THE WARNERS AT AKRON WOMAN'S CITY CLUB SEPTEMBER 28

Former BJ editors Stuart Warner and wife Deb Van Tassel Warner will be the speakers at the Akron Woman’s City Club, 732 East Exchange Street, at noon Tuesday, September 28.

The subject will be the book they edited and produced, “Akron’s Daily Miracle: Reporting the News in the Rubber City.”

Stuart came to the Beacon Journal after 10 years with Knight-Ridder's Lexington newspaper. He was at the BJ from 1979 until 1999 before switching to the PD.  

Deb is a former BJ Features Editor and PD and Arizona editor.

The luncheon costs $20, payable when you show up at the event.

To make a reservation call Valerie at the Akron Woman’s City club at (330) 762-6261.

The book, naturally, will be available for you to purchase. 

SUSAN MANGO CURTIS KEEPS STACKING UP HER HONORS

 

Susan Mango Curtis, former BJ assistant managing editor, is going to need to enlarge her trophy room.

Saturday, August 27 she received the National Association of Black Journalists-Visual Task Force Legacy Award during the group’s convention auction.

Mango’s response:

“I am honored and humbled. It’s a blessing to have served as a member of such an creatively talented group of visual journalists.”

 

In 2020 Mango was named Black Journalists’ Education Journalist of the year.

In 2019 she received the Society for News Design’s  Lifetime Achievement Award.

Before leaving the BJ for in 1997 for become associate professor of visual arts at Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University  Mango was involved in the “Question of Color” project that led to one of the 4 BJ Pulitzers (JSK got a 5^th). The late BJ State Desk editor Pat Engelhart graduated from Northwestern before his DeNobil days at the BJ.

Mango is a 1981 graduate of the Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts and a 1977 graduate of Great Mills High School in Lexington Park, Maryland.

Her career includes art director for the National Rifle Association, where she designed American Marksman magazine.

If you want to personally congratulate Mango her e-mail is mangocurtis@northwestern.edu  and her phone number is (847) 508-6057.

A LOVELY REUNION FOR PAULA AND JOHN IN OHIO

 

  

Paul Stone Tucker visited John Olesky in Ohio for 3 weeks in August.

Paula rescued John from his misery when John’s wife, My Mona Lisa as he called her, passed away. For 17 years.

Paula has a home in The Villages, Florida.

John still lives in the condo they jointly purchased in 2006 and lived together in Talmadge.

Paula left The Villages on July 30 and arrived at John’s condo on August 1. She left for the 2-day auto drive to Florida on Sunday, August 22.

Paula and John made good use of the time.

They had dinner in Sugarcreek at Der Dutchman Restaurant, as they have several times before. After visiting the Atwood Lake A-Frame owned by Paula’s parents where she spent her childhood summers.

They walked through Gorge Park in Cuyahoga Falls, even though they had to crawl under a 100-foot toppled tree that blocked the footpath.

They visited the Beaver Pond in Summit County Metro parks and ran into Ranger Bob, Paula’s brother-in-law.

They hiked around the lake in Munroe Falls.

Paula and John golfed together at Mulligan Springs in Portage County, which shares a border with Tallmadge’s Summit County.

They visited Paula’s sister, Janet, at her Lakeside getaway on Lake Erie.

Paula visited all of her siblings: Tom and wife ‘Rae in the former Tamsin Lake area turned into housing allotments; Janet and husband Bob in Boston Heights; Michael and wife Ann in Silver Lake; and Raymond and wife Mary in Akron.

Paula and John also attended the Akron Porchroker event where Raymond and his barbershop quartet sang. The crowds were so thick that they had to walk 11 blocks from where they parked their car, the nearest empty parking place to the porch where Raymond and his quartet sang. Musical groups performed from porches on residential homes in block after block of the city. It’s an extremely popular annual event.

And, by driving 200 miles each way Paula spent her August 20 birthday with her son, Patrick, who drove from New York City for the Bear State Park rendezvous in Pennsylvania.

