Welcome Back: inmemoriam

Robert Bernard
Robert Bernard, 80, of Longboat Key and formerly of Albany, N.Y., died April 24.

Mr. Bernard founded the law firm of Bernard, Overton and Russell, and later became administrative an law judge in New York City.

Mr. Bernard served as president of the Sanctuary Condominium Association and was a docent at the Ringling Museum and a Longboat Key Firefighter Pension Board Trustee.

Stanley Macbeth
Stanley Macbeth, 85, of Longboat Key and Avon, Conn., died April 29.

Mr. Macbeth earned a degree from Yale University and served in the U.S. Army Air Corps in Okinawa, Japan, during World War II.

Mr. Macbeth founded Bloomfield Construction and Stanley A. Macbeth Inc. He was a longtime member of Bird Key Yacht Club.

Pamela Chapman
Pamela Chapman, of Sarasota and formerly of London and Longboat Key, died May 1.

Mrs. Chapman and her husband moved in 1993 to Dallas, where she was active in the project, Wives Support Group. Locally, she was an active member of Sarasota Yacht Club’s women’s group and entertainment committee.

Richard Hall
Richard Hall, 85, of Bradenton, and formerly of Cape May Point, N.J., and Longboat Key, died May 1.

Mr. Hall graduated from the University of Miami and served in the U.S. Navy during World War II. He was the retired executive vice president for Strawbridge and Clothier in Philadelphia.

Walter Hess Jr.
Walter Hess Jr., 89, of Longboat Key and formerly of Rockville, Md., died May 8.

Mr. Hess served as an Army Infantry officer in World War II, graduated from Georgetown University Law School and served as an FBI agent. In 1967, he founded Hess Insurance, now Hess, Eagan, Hagerty and L’Hommedieu Commercial Insurance Brokerage in Bethesda, Md.

Janet Kaplan
Janet Kaplan, 96, of Longboat Key and formerly of Sarasota, died May 8.

Mrs. Kaplan attended the Fashion Institute for Technology in New York City and worked as a fabric designer before marrying in 1936.

She was an active member of the National League of American Pen Women and an honorary member of Women Contemporary Artists, which honored her with a lifetime membership in 2005.

William ‘Bill’ Bailey
William “Bill” Bailey, 92, died May 11.

Mr. Bailey was an Air Force veteran who served as a pilot in World War II. He retired after a 35-year career as a high school and junior college professor of chemistry.

Mr. Bailey was named “Citizen of the Year” by the Kiwanis Club of Sarasota Keys (now the Kiwanis Club of Longboat Key) in 1997. He was a regular contributor to the Longboat Observer’s “Dining Out” column.

Ethel Young
Ethel Young, 100, of Sarasota and formerly of Longboat Key and Chicago, died May 11. She was a member of the Sara Bay Country Club and the Bird Key Yacht Club.

Douglas Raymond Bruce
Douglas Raymond Bruce, 71, of Longboat Key, died May 12. He was a former resident of Norwich, Conn.

Albert ‘Al’ Hogle
Longboat Key Police Chief Albert “Al” Hogle, 63, died May 14 of injuries sustained in a North Carolina motorcycle crash.

Hogle grew up in Sarasota and served in the U.S. Air Force for two years before he was hired by the Sarasota Police Department in 1970.

Hogle served as a Sarasota city commissioner from 1998 to 2001, including five months as the city’s mayor in 2001, before he was hired to serve as Bradenton police chief. He left that position after less than a year to become Longboat Key police chief in late 2002.

Edith Rosenthal
Edith Rosenthal, 86, of Longboat Key, died May 18.

Mrs. Rosenthal was born in Berlin and came to Longboat Key from Yorktown Heights, N.Y., where she taught fifth and sixth grades. She enjoyed travel, golf, tennis, bridge, skiing, sailing theater, music, entertaining and anything with her husband of 62 years, Henry.

Clyde Miller
Clyde Miller, 86, of Sun City Center and formerly of Longboat Key and Bloomington, Ill., died May 19.

Mr. Miller worked in the trucking industry for more than 40 years and retired in 1992 from management with Consolidated Freightways in Bloomington. He and his wife, Mary, moved in 1996 to Longboat Key, where they managed the Beachcomber condominium until 2008.

Penny Rosenthal
Penny Rosenthal, 93, of Longboat Key and formerly of St. Louis, died May 19.

Mrs. Rosenthal moved to Longboat Key permanently in 1990 and was an avid nature lover. She was a longtime Longboat Key Turtle Watch volunteer who spent many years as “top turtle,” guiding the group’s activities and training new members. She also helped Mote Marine Laboratory to establish its turtle monitoring program and assisted Audubon with efforts to protect shorebirds.

