Marilyn
Maxine Faustino February 2, 1933 – October 23, 2023
Marilyn Maxine Faustino passed away in her home on October 23, 2023
at the age of 90.
Marilyn was born and raised in Eureka and was a proud member of
the Yurok Tribe. She was a mother first and foremost, but worked as a
prep cook and a server most of her life. She was very proud to have
worked at both the Carson Mansion and the Eureka Inn for many years.
Marilyn was a loving and dedicated wife, mother, auntie, grandmother
and friend to many. She made sure everyone had their needs taken care
of and were prepared for anything and everything. People were drawn
to her voice, her laughter and her exuberant personality. She
knew how to make people laugh everywhere she went. Everyone
fell in love with Marilyn and could not get enough of her.
Whether you were family or not, most everyone called her Grams, she
loved it and would introduce herself that way as well! She loved all
the kiddos and would welcome them in like her own. Truly the best
Grandma!
In Marilyn’s younger years she and her husband George were members of
the local Elks Lodge, where they spent many days and nights attending
events and enjoying the company of their friends. As they got older
they turned their passion to Bingo; you would see them both at
Cher-ae Heights just about every night of the week sitting at the
same table in the same spot. Marilyn was known around the Bingo hall
as ‘Big Mama Big Winner’!
Marilyn loved the casinos and would take trips to Reno often with
friends and family over the years; and hit up every casino possible
when traveling. As a matter of fact, the traveling was planned around
what casinos they would be stopping to gamble at!
Marilyn enjoyed sewing, cross stitch and crocheting. She spent hours
and hours making large afghans for many family members and friends.
She was very crafty and made a variety of things including earrings,
clothing, button dolls, ceramics, pot holders, ornaments and too many
more to list. She loved painting wooden birdhouses and other pieces
of wooden art that her husband would make himself. She asked him to
make it and he did; then she put on the finishing touches. She loved
creating and did this most of her life with friends and family as
well. Marilyn was very fond of cooking and was also an amazing baker.
She loved to make applesauce from her apple trees, zucchini bread
fresh from the garden, cookies of all sorts and of course her special
Hello Dollies.
She is survived by her children Tina Stachel and Tracy Faustino;
grandchildren Desiree Faustino, Tara Faustino, Tracy A Faustino,
Amanda Faustino, Jason Omholt, Suntalena Downs and Jessie Sky Downs,
Michael Frost and Herman Smith; great grandchildren Andrea Lillian,
Natalie Layla, Nova Lynn, Jordan Trystan, Anthony Lee, Ellie
Anabella, and Malia Rose; and numerous nieces, nephews and cousins.
Marilyn loved spending time with her nieces and nephews Linda
O’Neill, Pam Malloy, Rhonda Taylor, Michael Ward and Sandra Bebe.
They held a special place in her heart and have quite the stories to
tell of their times together.
She is preceded in death by her husband of over 60 years George
Faustino. Her father and mother George Henry Quinn and Irene
Quinn-Ferris. She was the last surviving sibling of 11 children:
Grace, Eleanor, MargEdith, George (Chub),Verna,
Glen (Mickey), Robert (Bob) and Arlene (Leenie). As well as her son
Fred Downs and daughter Vicky Johnson. Her close friend and niece
Dixie Taylor.
The family wishes to thank her amazing caretakers as well as Hospice
of Humboldt who all helped so much with her care near the end. More
than words can express.
Marilyn will be missed by many but memories of her will forever be
with us.
We will have a graveside service at Oceanview Cemetery on Saturday, November 4 at 3 p.m., and a funeral reception to follow at our house
in Eureka.
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The obituary above was submitted on behalf of Marilyn Faustino’s loved ones. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here.
Our proud Mark Earl Armstrong passed away on October 12, succumbing
to end-stage kidney and heart failure. Born in San Diego in 1962, he
was born into a family of five, and he spent his childhood and early
life in San Diego, spending time tending to his dogs and starting his
lifelong passion for fitness. He often loved telling his friends and
family about the way his cat would jump from chair to table in his
house because if his cat touched the ground for even a second, his
dogs would hound it.
He spent much
of his adult life moving around while working many different
construction jobs, his favorite of which was pouring concrete. He
loved telling his family about the day the company he worked for
purchased a concrete pourer. Among other jobs he performed included
jobs such as oil rigs and roadwork.
