Damian Guevara dies

Published: Monday, July 30, 2012, 3:51 PM Updated: Tuesday, July 31, 2012, 12:03 AM
 By Grant Segall

 MALAGA, Spain -- Damian G. Guevara wrote for The Plain Dealer and taught English to children in Spain.
 After fighting depression for more than 20 years, Guevara took his life on July 23 in Malaga, Spain. He was 37.
 "He was a talented writer, a compassionate friend, and had an infectious laugh," said Plain Dealer reporter Rachel Dissell, who often teamed with Guevara on stories. "He always sensitively responded to the families of victims. They always seemed calmed and comforted after talking to him. They knew he really listened."

The outgoing Guevara liked to coin nicknames, calling a colleague "Good Times" and his Mustang "White Heat, Red Hot." He wrote short fiction, liked craft beers, sang, played guitar, composed, jammed with friends and donated to Cleveland college radio stations, even from Spain. He liked all sorts of music, from country to heavy metal. One New Year's Eve, he rented a top hat and tails for himself and a rhinestone gown for a lonely friend. They went out for chili cheese slaw hot dogs at 2 a.m
. Guevara was raised in San Antonio. He earned degrees in English at the University of Notre Dame and journalism at Syracuse University. He interned at the Syracuse newspapers in 2000. He spent 2001 at The Plain Dealer as a Newhouse Fellow, writing for the Metro section. Then came a year at the Beaumont Enterprise in Texas.
 He returned to The Plain Dealer's Metro section as a reporter from 2003 through 2008. He lived in Lakewood and Cleveland. He wrote about crime, politics, weather, even, at an editor's request, his Mustang.
 As a reporter, Guevara also wrote many stories over the years about suicide, not only about people who died that way but about depression and how people can be helped. Said co-worker Dissell, "He was always searching for answers and truths."
 The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline offers free, confidential support to struggling people, their families and friends at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
 Guevara took a buyout in 2008 and went on to cover politics for Scene Magazine. In 2010, he and his wife, Shaheen Samavati, another former Plain Dealer reporter, moved to Madrid so she could study there. He became an English language assistant at a bilingual elementary school in the nearby city of Alcala de Henares. He loved the work and often spent recess playing with the children or teaching them guitar.
 He had Spanish ancestors by way of Mexico and liked exploring his roots. He visited a lush green village in the Basque region of northern Spain that shared his surname. He also traveled widely in Spain and other parts of Europe. The couple recently moved to Malaga on the Mediterranean for Samavati's work. Guevara planned to start teaching at a nearby elementary school.
 Trevino Funeral Home in San Antonio is handling his arrangements. Survivors include his wife, parents, three brothers and seven nieces and nephews.

The next luncheon

PD Editorial Retirees & Expatriates Casual unstructured lunch troupe Gather for lunch on the last Fridays of January, April, July and October Spouses and guests always welcome NEXT LUNCHEON: Noon, Friday, July 27, 2012 PLACE: Lemon Grass Restaurant, 2179 Lee Rd., Cleveland Heights Metered parking behind restaurant only accepts quarters MENU: Go to www.bestlemongrass.com and choose and let us know when you RSVP. Some suggestions are Pad Thai, $8.95; Pad See Ew with a choice of Pork, Beef, Tofu, or Vegetable, $8.95, or Shrimp or Seafood, $10.95; Orange Chicken, $8.95; Sweet and Sour Pan Fried with choice of Chicken, Pork, Beef, Tofu or Vegetable, $8.95 RSVP by Tuesday, July 24 Janet Beighle French (216) 221-2318 or email jabfr519@sbcglobal.net or JoAnn Pallant (440) 734-1923 or email japallant@sbcglobal.net

Summer book sale June Thur,Fri, 21-22

Summer Book Sale June 21 & June 22 Interested in acquiring "The Complete Funky Winkerbean"? the limit of 10 fresh children's books? Colin Powell's autobiography or the new book on "Cronkite"? All these options and thousands more will be laid at your feet Thursday, June 21, 3 to 6 p.m. and half-price, Friday, June 22, 9 a.m. to noon in the second-floor community room. We are holding prices steady: $3 hardcover, $2 paperbacks, $8 unabridged audiobooks and $10 coffee table books. You can pick among fiction, biography, memoir, graphic novels, nonfiction, mysteries, science fiction, sports books, cook books, crafts books and those I have a very hard time giving up. Here is a chance to fuel your child's summer reading, your distraction for the car trip or, for the well-organized, your holiday gift-giving. Checks and cash only. Proceeds go to the United Way.

