Pam McCarthy’s husband passes away

Pam McCarthy with husband Ken Pakenham

Ken Pakenham, husband of former BJ State Desk reporter Pam McCarthy, passed away Sunday, December 29.

They were married almost 32 years, living in North Canton where Pam was a journalism and English teacher at Hoover High School for 33 years till her “retirement” in 2008 to become district manager for Arbonne International, a skin and health products company.

Ken taught English and grammar at the University of Akron.

Ken, from Belfast, Northern Ireland, and Pam were married in 1988 and have twins Michael and Kate.

Pam has another daughter, Los Angeles attorney Bethany Marvin Stevens, whose father is former BJ photographer Tom Marvin.

The note from Pam:

It is with great sadness that I mourn the loss of my dear husband, Ken Pakenham. He passed peacefully this morning, after spending last evening surrounded by family. Loved by his children and grandchildren, former co-workers and students, and many friends and relatives, Ken will be remembered for his intelligence, diligence, sense of humor, and most of all, his kind heart.

As many of you know, Alzheimer’s Disease took him from us too soon, but I cherish the time we had together: nearly 32 years of marriage, many visits to family abroad, enjoying raising our children. Following Ken’s diagnosis, we traveled while we could, visiting family and friends and American landmarks and foreign destinations. When we had to give up traveling, we continued to enjoy University of Akron soccer games and various area musical performances. When I could no longer care for him at home, we spent nearly every evening together at Arden Courts in Akron, where he resided until today.

I am grateful to our children for the love and support they provided.
I am grateful to the many friends and relatives who never failed to ask about Ken or help in any way they could.
I am grateful for the support of the Alzheimer’s Association and their many resources.
I am grateful for the wonderful staff at Arden Courts, who treated Ken as they would treat their own family members.

It has been a wonderful life with a wonderful man, and I will miss him to the end of my days. 
 

Ken’s obituary:

Dr. Kenneth John Pakenham, 73, passed away peacefully on December 29, 2019.

Born on February 27, 1946, in Belfast, Northern Ireland, he lived much of his adult life in North Canton, Ohio.

Ken was a scholar. Following graduation from the Royal Belfast Academical Institution, he attended Trinity College Dublin, where he majored in German and French, graduating in 1969 with a Bachelor of Arts degree. He then earned a Graduate Certificate in Education from the University of Leeds, England, in 1970, and taught English in Germany for several years.

He later earned an MA Degree in Applied Linguistics from the University of Essex, England, in 1974. He earned his doctorate at the University of Pittsburgh, graduating in 1980 with a PhD in Linguistics.

Ken joined the English Department at The University of Akron where he taught Linguistics and English as a Second Language and served as Director of the English Language Institute. He retired in 2010 as Associate Professor Emeritus.

He was the author of four ESL reading textbooks, including three editions of Making Connections: Skills and Strategies for Academic Reading. 

He attended St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Canton, where he served as a member of the Vestry and as an usher.

Ken is survived by his wife of 31 years, Pam McCarthy; daughter Bethany Marvin Stevens (Andy), of Los Angeles, CA; twins Michael (Courtney) of University Heights, and Kate, of Solana Beach, CA; brother Ralph (Patricia), of Fochabers, Scotland; sisters-in-law Kathy McCarthy and Karen Uber, of Cuyahoga Falls; grandchildren Jackson and Elia Stevens; and numerous cousins, nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his parents John and Kay Pakenham of Belfast, N.I.

The family would like to thank Arden Courts of Bath for their compassionate care of Ken. The family is also grateful to the Alzheimer's Association for their resources and support.

Calling hours are 4-7 p.m. Friday, Jan. 3, at the Arnold Funeral Home, 4817 Cleveland Avenue, Canton, OH 44709. 

A memorial service will be at 11 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 4, at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 515 48th St., NW, Canton, OH 44709, with guests received an hour before the service. 

Memorial contributions may be made by check to the Dr. Kenneth J. Pakenham Memorial Scholarship, and mailed to John Arnold, Arnold Funeral Homes, 4817 Cleveland Avenue, Canton, OH 44709.

 

Newseum is nomoreum

It’s a  tough world out there.