As he reached
his 30s, he reached a major turning point in his life when most of
his family would come to know him when he made the choice to settle
down in Humboldt, where he would become familiar with the Eureka
police, causing them quite the headache throughout his life. While he
met and dated many women throughout his life, he would find his life
partner in a woman named Julie Williams, who, while he never legally
married, he and most others would consider his wife. Spending 23
years by his side before his passing, he also became the beloved
father to her four children, as well as fathering one more with her.
His family
quickly became one of his greatest joys in life. While often missing
time due to being sent to jail many times throughout his life, when
out of prison, he enjoyed sharing his love of sports, fitness, and
fighting with his children, spending much time with his daughter
Cynthia Retzloff, bragging about her skill in sports and fighting for
the rest of his life. Sometimes, more than once a week, he often
stated that he didn’t believe there was a man in Humboldt County who
could beat her. While she never fell into sports like her sister,
Mark would often talk about his daughter Sarah Retzloff, sometimes
speaking about the potential she had for sports herself. Around this
time, after some small amount of begging from his children, Mark
would adopt a small Jack Russell terrier whose name would often
switch between Sam, Sammy, and Samuel. He would stay with the family
until his thirteenth year, dying just a year before Mark himself.
Alongside his
sports, the family would go on summer trips to Willow Creek to swim
and camp, making a yearly tradition to read Harry Potter to his
children, starting his fifth child’s lifelong love of reading. This
tradition would continue until most of his children had grown up and
could no longer attend as they built their own lives. Around this
time, the Armstrong family would become very briefly homeless after
being kicked out of their home due to a police raid. They would soon
move in with the family’s grandmother briefly, where they would adopt
a red tick hound named Stanley, who would make himself known by
peeing on Julie’s leg in their first meeting, and a mixed pitbull
named Mama, who would become known for her hefty size despite her
belief that she was a lap dog. Mark and his family would then move
into McCullen’s Motel, where he would live until his death.
During this
time, Mark’s life slowed down, now having only one child left to
raise. Growing older, he would still grace many a gym in Eureka,
proud of his ability to deadlift 450 pounds even in his fifties. He
would put much of his later years into his dogs, walking them every
day and often being seen throwing the ball at the park with them, his
wife, and his son. Living with some ups and downs, Mark’s family life
would soon come to an end when, after a long period of decline, he
was admitted to a hospital and lost the ability to walk, as well as
contracting diabetes. He would fight this condition for a year,
regaining some ability to walk and returning home after nearly a
year. However, unknown to his family, he was diagnosed with end-stage
kidney and heart failure and was never going to live longer than the
end of the year. Knowing this, he returned home for, as he put it, “a
couple smiles and a couple laughs.” He would spend his last two
weeks alive being tended to by his wife and occasionally watching a
movie with his youngest son before having a stroke and dying
peacefully, together with his family, after being taken off his
ventilator at the request of his youngest son and receiving his last
rites according to his faith.
Mark is
survived by his loving wife of 23 years, Julie Williams, his fierce
two daughters, Sarah and Cynthia Retzloff, and his proud three sons, including Mike and Robert Armstrong, as well as his mother,
Etta Wood, and his sister, Jane Wendt.
Mark was known
as both kind to his loved ones and fierce to those who went against
him. He never lost a fight until the end.
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The obituary above was submitted on behalf of Mark Earl Armstrong’s loved ones. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here.
JoAnn
Howell was born on August 28, 1932 to Foster Scribner and Viola
(Peggy) Scribner, nee Pennell. Christened June JoAnn Scribner, she
grew up during the great Depression and described her early life as
full of hardship. Her parents divorced and she and her only sibling,
Lester Scribner, lived with their father who was a carpenter and did
various odd jobs to support his family during the Depression. When
WW II began, JoAnn’s mother and stepfather, Helmuth Maier, took
possession of her and her brother in order that Helmuth not be
drafted.
JoAnn
married Oscar Haux in December of 1949 at the age of 17. Danny Haux
was her first born, on August 1, 1950. She was just short of being
18. Two years later in the month of September she gave birth to her
daughter, Sandra Haux. About five years thereafter, JoAnn and Oscar
divorced. Shortly thereafter, she married Raymond Martsch and in
January of 1960 gave birth to twin boys, Eric and Aaron Martsch.
She
attended night school in order to finish her high school education,
then went on to earn a B.A. in psychology from California State
University, Hayward. She and Raymond Martsch divorced about 1967.
