{"id":15857,"date":"2020-06-12T10:08:22","date_gmt":"2020-06-12T14:08:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=15857"},"modified":"2020-06-30T07:55:09","modified_gmt":"2020-06-30T11:55:09","slug":"coronavirus-memorial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2020\/06\/12\/coronavirus-memorial\/","title":{"rendered":"Those We\u2019ve Lost To Coronavirus: Danforth Co-Founder, ‘Jaws’ Actress, Artist David Driskell, Boston City Hall Designer"},"content":{"rendered":"

First published April 2, 2020. Last updated June 12, 2020.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is intended at a memorial tribute to people in our local cultural community whom we have lost to the coronavirus. Unfortunately, I expect the pandemic will require more names to be added. This list will probably not end up being comprehensive. But if you know of other arts people we\u2019ve lost to Covid-19, please send an email.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\n
\"Jack<\/a>
Jack Hoffman<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

June 2: Jack Hoffman, Authored Book About His Famous Brother Abbie, MA Campaign Manager For Shirley Chisholm<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jack Hoffman<\/a>, who died on June 2 from coronavirus, served as the Massachusetts campaign manager for Shirley Chisholm, when she became the first African American candidate for a major party\u2019s nomination for the U.S. presidency in 1972. But the 80-year-old Worcester native and longtime Framingham resident was best known as the younger brother of 1960s political activist and Yippies co-founder Abbie Hoffman.<\/p>\n

The international notoriety of his older brother cost business in Worcester for Jack Hoffman\u2019s medical supply manufacturing company. But he was remembered as always defending Abbie. Hoffman later promoted concerts in Worcester and Providence, wrote for an independent newspaper around Worcester, booked speaking engagements for Abbie, wrote a book \u201cRun Run Run\u201d about his brother\u2019s life, and set up shop in flea markets during the summer.<\/p>\n

Hoffman\u2019s wife, Joan, told the MetroWest Daily News<\/a> that he contracted coronavirus while a resident in a nursing home in Sudbury.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Kenneth<\/a>
Kenneth Alton Millette<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

May 27: Kenneth Alton Millette, Photo Editor At McCalls Magazine<\/strong><\/p>\n

Kenneth Alton Millette<\/a> of Sudbury, formerly of South Boston, died May 27 from complications of Covid-19, had been a photo editor At McCalls Magazine.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Lee<\/a>
Lee Ballantyne<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

May 23: Lee Ballantyne, Fantastic Baker And Cake Decorator<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lee Ballantyne<\/a>, who died at age 72 from coronovirus on May 23, is remembered by her family as<\/a> \u201can avid and fantastic baker and cake decorator; she also had quite the penchant for chocolate herself.\u201d She taught and learned about culinary arts while traveling Europe after her graduation from Ohio University in 1970. She then moved to the Boston area and taught home economics to high school students.<\/p>\n

\n
\"John<\/a>
John Lowell Thorndike<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

May 20: John Lowell Thorndike, Served On Search Committee That Brought Seiji Ozawa To Boston Symphony<\/strong><\/p>\n

John Lowell Thorndike<\/a> of Dover, who died from complications of coronavirus on May 20 at age 93, had served on the search committee that brought Seiji Ozawa to Boston to become the music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1973 to 2002. Thorndyke, an investment manager, was eventually made a life trustee of the orchestra after having served roles as a trustee, treasurer and vice president of the board over more than two decades. Thorndike served as a trustee of the Massachusetts Audubon Society. He also served for many years as a selectman, town moderator and cemetery commissioner in Dover. According to his family, \u201cHe was known to mix StrawberryQuik into his milk and would invite friends and family in for an occasional ‘nightcap,’ but he disliked lobster and all forms of potatoes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

