Alberto Herszage, the owner of a fine foods import business in Hawaii, died of renal failure on Dec. 6 at home in Springs. He was 81 and had been ill for five years.     

Marcia F. Gowen, a former managing director of the Center for Specialty Care, a medical group practice in Manhattan, died of cancer on Dec. 14 at home nearby on East 76th Street. The East Hampton summer resident was 83 and had been ill for nearly five years.     

Randy Hoffman, a dedicated volunteer who has responded to a few thousand calls over the course of his 12-year involvement with the emergency medical system on the South Fork, helping countless patients and in some instances literally saving their lives, now finds himself a patient in need.