The Memorial Wall

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.

Dr. Douglas D. Alder, beloved husband, father, grandfather, professor and college president, passed away at home on November 25, 2023 surrounded by family with his beloved Elaine holding his hand. He was 91.
Born November 10, 1932 in Salt Lake City, Utah, to Georgia Ellen Payzant and Linden Benson Alder, he became known by many as an enthusiastic mentor, community leader, teacher, scholar, historian, speaker and author whose exuberant presence instantly filled nearly every room he entered.
Doug graduated from Salt Lake City's East High School (1951) where he developed a love of learning and established enduring friendships with many, including some who became prominent Utah political and ecclesiastical leaders. At the University of Utah, he earned B.A. and Master's degrees in history and met the love of his life, Elaine Marie Reiser, daughter of A. Hamer Reiser and Elizabeth Robina Baxter. The two married December 20, 1958, a few months after Doug's father died of a heart attack.
While attending the U of U's LDS Seminary, Doug met legendary teacher Lowell Bennion, whose commitment to a life of service had a life-changing effect. Bennion and A. Hamer Reiser became Doug's father figures. Their influence inspired Doug to adopt lofty and profound ideals.
Doug's commitment to a life of service further developed while serving as an LDS missionary in the Swiss-Austrian mission from 1953 to 1956 and the National Guard from 1959 to 1962.
After his passion for history ignited at the U of U, Doug continued studying at the University of Oregon, where he received a Ph.D. in European history and was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study at the University of Vienna. In 1963 Dr. Alder began a 23 year-long teaching career at Utah State University (USU) in Logan, including 12 years as Honors Program Director. In 1967 he was named Professor of the Year.
In 1973, the Alders spent a sabbatical year in Bloomington, Indiana supported by an American Council on Education's Leadership Fellowship. This inspired Doug's pursuit of the presidency at Dixie College (now Utah Tech University), where he served from 1986 to 1993. His leadership enabled improvements via endowments, academic program expansions and record student enrollments and graduations. His inclusive style inspired increased community engagement and institutional support.
Doug is fondly remembered by his students for conducting "The Interview" through which he quickly established his ambitious, customized recommendations for their academic futures. He shunned "Get by-ism" and inspired many students to believe in themselves more than they previously knew possible. Thousands of these students credit him with offering profound advice that decisively altered their paths–toward greatness.
In both Cache and Washington Counties, Doug served on many boards focused on supporting city/county libraries, historic preservation and arts/cultural events. Doug also served tirelessly in the LDS church. He was an important bridge between people of other faiths and Latter-day Saints. He loved teaching Sunday school, being a home teacher, singing in choirs, working for the Correlation committee at the LDS Church Office Building, nurturing the community of church historians, sitting on High Councils, serving as bishop (twice), serving with Elaine in the St. George Temple Presidency (1998-2001) and for 25 years as a Temple Sealer.
Doug and Elaine raised four children, who, in their youth, helped build a modest cabin overlooking Bear Lake in Garden City, Utah. Dubbed "ALK Haven" (meaning All Little Kids Haven), the cabin is now the Alder's cherished multi-generational gathering retreat. Doug loved marveling at the beauty of Rich County, which became the setting for his novel Sons of Bear Lake.
During his final 15 years, Doug valiantly danced around the debilitating effects of dementia, Parkinson's Disease, and then in 2023, bladder cancer. Until his final two months, he faced each day with unquenchable purpose and limitless drive while being blessed by Elaine's constant care and attention.
The Alder family expresses deep gratitude for the outpouring of love from family and friends during Doug and Elaine's stay at The Covington of Lehi and tender service from the caregivers of Dignity Hospice who made his last two months more bearable.
Doug is preceded in death by his parents; two infant brothers: Richard Jerome and Daniel Blaine; a sister, Judith Alder Saxey; and brother-in-law, Kent H. Saxey. He is survived by his devoted wife, Elaine; his children: Scott (Betsy Hepworth), Elise (Russell) Clark, Nathan (Laurel Cannon), Lin (Pam Sunshine), and 14 grandchildren: Rebecca (Nick) Bjorkman, Benjamin Alder, Elizabeth (Brandon) Anderson, Ethan (Lindsey) Clark, Catherine Alder (Tim Russell), Jacob Alder (Zoe Morgan), Caleb Clark (Rachel Benson), Madeleine Alder, Emily Clark (Hunter Brannen), Clara Alder (Clayton Holdstock), Jonathan Alder, Eli Wilcox, Abby Wilcox, Avery Alder; and eight great grandchildren: Alexis, Elle, Nixon, Adabella, Rosett, Nova, Carolly and Milo.
 

