ESTATE SALE HELD FOR CRAIG WILSON AND WIFE ELIZABETH IN BARBERTON

 

Estate sale for Craig Wilson, wife Elizabeth

 

There was an estate sale in Barberton of former BJ Action Line chief Craig Wilson’s and wife Elizabeth Wilson’s things on Saturday and Sunday, Jan. 28.

 

Craig’s behavior ruffled some feathers at the BJ but the Mensa member for people with high IQs was amazing at training reporters and finding answers to readers’ inquiries.

 

Betsy Lammerding went from Craig’s Action Line to the BJ Features desk when I was Television Editor with a desk next to the amazing Joan Rice, a fashion model in looks and my best friend for a shoulder to complain on about management stupidity, as I saw it, from time to time. 

Jane Snow, Nancy Peacock, Betsy Lammerding, Charlene Nevada, Connie Bloom, Jim Dettling and Mickey Porter spent time in Action Lion under Craig's tutelage.

There’s a luminaria at Barberton’s Lake Anna dedicated to Craig, who passed away in 2007. Craig’s first wife, Ella Mae Leonard, who he met through a Lonely Hearts Club, passed away in 1992. Elizabeth was Craig’s second wife. When Craig passed she wrote:

 

“Maybe he stepped on your toes (at the BJ) but I can assure you Craig Wilson is the finest man I have ever met. He had a pure heart and genuine concern for his fellow man and his surroundings.” 

 

The late Connie Bloom, a reporter on the Features Desk when I was TV editor, wrote Craig’s obituary. 

 

The late assistant State Desk editor Harry Liggett, who chose me to inherit this blog Harry created, posted on here about Craig:

“He was probably best known as editor of the old Action Line, but his true craft was referencing,” with tons of envelopes filled with information about a person.

Charlene Nevada, trained by Craig in Action Line before becoming a Metro Desk reporter, told this tale:

“Once (publisher) Ben Maidenburg found an Action Line item in Knight’s Detroit newspaper and told Craig to use it. It had to do with Edgar Allan Poe getting kicked out of military school. Craig just smiled at Maidenburg and explained that Jim Dettling (another Craig trainee) had written that item first and the Free Press stole it from the Beacon.”

DAWIDZIAK UP FOR ANOTHER AWARD FOR HIS BOOK ON EDGAR ALLAN POE

 

                          MARK DAWIDZIAK WITH PHOTO OF EDGAR ALLAN POE IN BACKGROUND

Dawidziak nominated for Edgar Award

 

 

Mark Dawidziak, BJ entertainment critic under my “leadership” when I was Television Editor on the BJ Features desk,

has been nominated for an Edgar Award by the Mystery Writers of America for his book, “A Mystery of Mysteries: The Death and Life of Edgar Allan Poe." Published by Macmillan Publishing – St. Martin’s Press.

 

Mark posted:

 

“Honored and a bit awed to be in the company of some terrific writers in the Best Biographical/Critical category”

 

Mark did some of his most eloquent writing in his email to me after My Mona Lisa, my wife and Cinderella (West Virginia) treasure, passed away in 2014”

 

“My point is the one you make so eloquently, and

that's to cherish the people you love for every second that you have

them.

 

“It's not a long ride for any of us, really, but I do know how lucky I am to have had a Sara in my life, just as I know how much you cherish Monia's presence in yours.

 

“Monia is indeed one remarkable woman. She is a mighty soul magnified

by the love of her husband, children and grandchildren.

 

“And I can't say I'm at all surprised by your praise of LaQuita (my daughter, an amazing teacher in Aurora Ohio schools till she retired). She is an Olesky, after all, part you and part Monia -- a superior being if

there ever was one.”

 

If I were choosing the Edgar Award winner it would be Mark – and my Mona Lisa awaiting me under a grave marker with both our names on it – would agree wholeheartedly with me.

 

Mark by word. Whether it’s Poe, Mark Twain, Charles Dickens our Dawidziak is top of the mark.

 

Mark also authored a book about “Columbo” with its star, Peter Falk, who phoned the BJ TV desk once when Mark was away, seeking to talk to Mark.

