Ann & Ott Gangl on wedding day, skiing all over the world, and birthday flowers

Ann Gangl spending birthday in hospital

Ann Gangl, retired BJ photograph Ott Gangl’s wife, is spending her July 19^th birthday in the hospital.

Ott explains:

“Ann has to celebrate her birthday in the hospital this time but she should be coming home in a day or two. Rapid heartbeat, not virus related. No dinner with family this time but it will get better eventually.”

 

Ott once told me the story of how he met Ann:

 

“John, I came over on the same converted liberty boat from Germany as her cousin on April 20, 1952.

 

“So while visiting I was introduced to the family with three young and beautiful daughters. I dated the older one for a while and then went to the middle one, Ann, to whom I got enamored while sitting in their living room waiting for Mary to fiddle with her makeup.

 

“After Mary dumped me I didn't miss a beat to date Ann. We got engaged in 1954 and a year later we got married.”

 

Ann is 87. But Ann and Ott have the hearts and vigor of 67-year-olds! Or younger!

 

She’ll bounce back. Gangls always do.

 

Thank-you from Chasm, 73

John, please post on the blog my thanks to all those who had congrats for me achieving 73. I know I’m far behind you and certainly hope to make it there. I have longevity genes in my family, with several making it into their early 90s. Feel good, look good (if I do say so) and we march on one day at a time.
Chuck Montague

Chasm took a BJ buyout after 38 years at Ol’ Blue Walls, in 2008, on the same day as photographer Lew Stamp and line-drawer Ted Schneider, and has been traveling across the Big Pond from time to time since then. He’s also quite familiar with Alaska, just like retired photographer Don Roese.

He survived a 2012 heart attack, too. And was a referee for children’s soccer for years and years.

Chasm has two sons and two grandchildren.

 

Cheryl double-dips in celebrations

Cheryl Scott Sheinin is celebrating her 36^th wedding anniversary to Neil Sheinin – and her birthday on the same day, today, Sept. 29.

Cheryl retired from the BJ after 45 years in the Finance Department. Neil was in the Packaging Department until his 2012 “retirement,” when he began working part-time in the same department.

Cheryl is a Garfield High graduate.

Neil is a baseball aficionado. He threw out the first pitch at a 2012 Akron Aeros baseball game (they are the RubberDucks now, but still play minor league ball in Canal Park). In two decades he made his way to 350 baseball stadia, mostly in minor league parks.

Former BJ assistant managing editor, Features Dept. cats-herder, design editor and public editor Mike Needs is an interpretive specialist with the U.S. Forestry Service in Hermit Valley of St. Stanislaus National Forest. The North Fork Mikelumne River is nearby. So is Mosquito Lakes.

Mike foraged into his forestry fascination almost as soon as he left Ol’ Blue. He loves portraying author/humorist Bret Harte in the Lake Alphine Theatre of St. Stash forest near Sonora, California.

Said Mike, who began his new career at age 58: "It's a great job. I love it out here."

Kathy Fraze, BJ copy desk chief for about four decades till her 2012 retirement, has written books based on “letters” from her dog to “Pops” -- Mike Needs, in care of the U.S. Forestry Service.

Mike is an Ohio State and St. Joseph High School graduate from Cleveland who still lives in Akron when he’s not under the western skies.

As for J. Curt Brown, he used his 1971-74 BJ labor beat to wrangle a job with the United Rubber Workers Union as a PR flak, which morphed into a U.S. Steelworkers position when USW swallowed URW.

He also plays a pretty mean church organ, although he retired as music director and organist/choirmaster at New Life Episcopal Church in Uniontown.

Curt teaches piano and organ at his Highland Square home. He also does organ recitals. His mother and two sisters also played the piano.

He’s a Portage Lakes guy (Coventry High grad). 

Curt was city editor of the Charleston Gazette, West Virginia's largest newspaper, when the Marshall University plane carrying the football team, staff and supporters crashed into the hillside as it approached the runway in 1970 on its way back to Huntington after a loss to East Carolina, killing all 75 on board.

Twenty six sports teams have died in plane crashes. The most famous was Uruguay's 1972 rugby team, subject of the "Alive" movie. 

Other sports team crashes included Evansville, Indian men's basketball (29 died) in 1977, Turin, Italy Athletic Club (23) in 1949, Cal Tech football team (22) in 1960, USA figure skating team (25) in 1961, Lima, Peru soccer team (43) in 1987, Zambia national soccer (30) in 1993 and Yugoslavia ice hockey (44) in 2011.

Happy birthday to Stuart & Ott !!!

Happy birthday today to Stuart Warner, one-time hat-happy columnist for the BJ who must be wearing cowboy hats now since he works for the Arizona Republic, along with his wife, Debbie VanTassel, another who left the BJ for the PD and then for the West.

Stuart donned a hat in his video to show you how to make a mint julep. As a Kentucky boy, Stuart figures he has to be the expert. Just check out his Facebook page. Slurp!

And on Monday, May, wish retired BJ photographer a happy birthday. You know Ott: The man who’s taken a million pictures, at least.