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Robert W. Bremer
Lorain - Robert W. Bremer, 51, drum teacher, oldies rock band percussionist and drag racer, died of complications from a stroke Tuesday at Community Health Partners Hospital.
The lifelong Lorain resident made music with Dave C. and the Sharptones, Flashback, Radio City and other bands that performed the music of the 1960s and 1970s at Greater Cleveland nightclubs and festivals.
Bremer trained younger drummers in his musical craft at Ron Zehel's Guitar Center in Amherst for several years. He insisted his students learn to read drum transcriptions and play in all music genres, from heavy metal to jazz.
As a teenager, he played in the marching and jazz bands at St. Mary High School. After graduating in 1969, he served in the Navy as an engine mechanic.
His mechanical skills came in handy when he served on pit crews at Norwalk Raceway Park and Dragway 42 in West Salem. He also got behind the wheel. In recent years, he drove a 1967 Camaro in the Pro Stock Division at Norwalk.
Bremer was a pattern-maker for American Crucible Co. in Lorain for 12 years before cancer forced him to retire. He continued working with wood at his home workshop, making corner cabinets, tables, rocking horses and assorted gifts for family and friends.
"He made everything from baseball bats to furniture, " said his son, Jacque of Lorain.
In addition to his son, Bremer's survivors include his wife of 31 years, Chris; daughters, Miriam of Lorain and Cathy Campagne of Clarksville, Tenn.; his mother, Dorothy of Lorain; two grandchildren; a brother; and a sister.
Services will be at 9:30 a.m. tomorrow at St. Mary Catholic Church, Reid Avenue and Eighth Street, Lorain.
Gluvna-Shimo-Hromada Funeral Home of Lorain is handling arrangements.
01/24/02
Max Ratner, 85, architect, was advocate for social justice
Peninsula - Max Ratner, 85, was an architect and lifelong advocate for social justice.
He demonstrated for racial equality before the civil rights era. He was a founder of the Ohio and Oberlin chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union and helped revive the one in Akron. He was a conscientious objector who went to jail rather than register for the draft during World War II.
Ratner died Jan. 13 at his home in Peninsula. Friends held a memorial service in the Cuyahoga National Park on Sunday.
He taught himself architecture while in prison and later worked with the American Friends Service Committee on housing for elderly and low-income residents.
Local developments included Longwood in Cleveland, Bonneville in Euclid and Snow Village in Parma. Although he was not related to the Max Ratner who helped found Forest City Enterprises Inc., he worked on projects with the company and the two were friends.
Ratner was born in Boston, where he worked as a carpenter and a labor organizer while in high school. He wrote about his social philoso phy as a freshman at An tioch College in Yellow Springs. It held the profit system responsible for poverty and for encour aging selfish attitudes in successful people.
After graduation, Ratner lived with the Ahimsa Farm community near Aurora. Nights and weekends, they discussed the civil disobedience and nonviolence ideas of Henry David Thoreau and Mohandas Gandhi. They joined blacks in using a swimming pool in a Cleveland park despite threats from a mob opposing integration.
Ratner was a graduate student at Syracuse University when he was imprisoned. He continued his protest activities in Danbury Federal Correctional Institution, where he objected to policies such as racial segregation.
Upon release, he worked with the Warden Conrad architectural firm. He passed the state licensing test on his first try, although he never took a course in the subject.
Ratner had a national practice with headquarters in Peninsula and was licensed by the National Council of Architectural Boards. His work ranged from self-help housing to high-rises for luxury markets, nursing homes, office buildings and recycled historical buildings. He most recently designed halfway houses and homeless shelters.
He built his home while he was married
to his first wife, Marjorie Watson. As chairman of the Peninsula zoning and planning board, he promoted the creation of the national park.
Edna Bradford, who later became his wife in 1959, said: "Religion and nationalism were his bane. I married
him because he was a conscientious objector."
In addition to his wife, Ratner is survived by sons, Robert of New York City, Jonathan of Antrim, N.H., and Seth of Likely, Calif.; daughters, Hannah Bradford Roth of New York City and Rika Mead of Denver; five grandchildren; three brothers; and two sisters.
Memorial donations may be made to the American Civil Liberties Union, 4506 Chester Ave., Cleveland 44103; the American Friends Service Committee, 513 W. Exchange St., Akron 44302, or the Peninsula Library and Historical Society, 6105 Riverview Road, Peninsula 44264.
01/24/02
Edward O. Mullin
Chester Township - Edward O. Mullin, 58, founder of Centura X-Ray Inc., died Monday at his home in Chester Township. He had cancer.
Mullin launched the supplier of medical and industrial diagnostic equipment in 1982. He served customers in six states. He had been president of the Independent X-Ray Distributors Association and a member of the Health Industry Distributors Association Board of Directors. He chaired the local chapter of the American Society for Non-Destructive Testing.
Mullin was born in Philadelphia, where he earned a degree in marketing at La Salle College in 1965. While serving as the command ing officer of an Army missile unit at Home stead Air Force Base in Florida, he earned a commendation for his role in evacuating sol diers injured in an explosion. He was a captain when he was discharged.
He worked as a sales representative for DuPont and vice president of sales for E.G. Baldwin & Associates in Cleveland before he founded his company.
Mullin was a golfer and served on the Acacia Country Club board of directors. He chaired the Hawken School Annual Fund in 1996 and was inducted as a Hawken Fellow.
He married
Madeline Markovich 28 years ago. They made their home in Chester Township.
In addition to his wife, Mullin's survivors include sons, Kevin Owen of Chester Township and Brady of San Francisco; a sister; and two brothers.
