Philadelphia is a happening place. No, I’m not referring to the winning sports teams or the great restaurants. I’m talking about the economy. For the first time in generations, Philadelphia’s economy is among the nation’s strongest.
Among the 25 largest metropolitan areas in the country with populations of more than 3 million, Philly enjoyed the strongest job growth last year. Soak that in for a second. Our hometown’s economy grew faster than those of high-flying cities such as Atlanta, Dallas, Denver, and Phoenix.
To be transparent, Philadelphia’s economy looks good, in part, because the nation’s economy is struggling to create jobs. Since so-called Liberation Day in April, when President Donald Trump announced massive tariffs on all our trading partners, many nervous businesses stopped hiring, and job growth has come to a standstill.
Some industries are actually suffering serious job losses, especially those on the front lines of the global trade war, including manufacturing, agriculture, transportation, and distribution. These are big industries in many parts of the South and Midwest, but not in Philadelphia.
Federal government jobs have also been hit hard by the Trump administration’s workforce cuts, which began soon after he took office a year ago. Of course, the broader Washington, D.C., area has struggled with these job losses. These positions were also important to many communities across the country, but less so in Philadelphia.
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Eds and meds
In fact, Philadelphia’s economy is fortunate to be powered by education and healthcare — eds and meds — the only industries consistently adding to payrolls nationwide. The largest employers in the region are world-class institutions of higher education and healthcare providers, including the University of Pennsylvania, Thomas Jefferson University, the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and Temple University.
Employers in eds and meds are especially attractive, as demand for the services they provide is fueled by the insatiable need for highly educated workers in the age of artificial intelligence, and the inexorable aging of the population. Baby boomers have aged into their 60s and 70s and will require high-quality healthcare for years to come. And since healthcare is largely delivered in person, it is less vulnerable to losing jobs to AI.
These large institutions employ workers of all skill levels. There are highly trained physicians, nurses, and researchers, as well as middle-skilled technicians and administrators, and lesser-skilled maintenance workers. An entire economy can be built on eds and meds, and that’s Philadelphia.
The Philadelphia region also has the good fortune of being home to successful companies across a diverse range of industries. Examples include the media giant Comcast, the financial services powerhouse Vanguard, the global software company SAP, and the technology giant Siemens.
Cost of living
It isn’t cheap to live and work in Philadelphia, but it is highly affordable when compared to neighboring New York and D.C. For example, the typical-priced home in Philadelphia costs about $400,000, which is almost four times the typical household income. In D.C., houses typically cost close to $600,000, or 5.5 times income, and New York house prices exceed $1 million, or 10 times income.
I could go on, but I’m beginning to sound like a Chamber of Commerce, and Philadelphia certainly has big challenges. The nation’s universities and research centers are facing large budget cuts and heightened federal scrutiny. This is a huge shift from the financial largess from D.C. they’ve come to rely on.
Challenges and what’s ahead
Poverty and all the attendant social ills, like crime and drug use, are also long-standing problems in the city. Although the poverty rate has dipped a bit recently, close to one-fifth of the city’s residents live below the poverty line, a disturbing stat. Of the nation’s big cities, only Houston has a higher rate.
The high poverty rate is the result of a complicated brew of factors, but the severe shortage of rental housing for lower- and middle-income residents is one of them. Putting up more homes is a priority for the city’s mayor, and with good reason.
The city’s high wage tax remains a barrier to even stronger growth. It is encouraging that it has declined since peaking more than 40 years ago, but it remains prohibitively high, hindering the city’s efforts to attract workers back into its office towers. The lower-taxed suburban Pennsylvania counties are the key beneficiaries.
It won’t be easy for Philadelphia to consistently remain among the nation’s best-performing economies. We need to support our institutions of higher education and healthcare, work to address poverty, and make it more affordable to live and work here. If we do, we have a good chance of always being in the mix. Kind of like our Eagles.
Jefferson Health is boosting emergency department capacity at Abington Hospital to enable it to receive 100,000 visits annually, up from 80,000 now, the nonprofit health system said Tuesday.
The department, which is also a Level II trauma center, will be named the Goodman Emergency Trauma Center in honor of an unspecified donation from Montgomery County residents Bruce and Judi Goodman. Bruce Goodman is a commercial real estate developer and a longtime Abington board member, Jefferson said.
Jefferson, which acquired Abington in 2015, described the Goodman gift as the cornerstone of a $30 million ongoing fundraising campaign for the hospital’s emergency department.
The project will reconfigure more than 24,000 square feet of existing clinical space and reallocate 10,000 additional square feetfrom a courtyard and a gift shop to the ED to expand capacity from 80 to 116 treatment spaces, Jefferson said.
Also last year, Jefferson announced $19 million in upgrades to the emergency department at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Center City. The system also added a 20-bed observation unit in the ED at Jefferson Einstein Philadelphia.
Competition at Philadelphia-area medical schools intensified in 2025, with programs seeing about 50 applicants for every open spot.
That’s the highest demand since 2022, with the number of applications bouncing back after a three-year decline, recently released data from the Association of American Medical Colleges(AAMC) shows.
The annual report offers a look at the composition of the nation’s future doctors through the demographics of the applicants and enrollees at M.D. degree-granting medical schools across the United States and Canada.
It showed increased class sizes and strong female enrollment across the Philadelphia area’s five M.D. degree-granting schools: University of Pennsylvania, Thomas Jefferson University, Temple University, Drexel University, and Cooper Medical School of Rowan University.
And the fraction of first-year medical students from Pennsylvania who identified as Black or African American, excluding the mixed-race student population, fell from 6.9% to 5.4% between 2023 and 2025.
The racial demographics of entering studentsare seeing increased scrutiny in light of the 2023 Supreme Court decision that effectively ended affirmative action, barring race from being used in higher education admissions.
The percentage of first-year medical students from Pennsylvania who are Black is lower this year than the national average. Pennsylvania also lags behind the national average for first-year enrollment of Hispanic or Latino medical students.
This data reflects the results of the application cycle that concluded last spring. Next year’s prospective medical school students are currently in the thick of admissions season, awaiting interviews and offers.
Here’s a look at the key trends we’re seeing:
Applications back up
Demand for spots at Philadelphia area-medical schools is back up after a three-year decline. There were nearly 5,000 more applications last cycle, a 9.3% increase, with all schools except Cooper seeing a boost.
Jefferson’s Sidney Kimmel Medical College helped drive growth the most, with a 16% increase in applications compared to the previous year.
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More medical students being trained
Orientation icebreakers might take a bit longer to get through at area-medical schools as first-year classes continue to get bigger.
In 2025, Philadelphia-area schools enrolled 1,089new medical students, compared to 991 in 2017. Drexel University College of Medicine contributed to half of that growth, adding 49 seats to its recent entering class compared to that of 2017.
Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine was the only school that did not increase its class size in 2025.
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Female enrollment remains strong
More female students have entered Philly-area medical schools over the last decade.
In 2025, 55.4% of first-year enrollees at Philly-area medical schools were female, compared to 47.7% in 2017.
Drexel saw the biggest rise, with 181 women entering in 2025, compared to 120 in 2017.
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Thomas Jefferson University Hospital was cited by the Pennsylvania Department of Health in the last year for failing to keep a patient from setting fire in their hospital bed, turning away a person who came to the emergency department, and neglecting to monitor a patient’s vital signs.
The incidents were among nearly three dozen times health department inspectors visited Jefferson Health’s flagship hospital in Center City to investigate potential safety violations between November 2024 and October 2025.
Here’s a look at the publicly available details:
Dec. 3, 2024: Inspectors visited for a monitoring survey and found the hospital was in compliance.
Dec. 3: Inspectors followed up on a citation from August 2024 and found the hospital was in compliance. The hospital had been cited for failing to properly document details from cardiac monitoring for a patient with septic shock.
Jan. 24, 2025: The hospital was cited with immediate jeopardy, one of the state’s most serious warnings and a sign of potentially life-threatening safety problems, after a patient suffered first- and second-degree burns in their room. Inspectors found that the patient had attempted to light a cigarette while receiving treatment that involved supplemental oxygen, which can cause materials near it to catch fire. Inspectors found that Jefferson staff had failed to check the patient for smoking paraphernalia and educate them about no-smoking rules, as required by hospital protocol. The hospital posted more “No Smoking” signs, retrained staff, and updated its policies requiring smoking screening for all patients.
Jan. 30: Inspectors came to investigate a complaint but found the hospital was in compliance. Complaint details are not made public when inspectors determine it was unfounded.
Feb. 3: Inspectors came to investigate a complaint but found the hospital was in compliance.
Feb. 6: Inspectors came to investigate a complaint but found the hospital was in compliance.
Feb. 11: Inspectors came to investigate four complaints but found the hospital was in compliance.
Feb. 11: The Joint Commission, a nonprofit hospital accreditation agency, renewed the hospital’s accreditation, effective November 2024, for 36 months.
Feb. 12: Inspectors came to investigate a complaint but found the hospital was in compliance.
Feb. 14: Inspectors came to investigate two complaints but found the hospital was in compliance.
March 11: The hospital was cited for violating rules that require emergency departments to evaluate all patients who arrive seeking care. Inspectors found that a person walked into the emergency department saying they needed to use the restroom, and was asked to leave because the hospital does not have a public restroom. The patient said they were having an emergency and planned to check into the emergency department, but were still told to leave. Inspectors found that the dismissal violated Jefferson’s emergency department policies designed to comply with the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) — anti-patient dumping laws that require hospitals to evaluate and stabilize any patient who seeks emergency treatment. Administrators retrained staff on EMTALA protocol and updated their system for recording security incidents to better document when a provider is called by security to assess a patient who has a non-medical request, such as needing to use the restroom.
April 15: Inspectors followed up on the immediate jeopardy citation from January and found the hospital was in compliance.
April 29: Inspectors came to investigate a complaint but found the hospital was in compliance.
May 5: The hospital was cited for failing to follow protocol designed to prevent patient falls. In December 2024, an 80-year-old patient with impaired vision was admitted to the emergency department and given a drug known to cause patients to need to urinate more often. Inspectors found that the patient was initially evaluated to have a low risk of falling, but was not re-evaluated after being prescribed the medication that could increase how often they needed to get up to use the bathroom and their risk of falling. In response to the complaint, which was reported in December 2024 and finalized in May 2025, hospital administrators retrained staff on fall risk protocols and said they would monitor patient charts.
May 28: Inspectors came to investigate a complaint but found the hospital was in compliance.
May 30: Inspectors came to investigate a complaint but found the hospital was in compliance.
Aug. 14: Inspectors came to investigate a complaint but found the hospital was in compliance.
Aug. 19: Inspectors came to investigate a complaint but found the hospital was in compliance.
Aug. 19: The hospital was cited for failing to properly monitor a patient’s vital signs. Inspectors found that a provider had ordered continuous pulse oximeter monitoring for a patient, and instructions to report when the blood oxygen levels dropped below 90%. A staff member assigned to the patient could not find a pulse oximeter machine for the patient and told inspectors that they reported the issue to another provider, “but she never got back to me.” Hospital administrators acquired more pulse oximeters, retrained staff on medical supplies protocol, and said they would monitor patient hand-offs between nursing shifts.
Oct. 3: Inspectors came to investigate a complaint but found the hospital was in compliance.
Dilys E. Blum, 78, of Philadelphia, senior curator emeritus of costume and textiles at the Philadelphia Art Museum, author, lecturer, mentor, and world traveler, died Saturday, Dec. 27, of complications from cancer at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital.
For 38 years, from 1987 to her retirement in 2025, Ms. Blum served as the museum’s curator of costume and textiles. In that role, she organized the museum’s vast treasure trove of textile artifacts, traveled the world to research noted fashion designers and eclectic collections, and created more than 40 memorable exhibitions about Renaissance velvets, contemporary fashion, Asian textiles, carpets, African American quilts, and dozens of other curios.
She was cited as the world’s foremost authority on avant-garde Italian fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli, and her 2003 exhibition “Shocking! The Art and Fashion of Elsa Schiaparelli” drew 83,000 visitors. Francesco Pastore, the heritage and cultural projects manager at the House of Schiaparelli in Paris, said: “Her remarkable research, her generosity in sharing knowledge, and her contribution to fashion studies have deeply enriched our field.”
Ms. Blum (right) and colleague Monica Brown tend to a museum exhibit in 2011.
In a recent tribute, former museum colleagues marveled at her “technical expertise and cultural insight,” and credited her for reinvigorating the once-neglected textiles collection. Daniel Weiss, director and chief executive officer of the museum, said: “She transformed this museum’s costume and textiles department into a program respected around the world.”
She told The Inquirer in 1990: “We wanted to remind them that we were here.”
Before Philadelphia, Ms. Blum was a textile conservator at the Chicago Conservation Center and the Brooklyn Museum, and senior assistant keeper of the costume and textile department at the Museum of London. She earned a bachelor’s degree in art history at Connecticut College and studied afterward at the University of Manchester in England and the Courtauld Institute of Art at the University of London.
“She was fearless in her pursuit of perfection in her work,” said her sister Galen. Her sister Sydney said: “She was dedicated to her craft and scholarship.”
Ms. Blum (left) was close to her sisters Sydney (center) and Galen.
