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Monday, March 27, 2023

KNIGHT FOUNDATION CEO ALBERTO IBARGUEN RETIRES

 

                                   Alberto Ibarguen, wife Susana

Legendary Knight Foundation CEO Ibarguen retires

Alberto Ibargüen, president and CEO of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation for 18 years, is retiring at the age of 79.

Ibargüen, who was publisher of the Miami Herald and el Nuevo Herald before agreeing to oversee the multibillion-dollar endowment of the Knight Foundation.

In 2021 his wife for 53 years, Susana Ibargüen, a civic leader and a board president at Pérez Art Museum Miami, passed away after a two-year battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a neurological disorder known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

 

Under Ibargüen’s leadership, the Knight Foundation poured $2.3 billion into media, tech development and arts and community-building organizations in states where the Knights had newspapers.

the Knight Foundation operates in Akron; Miami; Charlotte, North Carolina; Detroit; Macon, Georgia; Philadelphia; San Jose, California; and St. Paul, Minnesota.

Ibargüen was a Peace Corps volunteer in Venezuela, too.

“I think we did OK,” Ibargüen said.

Indeed!

Ibargüen was Puerto Rican-born, New York-reared, and educated at Wesleyan University and the University of Pennsylvania Law School.


Saturday, March 25, 2023

JIM DETTLING'S FAMOUS BROTHER PASSES AWAY

 

Jim Dettling’s brother

Passes away

 

Brother of Jim Dettling, the late delightful BJ co-worker, passed away.

Jim Dettling and Bill Bierman added joy to my 26 BJ years.

Obituary for Jim’s brother:

Dr. John J. Dettling, age 94, of Akron, Ohio, passed away peacefully at home, on March 22, 2023, with his family by his side.

John was born in Akron and was a lifetime resident of the area. He was an Obstetrician and Gynecologist. He graduated from the University of Notre Dame and received his Medical Degree from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. He interned at St. Vincent Hospital in New York City. Following his internship, he completed a four year Residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Downstate Medical Center and King's County Hospital in New York. The following year he received a Fellowship in Gynecological Oncology at Downstate Medical Center and King's County Hospital from the American Cancer Society. He was a diplomat of the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology. He was a Captain in the United States Air Force, serving in Japan for two years.

John was the past Chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and member of the Executive Committee at St. Thomas Hospital, in Akron. He later was the Chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Akron City Hospital and a member of its Executive Committee and Finance Committee. He was also past Chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Lakewood Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio. He was an Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Northeast Ohio Medical University.

John was past President of the Akron OB-GYN Society, past President of the American Cancer Society, past President of the Ohio Ballet, and past member of the Board of Trustees of the Akron Symphony Orchestra.

Following retirement from private practice in 1992, John worked for the Fairview Hospital System in Cleveland and at the Cleveland Clinic Health System. He retired from the Cleveland Clinic in 2003. He was a former member of the Summit County Medical Society and Bluecoats.

He was a past member of Portage Country Club and Catawba Island Club, where he was a Past Commodore. He was an avid boater on the Great Lakes for 25 years and was a member of the International Order of the Blue Gavel. He loved to ski and had a home in Vail, Colorado for 30 years. He was a member of St. Sebastian Church and later St. Victor Church.

John was preceded in death by his parents, John Alfred Dettling, Jr. and Hazel Diener Dettling, sister, Joan Botdorf, brother, Thomas Dettling, and brother, James Dettling.

Married to the former Marjorie Beringer for 62 years, he was the father of five children: son John C. ( Dr. Jacqueline) of Arlington, Virginia, daughter Rosemary of Chevy Chase, Maryland, daughter Karen Stultz (John) of Reston, Virginia, daughter Gail Morrison (David) of Cleveland, and son Scott (Karrie) of Akron and 12 grandchildren.

The family would like to express our most heartfelt thank you to the SummaCare Hospice care staff, who treated John with kindness, respect, and compassion.

There will be no calling hours. A graveside service will be held at Holy Cross Cemetery for the immediate family only. A Memorial Mass will be held on April 14, at 11 a.m. at St. Victor Church, 3435 Everett Road. Should friends desire, memorials may be made to the Department of Obstetrics, Summa Health System, 525 E. Market St., P.O. Box 2090, Akron, Ohio 44309 or to St. Victor Parish Foundation, 3435 Everett Road, Richfield, Ohio 44286.

