Grace Bassett, reporter who chronicled urban legislation in Congress, dies at 93

Grace Bassett, a journalist who covered District affairs on Capitol Hill for The Washington Post and the old Washington Star, most notably chronicling passage of the constitutional amendment giving D.C. residents a voice in presidential elections, died June 8 at a nursing home in Annandale, Va. She was 93.

The cause was complications from dementia, said her friend and power of attorney, Robin Renner.

Ms. Bassett worked at The Post from 1953 to 1957 and won a Washington Newspaper Guild Award for her coverage of the District’s response to the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court ruling Brown v. Board outlawing racial segregation in public schools.

At the Star, where she spent about a decade, her beat was urban legislation in Congress. The American Political Science Association honored her for excellence in political reporting for the two years she spent following the campaign for the 23rd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Ratified in 1961, it authorized D.C. residents to choose electors in presidential elections.

Attribution:  Adam Bernstein, washingtonpost.com

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Joseph Volz - Journalist March 6, 1935 - May 23, 2020

Joseph Volz died Saturday, May 23, 2020, following a stroke complicated by diabetes; he was 85. He discovered his career as a journalist in high school while covering sports for the Newark daily newspaper. He'd like to say "I've shut down six newspapers," including the Washington Star.  In more than 30 years as an investigative journalist for the New York Daily News, Washington Star, Washington Daily News, and Newark News, Joe Volz covered everything from the police force to Watergate to the Pentagon. He ended his career as a columnist for the Copley News Service and the Frederick News-Post.  Joe was a Pulitzer Prize finalist with the New York Daily News for his reporting on military preparedness.  Joe was born in Newark, New Jersey on March 6, 1935. He graduated from Rutgers University. While awaiting his draft notice, he took a world tour visiting New Zealand, Australia, and Tahiti.

Attribution:Legacy.com
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Calvin Duffey Cramer - Printer April 29, 2020

LAKE WALES - Calvin Duffey Cramer of Lakeland, Fla., died April 29, 2020. He was 91.

Calvin was born in Washington, D.C., on June 26, 1928, the youngest of three boys (brothers Hugh H. Cramer 1920-1980 and Admiral Shannon Davenport Cramer, Jr. 1921-2012), to Shannon Davenport Cramer and Mary Eileen Hazen (née Duffey) Cramer.
He graduated in 1947 from Washington's Central High School, where he was class president and lettered in football, basketball and track.
After briefly attending Princeton University, Calvin returned to Washington and married his high school sweetheart, Carol Joanne Seaman in 1948. Starting as an apprentice, he worked in all aspects of the printing trade, including for Washington's Evening Star newspaper and in a small printing shop he ran with his best friend from high school. He played for the Union Printers basketball team in Washington's industrial leagues, and he and Carol were also youth leaders at St. Paul's United Methodist Church in Kensington, Md.
In 1963, Calvin took his printing skills to the U.S. Civil Service Commission. But dissatisfied with being a government bureaucrat, he made a leap of faith and took a job as director of Sky Lake United Methodist Church Camp in Windsor, N.Y., in 1970. For the next 20 years, he followed his passion for outdoor Christian education there and at other administrative positions in western and central Pennsylvania.

Attribution: legacy.com
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Peter Anthony Bozick, Sr. - White House Press Corp., February 24, 2020

Peter Anthony Bozick, Sr, age 94, died peacefully February 24, 2020 in Salisbury due to a fall the week before. He was an avid reader from an early age, largely self-taught, excelled in school and skipped two grade levels before high school. He graduated from Towson High School, while taking a night class at John Hopkins University. Being proficient in multiple languages, Pete enlisted during WWII and was placed into the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and trainedas a spy. He was captured by the Nazis in the former Yugoslavia and rescued shortly thereafter by British forces. He was awarded a Purple Heart and the Distinguished Flying Cross for his service.

After the war, he attended the University of Maryland, where he met his wife Marilyn Scuderi. Before he and Marilyn were formally introduced, Pete memorably told his friend that he would "marry this girl". They married in 1949 for 65 years until her passing in 2014. Pete began a journalism career with Washington Evening Star newspaper, worked his way to news editor and was a member of the White House Press Corp.

Attribution: Legacy.com
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Daniel Watkins Taylor - Gifted and Prodigious Writer and Photographer

Daniel Watkins Taylor, age 90, passed away on January 29, 2020, in Willow Street, Pennsylvania, where he resided for the past seven years. Born on July 3, 1929, in East Haven, Connecticut, he was the son of Robert Mitchell Taylor, MD, and Margaret Lyles Watkins Taylor. Daniel had a brother, Robert Mitchell Taylor II, late of Branford, Connecticut.

Daniel attended the Choate School, in the class of 1947, and went on to study English at Washington and Lee University, graduating in 1952. After college, he became a Lieutenant Junior Grade in the United States Navy, serving on the USS Delta and the USNS General John Pope during the Korean War. He was released from active duty in 1954.

A gifted and prodigious writer and photographer, Daniel began his career as a reporter on several newspapers from 1954-1959: The Times Herald Middletown, NY), the Hartford Courant (CT), and the Washington Evening Star (DC). He turned to public relations in 1959, when he began working for the Federal government in Washington, DC, as a public information consultant for the President's Committee on Scientists and Engineers (National Academy of Sciences), and then the Public Information Branch of the National Science Foundation, where his work included speech writing for the Director.

Attribution: lancasteronline.com
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Banjos & Bibles: Arnold Taylor '51 Led a Colorful and Generous Life

Rev. Arnold G. Taylor ’51 spent four years on Pacific University’s campus, but he seemed to be present for much longer, even as his life took him to distant places and new callings.

Taylor, who died this spring at the age of 93, led a rich and interesting life before and after leaving Pacific. And throughout his life, he demonstrated his loyalty to his friends, to his ideals and to the university.

Before enrolling at Pacific, he was drafted into the Army in Providence, R.I., in August 1943, when he turned 18.

"What I had hoped for was to be an aviator. However, a quirk in my color perception disqualified me for that dream job,” he wrote in A Military History Narrative of Arnold Godfrey Taylor, a copy of which is in an office in Marsh Hall. “I asked if I could jump into the fight. One look at me and they laughed. I was a skinny kid, weighing only 120 lbs. One thought that if I were to jump out in a prevailing eastward wind that I would float into Berlin before anyone else — unless the parachute was weighted down with cannonballs, which may make for a loud landing and attract attention.”

Attribution: Mike Francis, www.pacificu.edu
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