She helped shape the minds of many a brand name journalist, including FOX 11′s Lauren Sanchez, ESPN Radio’s Beto Duran, and Washington Post reporter Jason Reid.

Now, some of Jolene Combs‘ former colleagues and students at El Camino College are paying fond tribute in the wake of her death at age 69 from apparent pneumonia complications, as reported last Friday by Daily Breeze reporters Larry Altman (a regular speaker in Combs’ classes) and Douglas Morino (a one-time student). At the heart of Combs’ methodology was a principle that the late George Burns was equally fond of espousing when asked how he could keep going as a comedian–Do what you love to do:

“She really wanted her students to succeed,” said Lori Medigovich, an El Camino journalism professor since 1989. “She wanted them to have a good life and be happy… One of her biggest things was no matter what you do in life, you should love it, embrace it and do your absolute best at it. Whether it was journalism or, as she would say, selling refrigerators.”

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It’s the kind of positive review cavalcade that Craig Susser‘s Hollywood restaurant clientele dreams of. Only in this case, it’s the restaurateur getting the raves.

Since opening his throwback “joint” Craig’s on Melrose Avenue in Beverly Hills a few months ago, Susser has been showered with praise by the New York Times, Jay Weston’s Restaurant Newsletter, and Zagat. Now he can add Merle Ginsberg of the Hollywood Reporter, who dubs Craig’s one of the film and TV industry’s three new “power restaurants”:

A typical night might see Jeffrey Katzenberg, Ryan Phillippe, Dick Wolf across the room and Patrick Whitesell with wife [and reporter] Lauren Sanchez. Craig’s has a long menu (veal chop, classic wedge salad, tuna tartar, chicken cacciatore) that can service the movie mogul, the trophy wife, and the picky teens.

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