German expressionist artist Joerg Immendorf
dies Monday 28 May 2007 14:04German expressionist artist Joerg Immendorff died on Monday after a long illness, his wife said.One of Germany's foremost modern artists, the 61-year-old had been suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a disease which attacks and destroys nerve cells in the brain.

He died in the early hours of Monday at his home in Dusseldorf, his wife, Oda Jaune-Immendorff, said.

A charismatic figure, Immendorff was known for his flamboyant lifestyle as well as oil his paintings, prints and sculptures that mixed surrealism with an element of satire.

In August 2004, he was fined and given an 11-month suspended prison sentence after pleading guilty to offences relating to a widely publicized "cocaine orgy" at a Dusseldorf hotel.

The terminally ill artist testified that he only wanted to "go out with a fling" when he hired a hotel suite and invited several prostitutes to a party where alcohol and drugs were available in large quantities.

Immendorff became afflicted with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, in 1998, and set up a foundation in his own name to finance medical research into the condition.

ALS leads to increasingly serious stages of paralysis and then to death when the person's respiratory system becomes paralysed.

Born on June 14 in the north German town of Bleckede, he first gained attention in the 1970s with a series of works called "Cafe Deutschland" dealing with the division of Germany.

One of his most publicized works was an official portrait commissioned by Gerhard Schroeder in which the former chancellor appears in a gilded head and clothes.

A professor at the Dusseldorf Academy of Art, Immendorf's last major exhibition was held at Berlin's New National Gallery when he was confined to a wheelchair. dpa ms sc

Officer an inspiration to others, friends say
By Hafsa Naz Mahmood
hmahmood@dailyherald.com
Posted Friday, May 25, 2007



Retired Glen Ellyn police Sgt. Robert Madden is being remembered as a humble, cheerful, caring, helpful and reliable man who was loved greatly.

The 51-year-old Glen Ellyn resident, who spent 29 years with the department, died Tuesday in his home after a long battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also called Lou Gehrig's disease.

Madden loved his family and was dedicated to his job.

He also was a fighter.

“He just kind of decided that he would do things his own way, so the disease never really took him,” said Alison Madden, his wife of 30 years and high school sweetheart. “He just kind of lived his life.”

Madden was born in Chicago, received his bachelor’s degree from Western Illinois University and loved gardening, basketball, bicycling, traveling, reading and the White Sox.

Glen Ellyn Police Chief Phil Norton knew Madden for 21 years and shared an office with him for about five years.

“If you were his friend, you knew he had your back,” Norton said. “He had a great sense of humor, he was a no-nonsense guy and he never held a grudge.”

Norton said he often teamed up with Madden to pull small pranks on their colleagues.

“At the end of the week on Friday afternoons, you’d kind of wind down after busy weeks,” Norton said. “You could hear the laughter from our office. It was a good way to end the week. I miss him.”

Madden had positive influences on the people he worked with and trained throughout the years.

“He was so inspirational through so many things,” said Deputy Police Chief Bill Holmer, who knew Madden for 16 years. “His work was very important to him, but he always had the philosophy of family first. In this line of work, it’s so easy to lose that.”

Friends said Madden was someone they could count on for an honest opinion.

“He was certainly a man full of integrity,” Holmer said.

Visitation will be 3 to 9 p.m. today at Leonard Memorial Home, Ltd. in Glen Ellyn. A memorial funeral Mass will be at 11 a.m. Saturday at St. Barnabas Episcopal Church in Glen Ellyn.

Madden is survived by his wife; children, Shawn Barth of Wheaton, Sarah Madden of Chicago and Timothy Madden of Glen Ellyn; and 10 siblings. He was preceded in death by his parents and two sisters.

Triathlete loses battle with ALS

07:35 AM EDT on Tuesday, May 29, 2007

BY CAROLYN THORNTON
Journal Sports Writer


Blais
The triathlon community lost a valued friend and competitor Sunday when Jonathan Blais died after a 2-year battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Known to his friends as the “Blazeman,” the 35-year-old Seekonk native and Rhode Island College graduate waged a valiant war against the disease, more commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, after being diagnosed on May 2, 2005.

Realizing that those with ALS usually die within two to five years after being diagnosed, the special-education teacher worked tirelessly to create more awareness about the neurodegenerative disease that relentlessly attacks the motor neurons in the brain and spinal cord and for which there is still no cure.

Documenting his efforts on his Web site ( http://www.alswarriorpoet.com), Blais mobilized an army of triathletes — called Team Blazeman Warriors — to help with his war on ALS. He and that dedicated group of friends have spent the last two years holding fundraisers throughout the United States to support the Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Therapy Development Fund, a nonprofit biotech company in Cambridge, Mass., dedicated to finding effective treatments for individuals with ALS.

