The Memorial Wall

Fernando Botero, a Colombian artist who developed a signature style painting rotund, inflated yet sensuous figures with a whimsical or satirical edge, and who branched into monumental sculptures that adorned some of the world’s most famous boulevards, died September 15th, 2023 at a hospital in Monaco. He was 91.

Mauricio Vallejo, a co-owner of the Art of the World gallery in Houston and a close friend of Mr. Botero’s, confirmed the death and said the artist had pneumonia and Parkinson’s disease.

Mr. Botero’s aesthetic — often shorthanded as Boterismo — became a major draw at contemporary art museums and decorated the Champs-Élysées in Paris, Park Avenue in New York, Madrid’s Paseo de Recoletos and other renowned thoroughfares, as well as parks and plazas from Buenos Aires to Moscow to Tokyo. His emblematic oversized figures helped turn global attention to Latin American artists in the second half of the 20th century.

With deadpan irreverence, he scoured Colombia’s bourgeois urban scenes for imagery of extravagance, pomposity and greed. Mr. Botero early in his career seized on sharp visual contrasts: Tiny snakes, parrots, flies and bananas adorn his portraits of blimpy bullfighters, bishops, prostitutes, acrobats, ballroom dancers and politicians. Men with rotund faces sport tiny mustaches; hefty ladies smoke miniature cigarettes.

His figures on the canvas and cast in bronze were often voluptuous and slyly fanciful, although he would turn later to darker themes inspired by current events, such as drug violence in Colombia and torture at the U.S.-run Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

Mr. Botero’s work was highly popular and could fetch millions of dollars. Critics, however, especially in the 1960s, did not always approve of his work. Some dismissed it as gimmickry or caricature. An ARTnews reviewer once belittled his enlarged figures as “fetuses begotten by Mussolini on an idiot peasant woman.”

Edward J. Sullivan, a New York University professor who specializes in Latin American contemporary art, traced such animosity to the humor and accessibility of Mr. Botero’s public art installations, which challenged an establishment that often embraced inscrutability and jealously guarded its gatekeeper role.

“My popularity has to do with the divorce between modern art, where everything is obscure, and the viewer who often feels he needs a professor to tell them whether it’s good or not,” Mr. Botero told the Los Angeles Times. “I believe a painting has to talk directly to the viewer, with composition, color and design, without a professor to explain it.”

Mr. Botero’s cheekiness showed in his paintings of Marie Antoinette sauntering through the cobble-stoned street of a Colombian town, a humongous ballet dancer en pointe at the barre, and a serious-minded cleric lying in comical repose in a park. In a self-portrait, Mr. Botero depicted himself as a painter dressed in full bullfighting regalia.

He rejected suggestions that he should move beyond the voluminous figures in his paintings and his bulbous sculptures.

Fernando Botero Angulo was born in Medellín on April 19, 1932, the second of three siblings. His father, a salesman who sometimes made his rounds on horseback, died of an apparent heart attack when Mr. Botero was 4. His mother, a seamstress, struggled to maintain the family.

An uncle enrolled Mr. Botero in a bullfighting school, where pupils practiced passes before imaginary bulls. “We were about 20 pupils in the school. After much training, one day, the professor finally said, ‘Now, we’re going to experience with a real bull.’ Nineteen left the school, me included,” Mr. Botero told the South China Morning Post.

He began sketching scenes from the bullring, finding a passion outside his Jesuit school, where priests, scandalized by an admiring essay he wrote on the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, expelled him in 1949.

Mr. Botero graduated from a public high school, eventually moving to Bogotá, the Colombian capital, a breathtaking experience that thrust the young artist into a creative milieu — artistic and literary — far removed from provincial Medellín. When one of his paintings placed second at a national competition in 1952, he used the prize money to study art in Madrid.

He visited the Louvre in Paris and settled in Florence in 1953, delighting in Renaissance paintings. But upon returning to Colombia in 1955, Mr. Botero bombed in his efforts to sell his work.

