People Archives - Page 7 of 21 - Pittsburgh Quarterly

2021 Summer What Do I Know?

Arthur Ziegler: The Power of Community

When I was growing up, my parents used to take me by trolley to East Liberty for a Saturday night treat, dinner at Gammon’s restaurant. In those days, East Liberty was considered our “second downtown” in Pittsburgh, and so I had a vague affiliation with the area. Many years later, I would learn what the …

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Just Askin’… Derek Shelton

Q: What’s the most interesting thing about your job? A: The wide variety of people I interact with on a daily basis. Q: What’s the best advice anybody ever gave you? A: To do your job right the first time. Not half-assed. Q: How do you start the day? A: I drink a lot of …

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Wactlar, Henderson, Figgins, DeFazio, Corry, Toker

Howard Wactlar, 77: During a career of more than 50 years at the National Science Foundation and Carnegie Mellon, where he arrived in 1967 and went on to hold positions in both the School of Computer Science and the Robotics Institute, Wactlar developed an impressive array of technology and software engineering systems. He helped to …

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Flannery, Verrilla, Kudzma, Washowich, Spinabelli, Davis

Tom Flannery, 75: A former Dartmouth football and rugby player who was 6’4” and 230 pounds, Flannery blended an imposing physical presence with a warm, fun-loving personality to become the top headhunter in Pittsburgh. In his role leading the Pittsburgh office of international search firm Boyden, he placed key top executives at countless local corporations …

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A Love Like No Other

All genuine love stories have moments of joy as well as moments of sadness. They may vary in intensity or duration, but they are never absent. Those who think of love as uninterrupted joy are romantics. Those who are obsessed only with sadness deserve their misery. This love story came to me out of coincidence. …

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Baker, Talotta, Franco, Hearn, Reeves, Ramachandran

Gretchen Baker will become the Daniel G. and Carole L. Kamin Director of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History on April 1. Baker is currently the managing director for museum experience at the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles. She previously served as vice president of exhibitions for the Natural History Museums of …

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Rooney, Clarke, Habegger, Miller, Thornburgh, Gale, Robinson

Patricia Rooney, 88: Married to the late Steelers Chairman Dan Rooney for 65 years and one of four matriarchs of longstanding NFL families, Mrs. Rooney combined her love of family with a commitment to many causes, especially in the North Side neighborhood where she grew up and lived until her death. The mother of nine …

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Andy Masich: Pittsburgh Has a Story to Tell

My father was an engineer and my mother was a trained actress who went to school at Carnegie Tech, now Carnegie Mellon University. (Her first kissing scene was with Carl Betz, a Pittsburgher, who played the husband on “The Donna Reed Show.”) My parents met while doing community and summer-stock theatre. I have a wonderful …

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Barnes, Rogers, Dawson, Houston, Cavalier, Taube, Feeney

J. David Barnes, 91: After graduating from Harvard Law in 1954, Mr. Barnes spent two years in the Army and then joined Mellon Bank. He retired 30 years later as the chairman and chief executive officer. Active on many corporate and philanthropic boards through the years, he was especially fond of the Ellis School, helping …

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Mowod, Twerski, Sommers, Schano, Connelly, Burke

Tony Mowod, 85: The longtime host of the WDUQ jazz program “Nightside” and founder of the Pittsburgh Jazz Society, Mr. Mowod grew up in the Hill District surrounded by jazz. His parents ran a restaurant, and he would go on to own several including the Vogue Terrace Dinner Theatre, which burned down after one production …

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Just Askin’… Susan Jaffe

Q: What’s the most interesting thing about your job? A: The most interesting part of my job is working with the dancers and creating programs to enrich the dancers and the audiences’ experience of dance. Q: What’s the best advice anybody ever gave you? A: The best advice that was given to me was to …

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A Reflection on the Life of Dick Thornburgh

by David Bradford Thornburgh

Written by his son David Bradford Thornburgh, read by his granddaughter Blair Elizabeth Thornburgh at Shadyside Presbyterian Church on Jan. 16, 2021. It’s my great honor to read the following reflection about the life of my grandfather, as written by my father, David. In my dad’s words, about his: I’m sure all of us have …

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Just Askin’… Anne Kraybill

Q: What’s the most interesting thing about your job? A: Meeting artists! I love going to artists’ studios and learning about their process and background. This region has such a rich history of creativity that persists today. Q: What’s the best advice anybody ever gave you? A: It is not about where you are, but …

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Cameron Heyward, Gridiron Philanthropist

I was born in Pittsburgh on May 6, 1989. My grandma still lives here. When I was young, we moved around a lot because my dad, Craig Heyward, played 11 years in the NFL for five different teams. When I was 6, we moved to Atlanta so that my dad could play for the Falcons, …

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Remembering Prominent Pittsburghers Who Passed Away in 2020

We’ve said goodbye to many influential Pittsburghers this year. Remember those who have passed away and their impact on the region—and the world—in this compilation of our Last Chapter department. Editor’s note: After we published this compilation, a reader astutely asked, “Why would Paul O’Neill, 72nd Secretary of the Treasury, CEO of Alcoa for 13 …

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Springer, Dickerson, Fink, Betters, Cozewith, Smith, Piatt

Eric Springer, 91: A man of erudition, letters and the law, Springer was a founding partner of the Pittsburgh law firm Horty, Springer and Mattern. He was an avid writer who was involved in the arts, civic progress and social justice. He was the first black president of the Allegheny County Bar Association and former …

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American Spirit

Courtney and the Mallows

The marshmallows will get shipped all over the place. Hawaii. Alaska. Central America. Mexico. “We haven’t done Europe yet,” says Courtney Taylor-Turner as she flips on the KitchenAid Pro 600 that sits on the kitchen island in her home in North Huntington. “Our most popular flavor used to be the toasted coconut, but not anymore. …

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Bajeux-Besnainou, Mohebbi, Kim, Kahn, Davies, Meyers, Campbell-Golden

Isabelle Bajeux-Besnainou will become the 10th dean of Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business on Oct. 15. She will also hold a faculty appointment as a professor of finance. She is currently dean of McGill University’s Desautels Faculty of Management. During her tenure, she focused on interdisciplinary collaborations, experiential learning and entrepreneurship. This included …

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Karla Boos: “All the World’s a Stage”

As a kid, I lived in Wheeling, W.Va., but I wasn’t born there. My dad worked for Titanium Metals Corporation and, before Wheeling, we moved a couple of times around the country to places where Timet plants were located. I was 10 when we settled in Wheeling, so I think of myself as a West …

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Last Chapter, Fall 2020

Judge John Corbett, 73: Corbett lost the use of his body from the chest down after a diving accident when he was 15. Despite that, he became a distinguished jurist and lawyer, once arguing a case before the Supreme Court. After Pitt Law School, he and two classmates with disabilities formed the Downtown firm of …

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Just Askin’… Carey Harris

Q: What’s the most interesting thing about your job? A: The most interesting and rewarding part of my job is bearing witness to the tremendous resilience of our students, who I like to call “never give uppers.” These adults have faced enormous barriers to education, well-being and wholeness, yet they keep pushing forward. They are …

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Just Askin’… Steven Knapp

Q: What’s the most interesting thing about your job? A: Sadly, I was only on the job for six weeks before the pandemic forced us to close our four museums to the public! But I was in the buildings long enough to begin to appreciate the striking differences between the formal kind of education to …

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