Stories indexed with the term ‘obituary’

A2: Karl Pohrt

An obituary in Publishers Weekly marks the passing of Karl Pohrt, who founded and ran the Shaman Drum Bookshop in Ann Arbor for nearly three decades before closing it in 2009. Pohrt, 65, died on July 10 from anaplastic thyroid cancer. Deb Leonard, executive director of the Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Association, described Pohrt as “the godfather of bookselling in Ann Arbor and Michigan. He’s already missed.” A memorial service will be held Sunday, July 14 at 2 p.m. at the Episcopal Church of the Incarnation, 3257 Lohr Road in Ann Arbor. Donations can be made to the church or to the Children’s Literacy Network. [Source]

UM: Bryan Rogers

Bryan Rogers, who served as dean of the University of Michigan Stamps School of Art & Design from 2000 to 2012, died on May 28 after a lengthy illness. A post on the school’s website quotes current dean Guna Nadarajan: “For those who worked closely with Bryan, he is remembered most for his wry and often wicked sense of humor, his grace and devoted friendship, his love of music and reading, and the many acts of kindness that he performed without an expectation of thanks or recognition.” [Source]

Remembering Art Gallagher

A few weeks ago, we received an email from Jean Wilkins, saying that her father, Art Gallagher, was having a problem reading The Chronicle on his computer – it appeared to be a technical issue with the web browser he was using, which made it impossible to read the center column on his screen.

I hadn’t seen Art in more than two years, so when I got Jean’s email, I thought it was a great excuse to go out to his Glacier Hills home for a visit, and see what I could do to solve the computer issue while I was there. I also wanted to ask him what he thought about the state of journalism these days, and about our publication, and so many other things. But I’m ashamed to say I never acted on this intent. There always seemed to be other things crowding my schedule and clamoring for attention. I thought it could wait – I thought I had time. What I have now is simply deep regret.

Art Gallagher died on Monday. He was 99.

I told Art once that I wished I’d had the opportunity to work for him. He was the editor of The Ann Arbor News longer than any other in the newspaper’s 174-year history – 22 years. But he retired in 1976, a full two decades before I was hired there. I got to know him several years after that, when I became opinion editor of The News in 2006. [Full Story]