Former BJ  Reference Library chief Cathy Tierney, who “fully retired” in 2013, doesn’t let much grass grow under her feet.

She’s leaped into volunteering and traveling.

Write Cathy of her travels:

“My first was an Amtrak trip to DC, then Japan in Cherry Blossom season, a riverboat trip from St. Petersburg to Moscow, covering 2,000 miles of Russia, leaving for Vietnam & Cambodia in October, and I've already made plans for a long trip to Morocco next year, for sure ... the trips have been wonderful.”

For all of us, it’s a major transition from Ol’ Blue Walls to traveling the world. When I look at that photo on Clyde “Bud” Morris’ farm, I think I counted 20 who are no longer with us, including Bud. Except in our memories.

 

LeBron James isn’t the only one giving back to the community with his skills and his celebrityhood.

Former BJ reporters David Giffels and Thrity Umrigar, authors of a ton of books, will headline the keynote reading at the Cleveland INKubator sessions Saturday, Aug. 1 at the Cleveland Public Library, 325 Super Avenue.

It’s a free writers workshop for those 14 to 18 years old. David and Thrity, who were at the International Book Fair at Miami's Dade College at the same time, too, hope to encourage a new generation of writers.

Registration will begin at 11 a.m. The welcome and kickoff starts at noon.

Workshops and craft talks run from 12:30 to 5 p.m. Resource fair for writers with independent booksellers will run from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

David and Thrity will do their readings from 5 to 6 p.m.

Dinner will be followed by a youth reading performance in the Eastman Reading Garden and an open mic.

Thrity has been teaching creative writing at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland since 2002. Her 6^th novel and 7^th book is “The Story Hour.”

Her previous novels are “Bombay Time” (2002), “The Space Between Us” (2007), “If Today be Sweet” (2008), “The Weight of Heaven” (2010) and “The World We Found” (2012). Her memoir is “First Darling of the Morning”  (2008).

Thrity left India at the age of 21 to attend Ohio State University. She began her reporting career with the Lorain Journal. Two years later, in 1987, she came to the BJ.

Giffels, who authored “The Hard Way on Purpose: Essays and Dispatches From the Rust Belt” and “All the Way Home,” is an assistant professor of English at the University of Akron.

David’s sideline is handling guitar and vocals for the local May Company rock band with Dave “Doc” Rich, Pat McNulty and “Friday” Mike Wilkinson.

Omar Sharif

Omar Sharif dies

Omar Sharif, who played the title character in “Docto Zhivago” to Julie Christie’s Lara and Peter O’Toole’s right-hand man Sherif Ali in “Lawrence of Arabia,” died in Cairo in his native Egypt on Friday, July 10.

He got an Oscar nomination for supporting actor in “Lawrence.”

His passion was bridge. He co-authored Goren On Bridge with Charles Goren and authored two books about the card game.

To read the Hollywood Reporter obituary/eulogy of Sharif, click on http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/omar-sharif-dead-doctor-zhivago-789643

	Don Roese’s fourth adventure to Alaska with wife Mary Ann looks like another rootin’, tootin’ time by the retired BJ photographer. It’s sort of a late 54th wedding anniversary present: That was May 6. Don was slow getting around to the gift. On one of his trips, Don bankrupted the insurance company that had to fix all the dents in his camper or RV or whatever he calls it. On July 10 Don reported:
“John, been to Chicken twice and may go again on our return leg. Not that we want to see Chicken again but because we don't want to drive the Alaska Highway between Burwash Landing and the US border again. Believe me, once is enough. We have driven this highway four times now and that stretch has been terrible each time.” Paula and I have been there. “The Chicken Mall,” or so the sign says, is one tent. On July 10, Don posted: “In Chicken now... heading for Whitehorse in the morning. Top of the word highway still a great drive, even with the smoke from fires in both Alaska and Canada.” North to Alaska is a piece of cake for Don, after surviving the Korean conflict aboard the

USS Oriskany, CVA34.

Don and Mary Ann returned to the Salty Dawg on the Homer Spit after a 13-year absence. Quips Don: “I could not find the dollar I had pinned on the wall among the thousands of others pinned there. Had a beer and bought a hat.” It isn’t clear whether the beer caused the hat purchase.

Don remembers hunting for bear in Alaska. Says Don: “Seeing the size of these animals is one of the reasons I quit.”

Don is using a Chevy 1500 pick-up truck to pull a 21-foot camper with queen bed, bath, large fridgerator, oven, double sink, slide-out and 30- gallon holding tanks.

“It may take the rest of the summer to get it clean,” Don writes. “The Yukon Territory shows no mercy.”

Don and Mary Ann are working their way back to Ohio. At last report they were sighted in Grand Coulee Dam in Washington on July 20.

Habyan recovering & still doing tributes to Gold Star heroes

Former BJ maintenance worker Ray Habyan (1975-1996), in reply to my query, writes:

“At the present time, I am recovering from major back surgery and am unable to drive and even ride for now.”