Newseum, dedicated to helping the public understand the importance of a free press, is going belly-up.

The Washington-based Newseum has been sold to Johns Hopkins University for $372.5 million.

Go to

https://apnews.com/f4df4b98d84489758586e308be7a5918?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_axiosam&stream=top&fbclid=IwAR2JZavhF2QvJ8L1_YdKIx-yNws_L1RsYSSoR86XJgi9u-sWh0Yn2ywEJcc

to read the sad news.

Video of Stuart Warner's solo performance at Akron's Tuba Christmas

I'm not sure if that was Stu farting or him playing the tuba, to be honest.

Go to

https://www.facebook.com/cheryl.c.manson/videos/10218270108296506/?hc_location=ufi

and enjoy the Mad Hatter's moment in the sun inside E.J. Thomas Hall on the University of Akron campus.

Christmas greetings

From the BJ

John Louis Bird passes away

John Louis Bird, a BJ reporter and editor in 1956-1966, passed away Sunday, December 15.

John Louis Bird

The University of Illinois graduate came to Akron from the Fort Wayne, Indiana News-Sentinel. He left the BJ for Goodyear PR. He left Goodyear for Edward Howard and Company, a Cleveland public relations firm. He retired from Howard in 1992 as executive vice president.

John’s obituary:

John Louis Bird, 91, of Akron OH died December 15, 2019, surrounded by his loving family. He was a former newspaperman and public relations executive.

 

Born in Fairmont MN, he was an Army veteran and a 1953 graduate of the University of Illinois. John came to Akron in 1956 from the Fort Wayne (IN) News-Sentinel to work for the Akron Beacon Journal as a reporter and editor for 10 years. He served briefly with Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. before spending 24 years with the Cleveland public relations firm, Edward Howard and Company. He retired in 1992 as an executive vice president.

 

He was a member of St. Hilary Church and a volunteer in its inner city public school tutoring program. He also was a longtime voluntary driver for the St. Sebastian Good Samaritan Hunger Program.

 

John liked to read and listen to jazz. His reading interests ranged from historical biographies to political analysis to Elmore Leonard crime fiction.

 

John was blessed with a large family to whom he was devoted. One Christmas he presented his children with a 60,000-word chronicle he had written of his life and times, replete with family anecdotes. He enjoyed drawing faces of his many grandchildren. Some were even recognizable, he claimed. In retirement he played golf frequently with infrequent success.

 

John liked to say he was given two shots at the brass ring, referring to his cherished marriages to the former Dorothy Rauner who died in 1991, and to the former Patricia Coyne, whom he married in 1993. He regarded his wives as his role models.

 

Survivors, in addition to his wife, Patricia; include 12 children, Thomas (Anita), Susan (Chet) Wolf, Amy (Steve) Mills, Theodore (Kim), James, Edward (Peggy), Rich (Tiffany), all of the Akron-Canton area, John (Sandra), Watertown NY, David (Jean), Tucson AZ; Julie (Kenneth) Andrus, Arvada CO, Mary (Trent) Ventura, Oshkosh WI, William (Rochelle), Roseville MN; 5 step-childen, Kathy Bergh, Kevin (Colleen) Coyne, Kenneth (Anne) Coyne of the Akron area, Thomas (Diana), Seattle WA, Karen- deceased (Mark) Volpe, Carmel IN; 45 combined grandchildren, 21 great-grandchildren; sister, Ellen (James) Sherman, Nash TX.

 

Preceded in death by brother, Thomas and sister, Mary Webb.

 

Calling hours will be Friday, Dec 20th, from 4-8 p.m. at St. Hilary Parish, 2750 W. Market, Fairlawn OH. Mass of Christian Burial will be at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Dec 21st at St. Hilary Parish. Burial to follow at Rose Hill Burial Park. In lieu of flowers, John requested that donations be made to St. Hilary's St. Vincent de Paul Society or St. Sebastian's Good Samaritan Program.

Family's obituary for Larry Williams

 

Excellent obituary (with a wife as a writer, no surprise) for Larry Williams, who drove the BJ to the Pulitzer for the Goldsmith/Goodyear calamity coverage.

