Martin Lafferty, a longtime TV executive who oversaw groundbreaking pay-per-view coverage of the Summer Olympics while at NBC, helped launch networks at Turner Broadcasting System and helped steer several new-media startups, died on April 5 after a sudden illness, according to friends and a published obituary. He was 76 years old and is survived by his wife, Sari Lafferty, two children and grandchildren. 

The recipient of awards from cable-industry organizations NCTA (President's Award) and CTAM (TAMI), Lafferty served in video-content management roles at entities including Microsoft TV, FutureVision and Tempo TV after working as VP of NBC’s Olympics joint venture with Cablevision, where he provided hands-on supervision of the first multichannel coverage of the Summer Games via pay-per-view channels, according to personal biographies and contemporary news coverage of the venture. While the “Triplecast” experiment (which showed events on three pay-per-view channels) was financially unsuccessful due to low consumer demand, no one today would scoff at multiplatform TV coverage of such a wide-ranging set of athletic events. According to his personal biographies, while at Turner Broadcasting Lafferty also worked on the reformatting and relaunching of CNN2 as Headline News and the creation and launch of TNT. He formed Lafferty Media Partners in 2002 to continue some of the creative projects that had been incubated at digital television production/distribution firm Zoom Culture (ZCTV), where he was president and CEO, a LMP biography on LinkedIn states. He also served as chief creative officer at StreamSearch Live, a search engine focused on live streaming content, and as CEO of the Distributed Computing Industry Association, a trade group aimed concerned with commercial development of peer-to-peer file sharing. FutureVision, where he was president in the mid 1990s, partnered with the phone company Bell Atlantic on a pioneering “video dialtone” offering of multichannel TV to consumers in competition against cable.

Lafferty was professionally trained as a film and television producer-director, earning his master of fine arts degree at the Yale School of Drama, his biographies note, and he combined that love with a passion for safe boating in a more recent venture, into his legacy educating others through his Lafferty Media Partners-produced videos on America's Boating Channel. He was actively involved with the United States Power Squadrons, also known as America's Boating Club, where he was a past district commander and advanced pilot.

A memorial service will be held on Thursday, April 10, at 10:30 a.m. at Congregation Ahavat Olam Rabbi Idan Irelander in North Andover, Massachusetts.

The Broadcasters Foundation of America shares said that its longtime president and broadcaster Jim Thompson died at age 75 on August 14, after battling against throat cancer for nearly a year. His family asked that, in lieu of flowers, donations be made to The Jim Thompson Memorial Fund, established by the Broadcasters Foundation in honor of Thompson’s dedication and service to the broadcasting industry and to the foundation’s charitable cause of providing financial aid to radio and TV professionals in acute need.

“I am very proud to have known Jim for nearly 40 years as a colleague and a friend,” Scott Herman, chairman of the Broadcasters Foundation, said. “Jim believed deeply in helping others and his passion and enthusiasm for life always lit up a room. Broadcasting has lost a great man, who always saw the positive in every person and every situation. He will be sorely missed.”

Thompson took over the reins of the Broadcasters Foundation in 2009, guiding the charitable organization to more than quadruple the amount of financial aid it distributes to radio and TV professionals from $400,000 to nearly $2 million last year, the foundation said.

“When the board of directors was searching for a president, Jim’s reputation as a leader combined with his compassion for others and his ability to rally people together made him the perfect choice,” Phil Lombardo, chairman emeritus of the Broadcasters Foundation, said. “His accomplishments over the past 13 years helped the many TV and Radio professionals who found themselves in unthinkable circumstances and in need of aid. Our sincere sympathies go out to his family.”

Thompson had planned to retire from the foundation at the end of this year. 

The National Association of Broadcasters president and CEO Curtis LeGeyt said: "Jim Thompson’s illustrious career in broadcasting and legacy of service to the industry had a resounding impact. His boundless generosity and passionate leadership of the Broadcasters Foundation helped countless broadcasters overcome adversity and persevere in their darkest moments. NAB extends our deepest condolences to Jim’s family and all whose lives he touched."

Thompson had been president and CEO of Group W Radio, the second largest radio company in the country during his leadership, and along with Mike Craven he was co-owner of Liberty Broadcasting, a 19-station radio group concentrated on the East Coast. He began his broadcasting career as an account executive at KYW-TV, Philadelphia in 1971, where he rose to vice president and general manager, the BFOA said.