An avid reader and writer, Ms. Blum wrote and cowrote several books about textiles and designers, and 2021’s Patrick Kelly: Runway of Love, coauthored with former colleague Laura L. Camerlengo, earned a 2023 honorable mention publication award from the Costume Society of America. She also wrote essays for exhibition catalogs, served on editorial boards for journals, lectured around the world, and was active with the International Council of Museums, the Association of Art Museum Curators, and other groups.
In 2025, to celebrate Ms. Blum’s retirement, Camerlengo praised her “deep knowledge, creative vision, and contagious passion for the field.” She said: “Dilys is one of the most influential figures in the world of fashion and textile arts.”
Ms. Blum’s work and fashion viewpoints were featured often in The Inquirer. In 1997, she said: “People don’t dress up anymore.” In 1999, she said: “I think we’ve lost the joy in dressing. There’s this trend away from clutter in dress and decorating. It’s pared down to the point of visual boredom.”
In 2001, she said it was easy to differentiate between New Yorkers and Philadelphians. “New Yorkers,” she said, “will invariably be wearing the accessory of the moment, a pashmina shawl, a Kate Spade bag, a Prada loafer.”
Ms. Blum left “an enduring legacy woven through the art museum and the generations of scholars and visitors who now see costumes and textiles as central to the story of art,” former museum colleagues said.
Dilys Ellen Blum was born July 11, 1947, in Ames, Iowa. She and her parents moved to Hamilton, N.Y., when she was 1, and the family traveled with her father, an economics professor at Colgate University, on teaching sabbaticals abroad. When she was 12, Ms. Blum spent a year with her parents and sisters living in Norway and touring Europe in a Volkswagen Beetle.
Her mother was an artist and seamstress, and she and Ms. Blum spent many nights poring over clothes patterns on their dining room table. She enjoyed reading murder mysteries and traveling the world in search of new museum-worthy artifacts.
She lived in South Philadelphia, was diagnosed with cancer three years ago, and talked often with her sisters on the telephone. “I admired her seriousness and humility,” Sydney said. Galen said: “From my perspective, I was in awe of her.”
In addition to her sisters, Ms. Blum is survived by a niece, Juniper, and other relatives.
A memorial service is to be held later.
Former museum colleagues said Ms. Blum’s writing “consistently amplified the makers and wearers of extraordinary objects, and their intertwined relationships.”
At 9 years old, Jim Donovan would share with his parents his dreams of becoming a journalist. Around that time, he also flicked through the Guinness Book of World Records, thinking it would be cool to set one himself one day.
Guinness World Records verified on Dec. 8 that the 15-time Emmy winner is now the owner of the world’s largest sock collection at 1,531 pairs, many of which have eccentric designs, including Friends and Star Trek-themed socks, and every color of the rainbow. Donovan announced the achievement before his final day on-air at CBS Philadelphia on Dec. 19.
Jim Donovan’s 1,531 pairs of socks laid out on the floor of CBS Philadelphia studios while Donovan and two independent experts counted each sock on camera to be submitted to the Guinness World Records.
While Donovan said he’s immensely grateful for a ceremonious end to a long career — a feat he admits can be rare in the world of journalism — preparing his Guinness World Record application was also a difficult project.
“I’ve done major investigation pieces and consumer stories over four decades of TV, and this was the thing that nearly pushed me over the edge,” he said of the nearly 40 hours of inventory work required to painstakingly document each pair of socks.
Jim Donovan takes inventory of the thousands of socks he submitted for a Guinness World Record. After 40 years in broadcast journalism, he will be retiring. But, not before receiving the world record on Dec. 8, 2025.
Donovan questioned himself at times when the hours of inventory work became overwhelming, but he remembered that this record was, in part, meant to thank his fans for their decades of support.
Guinness requires applicants to have two independent third-party experts oversee the counting of the world records. Two members of Thomas Jefferson University’s fashion merchandising and management program, Juliana Guglielmi-DeRosa and Jeneene Bailey-Allen, stepped up to facilitate Donovan’s counting. Together, the two experts and Donovan recorded the counting of socks for more than an hour inside CBS Philadelphia studios, without interruptions or editing of the footage, as required by Guinness.
Digital images of Jim Donovan’s socks that he submitted for a Guinness World Record. He received recognition for his 1,531 pairs of socks on Dec. 8, 2025.
Donovan would then embed pictures and descriptions of each sock into what became a 262-page spreadsheet so that Guinness inspectors could verify the count at a later date. During the final count, Guglielmi-DeRosa and Bailey-Allen gifted Donovan an additional pair of socks, bringing the unofficial total to 1,532, but there was no way he was going to redo the spreadsheet, Donovan said.
“I just remember when I was a kid looking in that Guinness World Records book and thinking, ‘Boy, it would be cool to do this.’ And here I am now, 59 years old, and I finally checked off one of those kid bucket list items,” Donovan said.
Storing thousands of socks is no small feat, either. Folded and stacked inside dozens of bins, with 48 pairs per bin, Donovan has an entire closet dedicated to the socks. Each box contains different categories, from animals to food to holidays, and more.
Jim Donovan holds his Guinness World Records plaque verifying that he owns the largest sock collection in the world at 1,531 pairs of socks. He received the recognition on Dec. 8, 2025.
The first openly LGBTQ+ news anchor in Philadelphia, Donovan garnered a loyal fan base with whom he frequently chatted during his daily Facebook livestreams outside of his regular broadcasts. Around eight years ago, fans noticed Donovan’s penchant for socks with bold colors and designs, and started sending the journalist socks to wear on-air.
During the winter holidays, it was Santa socks; birthdays, it was socks with his face on them; and randomly, folks would get creative, Donovan said, sending him Spock socks (complete with Spock ears), flamingos playing golf, and Superman socks with a cape.
In his final week on-air at CBS Philadelphia, where he was for 22 years, the station celebrated each day as part of a “Week of Jim.” In retirement, Donovan plans to spend more time with his father, who lives on Staten Island, N.Y., and dive into volunteering and nonprofit work.
Now he’ll be enjoying retirement as a world-record holder. Donovan said he’seven starting to get messages from other Guinness World Record holders welcoming him to the club.
In 2025, Philadelphians said goodbye to a beloved group of broadcasters, radio personalities, sports heroes, and public servants who left their mark on a city they all loved.
Some were Philly natives, including former Eagles general manager Jim Murray. Others, including beloved WMMR host Pierre Robert, were transplants who made Philly their adopted home. But all left their mark on the city and across the region.
Pierre Robert
Former WMMR host Pierre Robert, seen in his studio in 2024.
A native of Northern California, Mr. Robert joined WMMR as an on-air host in 1981. He arrived in the city after his previous station, San Francisco’s KSAN, switched to an “urban cowboy” format, prompting him to make the cross-country drive to Philadelphia in a Volkswagen van.