She had a career as a successful real estate agent in Berkeley. She married Fred Howell in 1986. They lived in
Berkeley, then Gualala, California, then Snohomish, Washington. They
divorced about 1998. JoAnn then moved to the Humboldt Bay area where
she resided until her death. About 2001, she met Larry Holsen who
became her beloved partner until his death in June of 2022.
JoAnn
was a very social person and spent many years actively participating
in the Humboldt Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Bayside. She
volunteered for many years with College of the Redwoods Foundation
League raising money for scholarships. She enjoyed gardening, yoga,
fine art and her many good friends.
A
person is more than the sum of their parts; they must be taken as a
complete entity. JoAnn was a person loved by many and will be
missed. The family thanks the attentive and caring personnel at
Redwood R&R where JoAnn spent the last 3 ½ months of her life
and are grateful for the care she received from the staff of Hospice
of Humboldt who kept her comfortable and pain free in the last 2
weeks of life. Ever helpful, she donated her body to science. There
is no memorial planned.
Go
now in peace, blessed be.
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The obituary above was submitted on behalf of JoAnn Howell’s loved ones. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here.
Soon-to-be-less-Steller: This guy | Photo: (c) Kai Schreiber, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA)
Big bird news, people! If you just got the same New York Times alert message on your phone that LoCO got, then you already know that the American Ornithological Society announced today that, henceforth, birds in the Americas will no longer be named after human beings. This edict will be applied retroactively to existing English bird names.
As you may have instantly surmised, this initiative is an effort to ensure that figures who may have done bad in the past are not granted everlasting avian honor. For example, as the Times notes, the Scott’s oriole — a l’il black-and-yellow fellow found in Mexico and the U.S. Southwest — is named after Civil War general Winfield Scott, who forcibly relocated Native Americans along the Trail of Tears. Moving forward, the AOS says it plans to choose new monikers that highlight birds’ characteristics — say, plumage or beak shape.
The Scotts (oriole and Winfield)
What does this mean for us bird watchers here in Humboldt? Well, thanks to the invent of LoCO‘s new-ish Humboldt Life species database, we were able to easily pull the names of every human-named bird species spotted in the county. Thus, without further delay, the following is the list of at least 48 local feathered friends who’ll need to change their letterhead:
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have been hard at work in recent years looking for an eco-friendly and efficient way to get rid of the sand and silt that clogs the shipping channels and harbors of Humboldt Bay.
For the last 30 years, that place has been HOODS – the Humboldt Open Ocean Disposal Site, a square-shaped patch of sea located approximately three miles offshore. The EPA expanded the site a few years back to accommodate more dredged material, with hopes to establish a secondary site a little closer to shore in the near future.
The Humboldt Nearshore Pilot Placement Project seeks to divert sandy, dredged material found in the entrance channel to Humboldt Bay to a nearshore site off the North Spit, rather than disposing of it way out in the ocean.
“By diverting material away from HOODS, we can keep sediment in the littoral system, mitigate erosion along the North Spit of Humboldt Bay, and extend HOODS’s lifetime,” Savannah Fahning, Environmental Manager for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ San Francisco District, told the Outpost. “An important part of this pilot effort will be to monitor the placement of the material and evaluate both the environmental effects and benefits. … HOODS has had issues with sand mounding leading to closure. A nearshore site is a pathway to reduce the demand on this site, while also nourishing the nearshore environment.”
The proposed area, located north of the jetty, would be close enough to the shore to accommodate onshore transport of material, Fahning said, without presenting a navigational hazard. The nearshore site has the capacity to accept roughly one million cubic yards of dredged material annually.
The pilot project would focus exclusively on the entrance channel, Fahning said, due to the quality of the material.
“In general, marina channels (or inner channels) experience less wave action than entrance channels do, and as such have more of a fine/silty sediment composition,” she said. “Again, this project would take from the entrance channel, which is a very high energy area with large waves and strong current, typically consisting of 85 percent or greater sandy material. … By returning the sediment to the natural flow field, natural processes will be re-enforced and supply of sediment will be returned to the North Spit.”
Researchers have identified an “erosional pattern” on the beaches north of the jetty. While the cause is inconclusive, Fahning said maintaining a natural sediment supply, “instead of removing it entirely from the system to divert to the HOODS site,” could help maintain the beach and reduce impacts associated with sea level rise.