May 19: Jean Lorraine Illsey, Gifted In Arts And Crafts<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jean Lorraine Illsey<\/a> of Tewksbury died May 19 at age 90 from complications of Alzheimer\u2019s and coronavirus. Her family remembers her for being \u201cvery gifted in arts and crafts, especially stenciling, knitting, painting, and doll making.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\"Georgia<\/a>
Georgia Litwack, “Self-Portrait,” c. 1990. (Collection Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

May 10: Georgia Litwack, Photographer Of Leading Women<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Many of these women spoke quite candidly of how hard they had to work to get into their field and be successful,” Georgia Litwack<\/a> of Newton told The Boston Globe about her photos of leading women\u2014artists, teachers, musicians, writers, community organizers, scientists and college presidents\u2014when they were exhibited at the Kniznick Gallery at Brandeis University Women’s Studies Research Center in 2003. “I wanted to give [younger] women an example of the work these women do, in medicine, science, and engineering. They’re daunting fields, and this might encourage women to put their toe in.”<\/p>\n

Litwack died May 10 at age 98 from complications of coronavirus. A Pittsburg native, during World War II, she worked for United Press International in Buffalo, where she met her future husband, a Bostonian assigned there. They settled in Newton, and she eventually pursued a graduate degree in photography at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, studying with Minor White. She founded the photography teaching program at deCordova Museum of Art School in Lincoln.<\/p>\n

Litwack\u2019s photos appeared in Life and Time magazines. In the 1983 book \u201cStory of a Premature Baby,\u201d her black-and-white photos documented how a baby, born 14 weeks early and weighing less than 2 pounds, was nursed to survival during a four-month stay at Children’s Hospital in Boston.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Priscilla<\/a>
Priscilla Parker Duval<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

May 7: Priscilla Parker Duval, Librarian For More Than 3 Decades<\/strong><\/p>\n

Priscilla Parker Duval<\/a> of Natick, who worked as a librarian at the Bacon Free Library in South Natick for more than 30 years, died May 7 at age 89 from coronavirus.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Sidney<\/a>
Sidney Forman<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

May 2: Sidney Forman, Performed In Barbershop Choruses<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sidney Forman<\/a> of Sharon, who died May 2 from coronavirus at age 95, is remembered by his family for \u201cperforming with various civic, religious, and barbershop choruses.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\"Beryl<\/a>
Beryl Burke<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

May 1: Beryl Burke, Analyst Who Played Violin, Made Toys<\/strong><\/p>\n

Beryl Burke<\/a> of Boston, who died from coronavirus on May 1 at age 79, spent 30 decades as accounts receivable analyst in the Controls and Statistics Department at the Boston Children’s Hospital. Her family remembers her as \u201can avid learner, she was an accomplished violinist, learned sign language and Braille, read voraciously, and created many toys and fixtures for children, friends, and co-workers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

April 28: Ron Hutson, Pulitizer Winning Globe Reporter Of Race Relations<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI want to go to high school, but I\u2019ll quit before I go to South Boston and get killed,\u201d Ernest Hurd, a Black 15-year-old living in the Columbia Point housing project, told Boston Globe reporter Ron Hutson for a June 1974 article about the safety of children who would be part of court-ordered busing to desegregate Boston schools. Hurd had been reassigned from English High School to South Boston High School. \u201cI don\u2019t see why they have to take me out of English. We (Blacks) fought damned hard for that school. There is going to be a lot of people ending up in the hospital. That\u2019s all I can say.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ron Hutson of Taunton, who died April 28 of coronavirus at age 72, worked on the Globe\u2019s coverage of Boston school desegregation that won the Pulitzer Prize for public service in 1975.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe wrote about the first Black family to live on a particular block in Dorchester’s Codman Hill neighborhood, the last White woman to keep her home on a section of Roxbury’s Julian Street, the racial tension between White and non-white families on South Boston’s Carson Beach, and a Pittsfield neighborhood where most of that city’s Black population had lived for more than a century,\u201d Bryan Marquand\u00a0wrote in The Boston Globe on May 8.<\/p>\n

