A FITTING FAREWELL FOR FRIEND CHASSM!!!!

 

                  Kathy Fraze at Chassm's BJ retirement

        Kathy Fraze with shirt that Montague gave her

A love-in to remember for BJ’s Chassm!

 

A chasm is a deep divide, either literal or figurative, such as a giant chasm in an ice cap or the growing chasm between two friends who haven't spoken in a long time.

There was NO chasm in the August 17 tribute to BJ’s Chassm, the late Charles “Chassm” Montague, at R. Shea Brewing on 540 S. Main St.

Chuck Montague, Chassm, passed away May 7.

Former BJ reporter Jim Carney, when he wasn’t slashing his forehead into a sign hurriedly  crossing E. Exchange Street, read this tribute to Chassm from former BJ managing editor Doug Oplinger:

“Thinking about you guys and Chassm. Loved him.

“I can still hear his clear and distinct voice from across the newsroom after we posted a number of changes on the wall — some of which I was unsure about.

“Cindy Irby put the announcement up, he wandered over, studied it very quickly, then with his soccer referee voice said: ‘Hey Joanie, you won’t believe what they’re doing now!’

“Soccer ref he was (in all 50 states!): quick to see and call what just happened, but nonetheless afterward help and encourage his co-workers to do good work.

“Journalists are built to be a pain in the ass sometimes, but no matter where I was or my role in the newsroom, Chuck was always straightforward with his thoughts.”

Indeed! I found Chuck a fount of joy and laughter with thoughts flowing from his mouth to our ears!

Former BJ editor Kathy Fraze wore a shirt that Chuck gave her that told it all:

“Grammar police: To correct and to serve.”

We all should relish life with the vigor that Chassm did.

Former BJ pop culture critic Elaine Guregian nailed it when she labeled Chassm “standout guy and terrific colleague.”

Steuvenville native Chassm’s obituary noted:

“Chuck married Rebecca Orosz. Together, they raised two sons, Jonathan, and Joshua Montague, instilling a passion for sports and a deep appreciation for education.

“Chuck's warmth, wit and commitment to his craft left an indelible mark on his family, friends, and colleagues.”

He also was a fierce protector of his Newspaper Guild mates as BJ management learned when they were at the negotiating table with Chassm.

I’m sure Chassm is enjoying his Heavenly reward and parsing every word I typed and yelling: “You won’t believe what Olesky wrote now!”

Chassm had an aura and charisma rarer than a red diamond. There are only 30 of them in the world. The BJ had its red diamond in Charles Smith Montague!

 

 

Tom Ryan was a legendary Barberton “bureau” chief/reporter for the BJ.

 

He also is among those who survived the D-Day landing in France during World War II.

 

And a reporter who had a way with words. When he returned to Omaha Beach 40 years later he wrote this classic remembrance:

 

“I was able to find almost the exact spot on Omaha Beach where I landed 40 years ago. Going to the cemetery at the top of the hill was agony. I choked when I saw all of those white crosses and looked for the names of buddies who died there.

“Several days later, I got mugged and robbed of $100 on a busy Paris Street in broad daylight.

“That makes twice I've been to France and both times someone gave me a hard time. I've had it with that place.”

 

How did Tom handle the landing when 2,400 Americans from the 1st and 29th Infantry Divisions died in the D-Day invasion on Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944? The troops were pinned down by the German 352nd Infantry Division because the German fortifications were undamaged by a pre-invasion bombing that fell inland.

 

Tom’s explanation:

 

“I just told myself I was dead man and jumped off into the water.”

 

Tom’s co-workers raised $2,100 in one day to pay for Tom’s return to Omaha Beach. And had a bottle of champagne waiting for him when he returned to America.

 

Tom was so determined to be on Omaha beach on June 6 that, when he couldn’t get closer transportation, he walked the last 14 miles, lugging his suitcase. Piece of cake after landing on Omaha Beach amid horrendous German gunfire.

 

When he arrived all the speeches and celebrations were over, but that didn’t matter to Tom. His target was standing on Omaha Beach as near as possible to where he landed.

 

His reaction when he stood on the beach that was so bloodied in 1944: “How the hell did I ever survive the landing?”

 

Tom climbed the hill to the nearby cemetery with about 10,000 white crosses.

 

“I almost choked when I saw them,” Tom wrote. “I cried, I think, because for the first time the memory of that day caught up with me.”

