Category: 1960s

Emerson D. Moran, Jr., age 81, passed away peacefully on Sunday, February 9, 2025. Emerson was born on November 21, 1943, in Brooklyn, NY to the late Emerson Daniel and Carolyn Mae (Wilder) Moran.

Emerson attended Palmetto High School in southern Florida where he excelled in English and Writing. The founding editor of the Palmetto Panther Newspaper, he was named the Miami-Dade County’s 1960 Top High School Journalist by Miami Herald. Emerson earned his bachelor’s degree at Medill. While in college, Emerson was a summer intern at the press office of NASA in Washington, D.C. kicking off an extensive career in journalism and communications.

Emerson was an investigative news reporter for the Gannett Newspapers, headquartered in Rochester, NY specializing in governmental misadministration, public corruption and organized crime. He won the 1970 NYS Associated Press award for public service for a series he wrote on corruption. He joined the NYS Organized Crime Task Force in 1971 as the Communications Chief and Criminal Intelligence Analyst. While doing this work, Emerson worked on many issues most notably investigating the Attica Prison Riots in 1971. The expertise gained here led Emerson to another communications position with the Philadelphia Special Investigations Commission. Here, he directed internal/external communications regarding the police department’s attack on the anarchist group MOVE. Emerson’s career didn’t slow. He moved into a position as the Chief Speechwriter and Deputy Director of Communications under Gov. Robert Casey in Pennsylvania.

Using his experience as a recovering alcoholic and member of Alcoholics Anonymous, he was assigned by Gov. Casey to create the state’s first coordinated initiative to address alcohol, drug and HIV/AIDS threats to the public’s health (PENNFREE)-the forerunner of the current state Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs. Emerson served as the Senior Policy Advisor for these initiatives.

Emerson joined the American Medical Association as the Vice President of Advocacy Communications, Chief Speechwriter and Director of Issues Management. In this role, he was responsible for leadership messages and issue advocacy, congressional relations, and all crisis communication. Emerson’s career continued to flourish as a freelance writer writing essays and speeches for clients such as the CEOs of Walt Disney World, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the American Hospital Association, and he also served as the on-site speaker prep at the 2008 Democratic National Convention.

He was the recipient of the grand prize 2011 National Cicero/Vital Speeches of the Day Award for the Best Speech of the Year for his speech “Changing the Norms of Medicine and Health: The Power of Positive Deviance”. He was a Pulitzer nominee for Breaking News, a winner of the Associated Press Community Service award, and author of America’s Best Magazine Article of the Year.

Emerson was a consultant on the documentary “West Philly Is Burning” for PBS’s Frontline, and an assistant producer for NBC American Almanac report on racial and political unrest in U.S. Virgin Islands. Emerson loved educating young minds. One of his proudest moments was delivering a speech to Benjamin Hall middle schoolers where he spoke of his experience at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963. Emerson uplifted the audience with his recollection of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech (https://www.youtube.com/live/g0WkMUWGrJ0 ).

Outside of his work, Ezzy was devoted to his family. He was the primary caretaker of his mother. When his beloved wife, Patricia, was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, he became her primary caretaker until her passing in 2013. He was an active member of the Nativity Lutheran Church in Palm Beach where he served in many church activities and an alter server.

Emerson was a very involved member of AA for 40+ years playing a crucial role in shaping the lives of those he helped-as AA played a crucial role in who Emerson was as a person. Ezzy adored his Clifton Park (NY) family, loved Chicago, was a forever cheerleader of the Chicago Bears and Northwestern Wildcats and spent his life “moving words around”. He was a loving and proud father and grandfather, an amazing friend and confidante, and a humble follower of the Lord.

Emerson is predeceased by his parents, wife (Patricia) and his grandson, Ethan Moran. He is survived by his brother Michael (Lynn) and sister Patricia McPhail; children David (Elizabeth), Daniel, and Patrick (Buffy); grandchildren Devan, Emily, Jessika, Sarah, Mari, Grace, and Samuel; great grandchildren Sophia, Alina, Ella and Preston; and nieces and nephews.
The family invites friends and family to celebrate Emerson’s life and legacy on Saturday, June 7, 2025 at 10 a.m. at the Burnt Hills Baptist Church.
https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/name/emerson-moran-obituary?id=57559247

Once in a lifetime. One of a kind. There was no one like her. Marcia Hill Smith of Santa Fe, NM, 83, passed away July 3, 2024 after a long battle with Alzheimer’s Disease. She is survived by her husband Herb, son Greg (Lauren McMahon), daughter Ashley Baptiste (Gus Calabrese) and her four loving grandchildren Coleston, Cameron, Elaine, and Brett.

Marcia was born in Saint Louis, MO in 1941 to Irma and Homer Hill of Normandy, MO. She graduated from high school there and attended Northwestern University where she earned a degree in journalism and met her husband of 59 years, Herb Smith.

Marcia and Herb lived on Chicago’s Gold Coast until settling a short time later in Saint Louis area, where Marcia opened her interior design firm, Marcia Smith Designs, Inc., had her children, and moved the family to suburban Clayton, MO. A few years later she moved her design firm to Laclede’s Landing, and later to Ladue, MO where she started Virtuoso, a table-top shop of one-of-a-kind décor for the dining table. She was active for many years in the National Association of Women Business Owners at both the local and national level.
In the mid-1980’s she and Herb built a unique contemporary Bauhaus-inspired home on Lindell Boulevard where they lived until 2003, then enjoyed apartment living in the city’s Central West End before moving permanently to their vacation residence in Santa Fe.

