Jennifer Vattuone (30) passed away after a brave fight with Lou Gehrig's Disease
Published: Feb 15, 2007
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Jennifer Vattuone (30)

Date: Jan 18, 2007
Cause of Death: ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease)
Location: San Diego, CA
URL: go to their myspace


"As most of you already know, I've been going through some serious health issues since my car accident last year and was recently diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease."

Jennifer G. Vattuone, 30, of San Diego died Jan. 18. She was born in San Diego and was a child-care resource consultant for the YMCA.

Jenison, Tri-unity mourn loss of Visser
Saturday, February 17, 2007
By Steve Ungrey
The Grand Rapids Press


WALKER -- Adam Visser's presence at last year's Class D state championship game energized Tri-unity Christian as it won the school's third boys basketball title.

The Defenders fans chanted "It's for Adam" as the final buzzer sounded and the players gathered around Visser, an assistant coach who graduated from Tri-unity in 1989 and served as a coach at Jenison Junior High for 10 years.

Visser's presence has been missed in recent months as his health took a turn for the worse. Thursday night Visser lost his three-year battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's Disease) at age 35.


"It's been an emotional time for us," said Tri-unity Christian coach Mark Keeler, who was at school when Visser's death was announced to staff and students Friday morning. "Some of the kids were crying this morning. He's made an impact here."

Since Visser was diagnosed with ALS, he touched the lives of students at Tri-unity Christian and Jenison.

"It was a little tougher day around the school today," said Jenison junior high athletic director Kevin Van Duyn. "A lot of kids went over to say their goodbyes over the weekend. Our kids have learned a lot about life's struggles and how to overcome them. He was helping us a lot, and the community came together."

Family together to say goodbye

Visser was in a brief coma before emerging from it last week. He wanted the family together one last time and said his goodbyes shortly after midnight Thursday, and then slipped back into a coma.

He will not be forgotten.

A 3-on-3 roundball classic has been held the past few years to raise money for ALS research, and Van Duyn said that tournament would continue.

This year's event is scheduled for April.

Keeler said black wristbands will be worn for the remainder of the season to remember all that Visser meant to the Tri-unity athletic community.

Jared Mysliwiec and Matt Boersen, two returning players from last year, said it was tough to be at school Friday. They hoped to win their game that night in his memory. They did, beating Covenant Christian 58-41.

"It was nice to win one for him," Boersen said. "Here was someone who was going through a very hard time yet still maintained a strong faith, and he made our problems look trivial."

Added Mysliwiec: "Coming out of the locker room tonight, we dedicated this game to him. He was a big inspiration to us. He made us thank God that we were able to play still. He always put his two cents in on the basketball court when he coached us."

'Smiling Sandy' expressed enthusiasm, love for life

Sunday, February 18, 2007


By CHRISTINA MITCHELL
Courier-Post Staff

Everyone called Sandy DeSantis-Comito "Smiling Sandy."

She signed her name with a happy face. She was as open as a field of fresh snow and just as pure in her enthusiasm for life.

She was a hugger, says her husband of eight years, Tony. And she was a listener, someone who would ask a question of another person and wait earnestly for an answer. Sandy finessed that skill as a longtime addictions counselor with the Step-Up program in Camden County, where she saw possibilities in people who had long given up on themselves.

"With Sandy, it was all about meeting you," says Tony, of Laurel Springs. "It was about learning about you as a person. About asking the simple everyday things . . . . She was very genuine that way."

Joe O'Neill, a senior counselor with Step-Up, saw a dedication in Sandy that sometimes went beyond the call of duty.

"She was very dedicated," he says. "Very compassionate. . . . And she was very patient in counseling alcohol and drug addicts. She was a giver."

"Sandy was all about her family and her clients," adds Kathleen Dobbs, also a Step-Up colleague. That office still has a message from Sandy that says, "I will be on medical leave until further notice."

That leave was for ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease, which struck her randomly and suddenly last June and took her life Dec. 30. She was 58.

But Tony likes to emphasize that while his wife had the disease, it did not have her. Last September, the couple shocked their five children by taking a three-week, cross-country train trip. By the time they returned, Sandy had progressed from a walker to wheelchair. Still, she insisted on joining the conga line at her Camden High School reunion in November.

"She was not to be denied," says Tony, who had known Sandy for years before they married, each for the second time.

