— On behalf of the board of Sandyvale Memorial Gardens and Conservancy, I would like to express our thanks to the many supporters and volunteers who made this past Memorial Day observance at Sandyvale a success. 

The combining of our traditional program with the annual Community Day activities of the city of Johnstown proved to be a winning combination.

The outstanding support from community sponsors provided the wherewithal to present a program that appealed to a broad base.

Undertakings of this magnitude require extraordinary effort from entities that have the capacity and willingness to make good things happen.

Our appreciation goes out to the city of Johnstown, Cambria County Community Service Program under the supervision of Senior Judge Gerard Long, The Garden Club of Johnstown for the planting of the flower beds, and the local military commands and particularly the U.S Army Command Exhibition Parachute Team “Silver Wings” from Fort Benning Ga., for the magnificent presentation of the flag.

We are encouraged by this support to continue the transformation of this historic tract of land into the community asset that we know it can be.

Bill Horner

Board president

Sandyvale Memorial Gardens and Conservancy



In many newsrooms, Russell legacy lives on

I was gratified to read Jim Siehl’s tribute to Tom Russell on June 1 in The Tribune-Democrat.

A good man deserves a good sendoff.

Russell never stopped being a journalist and a gentleman in an age when neither role was fully appreciated.

As a student of his in the 1970s, I found him exacting, steady, whimsical and devoted not only to teaching, but to doing so without preaching.

There was a lot of the latter afoot in academia in those days, and Tom was having none of it.

Two years into college, I came across a Russell story from his days at The Tribune-Democrat. It was a hilarious feature about birds being drawn to fermented berries and becoming drunk. I recall telling him that the piece made me want to become a features writer.

He sighed and said, “Well, at least it  didn’t make you want to become a drunk.”

That was Russell: At once self-deprecating and to the point.

Russell gave the world journalists who now run papers in Pennsylvania, Maine, New York and beyond.

Wherever a UPJ journalism graduate is getting things right, a bit of Tom Russell is living on.

Dennis Roddy

Harrisburg

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