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THE TIMES LEADER www.timesleader.com
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SUNDAY, JANUARY 1, 2012 PAGE 11A
COMMUNITY’S NOTABLE DEATHS IN 2011
Whistleblower, business leader are among those lost By ANDREW M. SEDER aseder@timesleader.com
While hundreds of Luzerne County residents died in 2011, a few left distinct and notable marks on their communities. The two who perhaps made the greatest impact on the Wyoming Valley were former county Controller Steve Flood and businessman Charles D. Flack Jr. Flood, who served as controller from 2002-05 is credited by many for initiating the federal corruption probe that led to charges against two once-powerful county judges and several others. Flood presented his findings, hours before suffering a stroke in 2007, at a county commissioner meeting where he criticized the county’s leasing of the juvenile detention center that was later linked to the charges against two former judges. He also took his findings and suspicions to federal authorities, convincing them to investigate, his lawyers have said. The stroke left him unable to speak, but what he was able to find and tell others about beforehand was enough to spur a major federal probe into corruption. As controller, Flood had uncovered information about former judges Michael T. Conahan and Mark A. Ciavarella and a Pittston Township juvenile detention center leased by the county, including details gleaned by a private investigator he hired and paid for on his own. Flood, of Dorrance Township, died on July 16 at 67 shortly after suffering a second stroke. His dogged pursuit of corruption earned praise from Republicans and Democrats alike. Flack, one of the Wyoming Valley’s most influential and well-respected community leaders, businessmen, philanthropists and political power brokers, died at 56 on May 26. The list of boards Flack sat on includes: The Luzerne Foundation, Wyoming Seminary, Misericordia University, Oak Lawn Cemetery Association and the Greater Wilkes-Barre Chamber of Business and Industry. He also was chairman of the nonprofit Wyoming Valley Health Care System board when the decision was made in 2009 to sell the system, including Wilkes-Barre General Hospital, to for-profit Community Health Systems Inc. The Lehman Township resident took the helm of Diamond Manufacturing Co. in West Wyoming at 24 after his father died. Flack, who ran the business with his brother Harold, sold the company in 2010 to Los Angelesbased Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co. He also was part of a local investment group that helped buy The Times Leader. “He was a giver. He knew the importance of being involved in the community,” said Flack’s friend and state Secretary of Revenue Dan Meuser shortly after Flack’s death. “He knew it before it was fashionable.” Among other notable county
Charles D. Flack
Steve Flood
residents or natives who died in 2011: • John D. “Jack” Smith Sr., the “Little Mayor of South Main Street,” died Jan. 26 at 86. The lifelong Wilkes-Barre resident was a former bail bondsman and welterweight boxer and later the chairman of the board of directors for the Boxing Hall of Fame. He was the owner and presSmith ident of the General Lamp Corp. and along with his family, owned the Paramount Theatre, now called the F.M. Kirby Center, on Public Square. Smith also was the owner of American Cab Co. and American Ambulance Association, both based in the city. • Raymond G. Ostrowski, of the Newtown section of Hanover Township, died Feb. 1, at 74. He owned and operated Raymond Electronic Service, Wilkes-Barre; was emergency management coordinator for Hanover TownOstrowski ship; and, prior to retiring, was Luzerne County chief deputy sheriff. He also served as fire chief for the Newtown Volunteer Fire Department. • Howard B. Fedrick, of Laflin, a member of both the downtown Wilkes-Barre Fine Arts Fiesta and the history department at King’s College, died Feb. 9 at 67. The 2010 arts festival, the 56th annual, Fedrick was dedicated to Fedrick. • Former Luzerne mayor and councilman Leon Nevin Gorki, 95, died March 12. He was heavily involved in Democratic Party politics, and prior to his retire-
