Obituaries

After a long and eventful life, Thomas Anthony Puorro , 94, passed away peacefully at Sunny View Residential facility in Cupertino on August 7, 2020, after a five-year struggle with Alzheimer’s. He leaves behind his beloved wife of 71 years, Jeanette, their seven children, and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Born in Roxbury, Massachusetts to an Italian immigrant father and American mother, Tom was the epitome of the American dream, grew up poor yet earned a college degree (the first in his family), traveling the world and eventually settling in Los Altos Hills where he and Jeanette lived for 42 years before moving to Sunny View. 

Tom served in the Navy during WWII, and after the war attended Tufts University on the GI Bill. In 1949, he met and married the love of his life, Jeanette McCue, at St. Clements Catholic Church in Somerville, MA. That same year, Tom was hired by IBM where he enjoyed a thriving 32-year career and worked on some of the greatest projects of the time: the first 911 system in New York City, the space program in Houston and the early days of computing in Silicon Valley.

Gary Eugene Edwards passed away on August 8, 2020 in his Los Altos, California home at the age of 82 after battling worsening Parkinson’s symptoms for the last 5 years of his life.  He was diagnosed with the disease approximately 20 years ago.  Gary was the son of Harry and Henrietta Edwards (both deceased) and has one brother, Doug, all of whom were teachers in either the Mountain View or Santa Clara school districts. 

Gary graduated from Mountain View High School, where he was active in athletics and student government, including Student Body President.  He was the recipient of a number of awards, including finalist for the Mid-Peninsula Athlete of the Year in 1955.

February 11th, 1946 - August 6th, 2020

Allan Gene Varni, married to his High School sweetheart Mary Lou (Mateo) for over 50 years, loved vehicles, having owned over forty-six of them. He served as a medic at Letterman Hospital during the Vietnam War, was a life-long educator in Santa Clara, Palo Alto, University of San Diego and Dominican University of California. 

Allan enthusiastically gave his time by volunteering to better our world. For over 17 years he helped lead the Pacific Coast Dream Machines fundraiser in Half Moon Bay, Ca. As a member and former president (2019) of the Los Altos Rotary Club, he traveled to Liberia, Haiti and Peru for the causes of eradicating Mother to Child AIDS, rebuilding a school devastated by earthquakes, and helping develop indigenous communities.

(August 29, 1931-August 2, 2020)

Known by all her knew her as Joanie died peacefully on Sunday, August 2^nd surrounded by a team of outstanding health care professionals at the Covid-19 ward at Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula.  She was 26 days shy of her 89^th birthday and 90^th year on earth!

Born and raised an only child in Jamestown, NY to Roy and Mildred (Mimi) Gustavson, Joanie graduated with a degree in English from Stephens College in Columbia, MO and was fondly known as Gus by her classmates.

After college, Joanie migrated east where she married Robert Eugene Lincoln and lived in Washington, DC where her husband practiced law.  After the birth of their first son Robert Todd, they moved cross country to Palo Alto where her two youngest sons were born, Jeffrey Scott and Christopher Brent—raising them for the next twenty plus years in nearby Los Altos Hills.

Courtesy of Marilyn Groves

Mrs. Monson is the guest of honor at her 100th birthday party in 2014.

Elsie Monson, whose Los Altos residency extended back to the beginning of the city’s incorporation, died Aug. 6. Mrs. Monson was one month shy of her 106th birthday.

Self described as “terse, dogged and a smidge snarky,” Leonard Frank “Len” Lattanzi passed away at home in Los Altos, CA, on May 22, 2020 of advanced pancreatic cancer. A long-time resident of Los Altos, he was 55.

Born in San Francisco, Len grew up all over the world while his parents, Angelo Frank Lattanzi and Aurelia Ibarra Ramos Lattanzi, served overseas with the United States Information Service. Len attended preschool in London and Rome, elementary school in Ethiopia and Nigeria, middle school in Centreville, Virginia, and high school in Guadalajara, Mexico. Len and three “partners in crime” enlivened high school with creative pranks, and their shenanigans led to lifelong friendships.