"She was living with ALS more than she was dying from it."

A fervent belief in God and personal experience with addiction were the major forces in Sandy's life. Combined, they altered lives. At her viewing, says Tony, mourners waited two-and-a-half hours in the rain to tell him Sandy stories.

"Everyone needed to tell me something about meeting her," he recalls. "There were many clients who had 20-year-old stories. . . . One man introduced himself as someone she had "lifted out of the gutter.' And his wife thanked me."

Among the wisdom Sandy imparted to the hopeless and Tony referenced in his eulogy: The good you do truly lives on. Keep believing in what you can't see. Laugh a laugh that's loud and unique and contagious. Use what you've got; it's more than you think.

And smile.

Contact Christina Mitchell at (856) 317-7905 or cmitchell@courierpostonline.com.


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Jan E. Burns, pushed leeward development

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Jan E. Burns




Jan E. Burns, a former Campbell Estate executive, died Feb. 3 of ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, in St. Louis. She was 57.

Burns worked for the estate for 20 years, moving up the ranks to become manager of special projects. She handled the land transactions that resulted in much of the development of 'Ewa, Makakilo and East Kapolei.

She helped found the 'Ewa Villages Non-Profit Development Corporation, formed to manage money designated for the historic preservation of plantation homes in 'Ewa Villages.

"She had Hawai'i at heart," said Emogene Martin, who worked with Burns on the preservation project as president of the Friends for 'Ewa. "In her own quiet way, she helped preserve 'Ewa's history as well as ensure 'Ewa's future."

"Her early work in 'Ewa and Makakilo helped make fee-simple homeownership a reality for thousands of people," said Steve MacMillan, the chairman and CEO of the James Campbell Co.

Burns ended her career at Campbell Estate when she became ill in 2002. Prior to her Campbell Estate work, Burns worked as a real estate appraiser with her father-in-law, Edward J. Burns. Jan Burns was a 1967 graduate of Kalani High School.

"She was an extraordinary woman who never stopped giving," said her daughter, Juliet Burns. "She is truly loved and deeply missed."

She is survived by her mother, Stella Natale; her daughter, Juliet; five stepchildren and six stepgrandchildren.

Services will be at 3 p.m. Saturday at St. Andrew's Cathedral in Honolulu. Flowers or donations to the Lanikuhonua Cultural Institute are welcome.

Ingrid Magnus Shomo

HARRISONBURG — Mrs. Ingrid Magnus Shomo, 62, passed away following a two-year battle with ALS on Saturday, Feb. 17, 2007 at her home surrounded by her loving family.

Ingrid was born May 22, 1944 in Dover, Delaware She was a member of Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Harrisonburg.


On Dec. 16, 1967 she married William P. Shomo of Harrisonburg.

She was a licensed clinical social worker and worked for Augusta Medical Center. She spent her life helping people.

Ingrid is survived by a sister, Sonja Exley of Newark, Del.; a brother, Eric Magnus of Rehoboth Beach, Del.; her husband of 39 years, Bill Shomo; three sons, Porter Shomo of Ashburn; Daniel Shomo of Falls Church and Hunter Shomo of Richmond; and a host of other loving relatives.

A Memorial Service will be held at Emmanuel Episcopal Church on Thursday, Feb. 22, 2007 at 11 a.m. There will be a reception at the church following the service. Private burial will be in Woodbine Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers the family requests donations be made in Ingrid's memory to either ALS Association of DC/MD/VA Chapter, 7507 Standish Place, Rockville, MD 20855 or Rockingham Memorial Hospice, 235 Cantrell Ave., Harrisonburg, VA 22801.

The Lindsey Harrisonburg Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements. E-mail condolences may be sent to lindseyfh@alderwoods.com.

Friends, family remember former economics instructor as teacher, role model

Katie Philp, wife of the late Roger Trenary, looks back at family members during Trenary's memorial service Saturday. Speakers at the memorial reflected on Trenary's life and the influence he had on many students and faculty members.


K-State president Jon Wefald fights back tears while talking about Roger Trenary. Wefald and Trenary were tennis partners and Wefald said Trenary would be remembered as one of the best instructors in K-State history.


Roger Trenary's wife, Katie Philp, and son, Ben, right, greet guests at Trenary's memorial Saturday afternoon in All Faiths Chapel. Trenary died Tuesday after a 3 1/2-year battle with Lou Gehrig's disease.