At WMMR, Mr. Robert initially hosted on the weekends, but quickly moved to the midday slot — a position he held for more than four decades up until his death.
— Nick Vadala, Dan DeLuca
Bernie Parent
Former Flyers goaltender Bernie Parent, seen at his home in 2024.
Bernie Parent, the stone-wall Flyers goalie for the consecutive Stanley Cup championship teams for the Broad Street Bullies in the 1970s, died in September. He was 80.
A Hall of Famer, Mr. Parent clinched both championships with shutouts in the final game as he blanked the Boston Bruins, 1-0, in 1974 and the Buffalo Sabres, 2-0, in 1975. Mr. Parent played 10 of his 13 NHL seasons with the Flyers and also spent a season in the World Hockey League with the Philadelphia Blazers. He retired in 1979 at 34 years old after suffering an eye injury during a game against the New York Rangers.
He grew up in Montreal and spoke French as his first language before becoming a cultlike figure at the Spectrum as cars throughout the region had “Only the Lord Saves More Than Bernie Parent” bumper stickers.
— Matt Breen
David Lynch
David Lynch, seen here at the Governors Awards in Los Angeles in 2019.
David Lynch, the visionary director behind such movies as Blue Velvet and The Elephant Man and the twisted TV show Twin Peaks, died in January of complications from emphysema. He was 78.
Mr. Lynch was born in Missoula, Mont., but ended up in Philadelphia to enroll at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1965 at age 19. It was here he developed an interest in filmmaking as a way to see his paintings move.
He created his first short films in Philadelphia, which he described both as “a filthy city” and “his greatest influence” as an artist. Ultimately, he moved to Los Angeles to make his first feature film, Eraserhead, though he called the film “my Philadelphia Story.”
— Rob Tornoe
Ryne Sandberg
Former Phillies manager Ryne Sandberg, seen here at spring training in 2018.
Ryne Sandberg, the Hall of Fame second baseman who started his career with the Phillies but was traded shortly after to the Chicago Cubs in one of the city’s most regrettable trades, died in July of complications from cancer. He was 65.
Mr. Sandberg played 15 seasons in Chicago and became an icon for the Cubs, simply known as “Ryno,” after being traded there in January 1982.
He was a 10-time All-Star, won nine Gold Glove awards, and was the National League’s MVP in 1984. Mr. Sandberg was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2005 and returned to the Phillies in 2011 as a minor-league manager and, later, the big-league manager.
— Matt Breen
Bob Uecker
Bob Uecker, seen here before a Brewers game in 2024.
Bob Uecker, a former Phillies catcher who later became a Hall of Fame broadcaster for the Milwaukee Brewers and was dubbed “Mr. Baseball” by Johnny Carson for his acting roles in several movies and TV shows, died in January. He was 90.
Mr. Uecker spent just six seasons in the major league, two with the Phillies, but the talent that would make him a Hall of Fame broadcaster — wit, self-deprecation, and the timing of a stand-up comic — were evident.
His first broadcasting gig was in Atlanta, and he started calling Milwaukee Brewers games in 1971. Before that, he called Phillies games: Mr. Uecker used to sit in the bullpen at Connie Mack Stadium and deliver play-by-play commentary into a beer cup.
— Matt Breen and Rob Tornoe
Harry Donahue
Harry Donahue, seen here at Temple University in 2020.
Harry Donahue, 77, a longtime KYW Newsradio anchor and the play-by-play voice of Temple University men’s basketball and football for decades, died in October after a fight with cancer.
His was a voice that generations of people in Philadelphia and beyond grew up with in the mornings as they listened for announcements about snow days and, later, for a wide array of sports.
— Robert Moran
Alan Rubenstein
Judge Rubenstein, then Bucks County district attorney, talks to the media about a drug case in 1998.
Alan M. Rubenstein, a retired senior judge on Bucks County Common Pleas Court and the longest-serving district attorney in Bucks County history, died in August of complications from several ailments at his home in Holland, Bucks County. He was 79.
For 50 years, from his hiring as an assistant district attorney in 1972 to his retirement as senior judge a few years ago, Judge Rubenstein represented Bucks County residents at countless crime scenes and news conferences, in courtrooms, and on committees. He served 14 years, from 1986 to 1999, as district attorney in Bucks County, longer than any DA before him, and then 23 years as a judge and senior judge on Bucks County Court.
“His impact on Bucks County will be felt for generations,” outgoing Bucks County District Attorney Jennifer Schorn said in a tribute. U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R., Pa.) said on Facebook: “Alan Rubenstein has never been just a name. It has stood as a symbol of justice, strength, and integrity.”
— Gary Miles
Orien Reid Nix
Orien Reid Nix, seen here being inducted into the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia Hall of Fame in 2018
Orien Reid Nix, 79, of King of Prussia, retired Hall of Fame reporter for KYW-TV and WCAU-TV in Philadelphia, owner of Consumer Connection media consulting company, the first Black and female chair of the international board of the Alzheimer’s Association, former social worker, mentor, and volunteer, died in June of complications from Alzheimer’s disease.
Charismatic, telegenic, empathetic, and driven by a lifelong desire to serve, Mrs. Reid Nix worked as a consumer service and investigative TV reporter for Channels 3 and 10 in Philadelphia for 26 years, from 1973 to her retirement in 1998. She anchored consumer service segments, including the popular Market Basket Report, that affected viewers’ lives and aired investigations on healthcare issues, price gouging, fraud, and food safety concerns.
— Gary Miles
Dave Frankel
Dave Frankel in an undated publicity photo.
Dave Frankel, 67, a popular TV weatherman on WPVI (now 6abc) who later became a lawyer, died in February after a long battle with a neurodegenerative disease.
Mr. Frankel grew up in Monmouth County, N.J., graduated in 1979 from Dartmouth College, and was planning to attend Dickinson School of Law to become a lawyer like his father. But an internship at a local TV station in Vermont turned into a news anchor job and a broadcast career that lasted until the early 2000s.
— Robert Moran
Lee Elia
Former Phillies manager Lee Elia, seen here being ejected from a game in 1987.
Lee Elia, the Philadelphia native who managed the Phillies after coaching third base for the 1980 World Series champions and once famously ranted against the fans who sat in the bleachers of Wrigley Field, died in July. He was 87.
Mr. Elia’s baseball career spanned more than 50 seasons. He managed his hometown Phillies in 1987 and 1988 after managing the Chicago Cubs in 1982 and 1983.
After his playing career was cut shot by a knee injury, Mr. Elia joined Dallas Green’s Phillies staff before the 1980 season and was coaching third base when Manny Trillo delivered a crucial triple in the clinching game of the National League Championship Series. Mr. Elia was so excited that he bit Trillo’s arm after he slid.