Thank you to dear family, colleagues and friends for contributing.

 

Larry Williams, a newspaper editor who led journalists to three Pulitzer Prizes, died December 9 in Washington, D.C., following a brief Illness. He was 74.

Over a 42-year career that included stints at the Akron Beacon Journal, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Knight Ridder Washington bureau and the Baltimore Sun, he energized reporters with a contagious appetite for good stories and an instinct for unearthing every reporting angle.

“Larry was one of the pivotal editors in fashioning a lackluster Inquirer into what became one of the nation’s top five newspapers. He turned what had been a small undistinguished business news department into one of the nation's best,” said Gene Roberts, former editor of the Inquirer.

“But his influence on the paper went far beyond business news into major investigative reporting and the design and layout of the paper. His talent and drive were exceptional."

Along with an ability to push and elevate reporters to excellence (his nickname in one newsroom was the Pit Bull), Williams also was known for his kindness and humor, his intellect and uproarious laugh.

Born January 9, 1945, in Carlisle, Pa., to Edwin Eugene and Irene Woerz Williams, he displayed an ability to compete and excel at an early age. At 16, he became one of the youngest Boy Scouts at the time to earn Eagle Scout honors, the organization’s highest rank.

After graduating from Carlisle High School, he won a full-scholarship to Drexel University, studying industrial engineering in a co-op program that split study with work.

While there, he began his first flirtation with journalism as editor of the college newspaper.

And during an engineering stint in Charleston, W. Va., near the end of his studies, he took a night job at the Charleston Gazette newspaper.

He discovered a passion for journalism and continued in newspaper jobs while finishing his studies at Drexel. As a cub reporter for the Gloucester (N.J.) County Times, he wrote a front-page Thanksgiving Day poem and, in the thrill of his then-young career, covered the 1967 summit between President Lyndon Johnson and Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin in Glassboro, N.J.

 

Over the next few years, he abandoned his engineering plans and became a reporter and editor at the Camden (N.J.) Courier Post, winning state awards for exposing county government nepotism and coverage of a major race riot.

Williams joined the Philadelphia Inquirer in 1971, and over a 15-year tenure there wore many hats including labor writer, city editor and metro projects editor. But it was as the Inquirer’s business editor that he particularly excelled, helping direct coverage of the Three Mile Island nuclear power disaster, which won the 1980 Pulitzer Prize for spot news reporting.

On the heels of that story, he led an investigation by reporter Arthur Howe into massive deficiencies in IRS operations that caused the agency to make major changes in procedures and issue a public apology to U.S. taxpayers. It won the 1981 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting.

“He insisted that his staff work hard and smart, and he set the example every day,” said Gene Foreman, the Inquirer’s former managing editor. “While pursuing the news relentlessly, he always edited with a keen sense of fairness and compassion.”

In 1986, Williams accepted a job as managing editor of the Akron Beacon Journal and within weeks, the paper was onto one of the biggest stories in its history: Sir James Goldsmith’s attempted corporate raid on the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.

Williams enlisted more than 35 reporters, more than a dozen artists and photographers and countless editors to cover every angle -- from the offices on Wall Street to the sweeper at the Goodyear barbershop.

He dispatched the reporters beyond Akron to New York and Washington. In the end, after Goldsmith was sent packing, leaving behind substantial wreckage to Goodyear, Williams selected a small team to produce a 20,000-word narrative reconstruction of what had transpired and its impact. They wrote it in five days during Thanksgiving week.

In his unpublished memoir, the Beacon Journal’s late editor, Dale Allen, described the scene when he walked into the newsroom Thanksgiving morning to check on the story’s progress.

“The first person I saw was Larry Williams, his feet propped up on a desk in the middle of the newsroom, sound asleep, a file folder crammed with notes strewn across his lap. He had been at the paper throughout the previous night. For Larry, that was probably a very exciting way to spend Thanksgiving.”

The writers sent Williams their story at 4 a.m. the next day, thinking they were almost done. Not so.

“I’d never experienced the kind of deep dive into a story Larry Williams put us through for the next 20 hours,” recalls Stuart Warner, the lead writer on the project, who went on to become editor of Pulitzer-winning projects himself. “He questioned every assertion, wanted more information for everything … . It was a clinic in professional editing.