 

Tom also had another legendary skill: The ability to transform Pall Mall cigarette ashes into a gracefully hanging Grecian arch, much to the amazement of awed onlookers. It was his personal trademark. And without flinching while typing his latest story.

 

Tom’s wife, the late Marjorie Ryan, threatened to put this inscription on Tom’s tombstone: “The World Was His Ashtray.”

 

Tom died February 9, 1985 at age of 64 of cancer.

 

The late Terry Oblander’s lead on Tom’s obituary, following Tom’s instructions to the letter: “Tom Ryan was a newspaperman.”

 

There has never been a more accurate description.

A Memorial Mass for former BJ reporter Bill Canterbury will start at 9:30 a.m. Friday, October 26 at St. Sebastian Church. Bill’s widow, Paula, and her family will receive friends 30 minutes before the Mass.

There will be a reception at the O’Neil House after the Mass. The memorial Mass was scheduled for October because the clan will be in Akron for a family wedding later that day.

St. Sebastian is at 476 Mull Avenue. The O’Neil House is at 1290 W. Exchange Street.

Paula explains:

“I am having a short reception afterward and we are due for pictures for my nephew’s wedding at 12:30 at Stan Hywet.  Weddings and funerals, John.  It will be quite the day.” 

 

Gloria Irwin, because Mustard Seed charges a rental fee for its private room, will “just grab a table in the café about noon” for any of Bill’s co-workers and friends who want to go there after the Mass and O’Neil House stops.

Former BJ religion writer Laura Haferd, who plans to attend, noted that “Bill sang in the St. Sebastian Choir for many years, so the choir will be there. At least those who don’t have to be at work on a Friday morning.” 
Others who say they will be at the reception are former Ol’ Blue Walls occupants Betsy Lammerding, Ann and Roger Mezger, Marilyn Miller, Dave Scott, Gloria Irwin, Bob Springer, Chuck Montague, Mary Beth Nord Breckenridge, George “Bing Davis and wife Merleen, Kathy Byland Gardner and Greg Gardner and Charlene Nevada.

Robin Sallie is a maybe. Katie Byard and Jim Carney will be out of town and will miss the event. 

And me. I wouldn't miss a farewell to Bill for the world.

But not Paula Stone Tucker, 1970s State Desk reporter, who is in The Villages, Florida while I’m in our Tallmadge home staring and yelling at our TV set or in Mountaineer Field cheering on my alma mater’s football team.

In 2009 my Paula and I ran into Bill and his Paula at the annual St. Sebastian Church Thanksgiving dinner on Mull Avenue in Akron. Bill was with Meals on Wheels, still being the good guy helping others. 

Bill’s Paula is an Ellet High and University of Akron graduate. Bill and Paula had moved to Fort Myers, Florida, where Bill passed away May 1. Their children are Eddie Canterbury and Lyn Pfordresher. Bill’s sisters are Ann Canterbury and Helen Westneat.

In Fort Myers, Paula said, her Bill “was playing tennis and swimming in the Gulf of Mexico in February!" He also was an avid tennis player, painter, musician, skiier and a dedicated naturalist. Quiet but good man, our Bill.

Bill once wrote:

“I remember Paula. So now we both have a Paula in our lives. Lovely name, beautiful people attached to them.”

Indeed, Bill. And you are at the head of the class when it comes to beautiful people.

Here’s an example of Bill’s writing that, like him, was simple, heart-felt and moving, from a 1985 article:

"The dead still rest in peace in a hilltop cemetery in rural Holmes County. But to their survivors, the scenic, century-old burial ground has become a matter of unrest."

Simple and classic. That’s our Bill.

Bill was a member of the 1994 Pulitzer Prize-winning team for “A Question of Color.”

Bill and I have an extra bonding. We are both West Virginia natives. Bill grew up in Wayne County, which shares a border with Mingo County, where my late wife, Monnie Turkette Olesky, grew up in the Cinderella coal camp adjacent to Williamson. I met Monnie on a baseball field in Williamson when I was sports editor of the Williamson Daily News, my first job after my graduation from the West Virginia University School of Journalism.

While Paula Canterbury and I were discussing Bill’s Memorial Mass and publishing information about it on this BJ Alums blog, Paula wrote:

“You are such a kind man and remind me so much of Bill. A true gentleman with a wry sense of humor and a full heart.”

That probably is the greatest compliment I have received in my life.

Other WVU J School alumni who prowled Ol’ Blue Walls include Scott Bosley, Tom Melody and Bonnie Bolden.

