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Roberta Hubbard Lubetkin, 48, magazine editor, writer
Cleveland Heights - Roberta Hubbard Lubetkin, 48, former Northern Ohio Live magazine editor, died of complications from cancer yesterday at University Hospitals of Cleveland, where she was an assistant development director for the last two years.
Lubetkin, a Cleveland Heights resident, was editor and managing editor of Northern Ohio Live in the mid-1980s. She was director of Case Western Reserve University's office of periodicals and an editor of the Magazine of CWRU from 1988 to 2000.
Lubetkin, whose maiden name was Petrosius, was born in Chicago, spent most of her childhood in Dallas and came to the Cleveland area as a teenager.
She graduated from Rocky River High School. She earned a bachelor's degree in 1975 and a master of arts degree in 1977 from John Carroll University.
In the late 1970s, she was a technical editor and writer for the Dalton Dalton Newport architectural engineering and urban planning firm. After that, she wrote grants for the Cleveland International Film Festival and directed public relations at the Cleveland Institute of Art.
Since 1998, Lubetkin was a free-lance copy editor and proofreader of young adult novels for Random House Books for Children.
As an Ohio Reads tutor, she helped youngsters at Roxboro Elementary School in Cleveland Heights develop their reading skills and coached them on taking proficiency tests. She was a past trustee of the Ruffing Montessori School and past member of the English and communications department's advisory board at Notre Dame College of Ohio.
She also volunteered as an interviewer for an oral history project called "This is My Neighborhood" in Cleveland Heights.
Today would have been Lubetkin's 49th birthday.
She and her husband, James, celebrated their 17th wedding anniversary Friday. Their son, Alex, will be 12 on June 8.
In addition to her husband and son, Lubetkin is survived by her mother, Dolores Petrosius of Cleveland; father and stepmother, Stanley and Virginia Petrosius of Richardson, Texas; stepchildren, Jordan of Toledo and Dylan of New York City; and a step-granddaughter.
Services will be at 11 a.m. Thursday at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, 2021 East 22nd St., Cleveland.
Donations may be made to the Roberta Hubbard Lubetkin Fund for Nursing, University Hospitals of Cleveland, c/o Development Department, 11100 Euclid Ave., Cleveland 44106.
Arrangements are by the DeJohn-Flynn-Mylott Funeral Home of South Euclid.
05/21/02
James P. Schucard
Mayfield Heights - Services for James P. Schucard, 59, a former football coach at Brush High School, will be at 11 a.m. today at the DiCicco & Sons Funeral Home, 5975 Mayfield Road, Mayfield Heights.
Schucard died Friday at the Hospice of the Western Reserve. He had cancer.
He began teaching at Brush, in the South Euclid-Lyndhurst school district, in the early 1970s. He was head coach for six years until 1992. He earlier taught at Orange High School and in Cleveland at South High and A.B. Hart Junior High School.
Schucard was born in Cleveland. He played football at James Ford Rhodes High School, where he graduated in 1961. He earned a bachelor's degree at Wittenberg College, where he also played football, and a master's degree at Case Western Reserve University.
His favorite hobbies were golf and traveling. He played on courses across the country, in the West Indies and in Mexico. He also bowled.
He was married
to the former Claire E. Thomas.
Also surviving are a daughter, Alison Taylor of Warren; his mother, Alice M. Carey of San Diego; stepsons, Timothy Fink of Willoughby, Val Fink Jr. of Park City, Utah, and Joseph Fink of Mentor; four grandchildren; and a brother.
05/20/02
Joseph A. Kopco, 77, accordionist
Cleveland - Services for Joseph A. Kopco, an accordionist, band leader and promoter of Slovak heritage projects, will be at 10 a.m. tomorrow at St. Andrew Abbey, where he served as lector at Slovak Mass.
The 77-year-old Cleveland resident died Thursday at St. Michael Hospital.
In 1946, he organized the Melody Masters, a polka band that made music for many years at Parma American Slovak Club New Year's Eve celebrations and Cleveland Slovak festivals.
For 32 years, Kopco worked for the M.A. Hanna Co. After retiring as a senior systems analyst, he worked as a computer programmer for the First Catholic Slovak Union.
In recent years, the Cleveland native volunteered in the public relations department at Benedictine High School, his alma mater.
During World War II, he served in the Army's 8th Armored Division in Europe. He studied at Dyke College after the war and received a degree in business administration in 1950.
