Theodore J. Mellow, long-time editor/slotman at the PD, died Aug. 21 in San Diego.
Ted moved West with his wife, Alida, in the mid-90s. Previously, they lived in Hinckley and Medina.
Ted was born in Missouri on Oct. 7, 1921. He was raised in China, the child of missionaries. At 16, he returned to the U.S., attended school, served in the military and married his first wife, Jan. She died in 1984.
Ted was a smart and gentle man who always kept a calm demeanor, even on election night.
Alida's address:
3007 Orleans East San Diego Ca 92110
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Former Press Columnist Bob August dies
Bob August, popular Northeast Ohio sports columnist, dies at 89
Published: Saturday, September 10, 2011, 3:49 PM Updated: Saturday, September 10, 2011, 3:58 PM
By Mark Gillispie, The Plain Dealer
WOOSTER, Ohio -- Bob August entertained Northeast Ohio newspaper readers for decades with his gentle wit and eloquent prose as a columnist for the Cleveland Press and the News-Herald in Lake County.
August died Friday in Wooster, where he had lived since the 1980s. He was 89.
"He was an incredibly talented writer," said Bob Sudyk, an award-winning sportswriter and columnist for the Press and Hartford Courant. "He was the Red Smith of the Midwest. He had such a skill with words. It was a great pleasure to read him."
August later wrote a nationally syndicated column titled, "The Wiser Side of 60," that was distributed by the United Press Syndicate from 1982 until 1986.
He was inducted into the Cleveland Journalism Hall of Fame in 1988.
August was born Oct. 6, 1921, in Ashtabula. He grew up in Cleveland and graduated from Collinwood High School, where he was a star baseball player. He continued playing baseball at the College of Wooster, where he graduated in 1943.
He served in the U.S. Navy during World War II and commanded a ship that participated in the invasion of Normandy on D-Day. He ended the war in the Pacific Theater, preparing for the invasion of Japan.
August began his journalism career in 1946 as a makeup and copy editor for the Cleveland Press. He became a sportswriter and was promoted to sports editor in 1958. He wrote a sports column for the Press from 1964 until 1979, when he became a general columnist and associate editor.
After the Press folded in June 1982, August joined the News-Herald as sports editor and a columnist. He retired in 2003.
A collection of his columns, "Fun and Games -- Four Decades of the Best of Bob August," was published in 2001.
Sudyk said August had the ability to criticize sports figures without them knowing they had been eviscerated.
Said Paul Hoynes, The Plain Dealer's longtime Indians beat writer who worked for August at the Press and News-Herald: "Art Modell had a great line. He said, '[August] could you cut you up and you wouldn't even know you were bleeding.' "
Hoynes, like most of Cleveland's sportswriting community, admired August greatly.
"He was a writer's writer, a columnist's columnist," Hoynes said. "You just loved reading him. You weren't just getting hit over the head with the facts. You were getting a writing lesson."
Longtime friend Dick Feagler, who worked with him at the Press, said August liked but was never infatuated with sports. The act of writing was a different matter.
"He could be sitting there writing a funny line and be grimacing," Feagler said with a laugh. "He was the best I've ever read, and I've read many sports columnists from around the country."
It was only a few years ago, Feagler said, that August revealed that he had long had multiple sclerosis. Feagler said he remembered when August began to have trouble getting to and from the press box and locker room at the old Cleveland Stadium. Effects of the disease troubled August the rest of his life, although Feagler said his friend never complained.
August's daughter, Alison McCulloch, said her father was first diagnosed with the disease when he was in his early 40s. He refused to take the medicine prescribed to him, but was dutiful about continuing his regimen of swimming until just a few years ago.
McCulloch said her father's interests went far beyond the world of sports.
"He was an intellectual person," McCulloch said. "He had very strong feelings about the world and what was going wrong with it."
In addition to his daughter, August is survived by his wife of 66 years, Marilynn, and two granddaughters. A memorial service is being planned in Wooster sometime in the next few weeks.
Published: Saturday, September 10, 2011, 3:49 PM Updated: Saturday, September 10, 2011, 3:58 PM
By Mark Gillispie, The Plain Dealer
WOOSTER, Ohio -- Bob August entertained Northeast Ohio newspaper readers for decades with his gentle wit and eloquent prose as a columnist for the Cleveland Press and the News-Herald in Lake County.
August died Friday in Wooster, where he had lived since the 1980s. He was 89.
"He was an incredibly talented writer," said Bob Sudyk, an award-winning sportswriter and columnist for the Press and Hartford Courant. "He was the Red Smith of the Midwest. He had such a skill with words. It was a great pleasure to read him."
August later wrote a nationally syndicated column titled, "The Wiser Side of 60," that was distributed by the United Press Syndicate from 1982 until 1986.
