Main Street
Murphy, Albin win Woman of Achievement honors
By Mary Ann Cook
WOMAN OF ACHIEVEMENT: Susan Murphy, director of Santa Clara Valley Medical Center (SCVMC), was one of 14 women recognized as a Woman of Achievement by Women's Fund Silicon Valley at a recent awards dinner at the Fairmont.
The other recipient from SCVMC was Catherine Albin, head of the center's pediatric department. The Women's Fund provides money for "nonprofit programs that help improve the lives of women and children," and this is the 29th year it has presented achievement awards.
Murphy has been director of SCVMC for the past three years. She oversees a $305 million budget and some 3,500 employees. Under her leadership, the agency had its best financial year in 16 years. Murphy is credited with focusing the organization more closely on the needs of the customer.
Two years ago she established a customer service department, headed by Los Gatan Judy Neff, to address patient and family concerns with dispatch, providing further resources.
The medical center is a 435-bed county hospital, teaching and research facility, treating county residents regardless of ability to pay.
BEWARE THE LURKING LIZARD: Los Gatan Marge Mercant has her own particular psychosis--a rather odd one. She's scared to death of lizards, those tiny, scaly creatures that look so non-threatening to the rest of us. She actually gets nauseated and feels faint when she sees one.
Borrowing an idiom from another century, she says, "I guess I get the vapors." She once had to call on emergency services to get a lizard ejected from her laundry room. When the emergency man appeared and looked askance at her request, she replied, "You think that's nuts? Imagine how I feel. I'm a licensed psychotherapist, for Pete's sake."
FUNNY MAN: Murry Frymer entertained a filled-to-the-brim council chamber with his tales of the perils and rewards of writing a thrice-weekly newspaper column with a personal slant. Two of his best sources for column ideas were his cat, Hershey, and his mother, a decidedly funny woman.
But both of these sources died during his columnist tenure. Readers were delighted when Hershey the cat wrote the columns. Those elicited some of his most enthusiastic responses. But when he relegated Hershey, by then incontinent, to the garage, readers were outraged.
They sent him hate mail, refused to speak to him--as did even his hardened colleagues in the newsroom, he claims. So popular was Hershey that, after his demise, Frymer forwarded his columns from Cat Heaven. But readers revolted. A dead cat columnist? No, that they simply would not abide, despite his popularity as a live cat columnist.
Some amazing revelations from his two prime sources: Hershey reports that God is a cat. "Makes sense," Frymer ruminates. "Just look into a cat's eyes."
And his mother had always been convinced that Eleanor Roosevelt was Jewish, since she was a personal hero of Mrs. Frymer. About the time her son stopped writing the column, the world pretty much fell apart: The humorist feels there is a direct correlation between those two facts.
The world was a simpler place, a better place for columnists, certainly, when Monica Lewinsky claimed most of the headlines. Frymer now writes a column for San Jose Magazine. It's on the last page, and he claims no one ever gets that far into the magazine.
He's also the co-founder of Columnists.com, and you can read him there.
The Friday Forum was sponsored by Friends of Los Gatos Public Library.
WOMANSPEAK: There's an issues-oriented show at the Triton Museum of Art, and several Los Gatans are taking part. Womanspeak, the South Bay Area Women's Caucus for Art exhibit, runs through April 28. The caucus sponsors outreach, such as their Lifelines program, where art is used as therapy for cancer patients and their families.
Featured artists in the show are Jade Bradbury, Julia Bradshaw, Linda Fillhardt, Marie Grace, Judith Juncker, Ellen Kieffer, Mercy Smullen and Michelle Waters.
JANET KERR MEMORIAL: There'll be a celebration of the life of Janet Kerr at the Art Museum of Los Gatos April 25, 4:30-6:30 p.m. Longtime Los Gatan Mrs. Kerr was an enthusiastic steward of both the Museum Association and the Los Gatos Art Association.
INFO COFFEE: The Assistance League of Los Gatos-Saratoga will hold an informational coffee May 1, 9:30-11:30 a.m., at Faith Lutheran Church, Los Gatos. Jan Ehrhardt is the contact, at 408.356.4274, and the deadline is April 27. The league's main charities are needy children, crafts for seniors and read-aloud programs at local schools.
FINANCIAL SEMINAR: Joan Perry of Take Charge Financial! will lead a financial seminar for women Wednesdays, 6:30-9:30 p.m., from May 8 to June 12 at the Toll House Hotel. For reservations contact Ashley Taggart at 408.399.6600 or email ataggart@takechargefinancial.com.
Perry is the author of A Girl Needs Cash. Each two-week session will deal with a different topic. Session I is Unravel the Mysteries of Your Money Life; Session II: How to Manage Your Fear of Investing; and III: Create Your Foundation for Wealth.
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