DEI expands to 4 teams following merger with Ginn Racing

DEI expands to 4 teams following merger with Ginn Racing

By MIKE HARRIS, AP Auto Racing WriterJuly 24, 2007

Dale Earnhardt Incorporated is absorbing Ginn Racing, making it a four-car team in time for this weekend's race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The deal, set to be announced Wednesday morning, was confirmed to The Associated Press Tuesday night by a person familiar with the deal who requested anonymity because an official announcement had yet to be made.

DEI will immediately add the No. 01 Chevrolet, which is co-driven by Mark Martin and rookie Aric Almirola, and take the season points from Ginn's No. 14 team and apply it to DEI 's No. 15 entry of Paul Menard.

The No. 14 has been driven this season by Sterling Marlin, but the two-time Daytona 500 winner was released from the ride last week as team owner Bobby Ginn reorganized the operation he purchased last summer. Marlin was 29th in the points, which assured that car a spot in the field each week. Menard is 38th, outside of the top 35 that are locked in, and using the points from the No. 14 will now guarantee him a spot in the field.

Ginn will be listed as the owner of both the No. 01 and the No. 15, the source said.

The merger was first reported by ESPN.com.

Meanwhile, DEI will continue to run Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the No. 8 and Martin Truex Jr. in the No. 1, both owned by Teresa Earnhardt, Earnhardt's stepmother.

The future of rookie Regan Smith, slated to replace Marlin in the Cup ride, remained uncertain. Smith is still scheduled to drive for Ginn Racing in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck race Friday night at Indianapolis Raceway Park.

Ginn, who bought controlling interest in the MB2 Motorsports team last year and changed the name, made sweeping changes last week when he released Marlin and Joe Nemechek. He also shifted Smith, who had been sharing a ride with Martin, to Marlin's car, while saying he would suspend operations on Nemechek's No. 13.

The team also made a deal with Joe Gibbs Racing to hire 23-year-old Almirola, who was part of the Gibbs driver development program, to replace Smith as Martin's co-driver.

Updated on Tuesday, Jul 24, 2007 10:06 pm, EDT

20-Percent Solution: Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker have engaged us in a far-reaching and fundamental political shift

Source: http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YjBiOGNmNzljOTc4ZmFiYTg0MWFjNDVjYWZlOTZmYzc=



July 20, 2007, 6:45 a.m.

Amid the Senate’s all-night pillow fight and other Iraq grandstanding, real things are happening on the ground in Iraq. They consist of more than just a surge of U.S. troop levels. Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker have engaged us in a far-reaching and fundamental political shift. Call it the 20-percent solution.

Ever since the December 2005 Iraqi elections, the U.S. has been waiting for the central government in Baghdad to pass grand national accords on oil, federalism and de-Baathification to unify and pacify the country. The Maliki government has proved too sectarian, too weak and perhaps too disposed to Iranian interests to rise to the task.

The Democrats cite this incapacity as a reason to give up and get out. A tempting thought, but ultimately self-destructive to our interests. Accordingly, Petraeus and Crocker have found a Plan B: pacify the country region by region, principally by getting Sunnis to join the fight against al Qaeda.

This has begun to happen in Anbar and Diyala. First, because al-Qaeda are foreigners. So are we, but — reason No. 2 — unlike them, we are not barbarous. We don’t amputate fingers for smoking, decapitate with pleasure and kill Shiites for sport.

Third, al Qaeda’s objectives are not the Sunnis’. Al Qaeda live for endless war and a reborn caliphate. Ultimately, they live to die. Iraqi Sunnis are not looking for a heavenly date with 72 virgins. They are looking for a deal, and perhaps just survival after U.S. troops are gone.

That’s why so many Sunnis have accepted Petraeus’s bargain — they join our fight against al Qaeda and we give them weaponry and military support. With that, they can rid themselves of the al Qaeda cancer now. And later, when the Americans inevitably leave, they’ll be better positioned to defend themselves against the 80 percent Shiite-Kurd majority they are beginning to realize they may have unwisely taken on.