— Matt Breen
Gary Graffman
Gary Graffman, seen here playing at the Curtis Institute of Music Orchestra Concert at Verizon Hall in 2006.
Gary Graffman, a celebrated concert pianist and the former president of the Curtis Institute of Music, died in December in New York. He was 97.
The New York City-born pianist arrived at Curtis at age 7. He graduated at age 17 and played roughly 100 concerts a year between the ages of 20 and 50 before retiring from touring due to a compromised right hand. Diagnosed with focal dystonia (a neurological disorder), he went on to premiere works for the left hand by Jennifer Higdon and William Bolcom.
Mr. Graffman returned to Curtis as a teacher in 1980, became director in 1986, and was named the president of the conservatory in 1995, with a teaching studio encompassing nearly 50 students, including Yuja Wang and Lang Lang among others. He performed on numerous occasions with the Philadelphia Orchestra from 1947 to 2003.
— David Patrick Stearns
Len Stevens
Len Stevens was the co-founder of WPHL-TV Channel 17.
Len Stevens, the cofounder of WPHL-TV (Channel 17) and a member of the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia Hall of Fame, died in September of kidney failure. He was 94.
Born in Philadelphia, Mr. Stevens was a natural entrepreneur. He won an audition to be a TV announcer with Dick Clark on WFIL-TV in the 1950s, persuaded The Tonight Show and NBC to air Alpo dog food ads in the 1960s, co-owned and managed the popular Library singles club on City Avenue in the 1970s and ’80s, and later turned the nascent sale of “vertical real estate” on towers and rooftops into big business.
He and partner Aaron Katz established the Philadelphia Broadcasting Co. in 1964 and launched WPHL-TV on Sept. 17, 1965. At first, their ultrahigh frequency station, known now as PHL17, challenged the dominant very high frequency networks on a shoestring budget. But, thanks largely to Mr. Stevens’ advertising contacts and programming ideas, Channel 17 went on to air Phillies, 76ers, and Big Five college basketball games, the popular Wee Willie Webber Colorful Cartoon Club, Ultraman, and other memorable shows in the late 1960s and early ’70s.
— Gary Miles
Jim Murray
Former Eagles general manager Jim Murray (left), seen here with Dick Vermeil and owner Leonard Tose following the 1980 NFC championship game in January 1981.
Jim Murray, the former Eagles general manager who hired Dick Vermeil and helped the franchise return to prominence while also opening the first Ronald McDonald House, died in August at home in Bryn Mawr surrounded by his family. He was 87.
Mr. Murray grew up in a rowhouse on Brooklyn Street in West Philadelphia and watched the Eagles at Franklin Field. The Eagles hired him in 1969 as a publicist, and Leonard Tose, then the Eagles’ owner, named him the general manager in 1974. Mr. Murray was just 36 years old and the decision was ridiculed.
But Mr. Murray — who was known for his wit and generosity — made a series of moves to bring the Eagles back to relevance, including hiring Vermeil and acquiring players like Bill Bergey and Ron Jaworski. The Eagles made the playoffs in 1978 and reached their first Super Bowl in January 1981. The Eagles, with Murray as the GM, were finally back.
— Matt Breen
Michael Days
Philadelphia Daily News Editor Michael Days celebrates with the newsroom after word of the Pulitzer win.
Michael Days, a pillar of Philadelphia journalism who championed young Black journalists and led the Daily News during its 2010 Pulitzer Prize win for investigative reporting, died in October after falling ill. He was 72.
A graduate of Roman Catholic High School in Philadelphia, Mr. Days worked at the Wall Street Journal and other newspapers before joining the Daily News as a reporter in 1986, where he ultimately became editor in 2005, the first Black person to lead the paper in its 90-year history. In 2011, Mr. Days was named managing editor of The Inquirer, where he held several management roles until he retired in October 2020.
As editor of the Daily News, Mr. Days played an essential role in the decisions that would lead to its 2010 Pulitzer Prize, including whether to move forward with a story about a Philadelphia Police Department narcotics officer that a company lawyer said stood a good chance of getting them sued.
“He said, ‘I trust my reporters, I believe in my reporters, and we’re running with it,’” recounted Inquirer senior health reporter Wendy Ruderman, who reported the piece with colleague Barbara Laker. That story revealed a deep dysfunction within the police department, Ruderman said, and led to the newspaper’s 2010 Pulitzer Prize win.
— Brett Sholtis
Tom McCarthy
Tom McCarthy, seen here in 2002.
Tom McCarthy, an award-winning theater, film, and TV actor, longtime president of the local chapter of the Screen Actors Guild, former theater company board member, mentor, and veteran, died in May of complications from Parkinson’s disease at his home in Sea Isle City. He was 88.
The Overbrook native quit his job as a bartender in 1965, sharpened his acting skills for a decade at Hedgerow Theatre Company in Rose Valley and other local venues, and, at 42, went on to earn memorable roles in major movies and TV shows.
In the 1980s, he played a police officer with John Travolta in the movie Blow Out and a gardener with Andrew McCarthy in Mannequin. In 1998, he was a witness with Denzel Washington in Fallen. In 2011, he was a small-town mayor with Lea Thompson in Mayor Cupcake. Over the course of his career, Mr. McCarthy acted with Zsa Zsa Gabor, Harrison Ford, Kristin Scott Thomas, Cloris Leachman, Robert Redford, Donald Sutherland, John Goodman, and other big stars.
— Gary Miles
Carol Saline
Carol Saline, seen here at her Philadelphia home in 2021.
Carol Saline, a longtime senior writer at Philadelphia Magazine, the best-selling author of Sisters, Mothers & Daughters, and Best Friends, and a prolific broadcaster, died in August of acute myeloid leukemia. She was 86.
On TV, she hosted a cooking show and a talk show, was a panelist on a local public affairs program, and guested on the Oprah Winfrey Show, Inside Edition, Good Morning America, and other national shows. On radio, she hosted the Carol Saline Show on WDVT-AM.
In June, she wrote to The Inquirer, saying: “I am contacting you because I am entering hospice care and will likely die in the next few weeks. … I wanted you to know me, not only my accomplishments but who I am as a person.
“I want to go out,” she ended her email, “with a glass of Champagne in one hand, a balloon in the other, singing (off key) ‘Whoopee! It’s been a great ride!’”
— Gary Miles
Richard Wernick
Richard Wernick, seen here before a concert at the 2002 Festival of Philadelphia Composers.
Richard Wernick, a Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, acclaimed conductor, and retired Irving Fine Professor of Music at the University of Pennsylvania, died in April 25 of age-associated decline at his Haverford home. He was 91.