Thompson also created the Radio-Mercury Awards to encourage and reward excellence in radio creative, BFOA said He served on the boards of the Radio Advertising Bureau and the Advertising Council, was vice chairman of the Pennsylvania State Broadcasters Association and a member of numerous committees, including the NAB Radio Futures Committee. Thompson served in Vietnam in the U.S. Army, BFOA said.

Bill McGorry is chairman of the Broadcasting+Cable Hall of Fame, which helps support the BFOA, and a longtime friend of Thompson's. "During my tenure as Chairman of the B&C Hall of Fame, Jim Thompson arrived 13 years ago and we shared a great journey," McGorry said. "His tireless commitment to the Broadcasters Foundation enabled extraordinary growth to the benefit of those who needed it most. And I personally will miss his friendship and support. A truly goodfella!" 

Thompson is survived by his wife Cindy; his five children, Meghan Cima, Shannon Gardiner and her husband James, Katie McElwee and her husband Tommy, James Thompson and his wife Madison, Molly Thompson; seven grandchildren and his brothers John and Thomas.  

To make a donation to the Jim Thompson Memorial Fund, please click here: https://bfoa.app.neoncrm.com/forms/jimthompsonfund.

The Broadcasters Foundation of America provides financial aid to broadcasters who have lost their livelihood through a catastrophic event, debilitating disease, or unforeseen tragedy. Personal donations can be made to the foundation’s Guardian Fund. Corporate contributions are accepted through the Angel Initiative, and bequests can be made through the Foundation’s Legacy Society. For more information, please visit www.broadcastersfoundation.org, call 212-373-8250, or email info@thebfoa.org. ■

Laura Nelson, a media veteran who has led communications operations at industry powerhouses like Nielsen, Comedy Central, VH1 and MTV for nearly three decades, died Aug. 20 after a battle with cancer. She was 55 years old.

A Boston College graduate, Nelson got her start in the PR business with Dan Klores Associates in New York, but was best known as one of the top communications professionals in the media business, leading PR efforts at various networks like Comedy Central, Oxygen, VH1 and MTV between 1993 and 2007. She joined The Gilbride Group, a strategic integrated marketing company focusing on non-profit and media clients, working with clients like the Gates Foundation, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and the United Nations, as managing director in 2007, and in 2012 she moved to Current TV, where she headed up that company's communications efforts.

Nelson joined ratings measurement giant Nielsen as chief communications officer in 2014, a position she continued to hold at the time of her death. 

She is survived by her husband James A. Kremens, and two children Charles H. Kremens and Annabelle D. Kremens, all of Westport, Connecticut, as well as three siblings: Gina Wilcox (Brady) of Old Lyme, Connecticut; Paul F. Nelson (Julie) of Wilmette, Illinois; and Andrew Nelson (Meghan) of Cincinnati, Ohio.

According to her obituary, a mass of Christian burial will be held on Friday, Aug. 27, at 11 a.m. at The Church of the Assumption in Westport.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to The Cancer Couch Foundation. A fund to help finance metastatic breast cancer research at Memorial Sloan Kettering and Dana-Farber Institute has been set up to honor Nelson, and the Cancer Couch Foundation has pledged to match 100% of donations.

Paul Kagan, whose approach to research revolutionized the way analysts, Wall Street and the media industry itself looked at the cable business, died Aug. 23. He was 82 years old.

According to an obituary written by his family, the cause of death was kidney failure. 

Kagan is best known for his Carmel, Calif.-based research company, Paul Kagan Associates, which he founded in 1969 after a one-year stint as a broadcasting industry analyst for E.F. Hutton. Kagan was the first analyst to value cable companies based on multiples of cash flow -- instead of the traditional earnings valuations -- a move that more accurately tracked the then-fledgling industry.

In 2000 Kagan sold Paul Kagan Associates to Primedia. He stayed with the firm he founded for five years, forming PK Worldwide media in 2005, also based in Carmel. Primedia sold Paul Kagan Associates to MCG Capital in 2004, which renamed it Kagan Research LLC. In 2007, MCG sold the company to SNL Financial and in 2015 McGraw-Hill Financial purchased SNL Financial, including the Kagan properties. The research company continues to operate as Kagan, a unit of S&P Global Market Intelligence.   