In 2005, Blais became the first competitor suffering with ALS to complete the prestigious and grueling Ford Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii.

Wheelchair bound the following year, he was forced to watch the event as a spectator. Brian Breen — a 31-year-old banker from Tinley Park, Ill. — completed the 2006 event in tribute to Blais.

In accepting an Emmy in the category of Outstanding Edited Sports Special for the 2006 Ford Ironman World Championship at the 28th-annual Sports Emmy Awards Ceremony, Ironman’s executive television producer, Peter Henning, announced that the award was being dedicated to Blais and his family.

Blais was also named the Competitor of the Year at the 15th-annual Competitor Endurance Sports Awards, held last February in San Diego.

Blais’ parents, Mary Ann and Bob, sent out this e-mail following their son’s death on Sunday:

Dear Friends,

Jonathan passed away at approx 8:30 Sunday, May 27, 2007.

He was a great son, brother, uncle and friend. We shall miss him more than you know.

He lost this battle in hopes others may win the war. Donations to the Blazeman Foundation or Jonathan S. Blais Scholarship fund would be appreciated. … Please keep up the fight that Jon started 2 yrs ago in his honor.

Mary Ann and Bob Blais

cthorn@projo.com

English, Daniel J.; 62; Evansville; died 5/16; amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Payne family mourns loss of patriarch
By Marty Maciaszek
mmaciaszek@dailyherald.com
Posted Tuesday, June 12, 2007


Jim Payne exhibited his toughness and fighting spirit during the toughest fight of his life.

Payne, a teacher and coach at East Leyden High School and patriarch of one of the area’s best-known high school sports families, battled amyotrophic lateral sclerosis for 17¨ years.

And Payne easily bucked the odds of what is better known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease and is supposed to result in death after a few years. Payne finally succumbed to it at 10:10 a.m. Monday in his Schaumburg home at 66.

“It’s tough but my father’s in a better place,” said Kent Payne, who was a basketball star at Schaumburg High and has coached at St. Edward and Addison Trail high schools and at Elgin and Harper community colleges.

“I’ve known him all my life and I’ve never heard one person say anything in a negative connotation about him,” said Ray Pettenuzzo, who played for Payne when East Leyden won the Class 5A state football title in 1977. “He’s how an educator should be portrayed and how a coach should be portrayed.

“Whether you were the fifth-string running back or first-string, he treated you the same every day. You were like, ‘Wow, this guy really does care.’æ”

Pettenuzzo credited Jim Payne for pointing him in the direction of teaching and coaching. Pettenuzzo played at Carthage College, where Payne was a star running back in the early 1960s, and just resigned in May after 16 years as head football coach at Maine West.

“His advice to me set the ball rolling,” Pettenuzzo said.

Jim Payne, who is survived by his wife Ruth Ann, graduated from downstate Amboy High School before going to Carthage. He is a member of the Illinois High School Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame and also coached track and field at East Leyden.

Payne’s grandchildren include Cully, who will be a junior at Burlington Central and has committed to DePaul to play basketball, Katlyn, who helped St. Edward reach the Class A Elite Eight as a freshman, and Quentin, who will be a seventh grader.

“Driving home (Sunday night), I told all three of them if you get anything out of ‘papa,’æ” Kent Payne said, “it’s he didn’t know when to quit and didn’t know how to quit.”

Visitation for Jim Payne will be from 5 p.m.-7 p.m. Thursday at Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Schaumburg. A service will follow for Payne, who will be cremated and has donated his spine and brain to the Les Turner ALS Foundation for research.

Coach beat odds with ALS
By Eileen O. Daday
Daily Herald Correspondent
Posted Thursday, June 14, 2007



James L. Payne ~ 1940-2007

Every year after football season ends at Leyden High School in Franklin Park, officials bestow a special honor on one player: the “Jim Payne Badge of Courage Award.”

They began the tradition in 1991, shortly after Assistant Football Coach James L. Payne had been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig's Disease.

In 1993, when Mr. Payne was no longer able to coach, the football team dedicated the season to him.

Mr. Payne passed away Monday. The 30-year Schaumburg resident had defeated the odds and lived 17 years after he was diagnosed. He was 66.

“There is no doubt that because he was such an outstanding athlete and he had this tremendous will to stay alive, that he lived that long,” said Jack Leese, former head football coach of East Leyden High School.

Mr. Payne grew up in Amboy, where he was a standout athlete in high school, lettering in football, basketball and baseball.

When he attended Carthage College in Kenosha, Wis., he set several records.

