The Memorial Wall

Dr. Sengamedu Srinivasa Badrinath, a renowned ophthalmologist and founder of Sankara Nethralaya eye hospital in Chennai, India, has passed away at the age of 83. Dr. Badrinath dedicated his life to providing high-quality eye care to all, including the underprivileged. His hospital performs over 40% of surgeries free of cost for those in need. Despite battling Parkinson's disease, he continued to contribute to the field through research. His death has been mourned by political leaders and the medical community. 

Sanford "Sandy" Bothman, 94, of Santa Barbara, California, passed away on November 19, 2023 from cancer and Parkinson’s disease. Sandy is survived by his loving wife, Annette, daughter Sharon, sons David and Danny, daughter-in-law Teresa, and grandsons Aron and Sean. He was preceded in death by his parents and by his sister Barbara (Bothman) Meyer.

He was born on July 22, 1929, in Los Angeles, California, to Jacob and Ethel Bothman, who had moved there with their extended families in the 1910s from Missouri and Illinois. Sandy’s father, Jacob, lost his business during the Depression, and when he began to travel extensively as a salesman, Sandy’s uncle Sam stepped forward to mentor him. Sam took Sandy to ball games and bought him his first car, a 1931 Ford which Sandy restored to operating condition at the service station where he worked.

Sandy met Annette Friedman at a college party, and they dated for a few months before Annette left for a nearly year-long post-graduation trip to Europe and Israel. Smitten, he persuaded Annette to return to the U.S. and they were married three weeks later. They spent their honeymoon on a scenic road trip to Great Falls, Montana where Sandy reported for active duty at Malmstrom AFB. Annette remembers that on the way Sandy practiced saying “Lieutenant Bothman reporting for duty, Sir!” as directed by the Air Force manual.

Family, friends, and community groups relied on Sandy for his intelligence and care. He was calm and generous and maintained a wonderful sense of humor – even in difficult situations. Sandy was a role model and teacher to his children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews – helping them see problems from different perspectives. Always charming, he made friends easily and maintained relationships throughout his life, even continuing to meet regularly with his basketball buddies from high school. Nothing made Sandy happier than helping others. He would always ask “What can I do for you?”.

He attended elementary and middle school in La Cañada and Los Angeles and later graduated from Beverly Hills High School, where his claim to fame was a (minor) role in The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer with Shirley Temple and Carey Grant. Sandy furthered his education at UCLA, UC Berkeley, and USC on an ROTC scholarship majoring in journalism. After active duty in the USAF Sandy attended the UCLA School of Law, graduating in 1959. Sandy was a life-long student; throughout his adulthood, he earned his real estate broker’s license, his instrument rating as a pilot, and a master’s degree in mediation from Pepperdine Law School.

After law school, Sandy embarked on a successful career as an attorney, practicing as part of the firm Bothman Angus and Talcott. In the early 1980s he left to serve as Corporate Counsel at the Friedman Bag Company. After retiring as a lawyer he worked as a mediator.

Aviation was a passion for Sandy. He learned to fly as a teenager in Los Angeles, and he liked to tell us that his first flight instructor’s license was signed by Orville Wright. As a journalist in the Air Force, he enjoyed flying with fighter pilots on training missions. Later in life he and his flying partner purchased a Beechcraft Debonair, and Sandy enjoyed flying throughout the western United States while Annette white-knuckled it all the way.

In 2015 Sandy and Annette moved to Maravilla, a senior community in Santa Barbara. Sandy was active in the Men’s Club, Fireside Chats, and various book and writing groups. He was especially fond of his close friends in the ROMEO Wednesday lunch club.

Annette and Sandy were active at Leo Baeck Temple in Los Angeles, where he served as board president; they joined Congregation B’nai B’rith after moving to Santa Barbara.

Sandy was fortunate to receive excellent medical care at Sansum Clinic and Cottage Hospital. The family is grateful to the caring staff at Casa St. James where Sandy lived for several weeks, and to the staff at Serenity House in Santa Barbara where Sandy spent his last days in hospice care. Susan Dickenson’s guidance in finding these and other care resources for Sandy was invaluable. The McDermott Crockett Funeral Home in Santa Barbara, CA, is assisting the family with burial arrangements.

Farewell Sandy – you will be deeply missed by all who had the privilege of knowing you. Your legacy of kindness, generosity, and love will forever live on in the hearts of those you touched.

The family encourages all of Sandy’s friends to do something kind for another person. We feel that this is what he would have wanted. 

