Margaret Neumann Dietz,
widow of long-ago BJ employee Dick Dietz, passed away Tuesday, November 1.
Dick, who became a Selvage, Lee & Howard public relations firm
executive in Cleveland after left he WAKR radio and television where he was a news director,
was on assignment for S, L & H when he was injured fatally in a 1971 Princeton,
New Jersey auto accident. He was 45 years old.
Dick and Margaret's children are John, Henry, Fred and Susan.
Margaret was a
stringer for the Omaha (Nebraska) World-Herald while in high school. The
University of Nebraska-Lincoln graduate became wire editor of the Kearney
(Nebraska) Daily Hub, then full-timer at the Omaha World-Herald, master’s
degree from Columbia Journalism School, where she met her husband.
They eloped and
moved to Akron when Dick began at the BJ. Later, who joined WAKR radio and television before he switched to the public relations firm.
Then came four
children and an active life in the community, including the League of Women
Voters and the Akron-Summit County public library as publicity/display
department director and, later, Northeast Ohio Medical (NEOMED) public
information officer and, by her retirement, Office of Communications director.
And then the Kent-Ravenna Record-Courier where she wrote the weekly “About
People” column.
Margaret and
Dick’s daughter, Susan Dietz Pardee, is University Heights vice mayor after
serving a few terms on the city council and School Improvement/Federal Programs
coordinator at Cleveland Heights-University Heights school district.
Margaret’s
obituary:
Margaret
J. Dietz
4/15/1924 -
11/1/2022
Margaret J. Dietz
lived her 98 ½ years to the fullest, from breaking ground in the workplace to
enthusiastically supporting the local theatre scene. She lived through tragedy,
ran successful events throughout her community, traveled, explored, and always
brightened your day with a cheerful, welcoming smile. She firmly believed in
focusing on the positive.
Born in Omaha,
Nebraska, she was introduced to journalism when her high school English teacher
sent her to help out on the school paper. From that moment on, she was hooked,
becoming the editor and a stringer (freelancer) for the Omaha World-Herald. As
a senior, she was asked to be a model in a city-wide style show which tickled
her mother no end. However, that was the go-to–press night for the student
paper and Margaret bowed out of the style show: “Mother was furious that I
would swap a chance to do something “socially acceptable” for that ‘grubby’
newspaper.”
After graduating
from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Margaret landed a position on the
Kearney (Nebraska) Daily Hub as a wire editor, also learning to set type after
impressing her colleagues with her ability to read copy upside down. She moved
on to the Omaha World-Herald, and after a few years enrolled at Columbia
Journalism School for a Master’s degree where, as one of fifteen women in a
class of sixty-five, she soaked up NewYork City and took particular pleasure in
covering the Dewey-Truman election in 1948.
Margaret met her
husband, Dick Dietz, in that Journalism program. They eloped (making BOTH sets
of parents furious) and moved to Akron, Ohio for Dick’s job at the Akron Beacon
Journal. Moving from the West to the East and landing in the Midwest, Margaret
and Dick eventually found a wonderful west Akron neighborhood on Moreley
Avenue. Adding their four children to the neighborhood teeming with kids, she
settled in and found friends for life among the families on the street. During
that time, she volunteered with the League of Women Voters and the College Club.
Their home also put out the print communications for the fledgling neighborhood
community group West Side Neighbors.
Restless and always
meant to run something, Margaret reported that by the time her youngest was
three, he was bored, she was bored and it was time for something
different. He went happily to pre-school and she went to work for the Akron
Summit County Public Library system, rising to direct the Publicity/Display
department, staffed by a wonderful group of creative artists who remained friends
for life. Unfortunately, Margaret lost her husband and youngest son in a car
accident in the middle of her life (1971).
She changed
direction and moved from her beloved library system to the newly chartered
Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine (now NEOMED). As its first
Public Information Officer, she liaised with NEOMED and the three universities
feeding into NEOMED - Akron, Kent and Youngstown. She retired as the Director
of the Office of Communications and swept along new friends for life.
However, retirement
was never for her. She moved to the Record Courier (serving Kent-Ravenna) for
another four years and wrote a weekly “About People” column, profiling
significant women (she had a ball). Margaret found time to write two histories,
Akron’s Library: Commemorating Twenty Five Years onMain Street, and Silver
Reflections: A History of the Northeastern Ohio Universities College of
Medicine. Along the way she volunteered on the Boards for Project LEARN, Family
Services, the American Heart Association, Mobile Meals Foundation and many
more.
Awarded many honors,
one of her proudest was the John S. Knight award, received in 1995. But her
great love was Weathervane Playhouse, where she volunteered most of her life in
Akron, serving in many capacities including two terms as President of the
Board. In her later years she kept her annual play subscription and took all who
visited to plays at Weathervane.
Margaret was a
staunch and loyal friend. She began a pen pal correspondence with a young Girl
Guide in England when she was 15 and kept up that correspondence for 83 years.
She adopted decrepit needy cats; loved hosting children, grandchildren and
friends from near and far; and brought light into the lives of all who knew
her.
Margaret was
predeceased by her husband, Richard H. Dietz, sons John and Frederick,
son-in-law Eric A. Pardee and sister, Mary Louise Brady. She is survived by son
Henry Dietz, daughter Susan Dietz Pardee, grandchildren John, Kristen, Becky,
Alex, Andrew, Kelsey, Elisabeth, Val, Sarah, Liza, Stephanie, Anthony and
Christy and many great grandchildren.
A celebration of life is scheduled at Weathervane Community Playhouse in
Akron on Friday, April 14 in the late afternoon. Please consider donating to
Weathervane Playhouse or another charity of your choice.