As a halfback for the Redmen, Mr. Payne played on a team that had a 19-game winning streak. During their run, Mr. Payne set the record for longest punt return — 88 yards — and average career yards from 1960-1963 by averaging 8.7 yards per carry.

He held the record for yards per season within the College Conference Illinois Wisconsin (CCIW) and was All-Conference, All-State and All-American while at Carthage.

Mr. Payne began his teaching career in Woodstock before accepting a position at East Leyden, where he taught physical education and coached freshmen football.

Within four years, he moved up to coach the backfield on the varsity team.

“Of the eight years he coached with me at the varsity level, we won six conference championships and one state championship in 1977,” Leese said. “There has to be a correlation.

“From the players’ and students’ viewpoints, he was the most popular coach we every had,” Leese added.

Mr. Payne also was well known in the Schaumburg community. For several years during the summer, he managed Atcher Community Pool, now known as Atcher Island Water Park.

Survivors include his wife of 46 years, Ruth Ann, as well as his son Kent (Sherry) of Burlington, and daughters Krista (Steve) Feldman of Pingree Grove and Angela (Adam) Gallien of Sugar Hill, GA, as well as five grandchildren.

Services for Mr. Payne will begin with a celebration of life at 5 p.m. today at Church of the Holy Spirit, 1451 Bode Rd. in Schaumburg, followed by a 7 p.m. funeral.

Firefighter's death raises concerns dies of ALS; Second death from ALS in city department has some questioning possible link to job

SCOTT DUNN
Local News - Tuesday, June 05, 2007 @ 08:00

Not long after Owen Sound firefighting Capt. Jim Blair retired, he found out he had Lou Gehrig's disease. It claimed his life Friday at age 59.

Blair is the second Owen Sound firefighter to die from Lou Gehrig's disease. Ronald Muzzell died in 1990 when he was 52.

"It's definitely a concern . . . It definitely raised some flags. And nobody really knows what causes Lou Gehrig's disease," said Dave Cruickshank, president of the Owen Sound Professional Firefighters' Association.

"We've looked to our professional organization, the Ontario Professional Firefighters' Association, and posed a question to them: How can we have two people with ALS in a department of 30 people?"

Blair was a firefighter with the Owen Sound Fire Department for more than 30 years.


His wife Nancy Blair said her husband loved being a firefighter and he passed his passion for emergency services to his son, who is an OPP detective, and daughter, who is a paramedic.

Blair retired in 2003. When his neurodegenerative disease, also called ALS, was diagnosed in 2005, Blair accepted it quietly.

"He didn't complain once and he went on with his life," his wife said Monday.

She said her husband came across as stern, but really he was soft-hearted. "He would do anything for anybody. He's kind and he is the most courageous man I have ever known."

Blair was a member of the Canadian Forces reserves and rose to the rank of lieutenant-colonel with the Grey and Simcoe Foresters in 1993.

Blair also volunteered with the Scenic City Order of Good Cheer, was on the Grey Granite Club board of directors and was involved with the campaign to raise $350,000 to put retractable seats in the OSCVI auditorium.

Former Owen Sound fire chief Gord Woods said Blair was too young to die.

He did his job well, but Woods wonders whether firefighting contributed to his illness.

Cruickshank said said Blair was well-liked and respected. "He fell into a leadership role right from the get-go."

The Ontario government announced last month a proposal to amend the Workplace Health and Safety Act that would allow the government to designate eight cancers and heart injuries which happen within 24 hours of fighting a fire which would be presumed to have been caused by firefighting. Workers' compensation coverage would be automatic in those cases if criteria were met.

Lou Gehrig's disease is not on the list.

Blair leaves his wife and their children, Maureen Blair and Jamie Blair Jr. and his wife Tracy and two grandchildren, Keegan and Chris.

A firefighter honour guard was to greet Blair's visitors Monday night at the Breckenridge-Ashcroft Funeral Home. The funeral service was to take place at 11 a.m. today. A fire truck will lead the procession from the funeral home to St. Mary's Cemetery

Jags lose devoted fan
Loses battle with ALS


By Vic Ketchman, jaguars.com senior editor
06/14/07



The Jaguars have lost one of their biggest fans with the passing of Rick Murray, a season ticket holder since the team’s inaugural season who developed a strong friendship with coach Tom Coughlin.

Murray lost a nine-year battle with Lou Gehrig’s Disease (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) when he passed away Wednesday evening at his home in Mandarin. He was relentless in his struggle to overcome the debilitating effects of the disease and his book, “Rick’s Reflections,” was recently released.

“You have accomplished more from the neck up than most of us have accomplished in a lifetime. You are an inspiration to all who know you and we look to you for wisdom and strength,” Coughlin wrote to Murray some years ago.