Ronald Sylvester Hutson was born in New York City on Sept. 21, 1947, to parents of West Indian descent. The following year the family moved to Wall, New Jersey, the first Black family in what had been an all-White neighborhood. On June 11, 1948, their second night in their house, racists set a 12-foot-high cross ablaze on their lawn.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy only thoughts at the time were for the safety of my wife and 8-month-old son,\u201d Hutson\u2019s father Leroy, a radio engineer, told the Asbury Park Press at the time<\/a>. \u201cIt was a terrifying sight.\u201d<\/p>\n

After calling police, Leroy Hutson got an Asbury Park friend to come with his shotgun to defend the family\u2019s home. Through a work colleague, Leroy Hutson contacted the Long Branch chapter of the NAACP. \u201cNine carloads of men from the civil rights organization pulled up in front of the house with shotguns, pistols, knives and even pitchforks,\u201d the Asbury Park Press reported.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs far as I am concerned, the incident is closed,\u201d Leroy Hutson told a reporter the day after the attack. \u201cI have my home and I\u2019m going to remain here.\u201d The family went on to live there for at least two decades.<\/p>\n

His 8-month-old son Ron Hutson went on to study at Brown University, then reported for the Providence Journal, Cleveland\u2019s Call & Post, Cleveland Press and, beginning in 1974, the Globe as a general assignment reporter. Hutson was an editor on a Globe team series that won the 1984 Pulitzer for local investigative specialized reporting. At the Boston newspaper, he became an assistant metropolitan editor and night city editor and for a time served as the newspaper\u2019s recruiter.<\/p>\n

\u201cBack in the day, we didn’t really have diversity committees, and no one walked around making speeches about representation or equity,\u201d Globe columnist Adrian Walker wrote in the newspaper on May 11. \u201cWhat we had, instead, was a handful of committed people who had found a way in, and were determined to see others like them walk through that door. Hutson was at the front of that line.\u201d<\/p>\n

Later, Hutson co-anchored the 10 p.m. news on WGBH-TV, Channel 2, with Christopher Lydon; taught journalism at Suffolk University, and worked with a nonprofit agency.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Antonio<\/a>
Antonio Caparco<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

April 27: Antonio Caparco, Providence Orchestra Violinist<\/strong><\/p>\n

After service in World War II, Antonio Caparco<\/a> of Providence, who died April 27 at age 99 from coronavirus, spent his career as a glazer for Harold Glass Company. To family remembers, \u201cHis life was filled with music and he was the Principal Violinist for the Providence Civic Orchestra of Senior Citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\"Rob<\/a>
Rob Saunders<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

April 27: Rob Saunders, Bluegrass And Jazz Guitarist, Illustrator<\/strong><\/p>\n

While studying at the Rhode Island School of Design, Rob Saunders spent his junior year in Italy and it would change his life. After earning his BFA in 1973, he returned there for seven years, studing printmaking in Florence \u201cwhile supporting himself as a musician and busking his way around Europe,\u201d according to a memorial posted by Chesmore Funeral Home<\/a>. \u201cHe developed a passion for Italian culture, became a master of \u2018slow eating\u2019 and learned Italian, which he spoke for the rest of his life at every opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

After returning from Italy, Saunders settled in Brookline and in the early 1980s launched his own illustration and graphic design firm<\/a>, producing art for magazines and newspapers for 25 years. His style included a jaunty cartoony, watercolor look.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Angel Band\u2019s 1979 folk album \u201cAll the Good Times.\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And Saunders contined to pursue music. He sang and played guitar, mandolin and banjo on the Angel Band\u2019s 1979 folk album \u201cAll the Good Times.\u201d<\/a> He would go on to co-found the bands The Half Tones, Harmony Gritz and Sinti Rhythm. He \u201cplayed with friends any chance he could get, especially getting into the music of Django Reinhardt and gypsy jazz,\u201d Chesmore Funeral Home wrote.<\/p>\n