Mike Butler, Manhattan resident, remembered his close friend Trenary with humor in a memorial Saturday afternoon at All Faiths Chapel. Trenary, former economics instructor, died early Tuesday morning at age 60 after a 3 1/2-year battle with Lou Gehrig's disease.

Butler recalled a plane ride returning from a European vacation during which Trenary ate all of his purchased chocolates out of fear customs officials would make him discard them.

"This man truly loved chocolate," Butler said. "His idea of a nightcap was a cup of coffee and chocolate."

Five close friends and family members presented statements in Trenary's honor during the memorial. President Jon Wefald said he met Trenary during his first year at K-State in 1986. The two soon became close friends and frequently played tennis together. After Trenary's diagnosis, Wefald said Trenary never complained about his illness.

"How many people do you know who'd find out they had a serious affliction like Lou Gehrig's disease and not whine and complain?" Wefald said. "I know I speak for everyone here that we all love Roger, and we're all going to miss him."

During his 29-year teaching career, Trenary taught about 24,000 students in beginning and intermediate-level economics courses. Though such records are not kept, Wefald said Trenary might have taught the most students ever by an instructor at K-State. He continued teaching until fall 2005.

"When Roger retired from economics, he continued to teach all of us about life, strength and dignity," said Nancy Philp, Trenary's sister-in-law.

Trenary also taught his students how to think critically, a skill they will remember beyond economics, said Robert Shoop, professor of educational leadership and Trenary's close friend.

"I think our real challenge is to meet up to Roger's standards of what it means to be a great partner, parent and friend," Shoop said.

Trenary is survived by his wife, Katie Philp; son, Ben, senior in secondary education and his fiancée, Trisha Gott; twin brother, Robert; and his mother.

Upon hearing of Trenary's illness, former students helped raise a portion of the $600,000 endowment for the Trenary Chair in Economics. Lloyd Thomas, head of the Department of Economics, said the chair will be filled in fall 2008 with an instructor whose emphasis is on teaching and students.

"We will never find another Roger Trenary, but we will do our best," Thomas said. "Farewell, Roger, and congratulations on a life well-lived. We will never forget you and the contributions you made to the lives of students."

February 20. 2007 12:00AM


Barbara F. Michael, 65





Barbara Frances Hayes Michael, 65, of Hendersonville, died Saturday, Feb. 1, 2007, at Four Seasons Hospice after a long courageous fight with Lou Gehrig's Disease (ALS).

She was born on July 18, 1941, in Middlesboro, Ky., into a family of a loving mother and father and seven siblings. She had lived in Hendersonville since 2002.

She lived her life to its fullest as a devoted Christian, friend, encourager and wife. She was never a stranger to anyone and all who received her love and true friendship will miss her dearly.

She moved to Washington, D.C., in 1960 to obtain a degree in political science from George Washington University and enjoyed a career culminating as an executive assistant on Capitol Hill.

She is survived by her husband, Ron; sisters Vickie and Edith; brother Tommy; and many loving relatives.

A "Celebration of Life" service will be held 2 p.m. Friday at Jackson Funeral Service, 1101 Greenville Highway, Hendersonville, N.C. 28793. In lieu of flowers, monetary donations may be made in Barbara's name to Four Seasons Hospice and Palliative Care, 571 South Allen Road, Flat Rock, N.C. 28731.

Obituary North: Dr. Richard W. King / Dentist could identify some patients by only an X-ray
Thursday, February 22, 2007

By Alisha Hipwell

After more than three decades as a dentist, Dr. Richard W. King didn't need a name or a face to identify his longtime patients.

"He could look at an X-ray without a name and say, 'Oh, that's so and so,' " said his wife, Gwendolyn F. King.

Dr. King, of Hampton, practiced dentistry on Mount Royal Boulevard in the township for 34 years. He died Saturday of pneumonia, a complication of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. He was 63.

Diagnosed with ALS, better known as Lou Gehrig's disease, in January 2006, Dr. King initially experienced difficulty speaking. By March of that year, his hands were weakening and he was forced to close his practice.

Dr. King knew early that he wanted to be a dentist.

"He started being interested in dentistry when he had braces on his own teeth," his wife said.

