Category: Obit

Larry Weathers R.I.P.

Larry Weathers Jr.  died yesterday, Jan. 6, 21 months after being diagnosed with  metastatic melanoma. He was 80.

Mr. Weathers was the proprietor of Weathers Motors the auto dealership at 1187 Baltimore Pike, Middletown Township, Delaware County, Pa.

It was started as Weathers Dodge in 1922 by his father, Lawrence Sr., on land next to his family’s grocery store. It remained a Dodge dealership until May 2009 when Chrysler — with the federal government now holding a significant stake in it — announced that franchise agreements wouldn’t be renewed with 789 dealerships nationwide.

Rather than fold, Mr. Weathers and his son, Lawrence III, turned it into Weathers Motors, which has become a very highly regarded auto repair shop and dealer of used vehicles.

R.I.P. Mr. Weathers.

Larry Weathers R.I.P.

Larry Weathers R.I.P.

Cardinal Foley R.I.P.

Cardinal Foley R.I.P.  — Cardinal John Patrick Foley died 3:15 yesterday morning at St. Joseph in Darby, a residence for retired Archdiocesan priests.

He was 76.

Cardinal , who  headed the Pontifical Commission (now Pontifical Council) for Social Communications at the Vatican from 1984 until 2007 when he was made a Cardinal grew up in Sharon Hill, Pa.

As head of the Commission, he was responsible for all the Vatican’s print
and electronic communications and ministries and was responsible for the historic NBC Today Show
week-long broadcast from the Vatican. He also served as a special
commentator for the NBC broadcasts of Christmas Midnight Mass from the
Vatican for a quarter of a century.

He was co-producer and co-host of the Philadelphia Catholic Hour on
WFIL Radio in the 1960s. He co-produced 20 television episodes of “The Making of a
Priest,” for Group W.

He was this year’s Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia “Person of the Year”, and was honored at the organization’s Hall of Fame Banquet on Nov. 18.

R.I.P. Dottie Reynolds

I was just informed that Dottie Reynolds has died.

Dottie was a wonderful writer who worked for the Delaware County Daily Times and the Press Newspapers of Delaware County.

She was one of the founders of the Delaware County Press Club.

She had been living in Florida.

R.I.P. Dottie.

 

R.I.P. Dottie Reynolds

Smokin’ Joe R.I.P.

Smokin’ Joe R.I.P. — Joe Frazier, one-time heavyweight champion of the world, died last night, Nov. 7. He was 67 and had liver cancer.

Here is my personal remembrance.

Sometime around the turn of the millennium I was a participant in the Haverford Township Day Parade and I had brought my dog with me to join me on the float. Well, she got loose at the staging ground and as I chased her around the Manoa Shopping Center, I heard myself being serenaded with “Who Let The Dogs Out.”

I looked to see who was doing the singing and lo and behold it was The Champ himself who was also part of the parade.

Somewhere, there is a picture of me and The Champ who graciously consented to pose and had a big grin.

R.I.P. Joe.

 

Smokin’ Joe R.I.P.

Steve Jobs R.I.P.

Written on a five-year-old MacBook Pro.

Joey Vento R.I.P.

Joey Vento R.I.P. — Joey Vento, the owner of Geno’s Steaks in South Philadelphia and a Tea Party supporter, died yesterday, Aug. 23, at his Shamong, N. J., home of a heart attack. He was 71.

Mr. Vento opened Geno’s Steaks at 9th Street and Passyunk Avenue in 1966 and began what became a nationally famous competition with the long-established Pat’s King of Steaks across the street.

Mr. Vento became a political figure when Mumia Abu Jamal, who murdered Philadelphia police officer Danny Faulkner n 1981,  became a pet cause of the mindless yet fashion-conscience leftist establishment that tried to convince the world that Jamal was a innocent victim of a police frame. Mr. Vento helped keep the memory of Officer Faulkner alive and helped keep the focus on the overwhelming evidence of Jamal’s guilt.

Mr. Vento became a national figure after placing a sign in his window saying “This is America: When ordering please speak English” which prompted a discrimination complaint from the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations in 2006.

Unlike most business owners, Mr. Vento stood up to the bullies and the Commission caved two years later with a finding that the restaurant was not in violation of the city’s laws.

An irony rarely mentioned is that Geno’s is adjacent to a Mexican restaurant that is covered in signs in the Spanish language.

Mr. Vento became active in the Tea Party movement and produced popular radio advertisements criticizing  Sen. Arlen Specter and non-enforcement of immigration laws.

“Joey was a great supporter of our Tea Party group and the Tea Party movement,” said Teri Adams, president of the Independence Hall Tea Party Association. “He was the most beloved conservative figure regionally and was well known and well respected nationally. We lost a one-of-kind hero who told it like it was and leaves a tremendous void. He was such a good man. Our hearts are broken!”

