Obituaries : Romaine Fielding; Global Entrepreneur

Romaine Fielding, a Thousand Oaks businessman who made international headlines two years ago when the Soviet Union allowed his Soviet bride to emigrate to the United States as a good will gesture, has died at the age of 68.

Fielding, a Russian-speaking entrepreneur who provided Moscow with its first self-service laundry in 1958, died of cancer Thursday.

Fielding, who called himself “the poor man’s Armand Hammer” because of his 30 years of business dealings with the Soviet Union, had in recent years also represented other firms, beside his own, in transactions with the Soviet Union.

Fielding, born in New York City, later moved to Hollywood with his father, the silent movie actor Romaine Fielding.

In June, 1985, he married Nina F. Dobrova, a Moscow nurse, his fifth wife. Because of immigration problems, she could not return to the United States with him. However, in November, shortly before the Reagan-Gorbachev summit in Geneva, Soviet officials, in a diplomatic gesture, allowed seven spouses to emigrate, including Fielding’s bride.