At Paula’s suggestion John and Paula looked at John’s My Mona Lisa photo album of his late wife and their extended family.

Paula and My Mona Lisa never competed with each other for John’s affections. They were bookends to his love life.

Paula took the sunshine back to Florida with her. But it was lovely while it lasted.

PAULA STONE TUCKER SELLS 2,261 COPIES OF HER BOOK IN ONE DAY

 

Former 1970s BJ State Desk reporter Paula Tucker sold 2,261 copies of her book, “Surviving: A Kent State Memoir,” named one of the best of 2020 in Northeast Ohio and given The Silver Palm by the Florida Writers in 2019, in ONE day.

Paula posted from The Villages, Florida, where she resides:

“So excited! Just got my 2nd quarter 2021 royalty check and found out I sold 2,261 copies of my book during a one-day promotion on 5/31. So happy! It is still available.”

On Kindle and since September 29, 2019 in paperback ($18.41 on Amazon.com, which describes Paula’s book as “an eyewitness account to an event that changed history.”

Thirty yards from Ohio National Guards troops firing away is about as “eyewitness” as anyone would want to be.

May 4, 1970 and the slaughter of four students and wounding of nine others helped turn America against the Vietnam War.

When a country is murdering its children it’s time to re-think what it’s doing. And it did.

“Her experiences at Kent State helped her to grow into a resilient woman who doesn't give up easily,” an article about Paula in GoodRead.com said.

I can personally vouch for that since Paula and I were together for 17 years. She’ll be returning to Ohio in August to visit family and friends.

GoodRead article also stated:

“She is a self-proclaimed fan of James Patterson, Roxane Gay and Fay Weldon as well as a lover of classical literature.”

She got her first "rejection" letter in Akron fourth grade when Sister Mary Joan handed back her Br'er Rabbit story with "What is this?" written across the top in bold red letters.

The 9-year-old Paula explained that she wrote had the story in a southern dialect.

Sister Mary Joan retorted: "Stick to normal writing from now on!" Those who think outside the box often suffer for it early but later become famous for doing that very thing.

You can find Paula on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Linkedin.

Or, in August, in Ohio, maybe with other Belles of St. Marys, as I call them. (Cue Bing Crosby singing in the movie.)

A REMINDER THAT FRED BROOKOVER'S MEMORIAL MASS WILL BE SATURDAY, JULY 31

 July 31 Memorial in Uniontown for Fred Brookover

There will be a Memorial Mass at 10 a.m. Saturday, July 31, at Queen of Heaven Catholic Church, 1800 Steese Rd., Uniontown, for retired BJ Circulation driver Fred Brookover, who passed away May 21 in Kissimmee, Florida.

Fred is survived by his wife of 47 years, Dolores Campanale Brookover, who attended St. Anthony’s elementary school in Akron in the 1960s.

Dee’s parents Mary Adelaide Gasbarro Campanale and Philip Edmundo Campanale lived in  Brimfield when the 1998 obituary was published for Dolores’ uncle, John J. Gasbarro of Cuyahoga Falls

PHIL CANUTO KNOWS FIRST-HAND WHAT HE'S TALKING ABOUT

 

WEWS-Channel 5 and DaLaun Dillard ran a story about former BJ medical writer, Phil Canuto, a kidney transplant recipient (from his cousin) who spoke to the CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention) advisory panel in Washington and urged them to recommend a third booster.

Phil is among 2.7% of Americans who are immune compromised. He did everything to stay safe in the pandemic, including getting vaccinated.

“In my case they tested antibodies and I tested negative after both shots,” Phil said.

“I’m really lucky to be alive, I really savor the life that I have. But I wish that I could live a fuller life and I don’t know when that is going to happen."

Phil also has has four back surgeries.

His stops in life have included Jacksvonville, Illinois, where he grew up; Elmhurst University in Elmhurst, Illinois; and the BJ.

