Achille Castiglioni, architectural designer 
Natalie de Felice, fashion designer 
Michael Demarco, hotelier 
Fernanda Gattinoni, fashion house
Don Vesco, land-speed record-holder for both motorcycles and cars
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Achille Castiglioni, designer 
Born: 1918, in Milan 
Died: 2 December, 2002, in Milan 

ACHILLE Castiglioni’s innovative domestic objects helped Italy emerge from the economic devastation of the Second World War to become a leading country in modern design. Among his most famous creations was the Arco lamp, some versions of which are worth thousands of pounds. 

Castiglioni, who graduated from the Politecnico di Milano in 1944, joined his elder brothers, Livio and Pier Giacomo, in their architecture and design studio, established in 1938. After Livio left the company in 1952, Achille worked with Pier on architectural commissions, which included a main pavilion at the Milan trade fair in 1962. At the same time, the brothers began to create imaginative, minimalist designs for everyday objects, setting a trend for which Italian design was to be known for the next 40 years. 

Among their early creations was a tractor seat with a streamlined base and a telephone stool with a bicycle seat. In 1962 the brothers designed what was to become their most famous creation, the Arco lamp. Inspired by street lighting and suspended on an arch of steel from a long marble base, the Arco appeared to be a way of hanging a lamp in a room without damaging the ceiling. There were more quirky, amusing Castiglioni designs to come. The Ventosa reading lamp, designed shortly after the Arco, could be attached to a table with a a rubber suction cup - or stuck, like a miner’s lamp, to the head. 

After Pier died in 1968 (Livio died in 1979), Castiglioni continued to create extraordinary designs for ordinary objects. One was the Brera lamp, with its egg-like shades. He also created the "Primate" stool, which brought the Eastern style of sitting - no back support, more weight on the knees and feet - to Western culture. He introduced his own design for the traditional Japanese method of dining, in which the guests each have their own small tables, which are placed in an oval configuration. 

In the Eighties, Castiglioni was professor of architecture and design at the Politecnico di Milano. His classes, according to former students, were the most entertaining at the school. To illustrate a design point he would produce unusual teaching tools: a pair of galoshes from Moscow, kitchen utensils, spectacles or a beer can from Iran. 

He is survived by his wife, Irma, two daughters and a son.
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Natalie de Felice   

NATALIE de Felice, who died on 13 November, was a feisty Scottish lady of Italian descent whose personality lit up the Edinburgh fashion scene. She introduced a collection of high fashion design with the emphasis on sparkle when she ran her successful dress salon, Partners, in Edinburgh’s Grassmarket. 

The bustling shop was shared with a menswear shop owned by Jim Dougan, of Mr James fame. She featured her designer fashion upstairs while his collection was downstairs. Both she and Jim had volatile personalities, yet a firm friendship between their families developed. 

Natalie’s late husband, Felice de Felice, was an Edinburgh personality in his own right. That he adored his wife was always evident. Clients were always shown the priceless, huge antique mirror which graced the salon, with pride. Felice used to have endless fun finding Natalie’s birthday presents, which had always to be extra special, and the mirror was one of them. 

When he died, many people wondered how Natalie would cope. This was a couple who had been in love throughout their marriage, and had it not been for their lovely daughter, Gabriella, who had married and produced a handsome son, and the love of her family and friends, Natalie might not have pulled through her grief. 

But this was a lady to be reckoned with. She decided to concentrate on running her other salon, Fontaine Fashions - and took up bridge. 

As a fashion expert, Natalie often allowed her dress collections to be featured in fashion shows and throughout the years helped raise thousands of pounds for good causes. However, many will remember her in-salon show at Partners. During a busy trading day, she and Gabriella gathered the fashion show outfits together, fitted the models and organised the running order. A daunting task. As the audience began to assemble in the lower salon, it soon became apparent that the show was due to begin. But who was to compere the show? Natalie, of course. Down the stairs she came, wearing the same outfit she had worn all day along with the slightly frazzled look of someone totally exhausted by the preparations. 

