Terry Oblander dies

Terry Oblander, who worked at both the Beacon Journal and the Plain Dealer, died today.

He had a heart attack Tuesday morning and was taken to cardiac intensive care at Cleveland Clinic.

Terry is survived by his wife, Linda Monroe Oblander; father, Jacob Leroy of Parma Heights; sons, Terence Jacob of Montville Township, Medina, Christopher Daniel of Middleburg Heights, and Nicholas Patrick of Medina; and two grandsons.

His first wife, Mary Louise O'Neill Oblander, died in 1992.

Terry went from the BJ to the Plain Dealer and its Medina County bureau, then returned to the BJ last year to write feature stories about Medina County.

He was part of the Beacon Journal staff that won a Pulitzer Prize in 1987 for its coverage of a threatened corporate takeover of Goodyear and has won several Ohio and regional journalism awards.

A 1965 graduate of Olmsted Falls High School and Cuyahoga Community College (1967), he attended Kent State University through 1969, worked for the Kent-Ravenna Record-Courier from 1969 to 1971 and at the Beacon Journal from 1971 to 1990 when he joined the Plain Dealer.

Terry was among 27 PD staffers who were let go by a phone call from the editor in 2008 a few weeks before Christmas.

Oblander did the pun-based Public Squares Puzzle for the Plain Dealer.

In a 2001 letter that Terry wrote to a friend who is a Chicago lawyer, he recalled his days in Kent:

"The Record-Courier group was an odd-ball collection of washed-up newspaper
people or young folks just learning the business. You were there because you
loved the business. $125 was the top salary of the day for a 44-hour work week
-- not much above minimum wage.

"Most of us lived in a home we called the 'Lock Street Rock Festival' in 1971 or 1972. It was so named because we lived on Lock Street and our home was like Woodstock most days."

Terry was a great storyteller who laughed vigorously as he spun his tales. So did those who heard them.

Funeral arrangements are incomplete.