Send Pauline a card

Pauline Thoma's daughter said Pauline took a bad fall the beginning of April. She damaged the C-2 bone in her neck and must wear a collar for the next 6 weeks. They took her to the Lutheran Home. I'm sure she would like to hear from her former co-workers. Pauline was a co-founder of the Retirees Group. The Lutheran Home is at 2126 Dover Center Road, Westlake, OH 44145. The Pearl of the Orient is one of her favorite restaurants and she was hoping to join us for the retiree luncheon Friday, April 27 at the restaurant at 19300 Detroit Rd., in Beachcliff Mall.

Luncheon Friday, April 27.

PD Editorial Retirees & Expatriates
Casual unstructured lunch troupe
Gather for lunch on the last Fridays of January, April, July and October
Spouses and guests always welcome

NEXT LUNCHEON: Noon, Friday, April 27, 2012

PLACE: Pearl of the Orient, 19300 Detroit Rd., in Beachcliff Mall (in rear), Rocky River.

MENU: Choose from: Chicken Cashew, Vegetarian Delight, Roast Pork & Vegetables, Chicken Lo Mien for $6.50 each, or Beef & Broccoli for $7.50 or Shrimp Fried Rice for $8.95. Each entrée is served with choice of rice. Egg Roll is extra at $1.95

RSVP by Tuesday, April 24
Janet Beighle French (216) 221-2318 or email jabfr519@sbcglobal.net or
JoAnn Pallant (440) 734-1923 or email japallant@sbcglobal.net

Hatch's obituary

The award-winning James Hatch was a Plain Dealer photographer and
supervisor:


news obituary


Published: Tuesday, February 28, 2012, 2:44 PM Updated: Tuesday,
February 28, 2012, 2:50 PM
Grant Segall By Grant Segall



The award-winning James Hatch photographed crimes, swells and an elusive
parakeet during 47 years at The Plain Dealer.

Hatch, 72, died Sunday, Feb. 26, at a hospital in Los Angeles after a
year's struggle with cancer.

"He was a good dresser, he had an ear for things, and he was one of the
top photographers," said Bob Dorksen, retired Plain Dealer photo editor.

Hatch kept antique cameras on his desk and studied the field's rich
history. Dennis Webb, retired news systems director, said, "He had a
vast knowledge of things like midtones and dot gains and the art of
excellent reproduction."

He joined the newspaper at age 18 as a part-time copy boy and retired in
2004 as editorial systems manager. In between, he won many awards,
including first places, from the Ohio News Photographers Association. He
also displayed a photograph in the Cleveland Museum of Art's prestigious
May Show.

Hatch was raised in Lakewood and graduated from Lakewood High School. He
studied accounting at Western Reserve University and architecture at
Kent State University.

He spent his first two years at the newspaper part-time and the next 45
full-time. He worked briefly in the commercial photography department
and mostly in the editorial one.

Hatch broke into print in 1962 with a front page photo of the Westlake
Hotel Fire in Rocky River. He worked the police beat awhile but also
shot many society events and liked dressing for them. With a gift for
inside information, he learned about many unmarked bathrooms in local
country clubs.

In 1965, his shot of the Cleveland skyline made the cover of "People,"
an album by Al Serafini, orchestra leader at the Sahara Motor Hotel on
Euclid Ave.

In 1973, he talked his way into the Cleveland Museum of Natural History
late at night for a deadline shot of a monk parakeet. A worker opened
the cage, and the bird flew out. The worker and Hatch chased it around
the basement, hoping to save it from an uncaged eagle. Hatch finally
netted the fugitive.