When asked if she was going to change into something more glamorous, Natalie looked aghast. She was fine. Then, the music began and, like her collection, Natalie sparkled with a commentary which was both knowledgeable and amusing. The audience loved every moment. Nobody noticed she had a ladder in her tights and that she was still wearing her flat-heeled working shoes. 

Natalie’s charisma was catching. She charmed parking wardens, rescued animals (Jim Dougan recalls how she completely disrupted the busy Grassmarket traffic in order to save the life of a stray dog) and quietly visited the old Gogarburn Hospital and befriended a patient there whom she almost adopted into her family. There are many stories of her kindness to others. 

Her brother-in-law, Carlo, called her his "big sister", even though she was younger than he was. She had an incredible business acumen which she shared. She was "nonna" to her grandson, "mamma" to her daughter, and a wonderful, affectionate relative and friend. She was also blessed with a beautiful face and a nature to match. Not that she would have admitted to that. She was an effervescent person with a down-to-earth approach to life which endeared her to everyone from the bin men to the titled ladies who bought her smart outfits. 

The fashion world will never forget her. But then, Natalie would expect no less tribute. With a smile, of course, and an immediate disclaimer. She saw something good in everyone and her own goodness shone brightly in a not so bright world. 

She is survived by her daughter, Gabriella, and grandson, William.
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Michael Demarco, hotelier 
Born: 19 December, 1931, in Edinburgh 
Died: 6 November, 2002, in Bournemouth, aged 70 

MICHAEL Demarco was the complete hotelier, elegant of manner, immaculate of dress, charming to everyone and calm in the most dire situation. He showed the same courtesy to the great and famous as he did to other guests - to him, everyone was important. The 1966 England World Cup team - who were resident in his Royal Garden Hotel in London - did, however, provide a few testing evenings. But Demarco coped with such moments with a reserve and style that ensured his hotel functioned (almost) as normal. On that occasion, the joyous scenes outside on Kensington High Street became part of footballing history. Demarco was in his element. 

Michael Paul Demarco was born in Portobello of an Italian/Irish family. He attended Holy Cross Academy and was a keen sportsman and sang in the school choir. The conductor of that choir, John Curran, was to figure prominently in Demarco’s future career. Curran was an executive with British Transport Hotels, then a major force in the catering industry throughout Scotland. He offered the young Demarco a holiday job at the company’s headquarters at St Enoch’s Station in Glasgow. Catering was in the family as his father had run both The Moorings restaurant at Largs before the war and Maison Demarco in Portobello in the Fifties. But Demarco was keen to become an architect, and he viewed the post with BTH as purely a fill-in. In fact, it became his life’s work. 

He responded to the challenges of hotel life and continued his training in Glasgow and Genoa. His first posting was at the magnificent Royal Dornoch Hotel, overlooking the Firth. It was a hotel he was to return to later as manager. Demarco loved the hotel, the town and the golf course. Dornoch was known as a "golfers’ paradise" and he spent many happy hours on its windswept fairways. He also became a keen angler. 

In the Fifties, many of Scotland’s BTH hotels only opened in the summer and Demarco spent several summers as assistant manager or manager at Gleneagles and Turnberry while also working at the Station Hotel in Perth, the Great Northern at King’s Cross and the Caledonian in Edinburgh. 

In 1963, while at the Great Northern, he was appointed manager at the Piccadilly Hotel in Manchester. It was a plumb appointment. The hotel was very modern and had every new gadget, though Demarco’s cool was severely tested on the opening night. The celebrations were in full swing when the ceiling collapsed in the banqueting room. The first person to emerge from the rubble was Sir Matt Busby, recently out of hospital after the Munich air crash. Demarco calmly ensured Sir Matt and other guests were unscathed, which happily was the case, and then got the party swinging: it was, after all, the Sixties. 