 

I told Falk that Mark was out of the office and that I would give him the message. Before Falk hung up, I said: “One more thing,” which of course is the besheveled dressed Columbo’s line in every episode before he nails the criminal.

 

Falk laughed heartily, even though’s he heard it a zillion times. Just proved again that he’s a good actor.

CATHY STRONG WINS SEASON BOWLING AWARD IN NEW ZEALAND

 

                  CATHY STRONG, MOST PROLIFIC BOWLER

Cathy Strong, BJ to Kiwi, scores a strike!

 

Former BJ State Desk reporter Cathy Strong is bowling them over in New Zealand. Well, at least in Wellington.

 

She won the Seatoun Bowling Club award for Most Prolific Player this season.

 

Cathy has been on the faculty of Zayed University in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Massey University in Wellington, oldest journalism school in Kiwi Kountry.

 

HERTZ FAMILY ENJOYS MONTH-LONG REUNION IN OHIO

 

             DAVE AND BETH ON WEDDING ANNIVERSARY AND ON THEIR WEDDING DAY

Month-long reunion for Hertz family 

Former BJ page layout and design editor and Copley School Board member Beth Thomas Hertz and husband and BJ night Metro editor, deputy business editor, region editor, business editor, metro editor, enterprise editor and then business editor again for about two decades enjoyed a month-long visit from daughter Alyssa Hertz.

They took Alyssa to the airport for a flight to Tampa where she will spend a few weeks at Norwegian headquarters before cruising in the Caribbean and, all summer, cruising Iceland, Norway, Belgium, Holland and England.

Beth reports: “Son Joshua went back to college so we are empty nesters again!”

I know the feeling. I’ve been fortunate in that only 2 of my grandchildren live outside Ohio, where I’ve lived for nearly 70 years – Dr. Dylan in Wisconsin and MonnieLynn in the Carolina. 3 children, 5 grandchildren, 5 of 7 great-grandchldren are within 30 miles of my Tallmadge home.

Among adults with at least one living parent or adult child, 74.8% have their nearest parent or adult child within 30 miles, and 35.5% hav all parents and adult children living that close. 

Beth was at the BJ in 1991-1995, then free-lance writer and managing editor of the Cleveland Clinic’s Communications Department at CC’s Akron General Hospital.

After the BJ and another Knight newspaper in Boca Raton, Florida, Dave became media relations vice president for Cleveland’s Dix & Eaton and, in 2018, became Cleveland Jewish Publication Company board chairman.

Cleveland Jewish News is a weekly created in 1964 that became Cleveland Jewish Publication Company in Beachwood.

 

Beth and Dave were involved in the 1994 BJ Pulitzer for its Question of Color series. Beth Angela Thomas and David Ralph Hertz were married in 1993 in the Akron Civic Theater before a large BJ contingent.

Beth was a “cute redhead copy editor,” Dave recalled, when they met at the BJ and began their office romance and their marriage.

They have two children, Alyssa Sandra Hertz and Joshua Daniel Hertz, who attended Copley-Fairlawn schools.

JOHN DERF BACKDERF ESCAPES JURY DUTY AGAIN . . . THANKS TO ATTENDING HIGH SCHOOL WITH JEFFREY DAHMER!!!

 

                       JOHN DERF BACKDERF

Surefire way to escape jury duty

 

Being Jeffrey Dahmer’s high school friend has its benefits.

 

It gets John Derf Backderf excused when he’s called and they find out. In 2010 and again in 2024.

 

Derf authored “My Friend Dahmer,” an international best-seller. His comic strip “The City” appeared in alternative newspapers (1990-2014).

 

He attended Eastview Junior High and Revere High School, where one of his classmates was future serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. He attended and dropped out of the Art Institute of Pittsburgh.

He began as a political cartoonist for the Ohio State Lantern, then professionally at The Evening Times, the evening counterpart of The Palm Beach Post, in West Palm Beach, Florida. He worked as a staff cartoonist at the Cleveland Plain Dealer in the late 80s. In the mid-1990s Backderf was an artist at the BJ.