John J. Rufe, 83, of Newtown, Bucks County, retired judge in the Court of Common Pleas of Bucks County, former assistant district attorney, longtime lawyer, and community leader, died Saturday, Nov. 18, of complications from Parkinson’s disease at Friends Nursing Home at Chandler Hall in Newtown.

A lifelong resident of Bucks County, Judge Rufe was appointed to the county bench in 1989 by Gov. Robert P. Casey. He was elected to a 10-year term in 1991, retained for another term in 2001, and presided over thousands of criminal, civil, domestic, and dependency cases until his retirement as senior judge in 2018.

He oversaw much of the county’s complex and unprecedented asbestos liability litigation in the 1990s. He ruled in 1993 that a man owed 34 years of unpaid child support and in 2000 that Bucks County farms were not unused land subject to unchecked development.

He helped establish the Bucks County Drug Court in 2010 that encouraged recovery and rehabilitation, and was especially moved by dependency cases that involved young children. In online tributes, colleagues and friends called him “humble, insightful and fair” and “a consummate gentleman.” He became a senior judge in 2009, and other family.

Judge Rufe was the husband of U.S. District Court Senior Judge Cynthia M. Rufe and brother of retired Bucks County Judge William Hart Rufe III. He and his older brother are the only brothers to have served simultaneously on the same bench in Pennsylvania, and he and his wife are believed to be just the second married couple to have served together on the same bench in the state when she was on the Bucks County court from 1994 to 2002.

He was featured in The Inquirer after his appointment in 1989 and spoke just two days after his first case. “People have been saying ‘Congratulations, Your Honor,’ in varying degrees for a couple of months now,” he said. “It’s always been while they are smiling.”

Then he added: Now, “people have been referring to me as ‘Judge’ and ‘Your Honor’ with no smile on the face, no flattery involved. I just recognize that it’s real now. ...The time for congratulations is over. The time for the job is at hand.”

Judge Rufe served as a Bucks County assistant district attorney from 1968 to 1971 and worked in private practice at Rufe & Lechowicz in Bucks County until 1989. Earlier, he clerked for Bucks County president judge Edward G. Biester.

He ran uncontested in the 1986 Democratic primary for a state Senate seat and lost in the general election to state Rep. James C. Greenwood. During that campaign, he called himself “a civil rights advocate without compromise.”

He was onetime president of the Bucks County Bar Association, Legal Aid Society Advisory Board, Pennridge Jaycees, and what is now BARC Developmental Services. The bar association renamed its annual softball game the Honorable John J. Rufe Softball Classic a few years ago to honor him as “the best umpire ever,” and it recognized his “life, dedication and professionalism” in a recent formal resolution.

His family said in a tribute: “He was a calm, steady influence over others and exercised impeccable judgment.”

Born Dec. 12, 1939, in Sellersville, John Jacob Rufe ran track, played football, studied drama, and graduated from Pennridge High School in 1957. He earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Lafayette College in 1962 and law degree from Duke University in 1965.

He married Barbara Batchie, and they had daughters Katherine, Kristen, and Amy, and lived in Perkasie. They divorced later. He married Cynthia Weaver in 1999, and welcomed her daughters, Tiffany and Meredith, into their blended family in Newtown.

Judge Rufe and his wife, then a Bucks County judge, were featured in an Inquirer article after their wedding, and he said: “We are capable of supporting each other in what can sometimes be a lonely job.” They shared interests in history, opera, music, and theater. They gardened together and traveled to Europe and the Caribbean.

He also liked to fish and ski, play golf and tennis. He often read the Declaration of Independence aloud on the Fourth of July to share his love of country.

He wore memorable ties and inspired his family as he battled Parkinson’s for three decades. “He dedicated his life to public service and the law,” his family said, “living with integrity, grace, and commitment to do as much as possible to improve the lives of others.”

His wife said: “He was quietly engaging and charming. He had a delightful intellect and was a man with a kind word for anyone.”

In addition to his wife, daughters, brother, stepdaughters, and former wife, Judge Rufe is survived by six grandchildren, another brother, and other relatives. A sister died earlier.

Bill Pinella, a guiding force behind The Press Democrat’s sports section for nearly two decades and a beloved editor over his 45-year career in newsrooms, where close friends called him “Sweet,” died November 15, 2023.

He was 76 and had lived for years with Parkinson’s disease.

At The Press Democrat, as assistant sports editor from 1994 until his retirement in 2012, Pinella was chief among the PD’s many unsung heroes. He was the brace behind writers — and at times the brains — but was content to remain in the background.