Professor Wernick was prolific and celebrated as a composer. He wrote hundreds of scores over six decades and appeared on more than a dozen records, and his Visions of Terror and Wonder for a mezzo-soprano and orchestra won the 1977 Pulitzer Prize for music. In 1991, his String Quartet No. 4 made him the first two-time winner of the Kennedy Center’s Friedheim Award for new American music.
“Wernick’s orchestral music has power and brilliance, an emphasis on register, space, and scale,” Lesley Valdes, former Inquirer classical music critic, said in 1990.
— Gary Miles
Dorie Lenz
Dorie Lenz, seen here on Channel 17 in 2015.
Dorie Lenz, a pioneering TV broadcaster and the longtime director of public affairs for WPHL-TV (Channel 17), died in January of age-associated ailments at her home in New York. She was 101.
A Philadelphia native, Ms. Lenz broke into TV as a 10-year-old in a local children’s show and spent 30 years, from 1970 to 2000, as director of public affairs and a program host at Channel 17, now PHL17. She specialized in detailed public service campaigns on hot-button social issues and earned two Emmys in 1988 for her program Caring for the Frail Elderly.
Ms. Lenz interviewed newsmakers of all kinds on the public affairs programs Delaware Valley Forum, New Jersey Forum, and Community Close Up. Viewers and TV insiders hailed her as a champion and watchdog for the community. She also talked to Phillies players before games in the 1970s on her 10-minute Dorie Lenz Show.
— Gary Miles
Jay Sigel
Jay Sigel, seen here after winning the Georgia-Pacific Grand Champions title in 2006.
Jay Sigel, one of the winningest amateur golfers of all time and an eight-time PGA senior tour champion, died in April of complications from pancreatic cancer. He was 81.
For more than 40 years, from 1961, when he won the International Jaycee Junior Golf Tournament as an 18-year-old, to 2003, when he captured the Bayer Advantage Celebrity Pro-Am title at 60, the Berwyn native was one of the winningest amateur and senior golfers in the world. Mr. Sigel won consecutive U.S. Amateur titles in 1982 and ’83 and three U.S. Mid-Amateur championships between 1983 and ’87, and remains the only golfer to win the amateur and mid-amateur titles in the same year.
He won the Pennsylvania Amateur Championship 11 times, five straight from 1972 to ’76, and the Pennsylvania Open Championship for pros and amateurs four times. He also won the 1979 British Amateur Championship and, between 1975 and 1999, played for the U.S. team in a record nine Walker Cup tournaments against Britain and Ireland.
— Gary Miles
Mark Frisby
Mark Frisby, seen here in the former newsroom of the Daily News in 2007.
Mark Frisby, the former publisher of the Daily News and associate publisher of The Inquirer, died in September of takayasu arteritis, an inflammatory disease, at his home in Gloucester County. He was 64.
Mr. Frisby joined The Inquirer and Daily News in November 2006 as executive vice president of production, labor, and purchasing. He was recruited from the Courier-Post by then-publisher Brian Tierney, and he went on to serve as publisher of the Daily News from 2007 to 2016 and associate publisher for operations of The Inquirer and Daily News from 2014 to his retirement in 2016.
Mr. Frisby was one of the highest-ranking Black executives in the company’s history, and he told the Daily News in 2006 that “local ownership over here was the big attraction for me.” Michael Days, then the Daily News editor, said in 2007: “This cat is really the real deal.”
— Gary Miles
Leon Bates
Leon Bates, seen here at the Settlement Music School in Germantown in 2018.
Leon Bates, a concert pianist whose musical authority and far-reaching versatility took him to the world’s greatest concert halls, died in November after a seven-year decline from Parkinson’s disease. He was 76.
The career of Mr. Bates, a leading figure in the generation of Black pianists who followed the early-1960s breakthrough of Andre Watts, encompassed Ravel, Gershwin, and Bartok over 10 concerts with the Philadelphia Orchestra between 1970 and 2002. He played three recitals with Philadelphia Chamber Music Society and taught master classes at Temple University, where he also gave recitals at the Temple Performing Arts Center.
In his WRTI-FM radio show, titled Notes on Philadelphia, during the 1990s, Mr. Bates was what Charles Abramovic, chair of keyboard studies at Temple University, described as “beautifully articulate and a wonderful interviewer. The warmth of personality came out. He was such a natural with that.”
— David Patrick Stearns
Lacy McCrary
Lacy McCrary in an undated photo.
Lacy McCrary, a former Inquirer reporter who won a Pulitzer Prize at the Akron Beacon Journal, died in March of Alzheimer’s disease at his home in Colorado Springs, Colo. He was 91.
Mr. McCrary, a Morrisville, Bucks County native, won the 1971 Pulitzer Prize in local general or spot news reporting as part of the Beacon Journal’s coverage of the May 4, 1970, student protest killings at Kent State University.
He joined The Inquirer in 1973 and covered the courts, politics, and news of all sorts until his retirement in 2000. He notably wrote about unhealthy conditions and fire hazards in Pennsylvania and New Jersey boardinghouses in the late 1970s and early ’80s, and those reports earned public acclaim and resulted in new regulations to correct deadly oversights.
— Gary Miles
Roberta Fallon
Roberta Fallon, seen here in an undated photo.
Roberta Fallon, 76, cofounder, editor, and longtime executive director of the online Artblog and adjunct professor at St. Joseph’s University, died in December at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital of injuries she suffered after being hit by a car. She was 76.
Described by family and friends as empathetic, energetic, and creative, Ms. Fallon and fellow artist Libby Rosof cofounded Artblog in 2003. For nearly 22 years, until the blog became inactive in June, Ms. Fallon posted commentary, stories, interviews, reviews, videos, podcasts, and other content that chronicled the eclectic art world in Philadelphia.
— Gary Miles
Benita Valente
BENI26P Gerald S. Williams 10/18/00 2011 Pine st. Philadelphia-based soprano Benita Valente has sung all over the world. At age 65, she is making her Oct. 29 performance with the Mendelssohn Club at the Academy of Music her last. 1 of 3: Benita goes over some music at the piano in her upstairs music room.
Benita Valente, a revered lyric soprano whose voice thrilled listeners with its purity and seeming effortlessness, died in October at home in Philadelphia. She was 91.
In a remarkable four-decade career, Ms. Valente appeared on the opera stage, in chamber music, and with orchestras. In the intimate genre of lieder — especially songs by Schubert and Brahms — she was considered one of America’s great recitalists.
Ramesses Dreuitt Vazquez scooted his wheelchair on a Mount Airy playground, pressing the ground with his sneakers to approach the man credited with saving his life.
Now the 10-year-old Philadelphia boy smiled through his scars, reaching his arm out to greet Wongus, who bent down and hugged him.