"I learned from Larry the difference between Knight Ridder and most other newspaper organizations: With most newspapers, good enough was good enough; with Knight Ridder, good enough was never good enough.”

Williams moved on to a position as news editor of the Knight Ridder Washington bureau, leading coverage of the nation’s capital for the newspaper chain’s more than 30 publications.

Rosemary Goudreau O’Hara, now editorial page editor of the South Florida Sun Sentinel, was an editor in the bureau, which included Knight Ridder stars as well as less experienced correspondents from around the country.

“He didn’t just pay attention to the veteran national reporters, covering the day’s big stories,” O’Hara said. “He sweated bullets with the young regional reporters who needed help finding the right words, the right sources and the right documents. He thought nothing of rolling up his crew-neck sweater sleeves and staying to turn out the lights.

“He could make me laugh, make me think and make me better than I thought I could be. So many of us who rotated through the Knight Ridder Washington Bureau found ourselves in this great man’s hearty embrace.”

Williams later served as Washington bureau chief for the Detroit News, and in 2002 moved to Baltimore, working at the Baltimore Sun in various capacities including business editor, Ideas editor, and serving on the paper’s editorial board.

A voracious reader, Williams amassed a library of 3,000 volumes, divvied up between an apartment in Washington and an 1865 farmhouse on Deer Isle, Maine, that he shared with his wife, Marcia Myers, a fellow journalist.

“He loved books and always had a tall stack of the latest titles,” said Angie Cannon, a former Knight Ridder White House correspondent and close friend for more than 25 years.

His book choices were as diverse as his many interests, which included photography, history, politics, gardening and racing sailboats. He was adept at origami and woodcut prints, and had an affection for building stone walls, including one for the garden club in his beloved Dickeyville neighborhood in Baltimore.

“He loved adventures – whether sailing in Maine, exploring quaint towns on Maryland’s Eastern Shore or hunting for morel mushrooms in a D.C. park,” said Cannon. “And he loved dogs.”

Jay Hancock, a former Baltimore Sun reporter who worked closely with Williams, described him as having “an engineer's brain and a poet's heart, which made him curious about everything. He was almost as interested in trying the dulcimer as he was in reading about urban planning or the newest business scam. He delighted -- and that is the right word -- in exposing crooks, incompetents and hypocrites.”

Williams retired from the Sun in 2009 and the next year followed his wife to London, where she’d taken a job. The city perfectly suited his love of history and culture, and he spent many days feeding his love of books at a desk he commandeered in a corner of the British Library.

 They returned to Washington in 2014.

In addition to his wife of 29 years, Williams is survived by daughters Christy Winslow (Bill), of Northampton, Mass., and Sarah Williams, of Boston; grandson Kai Winslow; sister Melinda Boomershine (David) of Glenwood, Md., and brother Stephen Williams of Hobe Sound, Fla.; sisters-in-law Anita Hickinbotham and Laurie Beech, along with 12 nieces and nephews and his beloved dog, Scout. He also is survived by Terrie Lilly, his first wife and the mother of his daughters.

Burial at Mt. Zion Cemetery in Boiling Springs, Pa., will be private. A celebration of Williams’ life is being planned in Washington for early next year. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made in his name to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 330 7th Avenue, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10001. info@cpj.org

4 revealing spotlights on Larry Williams

Former BJ super writing coach Stuart Warner had such an excellent post about the late Larry Williams, who was primarily responsible for the 1987 BJ Pulitzer for coverage of the Goldsmith/Goodyear crisis, that I will just put it here, verbatim:

Larry Williams worked in Akron for only about three years, so many of you may not have worked with him, but his legacy lives on, even though it may have taken some of us longer to appreciate what he left us. I know I never properly thanked him for the lessons learned. Here's a brief recounting of what he did to win us a Pulitzer in 1987:

From the day in October 1986 that Business Editor Doug Oplinger discovered that Goodyear was in play, until the day in November that Sir James Goldsmith walked away with $94 million of the company’s money Larry Williams pushed us to cover the story like we were the Wall Street Journal, not the Beacon Journal.