The bargain is certainly working for us. The recent capture of the leading Iraqi in al Qaeda’s Iraq affiliate is no accident, comrade. You capture such people only when you have good intelligence and you have good intelligence only when the locals have turned against the terrorists.

The place of his capture — Mosul — is also telling. Mosul is where you go if you’ve been driven out of Anbar and Diyala and have no other good place to go. You don’t venture into the Shiite south or the purely Kurdish north where the locals will kill you.

The charge against our previous war strategy was that we were playing whack-a-mole: they escape from here, they re-establish there. Petraeus’ plan is to eliminate all al Qaeda sanctuaries.

You hardly hear about that from the anti-war Democrats in the Senate. But you did hear it from someone closer to the scene: Shiite lawmaker and close Maliki adviser Hassan al-Suneid. He is none too happy with the new American strategy. He complained bitterly about the overtures to Sunni groups in Anbar and Diyala. “These are gangs of killers,” he told the AP. Petraeus is following a plan according to a “purely American vision.”

How very true and very refreshing. We had been vainly pursuing an Iraqi vision that depended on people like Suneid and Maliki to make the grand bargain. So now, the American vision. “The strategy that Petraeus is following might succeed in confronting al Qaeda in the early period but it will leave Iraq an armed nation, an armed society and militias,” said Suneid.

Again, he is precisely right. His coalition would not or could not disarm the militias. So Petraeus has taken on the two extremes: (a) the Shiite militias and their Iranian Revolutionary Guard enablers, and (b) al Qaeda, with the help of local Sunnis.

For an interminable 18 months we waited for the 80 percent solution — for Maliki’s Shiite-Kurdish coalition to reach out to the Sunnis. The Petraeus-Crocker plan is the 20 percent solution: peel the Sunnis away from the insurgency by giving them the security and weaponry to fight the new common enemy — al Qaeda in Iraq.

Maliki & Co. are afraid we are arming Sunnis for the civil war to come. On the other hand, we might be creating a rough balance of forces that would act as a deterrent to all-out civil war and encourage a relatively peaceful accommodation.

In either case, that will be Iraq’s problem after we leave. For now, our problem is al Qaeda on the Sunni side and the extremist militias on the Shiite side. And we are making enough headway to worry people like Suneid. The Democrats might listen to him to understand how profoundly the situation is changing on the ground — and think twice before they pull the plug on this complicated, ruthless, hopeful “purely American vision.”

Obituaries - Kahlenberg

Source: http://www.samohialumni.org/40s.htm

Elizabeth Anne Longaker Kahlenberg, beloved wife of Arnold Kahlenberg, died of bone cancer Sunday, September 13, 1998 in Willingboro, NJ. She was 69. Born in Topeka, Kansas, Mrs. Kahlenberg was a longtime resident of Denver, CO, and Santa Monica, CA, before moving east with her husband in 1974. She was a 1947 Graduate of Santa Monica High School, Santa Monica, CA, playing drums in the band and piano with several other groups. She also attended City College. Elizabeth also enjoyed playing the organ and was a longtime church organist at the Church of God in Culver City.

She was married to Jack Bergal for 20 years and they had two daughters. After she and Jack were separated, Elizabeth worked for Litton for many years, where she met her Arnold, then worked for Computer Sciences Corporation in Virginia Beach, VA, and Moorestown, NJ. for 11 years before becoming disabled.

In addition to her husband, Arnold, Mrs. Kahlenberg is survived by 2 daughters and sons-in-law: Monica & Stephen Lange of Long Beach, CA, and Barbara & Donald Davison of Yardville; 2 Step-sons: Michael & David Price, both of Antioch, CA; grandchildren Mai Lan Woods, James Carroll, Eric Weldon, Michael Carroll, Michael Lange, Jackie Price, and Jonathan Price; great-grandchildren Tyler Weldon and Melanie Woods. Also surviving are a brother in Florida and 3 sisters in Denver, CO.

Despite her physical problems, she didn't let them get her down. She maintained her bright and cheery disposition and love of people up to the end, and attended a family reunion in Denver in July.