George “Bing” Davis, who I think still writes for the BJ, has known Bill since 1964 “when I succeeded him at the Lynchburg (Virginia) Daily Advance and got his apartment, too."

 

Ken Krause, former BJ sports editor who lives on Mystic Street in Medford, Massachussetts, sent me photos of the late Carol Camp, a BJ whiz on the copy desk.

So this stirred more memories of Carol.

Ken, a 1971 St. Vincent-St. Mary graduate, wrote:

“It was apropos to learn of Carol’s passing while the British Open was under way. That tournament always made me think of him and the ‘links-style’ golf he played. Typically he'd land his approach shots short of the green and let them bound up toward the hole, where they usually settled within birdie range."

Bob Springer, who went from the BJ to Kent State faculty, wrote:

“When you saw the electronic signature "c c" on a story, you knew its facts were correct and it had been thoroughly vetted by Carol. He was as solid as granite as a copy editor.”

Carol wrote the Biography in Brief for the BJ's Sunday News and Views section. In 1972 Carol profiled Akron Public Schools administrator George C. Miller. Later, George’s daughter, Marilyn Miller, became a BJ reporter. She left during the 2017 buyout exodus.

Sharon Lorentzen, who saw Carol at Rockynol for years, wrote:

“He was always such a dear man, and when he got to Rockynol, he was still a favorite.”

In the photo montage above, that’s Carol when the BJ bought its first VDT (Visual Display Terminal) in 1976. I was newsroom electronics coordinator and trained the first person in the newsroom to use a computer terminal.

Carol is with editor Bill Slight and Mary Grace Poidomani Dobreznecki.

Showing off their trophies at the 1970 BJ golf league banquet are Carol (front left), Mickey Porter (trophy in one hand, beverage in the other), Bob Dudley and Leo Gallagher. Back row, left to right, are Paul McKelvy, Steve Mace, Ray Sappenfield, Chick Davison and John Gavin.

In the lower right photo with Carol is the late Don Hawk, who passed away at a bowling alley within a week after his retirement.

Carol was part of an incredible corps of copy editors, something the decimated newspapers around the nation miss today.

There was Hal Fry, who was an etymologist without peer (you don't have to look it up; Hal knew the history and meaning of every word).

Art Cullison, married to English teacher Helen Louise Hagen Cullison, applied the same knowledge to reporters’ copy to make it correct in every way.

Cullison interviewed Gable and the King’s 5^th wife, Kay, when Gable was in Cleveland to promote his movie, “The Teacher’s Pet.”

Carol showed up at Art’s calling honors at the Billows funeral home.

Tim Hayes was no slouch either. With Donn Gaynor and Dick McLinden, the desk alternated between laughs and grumbles.

Fitting tribute to Doug

BJ Editor Bruce Winges wrote an excellent article about retired Ol’ Blue Walls retired Managing Editor Doug Oplinger, who came to 44 E. Exchange Street as a baby-faced Springfield High senior enamored with John Deere problems and left with 2 of the BJ’s 4  Pulitzers having his fingerprints on them.

D

Doug Oplinger at his stairway to Heaven

In case you don’t get the BJ, here’s Bruce’s parting gift to Doug:

Managing editor retires after 46 years at Beacon

Award-winning journalist Doug Oplinger thankful for ‘great adventure’

By Bruce Winges

Editor

Doug Oplinger, the Beacon Journal’s managing editor, retired Friday after 46 years in journalism.

While many may know Doug and some may not, all of you know his work at the Beacon Journal and Ohio.com. Doug has had a

role in stories about:

• The 1986 hostile takeover attempt at Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.

• The 1993 examination about race relations in Akron.

• Holding Ohio’s charter schools accountable.

Managing editors, well, help manage the newsroom (as much as a newsroom can be managed).

They work closely with the editors and reporters to shape our news report daily and over the long term. They attend meetings, talk to a lot of reporters and editors and speak for the editor when the editor is not around.

Doug is a native of Springfield Township who lives in Green. He attended the University of Akron and got a master’s degree from Northwestern University.

His career at the Beacon Journal started as a part-time reporter on the old State Desk in 1971.

It was a time when the newsroom still was somewhat filled with smoke and editors and reporters could be described as “crusty” because they tended to yell at each other a lot (particularly around deadlines).

Doug became a fulltime Metro reporter in 1976 and eventually landed on the business desk.

Doug often tells the story of a day John S. Knight walked by. Doug mentioned that some of Knight’s business associates were not being forthcoming for a story.