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The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, with support from the EPA and Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation and Conservation District, will host a town hall discussion on the proposed project on Thursday evening. The meeting will take place at 5 p.m. at the Wharfinger Building, Bay Room – 1 Marina Way in Eureka.
At 0849 hours on Wednesday November 1st, 2023, Humboldt Bay Fire responded with 3
Engines, 1 Truck, and 2 Chief Officers to a residential structure fire at the 1200 block of
Allard Ave. While responding to the initial call, we received a report of a possible
disabled occupant inside of the residence that may need assistance in evacuating.
The first arriving Engine made entry into the structure and discovered fire coming out of
the back side. The fire was quickly extinguished and it was confirmed that no occupants
were inside. The remainder of smoke was ventilated and the entirety of the residence
suffered heavy smoke and fire damage.
There were no civilian or Firefighter injuries. The fire was located and controlled within
a few minutes of the arrival of the 1st Engine. Damages are estimated to be approximately
$25,000. A fire investigation was conducted and the cause of the fire was determined to
be accidental in nature.
Humboldt Bay Fire would like to thank our allied partners for their assistance during this
incident; HCSO and PG&E. Humboldt Bay Fire reminds everyone to have working
smoke detectors in their residence and change the batteries twice a year during daylight
savings.
Press release from the Humboldt-Del Norte Medical Society:
Humboldt County internist Bruce Kessler, M.D., received the California Medical Association’s (CMA) most prestigious award, the Frederick K.M. Plessner Memorial Award. The award honors the California physician who best exemplifies the ethics and practice of a rural country practitioner.
Dr. Kessler first arrived in Humboldt County in 1978 and spent the next four decades providing a high standard of care and exhibiting qualities of excellence and kindness for his patients, many of whom are continually challenged by distance, terrain, poverty, and health literacy.
“Dr. Kessler deserves recognition for his excellence, compassion, leadership and commitment and for his ongoing joy and love of medical practice, which is rare in our current health care climate,” said Jennifer Heidmann, M.D., the medical director of Redwood Coast PACE. “He exemplifies what a doctor should be.”
Both during his time as a practicing physician and after his retirement in 2018, Dr. Kessler worked to create and expand medical programs and services for rural residents who often struggle with access to care.
“In the spirit of Dr. Plessner, whose legacy of compassion and innovation continues to inspire us, Dr. Kessler has demonstrated what it means to lead with wisdom, empathy, and boundless determination,” said CMA President Donaldo Hernandez, M.D. “Dr. Kessler has made a profound impact on, not only his patients, but his entire community.”
“I think the biggest challenge in medical care in our county currently is manpower shortages,” said Dr. Kessler. “We have long waiting lists for patients waiting to see specialists in any one of a number of specialties.”
In 2015, the CEOs of St. Joseph Hospital in Eureka and Open Door Clinic Community Health Centers, the local federally qualified health center, began discussing pooling resources to create a family medicine residency program.
“I was asked to be part of the planning committee to plan for the residency program,” said Dr. Kessler. “And it’s been my privilege for the last eight years to work on the planning stage of the residency, and then for the last five years – when we’ve had our first, second, and finally third class of residents here – to be involved in teaching the residents.”
Dr. Kessler was also a key figure in bringing cancer care access to a region long deprived of it. He was part of a group of medical community leaders that applied for a $900,000 grant from the National Cancer Institute that led to the establishment of a radiation oncology program, a home-base hospice program and accreditation by the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer, which brought a tumor board to the region.
“We are all the beneficiaries of his dedication to doing the right thing for every patient in the most competent and kindest way possible, his determination to leave the academic world and the prestige and opportunity it presented, to come to an area where he made the biggest difference,” said Ellen Mahoney, M.D., who built on Dr. Kessler’s efforts to improve cancer care in Humboldt County. “He has been my hero now for over 45 years, and he richly deserves the recognition [the Plessner award] represents.”
Dr. Kessler also serves on the board of the Humboldt Senior Resource Center, a nonprofit that provides services, information, education and recreation for seniors, families and caregivers in Humboldt County; and is one of the founders of the Humboldt Bay Mycological Society, through which he has given lectures and led field trips discussing toxic mushrooms.
Dr. Kessler is a native of New York and a graduate of Tufts University and Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. He served his medical residency in internal medicine at Stanford University Hospital in Palo Alto.
“I wanted something more hands-on with people,” Dr. Kessler said of his decision to pursue medicine instead of science after college. “I can’t now have imagined a life better spent.”