In 2006 he won the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for cartooning.

 

Derf, whose cartoons gain national attention, lives in Cleveland, grew up in Richfield, began life in 1959.

 

Derf once gave gave former BJ reporter Sheryl Harris a memorable Christmas present: the first issue of Ms. Magazine!

MIZELL'S STEWART LATEST JOURNALISM CAROUSEL RIDE: KSU PROFESSIONAL-IN-RESIDENCE

 

                   MIZELL LANDS ANOTHER BIG ROLE

Busy Mizell’s latest: KSU professional-in-residence

Former BJ managing editor Mizell Stewart III has been named Kent State’s School of Media and Journalism professional-in-residence.

Previously, he was the Vice President of News Performance, Talent & Partnerships for Gannett and the USA TODAY Network.

Since his arrival in September, Stewart has begun engaging as a “consultant” to Student Media. Beginning in Spring 2024, Stewart will teach two classes, Media Law and Media Enterprise, within the School of Media and Journalism.

A four-time Pulitzer Prize juror, Stewart helped lead the team at The Sun Herald in Biloxi, Miss. that won the 2006 Pulitzer Gold Medal in Public Service for its coverage of Hurricane Katrina. Bowling Green graduate Stewart, later on the Ohio university’s Board of Trustees, also is on the boards of the National Trust for Local News, Public Agenda, the National Press Club Journalism Institute and Journalism Funding Partners and is a member of advisory boards for PBS Frontline and Report for America.

CATCHING UP WITH MARK DAWIDZIAK, DAVID BIANCULLI, DON ROSENBERG, JANIS FROELICH, BILL O'CONNOR, BOB SPRINGER, BOB DYER & MIKE WILLIAMS

 

                        MARK DAWIDZIAK, RICH HELDENFELS, DAVID BIANCULLI, DON ROSENBERG & JANE SNOW AT LONG-AGO BJ GATHERING AT PRIMO'S DELI ON VERNON ODOM BOULEVARD IN AKRON IN 2012

Mark Dawidziak reunion with David Bianculli and Don Rosenberg

 

Plus news about Janis Froelich, Mike Williams, Bob Springer & Bill O’Connor

 

Former BJ occupants at 44 E. Exchange Street are having a reunion in New Jersey.

 

Mark Dawidziak, my TV critic when I was Television Editor at the BJ, who has Edgar Allan Poe talks scheduled in the Philadelphia-Baltimore area, is spending a few days with David Bianculli, also my TV critic during my Television Editor years at Ol’ Blue Walls, and Don Rosenberg, classical music critic at the BJ.

 

Mark’s response to my email inviting him to the 6:30 p.m. Thursday, October 19 monthly BJ Gathering at the Missing Falls Brewery, 540 S. Main Street, Akron:

 

“Writing this from David’s home in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, outside of Philadelphia. Tonight we head for the Abingdon library north of Baltimore. Tomorrow, Baltimore. Give everyone my best. I’ll do my best to make next month’s gathering.”

 

Janis Froelich, in the BJ Features Department at one time, sends her regrets from sunny Florida:

 

“Since colder weather is coming, I probably won't be in Ohio anytime soon. But I do have a high school reunion in August 2024 (don't ask what year). And I usually come in the spring. So I'll keep this BJ monthly event in mind.

 

“I now teach a writing class at Eckerd College near my island home of Tierra Verde. I love seeing all forms of writing so I'm keeping involved.

 

“Thanks for all you do, John for BJ Alums.”

Tierra Verde is a fantastic 667-acre island near the entrance to Tampa Bay and its population of 3,721 is connected by bridges of the Pinellas Byway to St. Petersburg and St. Pete Beach (with its fantastic pier where I’ve seen swarms of fish come close to the pier to get grab fish hooked and still struggling).

 

Very upscale, too. Average family income on Tierra Verde is more than $100,000.

 

The 15 original islands are now the present six areas of Tierra Verde: Monte Cristo, Entrada, Pinellas Bayway, Sands Point, East Shore (Bayview) and West Shore (Oceanview).

