Supreme Court by Justice Sonia Sotomayor to hear Dennis Apel’s civil disobedience case involving Vandenberg Air Force Base.
Longtime Santa Barbara County activist Elden Thomas “Bud” Boothe passed away peacefully in his sleep in Southport, North Carolina, at the age of 92 from complications associated with congestive heart failure.
Bud was born in Stow, Ohio, on March 8, 1925, the only son of James Lloyd and Blanche (Decoursey) Boothe. He grew up during the Depression in Ravenna, Ohio, and served overseas in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II. Stationed out of England, he was a radio operator on B-17s and flew 15 missions over Germany. On his return when the war ended and after earning a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering utilizing the G.I. Bill of Rights, Bud took a job with the federal government in Anchorage, Alaska, working on the development and operation of the White Alice Communication System, an early telecom system. It was in Alaska that Bud met and married Alice Repman, and they started their family. In 1962, they all moved to Fairfax, Virginia, after Bud took a job with the Defense Communications Agency. He later worked with the Federal Communications Commission in Washington, D.C., until his retirement in 1974.
Bud and Alice moved to California a couple of years later, settling in the small town of Los Olivos in the Santa Ynez Valley where they built their home, Casa Del Sol. There, Bud continued his lifelong love of organic gardening. Through the years in Los Olivos, Bud and Alice shared the bounty of their produce harvests with local food banks and other organizations.