He gradually rose to chief photographer and deputy photo editor. He
finished his career overseeing computers that transferred photos from
camera to newsprint.

A young Hatch proposed to Marianne Kovacs, a portrait photographer,
outside the Headliner, a favorite downtown hangout for journalists. Over
the years, the couple lived in North Olmsted, Rocky River and Bay
Village. They lost a daughter, Julie Ann, at age 12. In 2004, Hatch
retired and moved with Marianne to Studio City, Calif., near their
surviving daughter, Char, and her family.

James Alfred Hatch

1939-2011

Survivors: Wife, the former Marianne Kovacs; daughter, Char Hatch Langos
of Los Angeles; and two grandchildren.

Jim Hatch dies

Jim Hatch, the dapper dressing former photographer and Mac systems person, died in Los Angeles this morning, Monday, February 27, 2012. He had been
battling bladder and kidney cancer for about a year, and six months
ago it appeared he was doing much better. But he took a turn for the
worse about a month ago, and was in a lot of discomfort until the end.
Jim's wife, Marianne, will send some additional
information soon.

Two weeks she sent out an email with photos that he was going to start chemo Feb. 12

Jim and Marianne moved to California shortly after retiring from the PD in 2004 or 2005 to be near their daughter.

Jan. 27 luncheon

PD Editorial Retirees & Expatriates
Casual unstructured lunch troupe
Gather for lunch on the last Fridays of January, April, July and October
Spouses and guests always welcome

NEXT LUNCHEON: Noon, Friday, January 27, 2012

PLACE: Carrie Cerino’s Ristorante, 8922 Ridge Road, North Royalton

Order from menu, including Pork Tenderloin Piccata, Parmesan Crusted Tlapia,
Chicken Breast Parmigiana or Eggplant Parigiana (with pasta or potato, salad and rolls),
plus salads or sandwiches. Prices from $8.50 to $10.50

Take I-480 west to Ridge Road exit, south on Ridge past Sprague Road.
The restaurant is on the west side of Ridge and has ample parking.

RSVP by Tuesday, January 24
Janet Beighle French (216) 221-2318 or email jabfr519@sbcglobal.net or
JoAnn Pallant (440) 734-1923 or email japallant@sbcglobal.net

Sportswriter McDermott dies

From the PD


Jack McDermott covered sports for The Plain Dealer and other papers


Published: Thursday, January 05, 2012, 3:01 PM Updated: Thursday, January 05, 2012, 3:18 PM
By Grant Segall
View full sizeLarry Hamel-Lambert, The Plain Dealer
Lorain -- Jack McDermott hung out with world champions but liked interviewing teenage hopefuls, too.

McDermott, a long-time sportswriter for The Plain Dealer and other area newspapers, died Monday, Jan. 2, at home in Lorain from an apparent heart attack. The 68-year-old had suffered heart problems for years.

"Jack loved Lorain, knew it like the back of his hand and loved those kids out there," said Bob Fortuna, Plain Dealer sportswriter. "And the people in Lorain County loved Jack."

Those people included Joe Gentile, a boxer turned promoter. "Jack was a real, real nice guy," said Gentile. "He was fair with people. He was very supportive."

Gentile said he and McDermott had dinner with Muhammad Ali and Chuck Wepner in 1975, before the boxers' championship clash at the new Richfield Coliseum. And McDermott posed for a photo while taking a mock punch from champion Larry Holmes.

McDermott also covered countless young unknowns, including future stars like football's Matt Wilhelm, who won championships with Ohio State and Green Bay.

McDermott was born in Amherst and lived in Lorain County the rest of his life. He graduated from St. Mary Catholic School and Ohio State University.

In the mid-1960s, he began to cover high school teams for the Elyria Chronicle. He joined the Lorain Journal in 1969 and covered the Cavaliers's first years, including the Miracle of Richfield.

On the side, he was sports information director at Baldwin-Wallace College under football patriarch Lee Tressel and later at Oberlin College.

In 1978, he was sports editor of the short-lived Ohio Observer in Mansfield. He joined The Plain Dealer a year later and transferred to the paper's new Lorain County bureau in 1992. He retired in 2006.