Two years later, he became general manager of Oddeninos Hotel Group, which included in its portfolio the Royal Garden Hotel. Overlooking Kensington Palace and Hyde Park, it was one of the first new hotels to be built in London. Sir Alf Ramsay chose it as the England squad’s headquarters throughout the 1966 World Cup. 

The story of the celebrations on that triumphant night are now part of footballing legend - even the subject of a television programme. Demarco had to make a rapid exit from Wembley when England scored their first goal in extra time, as he had to supervise the celebrations back at the Royal Garden. He did find time to join in many of the festivities and can be spotted on film and in photographs on the hotel’s balcony pouring champagne for Bobby Moore and Bobby Charlton. 

Because of his wide experience in catering, Demarco was often asked to advise on new projects and he opened his own restaurant in Chelsea - Demarcos, in Langton Street. 

Other appointments followed (the Imperial at Hythe, the Cairndale in Dumfries). He semi-retired in 1987 to Dorset after a triple heart by-pass operation, although he still acted as a consultant. 

Michael Demarco was a man with panache and a joyous relish for life. When his first child was born, he dispatched to his wife’s bedside 13 violinists to serenade mother and child. "All I wanted was a piece of toast and a cup of tea," recalled his wife, Marjorie. 

Demarco moved with ease among the stars. Sir Sean Connery, Peter Alliss, Bruce Forsyth and Jimmy Tarbuck were friends from Variety Club golfing events. Demarco, partnered by Stanley Baker, won the Variety Club Silver Tray in 1971 at Royal Mid Surrey. He had played golf, off a handicap of seven - wherever he worked, but latterly was a member at Wentworth. 

A born enthusiast, he loved the hotel business and delighted in providing excellent service and was himself a connoisseur of fine food and wine: he was appointed a Chevalier de Vins d’Honneur. His flamboyance was never exaggerated and his concern for his guests remained paramount. 

He married Marjorie Giles in 1963. She and their two sons survive him, as do his brothers, Richard and Louis.
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Fernanda Gattinoni 
Born: 1907, in Lombardy Died: 26 November, 2002, in Rome 

FERNANDA Gattinoni, whose elaborate creations were worn by screen stars Audrey Hepburn and Ingrid Bergman among others, was still actively involved in fashion despite her 95 years. 

Gattinoni made her name as a jet-set fashion designer during Rome’s cinema-making boom in the Fifties and Sixties, creating Audrey Hepburn’s attire in the 1956 War and Peace. 

Born in Italy’s northern Lombardy region, she left for London as a 17-year-old to work at the Molineaux fashion house. Turning down an offer to work for Coco Chanel in Paris, in the late Twenties she returned to Italy, where she went on to make high-fashion clothes under her own label. 

Her son, Raniero Gattinoni, was also a designer and joined her in the mid-Eighties, when the fashion house branched out to include ready-to-wear clothes in its collections. He died in 1993. 

In an interview published earlier this year in the Italian fashion magazine Bookmoda, Gattinoni was asked what defined elegance for her. "Rules exist: No extravagance and no nudity. I’ve struggle my whole life to teach women that transparent clothes are useless - they tantalise but don’t seduce," she was quoted as saying. "What mystery is left for these poor men to unveil?" 

Her fashion house said she was working at her atelier’s headquarters near Rome’s Via Veneto on Monday night when she became ill and was taken to Rome’s Policlinico Umberto I hospital, where she died yesterday morning.
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Don Vesco 

DON Vesco, a land-speed record-holder for both motorcycles and cars, has died in San Diego. He was 63. 

He set 18 motorcycle and six automobile records during a career that started when he was 16. 

Among his achievements is the current wheel-driven land-speed record of 458.44 mph. 

The world land-speed record for all cars is 763.085 mph, set in 1997 by Andy Green in a car powered by two jet engines. 

In 1970, Vesco was the first person to ride a motorcycle at more than 250 mph. Five years later, he broke the 300-mph barrier on his Silver Bird Yamaha, powered by twin Yamaha TZ750 engines. In 1978, he increased the record to 318 mph on a Kawasaki turbo, a standard that stood for 12 years. 