Ray Habyan

But the seven collapsed discs that were fused in June don’t keep Ray from doing portraits of Gold Star military heroes.

Explains Ray:

“Most portraits take from 20 to 60 hours. I do not charge for the portraits, but my cost to produce them is around $60. That includes cost of materials and postage to deliver them to the families. Labor is always donated free and donations are welcome. I have done 15 to date and work strictly through my website US Fallen Heroes Portraits.”

Ray lives in Wooster after being a computer whiz in Sedona, Arizona, a Valhalla for art-lovers, and flying small planes for 17 years.

I’ve been there. Sedona and Jerome, if you can handle the drive up and down steep, curvy roads, are not to be missed if you’re near them off I-17 near Flagstaff.

If you want to donate to Ray’s non-profit venture to honor America’s Gold Star military, go to his Fallen Heroes Portraits web site and he’ll tell you how to do it.

Former BJ reporter John Dunphy beat the Black Keys to the White House.

His wife, Rebecca Allen, has credentials to the White House briefing room.

So they dropped in on their friend Barack. Or Barry, as they call him.

Rebecca practiced her standups in the NBC booth outside the West Wing.

John practiced grinning from ear to ear.

It’s a well-deserved reward for John, former reporter for the Orange County (California) Register, who has been eluding the Grim Reaper since 2012 over his esophageal cancer. Rebecca is deputy Features Editor at the OC Register. They live in Lakewood, California.

John keeps his hand in journalism as contributing editor at Southland Golf, which gives him an excuse to enjoy his favorite participation sport.

John and Rebecca traipsed all over Europe for six weeks and, currently, the East and Northeast USA. The White House was on their world tour. Beat that, Black Keys!

Just kidding, Patrick Carney and Dan Auerbach, the two Firestone High kids who turned basement band into a truckload of Grammys for their musical achievements. And a social media exchange with the first African-American President in history that mentioned Air Force One and possibly, guess who’s coming to dinner?

John’s sons are Brian, Michael and Kevin.

His siblings are Harry Dunphy, Stephen Dunphy,  Pat Maureen Dunphy Welling, Peter Dunphy, Dennis Dunphy, Christine Dunphy Barnett and the late Paul Dunphy. Their parents were Harry and Angela Dunphy.

John and Rebecca had dinner June 30 with Angela Dunphy, Christine's niece, at Zaytanya in DC. Named for her grandmother Angela.
 John was part of the late Pat Englehart’s team that brought the BJ a Pulitzer for its coverage of the 1970 Ohio National Guard shooting that killed four and wounded nine Kent State students. “I spent more than 7 years full-time covering all the investigations and trials,” John wrote.

Egads, Dunphy survived errant National Guard rifle shots, Englehart AND esophageal cancer and can still whip my butt in golf! I tip my “WV” cap to you, John! All 11 of them.

Thrity sets up own bookish web site

Thrity Umrigar

Former BJ Thrity Umrigar turned best-selling novelist has set up her own professionally looking web site.

·      She subdivided into these categories: Home, books, essays, articles, interviews, events and bio.

To check out Thrity’s website, click on http://umrigar.com/

Her novels, set in her native India, are  “Bombay Time,” “The Space Between Us,” “If Today Be Sweet,” “The Weight of Heaven,” “The World We Found” and “The Story Hour.” Her memoir is “First Darling of the Morning.” 

Her books have been translated into several languages and published in more than 15 countries. She is the Armington Professor of English at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.

 

President Obama digs Black Keys

From Ohio.com:

Akron’s Black Keys got a shout-out during President Barack Obama’s Twitter Q&A Wednesday afternoon.

The stated subject of #AskPOTUS was health care, but when asked “what’s your favorite song of the moment?” @POTUS replied: “was listening to outkast/liberation and the black keys/lonely boy this morning.”

The band promptly responded: “@POTUS Can we use Air Force One for our upcoming gigs?”

No word on whether Obama dances with the vigor of the dude in the Lonely Boy video when he’s jamming.

Responded Obama:

“It’s not mine. Just a loaner. Maybe you can come play sometime at the White House instead?”

 

Well, we all know that President Obama can sing “Amazing Grace.”

The Black Keys, who are piling up Grammys for their records, are Patrick Carney, son of retired BJ reporter Jim Carney, and Dan Auerbach, Patrick’s Firestone High classmate when both were budding musicians.

Now they do world concert tours when waves don’t slam Patrick into the sand and put him out of commission.

Doesn't Downing make a dashing figure in his delightful Del Sol?

Downing’s Del Sol a delightful drive

Retired BJ printer Hugh Downing looked like a movie star as he tooled his 1995 Honda del Sol convertible onto 1970s State Desk reporter Paula Stone Tucker’s home in The Villages, Florida.