David Lichtenstein
David Lichtenstein, 97, of Longboat Key and formerly of New York, died May 24.

Mr. Lichtenstein earned both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from The City College of New York and served in the U.S. Armed Forces during World War II. After the war, he worked as a New York City health inspector until 1980.

Mr. Lichtenstein served as the chairman for the operating committee and a member of the board of directors at Longboat Harbour.

Marion Gange
Marion Gange, 90, of Venice and formerly of West Haven, Conn., Dayton, Ohio, and Longboat Key, died May 25.

Ms. Gange attended Yale School of Music and played guitar with the Ina Ray Hutton Orchestra and later formed her own trio with Barbara Carroll as a steady pianist. Her trio became one of the first USO hospital units to provide entertainment for veterans.

Ms. Gange produced and directed WHIO TV in Dayton before retiring to Longboat Key.

Thomas ‘Tom’ Tomao
Thomas “Tom” Tomao, 61, of Bradenton, died May 27.

He was a veteran of the U.S. Coast Guard who worked for many years at Cannons Marina and was a skilled boat mechanic.

Mr. Tomao was a cook and avid crossword puzzle solver and reader who enjoyed fishing, working on motorcycles and car racing.

Milton Lucow
Milton Lucow, 87, of Sarasota, died May 28.

Mr. Lucow began working at age 9 in his parents’ stall at the Eastern Market in Detroit. He served during World War II in Europe and graduated from law school at Wayne State University in 1948.

Mr. Lucow was a founding member of Temple Emanu-El and became its youngest president in 1960, and was a former president of Temple Beth Israel.

In 2000, while serving as Sarasota Florida’s General Campaign Chair, he was selected to serve on the National Board of United Jewish Communities.

Alice-Jean McFarlin
Alice-Jean McFarlin, 83, of Longboat Key and formerly of St. Louis Park, Minn., died May 31.

Mrs. McFarlin was the audio-visual and computer librarian at Blake Schools in Minneapolis.

She was a key figure in developing and directing the library by All Angels by the Sea Episcopal Church, a role that she continued until 10 days before her death.

Clara Franks
Clara Franks, 92, of Longboat Key, died June 2.

She was a former resident of Bradenton and Irvington, N.J.

Peggy Hirsch Greenwald
Peggy Hirsch Greenwald, 72, of Longboat Key and Louisville, Ky., died June 11.

Mrs. Greenwald was an active volunteer with the Jewish Hospital Women’s Guild and the United Way and a member of the Standard Country Club, Longboat Key Club and Resort, National Council of Jewish Women and the congregations of the Temple and Keneseth Israel, in Louisville.

Don Snyder
Don Snyder, 87, of Sarasota, died June 5. He worked for the Longboat Key Club and Resort for 40 years.

Harry Hmura
Harry Hmura, 93, of Sarasota and formerly of Longboat Key, died June 6. Born in Chicago. Mr. Hmura had a long and varied career. After retiring to Longboat Key, he pursued his passion for golf. 

Joseph Giusti
Joseph Giusti, 97, of Longboat Key and South Dartmouth, Mass., died June 7.

Mr. Giusti served as president and chief executive officer of the Giusti Baking Co., which his father, Cesare Giusti, and John Giusti established in the early 1900s.

Mr. Giusti enjoyed golfing and was a member of the Longboat Key Club and Resort.

John Knox Hess
John Knox Hess, 93, of Plymouth Harbor and formerly of Ohio, died June 12.

Mr. Hess attended the College of Wooster in Ohio and seminary at Boston University to follow in his father’s footsteps and enter the ministry. He served as senior pastor at several Ohio churches during his career and was also superintendent of the Mount Vernon District.

Before retiring, Mr. Hess and his wife, Ruth, traveled throughout the country to assist local churches with their fundraising campaigns. He had lived at Plymouth Harbor since 1994.

Mary Ann Ruff
Mary Ann Ruff, 81, of Longboat Key and formerly of Columbus, Ind., died June 22.

Mrs. Ruff graduated from the University of Illinois with a degree in education.

After retiring to Longboat Key, she became active in the University of Illinois Alumni Club, serving as its president for 10 years, and was also active in Alums and Sequel, Sarasota Symphony and the Sarasota Opera Guild.

William ‘Bucky’ Buchanan Jr.
William “Bucky” Buchanan Jr., 92, of Plymouth Harbor and formerly of Longboat Key, died June 24.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., he graduated from Lafayette College in Easton, Pa., and joined the U.S. Army Air Corps.