He stayed late on Thanksgiving night to read copy about night games, and he helped lay out the sports pages because daily newspapers don’t take a day off for holidays. He worked New Year’s Eve because someone had to be in charge. He was honored to do it.

“For many years Bill and I worked in a tiny office, face-to-face with our desks jammed together,” said former Press Democrat sports editor George Manes. “You learn a lot about a person that way and I learned to admire his humor, calm demeanor and steady commitment to our work. He was a whiz on deadline, corralling recalcitrant, and sometimes ornery, reporters, banging out headlines, editing copy and transforming the often-chaotic mess of daily journalism into a coherent, respected seven-day-a-week sports section.”

He was “a man of soft edges” in a profession where elbows and egos can dominate, said retired PD columnist Chris Smith. He was a salve and support, especially, for his reporters.

“One thing people need to understand about writers and reporters: We tend to get stressed out,” said Press Democrat staff writer and former sports columnist Phil Barber. “Managing workload is hard. Interviews can be hard. Deadlines are VERY hard. If you sense that your editor is wound up about a story, it adds to the anxiety. Bill was the opposite. I never saw him stressed on the job. If something was amiss, he’d tell you, but he always lowered the emotional temperature. That unflappability was confidence inspiring.”

His tenure at the PD came with numerous national awards for sports coverage, and he helped elevate the careers and work of many journalists, among them football writers Matt Maiocco (now with NBC Sports Bay Area) and Eric Branch (now with the San Francisco Chronicle), baseball writer Jeff Fletcher (now with the Orange County Register), Brian Murphy (now with KNBR radio), longtime PD columnist Bob Padecky — and the writer of this story.

He was a fount of story ideas and had a sharp eye for sports trends, spotting them before almost anyone.

When the Oakland Athletics, among the cheapest teams in the big leagues, played a postseason series against the New York Yankees with a gigantic payroll, he ran a chart showing the salaries of all nine starters for each team. The A’s came across like a minor-league outfit and the innovative and humorous chart was a favorite among readers.

In 1996, he suggested to the writer of this story that something strange was going on in baseball. Batters were hitting tons of home runs, and no one could explain why. Bill assigned this writer to investigate the balls. Were they juiced — hopped up?

The search for an answer led to UC Berkeley, where a famous physics professor dropped an old-style ball and a so-called new, juiced-up ball off the Campanile. Luckily no one got beaned. The juiced ball — wound more tightly to fly farther off bats, we would later learn — bounced higher after hitting the ground. (The resulting article won The Associated Press’ award for best sports story in California that year.)

Years later, Bill and the whole world learned it wasn’t only the balls that were juiced. It was almost certainly the players, too, some notoriously taking performance-enhancing drugs. Bill, taking in that controversy, offered his wonderful laugh — which meant life plays tricks on all of us and that’s part of the glorious spectacle.

William Pinella was born March 16, 1947, in Clarksburg, West Virginia. He spoke often and fondly of his upbringing there with his dear sister, Claudia, and he loved to tell stories of their close-knit Italian community.

After graduating from West Virginia University, where he studied journalism, Bill began his 45-year career as a sports journalist, including as sports editor of what was then the San Diego Evening Tribune, where he worked for about a decade, starting in 1983.

In 1982 he met the love of his life, Judy Tuttle. They married in 1984 and raised three children.

His close friends called him Sweet, and that requires an explanation. Between 1986 and 2010 one of the most famous major-league baseball managers was Lou Piniella. People called him Sweet Lou. Although his name is spelled differently from Bill Pinella’s both names are pronounced the same — Pin-nel-la.

Hence, Bill became Sweet.

“Sweet was the best sports editor I ever worked for. His nickname was perfect. He was one of the sweetest men I ever met,” said baseball journalist and senior Sportico writer Barry Bloom, who worked with him in San Diego from 1984 to 1992. “We had a great staff at the Tribune from top to bottom. His job was putting people in the right place and utilizing us. He did that with great calm and tremendous humor. I’ll never forget it. Those days were an incredible foundation for my career. I wouldn’t be where I am today without that experience and without Bill.”

He had a nose for good stories.

“In fact, he suggested two of the most satisfying pieces I ever wrote for our sports section,” said Barber. “One was about the time Rocky Marciano trained for a heavyweight title fight in Calistoga. The other was along the lines of ‘Who was Ernie Nevers and why is a Santa Rosa athletic field named after him?’ They were stories some editors would have seen as old news, or not splashy enough. Bill encouraged his writers to pursue the unexpected.”