He was inducted into the Cleveland Journalism Hall of Fame in 1988.
August was born Oct. 6, 1921, in Ashtabula. He grew up in Cleveland and graduated from Collinwood High School, where he was a star baseball player. He continued playing baseball at the College of Wooster, where he graduated in 1943.
He served in the U.S. Navy during World War II and commanded a ship that participated in the invasion of Normandy on D-Day. He ended the war in the Pacific Theater, preparing for the invasion of Japan.
August began his journalism career in 1946 as a makeup and copy editor for the Cleveland Press. He became a sportswriter and was promoted to sports editor in 1958. He wrote a sports column for the Press from 1964 until 1979, when he became a general columnist and associate editor.
After the Press folded in June 1982, August joined the News-Herald as sports editor and a columnist. He retired in 2003.
A collection of his columns, "Fun and Games -- Four Decades of the Best of Bob August," was published in 2001.
Sudyk said August had the ability to criticize sports figures without them knowing they had been eviscerated.
Said Paul Hoynes, The Plain Dealer's longtime Indians beat writer who worked for August at the Press and News-Herald: "Art Modell had a great line. He said, '[August] could you cut you up and you wouldn't even know you were bleeding.' "
Hoynes, like most of Cleveland's sportswriting community, admired August greatly.
"He was a writer's writer, a columnist's columnist," Hoynes said. "You just loved reading him. You weren't just getting hit over the head with the facts. You were getting a writing lesson."
Longtime friend Dick Feagler, who worked with him at the Press, said August liked but was never infatuated with sports. The act of writing was a different matter.
"He could be sitting there writing a funny line and be grimacing," Feagler said with a laugh. "He was the best I've ever read, and I've read many sports columnists from around the country."
It was only a few years ago, Feagler said, that August revealed that he had long had multiple sclerosis. Feagler said he remembered when August began to have trouble getting to and from the press box and locker room at the old Cleveland Stadium. Effects of the disease troubled August the rest of his life, although Feagler said his friend never complained.
August's daughter, Alison McCulloch, said her father was first diagnosed with the disease when he was in his early 40s. He refused to take the medicine prescribed to him, but was dutiful about continuing his regimen of swimming until just a few years ago.
McCulloch said her father's interests went far beyond the world of sports.
"He was an intellectual person," McCulloch said. "He had very strong feelings about the world and what was going wrong with it."
In addition to his daughter, August is survived by his wife of 66 years, Marilynn, and two granddaughters. A memorial service is being planned in Wooster sometime in the next few weeks.
Tuesday, September 06, 2011
Lake bureau nostalgia
Roy Gutterman, former Lake County bureau reporter, was in town recently and dropped in to a PD alumni lunch.
Roy, now Associate Professor of Communications Law and Journalism Director, Tully Center for Free Speech at the S.I. Newhouse School at Syracuse, posed with his former colleagues Pete Copeland and Doris O'Donnell.
Sunday, September 04, 2011
PD Sweeps
The Plain Dealer was named the Ohio's Best Daily Newspaper in the large-circulation category in the annual 2011 Ohio Society of Professional Journalist Awards. The newspaper won a total of 25 awards including Best Page One Design.
Also honored among the newspaper's 19 first-place awards were:
• Margaret Bernstein and Stan Donaldson, Best Minority Issues Reporting. Their stories focused on four men whose mothers were found dead in and around convicted serial killer Anthony Sowell's home on Imperial Avenue in Cleveland. The series detailed how the sons decided to break the cycle of drug abuse, neglect and tragedy in their lives and in the lives of their children.
• Tom Breckenridge, Best Business Profile, for "Leading the Way: Frank Douglas." The story centered on Douglas, from his humble beginnings in Guyana to his prominent position as head of the Austen BioInnovation Institute of Akron and being chosen to help make Akron a leader in research for joint, bone and would healing.
• Sharon Broussard, Best Editorial Page Campaign, for "Children's Campaign." The series brought to light the weaknesses and failures of the Cuyahoga County Department of Children & Family Services, under the leadership of former Director Deborah Forkas, in protecting the lives of children who eventually died at the hands of their mothers and caregivers. Forkas was eventually fired from her position in February.
• Gabriel Baird, Henry J. Gomez and Mark Puente, Best Government Reporting, for "A Question of Values." The months-long investigation revealed, among other problems, that about 2,200 county tax records had been altered inappropriately with pens, fluid and erasures, whacking $145 million in property value from tax rolls.
• Diane Suchetka, Best Human Interest Writing, for "A Spirit That Won't Break." The story focused on Connie Culp, the first person in the country to undergo a near-total face transplant. Culp had no right eye, lower eyelids, top teeth, upper lip and nose after her common-law husband shot her in 2004.