Mr. Buchanan was the owner of a small manufacturing company in New Jersey until he retired in 1978 to Longboat Key.

Mr. Buchanan was a member of the Longboat Key Yacht Club and Bird Key Yacht Club.

Samuel Keyes
Samuel Keyes, 88, of Longboat Key and Cape Coral, died July 4.

Mr. Keyes enlisted in the Army in 1942 as a private, and was discharged as a captain. He participated in D-Day and landed on Red Beach in Omaha Beach, France, early on the morning of June 6, 1944.

Mr. Keyes graduated in 1948 from Boston University and served for 38 years as vice president of Aetna Life & Casualty.

He enjoyed sailing and power boating and was a member of Bird Key Yacht Club.

Jeanne Robbins Twaskas
Jeanne Robbins Twaskas, 95, of Longboat Key and formerly of Rahway, N.J., died July 4.

Mrs. Twaskas integrated the Linden Retired Men’s Club in 1989 and saw the creation of both a men and women’s club at Linden’s Gregorio Recreation Center.

She moved in 1999 to Longboat Key and lived in a condo until January 2012, when she moved into an assisted-living facility, Alderman Oaks. 

Dr. Milton Comer
Dr. Milton Comer, 83, of Longboat Key and formerly of Louisville, died July 7.

Dr. Comer was a retired surgeon who practiced in Louisville for many years and also served as a surgeon with the U.S. Army. He was a former member of Adath Jeshurun.

Marguerite Louise O’Riorden
Marguerite Louise O’Riorden, 69, of Longboat Key, died July 8.

Mrs. O’Riorden moved with her family in 1958 to Longboat Key.

She graduated from Manatee High School in 1961 and then attended Wesleyan College in Macon, Ga. She married attorney Jerry O’Riorden. She was an avid pilot and accumulated more than 10,000 hours flying with an airline transport pilot rating.

Lloyd Singer
Lloyd Singer, 86, of Longboat Key and formerly of Toronto, died July 13.

Mr. Singer had a career in business and was also a talented portrait artist. He was a member of the Canadian Art Acquisitions Committee of the Art Gallery in Toronto and an early member of the Canadian Society for the Weigmann Institute of Science in Israel.

Gloria Shuttleworth
Gloria Shuttleworth, 86, of Longboat Key, died July 27.

Mrs. Shuttleworth held a fine arts degree from Syracuse University.

Barbara Michel
Barbara Michel, 79, of Sarasota, died July 26.

Michel was the longtime chef concierge at the Longboat Key Club and Resort, serving a total of 28 years. She was originally from Detroit and lived in Cincinnati before moving in 1980 to Sarasota with her husband and three children.

Michel was was a member of the prestigious Les Clefs d’Or, which currently includes just 550 members nationwide.

Dr. William Vilensky
Dr. William Vilensky, 84, of Longboat Key and formerly of Margate, N.J., died July 30.

Dr. Vilensky opened a pharmacy in the Wildwood, N.J., area, which he operated for several years, before returning to school and earned his medical degree from the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. He practiced in Camden County, N.J., and was a professor at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Hershey.

Rita June Greenberg
Rita June Greenberg, 83, of Long Island, N.Y., died Aug. 6. She was a former resident of Longboat Key.

Robert James Warfel
Robert James Warfel, 93, of Longboat Key, died Aug. 16.

Mr. Warfel served in the U.S. Army Air Corp during World War II in the Philippines and New Guinea, before receiving his bachelor’s degree in business management in 1949 from George Washington University.
Mr. Warfel moved to the Longbeach Village in 2001 and was an avid outdoorsman, award-winning photographer and member of the Suncoast Camera Club.

George Albert Stevens
George Albert Stevens, 84, of Longboat Key and Lexington, Mass., died Sept. 3.

Mr. Stevens served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, graduated from Harvard College in 1949 and passed the Massachusetts bar exam in 1957. He was a former pharmaceutical executive, venture capitalist and entrepreneur.

John Alexander Connor
John Alexander Connor, 89, of Sarasota and formerly of Longboat Key, died Sept. 6.

Mr. Connor was born in Luss, Scotland.

He retired from his position as vice president of Bechtel Corp. in Toronto and San Francisco and went on to become active in local government, golf associations, Bird Key Yacht Club and the St. Andrews and Caledonian societies.

Brooke Greenwald Cohen
Brooke Greenwald Cohen, 45, of Louisville, Ky., and formerly of Longboat Key, died Sept. 7.

A Louisville native, Mrs. Cohen held a master’s degree in special education and taught pre-school in private schools and the Jewish Community Center.