Phil and wife Debra live in Akron.

Allison Reynolds, a scientist, credits Phil and Debra for her love of theater and the arts. She was raised in Akron, spent time in Philadelphia and currently works in Colorado.

Allison describes Phil as one of three men who guided and helped her through her life.

THRITY AND PULITZER WINNER IN INKUBATOR MATCHUP ON FRIDAY

 Sign up for literary battle!

It should be an interesting exchange of thoughts at 7 p.m. Friday, July 23 in the LitCleveland’s Inkubator Online Writing Conference.

In this corner, Pulitzer Prize winner and MacArthur Fellow Viet Thanh Nguyen. In the other corner, best-selling author and former BJ columnist Thrity Umrigar.

They will explore the risks of creativity and creation. How far outside the envelope can you go without getting lost in space?

Nguyen wrote “The Committed.” Thrity’s next novel is “Honor.” Both works will be part of the discussion and the strategy.

Playing it safe can be boring. Leaping outside the box can be catastrophic or a smashing success.

You can register for the free event at: https://secure.lglforms.com/form_engine/s/7IEFg1iI9iSQdfiOkBjC0Q

I’m putting my money on Thrity for one reason: Bombs away from Bombay!

AL HUNSICKER'S WIDOW PASSES AWAY

 

Lillian Hunsicker, widow of former BJ printer Al Hunsicker, passed away Sunday, July 18.

Al was a regular at the monthly gathering of former BJ workers at Papa Joe’s Restaurant in the Merriman Valley. So was I.

Pam Hunsicker Coy, Lillian and Al’s daughter, is married to Don Coy, whose father, the late Al Coy, was on the Cuyahoga Falls Amateur Baseball Association board of directors with me and former Cuyahoga Falls High baseball coach John Anspach.

Al and I had spirited discussions at the CFABA meetings. Today we both are early members of the CFABA Hall of Fame. There’s a plaque in the Quirk Building in the Falls testifying to that.

Pam and my daughter, Monnie Ann, were friends at Monongah High and often were together at parties and dinners.

Lillian’s obituary:

Lillian P. Hunsicker, 87, was called home to be with her Lord on July 18, 2021. She was born in Akron and resided in Cuyahoga Falls for the past 63 years. She was a graduate of Kenmore High School and a Sunday School teacher at St. John/St. Paul Lutheran Church. Sewing was her favorite hobby.

 

She was preceded in death by her husband, Al; She is survived by her children, Brenda (Dale) Hoover, Pamela (Don) Coy and Thomas Hunsicker; grandchildren, Jillian (Brandon) Foster and Ryan (Laura) Coy; six great grandchildren, plus one in the oven and one in heaven.

 

Family/friends may call from 1 to 4 p.m. on Sunday, July 25 in the Clifford- Shoemaker Funeral Home, 1930 Front St., Cuyahoga Falls, OH 44221 where a funeral service will be held at 11 a.m. on Monday, July 26. In lieu of other remembrances, memorials may be sent to the Haven of Rest, 175 E. Market St., Akron, OH 44308 or St. Jude’s Research Hospital, 501 St. Jude Place, Memphis, TN 38105. Visit www.cliffordshoemaker.com  to share condolences with the family.

 

THRITY TO RECEIVE OHIOANA AWARD OCTOBER 14

 

Thrity among Ohioana Book Awards winners

October 14 event for presentations

 

Tiffany McDaniel's "Betty" won Ohioana’s 5th annual Readers' Choice Book Award.

 

"Betty" got the most votes in fiction as well as the most overall votes of the more than 3,000 cast online, making Tiffany the first two-time winner of the Readers' Choice Book Award!

 

Fan favorites in each of the other five award categories included former BJ columnist Thrity Umbrigar for her book for juveniles, “ Sugar in Milk.”

