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Gibbons, Waite, Hansen, Ashburner, Benedict, Humar, Kiehn
David P. Gibbons will become the president of UPMC Northwest, in Seneca, Venango County. He comes to western Pennsylvania from Voorhees, N.J., where he was vice president of operations for the Kennedy Health System’s three hospitals.Before joining Kennedy in 1997, he was director of managed care for the Visiting Nurses Association of Greater Philadelphia; regional …
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Stocks & Pedestal, Winter 2009
Three cheers for PNC Financial Services Group for buying National City Corp. and becoming the nation’s fifth-biggest bank. With this $5.6 billion deal—helped by $7.7 billion in federal funds—Pittsburgh’s banking prominence is rising again. We think concerns about a lack of banking choices in the wake of the deal are overblown. Pittsburgh sports a strong …
Slavery’s Shadow
As the celebratory sun sets on Pittsburgh’s 250th anniversary, an exhibit has opened at the Heinz History Center that shows an area of shadow older than the city itself: slavery. Pittsburgh’s membership in the league of heroic Northern cities that helped with the Underground Railroad remains, but without its pristine, stainless status. Instead, western Pennsylvania …
Everingham, Pollock, Bovbjerg, Jenkins, Hiller, Scarlett-Smith, Thompson
Susan Everingham is director of the RAND Corporation’s Pittsburgh office. She joined RAND in 1988 and, since 2004, has been director of international programs, comprising the centers for Asia Pacific, Middle East and Russian Eurasia policy.From 2000 to 2005, she directed RAND’s program of military personnel research for the Office of the Secretary of Defense. …
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Melodia, Cai, Jaffurs, Sittsamer, Lee, Edmunds, Healy, Packer
Mario Melodia, 78 He returned to Pittsburgh from Broadway, building a career as a dancer, choreographer and teacher. He danced and choreographed for national audiences but left his biggest mark as a teacher of dancers of all stripes, launching the careers of many.He had a dance studio Downtown, taught for more than three decades at …
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Wasting our tax dollars
At one end of a long, rectangular table in an Aliquippa restaurant, a grandmother of 12 sporting a big, blond hairdo was talking about how everyone in Beaver County calls her when their dog is lost. Someone even called at 2:30 a.m. the other day. She wasn’t complaining—she loves dogs and has five of her …
Donovan, Morris, Hattler, Schloss, Pausch, Pidgeon, Diven, Witter, Handy, Harmeier, Jones, White
Bishop Edward V. Donovan, 76 After working as a metallurgist with U.S. Steel for 20 years, Edward Donovan turned to religion, forming a prayer group that ultimately broke away from the Catholic Church and became the Community of the Crucified One.Under Bishop Donovan’s leadership, the Community grew to include its own priests and nuns and …
Reeves, Spence, Johnson, Halevy, Gellman, Griffin, Chamberlain, Fouts
Todd S. Reeves is executive director and superintendent of the Western Pennsylvania School for Blind Children. He comes to Pittsburgh from the Washington School for the Deaf in Vancouver, where he was superintendent.A native of Eugene, OR, Reeves began as a speech and language pathologist and teacher, and later served as director of special education …
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Stocks & Pedestal, Fall 2008
On a pedestal: A student star — Seth Weidman It’s better to light one candle than curse the darkness. That old expression found a disciple during the last school year in Seth Weidman, whose extra efforts have made him the youngest person to be placed on our pedestal. When he started his senior year at …
Purkey, Martin, Forrester, Beckwith, Lacey, Jones, Horan
Lee H. Lacey, 89: For nearly 30 years, Lacey was the president and CEO of Harmarville Rehabilitation Center. During his tenure, the facility, now part of HealthSouth, nearly tripled in capacity and changed from a home for poor mothers into a state-of-the-art center for people recovering from debilitating sicknesses and injuries. Robert T. Purkey, 78 …
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Stocks & Pedestal, Summer 2008
Great cities take great care when it comes to aesthetics, and Pittsburgh is fortunate to be among the nation’s great architectural cities. It doesn’t continue by magic, though. It takes planning and vigilance. Going into the stocks this issue is the monstrous parking garage being planned by casino developers on the North Shore. The 10-story …