Kahlenberg, Arnold - 
KAHLENBERG ARNOLD, of Willingboro, NJ, son of the late Sol and Pauline Kahlenberg, passed away Wed., Dec. 18, 2002. Arnold was raised in Miami Beach, attended Miami Beach High School and the University of Florida. Arnie will be most remembered for his wit, love of music, photography, and all his special community service activities. He is survived by his children, Michael, David (fiancée, Ellen) Price, Monica (Stephen) Lange, Barbara (Donald) Davison; sister and brother-in-law, Lorraine and Lester Feuer; grandchildren, great grandchildren, nieces, nephews, friends and special friend, Irene Bolton. Services and interment will be 2:00 pm Friday, Dec. 20, 2002 at: NEBO - KENDALL CHAPEL 5900 SW 77 Ave. Miami (305) 274-0641 To visit this Guest Book Online, go To www.
 ....   More

Published in The Miami Herald from 12/19/2002 - 12/20/2002.

Tammy Faye Messner dies at 65

By STEVE HARTSOE, Associated Press Writer
56 minutes ago

RALEIGH, N.C. - Tammy Faye Messner, who as Tammy Faye Bakker helped her husband, Jim, build a multimillion-dollar evangelism empire and then watched it collapse in disgrace, has died. She was 65.

Messner had battled colon cancer since 1996 that more recently spread to her lungs. She died peacefully Friday at her home near Kansas City, Mo., said Joe Spotts, her manager and booking agent.

A family service was held Saturday in a private cemetery, where her ashes were interred, he said.

She had frequently spoken about her medical problems, saying she hoped to be an inspiration to others. "Don't let fear rule your life," she said. "Live one day at a time, and never be afraid." But she told well-wishers in a note on her Web site in May that the doctors had stopped trying to treat the cancer.

In an interview with CNN's Larry King two months later, an emaciated Messner — still using her trademark makeup — said, "I believe when I leave this earth, because I love the Lord, I'm going straight to heaven." Asked if she had any regrets, Messner said: "I don't think about it, Larry, because it's a waste of good brain space."

For many, the TV image of then-Mrs. Bakker forgiving husband Jim's infidelities, tears streaking her cheeks with mascara, became a symbol for the wages of greed and hypocrisy in 1980s America.

She divorced her husband of 30 years, with whom she had two children, in 1992 while he was in prison for defrauding millions from followers of their PTL television ministries. The letters stood for "Praise the Lord" or "People that Love."

Jim Bakker said in a statement that his ex-wife "lived her life like the song she sang, 'If Life Hands You a Lemon, Make Lemonade.'"

"She is now in Heaven with her mother and grandmother and Jesus Christ, the one who she loves and has served from childbirth," he said. "That is the comfort I can give to all who loved her."

Messner's second husband also served time in prison. She married Roe Messner, who had been the chief builder of the Bakkers' Heritage USA Christian theme park near Fort Mill, S.C., in 1993. In 1995, he was convicted of bankruptcy fraud, and he spent about two years in prison.

Through it all, Messner kept plugging her faith and herself. She did concerts, a short-lived secular TV talk show and an inspirational videotape. In 2004, she cooperated in the making of a documentary about her struggle with cancer, called "Tammy Faye: Death Defying."

"I wanted to help people ... maybe show the inside (of the experience) and make it a little less frightening," she said.

More recently, Tammy Faye kept in the public eye via her Web site.

"I cry out to the Lord knowing that many of you are praying for me," Messner wrote in a July 16 post in which she indicated she weighed 65 pounds. "In spite of it all, I get dressed and go out to eat. ... I crave hamburgers and french fries with LOTS of ketchup! When I can eat that again, it will be a day of victory!"

In 2004, she appeared on the WB reality show "The Surreal Life," co-starring with rapper Vanilla Ice, ex-porn star Ron Jeremy and others. She told King in 2004 that she didn't know who Jeremy was when they met and they became friends.

Messner was never charged with a crime in connection with the Bakker scandal. She said she counted the costs in other ways.

