What can you say about the Westchester and Hudson Valley departed of 2010?
You can say that they were a varied lot. That they were educators, architects, lawyers, businessmen, performers. That they embraced the famous and those who trod the world stage only for a moment. And that their deaths ranged from the relatively prosaic to the horrifyingly freakish.
There is one thing more you can say: That they were noteworthy not only for their professional accomplishments but for their service to others. When Edward M. Marvell of Curtis Instruments in Mount Kisco died, his son and successor, Stuart, received e-mails from employees around the world, recalling how his father made each of them feel important. And when Virginia B. Smith, former president of Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, died, The New York Times wrote about her outreach to students as well as her fund-raising.
What can you say about those who died in 2010? That they were someone”™s father, mother, friend, spouse. That they were beloved. That they were among those who gave and those who had more to give:
Bernard Abel
It was on Dec. 24, 1964, that Abel started the Westmore News, which serves Port Chester and Rye Brook, offering readers an alternative to the local news juggernauts. Throughout his publishing career, Abel was a staunch defender of the First Amendment ”“ a position that landed him in court and the clinker more than once. Though his son Richard and daughter-in-law Jananne eventually took over the management of the paper, Bernard Abel remained involved with it, penning more than 100 columns from 2002 to ”™09. He died on June 12 at age 86.
Jean Carroll
The lovely comedienne, a Hartsdale resident, gave lie to two clichés ”“ that women can”™t be funny and that brainy women can”™t be beautiful. The Paris-born Carroll, who got her start as a dancer in vaudeville, toured the best theaters and nightclubs and appeared on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” where she delivered witty monologues on family, shopping and social life while swathed in furs, jewels and shimmer. As such, she paved the way for comic glamour girls like Rita Rudner. Carroll died in White Plains on New Year”™s Day at age 98.
John Diebboll
The Beacon-based architect defied F. Scott Fitzgerald”™s maxim that there are no second acts in American lives. The designer of schools, libraries, hotels and homes, Diebboll found a second outlet for his creative talent conjuring fantastic pianos. In his alchemic drawings, which can be found in museum collections around the world, pianos became the Brooklyn Bridge, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, a Murphy bed, a diner, even Thelonious Monk. The alchemy stopped when he died at home of brain cancer. He was 54.
Dave Fisher
The Rye resident was the musical leader of the Highwaymen, a popular folk group in the early 1960s that enjoyed a renaissance 30 years later, opening for a super-group made up of Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson and Willie Nelson. The Highwaymen, formed by five Wesleyan College freshmen in 1958, had a No. 1 hit with “Michael” (the African-American spiritual “Michael, Row the Boat Ashore. Over the years, members graduated to different professions. But the 69-year-old Fisher ”“ who died at home May 7 of myelofibrosis, a bone-marrow disorder ”“ was the group”™s heart and soul, celebrated for his arrangements and his crystalline tenor voice.
William F. Harrington
The Yonkers native, who died Jan. 23 of complications from pneumonia at age 78, was as well-known for his Roman Catholic philanthropy as he was for his career in law and politics. In 1959, he joined the White Plains firm of Bleakley Platt & Schmidt, where he remained until his death. From 1964 to ”™73, he served as legislative council to Malcolm Wilson, then lieutenant governor of New York. But it may have been as a Catholic philanthropist that this Pound Ridge resident had the greatest effect. A trustee of both St. Joseph”™s Seminary in Yonkers and St. Patrick”™s Cathedral in Manhattan, Harrington also raised funds for the Elizabeth Seton Pediatric Center”™s new $125 million home in Yonkers.
Ed Limato
His clients included Pound Ridge”™s Richard Gere, Mount Vernon favorite son Denzel Washington and Peekskill-born Mel Gibson. But it”™s fair to say that the flamboyant agent was a star himself, sporting Richard James suits and tooling around in an Aston Martin. His signature phrase, “Let”™s talk to the stars,” rivaled the fictional sports agent Jerry Maguire”™s “Show me the money.” The 73-year-old Limato died of pneumonia-complicated emphysema July 3 at his Hollywood Hills mansion. “He had,” Gere once said, “a rare ability to read a script and see what could be.”