At its height, Paul Kagan Associates maintained offices in Carmel; Denver; London; and Hong Kong, published 38 newsletters, 95 databooks, conducted a dozen high-level conferences each year and valued billions of dollars worth of companies, provided expert witness testimony and consulted for leading companies and government agencies.   

Friends, colleagues, business leaders and family remembered Kagan as an innovator, a dedicated family man and mentor, who enjoyed a good joke and who lived life to the fullest.  

He was named to The Cable Center Hall of Fame in 2011 and was a co-founder and director of The Cable Center, a co-founder and Director Emeritus of the John Bayliss Broadcast Foundation, which offers grants to students seeking a career in radio, a fellow of the New York Society of Security Analysts and a member of the Media Analysts Group of New York. 

Kagan is survived by his wife of 62 years Florrie, daughters Melanie (Ross) Canter, Linda (Ron) Cosmero and grandchildren Mia Canter, Gabe Canter and Matthew Cosmero. 

The family said in memory of Kagan that it will be donating to the Warriors Community Foundation, which is dedicated to making a meaningful and lasting impact on the lives of underserved youth in the San Francisco Bay Area. 

Shaw Communications founder, executive chairman and former CEO JR Shaw died Tuesday, according to the company. He was 85 years old.

Known as "JR," James Robert Shaw was born in 1934 on a family farm in Brigden, Ontario and helped build the Canadian cable business, founding Capital Cable Television in 1966 in Edmonton, Alberta. During the next several years, he built Shaw Communications (it changed the name after going public in 1983) into one of the biggest cable companies in Canada. It currently has about 7 million video, voice, data and wireless customers and around 10,000 employees.

Shaw was an aggressive buyer and seller of small and large cable systems. The company later built a substantial radio and television broadcasting group, spinning out those assets into a separate company -- Corus Entertainment -- in 1991.

Shaw expanded into the U.S. in 2001 through its purchase of Canadian operator Moffat Communications, which also had some systems in Florida and Texas. U.S. Those properties were sold -- to Bright House Networks (now Charter Communications) and Cequel III (now Suddenlink) in 2003. 

JR Shaw retired in 1998, passing the baton to his now late son Jim, but remaining as executive chairman of the company. Through the year he continued to play a role in the business.

“My family and I are at a loss for words and are deeply saddened at JR’s passing,” Brad Shaw, CEO of Shaw Communications and JR’s youngest son, said in a press release. “JR was the founder and leader of our company, but he was also an exceptional husband, a loving father, grandfather and great-grandfather. His legacy of love and compassion for people will live on for generations.”

“I spoke to JR every day about the business,” Brad Shaw continued. He was engaged and interested in everything the company was doing – from the latest technology being rolled out to how we were meeting the needs of families across Western Canada. We know we will miss his smile, his advice and his encouragement, but all of our people know that JR would want us looking out for each other, for our neighbours, and serving our customers to the best of our abilities. Our tribute to him will be to continue to grow the business he loved.”

Colleagues and business associates remembered JR Shaw as smart, engaging and visionary.

“JR – that’s how we all knew him – was an archetype of the cable entrepreneur,” said SCTE-ISBE president and CEO Mark Dzuban. “He always had the best interests of the industry at heart, even when acting in Shaw’s own self-interest might have been more advantageous. He knew how to get things done, but it was his honesty, his integrity and the value he placed on personal relationships that really stood out.”

“JR was an icon in the industry, and he was extraordinarily passionate in delivering connectivity and customer service to millions of Canadians,” Shaw Communications lead director Paul Pew said in the press release. “His vision and insight combined with his warmth of character created a magic touch among everyone who knew and worked with him. His remarkable legacy will live on through his family’s continued leadership of the company.”

Shaw has received numerous awards and honors over the years, including being named Officer of the Order of Canada, a recipient of the Alberta Order of Excellence, honorary degrees from University of Alberta, University of Calgary, and Graceland University in Lamoni, Iowa and being named to the Canadian Business Hall of Fame and the Cable Hall of Fame in 2010. He also helped create the Shaw Charity Classic, a PGA Tour event that has raised more than $48 million for Alberta charities since 2013, according to the company.