"I know what it's like to hit rock bottom," she said in promotional material for her 1996 video "You Can Make It."

In the mid-1980s, the Bakkers were on top, ruling over a ministry that claimed 500,000 followers. Their "Jim and Tammy Show," part TV talk show, part evangelism meeting, was seen across the country. Heritage USA boasted a 500-room hotel, shopping mall, convention center, water-amusement park, TV studio and several real-estate developments. PTL employed about 2,000 people.

Then in March 1987, Bakker resigned, admitting he had a tryst with Jessica Hahn, a 32-year-old former church secretary.

Tammy Faye Bakker stuck with her disgraced husband through five stormy years of tabloid headlines as the ministry unraveled.

Prosecutors said the PTL organization sold more than 150,000 "lifetime partnerships" promising lodging at the theme park but did not build enough hotel space with the $158 million in proceeds. At his fraud trial, Jim Bakker was accused of diverting $3.7 million to personal use even though he knew the ministry was financially shaky. Trial testimony showed PTL paid $265,000 to Hahn to cover up the sexual encounter with the minister.

Jim Bakker was convicted in 1989 of 24 fraud and conspiracy counts and sentenced to 45 years. The sentence was later reduced, and he was freed in 1994. He said that his wife's decision to leave him had been "like a meat hook deep in my heart. I couldn't eat for days."

While not charged, his then-wife shared during the 1980s in the public criticism and ridicule over the couple's extravagance, including the reportedly gold-plated bathroom fixtures and an air-conditioned doghouse.

There was even a popular T-shirt satirizing her image. The shirt read, "I ran into Tammy Faye at the shopping mall," with the lettering on top of what look like clots of mascara, traces of lipstick and smudges of peach-toned makeup.

In a 1992 letter to her New Covenant Church in Orlando, Fla., she explained why she finally was seeking a divorce.

"For years I have been pretending that everything is all right, when in fact I hurt all the time," she wrote.

"I cannot pretend anymore."

In the end, there wasn't any property to divide, her attorney said. The Bakkers lost their luxury homes in North Carolina, California and Tennessee, their fleet of Cadillacs and Mercedeses, and their vintage Rolls-Royce.

Her autobiography, "I Gotta Be Me," recounts a childhood as Tammy Faye LaValley, one of eight children of a poor family in International Falls, Minn. Her biological father walked out. She was reticent about her age, but a 2000 profile of her in the Star Tribune of Minneapolis said she was born in March 1942.

She recalled trying eye makeup for the first time, then wiping it off for fear it was the devil's work. Then she thought again.

"Why can't I do this?" she asked. "If it makes me look prettier, why can't I do this?"

She married Bakker in 1961, after they met at North Central Bible College in Minneapolis. Beginning with a children's puppet act, they created a religious show that brought a fundamentalist Protestant message to millions.

A secular TV talk program, the "Jim J. and Tammy Faye Show" with co-host Jim J. Bullock, lasted just six weeks in early 1996. Shortly after it went off the air, she underwent surgery for colon cancer.

She said afterward that she endured bleeding for a year because she was embarrassed to go to a male doctor. And she wore her makeup even in surgery.

"They didn't make me take it off," she said. "I had wonderful doctors and understanding nurses. I went in fully made up and came out fully made up."

Survivors include her husband and her two children, Jamie Charles Bakker of New York City and Tammy Sue Chapman of Charlotte.

Spotts said that the family is considering a public memorial service for the coming weeks, but that nothing had been finalized Saturday.
___
On the Net:
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/ap/ap_on_re_us/storytext/obit_tammy_faye_messner/23829489/SIG=10qfrdtb0/*http://www.tammyfaye.com

Spoof Song Dissected: "The Last Duet" Sung by Barry Manilow with Lily Tomlin (1980)

Source: http://www.lyricsmajor.com/barry-manilow/the-last-duet-with-lily-tomlin.html