He was raised in Shaler, graduated from the University of Pittsburgh School of Dentistry and enlisted in the Army Dental Corps. He served three years, including a year in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. In addition to treating soldiers, he gave dental hygiene instruction at local orphanages.

After his discharge, he opened his own practice here.

"He loved his work. ... He really liked the people," said Mrs. King, who described her husband as outgoing and friendly.

When he wasn't in his office, he loved to be outdoors. He enjoyed fishing, camping, running, biking and just about anything that kept him active.

In addition to his wife, Dr. King is survived by his parents, Joseph J. and Mary L. King, of Shaler; a son, Brian A. King, of Laurel, Md.; a daughter, Laura A. King, of Pittsburgh; and a brother, Joseph B. King, of Cleveland, Ohio.

A Mass was celebrated yesterday in St. Ursula Church in Hampton. Burial was in Christ Our Redeemer Cemetery in Ross.


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Pollen scientist was one of a kind
By Ned Rozell




February 23, 2007
Friday AM


Jim Anderson has died, and the world is a more boring place.

Anderson was 66. He suffered from ALS, Lou Gehrig's disease, for several years before his death. A few weeks ago, the disease killed him. I felt a pang of loss even though I spoke only a few times with the former librarian of the Biosciences Library at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.


Jim Anderson holds the leash of one of his Samoyed dogs at a Fairbanks dog show in 1993.
Photo courtesy Carol Haas.

I remember a man who dressed in colorful plaid jackets with wide lapels, someone who was a good interview because he knew his stuff so thoroughly. Until his death, I didn't know he lived alone in a cabin with two Samoyed dogs, 25 typewriters, hundreds of teddy bears, 700 sport coats, and that he had a collection of 12,000 books on his property.

"Sometimes I think people noticed only the eccentricities and the compulsions Jim had (such as collecting 7,000 neckties), and miss the value of that very compulsiveness," Karen Jensen wrote in an email. Jensen was Anderson's co-worker for a few years at the Biosciences Library.

One of those compulsions for Anderson was the study of a small airborne irritant that each spring makes life miserable for one in five northern people: pollen. For years, he sampled pollen with a mechanized air-sniffer on the roof of the Arctic Health building on the UAF campus. By being meticulous in counting the pollen grains trapped on the clear film of his samplers, Anderson came up with a pollen calendar for Fairbanks, and later Anchorage. His calendar shows that birch trees in both cities release the most pollen-up to 4,500 grains per square meter of air-from May 10 through the 20th.

Birch pollen grains are so small that eight of them could fit on a period. People's immune systems react to the protein coating, called exine. "EXINE" was also the word on the license plate of Anderson's van.

He climbed to the roof for his pollen counts every day in spring, and spent many hours looking through a microscope to see what species of pollen were stuck to his slides. He found that the concentration of pollen in the air was highest three days after birch leaves popped from buds.
"He loved that phenomenon, how predictable it was," said Dr. Tim Foote, a pediatrician and allergist at the Tanana Valley Clinic in Fairbanks. "Before Jim, nobody even had a name for what the pollen was (that irritated them). Everybody thought it was spruce pollen that was bugging them."

Anderson helped Foote, and his colleague Susan Harry, set up pollen counters at the clinic. Now, thanks to Anderson, they can alert patients to the worst pollen days.

"He championed a cause that very few clinicians or patients knew anything about," Foote said. "I loved him-he was the epitome of a scientific mind."

Beginning in 1974, Anderson also kept a 30-year record of the date of "greenup" in Fairbanks, when leaves emerged on a hill visible from the university.

"He was looking at the idea of whether he could look at global warming with the greenup data," said Carol Haas, who worked with him at the Biosciences Library.

Anderson grew up in Kennewick, Washington, and went to college at the University of Washington, Michigan State, and Brigham Young University before settling in Alaska in 1970. He found himself attracted to the solitude of the Goldstream Valley north of Fairbanks in 1974. He lived there most of his adult life.

"It's heaven out there," he once told journalist Tom Delaune.

Anderson, who left his books, typewriters, and other possessions to UAF, was different, Karen Jensen said, but that was his gift.

"The fact that he was a rather odd man is to me proof positive that this world really does need all kinds of people, and that while most of us fall comfortably into conformity, those who don't - like Jim - might have something really terrific to contribute."