He had special affection for the accomplishments of local high school athletes whose efforts often go unrecognized. He spent hours organizing and staging The Press Democrat’s annual high school student-athlete award ceremonies. His love for that work and the job shone through.

“We’re sure not doing this for the money,” he’d say.

Former Press Democrat sports editor Jim Barger, who grew up near Pittsburgh, recalled Pinella grew up a Yankees fan.

“The first time I met him, I’m emptying my stuff to put in the office, and I have a Bill Mazeroski bobblehead,” Barger said. (Mazeroski had ended the 1960 World Series with a game 7, walk-off home run that gave his Pittsburgh Pirates the victory over the Yankees, one of the most famous homers in baseball history.)

“Bill goes, ‘Oh my God!’ He was horrified. But we got over that,” Barger said.

“I counted on him so much. He made out the schedules, a thankless job. He did the night hours. He was a prince,” he added. “A few Christmases ago he sent me a T-shirt for the Grafton Bears — Grafton is a town in West Virginia (population 4,651) and I had covered those guys. I still wear that shirt. God, he was such a good guy.”

He was a devout Catholic and felt great pride in never missing Mass. He was a parishioner at Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Santa Rosa.

As the limits imposed by Parkinson’s disease weighed on his later life, he remained active, walking miles a day, still maintaining his warm disposition, friends said.

“Before I moved out of Sonoma County in 2021, we’d meet for lunch,” said retired Press Democrat copy editor Robert Rubino. “He never wanted to dwell on his illness. We talked about our shared nostalgia for sports and about how rewarding it had been to work at The Press Democrat in the 1990s when newspaper journalism still thrived. In the last two years, we’d talk by phone. Bill was always positive, always receptive to humor, even with his health failing. He set such a dignified example of how to deal with illness.”

He is survived by his wife Judy Pinella of Santa Rosa, their sons Willie of South Lake Tahoe and Timothy of Santa Rosa, daughter Christine Pinella of Santa Rosa, grandson Billee, sister Claudia Randolph of Clarksburg, West Virginia, and by nephew Christopher Edwards of Morgantown, West Virginia, niece Caryl Banks of Bowie, Maryland, grandnephews Chase and Dominic, and grandniece, Lizzy.

George Kachlein peacefully passed away in his home in Bellevue, Washington on November 9th, 2023. He is survived by his wife, Sandra Kachlein, and family, Kristine (Mathew) Sweeney, Mark (Belinda) Kachlein, Mike Davis, Bill (Barbara) Davis, Dyan (Steve) Williams, and 11 grandchildren.

He was predeceased by his first wife Barbara Rudolph, his daughter-in-law, Norma Davis, and grandson Malcom Ogden Davis.

Following Barbara's untimely death in 1986, he reconnected with his longtime friend and former UW classmate, Sandy Ogden Davis, and they married in 1988, and they celebrated their 35th anniversary in August of this year.

Born in Seattle Washington, George, known as "Skip" by many childhood friends, briefly lived in Tacoma during his father's Naval service. He attended McGilvra Elementary School, Garfield High School, and the University of Washington.

At the UW, he joined the Phi Delta Theta fraternity, where he made lifelong friends, rowed crew, and joined the Naval Reserves Officers Training Corps. He worked part-time at Littlers in the men's clothing department. Following graduation, he proudly served in the US Navy at the United States Taiwan Command located in Formosa, now known as Taiwan.

He met Barbara while at the UW and the two were married in Tokyo, in the summer of 1956.

Following active duty, George was asked by his father-in-law, R.E Rudolph to come work for the Ellensburg Telephone Company. He joined the 2nd generation, family-owned business in 1958 and helped lead and grow ETC into a highly respected telecommunications industry. He worked his way up in the company and took over the reins as president following the retirement of his father-in-law. George cared deeply for the company and the wonderful team with whom he worked.

During his 40 years with the company, he served on several telecommunications boards, including the Washington Independent Telephone Association and the United States Telephone Association.

He served the Ellensburg community as president of both the Junior and Chamber of Commerce and Rotary Club. He was a member of the Elks Club, and a 12-year member of the Ellensburg Rodeo, and was elected to the Ellensburg city council. He then also served on the boards of, The Washington Athletic Club, the Central Bank of Washington and was president of the board of directors of AAA of Washington.

He was an active member of the Associated Washington Business. George was also a member of the Yakima, Ellensburg, and Whidbey Island golf clubs, and a 12-year board member of his Canadian fishing club.

