Obituaries - March 17, 1999

Robert Marston; National Institutes of Health Chief

Robert Quarles Marston, 76, physician, researcher and former director of the National Institutes of Health. Marston headed the National Institutes of Health from 1968 to 1973, a period in which he clashed with Congress and the Nixon administration over political interference in national health policy and the management of the institutes. He opposed Nixon administration efforts to wage what he considered a costly and futile “war on cancer” that would involving separating the National Cancer Institute from the National Institutes of Health. He was fired after five years as director. Born in Toano, Va., Marston graduated from the Virginia Military Institute and the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond. He was a Rhodes scholar at Oxford University, where he studied under Nobel laureate Howard Florey. He is survived by a daughter, Ann Wright Peace of Tappahannock, Va., and two sons, the Rev. Dr. Robert D. Marston of Newport News, Va., and W. Weslley Marston of Gainesville, Fla., and six grandchildren. Of cancer Sunday in a hospice in Gainesville.

Lucia Myers; Civic Leader, Pioneer Corporate Director

Lucia Raymond Myers, 84, civic leader who was among the first women to serve as a director of several major corporations. A Los Angeles resident since the 1930s when her family moved from Oklahoma City, Myers was a prominent figure on Los Angeles’ civic and social scene. She was the first woman to become a director of Pacific Lighting and the second to serve on the board of the Bank of America. She also was the first woman to be state president of the Children’s Home Society of California. In 1960, she headed the National Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services, a panel of 50 women who advised the Defense secretary on policies and standards affecting women in the military. She was married to John W. Myers, a lawyer and former chief test pilot for the Northrop Black Widow whose father, Louis W. Myers, was a co-founder of the O’Melveny & Myers law firm. She is survived by her husband, daughter Lissa Wolff of Atascadero and three grandchildren. No services are planned. Donations may be sent to Hollenbeck Home, 573 S. Boyle Ave., Los Angeles 90033. On Sunday in Beverly Hills.

William Warwick; Captain of Liner

Commodore William Eldon Warwick, 86, the first captain of the Queen Elizabeth 2. Warwick steered the world’s best-known cruise ship around the world on its maiden voyage in May 1969. A native of Liverpool, he joined the British merchant navy in 1928, serving in the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea. After a stint in the Royal Navy during World War II, he was hired by Cunard as master of the Carinthia passenger vessel in 1958. He went on to command almost every passenger liner in the Cunard fleet, including the Queen Mary and the Queen Elizabeth. Warwick, who was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II in 1971, died just weeks before he was to cruise across the Atlantic on the QE2 as part of the ship’s 30th anniversary celebration. His son, Ronald, is now the QE2’s commodore. He is survived by his wife, Evelyn, and two other sons, Eldon and David. On Feb. 27 in London.