Arrangements are being handled by the Hummel Funeral Home.

 

Tuesday, March 21, 2023

CHERYL SCOTT SHEININ HURT AGAIN IN FALL .... 'WEAK LEGS'

 




Cheryl Scott Sheinin

Hurt in fall

Blame it on all that star bowling!

BJ Finance retiree (after 45 years) Cheryl Scott Sheinin, who blames her “weak legs,” fell again “and my neighbor had to come over to help (husband) Neil get me up. We owe him big time.

“Not hurt, just my pride.”

Garfield High graduate Cheryl and Neil both are bowling stars. Neil had a high handicap for a 3-game series with 685. Cheryl had high series raw score of 463!

 

Neil bowled Cheryl over the first time she saw him. I’ll let Cheryl tell the story:

“We met at the Beacon. I worked the Public Service counter when it was on the 2nd floor. This handsome guy got off the elevator from the 3rd floor and came up to me to buy stamps. I looked at him, leaned over to open the drawer to get the stamps and fell off the stool. Great first impression.

“I found he was a copy runner in editorial and the chase was on."

“He left the BJ to work in Pennsylvania for Brunswick Bowling for a couple of years. When he returned to Akron he worked at Fairlawn Lanes and that is where our BJ ladies bowling team bowled.

“We caught up again there and the dating began. We got married in 1979.”

The math says that’s 44 years!

 

They did more than park themselves together in bowling alleys.

Neil and Cheryl have visited national parks like Devil’s Tower in Wyoming, Mount Rushmore in South Dakota (with the 4 Presidents), Crazy Horse Memorial in South Dakota, Devils Tower in Wyoming and Teddy Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota.

 

Cheryl’s brother, Don Scott, passed away in 2020. Their parents were Louise and Everett Scott. Don was a Goodyear supervisor for 35 years. During the 1950s when he was in the Army he got a tank injury that caused continuous back problems, but not enough to keep him from golfing, bowling and fishing.

 

Cheryl is a remarkably constant friend to have, too.

When former BJ security guard Anna Nitz passed away, Cheryl was in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina in 2012 for the spreading of Anna’s ashes into the Atlantic Ocean area Anna loved so much.

Anna’s husband, Bill Nitz, was there. Bill’s cousin Albert Nitz was Bill’s chaffeur for the seaside ceremony. Bill passed away in 2019.

Anna began with the Pinkertons for 42 years, starting in 1968, and migrated to spending much of her life greeting visitors to 44 E. Exchange Street. For those not in the dinosaur age that was where the BJ building was before moving into an former rubber shop 7th floor on Main Street in Akron. 

Sunday, March 12, 2023

GANNETT KING OF THE GOUGE-IT NEWSPAPER OWNERS!!!!

 From Gannett

To dammit!!!

In FOUR years Gannett reduced from 27,600 employees to 11,200 employees.

Politicians, major corporations and the weathiest Americans must be giddy that 16,400 watchdogs of democracy are gone!

Gannett is not slashing employees. It also is torching newspaper throughout America. In 2019 Gannett owned 261 daily and 302 weekly newspapers. By the end of 2022 Gannett had 217 daily and 175 weekly newspapers.

Digital newspapers are far less profitable than printed versions people can hold in their hands.

 

Detroit Free Press, which lured BJ management to it decades ago because of its reputation, went from 217,471 circulation in 2018 to 103,606 in 2022 – a 52.4% drop!

Arizona Republic (74.7%), Indianapolis Star (74.5%) and Louisville Courier-Journal (74%), one bluebloods of journalism, makes the Free Press plunge look anemic by comparison.

Even Gannett’s USA Today went from 579,692 paid subscriptions in 2018 to 134,629 in 2022.

Wonder what the future holds for the BJ, a Gannett newspaper that began in 1897 with a merger of the Summit Beacon, born in 1839, and the Akron Evening Journal, founded in 1896.

Charles Landon Knight bought the BJ. John S. Knight, best newspaper owner in American history, took over with his father passed away in 1933 in the throes of great debt and the Great Depression and built it into the Knight Newspapers empire of more than 30 newspapers.

It's downhill for local newspapers today with no brakes and no sympathy for thousands tossed into the streets without a job.