Mr. Botero and his first wife, Gloria Zea, moved a year later to Mexico City, where Mr. Botero seized on what would become his signature style. A Botero painting from this era — depicting a mandolin with an improbably tiny sound hole that made the instrument appear out of proportion — signified the artist’s exploration of volume.

He told the South China Morning Post that he resented the tendency among some viewers to dismiss his subjects as fat. “For me, it’s an exaltation of volume and sensuality,” he said. “I’ve done the opposite of what most artists do today — I’ve given importance to volume. I’ve also given importance to subject matter and expression — poetry. I don’t want to shock people. I want to give them pleasure.”

Restaurateur, owner of Antonio's Mexican Restaurant. In the 1970's, he changed the perception of how people thought of Mexican food, beyond tacos and burritos, and started a trend that continues to this day, where more traditional dishes were brought to the mainstream as Mexican Cuisine. He was born in Monterrey, Mexico in 1937. The fifth child (of seven brothers and three sisters) to Maria and Antonio Sr. In the 1950's, he came to Los Angeles not yet able to speak the language, but eager to learn and make his dream of owning his own restaurant a reality. He worked in almost every restaurant and nightclub in town, as a dishwasher, busboy, and eventually when he learned enough English, as a waiter. He met the love of his life Yolanda, and together they raised five children. In the early 1960's, he worked in the commissary of Warner Brothers studios. As a waiter, he took care of Frank Sinatra, Jane Fonda, Barbra Streisand, Francis Ford Coppola, and even took care of the head of the studio Jack Warner. When having asked Mr. Warner advice about him opening a restaurant, Mr. Warner told him "don't go into the restaurant business! You won't make any money!" After working at the studio,he'd come home, have a bit of dinner, take a short nap and then get ready for his second job as a waiter at "The Chianti" a popular Italian restaurant on Melrose Avenue. He would often times, come home very late and very tired. Next day, he'd start his routine working at the studio. He did this for ten years, until he saved enough money to open his own restaurant. In 1970, on April 6, he finally opened his restaurant "Antonio's" on Melrose Avenue, only a few blocks away from The Chianti! The same day he opened his restaurant, his youngest child was born. A son, named Antonio Jr. After many years of hard work and struggles, his dream came true, and people loved the cuisine, and many celebrities enjoyed it as well. After 50 years in operation, his restaurant closed. He had been in declining health because of Parkinson's disease and dementia. He passed away peacefully, at home, surrounded by his loving family who cared for him till the end. He is survived by his wife of sixty plus years Yolanda, and their five children. The youngest having died in an auto accident at the age of twenty. He is also survived by his seven grand children and five great grand children. He was an incredible human being, very much loved, and will be truly missed by all who knew him.

Isabel Lucom Clark (née Isabel Maria de Landa), aged 76, passed away on September 15, 2023, in Palm Springs, California, after a long struggle with Parkinson's disease.

Isabel was born in New York City on January 15, 1947, to Virginia Clayton Willys de Landa and Jose Manuel de Landa y Osio. She spent her childhood years in Palm Beach, Florida, where she attended the Palm Beach Day School and was presented as a Palm Beach Junior Assembly debutante in 1966. She graduated from Miss Porter's School in Farmington, Connecticut, in 1965 and from The George Washington University in 1969.

Choosing Palm Springs, California as her home in 1979 with her then-husband, Isabel radiated warmth and enthusiasm, raising her four children and enveloping friends with her infectious energy and conversation. Her legacy resonates in her generosity of spirit, quick wit, and the unforgettable moments she shared with those who knew her best.

She is survived by her children, Alexander Nicholas Clark of Dallas, Texas, Delanda Willys Clark of Cathedral City, California, and Cassandra Clark Hourani of Ramona, California; and by her grandchildren, Ethan, Sophia, Virginia Grace, Noah and Alexis.

She was predeceased by her beloved son, Robert Marvin Clark, Jr. in 2022, and by her former husband and companion, Robert Marvin Clark, Sr., in 2019.

