Robert O.Y. Warren III
Robert O.Y. Warren III, 86, of Suffield, Conn., died at home Dec. 1 after a lengthy illness.
Warren was the chairman for several years of The Suffield Observer. He compiled a Food for Thought column for the Observer.
A yearly scholarship from the Observer is given to a Suffield senior in Warren’s name.
He formerly was an executive for 10 years at several Hartford-area printing companies.
He was a member of the Suffield Ethics Commission.
He leaves his wife, Margery; three children, Lisa, Robert IV and Joseph; seven grandchildren; two brothers.
Phyllis Austin
Phyllis Austin, 75, died Nov. 21 at her home in Brunswick, Maine.
After moving to Maine in 1969, Austin covered the statehouse for The Associated Press and in 1972 became AP’s first environmental writer for New England. Her environmental-based investigative reporting found a home in 1974 in the former statewide weekly Maine Times, which had been based in Topsham, then Portland and, finally, Hallowell.
After the Maine Times closed, Austin was a freelance writer for many publications, including AMC Outdoors, Backpacker, Wild Earth, Yankee, and Down East.
Austin received many honors, including an Alicia Patterson Journalism Fellowship in Washington, D.C., and a John S. Knight Journalism Fellowship at Stanford University.
She co-edited an essay collection titled “On Wilderness: Voices from Maine” and authored two biographies: “Wilderness Partners: Buzz Caverly and Baxter State Park” and “Queen Bee: Roxanne Quimby, Burt’s Bees, and Her Quest for a New National Park.”
Before her work in New England, Austin covered city news for the News & Observer of Raleigh, N.C. As a member of the AP capital bureau in Columbia, S.C., she pioneered the bureau’s environmental coverage through her reporting on nuclear power. She also covered civil rights marches and riots.
She leaves her partner of 25 years, Anne Dellenbaugh.
Robert H. ‘Bob’ Zaiman
Robert H. “Bob” Zaiman, 95, of Newington, Conn., and formerly of Hartford, Conn., died Nov. 10 in Cedar Mountain Commons in Newington.
In his early teens, he was an office boy at The Hartford Courant. In his final year of high school, he was hired full time as a sportswriter, the youngest in New England to hold such a job.
He returned to the Courant after military service in World War II. His coverage of and columns on golf helped make it more popular in Connecticut. He was elected president of the Connecticut Sports Writers Alliance.
After the Korean War began, Zaiman was assigned by the Courant to be a special correspondent with the 43rd National Guard Division. He followed the division for two years through the southern United States and then to Germany. He wrote a daily column on its activities. He returned as a featured columnist, writing The Human Touch, and covered local and national news events as a reporter.
In 1955, Zaiman left the Courant to be vice president of Tyndall Associates, a New York public relations agency. He later returned to Connecticut to join the public relations department of United Aircraft, now United Technologies. He led Pratt & Whitney Aircraft’s public relations and advertising efforts.
He was predeceased by his wife, Kristi; a brother; two sisters.
Susan Tuz
Susan Tuz, 67, of Gaylordsville, Conn., died of cancer Nov. 19. She was diagnosed with lymphoma of the central nervous system in July, according to the New Milford (Conn.) Patch.
Tuz began reporting for the New Milford Times in 1997. She then became a staff writer for The News-Times of Danbury, Conn., and for The Greater New Milford Spectrum in 2000. She retired in April.
Tuz leaves her mother, Helen; a brother, Michael; a sister, Patricia; an aunt; several cousins.
Jefferson D. ‘Jeff’ Ackor Sr.
Jefferson D. “Jeff” Ackor Sr., 80, died Nov. 14 at his home in Thomaston, Maine.
Ackor was a bureau chief in Machias, Maine, for the Bangor (Maine) Daily News before serving as press secretary to Maine Gov. John H. Reed in 1966. He was also a consultant for the Maine Department of Health and Welfare.