Vesco did most of his tests on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. He had his share of high-speed spills, including a 1986 accident that sent his car 30 feet in the air and broke his neck. He also lost an eye when he was hit by a rock while watching a sprint car race in 1996. 

He was inducted into the American Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 1999.
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Don Vesco, 63; Held Speed Records for Cars, Motorcycles
 
 
 

Los Angeles Times 
By Shav Glick
Times Staff Writer

December 18 2002

Don Vesco, a land-speed record-holder for motorcycles and cars, died Monday in Scripps Mercy Hospital in San Diego of prostate cancer. He was 63.

Long associated with the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, Vesco set 18 motorcycle and six automotive records during a career that began when he was 16. Among his achievements is the current wheel-driven land-speed record of 458.44 mph. The world land-speed record for all cars is 763.085 mph, set in 1997 by Englishman Andy Green in a car powered by two jet engines.

Vesco was 62 when he drove his jet-powered Team Vesco Turbinator to the record Oct. 17, 2001.

Until the time of his death, he was planning to become the first driver to go 500 mph in a wheel-driven vehicle.

"Given the proper salt texture, it could average 500," he said.

Vesco and his brother, Rick, who designed the Turbinator, were instrumental in the "Save the Salt" effort at Bonneville, the longest and straightest such stretch in the country.

Vesco's record has an asterisk, however. His car was powered by a turbine driven by propellers. Fellow Californian Al Teague holds the piston-driven record of 409.986 mph, set in 1991.

In 1970, Vesco was the first person to ride a motorcycle at more than 250 mph, and five years later he broke the 300-mph barrier on his Silver Bird Yamaha, powered by twin Yamaha TZ750 engines. In 1978, he increased the record to 318 mph on a Kawasaki turbo, a standard that stood for 12 years.

Born April 8, 1939, in Loma Linda, Vesco had a passion for speed while growing up in San Diego, watching his father, John, race Model A and Model T Fords on weekends. He was a crewman for his father when John set a class record at Bonneville in 1951.

"Everything we did was a race," Vesco once said. "The first thing I remember is racing tricycles and scooters around the block. You name it, we raced it. From our toys as little kids, racing was always a part of my life."

He was also fascinated by what makes vehicles go faster.

As a third-grader, he was tearing apart model airplane engines and making them faster.

In his first major racing accomplishment, he won the 1963 Motorcycle Grand Prix of the United States, forerunner of the Daytona 200, at Daytona International Speedway. Riding a Yamaha, he averaged 89.405 mph for 124 miles around the 3.1-mile course combining two banks and an infield road.

After breaking all the two-wheel land-speed records, Vesco and his brother decided in the 1980s to tackle four-wheel records in their own custom vehicle. The result was the Turbinator, a car 31 feet long, 3 feet wide and only 2.5 feet tall. It was powered by a turbine engine from a Chinook helicopter.

Vesco said he and his brother once worked for three days without sleep to be ready for Bonneville when the salt was right.

"When you see the sun set and rise and haven't gone anywhere but the shop, and then you see the sun rise again, you know you're in trouble," he said.

Racing against time is also dangerous. Vesco had his share of high-speed spills, but none as bad as one in 1986, when a rear tire blew out while he was traveling about 350 mph.

Witnesses said the car went 30 feet in the air before crashing and rolling over three times. Vesco suffered a broken neck but never lost consciousness.

He made some of his fastest runs after losing an eye when he was hit by a rock while watching a sprint car race in 1996.

Vesco was inducted into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 1999, and in April he and his brother were named "Car Guy of the Year" by the automotive industry at its eAuto World Conference.

In a 1975 interview, Vesco said he chased speed because "basically, it's my hobby. Some people play golf, some go fishing and some ride bikes in the desert. I get my enjoyment from the challenge on the salt."

Information on survivors was not immediately available.

Funeral services are scheduled for 11 a.m. Saturday at El Cajon Mortuary in El Cajon. 
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