From the day she started editing the Longboat Observer to the day she handed over editing duties of the four newspapers she built with her husband, there was never a frantic rush, never a shout, never a tense flurry of activity to meet deadlines. 

No matter how late the papers to the printers or how big the story, Lisa Walsh was never anything but poised. 

It had nothing to do with how much she cared about the papers — and make no mistake, she cared down to the comma — running around barking orders or breathing down reporters’ necks to get copy just wasn’t her nature.

But that doesn’t mean she wasn’t effective. As she leaned over your desk and said, “We’re going to need that story now,” writers got the message. Despite her petite 5-foot-4 frame, perfectly styled hair and manicured nails, she was tough. And everyone knew it.

Of course, everyone knew this by the way she faced challenges — head on. She sought solutions instead of indulging in problems. She let logic prevail over emotion. And in her understated way, whether it was navigating three deadlines a week, sorting out a crisis at a nonprofit or even battling a rare form of Parkinson’s disease for seven years, she led with patience, grace and dignity.

It was that way until the end. She died at 12:25 a.m. Thursday, September 14th, 2023, from complications from her Parkinson’s. She was 69. 

Walsh died at Sarasota Memorial Hospital. When her health began deteriorating rapidly Tuesday, September 12th, 2023, doctors gave her four to six hours to live. She kept going for 27 more.

“My mother, tiny though she was, was incredibly strong and determined and never gave up,” said Emily Walsh, her eldest daughter.

Walsh was surrounded when she died by her husband Matt and three adult children, Emily, Kate, and Brian. Walsh is also survived by three grandchildren, Rhys Parry, 13; Maeve Walsh, 6; Jackson Walsh, 3; her father, David Beliles, of Sarasota and her brother, David Beliles Jr., Lincoln, Nebraska.  

On Longboat Key and in Sarasota and east Manatee County, the Walshes are most known publicly for the Observer Media Group, which publishes multiple weekly print publications, seasonal and quarterly magazines and daily news websites. 

But Lisa Walsh, based on accounts from her family and friends in Sarasota and beyond, was much more than a newspaper editor. 

She was a devoted wife, mother and grandmother, quick with advice and counsel and also quick to host and prepare a feast-worthy Christmas dinner. She was a behind-the-scenes executive, idea-generating machine and tight-knit business partner with Matt — they were married 47 years — as they and the Observer Media Group navigated the rapidly-changing media industry for nearly three decades.

Walsh was an intensely loyal philanthropist who gave time and treasure to a host of causes; and a go-to friend for many who loved to giggle with her partners-in-crime while also providing a trusted and empathic shoulder — in addition to recipes, suggestions for books and what TV shows to watch. On that last point, one of her more recent TV recommendations was Bosch, an Amazon Prime show based on the Michael Connelly novels.

“She was brilliant and beautiful,” said Brian Lipton, director of the West Coast Florida chapter of the American Jewish Committee, one of the organizations Lisa Walsh supported. “She was a kind lady and a class act.” 

Despite her title of vice president and executive editor, Walsh was happy to let others have the spotlight. In the business, she let Matt do most of the talking at companywide presentations, but the two shared all big decisions. 

Every business expansion or sale, every hire or fire was discussed around the dinner table — with Lisa providing the level-headed counterbalance to Matt’s passion and eagerness to grow. 

From the height of the toilets in the ladies’ room to the fonts of the redesigned print editions to the company’s taglines — many of which she dreamed up in her witty style — were subject to the Lisa taste test. 

Humor was a primary tool for persuasion for Lisa. In response to one angry reader who wrote a searing letter to the editor complaining about the conservative nature of the Longboat Observer’s editorial page and its incorrect bridge column, Lisa retorted: “We do apologize for the error in the bridge column, and in the future, we will keep it just like our opinion page: right.” 

