By ASHFORD, John Wesley died in his home June 23. He was 79. Mr. Ashford, a longtime Los Altos resident, was an engineer with Northrup Grumman, formerly Litton Industries, for 60 years and a World War II veteran.

Mr. Ashford was preceded in death by his wife, Doralee. He is survived by his sister, Virginia Secrest; children, Carol Bostick and her husband Roy, Dick and his wife Alison, Janice, Gary and his wife Pam, and Debbie Bell and her husband Bob; grandchildren, Logan, Timothy, Andrew, Adriela, Josiah, Alyssa, Danielle, Ricky, Jason and Aaron; and great-grandchild, Aidan.

A private family service was held June 28 at Alta Mesa. A memorial was also held at the home of Janice Ashford July 12.

MANCINI, Ernest John died July 7. He was 82. Mr. Mancini was a resident of Mountain View and Los Altos.

For over 50 years, he was a member of the Mountain View Rotary, Palo Alto Elks and Mountain View Italian Catholic Federation. He served as a colonel in the World War II Army Air Corps, and was the owner/proprietor of the Mancini Chrysler Plymouth dealership of Mountain View/Sunnyvale for 35 years.

He enjoyed fishing, boating, traveling and playing cards.

Mr. Mancini was preceded in death by his parents, Ugo and Josephine Mancini of Mountain View.

He is survived by his wife of 52 years, Shirley; children, Debra Storek and her husband Fred of Sunnyvale, Douglas, Don and his wife Retha of Mountain View, and Dean; grandchildren, Adam and Ashley Storek and Shelby Mancini; siblings Robert Mancini of Sunnyvale, Leo and Peggy.

DAVIS, Claude, died July 4 in Stanford. A native of Nebraska, he was 87. He was a specialist for Pan American Airlines and a member of the Kiwanis, Elks and Rotary clubs. He also was a ham radio operator.

His wife, Florence G. Lyons, preceded him in death.

Mr. Davis is survived by three children, Diane Kirkpatrick, Patricia Munras and Michael Davis; siblings, Willa Blair, Bethyne Zucker and Dura Dee Ingrams; four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Requests made for donations to the Alzheimer’s Association, Mountain View.

SELBY, Barrie M., died July 2. A native of New York, she was 80. She resided in the Bay Area from 1946 to 1995, when she moved to Seattle.

Her husband, Donald R. Selby, preceded her in death.

She graduated from Duke University, and served in the U.S. Navy. For 20 years, she taught elementary school in the Ravenswood School District until her retirement in 1983.

She is survived by her children, Linda Pike of Los Altos, Beth Selby of Seattle and Gregg Selby.

GUTHEIL, Lavant Judson, died unexpectedly July 6. He was 61.

He was a family-law attorney in San Jose. His commitment to helping families in crisis was well known. His peers voted him Pro Bono Attorney of the Year.

He also was a member of the Three Great Lights Masonic Lodge No. 651, Menlo Park.

He enjoyed studying the history of the Civil War, gardening, camping, traveling and raising homing pigeons

He is survived by children, Judson Bernekov Gutheil and Melissa Karen Gutheil; and siblings, Judy Lee Daneil, Laurence Foster Gutheil and Mary Gutheil Anderson.

A memorial service was held July 12 at Foothills Congregational Church, Los Altos.

BYLER, Valerie, a resident of Cupertino, died July 2. A native of Pennsylvania, she was 86.

She is survived by her children Tom Byler, of San Jose, Michael Byler, Julia Reeve, Redwood Valley; and grandchildren.

A memorial service was held July 9 at St. Simon’s Catholic Church, Los Altos, with inurnment at Golden Gate National Cemetery, San Bruno.

LOVETTE, Jim, a 32-year resident of Los Altos, died June 29 after a long illness. A native of Ashland, Ky. He was 64.

He graduated from Davidson College, where, while completing his degree in physics, he designed the first completely transistorized amateur radio receiver.

In 1970, he moved to Los Altos to join the Optoelectronics Division of Fairchild Corporation, and was instrumental in developing markets for their newly developed LEDs.

He later worked as a design and marketing consultant to electronics companies in the United States and the Far East, and in 1975 was one of the first Americans to conduct business in Beijing.

He joined Apple Computer in 1989 where he spearheaded a successful effort to obtain radio spectrum allocations from the FCC for wireless computing applications. He left Apple in 1999 and worked on similar initiatives at Interval Corporation and later at Fantasma Networks, from which he retired in 2001.

He is survived by his wife of 37 years, Cornelia; sons Irby of Ithaca, N.Y., and Hugh of Berkeley; a daughter, Louise of Los Gatos; and one grandson.

A memorial service will be held at a later date.