People Who Died 2014 — Part 3

See Also: People Who Died — Part 1  |  People Who Died — Part 2

Editorial cartoonist

Tony Auth

Tony Auth, who loved all things nautical, seemed to possess an inborn compass that steadfastly pointed to Liberal True North. With his cartoons, published daily and Sunday for four decades in the Inquirer, Auth was unerring with his quick thrusts of the pen into the heart of political buffoonery, hypocrisy and double-talk. Just as important, he could always be counted on to come down on the side of the little guy. When Auth died on Sept. 14 at age 72, his friend and fellow cartoonist Jules Feiffer, said of him: “His ideas came out of his own attitudes and politics, and his great humanity and compassion.” Auth threw his thunderbolts from a sixth-floor corner office in the old Inquirer building where he reigned over a drawing table, cups filled with drawing pens and bottles of black ink. After drawing a sketch, he would often walk around the newsroom and show it to colleagues, seeking their reaction and enjoying the chuckle that usually followed. He was honored with every important prize an editorial cartoonist could claim — the Pulitzer, Thomas Nast, Herblock and five Overseas Press Club awards. In 2012, he left the Inquirer for a new role as a digital artist for WHYY’s NewsWorks.org. “Irony was his meat and potatoes,” Feiffer said of Auth’s body of work. The colleague I knew delivered his wry humor with a side of mischief and a gleam in his eye that signaled a bighearted fellow who played at the top of his game.

—Lillian Swanson

Basketball star

Tom Gola

When Tom Gola was tearing up and down the basketball court in Philadelphia in the 1950s, he was such a sensation that even Wilt Chamberlain, then an Overbrook schoolboy, revered him. “When I was growing up, you whispered the name Tom Gola,” Chamberlain said later. “He was like a saint.” Gola, the son of a Philly cop, learned to play the game in the parish gym at Our Lord of Incarnation near the Olney row home where he grew up. As a freshman on La Salle University’s men’s team, he led the Explorers to the National Invitational Title championship in 1952. Two years later, the Explorers won the NCAA crown, and he was tournament MVP. His 2,201 career rebounds still stand as a Division I record. After college, Gola played in the NBA for 10 seasons, first for the former Philadelphia Warriors and then for the New York Knicks. Among his many trophies were these: 1954 College Basketball Player of the Year, four-time college all-American, five-time NBA All-Star and a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame. Gola coached at La Salle for two seasons and went on to a career in politics, where he was elected a state representative from Northeast Philly and city controller, but he failed in a bid for mayor. Gerald Eskenazi, former sports writer for the New York Times, wrote of Gola’s versatility on the court: “Essentially, he could do whatever was needed. Make soaring hook shots with his back to the basket as a center; make one-handed set shots; steal the ball as a clever defender.” In short, he could do it all. Gola died Jan. 26 at age 81.

—Lillian Swanson

 

Penn Student Suicides

Penn students have had a difficult past 16 months, with six apparent student suicides since summer 2013. The deaths sparked a conversation about the university’s response and access to mental-health care on campus. Penn’s college paper found that students often had to wait nearly a month to get a first appointment with a psychiatrist. Countless think pieces drew broad conclusions about millennials, contrasting the ideal of the effortless Ivy League student with the stress of trying to maintain that perfect image in a notoriously competitive culture. But analysis of the exact reasons is beside the point. Depression’s a bitch. It’s OK to not be OK, and to ask for help. Penn’s newish student mental health task force hopefully will normalize these ideas for incoming classes.

—Emily Guendelsberger

 

Hockey coach

Pat Quinn

After his playing days were cut short due to injury, Ontario-born Pat Quinn became one of the most loved and respected coaches in hockey. Quinn, who died Nov. 23 at age 71, coached Team Canada to an Olympic gold medal and a World Cup in the middle of an NHL career that put him behind the bench in Philly, L.A., Vancouver, Toronto and Edmonton. He and the 1979-1980 Flyers steamrolled the league on a 35-game unbeaten streak (still a North American pro-sports record). Quinn and the Flyers might have won the Cup that year were it not for unforgivably terrible officiating in the finals. Never forget.

—Patrick Rapa

 

Stunt rider

Kyrell Tyler/Dirt Bike Rell

The hugely popular stunt rider Dirt Bike Rell, aka Kyrell Tyler, had tens of thousands of people following his videos on Instagram and Vine, documenting his insane Cirque du Soleil-esque wheelie stunts performed mostly on a backdrop of Philly streets. After Tyler, 23, was found shot to death in Southwest Philly on Oct. 14, his pages exploded with mourners posting #RIP and #stoptheviolence hashtags. His funeral on Oct. 21 was followed by a tribute more noticeable to those outside the bike community, as hundreds of mourners on dirt bikes and ATVs caravaned around the city revving and popping memorial wheelies for hours. “He was the king in Philly, king of Philly dirt bikes. Everyone loved him. He’d love this right now. He’d love this,” a friend told Fox 29 at the time. A new Instagram page, @justice4dirtbikerell, continues to post his old stunt videos and photos; his murder remains unsolved.

—Emily Guendelsberger

 

Activist

Grayce Uyehara

During World War II, about 80,000 Americans of Japanese descent were confined to internment camps, causing many internees to lose their jobs, homes and savings. Nearly half a century later, the U.S. government finally apologized and paid reparations to those whose lives had been upended. The driving force behind the apology was a retired Philadelphia social worker, Grayce Uyehara, who died June 22 at age 94. During the war, she had to leave college and live at a prison in rural Arkansas. Afterward, she and her husband, who was also at the camp, moved to Philadelphia and became involved with the Japanese American Citizens League. Uyehara was more of a behind-the-scenes player than a public figure, but she was an enormous factor in getting the government to belatedly agree that internment was both unconstitutional and wrong.

—Emily Guendelsberger

Sculptor

Dina Wind

Philadelphia’s trash was Dina Wind’s treasure. The sculptor, 76, died Sept. 9, leaving a legacy of creating art out of scrap metal and other discarded items. “Our environment can be enhanced and saved from decay and destitution through different efforts,” she said in her artist’s statement. She was a dual citizen of Israel and the U.S., and her work is on permanent display in the Woodmere Art Museum. Ever heard of the Wind Challenge at the Fleisher Art Memorial? In 2005, she and her
husband underwrote the program, saving its future as an annual juried art show of outstanding local creators. Artists much like her.

—Mikala Jamison

 

Ad exec

Beryl Wolk

Ad innovator Beryl J. Wolk, who died at age 85 on Aug. 24, helped introduce what has become a staple in the newspaper industry — advertising inserts. His national clients included the Big 3 automakers along with fast-food giants McDonald’s and Burger King. We also have him to thank for the concept of the weirdly addictive-to-watch 30-minute infomercial. It’s no surprise, then, that Wolk also helped launch QVC and HSN, along with BET and the Discovery Channel. Essentially, whenver you shop on TV, watch hilarious infomercial clips on YouTube or clip a coupon out of the paper, tip your hat to this visionary ad exec.

—Mikala Jamison

See Also: People Who Died — Part 1  |  People Who Died — Part 2