with his wife Rita, died at home in Los Angeles at age 98. "Their role in establishing the unique look of midcentury California design can't be overstated," said Wendy Kaplan, curator and head of decorative art and design at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.