• The Plain Dealer Staff, Best Political Reporting, for "County Reform." The series focused on how voters, who were fed-up with county corruption under a government with three county commissioners, choose a new county government that included one county executive and 11 council members.
• The Plain Dealer Staff, Best Deadline Reporting, for the newspaper's coverage of the corruption-related charges filed last September against former Cuyahoga County Auditor Frank Russo.
The newspaper swept some categories, winning both first and second place. Reporters Amanda Garrett and John Caniglia won the Best Criminal Justice Reporting award for "Presumed Guilty." The series looked into a number of cases that were prosecuted in the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court with little or no evidence.
Reporters Rachel Dissell and Leila Atassi won second place in the category for their look at sexual assault crimes. Those stories, following the discovery of the bodies of 11 women at Sowell's home, examined how the city of Cleveland handled missing-person and rape cases.
Connie Schultz and Phillip Morris finished first and second, respectively, in the columnist category. Features writer Debbi Snook finished first in the Best Critic category, followed by colleague Steven Litt in second place.
Other first place winners were Tony Brown, Best Arts Reporting; Thomas Ott and Edith Starzyk, Best Education Issues Reporting: K-12; Ted Diadiun, Best Media Criticism; Brent Larkin, Best Political Commentary; John Soeder, Best Rock and Roll Feature Writing; Andrea Levy, Best Graphic Designer; and Business Staff, for Aviation Coverage.
Second place winners were Mary Ann Whitley, Best Headline Writing; Michael O'Malley, Best Religion Reporting; and The Plain Dealer Staff, Best Sports Reporting, for "Cavs: Team in Transition."
Also honored among the newspaper's 19 first-place awards were:
• Margaret Bernstein and Stan Donaldson, Best Minority Issues Reporting. Their stories focused on four men whose mothers were found dead in and around convicted serial killer Anthony Sowell's home on Imperial Avenue in Cleveland. The series detailed how the sons decided to break the cycle of drug abuse, neglect and tragedy in their lives and in the lives of their children.
• Tom Breckenridge, Best Business Profile, for "Leading the Way: Frank Douglas." The story centered on Douglas, from his humble beginnings in Guyana to his prominent position as head of the Austen BioInnovation Institute of Akron and being chosen to help make Akron a leader in research for joint, bone and would healing.
• Sharon Broussard, Best Editorial Page Campaign, for "Children's Campaign." The series brought to light the weaknesses and failures of the Cuyahoga County Department of Children & Family Services, under the leadership of former Director Deborah Forkas, in protecting the lives of children who eventually died at the hands of their mothers and caregivers. Forkas was eventually fired from her position in February.
• Gabriel Baird, Henry J. Gomez and Mark Puente, Best Government Reporting, for "A Question of Values." The months-long investigation revealed, among other problems, that about 2,200 county tax records had been altered inappropriately with pens, fluid and erasures, whacking $145 million in property value from tax rolls.
• Diane Suchetka, Best Human Interest Writing, for "A Spirit That Won't Break." The story focused on Connie Culp, the first person in the country to undergo a near-total face transplant. Culp had no right eye, lower eyelids, top teeth, upper lip and nose after her common-law husband shot her in 2004.
• The Plain Dealer Staff, Best Political Reporting, for "County Reform." The series focused on how voters, who were fed-up with county corruption under a government with three county commissioners, choose a new county government that included one county executive and 11 council members.
• The Plain Dealer Staff, Best Deadline Reporting, for the newspaper's coverage of the corruption-related charges filed last September against former Cuyahoga County Auditor Frank Russo.
The newspaper swept some categories, winning both first and second place. Reporters Amanda Garrett and John Caniglia won the Best Criminal Justice Reporting award for "Presumed Guilty." The series looked into a number of cases that were prosecuted in the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court with little or no evidence.
Reporters Rachel Dissell and Leila Atassi won second place in the category for their look at sexual assault crimes. Those stories, following the discovery of the bodies of 11 women at Sowell's home, examined how the city of Cleveland handled missing-person and rape cases.
Connie Schultz and Phillip Morris finished first and second, respectively, in the columnist category. Features writer Debbi Snook finished first in the Best Critic category, followed by colleague Steven Litt in second place.
Other first place winners were Tony Brown, Best Arts Reporting; Thomas Ott and Edith Starzyk, Best Education Issues Reporting: K-12; Ted Diadiun, Best Media Criticism; Brent Larkin, Best Political Commentary; John Soeder, Best Rock and Roll Feature Writing; Andrea Levy, Best Graphic Designer; and Business Staff, for Aviation Coverage.
Second place winners were Mary Ann Whitley, Best Headline Writing; Michael O'Malley, Best Religion Reporting; and The Plain Dealer Staff, Best Sports Reporting, for "Cavs: Team in Transition."
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