People Archives - Page 18 of 21 - Pittsburgh Quarterly

Growing up in the 1960s and ’70s, Pittsburgh was the center of the universe. All the biggest companies were here: U.S. Steel, Gulf Oil, Alcoa, PPG, Westinghouse; you name it. And on top of that, we had the Pirates and the Steelers. The city was firing on all cylinders, and I pictured myself running one …

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Profiles

A City-Centric Provost

by Justin Hopper

To hear Patricia Beeson describe it, driving into Pittsburgh through the Fort Pitt tunnel is like stumbling upon some kind of hidden Brigadoon. When she arrived in the city in 1983 after driving across the country from her native Oregon, Beeson had Simon and Garfunkel’s on-the-road anthem “America”—complete with reference to Pittsburgh—cued up for that first view …

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Arrivals

Riazzi, Khan, Sokol, Friedlander, Sega, Liang, Washburn

by PQ Staff

Richard Riazzi is president and CEO of Duquesne Light Co. and its affiliates. He returns to Pittsburgh from Wenatchee, Wash., where he has been the CEO and general manager of the Chelan County public utility district since 2006. Previously, he led the energy-generation, marketing and trading operations for Idaho Power, an investor-owned electric utility based …

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Obituaries

Lavelle, Chaplin, Hembree, Craig, Schott, Byrd, Ludwig

by PQ Staff

Robert R. Lavelle, 94 Lavelle founded the Hill District’s Dwelling House Savings & Loan, which helped thousands of people get loans and own their own homes. A devout Christian, the dignified rock of the Hill District viewed his financial work as his mission, advising and helping customers when they were late on payments. In 1957, …

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Profiles

Bayer CEO: Greg Babe

by Cristina Rouvalis

Other football players were bigger and faster. That didn’t hold back Greg Babe. During summer days, he would run up and down the steps inside Magnolia High School in New Martinsville, W. Va. while his friends hung out at the pool. Those sweat-soaked workouts paid off: Babe rushed for 2,200 yards in 1975, a school …

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Profiles

Dick Thornburgh, Lawyer and Politician

by Jeff Sewald

I’ve had three distinct phases of my career—from public prosecutor to elected official to Washington lawyer—and, strangely, they all came about serendipitously. I grew up in Pittsburgh and went to Yale as an engineering student, even though I was not really suited for it. A number of my family members were engineers, so I explored …

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Arrivals

Burfitt, Cassell, Guess, Barrett, Tucke, Mansourian, Morrison, Nace

by PQ Staff

Gregory Burfitt is president and CEO of Allegheny General Hospital and The Western Pennsylvania Hospital. Burfitt grew up in Warren, Ohio and comes to Pittsburgh from Denver, where he was president and CEO of Centura Health, Colorado’s largest integrated healthcare delivery system.Prior to Centura, he was chief operating officer for Inova Health System in Falls …

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Obituaries

Sarris, Stever, Height, Poupko, Bold, Stewart, Rust

by PQ Staff

Frank Sarris, 78 Sarris was a self-made man whose generosity helped a spectrum of his fellow citizens—from community organizations in his hometown of Canonsburg to the University of Pittsburgh, where he donated $5 million to the liver transplant program. He and his wife Athena were a team, and in the 1950s they began experimenting with …

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Profiles

Thaddeus Mosley, Sculptor

by Jeff Sewald

Art is about personal expression. Anyone who discovers and practices this has something to live for other than what they have to do to make a living. People who write poetry don’t make a lot of money, but seeing their words on the page provides more satisfaction than any job could offer. It’s the same …

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Obituaries

Zanos, Hagan, Fazio, Shogan, Musick, Cianca, Honsberger

by PQ Staff

Yvonne Zanos, 60 A former Miss Pennsylvania runner-up, she was a tall, striking woman who became beloved in Pittsburgh as KDKA-TV’s reliable and savvy consumer reporter. Known for her warm and winning personality, she was also a tough advocate for consumers. Zanos believed in and was dedicated to television’s public service role, which included her …

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Profiles

A Friend in Need

by Jeffery Fraser

Eleanor Ott grew up in a family that encouraged her to pursue her passion in life. What that passion was didn’t become clear until after she left her Lawrence, Kan. home as a high school valedictorian with a college scholarship. She discovered it among refugee families from Iraq, Burundi, Somalia and other desperate lands whose …