Devotion to community and her friends and family were another hallmark of Walsh’s life. On the community side, she served as president of the boards of Safe Place and Rape Crisis Center and the Longboat Key Center for the Arts and on the boards of the Longboat Key Chamber of Commerce and Ringling College Library Association. As the chair of galas for the American Jewish Committee, Neuro Challenge Foundation for Parkinson’s and Sarasota Ballet, she raised thousands of dollars for those organizations.

Those community activities paid off for Walsh as well. She made close, lasting friendships. Derek Billib, another longtime SPARCC board member, says Walsh was the most sensitive person of their group. “She was so compassionate, sincere and genuine,” Billib said. “When she was talking with you, she was always listening, always paying attention.”

Some friendships go back to Walsh’s University of Missouri college days, in the early 1970s. That’s when she both pledged the Pi Beta Phi sorority and met Merry Gnaegy, a fellow sorority sister, who went on to become a lifelong friend. 

Gnaegy introduced Walsh, then Lisa Beliles, to a Mizzou journalism major and baseball player named Matt Walsh, setting the pair up on a blind date. 

Walsh and Gnaegy were roommates for several years. They danced to Elton John’s “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,” attended formal dinners, line danced to “China Grove” and hit the “Double Bubble” at the Ramada Inn, Gnaegy recalls. 

Even back then, echoing a theme in her life, Gnaegy says Walsh “always seemed put together. She had that perfect complexion that didn’t require makeup. She was smart, cute and perky, even in our standard attire of overalls, saddle oxfords and red bandanas.”

Walsh became president of the Pi Phi house in her junior year. In recent years, after Walsh became a primary financial contributor to rebuild the sorority house, the sorority named the president’s suite after her, with her name in a plaque on the wall next to the door.

Last fall, on a trip through Columbia, Missouri, Lisa and Matt stopped at the sorority house. She wanted to see the plaque for the first time in person. It was on the second floor of house — a house with no elevator.

Unable to walk because of her Parkinson’s, with Matt holding her up from behind and bystanders watching in amazement, Lisa held on to the stair railings and pulled herself up two flights of stairs and shimmied down two flights of stairs.

“I learned early on in our marriage,” Matt says, “despite her diminutive size and elegant demeanor, it was never a good idea to tell her she couldn’t do something. She had amazing inner strength and determination; always poised, never a raised voice, never complain; she would do what needed to be done, never giving up. It was that way to her last breath. A role model for us all.”

Carson Lee Gladson, 83, renowned California landscape artist, died on September 14, 2023, in Pasadena after a prolonged battle with Parkinson's disease.
Born in Lexington, Kentucky, to the Rev. Dallas and Mary (Mitchell), Gladson moved to California as a toddler and lived in the state for the rest of his life. For many years, his father was the chaplain at San Quentin Prison and the Gladson family lived on the island there.
After studying at Chapman University, University of California, Berkeley, UCLA and California State University at Fullerton, Gladson taught for 40 years at El Camino College, the second-largest community college in the United States, where he instructed in painting, drawing and design. His work is in the collections of San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Oakland Museum, Long Beach Museum of Art and The Hammer Museum, as well as many other national and international museums and corporate collections.
Gladson enjoyed an international reputation as a landscape painter, although initially he pursued abstract paintings that featured subtle color and extensive use of biomorphic shapes. At 19, he had his first one-man show at the Long Beach Museum of Art, which drew a rave review in the Los Angeles Times by art critic William Wilson and so impressed the museum director that he bought a work for his personal collection, as did members of the museum staff.

During the 1970s and 1980s, the majority of his output was large-scale drawings that featured the transcendent use of color and light and could be characterized as ethereal works. Many of these drawings were of specific locations in Southern California, Oregon, Washington and Vancouver, BC, while many others are mythic creations from the artist's mind. He has been referred to as a California plein air (outdoor) artist and there are clearly correlations, but his work is too contemporary for that to be a fully accurate characterization.