A memorial service and reception will be at 3 p.m. Saturday at Acacia Country Club, 26899 Cedar Rd., Lyndhurst.
Memorial donations may be made to:
The Gathering Place, 3365 Richmond Road, Beachwood 44122.
The Ireland Cancer Center, University Hospitals, 11100 Euclid Ave., Cleveland 44106.
Arrangements are by the Gattozzi and Son Funeral Home of Chester Township.
01/24/02
Gilbert Smith Jr., 90, bank executive
Chagrin Falls - Gilbert Smith Jr., a retired bank executive and an attorney, died Jan. 13 in his Chagrin Falls home.
He was 90.
Smith began his career with Central National Bank, now KeyBank, in 1933 in the collections and distributions department. He ultimately worked his way up to vice president of personal trust and then was named vice president and manager of the estates division in 1973.
He retired in 1976.
Smith graduated from Amherst College in 1929, the John Marshall Law School in 1942 and the Stonier Graduate School of Banking at Rutgers University in 1953.
He was a founding member of the Shaker Heights Meals on Wheels program in 1982 and was its first treasurer. He also pre pared income tax returns at the Shaker Heights Senior Adult office and the Cleveland Society for the Blind for many years.
Smith was a former treasurer of the Cleveland Seamen's Service. A longtime blood donor, he gave 86 pints to the Cleveland Chapter of the American Red Cross.
He also was a deacon and elder at the Church of the Covenant in Cleveland.
Smith was born in Kent and was the valedictorian of his senior class at Kent Roosevelt High School.
He enjoyed camping throughout the United States and Canada, traveling in Europe and the United Kingdom, and listening to classical music. He frequently attended Cleveland Orchestra concerts.
Surviving are his wife of 57 years, Mildred; a daughter, Anne deConingh of Chagrin Falls; sons, Gilbert III of Pittsburgh and Stephen of Cleveland Heights; two grandchildren; and a sister.
Memorial services will be at 1:30 p.m. tomorrow at the Church of the Covenant, 11205 Euclid Ave.
Contributions may be made to:
Amherst College, P.O. Box 5000, Amherst, Mass. 01002-5000.
The Chagrin River Land Conservancy, P.O. Box 314, Novelty, Ohio 44072.
Church of the Covenant, 11205 Euclid Ave., Cleveland, Ohio 44106-1795.
Arrangements are by the Brown-Forward Services.
01/25/02
Virginia Roedger, Presbyterian leader
Cleveland Heights - Virginia "Ginny" Roedger, a leader in the Presbyterian denomination and a key volunteer at Ronald McDonald House, died Jan. 17 at University Hospitals. She was a deacon, elder and clerk of sessions at the Church of the Covenant. In 1981 she served as moderator of the Presbytery of the Western Reserve. She was also president of the Cleveland Presbyterial Society.
Roedger, 83, was born Virginia Parrill on a farm near Farina, Ill. She graduated from Urbana High School in Illinois and from the University of Illinois in 1941.
She and her husband, Fred E., a certified public accountant, moved to Cleveland Heights in 1949.
Roedger was one of the longest-serving volunteers at Ronald McDonald House, a housing service for families with children in University Circle area hospitals.
She was there for 16 years until she left to care for her ill husband in 1995. Her husband died in 1997.
"She worked the front desk and helped families find the services they needed, " said Brian Hartzell, for mer executive director there who now heads the Ron ald McDonald House in Mobile, Ala.
"Probably the most important thing she did was just to sit in the kitchen and have a cup of coffee with a parent. She was a good listener, very open to families, " Hartzell said.
Surviving are sons, the Rev. Fred E. of Ft. Collins, Colo., and Dale A. of Sarasota, Fla.; four grandchildren; five great-grandchildren; and a brother.
A memorial service will be at 3:30 p.m. today at the Church of the Covenant, 11025 Euclid Ave., Cleveland 44106.
Memorial donations may be made to the church or to Judson Retirement Community, 2181 Ambleside Road, Cleveland 44106.
Arrangements are by the Brown-Forward Funeral Home of Shaker Heights.
01/26/02
Irene Aitken Johnston
Bratenahl - Irene Aitken Johnston, retired funeral director, artist and teacher, died Jan. 14 at the Heartland of Mentor nursing home in Mentor.
The 94-year-old Bratenahl resident taught art history and English in the Cleveland schools before marrying funeral director Stanley H. Johnston in the mid-1940s. She later graduated from the Pittsburgh Institute of Mortuary Science and became a licensed funeral director. She ran the family-owned funeral home for three years after her husband's death about 20 years ago.
She was born in Cleveland and graduated from Euclid Shore High School. She received a bachelor's degree from the Flora Stone Mather College of Western Reserve University and earned a master's degree from Ohio State University.
Johnston, whose brother, Russell Aitken, achieved international fame as an artist, won May Show prizes for her ceramic artwork in the 1930s and 1940s. Her pieces are in collections of the Cleveland Museum of Art and in Syracuse, N.Y., and other places, according to her son, Stanley Jr. of Mentor.
She and her husband also owned a pony farm in Ontario.
In addition to her son and her brother, Johnston's survivors include her stepdaughter, Elaine Rickey of Kingston, Ontario; five step grandchildren; nine step-great-grandchildren; and four step-great-great-grandchildren.
Service were held.
Donations may be made to:
Holden Arboretum Rare Book Fund, 9500 Sperry Road, Kirtland 44094
A. E. Baggs Memorial Fund, Ohio State University, 2400 Olentangy River Road, Columbus 43210-1027.
Arrangements were by the Brunner Funeral Home & Cremation Service of Mentor.
01/26/02