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Arrivals

Meyer, Czarnecki, Neverett, Bolding, Moorman, Mathews, Donnelly

by PQ Staff

Jochen Meyer is president of Flabeg Solar US Corporation, which provides a full product line of high-performance mirrors for concentrating solar power. A native of Germany, he received his master’s in mechanical engineering from the Technical University of Munich.He continued his education in business studies at the Fernuniversitaet Hagen while working as an industrial engineer …

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Profiles

Word Brains

by Steve Hecht

No two games of Scrabble are ever the same. But when the Pittsburgh Scrabble Club convenes on Wednesday nights, there’s a scene that replays itself over and over again. “Someone will show up for the first time and say ‘I’m here because nobody in my family wants to play me. They’re all tired of me …

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Profiles

Ron Freeman: Bringing Light to a Dark Science

by Bruce Keidan

Somewhere between Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, sometime between assertions that America does not torture and insistence that the end justified the means, I remembered what a Pittsburgh police officer once told me about the head of the city’s Major Crimes Division: “Everybody confesses to Ron Freeman.” I first met Freeman almost a decade ago. The …

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Obituaries

Connolly, Maazel, Gordon, Marnatti, Zona, Staley, Hare

by PQ Staff

J. Wray Connolly, 75 Connolly played a pivotal role in the transition that brought Chancellor Mark Nordenberg to the helm of the University of Pittsburgh. Connolly spent his career at the H.J. Heinz Co., where, among other things, he was credited for the pioneering transition of putting Heinz Ketchup in a plastic bottle. It was …

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Arrivals

Kurtz, Irwin, Cangiano, Duncan, Casey, Hudson, Bonte

by PQ Staff

Dr. Sanford Kurtz is executive vice president, chief medical officer and president of the Physician Organization at West Penn Allegheny Health System. He comes to Pittsburgh from the Lahey Clinic in Burlington, Mass., where he was chief operating officer and executive vice president. At WPAHS, Dr. Kurtz will be responsible for designing, building and leading …

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Profiles

Robert Qualters, Artist

by Jeff Sewald

What’s it like to be 75? Well, I’ll tell you. I’ve had two knee replacements. I’ve had back surgery. I keep falling down and breaking things: my fingers, my skull. But overall I feel pretty good, actually. I still like to work. I just keep on going. I find some way to continue. My most …

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Arrivals

Zelevansky, Frantz, Boyd, Tuan, Johnson, Fleurov, Harris, Jesse

by PQ Staff

Lynn Zelevansky is director of the Carnegie Museum of Art. She was most recently curator and department head of contemporary art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Prior to her work in Los Angeles, she spent seven years in the department of painting and sculpture at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. A …

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Obituaries

Mays, Kelly, Scalo, Bennington, Connelly, Byron

by PQ Staff

Billy Mays, 50 Billy Mays was the consummate pitchman, famous to television watchers across the continent for his booming voice, black beard and persuasive infomercials. He believed in his products, such as OxyClean and Mighty Putty, and it showed. The McKees Rocks native got started on the career path that would make him famous …

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Profiles

Westinghouse CEO: Aris Candris

by Dennis Unkovic

Aris Candris is not what you might expect. He skis black diamonds and enjoys snorkeling, scuba and free diving. On any given Sunday, he’ll jump on his bike and ride the hills of western Pennsylvania with no particular plan in mind. A perfect evening must include a great cigar. He and his wife value the …

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Profiles

Thelma Williams Lovette, Social Worker and Community Leader

by Jeff Sewald

I was born in Pittsburgh on Feb. 28, 1916, the fifth of 11 children. My family and I lived at 1520 Wylie Ave. in the Hill District. And we all looked out for each other. In 1925, when I was just a girl, Mama and Papa took us to the opening of the Centre Avenue …

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Profiles

A Harvest Tale

by Gregory Suriano

America’s art, literature and popular culture are ripe with the story of Johnny Appleseed, the colorful eccentric who planted orchards to feed America’s pioneers. He is often linked with legendary folk characters Paul Bunyan, Rip Van Winkle, the Headless Horseman and John Henry. The best-known literary work is Vachel Lindsay’s free-verse poem “In Praise of …

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