ment he was employed by Pennsylvania Gas & Water Co. as a salesman. • Walter Yablonski, one of the area’s few remaining Pearl Harbor survivors, died March 13. He served as mayor of Luzerne from 1986 to 1997 and operated the Atlantic Service Station Yablonski on Main Street in Luzerne until his retirement in 1985. • Oliver “Lee” Dominick, founder and longtime owner and operator of Dominick’s Cafe, a landmark restaurant in the Hudson section of Plains Township, died March 22 at 95. Dominick Dominick played a fundamental role in the development of the Plains Township Teeners’ Baseball League. He also was the founder of the Plains Yankee Dugout Club and the Plains Yankee Football Program, where he served as a life board member. • Frank “Franco” S. Kossa, of Sugarloaf Township, died at 45 on May 2. He was the cofounder of the Inkin’ the Valley Tattoo Convention, founder of its SideShow Gathering, and owner Kossa of Marc’s Tattooing and Body Piercing, which has locations in Wilkes-Barre, Hazle Township and Scranton. • Billie J. Gross, died May 3 at 84. He had served as chief of the Germania Hose Co., Duryea. • Noted animator and filmmaker Karen Aqua, a Forty Fort native and 1972 Wyoming Valley West High School graduate, died at 57 on May 30. She produced, directed, and animated 22 segments for “Sesame Street,” com-
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mas Durkin, died Dec. 8 at 64. He worked for the Lehigh Valley and the D & H Railroad, FedEX, and for the Luzerne County Probation Office. In 1986 he was named Father of the Year by The Pittston Dispatch. • Former Pittston Area School District Superintendent Gerard Musto, the father of outgoing Luzerne County District Attorney Jackie Musto Carroll and the younger brother of former state Sen. Raphael Musto, died Dec. 18 at 77. He served as superintendent at Pittston Area from 1982 until his retirement in 1993. He also Musto served as an educator in New Jersey and in the former Northeast School District in Avoca. • Clarence “Van” Rose, a longtime reporter with The Times Leader, died Dec. 29 at 68. Rose started at the paper in 1982 as a news reporter before moving over to sports. He won a Keystone Press Award in 2009 for his story on local kickboxer and basketball player Lydia Naperkowski. During his career Rose wrote columns and reported Rose on a variety of subjects, from the Scranton/ Wilkes-Barre Red Barons and Yankees to country music, from Nanticoke City Council meetings to harness racing, from concerts to girls’ volleyball and basketball games. He retired from The Times Leader in 2011 but continued as a correspondent, reporting and writing about girls’ high school volleyball and basketball.
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years. She also was elected president of the Councilmen’s Association of the State Association of Boroughs and served on its board of directors. Saidman was a member of the board of directors of the Economic Development Council of Northeastern Pennsylvania, and co-chairman of the Wyoming Valley Flood Victims Action Council. She also was active with the Save Our Schools Committee at Wyoming Valley West. • Marita Dempsey Lowman, a prize-winning reporter and editor for The Times Leader and later The Intelligencer of Doylestown and The Scranton Times, died Oct. 21 at 60. She started at The Times Leader shortly after college as a general assignment reporter in 1981. She would go on to become the paper’s court reporter before being named Times Leader Lowman city editor. She returned to staff writing as she became The Times Leader’s principal investigative reporter in 1990. Her journalism awards over the years were numerous and included first place Keystone Press Awards in 1988, 1991, 1992 and 1993, and the U.S. Postal Service outstanding contributions to journalism in 2003. She also won, among other honors, first place in the health and medical reporting category of the 2001 Spotlight Contest conducted by the Keystone Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. • Aaron W. (Junior) Hess, died Nov. 15, at 81. He was a charter member of the Wright Township Volunteer Fire Company and served as chief. • Former Avoca Mayor Tho-
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pleted 11 independently produced animated films and one collaborative animation/ live action video. Aqua • Local businessman, community leader and economic development visionary Edward Schechter died at 91 on July 2. Schechter was one of four founding members of Leadership Wilkes-Barre, and the first executive director of the Committee for Economic Growth. While director of the Greater WilkesBarre Chamber of Commerce, he also served on the boards of the Flood ReSchechter covery Task Force, the Boy Scouts, the Luzerne County Transportation Authority, the United Way, the YMCA and the Earth Conservancy. • Elizabeth Chacko, the founding partner of Chacko’s Family Bowling Center in Wilkes-Barre, died Aug. 10 at 83. She and her late husband, John Chacko Sr., purchased their original bowling center location on South Main Street, WilkesBarre, one day prior to the 1972 Agnes Flood. The flood destroyed everything and Chacko the couple had to gut the entire building. They eventually rebuilt and later opened a new bowling center on Wilkes-Barre Boulevard. • Marilyn Saidman died Oct. 11. She served as councilwoman in Laflin Borough for eight years, beginning in 1976, and served as its president for six of those
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