Coughlin had befriended Murray when the two met during an Ireland vacation in the summer of 2000. Coughlin was the Jaguars’ head coach at the time and the two maintained their friendship when Coughlin became the head coach of the New York Giants. Coughlin paid a special tribute to Murray at the coach’s Jay Fund golf tournament dinner this year. Murray’s home is littered with Coughlin memorabilia.

From his office at Giants Stadium on Thursday, Coughlin told jaguars.com: “We all have our own Hall of Fame; people who have touched our lives deeply and inspired us to live our lives more fully, to appreciate the precious gifts we’ve been given. Rick Murray sits in the front row of my Hall of Fame.”

Despite his affliction, Murray rarely missed a Jaguars home game. He attended practice during mini-camp in May and posed for a picture with the Jaguars’ wide receivers.

Joyce R. Salmon


Joyce R. Salmon, age 64, of Green Bay, passed away on Thursday morning, June 14, 2007, after a courageous fight with Lou Gehrig's disease.


Joyce was born on Aug. 19, 1942, in Manitowoc, a daughter of John and Elmira (Christianson) Huske. She attended the University of Chicago and then graduate school at the University of Denver. Joyce married Donald Salmon on Sept. 4, 1965, at Faith Lutheran Church, Valders. She was the editor of Mai Pen Ry Magazine for 20 years and retired as an administrative assistant at St. Norbert College.


Joyce is survived by her husband: Don; siblings: Wayne (Terry) Huske, Whitelaw; Gary (Linda) Huske, Nashua, N.H.; Charles (Martha) Huske, Karen Huske (John Seidl), Brown Deer; and John (Karen) Huske, Reedsville. She was preceded in death by her parents: John and Elmira Huske, and two sisters: Barbara Olsen and Janice Huske.


Visitation for Joyce will be held at Ryan Funeral Home, 305 N. 10th St., De Pere, on Friday (TODAY), June 15, 2007, from 5 until 7 p.m. Visitation will continue on Saturday, June 16, 2007, at Faith Lutheran Church, Valders, from 9:30 a.m. until the time of service.


Funeral services for Joyce will be held at 11 a.m. at Faith Lutheran Church with the Rev. Marsha Solberg officiating. Burial will be in West Cemetery, Valders.


Please visit www.ryanfh .com to send online condolences to the Salmon family.

Andrew Keller III, 51, battled ALS

By MILT KRUGMAN
Bucks County Courier Times

Andrew A. Keller III was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease in 2005 and he fought the illness on his terms.

His attitude was, “ "I'm going to battle it the way I want, and as long as I can. I'm going to do it my way,' ” said his sister, Connie Ejsmont of Langhorne.

She said her brother didn't want to get into a wheelchair until he had to. That happened last year.

“He was walking on crutches as long as he could, but finally on vacation in 2006 we got him a wheelchair, because it was easier for him to go from one place to another,” she said. “At first, he was a little apprehensive but grew to accept it. His wife, Kathleen, who is a nurse, after seeing how well he did on vacation, said, "Well, you are getting a wheelchair all the time now.' ”

It wasn't an electric wheelchair because he didn't want one. “ "As long as I work my arms and can push myself, that's what it will be, ' ” his sister recalled him saying.

Mr. Keller died May 27 of complications from the disease, formally called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or ALS. The incurable fatal disease affects the body's nerve cells.

He was 51 and had been living in Virginia for six years.

He was a 1973 graduate of Neshaminy High School. He was a former Parkland resident. Before his illness, he worked in the construction industry. He loved the outdoors and was an avid hunter and fisherman.

“This past Thanksgiving, he even went hunting with his brother at a private farm, and Andy was on a three-wheeler, and he loved it,” Ejsmont said. “I think right before that, he shot a deer. He looked so forward to going again, but it never came around.”


His brother, Timothy of Salisbury, Md., said, “It was the biggest deer he ever shot. It was a nine-pointer and weighed about 200 pounds. It was a long shot and he kind of crawled and hobbled to the deer — it was about 240 yards. I'll always think about Andy when I'm hunting.”

His sister said the Keller family went on summer vacations every year and remembers 20 years ago going to Ocean City, N.J.

“Andy was always the first one up in the morning, had a pot of coffee going, and he was off to the beach for some fishing as soon as the sun came up,” she said. “He just loved to fish, and when the sun went down, he would go back fishing on the beach. Andy always had the biggest and best equipment.”

One of his jobs he held when he was younger was a manager of a sporting goods department at Strawbridge's. “We always joked with him, and said he was his own best customer,” she added.

Mr. Keller was the oldest of five children — two girls and three boys,

“He was always a carefree spirit and moved to his own drum,” his sister said, “always working at different jobs and always upbeat.”