Bay Area-to-L.A. Run Sets Pace for United Way Drive

For Nick Kraynik, a 26-mile marathon would be a walk in the park compared to his most recent challenge.

Kraynik finished an exhausting 498.6-mile “Fed to Fed” run from the steps of the Federal Reserve Bank in San Francisco to the bank’s branch in Los Angeles Saturday. The final leg of his journey began on Wilshire Boulevard in Santa Monica and ended at the bank downtown.

A security specialist and avid long-distance runner from northern Marin County, he took two weeks to complete the run along coastal Pacific Coast Highway to raise money through donations for the kickoff of the bank’s 1990 United Way campaign. “I wanted a challenge that would use my running skills and help the less-fortunate at the same time,” he said.

Although he still averaged 33 miles per day, soreness and muscle cramps plagued him almost daily. He noted that despite the pain “this has been an interesting way see the world without any mechanical means.”

Along the route, Kraynik had the support of colleagues from both branches of the bank and from the California Highway Patrol. A recreational vehicle center in the Bay Area donated an RV so that supporters could accompany him down the coast. Others provided time, food, water and other supplies.

Louis W. Foster has been selected as an Outstanding Entrepreneur of the Year.

Foster, a Los Angeles resident, is founder, chairman and chief executive officer of 20th Century Industries. Foster founded 20th Century Insurance Exchange in 1958 with one employee. Today the insurance company has grown into a diversified corporation that employs more than 1,800.

He will be honored at the 13th annual Entrepreneur Awards banquet on Oct. 3 at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles. The award is given by USC’s School of Business Administration, the Entrepreneur Program’s Advisory Council and Wells Fargo Bank.

Jack Coe, associate professor of law at Pepperdine University, has been appointed to serve as a staff lawyer at the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal for a one-year term beginning in January, 1991.

Michael O’Sullivan has been named principal of Fairfax High School, following the retirement of Warren Steinberg.

A Westside resident, O’Sullivan has taught in Los Angeles city schools for 26 years, and most recently he served as dean and assistant principal at Fairfax High. He received a master’s degree at USC before completing his doctorate at Pepperdine University.

The California Arts Council will award an Individual Artist Lifetime Achievement Award to Sam Francis of Santa Monica.

Francis has had his paintings exhibited in New York City at the Museum of Modern Art, the Kunsthalle in Basel, Switzerland, and the Los Angeles County Musuem of Art. Francis’ murals are displayed in San Francisco’s Museum of Art in addition to the National Gallery of Art in Berlin. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Musuem of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles.

The Irene Dunne Guild, a fund-raising and support organization of St. John’s Hospital and Health Center in Santa Monica, has elected new officers.

The new officers are Mary Flaherty, president; Carla Rehm, vice president; Colleen O’Beirne Brydon, treasurer; Kathy Gray, recording secretary, and Su-z Schneider, corresponding secretary.