As a result of repetitive injury to his hands, Gladson transitioned to employing iPads to create new images. He never stopped making art until the progress of Parkinson's made it impossible.

He is survived by his daughters, Hope Demetriades, Rose Gladson and Genevieve Gladson; grandsons, Lucas Demetriades and Theodore Demetriades; sister, Diane Reiman; niece, Wendy Miller Taylor; grandniece, Haley Hartzell; grandnephew, Carson Miller and son-in-law, Alexander Demetriades.

Larry Reid never knew a stranger. He loved to chat and share stories with friends both old and new.

Lawrence (Larry) Joseph Reid, 75, of Cape Coral, Florida passed away peacefully at home surrounded by family on September 13th, 2023.

Larry was born in Newark, Ohio in 1948 to Martha Grace (Strosnider) and Lawrence O. Reid, who were loving and hard-working parents. Larry grew up alongside his beloved older sister Patricia, and several beloved cousins. He cherished family time and enjoyed growing up in Newark. He graduated from Newark Catholic High School in 1966, then attended Eastern Kentucky University where he graduated with a degree in Physical Education.

Larry met the love of his life Rebecca (Becky) Ohl when they were both teaching for Lakewood Schools in Hebron, Ohio. They both had a passion for teaching and became close during game nights spent with their teaching friends. They were married January 2nd, 1981. In 1984 they had their first child, their daughter Alison. They soon expanded their family with their son Devin, and sometime later their youngest daughter McKenzie. One of Larry’s greatest enjoyments was supporting his children, especially when it came to their love of running. He was a dedicated cross country and track dad who always took their splits, as well as figured out the best spots on a cross country course to cheer his kids on during their races.

Larry had many fond memories of going on vacation with his family and extended family to one of his favorite places, the Outer Banks in North Carolina. He loved Ohio State athletics, Cleveland Cavaliers basketball, and watching Newark Catholic sporting events. Larry was known for his kindness, and his ability to make anyone feel welcomed wherever he went. He was an incredible husband, father, teacher, and friend, he will be greatly missed by so many.

The last few years of his life Larry battled Parkinson’s disease. While being cared for by his family he was also cared for by Cari, Alicia, Susana, and Tressa, who were wonderful caretakers.

In addition to his wife Becky, Larry is survived by his daughters and sons-in-law, McKenzie and Xavier Cook, of Newark, and Alison and Dan Hammergren of Cape Coral. His grandchildren Camden and Sophia. His sister and brother in-laws, Phoebe Ohl and her husband Jim Cox, Bill Keck, Priscilla Ohl, and Tom Ohl. His nephews Sean Digman and Ryan Digman. His nieces Nicole DeMoss and Amy Perdue. As well as several great nieces and nephews. His extended family Jamie and Carol Frush and their children, Jon, David, and Katie; and Jon and Missy Morrison and their children, Jared and Jacob.

Larry was preceded in death by his son Devin, and his sister Patricia Keck. His sister-in-law LuLu Leland. His parents Lawrence O. and Martha Grace Reid; and his father and mother-in-law, Harry R. and Esther Ohl.

Robert Amasa Seaman passed away peacefully at home on the morning of September 11th, 2023 in the Banning-Wrigley Historic District of Wilmington, California with his wife of 37 years by his side. Diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease over 8 years ago, he constantly defied his medical team’s expectations with his strength and determination.

Bob was born June 15, 1935, in Fowler, California, to Rev. Maurice Seaman and Gladys (Lawson) Seaman. Three years later, the family expanded by one with the birth of Bob’s brother, John. Gladys was a lifelong musician and teacher, exposing her sons early on to myriad musical performances. Bob preferred classical music, especially Mozart, as a result.

Bob started his unbelievable athletic exploits at Reedley Grant Elementary school as part of an 880-meter relay team which set a record at the West Coast Relays. He competed in high jump and the standing long jump as well.