Marcia was inspired by the natural beauty and art scene of Santa Fe.
She dressed to the nines and wore wonderful hats almost every day.
When music, art, design, and dance touched her soul, she shared them with the people in her world. She dedicated herself to bring inspiring design into peoples’ lives every day. Her home and commercial designs focused on being true to yourself and focusing on today. She loved to dance, visit art galleries and museums, and listen to jazz and classical music.

She wrote her own rules and stuck by them with conviction. Manners mattered to her. She was gracious and treated you the way she wanted to be treated. She was bold, and she challenged people around her to be bold, and her lifelong friends were her biggest cheerleaders.

https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/santafenewmexican/name/marcia-smith-obituary?id=55636357

Owen Yost, 77, passed away at his home in Denton, Texas on July 17th.

Born January 1945 he spent his childhood near Chicago, in Kenilworth Illinois. He attended New Trier High School in Winnetka, Illinois and attended college at University of Missouri (Bachelor of Journalism ’67), Northwestern University (Master of Journalism ’68), and University of Texas Arlington (Master of Landscape Architecture ’82) and served in the U.S. Army.

The son of Llyod Morgan Yost and Winogene Springer, and brother to Elyn Mulder, Karyl Thorsen, Chari Binstadt. Owen leaves behind his beloved partner Nancy Collins, his son Creighton Yost, and grandchildren Carson Yost, Asher Yost, Collin Whisenhunt, Lauren Whisenhunt, and their families.

A lifelong athlete, he played baseball and football as a child and was well known for his swimming, setting records in high school and winning medals at the Texas Senior Games. He was a regular at the Texas Woman’s University pool and gym and deeply enjoyed the kindness and comradery of his TWU swimming friends and the University staff.  

He enjoyed nature in its natural wild state throughout his life. A favorite memory was his canoe trips with friends in college to boundary lakes in Canada for fishing and exploring. Always interested in geography and vocabulary he was quick to share what he learned about scientific names of trees and birds and worked throughout his life to conserve natural spaces to ensure their future.

An accomplished writer, writing advertising copy in Chicago in his early years, and later an accomplished landscape architect, guest lecturing at University of North Texas, writing a landscaping column for the Denton Record-Chronical newspaper, and working for Denton as a city planner. He designed the landscape for many Denton street plantings, and the Benny Simpson Garden on the TWU campus, leaving his lasting mark on his community.

To plant Memorial Trees in memory of George Owen Yost, please click here to visit our Sympathy Store.

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Gail Petersen Harwell, 81, passed away peacefully on Tuesday, April 26, 2022, at RiverView Care Center in Crookston, where she had been a resident since October of 2021.

She was born October 7, 1940, to Norma and Jerry Petersen at Minette’s Maternity Home in Fertile, where she also attended school, first grade through 12th. From early years, she had a curiosity for the world and would stand on the front porch and say, “Just wait for me world, I’ll get there.”

To achieve that goal, Gail was a determined high achiever in high school, which led to a full scholarship at Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism. After earning her Bachelor of Science in 1962, she launched a career as an advertising writer in Chicago. She was named a Vice President of J. Walter Thompson Company-Chicago in 1969, where she worked primarily in television, writing for such accounts as Sears dishwashers, Kraft Foods, Sunbeam, and Jovan fragrances. In 1977, she moved to Boston and Arnold & Company; in 1979 to Manhattan and JWT New York; in 1983 to Los Angeles and Evans Advertising; and in 1993 to Marin County in the Bay Area.

Gail met her husband Richard Sterling Harwell in 1971 at Great Lakes, IL, at the end of a sailing race. They were separated by geography and circumstances, but fate brought them together again 20 years later, and they were married in 1993 at Concordia Lutheran Church in Fertile.

In 1995, Gail changed careers, becoming an independent editorial consultant in the engineering-construction field. She often worked alongside Sterling; writing, editing, formatting, and producing proposals, feasibility studies, and marketing materials for multibillion-dollar construction projects. She worked in Asia, Europe, Australia, and Central America, as well as across the U.S., continuing until her final retirement at the age of 73. From that time, Gail and Sterling enjoyed a life of tennis, travel, volunteering, and relaxation overlooking San Francisco Bay. They were members of the Belvedere Tennis Club and the San Francisco Yacht Club. Gail was an avid reader, and she belonged to a local book club for 10 years.

Friends will remember her for her meticulous planning and orchestration of many wonderful birthday parties, club gatherings and class reunions.

Both Gail and Sterling will be remembered by family for initiating and maintaining the “Petersen-Harwell Perpetual Ping Pong Tournament,” complete with engraved trophy. Gail made sure the results with photos were posted in the Fertile Journal.

Family and friends recall her kindness, generosity, acute sense of humor, infectious laugh, courage, and fierce determination. She had a certain “twinkle in her eyes,” and she will be dearly missed by all who knew and loved her.

Gail was preceded in death by her husband, R. Sterling Harwell, by her older sister, and best friend, Marlys Ozga, and by an infant nephew. She is survived by brothers, Harold (Candy) of Brookline, MA, and Michael (Carol) of Fertile, and brother-in-law, Edward Ozga of Plymouth, MN, nine nieces and nephews, a host of grandnieces and grandnephews, and one great-grandniece.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to Parkinson’s disease research or Hospice of the Red River Valley.

Source: Eriksen-Vik-Ganje Funeral Homes