Wongus, 26, was nervous to see Ramesses, unsure what to expect. On the night of the Jan. 31 crash, Wongus used his jean jacket to smother flames on Ramesses’ back. He then comforted Ramesses in the back seat of a police cruiser as they raced to St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children. The child’s clothes had burned away; his sneakers had melted to his feet from the heat.
In the 10 months afterward, Ramesses fought for his life at a Boston hospital. He had 42 surgeries for burn wounds that affected 90% of his body, and had fingers and ears amputated. He was moved to a rehabilitation hospital in South Jersey before being released earlier this month.
He reunited with his rescuer on Tuesday night at an event to mark what would have been the 38th birthday of Ramesses’ father, Steven Dreuitt Jr., who died when the car he was driving caught on fire.
Family and friends gathered on the park’s basketball court to release balloons.
Wongus asked Ramesses how he felt about getting swag from the Philadelphia Eagles and Phillies while in the hospital. “I’m really not much of a baseball fan; I’m more of an Eagles fan,” replied Ramesses, wearing a knit Eagles hat.
The boy’s light and casual tone made Wongus smile.
“I’m glad to see him with his family and to see how well he’s doing — seeing him just trying to function as a kid again and scooting around in the wheelchair on the basketball court,“ Wongus said.
The balloon release was organized by Alberta “Amira” Brown, 60, Dreuitt’s mother and Ramesses’ grandmother. During the balloon release, she andRamesses’ mother thanked Wongus for saving him.
“If it wasn’t for this person here, Ramesses would not be here today,” Brown said, as family and friends applauded.
Brown also asked those in attendance to supporther son’s other child, Dominick Goods, an 11th grader at Imhotep Institute Charter High School in East Germantown.
Both grandsons, she said, need the community’s love and support: “I have one that is completely, completely mentally distraught and one is physically distraught.”
Dominick, who is Ramesses’ half brother, lost his father and his 34-year-old mother in the plane crash. Dominique Goods Burke, who was engaged to Dreuitt, was in the car’s passenger’s seat. The Mount Airy couple had picked up Ramesses from his mother’s home in Germantown and then headed to the Roosevelt Mall to run an errand. Goods Burke escaped from the car with severe burns and internal injuries.
Dominick turned 16 two weeks before his mother died in Aprilat Thomas Jefferson University Hospital.
“I want each and every one of you to imagine what a 15-year-old kid went through that night, being left home alone and waiting for his parents and his brother to come home, and no one ever did,” Brown said.
“Don’t forget my grandson Dominick. I beg of you,” she said.
Dominick Goods, 16, lost both of his parents in the jet crash in Northeast Philadelphia on Jan. 31. The teen and his family gathered at a Mount Airy playground to celebrate what would have been his father’s 38th birthday. The teen’s grandmother, Alberta “Amira” Brown (right), asked those gathered to support him.
After watching balloons float skyward amid shouts of “Happy birthday, Steven,” Dominick drifted away from the crowd of about 40 people for a few moments alone.
Ramesses, bundled under a fuzzy white blanket, playfully chased after his mother, Jamie Vazquez Viana, in his wheelchair, teasing about rolling over her feet.
“Hey, that’s not fair,” she said.
She declined to talk to a reporter but has shared some details of her son’s recovery on a GoFundMe page.
“Ramesses is my little warrior who fought death and won, but he now faces a lifetime of reconstruction surgeries, intense therapy, and long-term burn care,” Vazquez Viana wrote.
Wongus smiled through tears as he watched Ramesses chat with his 12-year-old cousin, Anthony “AJ” Jenkins, about video games. His cousin, who gave him an Xbox game for his birthday in October, asked if he had been playing it.
Ramesses explained why he had not.“I have to sign in and put in my dad’s email and his number and all that, and I don’t have that,” Ramesses told his cousin.
Jenkins, a seventh graderwho is one of Brown’s seven grandchildren, said he cried during the balloon release, envisioning his uncle watching them.
Family, friends and community members came out for the balloon release to celebrate the life and birthday of Steven Dreuitt Jr., who would’ve turned 38 on Dec. 23. He died in the Jan. 31 plane crash in Northeast Philadelphia.
“I imagined in my mind that my uncle asked God, `Can I just look down there for a minute?,’ and he sat on the clouds and he watched as his balloons came up to him,” Jenkins said.
Later in the evening, at his grandmother’s house, Dominick lit a candle for his father, while Ramesses looked on.
Jenkins said he again pictured his uncle’s spirit. This time, clasping both his sons’ hands to help them light it.
Ramesses Dreuitt Vazquez, 10, watches his older brother, Dominick Goods, 16, light a candle to remember their father, Steven Dreuitt Jr., who died in the Jan. 31 plane crash in Northeast Philadelphia. The brothers celebrated what would have been their father’s 38th birthday on Dec. 23.
Jenkins said he is awed by his cousins’ physical and emotional strength. Ramesses “keeps pushing hard” to get stronger, even though his father is gone. Dominick had clung to hope that his mother would survive and was devastated, the cousin said.
“It’s been really hard for him. I couldn’t be in that place. I’d be stuck. I couldn’t be strong enough,” Jenkins said. “They inspire me to be a better person. I want to show my uncle and his two sons that I am working hard for them.”
Before heading over to the playground on Tuesday evening, Dominick gave Ramesses an early Christmas gift.
Ramesses’ eyes grew wide as his mother helped him unfurl tissue paper to reveal a coveted pair of 2025 Air Jordan 8 “Bugs Bunny” Nike sneakers.
“You like them. I can see it on your face,” his mother said.
“I’m gonna hide them,” Ramesses replied. He didn’t want anyone to take them from him.
The 10-year-old boy who was severely burned in the Northeast Philadelphia plane crashwas headed home on Tuesday after spending nearly a year in the hospital, his grandmother, Alberta “Amira” Brown said.
“It’s the best thing ever that he’ll be home for the holidays,” Brown said in the morning as the boy prepared to leaveWeisman Children’s rehabilitation hospital in South Jersey. “He is truly happy to be coming home.”
Ramesses Vazquez Viana, then 9, suffered burns to 90% of his body on Jan. 31 whena Learjet medical transport crashed on Cottman Avenue near the Roosevelt Mall, killing allsix people on board.
Ramesses had been riding in a car with his father, Steven Dreuitt Jr., and Dreuitt’s fiancée, Dominique Goods Burke. Dreuitt, 37, died in the blaze. Goods Burke, 34, died in April from her injuries after spending nearly three months at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital.
A bystander saw Ramesses after he escaped from the car; the boy’s back was on fire, and his shirt was burned away.