He leaves a wife, Susan; four children, Jefferson Jr., James, Adam and Erin; his stepmother, Joan; two sisters; a brother.
Ann Allen Brahms
Ann Allen Brahms, 78, of South Portland, Maine, died Nov. 19.
She was a former columnist for the Portland (Maine) Press Herald.
She had seven books published, including both fiction and nonfiction.
She leaves her husband, Paul; five children, Cathy, Audrey, Paul, Darien and David; eight grandchildren; a brother.
Carl F. Furtado
Carl F. Furtado, 96, of Barrington, R.I., died Nov. 30 at the Philip Hulitar Hospice Center in Providence, R.I.
Furtado began his newspaper career at The Standard-Times of New Bedford, Mass.
After returning home from Army service in North Africa and Italy, he resumed his employment in the newspaper industry as a Linotype machinist, moving in 1955 to Barrington and employment at The Providence (R.I.) Journal.
Furtado leaves three sons, C. Edward, Donald and Peter; a grandson, Thomas: two siblings.
Eugene J. Maxwell Sr.
Eugene J. Maxwell Sr., 87, of West Warwick, R.I., died Nov. 17 in Philip Hulitar Hospice Care Center in Providence, R.I.
Maxwell was a data processor for the Providence Journal Company for 47 years and a member of the Providence Newspaper Guild. He retired in 1992.
He leaves his wife, Patricia; a son, Eugene; three daughters, Marybeth, Michaela and Patricia; seven grandchildren; two brothers.
Pentti M. Laine
Pentti M. Laine, 92, of Athol, Mass., died Nov. 22 at the Life Care Center of Leominster, Mass.
Laine was employed in the pressroom of the Raivaaja Publishing Company of Fitchburg, Mass., which published a Finnish-language newspaper. He then was a Linotype operator and compositor for the then-Fitchburg Sentinel until he retired.
He leaves a son, J. Eric; three grandsons, Christopher, Jonathan and Benjamin; three great-grandchildren.
Joan M. (Sughrue) Dunlevy
Joan M. (Sughrue) Dunlevy, 85, of Tewksbury, Mass., died Nov. 23 at her daughter’s home in Tewksbury.
She was a part-time writer for The Sun of Lowell, Mass., and wrote a column titled An Apple a Day. She also hosted a radio show on WCAP-AM radio station in Lowell, and was publisher and editor of Health Happenings Magazine.
She was the first woman in Tewksbury history to chair the Board of Selectmen. Dunlevy also was chairwoman of the Board of Health, and a member of the building committees for the South Tewksbury Fire Station, the John F. Ryan Elementary School, and the Tewksbury Police Station.
Dunlevy leaves seven children, Stephen, Alan, Sheila, Ellen, William, John and Jennifer; 18 grandchildren; five sisters.
Mildred E. Plank
Mildred E. Plank, 96, of Manchester, Conn., and formerly of Glastonbury, Conn., died Nov. 28 in Manchester Manor.
Plank was employed at the Glastonbury Citizen.
She leaves two daughters, Marsha and Kathleen; two sons, Gary and Jeffrey; eight grandchildren, 10 great-grandchildren, three great-great-grandchildren; two sisters.
The obituaries were written, at least in part, from published reports by Bulletin correspondents Ashleane Alabre, Sophie Cannon, Jenna Ciccotelli, Nico Hall, Joshua Leaston, Georgeanne Oliver, Julia Preszler, Alejandro Serrano and Thomas Ward, undergraduate students at Northeastern University.
Lauren Appelbaum is the Director of Communications at RespectAbility, a nonprofit organization fighting stigmas and advancing opportunities for and with people with disabilities. She brings more than 10 years of experience in strategic and crisis communications, writing, video and web production, news gathering and social media to the disability agenda. Previously she was a digital researcher with the NBC News political unit, where she worked with Chuck Todd and Andrea Mitchell.