At Reedley High School, he was active in student government, usually as the vice president or president of his classes. A three-sport athlete, he excelled in the middle-distance events and relays, took the field as a defensive end and halfback on the football team, and was a forward on the basketball team. It was as a mighty Pirate that he won the state mile at 4:21 on the historic clay track at Ratcliffe Stadium, beating the record set by the iconic Louis Zamperini of Torrance in 1934.

Originally committed to Occidental College, this record-shattering run meant that a spot at UCLA opened for him instead. UCLA was hoping to turn around 30 years of track dominance by USC, which they proudly accomplished by his senior year. Under coach Ducky Drake, Seaman set records his freshman year in the half mile and mile, running 1:49.9 and 4:14 respectively. By his sophomore year, he was getting closer to the four-minute-mile mark, running the mile in 4:01.4 in the Compton Relays. Bob’s little brother, John, joined him on the track team at UCLA. At the Stanford meet, they tied in the mile, crossing the finish line holding hands. In 1957, the UCLA team captain was also named the American Mile Champion of the Year.

Seaman toured with the Los Angeles Track Club after his graduation from UCLA. In 1962, he became the eighth athlete in history to run a sub four-minute mile, at 3:58 in London. He proved his talent once again in 1963 at the Compton Invitational, running the mile in 3:59.1. At the time, it was considered the “Greatest Mile Race in History,” with 6 men being timed at under four minutes.

His world class run ended with an Achilles injury, but Seaman did not leave the world of track and field. In 1968, he joined the Amateur Athletic Union, moving from a competitor role to establishing the qualifying standards for national championships. He was the women’s track chairman with the AAU from 1972-1990. Involvement in Olympic and World Cup track teams came naturally, and he assisted in both Latvia and Montreal. Seaman was assistant manager of the US Women’s Olympic team in 1984 and the head manager in 1998. He was also an award-winning meet official up until his retirement in 1996.

In 1986, Bob married Simie Hollis and they settled into their Spanish-style home in their historic Wilmington neighborhood. They loved hosting parties and often displayed their impeccable home on home tours. They donated much of their time to the Banning Mansion and Museum and loved going to the museum’s events.

Bob worked at SC Johnson for nearly 38 years and Allied West Paper Corporation for an additional 15. Post retirement, he was an extra in several movies, regaling us at the holidays with amusing stories from on set.

Bob was a meticulous man. He carried himself with elegance and was never seen with a hair out of place, his beard perfectly groomed. He loved his yard and his cats, the official pets and the strays. He cheered on the Bruins in every sport he could catch on television. When home, he liked to spend time in his office and on the adjoining balcony.

While Parkinson’s disease did strip him of some of his autonomy, it did not take his memories or his quick wit. He could remember dates and times and the weather of any event in his past, and always the full names of his acquaintances. He was always able to make connections between people and places and had the most unbelievable, but ultimately true, stories of his exploits.

Bob is survived by his wife, Simie. He is missed by his brothers-in-law, Gregory and Rock (Theresa); his niece, Desiree (Matt); nephew, Rock, and his grand-nieces and grand-nephews. He was preceded in death by his mother, Gladys; his father, Maurice; his brother, John; his sister-in law, Lana; and his most beloved feline, Daisy.

Ian Wilmut, the British embryologist who led the team that created the first mammal cloned from an adult cell, popularly known as Dolly the Sheep, died at the age of 79. Wilmut died after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2018, according to the University of Edinburgh.

Wilmut, Keith Campbell and other members of their team are credited for what is arguably one of the greatest scientific breakthroughs in the 20th century—the creation of the cloned sheep Dolly from an adult cell in 1996. Campbell passed away in 2012. Dolly’s cloning was the first time that scientists were able to make a mature adult cell behave like a cell from a newly fertilized embryo, according to AP. This meant that they were able to create an animal genetically identical to the “donor.”

The researchers used a cell from the mammary gland of a dead adult sheep to create a new living animal, according to BBC. They stimulated the cell with electricity and added chemicals, which changed the adult DNA into an embryo. They then put this into an empty sheep’s egg before implanting it into a surrogate sheep.