Police took Ramesses to St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children, and he was later airlifted to Shriners Children’s hospital in Boston. He underwent more than 40 surgeries, including multiple skin grafts. He spent months in physical therapy relearning how to get out of bed, walk and climb stairs, according family interviews with CBS News.
His classmates from Smedley Elementary School in the Philadelphia’s Frankford neighborhood cheered him on from afar, writing him cards and sending videos.
Ramesses celebrated his 10th birthday in October at the Boston hospital.
A few weeks ago, Ramesses was moved closer to his Philadelphia home to Weisman Children’s in Marlton, N.J.
During a phone interview with The Inquirer, Brown said her grandson “has a long road ahead of him” and would need additional surgeries.
During a visit with him Saturday, he kicked a soccer ball around with her.
Brown confirmed a CBS report that Ramesses was being released from Weisman sometime Tuesday, but declined to provide specifics.
Brown said her grandson has chilling memoriesfrom that night: He was in the car’s backseat texting with Brown at about 6 p.m. when the plane exploded in a giant fireball, and he heard loud booms.
As flames engulfed the car, Ramesses tried to help his father, who couldn’t move his legs. The child heard his father yell to get out, and that he loved him. Ramesses told his father he loved him back. He could hear Goods Burke screaming.
Steven Dreuitt Jr. and Goods Burke shared a teenage son, Dominick Goods, who is now a junior at Imhotep Institute Charter High School. Brown said her older grandson is “really struggling” with his parents’ deaths.
The sixpassengers killedon the medical transport jet were Mexican nationals. They included the pilot and copilot, two medical personnel, an 11-year-old girl, and her mother. The girl was headed home to Mexico after undergoing treatment for a spinal condition at Shriners Children’s Philadelphia.
Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board haven’t yet determined why the plane crashed. A preliminary report, released earlier this year, found the cockpit voice recorder “had likely not been recording audio for several years.” No distress calls were made by the pilot or copilot.
Roberta Fallon, 76, of Bala Cynwyd, cofounder, editor, and longtime executive director of theartblog.org, prolific freelance writer for The Inquirer, Daily News, and other publications, adjunct professor at St. Joseph’s University, artist, sculptor, mentor, and volunteer, died Friday, Dec. 5, at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital of injuries she suffered after being hit by a car on Nov. 24.
Ms. Fallon’s husband, Steven Kimbrough, said the crash remains under investigation by the police.
Described by family and friends as empathetic, energetic, and creative, Ms. Fallon and fellow artist Libby Rosof cofounded the online Artblog in 2003. For nearly 22 years, until the blog became inactive in June, Ms. Fallon posted commentary, stories, interviews, reviews, videos, podcasts, and other content that chronicled the eclectic art world in Philadelphia.
The site drew more than 4,500 subscribers and championed galleries and artists of all kinds, especially women, LGBTQ and student artists, and other underrepresented innovators. “I think we have touched base with every major arts organization in Philadelphia at one point or another, and many of the smaller ones,” Ms. Fallon told The Inquirer in May. “We became part of the arts economy.”
She earned grants from the Knight Foundation and other groups to fund her work. She organized artist workshops and guided tours of local studios she called art safaris.
For years, she and Rosof raised art awareness in Center City by handing out miniatures of their artwork to startled passersby. She said in a 2005 Inquirer story: “We think art needs to be for everyone, not just in galleries.”
She mentored other artists and became an expert on the business of art. “She was so generous and curious about people,” Rosof said. “She was innovative and changed the way art reached people.”
Artist Rebecca Rutstein said Ms. Fallon’s “dedicated art journalism filled a vacuum in Philadelphia and beyond. Many of us became known entities because of her artist features, and we are forever grateful.” In a 2008 Inquirer story about the city’s art scene, artist Nike Desis said: “Roberta and Libby are the patron saints of the young.”
Ms. Fallon never tired of enjoying art.
Colleague and friend Gilda Kramer said: “The Artblog for her was truly a labor of love.”
In November, Ms. Fallon and other art writers created a website called The Philly Occasional. In her Nov. 12 article, she details some of her favorite shows and galleries in Philadelphia and New York, and starts the final paragraph by saying: “P.S. I can’t let you go without telling you about what I just saw at the Barnes Foundation.”
She worked at a small newspaper in Wisconsin before moving to West Philadelphia from Massachusetts in 1984 and wrote many art reviews and freelance articles for The Inquirer, Daily News, Philadelphia Weekly, Philadelphia Citizen, and other publications. In 2012, she wrote more than a dozen art columns for the Daily News called “Art Attack.”
She met Rosof in the 1980s, and together they curated exhibits around the region and displayed their own sculptures, paintings, and installations. Art critic Edith Newhall reviewed their 2008 show “ID” at Projects Gallery for The Inquirer and called it “one of the liveliest, most entertaining shows I’ve seen at this venue.”
Ms. Fallon stands in front of a mural at 13th and Spruce Streets. She is depicted as the figure profiled in the lower left in the white blouse.
Most often, Ms. Fallon painted objects and sculpted in concrete, wood, metal, textiles, and other material. She was a founding member of the Philadelphia Sculptors and Bala Avenue of the Arts.
She studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and Temple University’s Tyler School of Art and Architecture, and later taught professional practice art classes at St. Joseph’s. Moore College of Art and Design, which will archive Artblog, awarded her an honorary doctorate.
“Roberta was an exceptional creative artist” and “a force,” artist Marjorie Grigonis said on LinkedIn. Artist Matthew Rose said: “Robbie was a North Star for many people.”
Her husband said: “Her approach to life was giving. She succeeded by adding value to wherever she was.”
Ms. Fallon (second from right) enjoyed time with her family.
Roberta Ellen Fallon was born Feb. 8, 1949, in Milwaukee. She went to the University of Wisconsin-Madison to study sociology after high school and dropped out to explore Europe and take art classes in Paris. She returned to college, changed her major to English, and earned a bachelor’s degree in 1974.
She met Steven Kimbrough in Wisconsin, and they married in 1980, and had daughters Oona and Stella, and a son, Max. They lived in West Philadelphia for six years before settling in Bala Cynwyd in 1993.
Ms. Fallon was a neighborhood political volunteer. She enjoyed movies and reading, and she and her husband traveled often to museums and art shows in New York and elsewhere.
They had a chance to relocate to Michigan a few years ago, her husband said. But she preferred Philadelphia for its art and culture. “She was like a local celebrity in the art scene,” her daughter Stella said.
Ms. Fallon and her husband, Steven Kimbrough, visited New York in 1982.
Her husband said: “Everybody likes her. Everybody wants to be around her. She made a difference for a lot of people.”
Her daughter Stella said: “The world would be a better place if we all tried to be like my mom.”
In addition to her husband and children, Ms. Fallon is survived by four grandchildren, a sister, a brother, and other relatives.