Lily:
You creep
Into my heart
And make my heart burn

Barry:
You sneak
Into my mind
And make my head ache

Both:
There are things I long to tell you

Lily:
You're much too blonde

Barry:
You snore

Both:
Look
It's time to face the music

Barry:
Bye bye

Lily:
Don't slam the door
And I don't want

Barry:
I don't want

Lily:
I don't want

Barry:
I don't want

Both:
No, I don't want your flowers anymore

This is the last duet
Last chance you're gonna get
No more ha harmony
For you and me

This is the final song
And when the music's through
This is the last duet
I'll ever do with you

Barry:
You're not the one that I want
Ooh ooh ooh
Tood-le-oo (Honey)

Lily:
Don't go breakin' my back
Don't call me
I'll call you

Both:
Back together
Reunited
Should feel so good
They say
So I hope there's no hard feelings

Barry:
Don't go 'way mad

Lily:
Just go 'way

Both:
'Cause
Enough
Is enough
Is enough
Is enough
Too much too little too late

Lily:
Tonight

Barry:
Tonight

Both:
With you I'm bored again

This is the last duet
Last chance you're gonna get
No more ha harmony
For you and me

This is the final song
And when the music's through
This is the last duet
I'll ever do with you

Both:
This is the last duet
Last chance you're gonna get
No more ha harmony
For you and me

This is the final song
And when the music's through
This is the last duet
I'll ever do
I'll ever do
I'll never never never never never do
With you


List of 1970s and early 1980 duets spoofed
"You Don't Bring Me Flowers" (Neil Diamond and Barbra Streisand 1978 duet)
"You're The One That I Want" (Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta 1978 duet from Grease)
"Don't Go Breaking My Heart" (Elton John and Kiki Dee 1976 duet)
"Reunited" (Peaches & Herb 1979 duo)
"No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)" (Barbra Streisand and Donna Summer duet)
"Too Much, Too Little, Too Late" (Johnny Mathis & Deniece Williams 1978 duet)
"With You I'm Born Again" (Billy Preston & Syreeta 1979 duet)
"Whenever I Call You Friend" (Kenny Loggins & Stevie Nicks 1978 duet)

Engagement: Weinstein-Burns

Source: http://www.jewishexponent.com/article/13412/

WEINSTEIN-BURNS

July 05, 2007

Randi Weinstein, and Michael P. Burns and Nancy Madden announce the engagement of their children, Amee Beth Weinstein and Michael Joseph Burns. Amee is the daughter of the late Mark R. Weinstein.

Amee, a graduate of Bensalem High School, is a mortgage opener at Cardinal Financial. She will attend school this month to become an EMT.

Michael, a graduate of Truman High School, is an emergency-room technician at Lower Bucks Hospital, an EMT, as well as the owner of American Life Ambulance.

Amy is the granddaughter of Reuben Levin and Thelma Weinstein. Michael is the grandson of Delores Burns.

The couple is planning a July wedding, followed by a reception in August.

Obituary - Rita M. (Seban) Gettis

Source: http://obits.oregonlive.com/Philly/DeathNotices.asp?Page=Notice&PersonID=90198115

GETTIS
RITA M. GETTIS (Seban), age 86, of Delran NJ, on July 2, 2007. Mrs. Gettis was born in Philadelphia PA and resided in Delran. She had worked as a hairdresser and was a parishioner of St. Peter's Church in Riverside NJ. Mrs. Gettis is the wife of the late Edwin F. Sr. She is survived by Edwin F. Jr. (Bonnie) and Donna McCall. She is the grandmother of Ryan and Corrin Gettis, Brynn McCall and Michelle Lopinto. Mass will be celebrated Friday, 11:30 A.M. at St. Peter Church Riverside. Ent. St. Peter's Mausoleum, River-side. Donations to American Cancer Society 1851 Old Cuthbert Blvd. Cherry Hill NJ 08034. thegettisfamily@

sweeneyfuneralhome.net

Published in the Philadelphia Inquirer & Philadelphia Daily News on 7/5/2007.
Notice • Guest Book • Flowers • Gift Shop

(Illegal) N.J. man accused of sex crimes: Police link him to attacks in Moorestown and Mass.