 

The other winners:

 

Fiction - Tiffany McDaniel, "Betty"

Nonfiction - Maggie Downs, "Braver Than You Think"

About Ohio - Carole Genshaft, "Raggin' On"

Poetry - Marianne Chan, "All Heathens"

Middle Grade/Young Adult - Shelley Pearsall, "Things Seen from Above"

 

This year marks the 80th anniversary of the Ohioana Book Awards, and will be presented Thursday, October 14, from 6 to 9 p.m. in the Ohio Statehouse Atrium.

DELIGHTFUL OBITUARY FOR BOB LEWIS

 Going out with a bang!

 

Former BJ printer Bob Lewis’ obituary appeared in the BJ today.

 

It was written so brilliantly and delightfully that I will let it speak for itself except for this comment: Bob loved Hank Williams songs; so did I; the favorite for both of us was “Your Cheatin’ Heart.”  

 

Bob’s obituary with a tip of my cap to whoever wrote it:

 

Robert C. Lewis died July 4, 2021 at his home in Sarasota in the company of his family after a long battle with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis. He was 78.

 

You had to see him to believe him. Friends remember him debating the political issues of the day. “He’d take whatever side you weren’t on,” one friend recalled, “to make things interesting or to keep you guessing what he really thought. Probably both.”

 

He could sing old Hank Williams’ tunes (“Your Cheatin’ Heart” was a favorite). He read books about early American history with an academic’s passion. He never drank coffee at Starbucks. Anybody could do that. “Hot chocolate, please.”

 

He despised flying anywhere and made as many road trips across America as a truck driver.

 

When walking replaced his running habit, Bob tramped along Ohio’s country roads for miles every day in old leather boots until they wore out, then he just kept going. He even walked part of the Great Wall of China.

 

He wore a mischievous grin like Dennis the Menace (which never did wear out) because he loved to keep people wondering what was on his mind. There was always something. Like his family and his friends.

 

Robert dedicated his life to his family and service to others. Throughout his life he found ways to help those in need: as a fundraiser for the United Way; a tax preparer for low-income families through AARP; a counselor for a Salvation Army program that provides financial support and advice to those at risk of homelessness; a member of the Wadsworth Lions Club; an Eucharistic minister for the housebound in the Roman Catholic Church.

 

Professionally, he worked at the Akron Beacon Journal newspaper for 35 years in key roles throughout the company, starting as a Linotype operator and retiring as Building and Facilities manager.

 

He earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Akron and qualified as a CPA. He was a long distance runner, completing 13 marathons and inspired his friends and relatives to join in the “fun.”

 

He had a joke for everyone and for every occasion. At the beginning of his last day, knowing it was the 4th of July, he told his family he was ready to “go out with a bang.” It is fitting that he shared this historic date of passing with two of his favorite founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams.

 

He is survived by his wife of 54 years, Fen Lewis; son, Robert (Megann) and Kimberly Brown (Morgan) and four granddaughters.

 

In honor of his deep connection to Siesta Key, his ashes will be shared with the sea.

 

A private memorial service will also be held. In lieu of flowers, please donate to the Salvation Army or the Tidewell Foundation, the charitable arm of the Tidewell Hospice.

BOB GILES' WIFE, NANCY, PASSES AWAY

 

Bob was the managing editor at the BJ during his 1958-75 tenure who assigned the late Pat Englehart the task of handling the BJ’s coverage of the 1970 slaughter of 4 Kent State students and the wounding of 9 others by the Ohio National Guard, send there by Ohio Governor Jim Rhodes who was on the verge of an unsuccessful run for the Senate.

I was in Bob’s office with Al Fitzpatrick and co-assistant State Desk editor with me Harry Liggett when they announced that Pat Englehart, also sitting there, would be in charge of the BJ’s coverage of the Kent State shootings that killed 4 and wounded 9.