George was a passionate Washington Huskies fan and supporter, often proudly wearing and displaying his alma mater colors of purple and gold. He was also an avid and highly skilled fisherman and bird hunter, never turning down an opportunity to wake up in the very early hours to pursue his outdoor passions with his wife, family, friends, and work associates.

He loved alpine skiing and enjoyed taking his young family on ski vacations to share the exhilaration and joy of the sport.

During his retirement years, George enjoyed traveling around the world visiting grandchildren in Oregon, California, Hawaii, and Australia.

He spent his winters in Palm Desert where he enjoyed golfing, hiking, and tennis. He was a member of Silver Sands Racquet Club, Thunderbird Golf Club, The Committee of 25, The Living Desert, and McCallum Theater.

The special places George cherished most throughout his life were at his home on Whidbey Island, sailing on his boat the "Skip it", and spending time at a private fly-fishing lodge in British Columbia.

It was in these beautiful retreats, surrounded by his family and friends, that George was his happiest, fishing, socializing, and sitting by the fire at the end of another great day.

Phil Meyer, a giant in data journalism who once worked at the Detroit Free Press, at home in Carrboro, North Carolina, surrounded by family.

Meyer, 93, was professor emeritus and former Knight Chair of Journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

“He maintained his humor, grace and mild-mannered reporter’s sense of curiosity and calm till the end,” said Sarah Meyer, one of his three daughters.

Meyer died of complications of Parkinson’s disease. He recently had a happy celebration of his 93rd birthday with his children and grandchildren, family members said.

The professor and journalist pioneered the use of social science methods to improve reporting and authored numerous books, including the seminal “Precision Journalism.” Earlier this year, the Investigative Reporters & Editors organization celebrated the 50th anniversary of the book at the NICAR23 conference in Nashville.

“Phil was a pioneer in data journalism, who brought higher standards to reporting through data analysis and his own brilliant conceptual thinking,” said Brant Houston, a longtime friend and himself an author of textbooks and the Knight Chair of Investigative Journalism at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

“He instructed and inspired students and journalists throughout the world and leaves a deep legacy in the profession.”

Meyer was one of the early proponents of using data analysis for investigative journalism. In a groundbreaking Free Press story, he analyzed survey research about the 1967 deadly riot in Detroit to show that college-educated people were just as likely as high school dropouts to have participated in the riot.

His work was part of a Pulitzer Prize for local spot news reporting for the Detroit Free Press staff.

Meyer has received numerous awards over the years, and one of journalism’s highest honors is named after him.

IRE’s global Philip Meyer Journalism Award, established in 2005, recognizes the best journalism that uses the social science research methods pioneered by Meyer.

“Phil Meyer embodied all that makes the investigative journalism community great — brilliance, creativity, thoroughness and generosity,” said IRE President Brian M. Rosenthal of The New York Times. “We will miss him, but we know that his legacy lives on in countless IRE members and other data journalists around the world.”

Meyer was widely recognized as a consummate educator, who enjoyed sharing his passion for numbers and making things better for fellow journalists the world over, including at IRE bootcamps about statistics and mapping.

“He will be remembered for his kindness and patience in his teaching along with a wry sense of humor that made new methods and ways of thinking much easier to learn,” Houston said.

That even-tempered nature was a hallmark of Meyer’s personality, his colleagues said.

“He was very precise and patient,” said Jennifer LaFleur, veteran journalist and now assistant professor of data journalism at UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. LaFleur met Meyer when she was a trainer at IRE, studying and working with him. “He was able to seamlessly weave stories of his work in newspapers and his work doing analysis into something we were trying to learn that was much harder, which I think made it a lot easier to learn,” LaFleur said.

Prior to entering academia in 1981, Meyer was a reporter for 26 years, including stints at the Miami Herald, Detroit Free Press and the Akron Beacon Journal.

Meyer is survived by his daughters Kathy (Steve) Lucente, Melissa Meyer and Sarah Meyer and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his wife, Sue Quail Meyer, and daughter Caroline Dalton Meyer.

Peter Tarnoff, a U.S. diplomat who rose to No. 3 in the State Department in the 1990s after years as a behind-the-scenes envoy, including helping to craft a plan to smuggle six State Department employees out of Tehran during the Iran hostage crisis, in a ruse recounted in the film “Argo,” died November 1st in San Francisco. He was 86.

His wife, Mathea Falco, said he died at home of complications from Parkinson’s disease.