Source: http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/nj/20070717_N_J__man_accused_of_sex_crimes.html

By Rita Giordano

Inquirer Staff Writer

A fingerprint left at the scene of an attempted sexual assault in Massachusetts and some dogged police work led to the arrest of a Delran man who Burlington County authorities allege raped a Moorestown woman in her home in 2005 and tried to assault another woman two days later.

Marcelo G. Mota, 28, of Tenby Chase Drive in Delran, was apprehended Friday night as he left a restaurant on Haddonfield Road in Cherry Hill. He was charged on a fugitive warrant from Massachusetts in connection with an investigation there into sexual attacks in 2003.

The warrant involved an August 2003 home invasion in Hopkinton, Mass., during which the victim was sexually assaulted, according to Massachusetts authorities. They said they planned to file charges against Mota in connection with two rapes earlier the same month in Westborough, Mass.

Mota's New Jersey charges include aggravated sexual assault and two counts of burglary.

"This was a very brazen attack in all cases," said Burlington County Prosecutor Robert D. Bernardi.

Bernardi alleged that Mota had told his victims that he was armed. In some cases, Bernardi said, he threatened them with weapons or with hurting members of their family. In one case, the victim's three teenagers were home at the time of the attack.

Mota was held yesterday on $1 million bail. During a court hearing, Assistant Prosecutor Kevin Morgan said Mota had confessed to the Moorestown crimes. Massachusetts authorities said he also admitted to the assaults there. Mota previously lived in Framingham.

During a news conference yesterday, Bernardi described Mota as a Brazilian national living here illegally and who worked in Delran as a translator for a tax agency. While leaving the restaurant at the time of his arrest, he was with a woman on a date, Bernardi said. The prosecutor declined to name the restaurant or Mota's employer.

Mota's arrest was the result of interstate police cooperation, scientific evidence, various databases and old-fashioned police work.

Bernardi said that in January 2006, investigators learned that DNA evidence collected in the Moorestown rape case matched those taken from the two 2003 sexual assaults in Westborough. All three samples had been submitted to a national DNA database index used by law enforcement. Neither jurisdiction had been able to attach a name to the samples, and they began to work with each other.

Locally, investigators began combing through Burlington County traffic-stop records from 1999 to 2007, looking for people with Massachusetts license plates. When Mota's name came up in connection with a routine 2005 traffic stop in Delanco, they checked his criminal record and found a domestic-violence arrest. Bernardi said that arrest involved his now-estranged wife, who lives in California.

The arrest record gave investigators Mota's fingerprints, which were checked against a fingerprint found at the scene of one of the Massachusetts cases - an attempted sexual assault in Hopkinton.

Last Thursday, Burlington County investigators learned of the fingerprint match. Bernardi said Mota was put under surveillance while the fugitive warrant was prepared. He was taken into custody without incident about 11:15 p.m. Friday.

Bernardi said he believed that DNA tests would confirm Mota's involvement in the Moorestown rape. He did not rule out further charges.

"We're going to be reviewing all our open cases," Bernardi said.

Mota was known to have lived in Massachusetts and Delran, but authorities are not certain where else he may have circulated. At the time of his arrest, Bernardi said, he had a Washington state driver's license.

Gerry Leone, the district attorney in Middlesex, Mass., said in a statement that the charges indicate that, with scientific advances, "people who commit serious violent crimes may try to run, but eventually we will catch up with them and hold them accountable to the greatest extent of the law."

---

Contact staff writer Rita Giordano at 856-779-3841 or rgiordano@phillynews.com.

Delran Middle School principal dies

Source: http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/112-07182007-1379504.html

July 18, 2007 6:08 AM

By TODD MCHALE
Burlington County Times

DELRAN — “He was a gentle giant.”

James A. Duda's son Troy said yesterday that is the best way to describe his father.

“He was a big man, but his heart was the biggest thing about him,” Troy Duda said of the longtime Delran Middle School principal.

Duda, 59, died suddenly Monday of a heart attack at Lourdes Medical Center of Burlington County in Willingboro.