One Myth Worth Dispelling
Sonoma, Calif. — On an unseasonably warm and beautiful April evening in the heart of the California wine country, an enthusiastic crowd with many Pittsburghers gathered to see the premiere screening of “My Tale of Two Cities,” a documentary about Pittsburgh and the life of the film’s creator, star and narrator, Carl Kurlander. Kurlander is …
Taylor, Singleton, McGarry, Gideon, Rademacher, Littrell, Cooper, Wood
Samuel M. Taylor is the Director of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, where he worked early in his career. A marine biologist and science educator by training, Taylor has been a museum consultant for the past eight years in New Jersey.Previously, he was chairman and curator of the education department at the California Academy …
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Now Batting: Roberto Clemente
Among the baseball bats, telegrams and uniforms displayed in Lawrenceville’s Engine House No. 25 is a 1960 photo some say predicted Roberto Clemente’s legacy. The former Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder is leaping up to catch a ball, the cumulus clouds behind him forming what looks like angel’s wings. [ngg src=”galleries” ids=”28″ display=”basic_thumbnail” thumbnail_crop=”0″] Twelve years after …
Stocks & Pedestal, Spring 2008
A 15-year-old East Liberty boy is gunned down in his car while ordering KFC with his mother and little sister. A 12-year-old North Side girl is killed in her house when “gang” members drive by and spray bullets at the home. Clearly, it’s time to take action to protect families from neighborhood gangs. Some experts …
Hessinger, Olivia, Price, Huntington, Sroufe, Skleder, Vagt, Patel, Mullen
Linda Hossinger is senior vice president of Comcast’s Three Rivers region. She has been with Comcast for the past 15 years, most recently as senior vice president for the Michigan region. In her current post, she replaces Doug Sansom and is responsible for a workforce of 2,400 serving 850,000 customers in four states, including Southwestern …
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Stanish, Vargo, DePasquale, Cope, Holmes, Cain
Rudolph B. Stanish, 94: Stanish was known as the “Omelet King” for cooking for such personages as JFK, Paul Mellon, Goldman Sachs and Marilyn Monroe. The Yukon, Westmoreland County native was sent as a teenager to Newport, R.I., where he began his career as a domestic worker. After working in the kitchen, he soon became …
Randy Pausch: The Expert in Time
Thirteen years ago, a young assistant professor at the University of Virginia shared his time management techniques with graduate teaching assistants and fellow faculty members. They all wanted to get ahead—get tenure—and still have time for their friends and family. Peppered with aphorisms, the talk would have made Ben Franklin proud. It wasn’t the work …
Stocks & Pedestal, Winter 2008
Just after saying it has no plans to cut here, US Airways has reneged again. Pittsburgh built the airline a $1 billion airport and has supported US Airways despite high fares and poor on-time performance, spurning low-cost carriers interested in this market. The result? Astounding cuts and the loss of hub status as one new …
Dye, Burgess, Coonelly, Sadovsky, Wafer, Zubik, Lamoureux, Sarro, Mellah
Robert Dye is vice president and senior economist for The PNC Financial Services Group. Dye came to PNC from Philadelphia, where he was vice president and econometrician, analyzing the economy and commercial real estate markets for Realpoint, a division of Capmark Investments. He has also been senior economist for Moodys.com and Wharton Econometrics.Dye is a …
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Miller, Rogal, Tannehill, Schmidt, Woodruff, Levinson
Eliza Miller, 92: She was an artist who was best known for her sculptures in steel but whose large, ceramic works can be found in local schools and playgrounds. She was born into a prominent family, and her grandfather designed a famous steel mill in Homestead, which he named after her — the Eliza Furnace. …
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Stocks & Pedestal, Fall 2007
In the stocks: Polluted air When we recall Pittsburgh’s old nickname, “The Smoky City,” we think of it as a pejorative description of a dirty, industrial place. But when Pittsburgh first got that appellation, in the still agrarian 19th century, it was a badge of honor. Smoke meant factories, and factories meant progress and wealth. …