Knight walked off.

Doug later was summoned to Knight’s office. Thinking he was in some sort of trouble, Doug was relieved to find that Knight had called his associates, gotten quotes and was giving them to Doug for the story.

Olesky note: This was typical JSK, the owner of 35 newpapers who remained in his heart a reporter.

In 1986, Doug was business editor when a  corporate raider from England tried to take over Goodyear, one of Akron’s landmark companies. Over several months, the Beacon Journal followed the story as it went from corporate offices to Wall Street to the streets of Akron to the halls of Congress.

Doug was a key editor in this staff-wide effort that led to the Beacon Journal being awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1987.

In 1993, a number of editors and reporters undertook a 15-month project that examined race relations in Akron. Doug organized and ran16 focus groups for the stories. Through this reporting, the Beacon Journal showed a deep racial divide in Akron.

Those stories — which resulted in a presidential visit to Akron to talk about race and the formation of a citizens group to better race relations — brought the Beacon Journal a Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 1994.

On a statewide level, Doug was involved in telling the story of Ohio’s primary and secondary schools. Through extensive use of data analysis, the Beacon Journal has held Ohio’s charter schools accountable for their academic performance and how our tax dollars are spent. Doug also was the key editor in projects that examined our shrinking

middle class and the lack of civility in our politics.

He most recently led the statewide Your Vote

Ohio project. The Beacon Journal assembled a statewide media coalition to listen to voters through extensive polling so we could tell stories you wanted reported during the 2016 election year. That project just received an honorable mention from Editor &

Publisher magazine as part of its annual stories about newspapers that do it right.

Last May, Doug was inducted into the Ohio Associated Press Media Editors Hall of Fame.

Most importantly, as he went from reporter to various editing jobs and finally managing editor, Doug mentored countless journalists along the way.

Outside the newsroom, Doug and his wife, Diane, have three grown children (one son, two daughters) and are grandparents. Doug is an Eagle Scout, teaches Sunday school and is a recovering Ohio State band parent.

In a note last week about his retirement, Doug said: “I will sorely miss working with you and all the people at John S. Knight’s first newspaper. For 46 years, every day has been intellectually stimulating and rewarding. What we do is integral to the survival of a nation, conceived out of dreams 241 years ago, and

protected as part of our Constitution.

 

“Thank you so much for allowing me to be a part of this great adventure.”

Bruce Winges is editor of the Akron Beacon Journal/Ohio.com. He may be reached at 330-9963858, bwinges@thebeaconjournal. com or @BruceWingesABJ.

Doug’s new work address:

doplinger@yourvoiceohio.org

 

Connie Bloom with John Olesky in her fabric art studio in Summit ArtSpace

Tribute party to Connie Bloom at 3-6 p.m. Sunday

Dorothy Shinn, long-time BJ art critic, wrote an excellent article about the upcoming party (the word Connie wanted) for the late Connie Bloom, who retired as BJ Features editor and pet columnist to blossom into Ohio’s fabric art guru (quilt art in older days),  and publisher of Ohio’s #1 magazine about fabric art, QSDS Voice.

Connie learned her journalism the hard, and effective way, under the tutelage of eccentric BJ Action Line leader the late Craig Wilson. Many eventual Ol’ Blue Walls reporters and editors began in Action Line, including Betsy Lammerding, who also retired from the BJ Features Department. I had the priviledge of working with both women.

I wouldn’t miss Connie’s party for the world. She was a warm-hearted individual without a mean bone in her body. There aren’t enough like her in our world, particularly with all the rancor stirred up in Presidential elections and wars.

Anyway, here’s Dot’s article as it appeared in the BJ:

Artspace to celebrate life of Connie Bloom

Longtime journalist, artist who died Aug. 29 wanted party instead of memorial

By Dorothy Shinn

Beacon Journal art and architecture critic

A celebration of the life of Connie Bloom will be held Sunday at Summit Artspace in her thirdfloor studio.

Ms. Bloom, who was born in 1947, died Aug. 29 of cancer. She wanted to be remembered as she was before her illness, and asked that friends, acquaintances and patrons gather that day to tell stories, admire her studio and buy the things she left behind. Fellow artist Joan Colbert said Ms. Bloom left strict instructions that there be food, wine and a band, Moustache Yourself.

“It’s a party,” said Colbert, whose studio is on the same floor. “Connie insisted we call it a party.”