Dolly’s birth nearly 30 years ago was an epic scientific achievement, but it also sparked debate about the ethics of this research. A year after Dolly’s birth, then US President Bill Clinton announced a ban on human cloning experiments, stopping short of banning all cloning research. Dolly’s life came to an end not long after. About six years after birth, the sheep developed an incurable lung tumor and it was euthanized by scientists.

After the terrific success of the Dolly experiment, Wilmut focused his efforts on using cloning technology to make stem cells that could be used in regenerative medicine. His work was critical to research into treating genetic and degenerative diseases by helping the human body repair damaged tissue.

While his research did trigger anxieties about the ethics of cloning technology, many of those fears haven’t really panned out. Wilmut is a hero of the scientific community and his research laid the groundwork for new medical technology that could save lives.

Retired Summit County Common Pleas Judge Paul J. Gallagher, who worked in public service for more than 40 years, died after a long illness. He was 80 years old.

“He had Parkinson’s,” said his wife, Diane K. Evans, an attorney. “So it’s over. He’s not suffering anymore, so that’s good.”

A Cuyahoga Falls resident, Gallagher retired Dec. 31, 2018, after 12 years as a judge. During his distinguished career, he also served as a Summit County Council member and Portage County assistant prosecutor.

“He was a good man,” Evans said.

Born August 16, 1943, in Roslindale, Massachusetts, Gallagher was a baby when his Irish American family moved to Akron. His father, John, was an accountant at Firestone. His mother, Mary, taught at West High School.

He graduated from Archbishop Hoban High School in 1961 and earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the University of Notre Dame in 1966 after spending a year in a monastery wearing a cassock.

No wonder that judge’s robe felt so comfortable in later life.

He started out as a journalist, working as an intern for the Record-Courier, a reporter in Connecticut, West Virginia and Maryland, and then as a press secretary in Maryland, earning a master’s degree in administration science from Johns Hopkins in Baltimore. Gallagher returned home to Ohio after the 1970s.

Gallagher served as Tallmadge safety service director from 1980-82 before going to law school at the University of Akron. After earning a law degree, he worked as a defense attorney for several years.

He was elected to Summit County Council in 1984 and served until 2006. Gallagher also served as assistant prosecutor in Portage County from 1991 to 2006, starting in juvenile court, then moving to municipal court and common pleas, where he was one of the lead prosecutors.

“He was a guy who always spoke his mind, which is good, and had strong convictions in what he believed in,” said retired Judge Tom Teodosio, a longtime friend. “I think that’s what I’ll always remember Paul for.”

Teodosio served with Gallagher on the County Council from 2000 to 2006, and remembers how the local media labeled him “a watchdog” because he was a straight shooter who sometimes disagreed with the county executive’s office.

Drawing on his journalism experience, Gallagher published a newsletter called County Watch and used it as a platform to raise issues.

After they both were elected to Summit County Common Pleas in 2006, Teodosio said Gallagher earned “an excellent reputation as a fair judge who worked hard.”

“As Common Pleas judges, he was on the third floor and I was on the second floor,” Teodosio said. “We’d get together if I had a break or he had a break. We’d often show up in each other’s courtrooms and share a cup of coffee, and either chat about the law or about other things going on in the community.”

When the Summit County prosecutor obtained a federal grant in 2011 to start a new felony domestic violence court, Gallagher stepped up to become the presiding judge.

Gallagher was 69, one year shy of Ohio’s cutoff for a judicial seat, when he last ran for election in 2012. He retired from the bench in 2018, advising his successors: “Be patient. Everything works out. Be patient.”

Not everyone knew that the judge was grappling with an illness. He was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in November 2011, and the condition slowly worsened over the last decade.

Gallagher spent the past six months at Regina Health Center in Richfield. His wife praised the staff for its “excellent, excellent care.”

An agency caregiver, who apparently had some familiarity with the court, recognized the judge and treated him with the utmost respect.