Kopco served as treasurer of St. Benedict Catholic War Veterans Post 381 and played in its marching band. He was a member of American Legion Buckeye Post 559 and the Knights of Columbus.
He belonged to numerous Slovak organizations, including the Slovak World Congress, Slovak Dramatic Club and American Zemplin Club, whose members trace their ancestry to the Zemplin area of the former Czechoslovakia.
Kopco often acted as tour guide to Slovak dignitaries, who wanted to visit the graves of prominent local Slovaks.
His wife, Joann, died in 1997.
Kopco is survived by his sons, Robert of Seven Hills, William of Eastlake and James of Toledo; and a granddaughter.
Services will be at 10 a.m. tomorrow at St. Andrew Abbey Church, 2900 Martin Luther King Drive, Cleveland.
Donations may be made to St. Andrew Abbey, 10510 Buckeye Road, Cleveland 44104.
Arrangements are by the St. John Funeral Home of Bedford.
05/20/02
Laura Johnson, mysterious about her philanthropies
New York - Laura Johnson, a flamboyant New York social figure who reveled in personal publicity but refused to have her many philanthropies made public, died May 12 at her home in Manhattan.
She was believed to be in her late 80s, but although she celebrated her birth date, July 17, her birth year remained a mystery even to those closest to her.
Johnson and her husband, Raymond Johnson, a Saks Fifth Avenue executive who died in 1965, were prominent members of cafe society, constantly seen and photographed at El Morocco, the Stork Club and other fashionable nightclubs of the era, and at numerous charity benefits.
She subscribed to the more-is-better school of fashion and was well aware of the swiveling heads and incredulous stares as she strolled the Upper East Side, or anywhere else. Just when it seemed she could go no further with her extraordinary hats, she appeared in a confection fashioned like a rooster sitting in a nest of feathers, the whole thing perched rakishly on her explosion of red hair.
A friend who encountered her on Madison Avenue swathed from head to knees in blue fox, complete with tails, made a mild remark about the generous amount of fur.
"No one outfoxes Laura Johnson, " she said.
Other than her age, the only thing she refused to discuss or make public was her philanthropy.
In one typical gesture several years before the World Trade Center terrorist attack, she gave the Police Department $1 million.
After Sept. 11, she gave another $1 million to the families of police officers and firefighters.
05/20/02
Michael Maas, 70, versatile architect
New York - Michael Maas, a versatile New York architect who had been president of the Fifth Avenue Association, died May 12 at New York-Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan. He was 70 and lived in Westhampton Beach, N.Y.
The cause was complications from cancer, said his wife, Jane.
Maas retired 10 years ago as senior managing partner of the Manhattan architectural, engineering and interior design firm HLW, formerly Haines Lundberg Waehler, where he worked for 40 years.
He was one of the architects of the early-1980s project that added a glass-enclosed atrium to the front of the Chemical Bank building on Park Avenue in Manhattan.
05/20/02
Sharon Sheeley, wrote 'Poor Little Fool'
Los Angeles - Songwriter Sharon Sheeley, who as a teenager wrote the 1950s hit "Poor Little Fool, " died Friday at Sherman Oaks Hospital Medical Center of complications following a cerebral hemorrhage. She was 62.
Rick Nelson, teen idol and star of TV's "Ozzie and Harriet, " recorded "Poor Little Fool, " and it climbed to the top in 1958.
"My most vivid memory of Sharon was of her living in London in the swingin' 60s, " Sheeley's friend, Elizabeth Asher, told the Associated Press.
"She was such a California gal so she was always in a miniskirt and sandals, then complained about being cold all the time."
05/20/02
Robert Anderson, led M.A. Hanna Co.
Sanibel, Fla. - Robert F. Anderson, 81, retired chairman of the M.A. Hanna Co., died Friday at an assisted-living facility in Fort Myers, Fla.
He became president of Cleveland's Hanna Mining Co. in 1978, chief executive officer in 1979 and chairman of the board in 1982. At that time, the American steel industry was in rapid decline as foreign steel was flooding the market. Anderson guided his company, a major supplier of ore to steel manufacturers, away from its dependence on the steel industry toward diversification into more productive enterprises.
In 1985, the mining company's name was changed to the M.A. Hanna Co. to reflect its new image. Anderson retired as chairman in 1986, but remained on the board as a director and chairman of Hanna's executive committee.