Mr. Tarnoff’s career spanned many crises in the Cold War and beyond. He had served at the U.S. Embassy in Saigon during the Vietnam War and, as undersecretary of state for political affairs from 1993 to 1997, he held policy-shaping roles after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

He was often called to help shepherd politically sensitive decisions by the Clinton administration. Among them was tightening an open-door asylum policy for Cubans fleeing the island, a change in 1995 that outraged Cuban Americans and others who considered it a betrayal of American opposition to Fidel Castro’s dictatorial regime.

President Bill Clinton argued that the shift — sending back Cubans interdicted at sea — was necessary to dissuade Cubans from attempting the dangerous crossing to Florida.

Before making the decision, Clinton wanted to gauge reaction from Castro. Mr. Tarnoff was already known by the Cuban leader — making several clandestine trips to the island in the late 1970s on missions sanctioned by President Jimmy Carter. Mr. Tarnoff and Castro once puffed cigars together. This time, Mr. Tarnoff reached out to a Castro confidant, Cuban diplomat Ricardo Alarcón, for an off-the-books meeting at a bar near the United Nations. Mr. Tarnoff had an offer: As part of efforts to curb the sea crossings, the United States would take more than 20,000 anti-Castro Cubans sheltered at the U.S. base at Guantánamo Bay.

Castro was in favor. He was worried any unrest at Guantánamo could spread across the island. Mr. Tarnoff and Alarcón later met in Toronto to hammer out the accord. Amid the political bickering afterward, Mr. Tarnoff was put on damage control. He swatted down speculation that Washington was moving toward normalizing ties with Cuba.

“Political dialogue would be a recognition — implicit or otherwise — on the part of the United States that we bear some responsibility for the situation in Cuba,” he told reporters, referring to asylum seekers attempting sea journeys. “We do not accept that.”

More than 15 years earlier, in another under-wraps operation, Mr. Tarnoff was part of a storied diplomatic sleight of hand that played out in Tehran.

In 1979, Mr. Tarnoff was a special assistant to Secretary of State Cyrus R. Vance when Iran’s Western-backed shah was toppled in the Islamic revolution. Later that year, the U.S. Embassy in Tehran was stormed by an Iranian mob, and more than 50 hostages were taken. Six State Department employees who had managed to evade the captors eventually found shelter in the residences of the Canadian ambassador and a top aide.

An elaborate scheme was hatched, later dubbed the “Canadian Caper.” The plan called for two CIA operatives to head to Tehran posing as Canadian filmmakers scouting locations for a science-fiction film, “Argo.” The six Americans in hiding would pretend to be part of the crew, using fake Canadian passports.

During the 1970s, Mr. Tarnoff held diplomatic and State Department research posts in Europe, and served as special assistant to Vance and his successor, Edmund Muskie.

After Reagan’s election in 1980, Mr. Tarnoff accepted a fellowship at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. He later became executive director of the World Affairs Council of Northern California and, from 1986 to 1993, was president of the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations.

Mr. Tarnoff’s marriage to Danielle Oudinot ended in divorce. In addition to Falco, his wife of 41 years, survivors include their son, Benjamin Tarnoff; a son from his first marriage, Alexander Tarnoff, and three granddaughters. Another son from his first marriage, Nicholas Tarnoff, died in 1991.

Until the late 1950s, Mr. Tarnoff expected to become a professor of philosophy. Those plans were upended by a decision to take philosophy seminars in France. To Mr. Tarnoff, the Cold War realities were vividly clear after Moscow’s crackdown on Hungary’s pro-freedom uprisings in 1956.

“I found myself in Europe at a time when human events and political events were quite dramatic,” he told the University of California’s television channel in 2008. “I think if I had not been in Europe at all … I might have continued on with philosophy, become a philosophy professor and never thought about the Foreign Service.”

Award-Winning Research Chemist at Exxon & National Authority on Polymers, Loving Family Man & Civic Leader in Watchung, Edward "Ed" N. Kresge of Solebury, PA, passed away in the afternoon of October 30, 2023, in Lawrenceville, NJ, after a long struggle with Parkinson's. 

Ed was visited and comforted by his family and the staff of The Meadows at Lawrence until his passing. He was 88 years old. The youngest son of Ira and Hilda (Dendler) Kresge, Ed was born in Noxen, PA, on August 14, 1935.

Ed had a fun and exciting childhood on a small farm where he enjoyed the outdoors and picked up the remarkable mechanical abilities that would be evident throughout his future scientific career as well as his hobbies. Ed's parents were loving and intelligent and encouraged him to do well in school. The family moved to Florida in 1952, where Ed finished high school and then graduated from the University of Tampa in 1957. Upon receiving his Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Florida in 1961, he began an illustrious 32-year career at Exxon. He met his wife of 61 years, Dolores DeYoung, at an Exxon get-acquainted party.