McDermott coached his children in recreational baseball and softball. He was a passionate Democrat and Irish-American. He especially liked the Irish Tenor who shared his name.

His son, John M., coaches boys' basketball and girls' softball at Brookside High School in Sheffield and freelances sports stories for the Elyria Chronicle.
John Edmund McDermott

1943-2011

Survivors: Wife, the former Mary Kay Walker; mother, the former Margaret Mackin of North Ridge ville; children, John M. of Lorain, Kris Higgins of Hilliard, O., Molly McDermott of Amherst and Katy Smith of Clyde, O.; and 10 grand children.

Funeral: Private.

Contributions: St. Jude Chil dren's Research Hospital, 262 Danny Thomas Place, Memphis, TN 38105, stjude.org, or Autism Speaks, 5455 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 2250, Los Angeles, CA 90036, autismspeaks.org.

Arrangements: Dovin and Reber Jones of Amherst.

Globe trotting Armao wins award

Former Plain Dealer reporter and University at Albany journalism professor Rosemary Armao
was recently part of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, which won the Daniel Pearl Award for Outstanding International Investigative Reporting for a piece entitled "Off Shore Ink."
The piece provides a look at how organized crime and shady businesses have used corruption procedures in places like the Caribbean and Cyprus to elude accountability.

The project's website explained:

A series of stories documenting offshore tax havens, the criminals who use them and the millions of dollars in lost tax money has been awarded the top prize by the The International Consortium for Investigative Journalists.

The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project assembled a team of reporters throughout Eastern Europe and the United States to track the burgeoning network of offshore companies used to hide ownership and assets, launder money and create secret businesses that elude law enforcement agents worldwide.

The award was announced in Kyiv, Ukraine at the 2011 Global Investigative Journalism Conference. The prize is named in honor of Daniel Pearl, a Wall Street Journal reporter who was murdered in Pakistan in 2002 while attempting to interview members of the Al Qaeda terrorist network.

Over the course of six months, OCCRP reporters investigated offshore tax havens including the U.S. state of Delaware, the Cayman Islands, Seychelles, New Zealand, Romania and Ukraine. The project, Offshore Crime Inc. included OCCRP reporters going undercover posing as businessmen looking to cheat on taxes with impunity.

OCCRP was selected the top project out of 70 entries from 30 countries.

To see the University of Albany's student press story go to: http://www.albanystudentpress.org/news/ualbany-professor-recognized-for-international-reporting-1.2678414#.Tu1jGJhE670

Pass the nuts

Dan Coughlin serves up a second rollicking collection of stories about colorful characters and memorable events from his four decades covering sports for Cleveland TV and newspapers. Meet the gun-toting fanatics of Morgana Park–once home of “the most intense slow pitch softball league in the world.” Sit in on a star-studded night in the legendary Theatrical Restaurant alongside Don King while Dan flips a coin for a $500 bar tab with Ted Turner. Ride along on a series of death-defying, top-priority helicopter trips to report on . . . high school football. Reading Dan’s stories is like dipping into a bowl of bar nuts–easy to start and hard to stop!

Here's a link to his blog and book ordering info:
http://dcoughlin.wordpress.com/books-by-dan/

Holiday Book Sale

Craving the new Steve Jobs biography? The definitive $75 coffee-table tome "Harry Potter: Page to Screen"? Or Annie Leibowitz's new photography collection: "Pilgrimage"?

All will be among the thousands of books for adults and children on sale in the Community Room on the Plain Dealer's second floor. The inventory includes hundreds of audiobooks, videos, CDs and a mix of miscellany.
Dec 8, Thursday, 3-6 p.m.
Dec. 9, Friday, 9 a.m. to noon

Checks and cash to the United Way. Prices remain steady: $3 hardcovers, $2 paperbacks & CDs, $8 audiobooks and $10 coffee-table books. Children's books will be limited to 10 per person on Thursday.

Karen Long

Terry Oblander dies

PD's obit by Grant Segall

Medina -- An official once called a press conference at the Akron-Canton Airport to announce that he'd fly to Texas to promote the airport.

