People Archives - Page 5 of 21 - Pittsburgh Quarterly

100 Pittsburgh Leaders Read More »

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 …

People Pittsburgh Tomorrow

Chris DeCardy becomes president of The Heinz Endowments in April. Most recently, DeCardy was acting CEO with the San Francisco-based ClimateWorks Foundation, leading a team of researchers, strategists and collaborators working on climate science. Previously, he served as vice president and director of programs with the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, which awards $340 million in annual grants in …

DeCardy, Cohen, Ingram, Merson, McKinney, Bondoc, Myers, Hammond Read More »

Efforts So Far Haven’t Worked Read More »

Efforts So Far Haven’t Worked

by Jeffery Fraser

Another year has passed in which more southwestern Pennsylvanians moved out of the region than newcomers arrived. The decades-long trend continues to slowly drain people from the region and frustrate ambitions of boosting its population. Southwestern Pennsylvania is a chronic loser in the flow of people between states that offer consistently warmer weather. And the …

Noteworthy Spring ’23

Noteworthy Spring ’23 Read More »

Après Ski Bar For restaurateur Rick DeShantz, a little imagination has gone a long way — and turned into a lot of fun for Pittsburgh this winter as he opened Après Ski Bar at Butcher and the Rye. It’s several tiers of Swiss-themed spaces, with fur-covered lodge furniture, antler chandeliers, assorted fondues on the menu …

Get Ready for Pittsburgh Tomorrow

Get Ready for Pittsburgh Tomorrow Read More »

In the spring issue three years ago, I wrote a long essay about the need for a big plan to reverse Greater Pittsburgh’s downward economic and demographic trends. A Pittsburgh friend called it my Magnum Opus, the product of 35 years of journalistic efforts here, much of it aimed at moving this region ahead. In …

How I Became Ensnared in the Pittsburgh Web Read More »

How I Became Ensnared in the Pittsburgh Web

by David M. Feehan

How did a native of Minneapolis, a Viking fan, fall in love with Pittsburgh? It’s a long story, but a good one. In 1968, I was assigned as a newly minted VISTA Volunteer to the community action program in McKeesport’s Third Ward, a tough but lively section of town. Hanging out on Walnut Street, in …

People Profiles

What Do I Know? Sam Hazo

by Jeff Sewald

without a doubt, the course of my life was determined largely by my upbringing. My mother died when I was 6, and while my father was still around, my brother, Robert, and I were taken into the care of our mother’s parents and they raised us, with significant help from my mother’s aunt. My mother’s …

What Do I Know? Sam Hazo Read More »

People Regional News

Pandemic Learning Loss

by Julia Fraser

For decades, educators fretted over how to prevent “summer slide,” the learning loss that students often experience over summer vacation. The COVID pandemic raised the stakes. Mounting evidence suggests that periodic school closings, the abrupt shift to remote learning and other disruptions profoundly set back students’ education, accelerating learning loss into a national crisis — …

Pandemic Learning Loss Read More »

Pittsburgh’s Gentleman Scholar Read More »

Pittsburgh’s Gentleman Scholar

by Maxwell King

I wasn’t sure when i knocked on the door that I was really at the right house. I thought I had the correct address, but it had been a long trip. I took the passenger ferry to Martha’s Vineyard and then rode my bicycle 10 miles out to West Tisbury. And then I had to hunt …

A Sailing Odyssey, Part I

A Sailing Odyssey, Part I Read More »

When I was a boy during summers in northern Michigan, there was one adventure that dwarfed all others: sailing to the North Channel. It was a distant, mythic place of pristine beauty and wrecked boats where intrepid sailors matched their skills with the forces of nature — where islands had rattlesnakes, fish were huge, and …

A Sailing Odyssey, The Conclusion

A Sailing Odyssey, The Conclusion Read More »

Killarney was our eastern apogee, where we spent the rainy day in the Killarney Mountain Lodge, had drinks by the fire and I taught the guys to play bridge. From there we started the long trek back, exploring the North Channel’s most beautiful places by day and playing bridge in the cozy cabin each night. …

Obituaries People

Arkus, Diana, Talotta, McCullough, DeLuca, Samet, Coraluppi, Baer, Shea, Rust, Kernick, Henne, Silvestre, Fennell, Celli

Arkus, Diana, Talotta, McCullough, DeLuca, Samet, Coraluppi, Baer, Shea, Rust, Kernick, Henne, Silvestre, Fennell, Celli Read More »

Jane Arkus, 93As an advertising executive, Arkus helped to create the iconic “chipped-chopped ham” ads for Islay’s. She joined Lando in 1951 as a copywriter and when the firm merged with Burson-Marsteller, she became its senior creative director. As a marketing consultant, Arkus worked to develop the Downtown Cultural District, WQED and the Urban League …

People Sports

A Final Chat with Franco

A Final Chat with Franco Read More »

My wife and I were at a party Friday night at the History Center, and after a cocktail, chit chat and getting our picture taken with Santa, we were going to check out the John Kane painting exhibit before the seated dinner. As we were making our escape from the crowd, however, I saw Franco …

People Profiles

What Do I Know? Dr. Robert M. Friedlander

by Jeff Sewald

“My mother’s father was born in 1905 in Pinsk, in the old Soviet Union. He was Jewish and had witnessed pogroms against his people, during which half of his family lost their lives. In fact, his father and some of his brothers were killed right in front of him. So, when he was 15, my …

What Do I Know? Dr. Robert M. Friedlander Read More »

American Spirit People

The Brush Pile

by David Macpherson

About 100 yards from my house, near the edge of an open field, lies a large brush pile. It’s unsightly, at least from the human perspective — a lump of tangled, decomposing chaos marring the open views of the field. Each time I pass, I think: I’ve got to do something about that. We all …

The Brush Pile Read More »

American Spirit People

Retiring Ritter Farm

by John Beale

Under a gray November sky, in a rain-soaked cornfield where four generations of the Ritter family had farmed, Carol Ritter embraced her husband, Ralph, as strangers bid on equipment the couple had accrued over nearly 60 years of farming. “Woooeee, look at that,” said auctioneer John R. Huey II of Slippery Rock, gesturing toward a …

Retiring Ritter Farm Read More »

Obituaries People

Ferlo, Treganowan, Chaplin, Simpson, Poliziani, Fuhrer, Henderson, Lovelace, Grefenstette, Dunlap, Grata