Bob Dyer, Ohio Columnist of the Year more times than I can count, replied to my invitation:

"Thanks, but I'm in Mexico. Have fun!"

iOle!

Katie Byard, one of the BJers who revived the BJ Gatherings, replied:

"Jimmy (Carney) and I won't be to make it this month. Familia birthday party. Stay safe, everyone."

Katie and Jim are wife and husband and both were reporters at the BJ.

Betty Lin-Fisher, who attended the September BJ Gathering, posted:

"Sorry I won't make it this month to the Gathering. A high school friend from Chicago is doing a quick and last-minute college visit to Kent State and staying at our house. Hope to see you next month!"

As for Thursday’s monthly BJ gathering at the Missing Falls Brewery, former Librarian Diane Lynch will be there. Diane joined David and Beth Hertz at a 2019 BJ reunion.

Mike Williams, a 1971 summer intern at the BJ, told me he plans to attend.

 

Mike responded to my email:

 

“I certainly share the pain over the new technologies they (current BJ employees at the Main Street relocation from 44 E. Exchange Street) had to endure.”

 

So do I, Mike. People like me, Dawidziak, Bianculli, Rosenberg, Froelich had a much better environment, with owner John S. Knight in his corner office after he flew from his Miami Herald office to Louisville for the Kentucky Derby the first Saturday in May treating everyone from the janitor to the BJ carriers to management like family.

 

I enjoyed the BJ so much that I ran to work every day. Few grumpies in the newsroom. And so much talent. And support, financial and back-patting, from JSK and upper management.

 

And I got the extra bonus of starting out as assistant State Desk editor under the late Pat Englehart, a whirling dervish that drove management crazy but instilled loyalty in his underlings. With Harry Liggett at my side the State Desk editors and reporters would push and demand excellence and respect for the BJ readers that produced a superior product with helping hands from management.

 

Those, indeed, were “the good ol’ days” of my 42-year newspaper career in West Virginia, Florida, Montana and Ohio, particularly my 26 years at Ol’ Blue Walls (somebody got the idea to pain EVERY wall in the multi-story building “Beacon Blue”).

From former BJ op ed editor Bob Springer has a prior commitment:

 

“Hey, John. Sorry, I have something else going Thursday night in Kent.”

 

Bob and Barbara Hipsman Spring were married September 1, 1979. I had to get my calculator out to figure out that’s FORTY FOUR years of wedded bliss.

 

Bob Springer’s father studied accounting at Chicago Loyola. His classmate was Bob Newhart, the famous comedian!!!

 

Barbara retired after 26 years teaching journalism at Kent State. Bob also spent time on the KSU faculty.

 

Bob and Barbara live in Fort Myers, Florida. 

Bill O’Connor, former BJ super features writer who still lives not all that many miles from 44 E. Exchange Street and throws upscale fun parties from time to time, told me “I will try to make it (to the monthly BJ gatherings) when I can.”

 

The host with the most would be sure to brighten the gathering, as he does when he throws parties at his upscale home.

ANDALE GROSS RIDES TAYLOR SWIFT, CHIEFS STAR TO GLORY IN KANSAS CITY!!!!

 

Andale, Taylor Swift, Chiefs tight end a perfect trifecta!

 

Former BJ editor Andale Gross, fairly new to his Kansas City Star managing editor role, is making a big impact in a hurry.

When Taylor Swift showed up at a Kansas City Chiefs game the Star reporters zoomed in on Taylor and her boyfriend, Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.

Result: 40 stories, thousands grabbing onto a digital download of the Star’s Taylor front page, leap in circulation.

DAWIDZIAKS IN "TWILIGHT ZONE" WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 16

 

Dawidziak & wife back in Twilight Zone Wednesday

Former BJ and PD movie critic Mark Dawidziak and wife Sara will take their Largely Literary Theater Company one-act show "Everything I Need to Know I Learned in The Twilight Zone" to the Westlake Porter Public Library at 7 pm Wednesday, August 16.