Mr. Vento practically died on the job. He had gone to the restaurant  yesterday morning as he normally did and phoned in a bread order from his home at 6 p.m. He told his wife, Eileen, he wasn’t feeling well then went to lie down in the bedroom, where he was found.

Mr. Vento is also survived by a son, Geno, for whom the restaurant is named.

 Joey Vento R.I.P.

 

Joey Vento R.I.P.

R.I.P. Rudy Raphelson

Rudolph Raphelson, a long-time resident of Marple Township Pa., died June 13 at the Broomall Rehabilitation and Nursing Center. He was 98.

Mr. Raphelson — who served in the Army Air Corps in New Guinea and the Philippines during World War II — was instrumental in organizing color guards for graveside services for Delaware County veterans  as a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 7390 of Broomall where he served eight years as its commander. 

As membership of the post declined due to deaths he had the post join in 1998  with The Gen. Smedley D. Butler Detachment of the Marine Corps League to continue providing the services. Mr. Raphelson was a participant in them until about two years ago.

Mr. Raphelson worked at the Pennsylvania Bureau of Employment Security eventually becoming manager of the bureau’s office on Woodland Avenue in West Philadelphia.

He met his wife, Helen, on the job and they retired on the same day in 1973. Mrs. Raphelson died in March.

Mr. Raphelson is survived by a brother, Morton; a nephew, Bruce and nieces Bernice Gelfont, Harriet Rudolph, Nancy Bush and Jean Piacentini.

A graveside service with military honors was held today, June 16, at Har Jehuda Cemetery in Upper Darby.

Gar Raines R.I.P.

Gar Raines R.I.P.

A service was held this morning, April 16, for the gentle and decent Garland C. Raines at The Church of the Redeemer in Springfield, Pa.

Gar, a veteran of World War II, live a long and full life. He was a editor and writer and ended his professional career at the County Press in Newtown Square where he worked for 12 years.

Gar lived in Springfield and is survived by his wife, Ruth; son, Blake, and family.

 Gar Raines R.I.P.

Ron Pritsch’s Legacy

Ron Pritsch’s Legacy — The lead story in last week’s Springfield Press concerned the gift bequeathed by writer and anthropologist Ron Pritsch to the Springfield (Pa) Library.

The money was used to replace the 48-year-old circulation desk with one more suitable for the computer era.

Ron died Jan. 19, 2009 of a heart attack which was quite unexpected. He was either 55 or 56.

I knew Ron. He was a fine writer and a decent man and the community still mourns his passing.

 

Ron Pritsch’s Legacy

Dr. Bernard N. Nathanson, R.I.P.

Bernard Nathanson R.I.P. — Dr. Bernard N. Nathanson, one of the founders of the NARAL ProChoice America before become a leading pro-life advocate, died this morning (Feb. 21, 2011)  in New York. The cause of death was cancer. He was 84.

Dr. Nathanson’s first experience with abortion came as a student at McGill University Medical College in Montreal when he paid for one his girlfriend after getting her pregnant.

After becoming an obstetrician, he got another girlfriend pregnant during the 1960s and performed the abortion himself. He became an advocate for legal abortions, and was instrumental in overturning New York State’s century-old abortion law in 1970 which was signed by Republican Gov. Nelson Rockefeller.

He said he and other abortion advocates knowingly lied about the number of women who died from illegal abortions claiming it to be 10,000 rather than the actual few hundred, and vilified the Catholic Church for it’s pro-life teachings as a premeditated attempt to get media attention.

At the height of his success the new technology of ultrasound convinced him everything he had believed was wrong. He came to understand that from the time of conception the unborn child has a self-directed force of life that, if not
interrupted, will lead to the birth of a human baby; and that the United States  Supreme Court got it horribly wrong when it ruled that it was simply “potential life” in Roe v. Wade.

Dr. Nathanson performed his last abortion in 1979 and declaried himself to be pro-life. In 1985 he made the earth-shaking film The Silent Scream, which shows sonogram images of a child in the womb shrinking from an abortionist’s instruments, and was one of the lest talked about but most influential films of the decade.

For about 15 years after declaring himself to be a pro-lifer, Dr. Nathanson described himself as a Jewish atheist. In December 1996, he was baptized into the Catholic Church by Cardinal John O’Connor at a private Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

“I was in a real whirlpool of emotion, and then there was this healing, cooling water on me, and soft voices, and an inexpressible sense of peace,” he said. “I had found a safe place.”

Dr. Nathanson was divorced three times before being married in the Church. He is survived by his wife, Christine, and a son, Joseph, from a previous marriage.

A more detailed obituary can be found at the National Catholic Register.

 

Bernard Nathanson R.I.P.

Bernard Nathanson R.I.P. -- Dr. Bernard N. Nathanson, one of the founders of the NARAL ProChoice America before become a leading pro-life advocate,