A small story, to be sure, but reporter Terry Oblander made it a little bigger. He learned that the official would fly out of Cleveland Hopkins International.

Oblander, a long-time area journalist and Public Squares puzzle maker, died Sunday, Nov. 13, at the Cleveland Clinic about two weeks after a heart attack. He was 64.

His life was fairly short and challenging. He nursed a dying wife in 1992, then raised their three boys, including an infant. He brought the boys to some meetings he covered and somehow attended all their ballgames.

There were triumphs, too, at Ravenna's Record-Courier, the Akron Beacon Journal and The Plain Dealer. Among several prizes, he shared a first place from the Associated Press of Ohio for coverage of a murder and a 1987 Pulitzer for coverage of a threatened takeover of Goodyear.

Through the ups and downs, the big, shaggy-haired Oblander told memorable stories with memorable laughter. It would start as a little wheeze. Then look out.

For the past 10 years, he tickled Plain Dealer readers six days a week with Public Squares, a puzzle of scrambled words and homegrown puns:

"Q. What did tipsy sailors say when they returned to the USS Cod from a bar?"

"A. Down the hatch."

The generous author made a few free puzzles to help readers commemorate birthdays or anniversaries.

Over the decades, he covered politics, labor, suburban news, the Kent State shootings and much more. He was also president of the Beacon's Local 7 for journalists and janitors.

Plain Dealer Editor Debra Adams Simmons said, "Terry Oblander was a thoughtful, dedicated journalist who spent his career chronicling the stories of Northeast Ohio. He was creative and quirky and always looking for new ways to push Public Squares to the next level."

Steve Luttner, a former Plain Dealer reporter, said, "Terry Oblander was a pure, battle-tested newsman.... He was totally honest and unflinchingly direct."

Oblander was born in Cleveland and raised in Olmsted Falls. He graduated from Cuyahoga Community College and attended Kent State University.

He spent 13 months with the Record-Courier, partly as religion editor and farms editor. He lived with some colleagues in a Ravenna home they called the "Lock Street Rock Festival."

Then came 19 years at the Beacon, mostly as a reporter, but also a copy editor, assistant metro editor and assistant state editor. He also wrote a puzzle called Groaners and a column of short news items called Ideas and a citizens band radio column called CB Break.

He tried to be objective but never dull. A Republican leader once complained that Oblander had registered as a Democrat. Oblander retorted that Ohio wouldn't register voters as Socialists.

Bob Downing, now the Beacon's environmental reporter, teamed with Oblander for a couple of years to cover Portage County. Said Downing, "He'd come back so excited about what he'd seen at government meetings. He'd chase little stories down. His passion rubbed off on everybody."

In 1990, Oblander wrote a folksy application to The Plain Dealer: "I like being a reporter. A lot." He mentioned his "lousy grades" at Kent State but said, "I'm sure we could stick it to any competition."

He warned that he'd need comprehensive health insurance for his wife, the former Mary O'Neill, who went blind from juvenile diabetes. Her father, Dan, moved in with the family in Stow to help out. In 1992, she bore her last child and died five months later.

Oblander took a leave of absence for a time. He raised the children with help from Dan. In 1996, he married the former Linda Monroe and moved the family to Medina.

He spent most of his PD career at bureaus in Summit and Medina counties. He also planned and oversaw reports of election results at the main office in Cleveland.

As a young boy, he could instantly unscramble words. He won many Scrabble tournaments over the years and organized a few. He started freelancing Public Squares in 2001.

Oblander moved to the PD's downtown office in 2007 and left the paper in 2008. In his final years, he kept freelancing Public Squares. He also wrote features for the Beacon, babysat his grandsons, competed in a fantasy baseball league and helped start and run bookstores for Project: LEARN of Medina County, a literacy program.

He always wrote Public Squares a few weeks ahead. The last one is scheduled to run on Dec. 3.

