Obituary
Wally Elvers, 95, Villager, polymath
BY LITA ELVERS
Walter Barton Elvers DDS, 95,
passed away peacefully on
April 17.
“Wally,” as he was known, lived just
a block from his beloved Washington
Square Park with his wife of more than
57 years, “Bibi” (née Lita Melba Abril-
Lamarque).
Methodical, analytical, detail-oriented,
a problem solver and a very independent
thinker, he was also very sociable.
Always in a Western-style shirt and rarely
seen without a bolo tie, he was known
for his sense of humor, insisting that he
wasn’t “old,” but “mature.”
He was “Fud” to daughters, Lauren
Elvers Collins of Brooklyn, and Susan
S. LeBlanc of Natick, MA, and “Grand-
Fud” to his grandchildren, Emily, Andrew,
Griffi n and Reeve.
Born and raised in the Bronx, as a 12-
year-old he and a friend built a boat that
they rode on the Hudson River a number
of times. He earned his doctor of dental
surgery from Columbia, then opened an
orthodontic practice in 1949, but wanted
something more challenging.
Taking the phone book yellow pages
COURTESY BIBI ELVERS
Wally Elvers in 2014.
in hand, he looked for pharmaceutical
companies. In the alphabetical listing,
he quickly came across Bristol-Myers
Products Division, then producing Ipana
toothpaste. It turned out they were
looking for a director of dental research.
Thirty-two years later he retired as associate
medical director. Among other
responsibilities, he directed the clinical
studies for the development of Excedrin.
Deciding to learn Spanish at age
40, he became so adept that before long
he was vetting advertising copy for medical
accuracy in Spanish, often challenging
(successfully) the prepared copy as
readable among New York’s Hispanics,
but not equally understandable to California’s
mostly Mexican population.
A recipient of the New York City Mayor’s
Silver Apple Award for his volunteer
service in 2001, Elvers was very proud
of his 30-year “career” as a volunteer at
the American Museum of Natural History.
A fossil bivalve genus, Elversella, was
named in his honor. He often noted that
he had worked in almost every department
in the museum. On his fi rst “job”
there, he developed a new technique for
preparing 110-million-year-old fi sh fossils
for study and display. His extensive
research and fact-checking on the more
than 1,500 specimens contributed fundamentally
to the museum’s Spectrum
of Life Wall (a.k.a. “Wally’s Wall” to
family and friends).
To dramatize a rapidly growing
problem in the Great Lakes, one 1997
exhibit, “Endangered,” featured a Volkswagen
Beetle encrusted with zebra
mussels from Lake Erie. With a zero
budget to work with, Elvers sought out a
car, someone to remove the gas tank and
more, prior to dunking, a salvage company
to lower, and then raise, the car, a
protective sealant coating to ensure the
encrustation stayed attached to the vehicle,
transportation of the vehicle, and
much, much more. And he arranged for
every bit of it to be donated.
Always curious and interested in new
things, in the early 1970s he heard about
a brand new sport, road running. Not
for speed — running just to run. Before
long, before dawn every day he was running
down to the southern tip of Manhattan
and back, about 5 miles in all. He
also ran his share of 10K races, several
in Central Park. Not that he was fast, but
he never gave up. Also as a volunteer, for
more than a dozen years he was an anchor
at the registration desk for the tens
of thousands of runners in the New York
City Marathon.
His wide range of passions ranged
from photography to computers to gadgets
to visiting factories to see close-up
how things are made. The bigger the
challenge, the more fun he had.
Donations may be sent to Greenwich
House Senior Center on the Square,
20 Washington Square North, NY NY
10011; or the American Museum of Natural
History, 79th St. and Central Park
West, NY NY 10024.
A memorial was held May 9 at
Greenwich House Senior Center on the
Square.
‘Tap and pay’ is in play
BY ALEJANDRA O’CONNELLDOMENECH
New Yorkers can now use major
credit cards and devices like
iPhones, Android phones and
Apple Watches to pay for subway rides at
select stations.
On Fri., May 31, The Metropolitan
Transportation Authority launched
OMNY, a new system that allows riders
to “tap and pay” fares for single rides by
using “contactless” credit, debit or reloadable
prepaid cards or mobile phones.
Contactless cards have a symbol on
the front or back that looks like the image
used to represent Wi-Fi, which riders
can request from their bank or credit
card company.
Straphangers can use their iPhones or
Apple Watches to pay their fares through
Apple Pay. Android phone users can pay
through Google Pay.
However, OMNY is not yet available
in all subway stations. Passengers can
currently only use it to board Staten Island
buses and the 4, 5, and 6 train lines
between Grand Central-42nd St. and Atlantic
Ave.-Barclays Ctr.
The M.T.A. will expand OMNY,
Demonstrating using Google Pay
to pay a subway fare at one of the
new OMNY “tap and pay” turnstiles.
which stands for One Metro New York,
to other lines throughout 2019. By late
2020, the M.T.A. expects that all riders
will be able to use apps in their “digital
wallet” on their phones to pay their fare
at all subway stations.
The new system is expected to be a big
help for visitors and tourists who may
fi nd the current MetroCard system confusing.
Passengers will also be able to pay for
transit using the existing MetroCard system
until 2023.
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16 June 6, 2019 TVG Schneps Media