Ed loved scientific research and specialized in polymer chemistry. A pioneer in the development of a variety of elastomers, his work led to several major innovations in the rubber industry, including viscosity modifiers for motor oil. Major improvements in tires and automotive equipment also resulted from the work of Ed and his research team. Ed's accomplishments were acknowledged through numerous awards, including the American Chemical Society (ACS) Charles Goodyear Medal and the ACS Detroit Division Midgeley Award. Holder of more than 50 patents and author of many papers and book chapters, his work is still frequently cited.
Active in science education, Ed served on advisory boards at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Connecticut, and the University of Florida. Ed bridged his industrial and academic interests by serving 12 years with the ACS Committee on Professional Training. He lectured extensively at scientific meetings and led courses on elastomer technology and the fundamentals of polymer science in the US, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and South America.

After retiring from Exxon in 1993, he continued as a consultant for Exxon and an interesting variety of other companies and governments for 22 more years.

Ed and Dolores built a house in Watchung, NJ, and lived there for 39 years. Ed loved to spend time with his wife, children, and extended family. Ed was happiest building and fixing things, whether at work, at home or at the family vacation house in Herrick Center, PA. Ed traveled extensively in the US and visited every inhabited continent.

While in Watchung, Ed served on the Board of Education and community committees. A long-term member of Wilson Memorial Church in Watchung, Ed was on the Church Board and served as President. He joined his wife in a variety of projects for the Girl Scouts and the United Way. In 2006, the couple renovated a Greek Revival farmhouse in Neshanic Station, NJ, and appreciated country living and gardening before their move to Solebury.

Ed was preceded in death by his parents, his sister, Mary, and his brother, Ira.
Ed is survived by his wife, Dolores, and his children, John E. Kresge and Susan E. Kresge.
The family would like to thank the loving staff of The Meadows at Lawrence for their care of Ed over the last 18 months.

In 1967 when Ray Foley went to work as a bartender and manager at The Manor in West Orange, NJ, little did he know that cocktails would continue to shape and define the next 56 years of his life. “Uncle Ray,” a beloved legend in the hospitality industry, passed away peacefully in Basking Ridge, NJ, on October 27, 2023, from complications of Parkinson’s disease, which he sustained in the Marine Corps at Camp Lejeune in the 1960’s. He recently celebrated his 80th birthday.

The Manor didn’t only shape Ray’s career, it’s also the place where in 1977 he met the love of his life, Jaclyn Wilson, who he married in 1982 in Bernardsville, NJ. The following year, Ray left The Manor to devote his full efforts to BARTENDER Magazine, which he began publishing a few years prior. Today, BARTENDER Magazine, Bartender.com, and Mixologist.com are still the only trade publications/websites of their kind targeted to bartenders and bartending, read and enjoyed by more than 250,000 people across the country. Ray was also the author of over a dozen cocktail books, including the popular “Bartending for Dummies,” now in its 6th edition, and one of the all-time best sellers in the “For Dummies” series. Additionally, Ray has developed and named thousands of cocktail recipes, including the world-famous “Fuzzy Navel,” which he created in 1985. Ray’s collection of cocktail recipe books (some dating back to the 1800’s) is one of the largest collections in the world and is now on display at the Galleria Campari Museum in Milan, Italy.

A longtime champion for bartenders and hospitality professionals, Ray was the founder of the BARTENDER “Hall of Fame” which recognizes and honors the best bartenders throughout the U.S. for their skill and service to their communities. He was also the founder of “The Bartenders’ Foundation,” a non-profit organization that raises and awards much-needed scholarship funds to bartenders to further their own or their children’s education.

Ray was generous and kind, and larger than life. With his quick wit, big heart, and Irish humor, he loved to entertain people and tell stories (as any good bartender should!) But his greatest joy in life was his family. He is survived by his wife and partner of 42 years Jaclyn, their son Ryan, daughter-in-law Cait Fallon, and granddaughter Nora. He also leaves behind Ray and his partner Kim, Billy and his wife Perry and their son Lachlan Foley, Amy and her husband Greg and children, Caitlin, Robert, and John.

In 1977 at the age of 39, Dr. Jeanne Hoff, a psychiatrist, welcomed a TV crew into her home in Manhattan. Their purpose was to document her journey towards her gender confirmation surgery scheduled the following day.

