Larue, Gerald A.

found: Los Angeles times WWW site, Sept. 22, 2014(in obituary dated Sept. 21, 2014: Gerald A. Larue; born in Calgary, Canada, on June 20, 1916; the longtime USC professor of religion and gerontology died Wednesday [Sept. 17, 2014] in Newport Beach, at 98; ordained minister who became an agnostic, archeologist, religious scholar and debunker of claims such as Lazarus rising from the dead and the discovery of Noah's ark; widely cited expert on topics including Satanism, visions of Mary, and death and dying; in 1980 he became founding president of the Hemlock Society, conceived to provide information to the terminally ill and legalize physician-assisted suicide; ordained in the United Church of Canada in 1945; over the next eight years he led congregations in Canada and California while completing his theological studies; doctorate from Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, where he also studied archaeology; gave up the pulpit in 1953; in 1958 Larue joined USC's faculty as a professor of biblical history and archaeology; in the 1960s he took part in digs in Egypt, Palestine and other parts of the Middle East, returning with artifacts preserved in a USC archaeological collection; taught popular courses on death and dying for four decades, starting when he was in religious studies and continuing through his 25 years in the USC Davis School of Gerontology; retired from USC in 2006)