Edward M. Marwell
Marwell was the co-founder and president emeritus of Curtis Instruments Inc., a Mount Kisco company that makes instruments and controls for electric vehicles. He was president and CEO for four decades, continuing as chairman until 2003. Under Marwell”™s leadership, Curtis grew into a business with 1,000 employees and 13 subsidiaries around the world. Marwell”™s was the first American company to break through the Iron Curtain, earning him the Horseman of the Madeira, Bulgaria”™s highest honor. A World War II veteran who saw action in Japan, Marwell served his community as a Mount Kisco trustee and a member of the village”™s Human Rights Commission. He died Sept. 7 at age 88 after a long illness.
Clara Park
When Clara Park wrote “The Siege” (1967), her deeply personal account of her family”™s struggle with daughter Jessica”™s autism, the devastating condition was barely understood. Park, a Tarrytown native, blew away the cobwebs and let in the light of day, arming anguished parents and baffled doctors alike with new insights. She followed up the book with “Exiting Nirvana” (2001). Park, a lecturer in English studies at Williams College from 1975 to ”™94, died on July 3 in Williamstown, Mass., at age 86 after complications from a fall. Jessica Park ”“ who learned to read and became an accomplished artist ”“ works in the Williams College mailroom.
Patricia Rico
The Croton-on-Hudson resident, who died May 2 in Sleepy Hollow of pulmonary fibrosis at age 76, was a true trailblazer, becoming the first woman president of USA Track and Field, the sport”™s governing body. Rico restored equilibrium to the organization, which was more than $3 million in debt when she took over. With her husband, Heliodoro, Rico also helped administer and judge about 30 local meets a year. She was a referee at the 1996 Olympic Games, the 1976 United States Olympic trials and numerous NCAA outdoor championships.
Edith Shain
For some, fame rests in a moment. So it was for Tarrytown native Edith Shain, who always maintained that she was the woman in the Life magazine photograph ”“ snapped by Alfred Eisenstaedt ”“ of the sailor and nurse kissing in Times Square on V-J Day. After serving as a nurse at Doctors Hospital in Manhattan, she moved to Los Angeles and became a kindergarten teacher. But Shain, who died June 20 at her home in Los Angeles at age 91, will always be associated with a spontaneous act that she said symbolized “hope, love, peace and tomorrow.”
Virginia B. Smith
A lawyer and economist, Smith was best-known as the woman who broadened the outreach of Vassar College in Poughkeepsie during her presidency (1977-”™86). During her tenure, she spearheaded a $100 million fund-raising campaign, raised faculty salaries and recruited minority and community-college students. In 1990, Smith came out of retirement to become acting president of Mills College in Oakland, Calif. She died Aug. 27 at age 87 in Alamo, Calif.
Helen Wagner
As the world turned increasingly modern, hostile and immoral, this Mount Kisco resident remained a steadfast model of traditional American motherhood, portraying Nancy Hughes on the long-running soap opera “As the World Turns.” Wagner worked as a singer, church soloist and stage actress before saying a prim “Good morning, dear” to her twin-bedded hubby as the cameras turned on the soap for the first time, April 2, 1956. Fifty-four years and three days later, Wagner made her last appearance. She died at home of cancer on May 1 at age 91.
Theodore Wilson
The New Rochelle resident died in a July 17 skydiving accident in the Poconos after his parachute got tangled with that of friend George Flynn, and they fell to the ground. Flynn died the following day. Both men were accomplished skydivers, who jumped almost every weekend. The 70-year-old Wilson, an accountant who ran his business out of his home, is remembered as a local activist, who served on New Rochelle”™s Historical Landmark Review Board.
Henry Wittenberg
At a time when the Olympics are big business, this Somers resident will be remembered for being an amateur Olympic competitor in the best sense of the phrase ”“ for love of the games. It was at City College that he turned from chess and swimming to competitive wrestling, going undefeated in more than 300 matches during the 1940s. After serving in the Navy during World War II, he won the light heavyweight freestyle wrestling gold at the 1948 London Olympics, then took a silver at the 1952 Helsinki games. Wittenburg, who died at home at age 91 on March 9, was also a member of New York”™s finest.