Irene Coulter
Irene Coulter, 78, of Longboat Key and New Brighton, Minn., died Sept. 16.

Mrs. Coulter earned her bachelor’s degree in elementary education with a minor in art from Minnesota State University, Mankato.

Mrs. Coulter enjoyed music, performing arts, hunting for a good yard sale, books, painting, playing bridge and collecting seashells.

Phyllis ‘Phyl’ Goldstein
Phyllis, “Phyl” Goldstein, 82, of Longboat Key, died Sept. 16.

She was a former resident of Salem, Mass., and Swampscott, Mass.

Marianne Hart
Marianne Hart, 90, of Bloomington Ill., and Longboat Key, died Sept. 16.

Mrs. Hart graduated from Illinois Wesleyan University.

Mrs. Hart served on the boards of the Centrillio Girl Scouts, YWCA and Day Nursery. She was also a member of the McLean County Art Center and the McLean County Historical Association.

Gloria Buckner-Truitt
Gloria Buckner-Truitt, 86, of Freedom Village and formerly of Longboat Key, died Sept. 23.

Originally from Indianapolis, Mrs. Buckner-Truitt moved to Fort Wayne, Ind., where she was a homemaker and mother of three who was active in community theater and the Women’s Medical Auxiliary.

Mrs. Buckner-Truitt established Jazz Sunday at Longboat Island Chapel, a tradition that continues today.

John Roche
John Roche, 82, formerly of Longboat Key, died Sept. 29.

Mr. Roche served on the Roosevelt Carrier during the Korean War. He graduated from the University of Miami and was active in the Kappa Sigma fraternity for 50 years.

Mr. Roche worked in the pharmaceutical industry for 12 years, then in investments and insurance for 25 years and then taught at Arvida Middle School in Miami for 10 years.

In 2000, he moved to Longboat Key, where he lived for eight years.

Stuart McNaught Dalgleish
Stuart McNaught Dalgleish, 79, of Longboat Key, died Sept. 30.

Born in Scotland, he grew up in England and graduated from Queen’s University in Belfast Northern Ireland.
Mr. Dalgleish was the Bible study teacher at Christ Church of Longboat Key, Presbyterian.

Mr. Dalgleish and his wife, Rosemary, first vacationed on the Key 21 years ago and moved to the island permanently in 2007.

Barbara Reese McDevitt
Barbara Reese McDevitt, 81, of Glenn Mills, Pa., died Oct. 2. She was a former resident of Longboat Key.

Joseph Ryan Kelly
Joseph Ryan Kelly, 81, of Longboat Key and formerly of St. Paul, Minn., died Oct. 11.

Dr. Kelly served in the Army Medical Corps and went on to practice medicine for 32 years in St. Paul. He was affiliated with the allergy section of the Department of Medicine at the University of Minnesota.

Samuel Elliott Fishman
Samuel Elliott Fishman, 75, of Tampa, died Oct. 12.

Mr. Fishman founded Fishman Mortgage Corp. in 1968 and was a supporter of many organizations including Menorah Manor, Hadassah and the American Cancer Society.

Mr. Fishman served as treasurer of the Shore Condominium Association and was recently treasurer of the Suncoast Grady-White Boating Club of Longboat Key.

Ellen Shields
Ellen Shields, 72, of Longboat Key, died Oct. 19. She was a member of Christ Church of Longboat Key, Presbyterian.

Richard Arvid Hassel
Richard Arvid Hassel, 76, of Longboat Key, died Oct. 21.

Born in 1936 in Chicago, Mr. Hassel was a first-generation Swedish-American.
He was an attorney who served as general counsel and board member of Lifetouch Inc. for nearly 20 years.

Robin Powell Silverstein
Robin Powell Silverstein, 76, of Decatur, Ga., and formerly of Longboat Key, died Oct. 22.

She attended the University of Georgia and spent most of her life in Augusta, Ga. She lived on Longboat Key for 10 years before moving back to Augusta.

Edward Joseph Toth
Edward Joseph Toth, 77, of Longboat Key, died Oct. 25.

He met his wife, Gerda, in 1958, while stationed in Germany as a military police officer in the U.S. Army.
Mr. Toth earned his accounting degree from John Carroll University and his master’s degree from Case Western Reserve.

Sylvia Levine
Sylvia Levine, of Longboat Key, died Oct. 28.

One of two daughters of famed New York fashion designer Charles Shulman and his wife, Feyga, Ms. Levine graduated from Brooklyn College. She and her husband, Harvey, lived in New York, California and Englewood, N.J., before retiring to Longboat Key.