Jane was an artist. She graduated from Art College in 1968 and was awarded a travel scholarship to study temple art in India. We met as students and were married in 1969 after her return from her travels. She originally taught in special education schools before moving to teach Art, but after 10 years she gave up teaching altogether and became a freelance artist, craft maker, machine knitter and silk painter. We moved into in our current home in 1975 as it provided her with the studio space she needed after she went freelance. She was known to her many friends as Flossie.

Flossie continued to paint, draw and make collages for the next 40 years, but as well as this she learnt machine knitting and produced a huge variety of knitted pieces bearing the label ‘Designed and Made by Flossie’. She loved sourcing good wool - hand dyed, hand spun, as well as different specialist wools. She sold her work at the Country Market and at a variety of craft events and craft shops in the area. No two pieces were the same except that is for the soft, fine lambswool lace shawls, which always sold well. She also learnt the skills of silk painting and produced for sale many hand painted scarves and other items. She really enjoyed singing in a local choir and was also a member of an art class for many years.

Flossie was a remarkable and fiercely independent woman and thinker. She would never follow convention for the sake of it and always determined her own course. In her art and in her life, she was independently minded. She was strong and adventurous. Her paintings and collages were drawn almost entirely from her imagination and were made to meet her own creative needs. They were a most important part of who she was and how she saw the world. She never exhibited them.

The diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease came about ten years ago. We were both helped enormously not only by Parkinson’s UK but also by the specialist PD nurses, whom we saw regularly. We were also members of a great local PD support group. Eventually the disease, and the associated dementia robbed her of her motivation, her enthusiasm, her energy and her courage. She lost her ability to write, and most importantly lost her drawing and painting skills. She also lost her love of reading, even her beloved Jane Austen. 

It was a huge privilege to have been married to Flossie for over 50 years. She was kind, caring and very loving. We had lots of laughs and lots of fun. Don

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.

Gary’s former Deputy Mayor Geraldine Tousant passed away on Monday, December 11, 2023 surrounded by loved ones at Community Hospital in Munster, IN. Geraldine courageously battled breast cancer, kidney failure, complications from Parkinson’s disease, and an Alzheimer’s diagnosis. She was 84 years old.

Geraldine was born in Ensley, AL on May 4, 1939, and relocated to Gary, Indiana, at the age of three. She was a graduate of Gary Roosevelt High School class of 1957, and soon after graduating she married the love of her life, Marshall Tousant. The couple was happily married for nearly 48 years and were the proud parents of three children and the loving grandparents of five grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.

Geraldine began her career with the City of Gary in 1960 in the Redevelopment Department as a clerk-typist when she was 21 years old. She worked her way up through the Department’s rank, eventually becoming the Director. Former Mayor Scott King recognized her hard work, dedication, and commitment to the citizens of Gary and appointed her as Deputy Mayor on February 14, 2003. A position she held for seven years through two administrations (Scott King and Rudy Clay).

Geraldine was an innovative and servant leader who impressively worked for seven mayors during her 50 years of service to the City of Gary. Geraldine was instrumental in managing large scale projects, some of which included the demolition of structures obtained in other city agencies, and computerizing the city’s utility billing and payment processes. Geraldine’s outstanding accomplishments led to various roles and opportunities during her tenure with the Redevelopment Department, she served as Project Administrator, Interim Director, and Assistant Executive Director for more than a decade before being named Executive Director in 1999.

As Deputy Mayor she was a dedicated public servant who made tremendous contributions to the City of Gary. Geraldine was recognized by Former U.S. House of Representatives Peter Visclosky of Indiana in The House of Representatives on Tuesday, March 1, 2011. For her dedication to her colleagues and to the citizens of Gary, she was nominated as a Marcher, for the Drum Major, an award given by the Gary Frontiers Service Club at its annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Breakfast. Marchers are recognized for having dedicated their lives to improving the human condition, something that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. urged in his “Drum Major Instincts” sermon two months before his passing.

Geraldine selflessly gave of her time and efforts to inspire others. She stated she would like her legacy to inspire youth, and that with hard work, determination, and faith in God you can be whatever you want to be.