OBITUARIES

Robert Rice

Sebastopol resident Robert Rice was proud to call himself an artist and a dancer.

"It is a lifelong dream to live every day as an artist," Rice, 71, wrote in an autobiography in 2007. "I still dance. But at age 70, I keep my feet closer to the floor and leap less."

The award-winning artist died Aug. 2 at his Sebastopol home of multiple myeloma, an aggressive blood cancer, said his wife, Joan Price.

Price described her husband as "a genuinely good man, living with integrity, loving fully and sharing his skills, his knowledge and his joy with the people who knew him."

Rice was born and raised in Ohio. His love of dance came early with tap dancing at age 3 to help correct a birth defect in his foot.

"He did tap dancing his whole childhood. He was a tap-dancing waiter in college, he did musical theater, started studying ballet and modern dance," Price said.

Rice married and had two children while in his 20s. He attended colleges in three states and earned two master's degrees, for fine arts and movement therapy, Price said.

He began teaching art and dance at the college level. Rice extended his dance background to dance therapy and dance as a form of spirituality. Jobs took him to different states and venues, including universities, museums and hospitals.

In 1984 he moved to California to work for the Institute in Culture and Creation Spirituality at Holy Names College in Oakland. He also worked at Mount Zion Medical Center in San Francisco, directing a program bringing artists, musicians, poets and actors to homes of confined elderly persons and to the bedside of AIDS patients.

Eventually, he longed to return to his painting and moved to a small cabin in the woods in Mendocino County.

Without any amenities, he was there almost three years, painting every day and selling his paintings in a Mendocino gallery.

"It was a life-altering time for him," his wife said.

Out of the woods, Rice settled in Sonoma County and became coordinator of arts programs for the Cultural Arts Council in Santa Rosa.

He also signed up for a line-dancing class at a Sebastopol gym and fell in love with Price, the instructor.

They were together about seven years, and married two years ago, living in Sebastopol.

Rice painted his abstract pieces in his studio, a converted chicken coop.

Over many years, he participated in many prestigious juried shows throughout Northern California and won several awards.

He battled leukemia while in his 60s until the cancer went into remission.

"We were reborn with the joy of health," said Price, an author who wrote a book about her relationship with Rice and the joys of sex after age 60.

But last spring, Rice was diagnosed with the more aggressive cancer. He painted as long as he could.

"He was the love of my life, and I feel honored to have known him and loved him," Price said.

As well as his wife, Rice is survived by his son, Mitchell Rice of Santa Rosa; daughter, Dana Rice of Hartwick, N.Y., and two grandchildren.

A celebration of his life and retrospective of his art will be held Sept. 20. For more information, e-mail Price at joan@joanprice.com.

Memorial donations may be made to Memorial Hospice, 821 Mendocino Ave., Santa Rosa 95401.

-- Randi Rossmann

Anne Hudgins

Anne Hudgins of Santa Rosa, a staunch advocate for the environment, died of cancer Saturday night at a Santa Rosa nursing home. She was 71.

"She was passionate about helping to make the right things happen," said Anne Seeley, a close friend.

A Sonoma County resident since the late 1980s, Hudgins was named environmentalist of the year in 2007 by Sonoma County Conservation Action.

Hudgins was vice chairwoman of the Sierra Club Sonoma Group and co-chairwoman of Concerned Citizens for Santa Rosa. She was also a member of Friends of SMART and the Housing Advocacy Group.

Hudgins became ill in early February, and was diagnosed with a cancer that had spread from her body to her brain. She endured surgery, as well as chemotherapy and radiation treatment, Seeley said.

A regular presence at Santa Rosa City Council meetings, Hudgins also wrote numerous letters to the editor and commentaries on issues such as land-use planning and transportation.

Hudgins was a part-time instructor in Santa Rosa Junior College's community education department, teaching sustainable horticulture. She also operated a garden planning, planting and maintenance business.

An "ardent animal lover," according to Seeley, Hudgins tended chickens, roosters and cats at her southwest Santa Rosa home.

A Sonoma State University graduate, Hudgins obtained a bachelor's degree in ethicology, "her own unique major," Seeley said.

Funeral arrangements are pending.

-- Guy Kovner

George Furth, actor-playwright

George Furth, an actor and Tony Award-winning playwright who wrote the book for the landmark 1970 Broadway musical "Company" and also wrote the 1971 play "Twigs," died Monday morning. He was 75.

Furth died at St. John's Health Center in Santa Monica, according to Dennis Aspland, his agent.

Aspland, who said Furth had been healthy as recently as a week ago, did not know the cause of death.

"As a writer and as an actor and as an enthusiast, I think he epitomized those things in theater and entertainment that are good," said Warren Beatty, a close friend who first met Furth at Northwestern University in the '50s when Beatty was 18 and Furth had returned for a visit to his alma mater.

"I've never known anybody with more genuine friendships," Beatty said Monday. "Everybody who knew him loved him."

Furth won both a Tony Award and a Drama Desk Award for best book of a musical for "Company," which ran on Broadway from 1970 to '72 with Dean Jones as the central character.

"Company," with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, is the story of a young bachelor in Manhattan who is surrounded by married couples, all of whom have different attitudes about him being single.

Furth also wrote the book, and Sondheim wrote the music and lyrics, for "Merrily We Roll Along," the 1981 musical based on the George S. Kaufman-Moss Hart play. Furth and Sondheim also co-wrote the 1996 play "Getting Away with Murder," which had a short run on Broadway.

Furth, who wrote the book for the 1977 musical "The Act," was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for outstanding new play for "Precious Sons" in the mid-1980s. His 1981 comedy "The Supporting Cast" had a brief run on Broadway.

Furth had a long career as a character actor, appearing in more than 85 films.

He may be remembered best for his role in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid." He played Woodcock, the devoted railroad clerk who refuses to open the train car containing the safe for the outlaws.

Furth also played the banker from whom Beatty's Beverly Hills hairdresser character tries to get a loan in the 1975 movie "Shampoo."

He was born George Schweinfurth on Dec. 14, 1932, in Chicago. Furth graduated from Northwestern University with a bachelor's degree in speech in 1954 and received a master of fine arts degree from Columbia University in 1956.

Aspland said Furth had no known immediate surviving family members.

-- Los Angeles Times

Howard G. Minsky, movie producer

Howard G. Minsky, a former Hollywood talent agent and producer of the movie "Love Story," died Sunday. He was 94.

His family said Minsky died of natural causes at a hospital in West Palm Beach, Fla.

Minsky's daughter, Marcia Halperin, said her father began his career during the silent film era, and sold reels of film door-to-door before breaking into the Hollywood scene.

Minksy worked as an executive for 20th Century Fox and Paramount Pictures, and as a talent agent for the William Morris Agency.

In the 1960s, Minsky quit the agency to produce the romantic drama "Love Story," written by one his clients, Erich Segal.

The 1970 film became a blockbuster, winning five Golden Globes, including best picture, and an Academy Award for music.

-- Associated Press