More than 35 reporters, more than a dozen artists and photographers and countless editors told every aspect of the takeover attempt, from the financiers at Merrill Lynch to the sweeper at the company’s barbershop. We reported from New York, Washington, Columbus and the neighborhoods of Akron as well as city hall.

And when that was done, we ratcheted up the reporting another notch. Larry assembled a team of Rick Reiff, Larry Pantages, Melissa Johnson and me, along with Doug, John Greenman and himself to produce a 20,000-word reconstructive narrative on what had just happened to our community. In five days. During Thanksgiving Week.

I was to be the lead writer. Needless to say we worked through the nights, into the early mornings.

“I remember walking into the news room at mid-morning on Thanksgiving Day to check on the story’s progress,” Editor Dale Allen recalled in his unpublished memoir. “The first person I saw was Larry Williams, his feet propped up on a desk in the middle of the newsroom, sound asleep, a file folder crammed with notes strewn across his lap. He had been at the paper throughout the previous night. For Larry, that was probably a very exciting way to spend Thanksgiving.”

Larry did give us two hours off in the afternoon to have dinner with our families. I remember swallowing some turkey and mashed potatoes with my wife and our 2-year-old, who most people knew as Baby Corner. Then I must have crashed for an hour- long nap. Once again I was refreshed and back in the office by 5 p.m.

We continued to write until 4 o’clock Friday morning, completing all 11 chapters of the draft.

All that was left was the final edit. Piece of cake, I assumed, even though I hadn’t had any cake or pie on the holiday. I was used to my copy sailing through the desk. How long could this take? Three or four more hours and we’d be done, I thought.

I’d never experienced the kind of deep dive into a story Larry Williams put us through for the next 20 hours. He questioned every assertion, wanted more information for every . . . It was a clinic in professional editing.

There were no shortcuts, even as we worked past dawn on Saturday morning. Anyway, Larry was not about to skip over a single word. We started with page one, line one, and worked our way through the draft.

As we approached the finish, I realized we had no ending. Writers struggle over their lead, but often forget the significance of a great finish. I had nothing.

Then one of my colleagues noted that Goldsmith had never been to Akron through the ordeal.

And there was our walk-off.

“Left behind was testimony to the enormous power of Goldsmith’s brand of capitalism. He had terrorized Akron without once stepping foot in the city.”

Akron had learned a lesson about finance; I had learned a lesson about the value of deep editing a major project, one that I didn’t fully appreciate until years later.

RIP, Larry Williams. Thanks for pushing us to be our best.

 

Former BJ and current PD pop culture critic Mark Dawidziak also had a revealing comment about Larry Williams:

Mark Dawidziak I spent most of the summer of 1988 in Los Angeles, thanks to Larry. When that year's devastating Writers Guild of America strike shut down the TV and movie industry for several months, Larry decided we should take the lead on this ongoing story for the Knight-Ridder group. That was Larry. Why not us?

Former BJ chief artist Art Krummel also posted:

·         Larry knew what he wanted as far as graphics, too. He held a meeting with me and Bill Hunter and ?? and told me he wanted an illustrated sig for every chapter in the narrative! I whined "that's 20(?) illustrations Larry!" he just shrugged and said OK.

ASo Balogh was busy for an intense couple days. I was busy doing design and was working late along with Dennis. I left first and headed home. I had been working so intensely that I never took time to get gas so I ran out right near the x-way entrance. Luckily Dennis came by shortly behind me and picked me up. We drove up to a gas station across from Art's Place and I bought a can, got some gas and we drove back to Art's and had a few.

·      

·         There was a big debate about the cover, too. I wanted the photo of Goldsmith with the arrogant look sucking on his glasses. Someone else wanted a shot of the blimp hanger with a big crowd of Akronites showing solidarity with Goodyear. My argument won and the arrogant SOB photo ran. Dale Allen made the call. The Blimp shot was the back cover.