She wanted the remaining quilts, fabrics, cards, equipment and supplies in her studio sold to benefit Artists of Rubber City and Summit Artspace.

Ms. Bloom was a journalist who found art later in life, after more than 30 years of pounding the keyboards at the Beacon Journal. She was hired in 1973 as a reporter for Action Line, the newspaper’s service that answered readers’ questions of all kinds, and over the years served as food writer, copy editor and pets writer, among other positions.

By the time she had retired from the Beacon Journal in 2008, telling stories with words had taken a firm backseat to telling them with a needle, thread and fabric.

She also founded and edited an art quilt magazine, the QSDS Voice; ran a political campaign; wrote life stories for Remember Me Biographies; and campaigned for Bernie Sanders.

She was an outspoken free spirit, and loved her husband, Bob Shields, animals and her studio at Summit Artspace, more or less in that order.

“I knew her before she moved in here as an acquaintance from Highland Square,” Colbert said. “Then, when she really started doing the art work, I told her I thought there was going to be a studio opening coming up here at Summit Artspace. She had a small space at the Red Light and needed more room.

“You never saw a woman fly into action like she did when she heard that, she wanted it so bad. This was her baby.” Fellow artist Terry Klausman agreed. “Connie and I were awarded studios at Summit Artspace just two weeks apart in 2010. It was one of the happiest days of her life,” Klausman recalled. “She told me several times that if anything bad happened to her financially, she would rather lose the house and keep the studio.” He continued, “Connie’s important works are in the homes of her memorial quilt clients. She brought great comfort to those who had lost a loved one or a beloved pet. “She would listen to the client’s stories about the subject of the quilt. Favorite articles of clothing and anything made from fabric were included in it. She would use her drawing and painting skills along with her writing skills” to tell their story in fabric and thread. Colbert said she, Klausman and fellow Summit Artspace artist Katina Pastis Radwanski were among the handful of people who knew of Ms. Bloom’s illness. “She swore us to secrecy,” Colbert said. “She didn’t want people coming by and asking her how she was. She had all sorts of ways of saying why she wasn’t here.” “Connie wanted a happy celebration, not a funeral,” said Pastis Radwanski. “She told us that except for the discomfort, she was not particularly sad about dying … she saw an advantage in having some time to put things in order to her liking and to form the details of her farewell gathering.”

Photos, articles and artifacts from her life will be on display at the memorial party, Pastis Radwanski said.

Dorothy Shinn writes about art and architecture for the Akron Beacon Journal. Send information to her at the Akron Beacon Journal, P.O. Box 640, Akron, OH 443090640 or dtgshinn@att.net .

 

Cheryl Scott Sheinin, retired after 45 years in the BJ Finance Department, attended the ceremony for the final resting place of former BJ security guard Anna Nitz.



Anna passed away in 2012 at the age of 80. Tuesday, her ashes were distributed into the Atlantic Ocean off the Myrtle Beach, South Carolina that she loved so much.

Anna’s husband of 62 years is Bill Nitz.

Albert Nitz, Bill's cousin who drove Bill  to Myrtle Beach, read from the Bible and a tribute to her that he had written. Then everyone present sang “Amazing Grace.”

Who could ask for a better sendoff?  Cheryl’s husband is former BJ staffrt Neil Sheinin.

Anna was with Pinkertons since 1968. She was security guard at the parking desk entrance and the BJ lobby for decades.

She made lots of friends at Ol’ Blue Walls over time, was active in the Ladies Golf League and competed in the Corporate Challenge several times. 

BJ Advertising retiree Mike Williams, who returned from months in warm and sunny Mexico to a driving April snowstorm when he landed in Ohio with his wife of 27 years, Jane Spiess Williams, provided me with Anna’s 2012 obituary.

Here it is:

Anna M. Nitz, 80, passed away on August 26, 2012.

She was born in Akron on October 28, 1931, to the late Gerald and Anna Rezack.

Anna was a member of St. Vincent Catholic Church and retired from Pinkerton Security Company after 42 years of service.

Preceded in death by brothers, Gerald and Frank, survivors include husband, William; brother, Tom (Pat) Rezack; best friends, Cheryl Sheinin and Johnny Lynn King; and her dog, Nicki.

A memorial service will be held Thursday, 11 a.m., at Copley Place, 528 Rothrock Rd., Copley. NEWCOMER FUNERAL HOME, 330-784-3334

Published in Akron Beacon Journal on Aug. 28, 2012

Anna with her favorite guy at her favorite place