Shaw Communications said that Brad Shaw will assume JR’s role as executive chairman on an interim basis in addition to his CEO duties. The appointment is expected to be confirmed at Shaw’s annual board meeting on April 9.

“The board of directors and all employees of Shaw Communications express their deepest condolences and sympathy to the Shaw family for their loss,” Shaw’s board said in the press release.

JR Shaw is survived by his wife Carol, son Brad, daughters Heather and Julie and his sisters Bertha and Dolly as well as several grandchildren and great-grandchildren. He was predeceased by his son Jim and brother Les. Funeral arrangements are not known at this time.

Carole Shander, 79, a public relations executive and consultant for cable television networks, who loved her friends and fashion, died of metastatic breast cancer Wednesday, Nov. 13, at home in Bryn Mawr, Pa.

During her 50-year career in public relations, Shander met numerous entertainers, actors and directors. She kept a photo taken with Omar Sharif when she was promoting American Movie Classics.

One memorable celebrity encounter, though, happened before she was a publicist. In October 1965, she was working as a ranger giving tours at Independence National Historical Park when Stevie Wonder visited the Liberty Bell. The then 15-year-old was in Philadelphia to perform in a Motown Revue.

Shander placed the blind singer’s hands on the bell and traced his fingers over the crack. A photograph of Shander in her Park Service uniform and Stevie Wonder at the bell was published in The Philadelphia Tribune.

“I thought I would get in trouble because I had on boots instead of the pumps we were supposed to wear,“ she told friends. Carole Shander was always pushing fashion boundaries.

Born in Philadelphia to Ribby Doner Shander and Irving Shander, Carole Shander grew up in Wynnefield with her younger brother Ira. In January 1958 she graduated from Overbrook High School. She attended the University of Pennsylvania as a journalism major on a Philadelphia Board of Education scholarship. Ruth Waldman Schultz, a friend from childhood and a Penn classmate, said Shander took extra courses to graduate a semester early in June 1961.

After leaving the Park Service, Shander worked in public relations at the Free Library of Philadelphia. Then for seven years she was director of development and communication for the Philadelphia Bar Association.

From 1981 to 1994 she held various corporate communications positions with Cablevision Systems Corp. in New York. She then was a consultant for cable networks. From 2001 to 2006 she was vice president of public relations for Court TV Network.

From 2006 until retiring in her early 70s, Shander consulted for cable networks including A&E, The History Channel, The Biography Channel and History en Espanol.

In the 1990s she offered a “PR 101” course at Insight Communications to young publicists. In an interview in 1998 for Multichannel News, Shander said, “We’re trying to teach them that they are the ambassadors of a new age for cable.” She told her students they needed to get to know their local beat reporters. Good cable network publicists, she said, can get reporters to detail service improvements and programming additions early in the stories, while rate increases are mentioned lower.

She advised, “Call reporters back promptly and tell them all that you can, but always be truthful. If you can't comment, let them know that, too.”

At Penn, Shander , who never married, and Ruth Schultz were Delta Phi Epsilon sorority sisters. “At sorority reunions,” Schultz said, “women would get up and talk about their children. Carole would say she had no children but mentoring young people gave her a great sense of joy.” The young people included Schultz’s four daughters and cable industry men and women who went on to have very successful careers.

While at Cablevision Ms. Shander hired Ed Carroll to promote Bravo TV. “I thought Ed had a lot of talent,” she told friends. Carroll is now COO of AMC Networks Inc., overseeing all operations. He was instrumental in developing original series such as Mad Men, Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead. 

Shander also hired Barry Rosenberg when she was with Cablevision. He went on to become vice president of communications for Bravo and Oxygen Media.

“Carole had an extraordinary gift for making friends," her brother, Ira, said. “She befriended neighbors, the cashier at the supermarket, her doctors and nurses, the vendors in stores where she shopped, the young and old alike.”

Shander enjoyed travel abroad with her brother and with friends; reading books about social history and shopping for stylish clothes, shoes, bags and jewelry.

“Her fashion sense was legendary, as was her pursuit of beautiful clothes at bargain prices,“ Ruth Schultz said. “ She was a fashion icon, always on the edge of haute couture. She wore it all flawlessly and inspired legions of devotees.”

“Also,” Schultz said, “She was considered an aunt to her friends’ children and followed them through their lives as their confidant and cheerleader.” 