Terence Leroy Oblander

1947-2011

Survivors: Wife, the former Linda Monroe; father, Jacob Leroy of Parma Heights; sons, Terence Jacob of Montville Township, Medina, Christopher Daniel of Middleburg Heights, Nicholas Patrick of Medina and two grandsons.

Memorial Service: 10:30 a.m. Friday, Nov. 18, at Waite & Son Funeral Home., 765 N. Court St., Medina, Ohio.

Contributions: Project: LEARN of Medina County, 105 W. Liberty St., Medina, OH 44256, projectlearnmedina.org.

Heart attack takes Terry Oblander

Former Plain Dealer and Beacon Journal reporter Terry Oblander died Tuesday, Nov. 2 of a heart attack at the Cleveland Clinic, according to the BJ Alums blog. Terry was a reporter for the Medina bureau and also did the pun-based Public Squares Puzzle that appears on the PD's comics page.

Follow this link to read the entire post:
http://bjretirees.blogspot.com/2011/11/terry-oblander-dies.html"

Lunch time

PD Editorial Retirees & Expatriates
The Casual unstructured lunch troupe (cult) gather for lunch on the last Fridays of January, April, July and October.
Spouses and guests always welcome

NEXT LUNCHEON: Noon, Friday October 28

PLACE: Stancato's ,
7380 State Road at Pleasant Valley Road

COST: Buffet
$7.99


RSVP by Friday, October, 21
Janet Beighle French (216) 221-2318, or jabfr519@sbcglobal.net or
JoAnn Pallant (440) 734-1923, or japallant@sbcglobal.net

George Condon, RIP, 1916-2011

George Condon chats with Doris O'Donnell at a PD retirees lunch in 2006.


Michael Heaton's obit on George Condon:

George E. Condon celebrated Cleveland.


No writer did more to advance this area's reputation as a colorful and desirable corner of the world than journalist, author and historian George E. Condon.

Condon died today, Oct. 7, in his sleep at Huntington Woods, Westlake. He was 94.

The writer, originally from Fall River, Mass., began his career at The Plain Dealer in 1943 as a general assignment reporter. He became the paper's first television and radio critic in 1948. After 14 years on that beat he moved to the editorial page, where he wrote a daily column until his retirement in 1985.

Besides covering the city for The Plain Dealer, Condon wrote nine books, among them "Cleveland: the Best Kept Secret," a portrait in essays in 1967; "Laughter from the Rafters," a collection of columns in 1968; "Stars in the Water: the History of the Erie Canal," in 1974; and "Yesterday's Cleveland," a photographic history, in 1976.

Condon was a dogged reporter, an astute critic and a self-styled, proudly Irish philosopher. Above all, he was a graceful wordsmith.

"A Cleveland winter ordinarily is an angry, temperamental creature, lashing its tailwinds and looking out darkly underneath low-lying clouds. A Cleveland winter stalks the streets with an icy breath that buffets you when you turn a street corner and makes you dig your chin harder against your chest," he wrote.

He knew the city and its people, from the mayors and civic philanthropists down to the bartenders and cops who walked a beat. His columns were both witty and wise. Taken as a whole, they provide a picture of Cleveland in both its high and low periods. He had a love for the old ways of doing things, for a time when the shoe repair guy was known as a "cobbler" and for the fading art of penmanship.

When Condon was a boy, his family lived in a powder blue up-and-down double house on West 32nd Street. It wasn't far from St. Patrick Catholic Church. Of course, Condon quickly became the foremost authority on the church's origins.

"The parishioners themselves built the church," he once told a reporter. "Some generous benefactor told the founding pastor they could have all the stone they wanted, but they would have to go to his quarry in Sandusky and cart it back here. Parishioners took turns on horse and wagon. That's a lot of work they put into this church," Condon said.

Condon put a lot of hard work into his career. He wrote seven days a week as a television critic and then five days a week as a general columnist.

"He took TV lightly. He was very wry, a very funny writer," the late Bill Hickey, who took over The Plain Dealer's TV column from Condon, said in 2006. "There was no pretension. He wrote for Everyman. All the Condons grew up poor West Side kids who scrambled their way to success."