 

A Bowling Green State University article on the 1987 Pulitzer also shed light on Larry Williams:

SERIES CHRONICLED ATTEMPTED GOODYEAR TAKEOVER

 

When Akron, Ohio’s economic stability was threatened, the staff at the Akron Beacon Journal made sure to thoroughly cover the events of the “The Goodyear War,” earning them the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for General News Reporting.

The award winning article, “The Goodyear War,” covered Sir James Michael Goldsmith’s attempts at taking over the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. in Akron.

Goodyear was the source of Akron’s economic life, as it was the largest employer for the city at the time. Many feared the takeover of Goodyear would result in an economic blow to the community.

 

Stuart Warner, the lead writer of “The Goodyear War,” recollected the events in a 25th anniversary piece.

 

“It was an emotional time for Akron and Northeast Ohio, facing the prospect of a foreigner taking over the Goodyear blimp and the rest of the nation’s 34th-largest company,” Warner wrote in an article for Inside Business in 2011.

 

The story came about when Doug Oplinger, the business editor of the Akron Beacon Journal, was reading stories about the stock market and noticed rumors of a Goodyear takeover.

 

“In Akron, just about everybody had a relationship with a tire company. We were the tire capital of the world. We had four major companies here, and Goodyear, by far, was the largest employer,” he said. “It was tens of thousands of people who had some direct connection to the company.”

 

The staff collected five to six paragraphs of information about the takeover rumors, and Oplinger had it put on the front page of the Beacon Journal the following afternoon.

 

News about the potential takeover was quiet for over a week, but Goodyear’s stock activity saw prices going up. Eventually, the rumors were confirmed and the staff at the Beacon Journal began their coverage.

 

“We put out three editions a day, and we were changing the story and the headline from edition to edition,” Oplinger said.

 

“Every two hours we were getting new information and changing the story dramatically.”

 

When the Akron Beacon Journal’s truck would pull up to Goodyear’s building in Akron, people would flock from the building to buy newspapers.

 

“You couldn’t report it fast enough,” said Oplinger.

200 more Gannett jobs slashed

Gannett, the owner of USA Today, slashed more than 200 jobs on Thursday in its first big downsizing since its takeover by New Media Investment Group’s GateHouse Media last month.

At least 20% of the cuts hit newsrooms.

New Media aka GateHouse Media took over Gannett, but let Gannett keep its name despite the merger.

The tally was provided by a crowd-sourced spreadsheet on media website Poynter.org, which counted 204 cuts by the end of Friday across 46 daily papers, including the elimination of 41 newsroom jobs.

The Indianapolis Star lost 29 jobs, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel 11 and the Louisville Courier-Journal 9.

Go to

https://nypost.com/2019/12/06/usa-today-owner-gannett-guts-several-newsrooms-as-gatehouse-takeover-begins/?utm_source=facebook_sitebuttons&utm_medium=site+buttons&utm_campaign=site+buttons&fbclid=IwAR2_RjQbNjbJFi61u9a5XinuT0nK_eo1rtgKFKnRldprf6BKHe1VWne_qaw

to read the article.

Larry Williams, the BJ managing editor who cracked the whip on retired BJ managing editor Doug Oplinger when Doug was business editor that led to the 1987 BJ Pulitzer Prize over coverage of Sir James Goldsmith’s greenmail attack on Goodyear, passed away Monday.

His death was reported by his wife, Marcia Myers. When the Baltimore Sun laid off one-fourth its staff in 2009 because it was owned by the bankrupt Tribune Company, Larry was among those jettisoned. Marcia was deputy managing editor and survived, but was demoted. She is from Mansfield and her career stops included Scripps News and Bloomberg News in London.

Facebook photos I found showed Larry Williams with Sarah Williams.

Marcia’s Facebook post:

“Dear friends - So very, very sorry to share the news of Larry’s passing today in Washington following a short illness. He brought such sparkle and humor and adventure to our lives, and with such a big, big heart.

“He could be delightfully ornery. He kicked ass, took names and drove us to excel. But he also was a surprise romantic who loved poetry and Jane Austen, who could weave and create origami. Yes! He was dear and sweet, quirky and brilliant.

“He could race a sailboat to its limits and appreciate a good cheeseburger...or two. And he certainly knew how to laugh. There will never be another Larry Williams. We are devastated.”