He began his career with Hanna in Minnesota in 1947 as a mining and metallurgical engineer. In 1952, he came to Cleveland to work in ore sales. He soon entered management.
In 1974, he was elected to the board of directors and became chairman of Iron Ore Co. of Canada, Hanna's principal affiliate. Anderson was credited by many in the iron ore industry with turning the Canadian company into a profitable operation. One of the steps toward that end was his hiring of Brian Mulroney as vice president of the Canadian firm. Mulroney later was elected prime minister of Canada.
Anderson, the son of a Swedish immigrant, grew up in Hibbing, Minn. He had lived in Sanibel, Fla., since retiring.
His studies at Michigan Technological University were interrupted by his service as a flight instructor with the Army Air Forces during World War II. He completed his college credits after the war and graduated with a bachelor's degree in engineering in 1946.
The university later honored him with an honorary doctorate and a Silver Medal. Anderson was a charter member of the MTU Academy of Distinguished Mining Engineers.
He was a past trustee and president of Our Savior's Lutheran Church in Rocky River, past trustee of Lutheran and Fairview General hospitals and vice chairman of the American Lutheran Church trustees. He also served on the Rocky River Planning Commission.
Survivors include his wife of 57 years, Marjorie M.; daughter, Judith Anderson Dengler of Raleigh, N.C.; sons, Cristopher of Rocky River and Mark of Fort Myers; eight grandchildren; and a brother.
Memorial services will be at 10 a.m. Thursday at Sanibel Congregational United Church of Christ, 2050 Periwinkle Way, Sanibel, Fla.
Donations may be made to the Robert F. and Marjorie M. Anderson Family Foundation, P.O. Box 08337, Fort Myers, Fla. 33908.
Arrangements are by Kaiser Funeral Home of Fort Myers.
05/20/02
Kenneth R. Stralka, was a judge in Garfield Heights for 25 years
Independence - Services for Kenneth R. Stralka, a Garfield Heights municipal judge for 25 years, will be at 10 a.m. tomorrow at St. Basil the Great Catholic Church, 8700 Brecksville Road, Brecksville. He died Friday at Walton Manor nursing home.
Stralka developed a reputation for dishing out stern sentences to drunken drivers and defendants charged with relatively minor crimes. Detention officials complained that he had more people convicted of misdemeanors serving time in the County Jail than any other judge.
"I pretty much sentence people according to how I was raised, " he said in a 1993 interview. "I was raised to respect elders, respect the law, respect discipline."
He said he believed that behavior patterns are set in childhood, so courts can only control lawbreakers, not rehabilitate them. He did not believe in using home confinement as a punishment because he said it did not keep people from indulging in behavior that got them into trouble.
Although he often issued stiff sentences to offenders, he also showed compassion. When a runaway truck killed eight people in Valley View in 1976, Stralka was criticized for giving the driver responsible for the accident less than the maximum sentence for losing control of his vehicle. The judge said the driver was a law-abiding citizen who made a mistake.
"After a while when you've been on the bench, you know from a person if it's going to be habitual or a one-time thing, " Stralka said.
Stralka, 71, was born in Cleveland and grew up in a steelworker family in the Cranwood neighborhood of Garfield Heights. After he graduated from Garfield Heights High School, he studied law at Ohio Northern University. He was allowed by the Ohio Supreme Court to take the bar examination and be admitted to practice before receiving his degree in 1954. He then served in the Army for two years. He also did graduate work at Western Reserve University Law School.
He served as law director and prosecutor for Garfield Heights and Independence before he was appointed to the municipal bench by Gov. John J. Gilligan in 1974. The court has jurisdiction over eight suburbs.
Stralka was a past president of the North East Ohio Municipal Judges Association and a former governor representing Ohio to the American Judges Association. He decided not to run for re-election in 1999 after doctors diagnosed colon cancer.
Stralka married
Carol Ann Goga in 1959. In the 1970s, they moved to a house in Independence that overlooks the Cuyahoga River valley. Stralka enjoyed gardening and planting trees. He also played tennis. He served on the parish council at St. Basil the Great Catholic Church.
Besides his wife, he is survived by a son, Gregory of Independence; a daughter, Monica Mary Forman of Dublin, Ohio; three grandchildren; a brother; and a sister.
Memorial contributions may be made to a charity of the donor's choice.
Arrangements are by the Rybicki & Son Funeral Home of Broadview Heights.
05/19/02