Condon's parents immigrated from Ireland. His father was a foreman at a textile mill in Fall River. After they moved to Cleveland, his mother was a maid at the Clevelander hotel downtown. Condon attended St. Patrick Catholic School and West Technical High School. After graduating, he majored in journalism at Ohio State University. It was there he met his future bride, Marjorie Philona Smith. They married in 1942 and moved to Cleveland the following year, when Condon joined The Plain Dealer.

The couple had seven children in 15 years. Condon outlived two of them. His wife, Marjorie Condon, a teacher in the Cleveland public school system for 20 years, died in March of 2001.

Mary Brereton said, "My father always complained to us that every day he had to stare at a blank piece of paper and create something seven days a week, but I think he enjoyed going to the office and the company of the people he worked with. He always talked about the 'characters' in his business. I think he loved it."

George Condon Jr., who covers the White House for the National Journal, remembered early on his father having a different sort of job than the fathers of other kids on the block.

"Other kids' dads went to work every morning," Condon Jr. said. "My dad watched television for a living. I remember him during the new TV season trying to watch three shows at once changing stations by hand and taking notes. And he was always surrounded by interesting people."

Neither George Jr. nor Susan Condon Love, the Plain Dealer's Inside & Out editor until this year, ever felt pushed into journalism. Their father led by example.

"When he wrote the first Cleveland book in 1967, he'd come home after work, have dinner, then disappear upstairs until 1:00 in the morning," said Condon Jr. "If you ever drove around with him he could point out history on every corner."

Plain Dealer Reporter Michael K. McIntyre did just that for a piece during Cleveland's Bicentennial. He got an earful as well.

Condon pointed out the spot on West 25th Street where gangster Shondor Birns was blown up. He talked about the steel mills in the industrial valley and how John D. Rockefeller fled to Cuyahoga County with a father leaving a sex scandal back in New York. The circus used to set up shop on a vacant lot on East 9th Street and Lakeside where the North Point office building now stands.

When asked why he knew so much, Condon replied, "It's the stories."

Condon never stopped writing stories about the city he loved. And during the Runyonesque era of journalism, he was a tireless reporter. He liked to tell the story of the day he covered the opening of a television station and wound up helping program the first hour's entertainment, which he became part of. Then he filed his story.

He left the station, noticed that the Central Market, where Jacobs Field now stands, was on fire and called the city desk. They told him to cover it. He wrote the first edition story but not before getting soaked by fire hoses. Afterward, he retired to an after-hours club on Short Vincent for a drink. Just after he got there, the police raided the place and arrested everyone. After leaving the police station, he wrote that story, too. It was a long night.

Condon won numerous awards during his career. He was given the Ohioana Award for history, the Women's City Club of Cleveland Award for Literature, the Burke Award for Literature as well as the Sigma Delta Chi Award for Distinguished Service He is also in the Cleveland Journalism Hall of Fame.

In his acceptance speech for the Ohioana Award, Condon wrote, "What I oppose is the hushed, carpeted fearful approach to history and those who made history. There is the air of the funeral parlor in most of our history books, and perhaps the sound of some rinky-tink piano is what we need to break the sad spell and bring history to its feet again. Only in life is there any hope for history."

Susan Love said, "Even after retirement, my Dad couldn't stop writing. He always had a book in progress --- and it would be about some aspect of Cleveland history, his passion."

But Condon was never blinded by nostalgia. He wasn't afraid to write about the town's weaknesses as well as its strengths. When a politician once declared that no building should be erected taller than the Terminal Tower, Condon called him on his lack of vision.

Like the man himself, he wanted the city to keep evolving.



Survivors: Theresa Ann Condon of Silver Spring, Md., George Jr. of Silver Spring, Katherine Elizabeth Condon of Catonsville, Md., Mary Philona Brereton of Alexandria, Va., and Susan Condon Love of Lakewood; four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Funeral: Funeral: 10 a.m. Monday, St. Angela Merici Catholic Church, 20970 Lorain Rd., Fairview Park.

Arrangements: Chambers Funeral Home, Cleveland.

Ted Mellow dies

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

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.

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.

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."