People Archives - Page 4 of 22 - Pittsburgh Quarterly

Basel Knaineh and Maisaa Jamal Eddin fled their native Syria after Basel was imprisoned — for no reason and with no timeline, he says — at the start of the Syrian War in 2011. He spent a month in jail, frantic and bewildered, before being released as suddenly as he was detained. Desperate, he and …

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Arrivals

Jedlinski, Filippini-Fantoni, Riley, Rodriguez, Garvey, Sen

by PQ Staff

Jason Jedlinski, a veteran broadcasting and publishing executive, will become WQED’s next president and CEO. He arrives from Washington, D.C., where he was general manager of The Hill, launching a new streaming channel and setting audience records. He has spent nearly 25 years growing digital reach and engagement for The Wall Street Journal, USA TODAY and …

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American Spirit

All Aboard

by Julia Fraser

Hulking steam engines, nearly a century old, await repairs in their original roundhouse in Rockhill Furnace, Pa. The crisp country air fades into the smell of an industrial past next to No. 14, a “snappy engine,” according to Linn Moedinger, a mechanical advisor at East Broad Top Railroad, who works on restoring the machines. “It’s …

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American Spirit Arts

The Ruins

by Ben Moyer

When Rachel Sager bought a house, she didn’t know it came with a coal mine. Obscured by woods in her “backyard,” and flanking the Great Allegheny Passage (GAP) bike trail, are the sprawling ruins of the once robust Banning No. 2 coal mine: a labyrinth of crumbling brick and weathered concrete, wedged between bluffs and …

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People Profiles

What Do I Know? Smokey Robinson

by Jeff Sewald

Everyone is born with a gift from God. Some people discover their gift, and use it to a positive end. Some discover their gift, but squander it. And others, for one reason or another, never discover their gift. I discovered mine very early in life. I was blessed with the gift of music, and worked …

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American Spirit

We Were Teachers

by Richard “Pete” Peterson

In 2003, I received an invitation from David Shribman, the new executive editor of the Post-Gazette and a Red Sox fan, to write a guest column on what it was like to be a Pirates fan in exile. Over the past 20 years, I’ve written a number of guest columns in exile, ranging from the …

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Obituaries People

Miller, Dodds, Werner, Bartholomae, Barbour, Douglas, Klein

by PQ Staff

Wendi Ann Miller, 75 Born William Henry Miller III, Miller became a transgender woman and lifelong advocate for LGBTQ+ rights. An artist with a degree from CMU, her Miller Frame in East Liberty was frequented by clients such as Fred Rogers and Sidney Crosby. For a time, her shop also quietly housed the headquarters of the …

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Obituaries People

Docherty, Johnson, Pappan, Lewis, Cost, Jamal, Groat

by PQ Staff

Debra Docherty, 63 Docherty was a former model who started Docherty Casting in 1987. It soon became a premier talent agency in Pennsylvania and Ohio. Among the actors she helped to discover were Zachary Quinto and Joe Manganiello. Docherty was known for her commitment to her clients, sometimes paying for expenses out of her own pocket and always encouraging …

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People Profiles

Pittsburgh’s Frank Gorshin was the Original Riddler

by Clayton Trutor

Frank Gorshin was famous for the many faces he wore. On the Ed Sullivan Show, the master impressionist emulated the likes of Kirk Douglas, Marlon Brando, and Burt Lancaster with uncanny precision, contorting his malleable face and lithe, sinewy body to actually look like, and not just sound like, the people he portrayed. Crowds packed …

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Arrivals People

Fisher, Gabel, Phillips, Fajobi, Nemec

by PQ Staff

Patrick Fisher is the CEO of the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council, following the resignation of Mitch Swain last summer. Most recently, Fisher served as executive director of Erie Arts & Culture for five years, where he was credited with championing artists and boosting the city’s arts community. He established an artist residency program paired with local industry, …

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People

What Do I Know? Carol Brown

by Jeff Sewald

I was born in Columbus, Ohio. my father was the youngest of 10 children from an immigrant German family, and my mother hailed from a family of Irish immigrants. They fell in love very young and decided to get married, even though their parents did not approve. My mom was an amateur artist, and a …

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People

The International Poetry Forum Is Making a Comeback

by Douglas Heuck

Started in 1966 by poet and Duquesne University Professor Sam Hazo, the International Poetry Forum had a remarkable run of 43 years, bringing the best poets in the world to Pittsburgh, as well as some of the biggest names of stage and screen. Hazo wound up operations in 2009, never expecting a renewal until he …

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People Pittsburgh Tomorrow

100 Pittsburgh Leaders

by PQ Staff

We asked 100 top leaders across Pittsburgh to respond in 100 words or fewerto this question: According to the U.S. Census, in 2021 the Pittsburgh MSA had the inauspicious distinction of having the highest natural population loss — more deaths than births — of any metro area in the country. Pittsburgh lost 10,838 people, followed …

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People Pittsburgh Tomorrow

100 Pittsburgh Leaders

by PQ Staff

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People

Paul Kengor, Q&A

by Douglas Heuck

A Pittsburgh native who grew up in Butler and then earned political science and Ph.D. degrees from Pitt, Paul Kengor, 56, is a professor of political science at Grove City College. Upon taking over in October as only the second editor since The American Spectator was founded on the campus of Indiana University in Bloomington, …

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Obituaries People

Gailliot, Kuller, Dudreck, Charny, Calaboyias, Barricella, Harris

by PQ Staff

Henry Gailliot, 80 A Central Catholic valedictorian, Gailliot earned a BS and MS in industrial management, followed by a PhD in economics from Carnegie Mellon. He spent his career at Federated Investors, becoming the company’s senior economist and a member of the Executive Committee.. He served on the boards of the Children’s Museum and the Carnegie Museum of Art, …

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People Pittsburgh Tomorrow

Joe Hardy, 100 He went out the way he lived, dying on his 100th birthday, still smoking his cigar. Everything Hardy did was marked by flamboyance and an enormous appetite for life. He had eight children and five wives. He founded the billion-dollar 84 Lumber, the world’s largest privately owned building materials supplier with stores in 34 states …

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