John E. Heyning's research grew out of a passion for sea
The Hermosa Beach biologist and graduate of North High gained renown for his work with marine mammals. He died at the age of 50.
By Lee Peterson
Staff Writer

Whale and dolphin expert John E. Heyning, the noted marine mammal curator at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County known as much for his enthusiasm and wit as his scientific accomplishments, has died.

The South Bay resident was 50 years old, and had battled amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease, for the past 3½ years.



Despite his early demise, Heyning has long been an internationally recognized marine biologist. He spent his entire professional career at the museum, working tirelessly to expand the institution's research and outreach on cetaceans.

As leader of a stranded marine mammal scientific response team, he performed numerous necropsies to investigate the animals' deaths and built the second-largest collection of marine mammal specimens in the world.

He traveled the globe to lead expeditions for the museum and to conduct research. Along the way, he made many important findings, especially on beaked whales. He also teamed up with another scientist to discover that there are actually two species of common dolphin, the short-beaked and the long-beaked.

Born in San Jose on Jan. 6, 1957, he died Saturday at Little Company of Mary Hospital in Torrance.

A 1975 graduate of Torrance's North High School, Heyning was an avid surfer and scuba diver, drawn to the study of marine mammals because of his love of the ocean.

He started at the museum as a volunteer, becoming a collection manager, then curator, then in 1999 deputy director of research and collections.

In addition to his scientific research and publications, Heyning had a knack for explaining whales and dolphins to nonscientists. He actively reached out to the community, sharing his knowledge of and passion for cetaceans on whale watch trips, to scuba clubs, schools and elsewhere.

"He talked to kindergartners as well as he could talk to crusty old Ph.D.s. He could get down on his hands and knees and make a kindergartner understand thermal regulation," said his wife, Corinne Heyning.

Heyning, his wife and two children made their home in Hermosa Beach.

Alisa Schulman-Janiger, who first met Heyning in a marine biology class 28 years ago, said Heyning was a rising star of science by age 24, and his inspirational enthusiasm changed her life, making whales the focus of her own career.

Schulman-Janiger, a killer whale expert who teaches marine biology at San Pedro High School's marine science magnet and is director of the Gray Whale Census for the American Cetacean Society's Los Angeles chapter, said it wasn't just Heyning's scientific mind that served him so well.

He was an accomplished lecturer because of his infectious enthusiasm, lighting the passion for whales in many others, she said. It was also his sense of humor: "The first time I sat down and had a meal with him, I don't think I laughed so much, ever," she said.



At the museum he was known for his affable personality, exotic plants and Hawaiian shirts. After his promotion to deputy director in 1999, Fridays became "Hawaiian shirt day" at the museum.

Schulman-Janiger noted that Heyning was also a fine artist, working in sketches with charcoal and pencil, as well as sculpture. He also wrote poetry.

He was one of the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific's "trustees of the Pacific," and helped with the aquarium's recent "Whales: A Journey with Giants" presentation. He has consulted on exhibits at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, and has had a long association with the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium in San Pedro.

"He will be missed as a scientist, both as an extraordinary scientist who was using his knowledge to help conserve whales and he'll be missed because he was a great colleague who was very willing to share his knowledge," said Jerry Schubel, president and CEO of the Aquarium of the Pacific.

After his ALS diagnosis in October 2003, Heyning started researching the disease, and following up on his own ideas about its cause. Mrs. Heyning said that her husband, thinking that there was an infectious component to the malady, put himself on AIDS antiviral drugs, a move that preceded a noted ALS researcher's clinical trial on antiviral medications.

For all his personal and professional achievements, Heyning felt his most important role was as a father, which is why he fought the disease so hard.

"His family was the light of his life," Schulman-Janiger said.

In addition to his wife, Corinne, Heyning is survived by a daughter, Marlene; a son, Nico; his mother, Johanna Alving of Torrance; his father, John M. Heyning of Texas; a sister, Yvonne Gregory of South Carolina; a brother, Eric of Torrance; and a brother and sister in Australia, Laura and Marc Heyning.

A celebration of Heyning's life will be held at 3 p.m. Saturday in the North American Mammals Hall on the second floor of the Natural History Museum, 900 Exposition Blvd., Los Angeles.

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Thomas Cook, 87, of Caledonia died Saturday, February 17th, 2007. Memorials may be made to ALS - Lou Gehrig's Disease, ALS Association, PO Box 127, Elbridge, NY 13060.