United States – Page 37

30Mar

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Noteworthy, Profiles, United States

Beryl Bernay, journalist

Beryl Bernay (March 2, 1926 – March 29, 2020) was a journalist and children's television creator, as well as a painter, photographer, actor and fashion designer. Bernay was born Beryl Bernstein in Brooklyn, New York. Her parents were Russian immigrants. Her father was a garment worker, and her mother, Sade, sold stockings and taught kindergarten. Her father changed the family name to Berney when Beryl was a child, but Beryl changed the spelling to Bernay when she reached adulthood. Bernay took acting classes with Uta Hagen and Herbert Berghof. She appeared on Broadway in Tonight in Samarkand in 1955 and later that year in ANTA's Paris production of Thornton Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth with Helen Hayes and Mary Martin. She returned to Bro...

30Mar

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Noteworthy, Profiles, United States

Joe Diffie, singer

Joe Logan Diffie ‑ an American country music singer – succumbed to Covid-19 on March 29, 2020. After working as a demo singer in the mid 1980s, he signed with Epic Records' Nashville division in 1990. Between then and 2004, Diffie charted 35 singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, five of which peaked at number one: his debut release "Home", "If the Devil Danced (In Empty Pockets)", "Third Rock from the Sun", "Pickup Man" (his longest-lasting number-one song, at four weeks) and "Bigger Than the Beatles". In addition to these singles, he had 12 others reach the top 10 and ten more reach the top 40 on the same chart. He also co-wrote singles for Holly Dunn, Tim McGraw, and Jo Dee Messina, and recorded wi...

Robert H. Garff, businessman & politician

30Mar

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High Profilers, Profiles, United States

Robert H. Garff, businessman & politician

Robert Heiner Garff ‑ an American businessman and politician who served as chair of the Ken Garff Automotive Group – died of Covid-19 on March 29, 2020. He also served as the speaker of the Utah House of Representatives from 1985 to 1987. Garff was born on September 15, 1942, the son of Marjorie Heiner and Kendall D. Garff. He attended the David Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1966 and an MBA in 1967. The Ken Garff Automotive Group is a large car dealership conglomerate, founded in 1932 by Bob's father. The company or one of its dealerships, according to a January 2004 survey conducted by Dan Jones & Associates, was the second-most mentioned car dealership by Utahns ...

30Mar

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Noteworthy, Profiles, United States

Maria Mercader, journalist

Maria Carla Mercader ‑ an American journalist and news producer who worked for CBS News for over three decades – succumbed to Covid-19 on March 29, 2020. For her work producing a CBS feature report about computer spam, Mercader won a business Emmy Award in 2004. In 2020, she died of COVID-19 during its pandemic in New York City. Mercader was born on November 28, 1965, in New York City to Manuel and Gladys Mercader. She studied at Dominican Academy, then at the College of New Rochelle, where she graduated in 1987. Mercader started working for CBS News in 1987 as a page in the company's page program, then began her news career at CBS Newspath, where she produced pieces for distribution at CBS' affiliates. She also worked on the netwo...

Alan Merrill, vocalist, guitarist, songwriter, actor & model

30Mar

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Noteworthy, Profiles, United States

Alan Merrill, vocalist, guitarist, songwriter, actor & model

Alan Merrill ‑ an American vocalist, guitarist, songwriter, actor and model – passed away on March 29, 2020 after contracting Covid-19. In the early 1970s, Merrill was the first Westerner to achieve pop star status in Japan. He was the writer of, and lead singer on, the first released version of the song "I Love Rock 'n' Roll", which was recorded by the Arrows in 1975. The song became a breakthrough hit for Joan Jett in 1982. Merrill was primarily a vocalist and songwriter, but also played the guitar, bass guitar, harmonica, and keyboards. Merrill was born in The Bronx, New York City on February 19, 1951, the son of two jazz musicians, singer Helen Merrill and saxophone/clarinet player Aaron Sachs. He went to Aiglon Colle...

29Mar

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Noteworthy, Profiles, United States

William B. Helmreich, sociologist

William Helmreich –a professor of sociology at the City College of New York Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York – died on March 28, 2020 due to Covid-19. Helmreich, a published author, was a distinguished professor at the City University of New York, who specialized in race and ethnic relations, religion, immigration, risk behavior, the sociology of New York City, urban sociology, consumer behavior, and market research. Helmreich was born in 1945 in Zürich, Switzerland, the son of Holocaust survivor parents. In 1946, he was brought to the US as an infant, and grew up in New York City on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Helmreich wrote about his early ye...

29Mar

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Noteworthy, Profiles, United States

William Wolf, film critic

William Wolf ‑ an American film and theater critic, and the author of several books – died of Covid-19 on March 28, 2020. He was a film critic for Cue and New York magazines in the 1960s-1980s. Later, he was the president of the Drama Desk and the chairman of the New York Film Critics Circle. Wolf served two years as Chairman of the New York Film Critics Circle and was a member of the National Society of Film Critics, the New York Film Critics Online, the Online Film Critics Society, PEN, the American Theatre Critics Association, the International Association of Theatre Critics, and the American Association of University Professors. He served for four years as President of the Drama Desk, an organization of critics and writers on the theater, and previously served ...

Dr Roberto Peñalba, Pediatric specialist

29Mar

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Profiles, United States

Dr Roberto Peñalba, Pediatric specialist

Panamanian Pediatric specialist, Dr. Roberto Peñalba, 59, died on March 28, 2020, in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The Panamanian doctor who tested positive for Covid-19 after returning to Panama and having participated in the National Zalsa Day and other danceable events in Puerto Rico, allegedly died of complications related to the virus. The information about the pediatrician, identified as Roberto Peñalba, was communicated on Twitter and confirmed to NotiCel by Richie Viera, producer of the radio program Nación Z. This, in turn, informed NotiCel of having received the information from another Panamanian journalist, Álvaro Alvarado, former anchor of the RPCTV Panama channel. In the middle of this month, the doctor became the sixth coronavirus-positive case in Panama. After learning abo...

28Mar

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Noteworthy, Profiles, United States

Orlando McDaniel, footballer

Orlando Keith McDaniel –an American professional football player who was a wide receiver in the National Football League (NFL) for one season with the Denver Broncos – died from Covid-19 on March 27, 2020. He played college football for the LSU Tigers. He was drafted by the Broncos in the second round of the 1982 NFL Draft. He appeared in three games during the 1982 season and did not catch a pass. McDaniel was born in Shreveport, Louisiana, and attended Lake Charles High School in Lake Charles, Louisiana. He attended college at Louisiana State University, where he played as a wide receiver for the Tigers. At LSU, he caught 64 passes for 1,184 yards and three touchdowns over four seasons. His 17.5 yards per reception in 1981 ranked second in the ...

28Mar

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Noteworthy, Profiles, United Kingdom, United States

Michael McKinnell, architect

Noel Michael McKinnell –a British-born American architect and co-founder of the Kallmann McKinnell & Wood architectural design firm – succumbed to Covid-19 on March 27, 2020. In 1962, McKinnell, who was a Columbia University graduate student at the time, and Columbia professor Gerhard Kallmann submitted the winning design for Boston City Hall, which opened in 1968. McKinnell and Kallman moved to Boston shortly after winning the competition and founded their firm, now known as Kallmann McKinnell & Wood, in 1962. McKinnell was born on December 25, 1935, in Salford area of Manchester, England, His father was an accountant and war veteran. He graduated from the University of Manchester in 1958 with a first class degree in architecture. He stu...