Lynn Redgrave and Frank Field hosted the documentary titled “Becoming Jeanne: A Search for Sexual Identity,” built around her journey, which was broadcast on NBC in the subsequent spring.

“The path we take regarding our bodies and our lives often unsettles those around us,” Dr. Hoff, a petite woman with brown hair down to her shoulders, explained during the broadcast. She continued, “I can see the fear and confusion in their eyes, even those who have known me for an extended period.”

She had been considering undergoing surgery for many years. Yet, making the decision to go public with her journey, which could have endangered her career and overall well-being, came more naturally to her.

Dr. Hoff aimed to highlight her struggles in acquiring treatment and dealing with doctors who lacked adequate knowledge about transgender individuals. She hoped that her experience would enlighten those in the medical field.

Coverage of transgender personalities during that era was sparse but significant. “Conundrum,” a memoir by travel writer Jan Morris on her own transition, was well received upon its release in 1974. In 1977, Renée Richards, an ophthalmology practitioner and tennis player, obtained a court order to participate in the women’s division at the U.S. Open.

However, Dr. Hoff’s appearance on television was primarily to serve as a model for many of her clients, which included many who identified as transgender or gay. She believed it was crucial for her to live her life openly, confidently, and with no shame, as she encouraged her patients to do the same.

On October 26, Dr. Hoff, believed to be the first transgender psychiatrist to disclose her identity, passed away in her San Francisco home at the age of 85. Carol Lucas, her friend, revealed that the cause of her death was Parkinson’s disease. Gay City News announced her passing this month.

Running a private practice in Manhattan at the time of her transition, Dr. Hoff had also taken over the practice of Dr. Harry Benjamin, a German-born endocrinologist often regarded as the pioneer for transgender care in America. However, in the timeline of that care, Dr. Hoff remains obscure, if recognized at all.

Jules Gill-Peterson, an associate professor at Johns Hopkins University specializing in sexuality and transgender history, discovered Dr. Hoff’s archives during her research for her 2018 book, “Histories of the Transgender Child.” It came as a surprise to her that a transgender woman was already practicing as a psychiatrist open about her identity during the 1970s.

Dr. Hoff had championed the release of a Black transgender woman who was institutionalized from age 15 until 30 due to her assertion of her gender identity being falsely diagnosed as “mental retardation,” “delusion,” and “sexual perversion.”

In the documentary “Becoming Jeanne,” Dr. Hoff addressed the lesser but prevalent sexism within her medical team. An example she pointed out was her surgeon’s insistence that her breast implants should be larger, leading him to be surprised when she did not want to appear overly conspicuous.

When questioned about marriage in the documentary, Dr. Hoff revealed her relationship with a man, but she was uncertain if the relationship would survive her transition (which it did not).

“The marriage market for middle-aged spinsters is not thriving,” she commented, emphasizing that she was not dependent on that market for happiness. She said she took fulfillment from her profession and her network of supportive and caring friends, a stark contrast to her life prior.

Dr. Hoff was an only child born on October 16, 1938, in St. Louis to James and Mary (Salih) Hoff. Her father worked as a bottler in a brewery during the 1950s. According to Ms. Lucas, a friend from the 1980s, Dr. Hoff’s memories of her upbringing were scarce but she alluded to it having been a difficult period marked by alcoholism from her father and scarcity.

After earning her B.A. from Washington University in 1960, half of which was funded by a scholarship, Dr. Hoff pursued a Master’s of Science at Yale. In 1963, she earned an M.D. in surgery from Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons. She served as an instructor in pathology and later as a resident in psychiatry at her alma mater, Washington University, between 1971-1976.

In the 1980s, she sold her practice and relocated to Hudson, New York. In nearby Kingston, she worked at a state-run outpatient clinic providing care to long-term psychiatric patients with severe disabilities, including schizophrenia. She later moved to a group practice in Pittsburgh before finally returning to Oakland, California, where she worked with previously incarcerated individuals via a program with the California Department of Corrections. Dr. Hoff’s eventual retirement in 1999 followed an attack by a prisoner.

“She did not recover well from that trauma,” Ms. Lucas acknowledged, “She said she couldn’t get mad, which would allow her to heal because he was a patient. Her compassion was tremendous.”

Dr. Hoff did not leave behind any immediate family members.

In “Becoming Jeanne,” Mr. Field inquired about how Dr. Hoff wished to be acknowledged and treated by others. To which she promptly responded, “It might not be necessary to exert oneself to grasp the idea of embracing transsexuals if one could simply adhere to the principle of minding one’s own business.”