Latshaw remembrance packed ‘em in

The Celebration of Life service for former BJ printer Dick Latshaw Saturday, May 12 at the Allenside Athletic Club on Manchester Road in Akron drew so many that I had a difficult time finding somewhere to sit and eat and chat about Dick.

Dick’s widow, Pat Latshaw, was there. They were married for 57 years. So was Linda McElroy, widow of Harold McElroy, who drove both of them from Pawleys Island, South Carolina where they lived two blocks away on the same street for nearly two decades. They were married for about a half-century.

Retired printer Sid Sprague, who also lived near them on Pawleys Island, moved to Loveland, Colorado with his new bride after his first wife died. Sid was the first to move to Pawleys Island (from Cuyahoga Falls) around 1997 or 1998. Then Harold and Linda McElroy moved around 1999. Dick and Pat moved to Pawleys in 2000. They all lived on the same 3-blocks-long street. 

Also at Saturday’s tribute to Dick was Mike Kerchan, who went from BJ printer to maintenance after Composing was shut down and still is working there. It was part of Canadian David Black’s deal with Gatehouse Media, which bought the BJ assets, that the former printers continue to keep their jobs, as John S. Knight voluntarily promised in writing in return for bringing computers into the building to put out the paper.

Garfield High graduate Dick passed away March 11 on Pawleys Island.