OBITUARIES

Northeast Ohio obituaries, life stories and death notices

• Michael Francis Pennock, St. Ignatius teacher and coach
Michael Francis Pen nock led the theology de partment at his alma mater, St. Ig natius High School. He also coached swimming and golf there and wrote more than three dozen Catholic textbooks, including some best-sellers in the field.

• Frank Kucinich, was veteran of Vietnam War
Frank Ku cinich met President Barack Obama at a White House luau on June 25.

• Gerald M. Luskin, veteran, South Euclid policeman, Gaelic-football star: Obituary
Mayfield Heights -- Jerry Luskin, All-Ireland football star, fought for his adopted United States in Korea. Then he won a political battle to become an American citizen and a South Euclid cop.

• Karl Malden, 97, was actor on stage, film and television
Karl Malden, an Academy Award-winning actor who excelled in plainspoken, working-class roles, including the awkward Mitch in "A Streetcar Named Desire" and a brave priest in "On the Waterfront," died Wednesday at his home in Los Angeles. No cause of death was immediately disclosed. He was 97.

• Obituary: Ewa Czaruk Olijar, 85, was in Soviet prison camps, ran J&K Tavern in Cleveland
Brooklyn -- Ewa Olijar hid Ukrainian liberators, passed their secret messages and withstood torture in Soviet prisons.

• Henry H. Marvin Jr., helped develop lighting, alternative energy: Obituary
Cleveland Heights -- Henry Howard Marvin Jr. helped pioneer sodium lamps, which light countless roadways.

• Dr. Charles Allen White, Richard Orzechowski, Myrtis Jean Small: Notable Local Deaths -- Obituaries
Richard Ed ward Orze chowski spent nearly 33 years with what be came NASA Glenn Research Center.

• Betty Allen, 82, Ohio native, prominent black opera singer
Washington- Betty Allen, one of the first black singers to reach prominence on the international opera stage, died Monday at a hospital in Valhalla, N.Y. She was 82 and had complications from kidney disease.

• Nelson Charles Ledsky, Vernice Holt, John D. "Jack" Donahey Sr.: Notable Local Deaths -- Obituaries
Nelson Charles Ledsky was a 35-year diplo mat who orga nized the Lib erty Bell Classic, also known as the Olympic Boycott Games, in 1980.

• Boyd Edward Graves, William J. Urban, Ruth Hallett Nordlander Edwards: Notable Local Deaths - Obituaries
Boyd Edward Graves was a lawyer, author, midshipman, disabilities expert and HIV crusader.

• Boyd Edward Graves, William J. Urban, Ruth Hallett Nordlander Edwards: Notable Local Deaths - Obituaries
Boyd Edward Graves was a lawyer, author, midshipman, disabilities expert and HIV crusader.

• Jerri Lin Nielsen FitzGerald, performed breast biopsy on herself while in Antarctica
Jerri Nielsen FitzGerald, who died Tuesday, performed one of the most famous feats by a Cleveland doctor, and did it in Antarctica.

• Brian Chalmers, TV news illustrator drew the Buzzard - OBITUARY
Parma Heights- Brian Chalmers drew the Buzzard, photographed rock stars, illustrated TV news and helped Hollywood showcase Cleveland.

• Past and present PD writers honored
Both current and former members of The Plain Dealer Sports Department garnered top honors at the 31st Annual Ohio Excellence in Journalism Awards, held Friday at the Marriott Downtown at Key Center.

• Timothy Elliott, 63, fixed up old homes on the West Side -- Obituary
Tim Elliott helped to turn around the West Side.

• Imre Balassa, 88, his travel agency catered to Hungarians
Imre Balassa helped many Clevelanders visit their native Hungary.

• Ruth Mae Lanier, Raymond P. Zelch, Donald Ray Meyers: Notable Local Deaths - Obituaries
Sgt. Ruth Mae Lanier helped modernize the Cleveland police during her 32 years on the force.

• Edward M. Shingary, Parma Heights building commissioner
Shingary

• Roy Allen Holt, 51, of Olmsted Township, saved lives on 9/11- Obituary
Olmsted Township- While others fled the World Trade Center, Roy Allen Holt plunged deeper into the basement of the south tower and led his colleagues to safety.

• Alan Berkman, radical found a way to serve
Physician, fugitive, federal prisoner, clinician to the homeless, advocate for AIDS patients, epidemiologist: That was the arc of Alan Berkman's career.

• George Vasu
Avon- George Vasu liked to talk about the early years at Lewis Field, with fires in the wind tunnel and a jet engine that broke loose, punching a hole in a wall.

• Doris Carol Guttinger Boyd, Gordon John McGinnis, Rev. Joseph Newton Leo II, Judith Read DeMarino, Nell Hacker Ellis, Robert B. Cavell: Notable Local Deaths - Obituaries
McGinnis

• Bill Nichols, covered the Cleveland Cavaliers for The Plain Dealer: Obituary
Bill Nichols, who broke the story for The Plain Dealer in early 1970 that Cleveland would be awarded an NBA franchise, died early Saturday morning of a heart attack suffered at his home in Rocky River.

• Elinda Ann Wing
Twinsburg- Elinda Ann Wing sang in Europe, chronicled the elderly in China and promoted her views on psychotherapy around the world.

• Funeral services planned for Spc. Marko M. Samson and Maj. Rocco Martin Barnes, who died in Iraq and Afghanistan
One soldier died in Iraq in May and the other in Afghanistan in June. But their bodies came home together to Cleveland on Thursday.

• Walter J. Manns, accountant, former Rocky River councilman at large: obituary
Rocky River- Wally Manns was president of the Bond Court and the Hollenden House hotels.

• WOODIE HELD ö 1932-2009
Woodie Held hit lots of homers back when other shortstops didn't.

• CSU's Levin dies at 81
Merle Levin, who spent 38 years as the sports information director at Cleveland State and its forerunner Fenn College, died Wednesday night. He was 81.

• Phyllis Ross, 91, actress, hospital administrator
Phyllis Ross was an actress and hospital ad ministrator.

• Alfred P. Ferrara Sr., Betsy Small Schrader, Warren E. Finkel, Rev. Jon Freshwater, Glenn Combes, John M. Romoser, Dr. John H. Sanders: Obituaries - Notable Local Deaths
Alfred P. Fer rara Sr. co- founded Fer rara Foods and belonged to the Kruse Interna tional Collector Car Hall of Fame.

• Jim Calvert, naval leader in WWII, dies at 88
Jim Calvert, who died Wednesday at age 88, went from sweeping cottages beside Lake Erie to leading the first subma rine that sur faced at the North Pole.

• David Carradine, starred in 'Kill Bill'
David Carradine, who became a TV icon in the early 1970s starring as an enigmatic Buddhist monk with a flair for martial arts in "Kung Fu" and more recently played the head of a group of assassins in the "Kill Bill" movies, was found dead in Bangkok, Thailand, on Thursday.

• Michael Woods, football player paralyzed by robber's bullet: Obituary
Richmond Heights- Mike Woods died watching a favorite thing: sports.