http://www.post-gazette.com/obituaries/ Local obituaries and death notices en-us Copyright 2009, post-gazette.com. Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:02:02 -0500 15 http://www.post-gazette.com/includes/2007design/images/150x30pg_now_logo.gif http://www.post-gazette.com/ 144 39 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09324/1014943-122.stm?cmpid=newsobits.xml Chances are, if you went to school in Brentwood before 1981, Geraldine Franz Sullivan knew you. Fri, 20 Nov 2009 07:19:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09324/1014940-122.stm?cmpid=newsobits.xml After working an unfulfilling job upon his graduation from Duquesne University, where he helped to manage the club football team, Jon Neiderer decided it was time to get into professional sports. Fri, 20 Nov 2009 07:18:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09323/1014653-122.stm?cmpid=newsobits.xml Retired Navy Capt. William B. Ecker, who led low-level sorties over Cuba in October 1962 and provided photographic evidence of Russian missile installations that almost led to a nuclear confrontation between the Soviets and the United States, died Nov. 5 at a hospital near his home in Punta Gorda, Fla. He was 85 and had coronary artery disease. Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:38:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09323/1014655-122.stm?cmpid=newsobits.xml Paul Wendkos, a movie and television director who was best known for the frothy surfer film "Gidget," but whose other productions ranged from the dark and edgy to historical dramas, died Nov. 12 at his home in Malibu, Calif. He was 84. Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:37:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09323/1014654-122.stm?cmpid=newsobits.xml Pierre Harmel, a Belgian statesman who advocated European disarmament in the late 1960s and was the leading proponent of a forward-looking NATO policy toward the former Soviet bloc that hastened East-West detente, died in Brussels on Sunday. He was 98. Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:36:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09323/1014651-122.stm?cmpid=newsobits.xml A memorial service today will honor E.J. Josey, the first black president of the American Library Association and professor emeritus of the University of Pittsburgh School of Information Sciences. Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:35:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09323/1014649-122.stm?cmpid=newsobits.xml Bruce A. Bartolotta, who served the Monongahela Valley community with an unusual blended career as attorney and grocer, died Monday at the age of 55, ending a four-year battle with lymphoma. Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:34:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09322/1014301-122.stm?cmpid=newsobits.xml STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- Ed Czekaj, Penn State University's former athletic director and a native of Mount Pleasant, has died, the university announced. Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:01:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09322/1014303-122.stm?cmpid=newsobits.xml NEW YORK -- Sy Syms, founder and chairman of the SYMS Corp. discount clothing chain, died of heart failure yesterday in New York, according to a statement issued by the company. He was 83. Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:01:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09322/1014304-122.stm?cmpid=newsobits.xml Wallace "Bucky" Williams, one of the oldest people to play for both of Pittsburgh's legendary Negro League teams, died Monday at age 102 at his home in Penn Hills. Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:01:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09321/1014026-122.stm?cmpid=newsobits.xml Bobby Frankel possessed a gift for coaxing top performances out of ornery, high-strung thoroughbreds, a gruff Hall of Fame trainer who was hard in his dealings with humans but gentle with the animals in his barn. Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09321/1014027-122.stm?cmpid=newsobits.xml Being the son of the state's winningest high school basketball coach made Michael Graham a competitive person, whether on the basketball court, the golf course or in battling the cancer that plagued him for three years. Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0500