They couldn’t have made a better choice. Pat was a Tasmanian devil and whirling dervish combined when it came to grabbing a project by the throat. Pat filled a BJ storage room to the ceiling with boxes and boxes of photos and notes related to the Kent State shooting and the aftermath.

Bob wrote a book about the BJ handling of thed situation, “When Truth Mattered.”

Bob was curator for the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard after he left the BJ. And editor of the Rochester
Democrat & Chronicle, publisher of the Detroit News.

He lives in Cambridge and later Travers City, Michigan with his wife, Nancy, a psychologist. Travers City is among my many stops in Michigan. Delightful view of Grand Traverse Bay, too.

Bob and Nancy, lived, appropriately since she was a psychologist, in a former mental hospital that was restructed into a condo building.

Bob was a 1955 DePauw University graduate who got his master’s in 1956 from Columbia University. 

Nancy was honored by Ohio Wesleyan, where she was a student, with a 2010 Alumni Award for service to the college. At Wesleyan she was on the Student Council, the YMCA, The Transcript and Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority.

After Wesleyan, Nancy got her master’s from the University of Akron in school psychology and child psychology followed by an Ed.D. in psychology from the University of Rochester.

She was licensed to practice in five states. She served on Wesleyan’s Board of Directors for 12 years, including as president in 2004-2006.

RETIRED BJ PRINTER BOB LEWIS PASSES AWAY IN FLORIDA

Bob Lewis, retired BJ printer and later Building and Facilities Manager, passed away Sunday, July 4 at his home in Sarasota, Florida.

Bob Springer passed along the sad news. Lung disease brought Bob down.

Survivors include his wife, Fen; son, Robert; daughter, Kim; and grandchildren.

Springer nailed Lewis’ character: “He was a wonderful friend to everyone in all departments.”

I recall in 2008 when Paula and I wanted to find Florida beachfront rental in February and I knew that Bob had one on Point of Rocks on Siesta Key, Florida, just south of the #1 beach in the world in my opinion because the sand was always cool on your feet no matter how hot the sun was. Only a beach in Saudi Arabia compared to it, according to travel experts.

So I called Bob in Wadsworth where he was living with wife Fen. Got his Voicemail so I left a message.

Bob called me back, from California! He was getting his rotator cuff repaired by the same doctor who did the first fixup which Bob screwed up by overdoing the rehab therapy.

Several years later, I ran into Bob and Mike Jewell walking on the beach at Siesta Key. Bob's place wasn't rented for about 10 days in February that year so they both went down to stay in it. 

We were staying in Sea Castle, whose parking lot is across the street from former BJ printer Bill Gorrell's former rentals.

My late wife Monia and I had dinner with Bob and Mike the next evening.

Monnie was my Cinderella girl. Honestly. I courted her for 2 years at her Cinderella, West Virginia coal mining camp home adjacent to Williamson, West Virginia on the Tug River border with Kentucky.

Bob and Fen later bought a 2-bedroom, 2-bath home at 5787 Ivrea in Sarasota that was built in 2002.

Alas, Sea Castle, where every February My Mona Lisa and I were reunited with the same people from states in the north who also booked Sea Castle for every February, was razed to make way for a 6-story condominium.

Former BJ printer Bill Gorrell's complex across the street from Sea Castle also was leveled for the same inglorious reason.

And the two complexes behind Gorrell's former place, which Bill managed for the doctors who owned them.

Gorrell started it all in 1971 when he purchased the 37-room Siesta Plaza Motel and turned it into Poor Bill's Motel.

Renters could work off part of their tab by doing carpentry, plumbing, electrical work or painting.

BJ folks gathered as many as eight at a time to drink, play poker and golf while staying at Poor Bill's place. BJ vacation schedules in the Composing Room were choreographed to allow the mass exodus to Siesta Key and Poor Bill's Motel.

There were 113 printers in BJ Composing in 1982. Computers eliminated them all. And the current BJ newsroom is on the 7^th floor of a former Akron rubber factory on Main Street.