Actually, it belongs to his wife, Sharon Downing, but she’s visiting their son, Mark Downing, in Erie, Pennsylvania, so Hugh got his turn behind the wheel before Sharon flies back to Florida on Sunday.

Sharon purchased the Del Sol for $18,000 in 1995. When sales went from 25,748 in 1993 to 21,075 in 1994 to 14,021 in 1995, 8,489 in 1996 and 5,603 in 1997, Honda saw the handwriting on the wall and discontinued the model.

The 5-speed Del Sol has a removable metal roof that you plunk in the trunk. It’s more like a giant sun roof than the usual convertible with the retractable top that leaves nothing but the windshield to block the wind.

“It’s been a good car,” Hugh said, “and quite fast.” Hugh said he once got it up to 90 or 95 mph, “then I got scared.” Even though they are 20 years old I found 1995 Del Sol's selling for $4,000. Apparently they have a small but devoted following.

Hugh and Sharon, who wed in 1960, have been living in The Villages for 15 years.

Paula and John Olesky get together with the Downings when they winterize to escape Tallmadge blustery days. Hugh and John played golf together every week when Paula and John were renting in The Villages January-March 2015.

Paula liked The Villages so well that she bought a home there, which she is fixing up. That’s what she was doing in June when Hugh drove up to help out with a few things.

The Downings lived in the city of Medina during Hugh’s BJ days. They had three houses there, one at a time, including one they built on three-fourths of an acre.

Then came the lure of The Villages, where you have to be 55 years old to buy a house, and where every day is playday – golf, free concerts and dancing in several town squares every night of the year, card games, pickleball (ping pong paddles on a tennis court), 2,200 clubs for every hobby imaginable.

It is Disneyland for senior citizens. There are 114,000 residents with 50,000 golf carts that are used to get around the town and around the 47 golf courses. I’ve been to 52 countries and 43 states and I’ve never seen anything like it.

More about the Honda Civic del Sol:

It was a 2-seater front-engined, front wheel drive, targa (removable metal) top. Based on the Honda Civic platform, the del Sol was the successor to the Honda CR-X. It debuted in 1992 in Japan and the United Kingdom, and 1993 in the United States.

Starting with the 1995 models, Honda dropped the 'Civic' name from the del Sol in the Americas. In Europe, the del Sol tag was dropped in 1995, and the car was known as the new CR-X.

Production and sales ended with the 1997 model in the U.S. and 1998 elsewhere, with a total of about 75,000 vehicles sold in America.

Beth Hertz surgery went well

 

Beth, Josh, Alyssa, David

Beth Thomas Hertz, former page drawer and copy editor at the BJ, is doing well after surgery.

David Hertz, former BJ business editor and her husband, writes:

“This is David Hertz taking dictation. Beth asked me to share with everyone that her surgery went well. The surgeon removed a bone spur and the bursa sack and, fortunately, the rotator cuff was fine. The best possible outcome. Thank you for all your kind words. It means a lot. For now, she is resting comfortably thanks to pain medication and begins physical therapy next week.”

Dave left Ol’ Blue Walls in 2006 after 15 years to become vice president of Dix & Eaton, a Cleveland firm, in the media relations department. Before the BJ, he was at a Knight-Ridder paper in Boca Raton for five years.

Beth and Dave is the classic office romance. When they wed Oct. 23, 1933 in the Akron Civic Theater, a crowd from the BJ was there.

They live in Copley with their children, Alyssa and Josh.

BJ Reference Library retiree Sandy Bee met Glenn Lynn at a summer meeting of a winter skiing club that traveled to Put-in-Bay at a time when the only skiing possible was on the water.

Sandy and Glenn were in the club for about a year, but never went beyond a nodding acquaintance.

But something clicked in Put-In-Bau that summer. Today, July 1, they are celebrating their 26^th wedding anniversary. 

Since they belonged to a ski club, it seemed natural that they went skiing in the Tyrolian Alps of Austria on a delayed honeymoon.

Sandy plays viola and Glenn plays the saxophone in the New Horizons band in Cuyahoga Falls.

Writes Sandy:

“Happy 26th Anniversary to my Glenn. It's been a wonderful ride. Love you the most!!!”

Sandy survived a 2009 head-on traffic accident caused by an unlicensed, uninsured driver in a stolen car who is still in the Ohio penitentiary for his dastardly deed.

After her exit from Ol’ Blue Walls, Sandy spent eight years at the Orrville and Wadsworth libraries. She lives in Doylestown with Glenn.

Sandy was divorced and began her college life at age 30 as the mother of two children.

Sandy’s father, Henry Fuller, parachuted into France on D-Day. He was among 126 survivors of the 792 who jumped with the 502^nd on The Longest Day. There’s an exhibit about Henry in the MAPS (Military Aircraft Preservation Museum) just off Akron/Canton Airport.  Henry and Arline Mitchell Fuller were Sandy’s parents.

If you want to congratulate her and Glenn, her email address is sbeelynn@ohio.net or you can go on her Facebook page.