Evans said the worker told her: “I couldn’t believe when I got here and saw it was Judge Gallagher. I am so honored to have been able to have cared for him. He’s the best.”

Evans described her husband as quiet and mild mannered, a rather private person who became an extrovert when campaigning.

And he was a big fan of Notre Dame football.

“He liked sailing, he liked walking, he liked exploring, whether it be an issue, like digging into an issue, or whether it would be going to a city and just kind of wandering around,” she said.

She said he was a guy who liked “to sniff his way through life.” If he saw something he was interested in, he pursued it.

It’s hard to believe, but the judge even garnered the respect of defendants.

“They said he was fair,” Evans said.

She remembers going to an event at the courthouse after Gallagher retired. Defendants were waiting in the lobby for a proceeding to begin when they saw Gallagher. Their faces lit up.

“Oh, judge!” they exclaimed. “Oh, judge!”

Teodosio and former County Council member and former judge Clair Dickinson went to see Gallagher at Regina Health Center last week.

“I’m glad Clair and I were able to visit him,” Teodosio said. “We had a nice little chat.”

Evans said funeral arrangements were pending at Newcomer in Akron. A Mass is tentatively planned for Saturday, Sept. 16, with the time and church to be announced. 

Preceded in death by his parents, John and Mary, and brother, John J. Gallagher, the judge’s survivors include his wife, Diane, sister, Madeline Hebert, brother-in-law Lee Hebert, sister-in-law Margi Gallagher and a host of nieces and nephews.

“He’ll be missed,” Teodosio said. “No doubt about that.”

Veteran journalist and author Peter C. Newman, who held a mirror up to Canada, has died at the age of 94.

He died in hospital in Belleville, Ontario from complications related to a stroke he had last year, which caused him to develop Parkinson’s disease, his wife Alvy Newman said by phone.

“It’s a big loss for Canada,” she said. “He has no peers. There’s no one to fill his shoes. Who is there that’s an author and a journalist that can show Canada to themselves?”

In his decades-long career, Newman served as editor-in-chief of the Toronto Star and Maclean’s, covering Canadian politics and business.

Often recognized by his trademark sailor’s cap, Newman also wrote two dozen books and earned the informal title of Canada’s “most cussed and discussed commentator,” said HarperCollins, one of his publishers, in an author note.

Newman was born in Vienna in 1929 and came to Canada in 1940 as a Jewish refugee.

In his 2004 autobiography, “Here Be Dragons: Telling Tales of People, Passion and Power,” Newman describes being shot at by Nazis as he waited on the beach at Biarritz, France for the ship that would take him to freedom.

“Nothing compares with being a refugee; you are robbed of context and you flail about, searching for self-definition,” he wrote. “When I ultimately arrived in Canada, what I wanted was to gain a voice. To be heard. That longing has never left me.”

That, he said, is why he became a writer.

The Writers’ Trust of Canada said Newman’s 1963 book “Renegade in Power: The Diefenbaker Years” had “revolutionized Canadian political reporting with its controversial ‘insiders-tell-all’ approach.”

Newman was appointed to the Order of Canada in 1978 and promoted to the rank of companion in 1990, recognized as a “chronicler of our past and interpreter of our present.”

His popular histories and biographies brought to life people, places and events that shaped Canada, his profile on the Governor General’s website says.

He was also dedicated to passing on the craft of creative non-fiction to a new generation as a professor at the University of Victoria, it says.

Newman won some of Canada’s most illustrious literary awards, along with seven honorary doctorates, his HarperCollins profile says.

“It’s such a loss. It’s like a library burned down if you lose someone with that knowledge,” Alvy Newman said. “He revolutionized journalism, in business, politics, history.”

On a personal level, Alvy Newman said, her husband had a sharp wit and generous spirit.

“He had a love of the absurd which was so wonderful,” she said. “I think that’s what brought us together. We both had the love of the absurd. We could just find the humor in anything.”