Gorrell was famous for his parties -- the Kentucky Derby (first Saturday in May, when John S. Knight flew up from Florida to Louisville's Churchill Downs every year), Thanksgiving and the March climax to the shuffleboard tournament.

Poor Bill's place was across the street from the Sea Castle rentals by the time my late wife Monnie and I first stayed there in 1999. Previously, Sea Castle was called Sun and Sea Lodge because it was on Sun and Sea Drive.

I had called Bill about renting a place with him in the early 1990s, but something came up and My Monnie Lisa and I never made the trip. When we arrived at Sea Castle in 1999, it was too late to get together with Bill. Born in 1930, Bill died in 1995.

But I had BJ reunions every year on Siesta Key. With former BJ Composing folks Dave White and wife Gina of Sarasota, my favorite makeup printer Terry Dray and wife Cecily of Avon Park, Florida, and newsroom rewrite expert Don Bandy of Bradenton. And former BJ printer Don Pack was the pool guy at Sea Castle, when he wasn't galivanting off to Costa Rica or another country with his girlfriend.

Monnie and I ran into  Bob Lewis and another BJ printer, Mike Jewell, while strolling on Crescent Beach one year.

Bob's 2-bedroom rental property at 7007 Point of Rocks Road was available for 10 days, so Bob and Mike popped down to Siesta Key to take in the sunshine. The four of us went out to dinner together.

Another time, I saw a car with Montgomery County license tags one building east of Poor Bill's former place and checked on the second-floor rental's occupants. It was Composing retiree Hugh Downing and wife Sharon.

Alas, times change.

Terry died in 2009. Don died in 2011. Dave and Gina, after about two decades in their Sarasota home, sold it and bought another one in Venice, south of Sarasota, and Dave passed away.

Dave had about eight dimes that I gave him during each reunion since he was famous for telling newsroom types who were complaining in the Composing Room, "Here's a dime; call someone who cares."

Bob and Mike didn’t crossed my path again  since. And now never will.

The Downings moved from Medina County to The Villages, a Florida retirement city with 140,000 people and 50,000 golf carts and 90 miles of cart paths for shopping, restaurants, churches and, yes, the 38 golf courses.

Hugh would line up BJ foursomes of snowbirds for us on The Villages’ zillions of golf courses.

Hugh passed away in 2016 and Sharon after a few years moved to Erie, Pennsylvania to be near her son, Jonathan. Hugh and Sharon were married for 56 years.

Hugh’s siblings are Barbara Downing Roelle, Bert Downing, Colleen Downing Elliker, James Downing, Judy Downing Johnston and Karen Downing Yochem.

Hugh and Sharon both were from Galion, Ohio but didn’t meet till Hugh showed up in her parents' home in Florida.

Hugh started working for the Galion Inquirer at age 14 as a paperboy and worked his way to typesetter before leaving the Inquirer in 1962.

After a move to Florida, Hugh worked for the Pensacola News Journal until 1964 before "heading home" to Ol' Blue Walls. Hugh retired  in 2000 after 37 years at 44 E. Exchange Street.

I retired in 1996 after 26 years at the BJ as part of my 43-year newspaper career that took me to the Williamson (WV) Daily News, Glendive (Montana) Daily Ranger (6 week paid honeymoon with my new bride, My Mona Lisa), Charleston (WV) Daily Mail, Dayton (Ohio) Daily News, St. Petersburg (Florida) Times and the BJ.

Paula bought another home in The Villages (she had sold her previous home there)  which is her primary residence when she isn’t staying at my Tallmadge condo that we bought in 2006 during our 17-year romance.

Paula will be heading north to visit her siblings, her son in New York City and lodging in my Tallmadge home in August.

Half of my 30+ winters in Florida of up to 4 months were spent first with my Mona Lisa and the other half with Paula.

The Villages and Siesta Key’s remarkable beach and Clearwater Beach are my favorite Florida hideaways.