Sara’s script for the show is based on Mark’s 2017 book (with additional chapters in 2020) published by St. Martin’s Press.

Book signing will follow performance at the library. To register go to https://westlakelibrary.org/event/8609439

DAVE ADAMS TO MARRY NORTHEAST OHIO WOMAN

 

  Dave Adams, future wife Alexis Lyn Calatrello

Dave Adams to wed Northeast Ohio woman 

David Adams, a Beacon Journal reporter from 1986 until 2004, will marry Alexis Lyn Calatrello in less than a week.

 

Dave posted:

“Happy birthday to the coolest, most beautifucl, most fun, big-hearted woman any guy could ask for! I cannot wait to get married to you and spend the rest of my years with you.”

 

Dave became Ernst & Young’s Global Risk Advisory Services director at lives in Bay Village. He been in PR and accounting, too.

Alexis previously lived in Shaker Heights and Cleveland.

Dave remembers fondly his BJ days with Pat Englehart, State Desk chief when the late Harry Liggett and I were Nobil-smoking Pat’s 2 assistant editors.

And Bill O’Connor, Michelle LeComte, Glenn Proctor, Kathy Fraze, Larry Pantages and Bob Paynter. Quite a collection of talent at 44 E. Exchange Street.

Melanie Payne's 'Color Blind" play world premiere June 23 in Detroit

 

       Melanie Payne with father 

       Melanie Payne reunion with Gloria Irwin 

      Melanie Payne doing cat walk to celebrate cancer cure

Melanie Payne’s play has world premiere June 23

 

Playwright Melanie Payne’s “Color Blind” play will have its world premiere at 8 p.m. Friday, June 23 in Detroit’s Boll Family Theater. It’s part of the 3^rd annual Obsidian Festival.

 

Melanie was a 1996-2000 BJ reporter. Her career also includes the Fort Myers, Florida News-Press and ABC’s Tampa Bay WTFS-TV.

 

Melanie began her life in Wickliffe, Ohio and studied at Wellesley College, a women’s liberal art college in Wellesley, Massachusetts.

 

She survived a bout with cancer.

 

PHIL TREXLER NAMED MARSHALL PROJECT'S CLEVELAND EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

 

Trexler gets high post in Cleveland’s Marshall Project

Phil Trexler, who spent 16 years covering crime for the BJ, has been named editor-in-chief for The Marshall Project – Cleveland.

The Marshall Project is a Pulitzer-winning non-profit media organization.

After the BJ, Trexler spent 8 years with WKYC-TV in Cleveland.

ERIKA SMITH PART OF L.A. TIMES PULITZER

 

Erika Smith gets Pulitzer at L.A. Times

 

Former BJ reporter Erika Smith was among Los Angeles Times reporters who won the Pulitzer Prize for breaking news for revealing a secretly recorded conversation among city council members that included racist comments, a scandal that prompted two officials to resign. 

 

GREG KORTE TO COVER CITY HALL . . . IN NEW YORK CITY!!!

 

Ohio University graduate Greg Korte, BJ Metro reporter 1997-2001, will be covering New York City Hall for Bloomberg News.

 

Korte is from Cincinnati, where he began his reporting career with the Cincinnati Enquirer. He also was White House correspondent for USA Today, covering President Trump.

 

Greg posted:

 

“I've been in Washington 12 years and have had the chance to cover Congress, the White House and a few presidential campaigns. But I often tell people I'm really just an overgrown City Hall reporter.

 

”So today I'm excited to let everyone know I'm starting a short stint covering the most overgrown City Hall in the country. I'll be filling in for the next three months or so at New York City Hall for Bloomberg News.

 

“I'll try not to clutter up my Facebook feed with stories of the War on Rats, traffic-congestion pricing, parking tickets and Mayor Eric Adams' political ambitions, but you can follow all that on my professional page.

 

https://www.facebook.com/gregorykortenews

 

 

“And if you're in the Big Apple, let's connect sometime!”

 

 

Korte lives in Bethesa, Maryland with wife Lisa Huey Korte. They met while students at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio.

 

His email address is gregorykorte@gmail.com