Born in Reading, Pa., Duda earned his bachelor's and master's degrees from Xavier University in Ohio. After teaching science in Cincinnati and working as an administrator at two Pennsylvania school districts, Duda moved to Delran in 1980 to accept the position of assistant principal at Delran High School.

Eight years ago, Duda was promoted to principal of Delran Middle School.

Delran schools Superintendent George Sharp said yesterday the school community has suffered a tremendous loss with the untimely death of Duda.

“Mr. Duda was a legend in the Delran community as a devoted son, loving husband, father and grandfather, concerned citizen and remarkable educator,” Sharp said. “He was known for his passion for education and his commitment to the success of all students....

“We were so fortunate to have a citizen and educator of Mr. Duda's caliber as a member of the Delran community for 27 years, and he touched the lives and hearts of generations of students in his role as assistant principal at Delran High School and, more recently, as the principal of the Delran Middle School.”

Duda's son Jimmy said his father loved working in education.

“Education wasn't just a job to him, it was his life,” Jimmy Duda said.

While the students came and went over the years, Duda never stopped caring about their well-being.

Jimmy Duda recalled how he once was out with his dad and a former student came up and started talking to him about some family problems.

Instead of shying away from the conversation, Duda took the time to console the man.

“That's just the way he was,” Jimmy Duda said of his father. “He was the most kind, caring, compassionate man I've ever known.”

Duda's daughter Diana Duda Mongo said her father couldn't have loved his family any more than he did, but he also wanted to help others.

She said every year her father would find a family in need and do something special for them for Christmas.

“He would just do it without anyone knowing about it,” Diana Duda Mongo said. “He was a living legend. He took care of everybody. My dad was my rock, and I don't know what I'm going to do without him.”

Duda's son Michael Duda said that when his grandfather fell ill recently, his dad drove to Reading, Pa., every day after school to help his grandfather learn how to walk again.

The family said it was just Duda's nature to be there for others.

“No matter what he had, if someone needed something he was ready to help,” Duda's wife, Ethel Marie Duda said. “He was just a good man.”

Friends and relatives are invited to attend Duda's life celebration and viewing at St. Casimir's Church on New Jersey Avenue in Riverside tomorrow from 3 to 7 p.m.

The Funeral Mass will be celebrated at St. Casimir's Church at 9:30 a.m. Friday.

In lieu of flowers, the family has requested that memorial contributions be made to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, 1415 Route 70, Suite 502, Cherry Hill, NJ 08034.

E-Mail: TODD MCHALE

James Andrew Duda, 59, Delran, N.J., died suddenly July 16, 2007, in Lourdes Medical Center, Willingboro, N.J.

He was the beloved husband of Ethel Marie (Elberfeld) Duda.

Born in Reading, he was a son of Andrew and Margaret Duda, Reading.

A resident of Delran for 27 years, Jim was principal at Delran Middle School for the last eight years and vice principal at Delran High School for more than 18 years. He was a professor at Eastern University and had more than 40 years in the education profession.

He was a Eucharist minister at St. Casimir’s Roman Catholic Church, Riverside, N.J., and a member of the Knights of Columbus 1436 in Delran.

Jim was a football coach for the Delran AA Pop Warner League.

He was the loving father of Troy (Julie) Duda, Diana (Scott) Duda Mongo, Michael (Tina) Duda and James (his fiancee, Kristy) Duda; brother of Diane (Robert) Woodland and Andrew (Barbara) Duda; and dear grandfather of Casey, Alisha and Emily.

He also is survived by many nieces, nephews and his buddy, Scout.

Relatives and friends are invited to attend Jim’s Life Celebration and viewing today from 3 to 7 p.m. in St. Casimir’s Church, 502 New Jersey Ave., Riverside, N.J. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated Friday at 9:30 a.m. in St. Casimir’s Church. Burial will be Friday at 1 p.m. in Nativity BVM Cemetery, Reading.

In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, 1415 Route 70, Suite 502, Cherry Hill, NJ 08034. Family service by Snover/Givnish of Cinnaminson, N.J.

Published in the Reading Eagle from 7/18/2007 - 7/19/2007.