Her brother, Ira, survives. Services were private. Donations may be made to the Abramson Center for Jewish Life, 1425 Horsham Rd., North Wales, PA, 19454. 

Story contributed by Sally A. Downey.

TV and film writer, producer and director Garry Marshall died Tuesday (July 19) at the age of 81.

Marshall’s work in television included creating and producing the original The Odd Couple (1970-75), Happy Days (1974-84), Laverne & Shirley (1976-83) -- starring sister Penny Marshall -- and Mork & Mindy (1978-82), which introduced audiences to late comedian Robin Williams.

Most recently in TV, Marshall served as an executive consultant on CBS's reboot of The Odd Couple, in which he also played Oscar Madison’s father.

Related:Garry Marshall Enters the New Era of TV Comedy: A 2013 Q&A

Marshall directed several films as well, including Pretty Woman, Beaches, Runaway Bride and The Princess Diaries.

Read more, including Twitter tributes, at broadcastingcable.com.

Cable networks are preparing tributes to R&B music icon Prince, who died suddenly Thursday afternoon (April 21).

The multiple Grammy-winning performer died  in Minneapolis at age 57, according to CNN and other news outlets, shocking the music and entertainment world.

RELATED:Prince Tribute Specials Continue To Pour In | MTV Acknowledges Prince's Passing During Upfront

Fans and celebrities immediately took to social media to post tributes for Prince, and President Barack Obama joined in the mourning, issuing a statement soon after the news broke.

"Today, the world lost a creative icon," the president said. "Michelle and I join millions of fans from around the world in mourning the sudden death of Prince. Few artists have influenced the sound and trajectory of popular music more distinctly, or touched quite so many people with their talent. As one of the most gifted and prolific musicians of our time, Prince did it all. Funk. R&B. Rock and roll. He was a virtuoso instrumentalist, a brilliant bandleader, and an electrifying performer.

"'A strong spirit transcends rules,' Prince once said -- and nobody's spirit was stronger, bolder, or more creative," President Obama continued. "Our thoughts and prayers are with his family, his band and all who loved him.”

Several cable networks also released statements on the his passing. BET released a statement saying the news “weighs heavily on our hearts,” adding that he was a “musical prodigy, a beautiful spirit and fashion provocateur who influenced American culture.” BET Chair and CEO Debra Lee took to Twitter, writing, "Saddened by the death of @Prince, a dear friend of mine & entire @BET family. Rest in Power, Purple King. #RIPPrince”

BET founder Robert L. Johnson also paid homage to Prince: "I will miss his idiosyncratic and quirky ways which fascinated me during the times we met when I was running BET, and of course his indelible imprint on the world of music. Purple Rain is falling all over the world today!"

MTV, which plans to refer to Prince’s death during its upfront presentation Thursday afternoon in New York and was airing the performer's music videos all afternoon, said in a statement it is “heartbroken and in utter disbelief at the news that the world has lost Prince Rogers Nelson so suddenly and so before his time."

"Prince was a once-in-a-lifetime artist who transcended every medium and genre he touched and created music with a passion and individuality that inspired multiple generations," the network said. "Our hearts and prayers go out to his family, friends and millions of fans."

John Eggerton also contributed to this story.

Cable networks CMT and AXS TV will pay tribute to legendary country music singer Merle Haggard, who passed away earlier today, with special programming airing over the next few days.

CMT tonight will air a special, CMT Remembers Merle Haggard, in tribute to the country star, who died Wednesday on his birthday at 79 years of age. The special will feature never-before-seen footage and interviews, vintage performance clips and commentary from Haggard himself as well as some of country music’s biggest stars, including Miranda Lambert, Toby Keith, Florida Georgia Line, Vince Gill, Wynonna Judd, Dwight Yoakam, Brooks & Dunn and Bobby Bare.

Tomorrow, CMT and CMT Music will launch an all-day tribute featuring Haggard’s greatest songs and videos,network officials said.  

“Merle Haggard’s achievements must be counted among the greatest in all of popular music history, not just country music,” Brian Philips, president of CMT, said. "His poetic and melodic genius, and of course his indelible, influential voice, will live forever. CMT will honor our friend accordingly."

AXS TV Friday (April 8) will offer a special airing of its series The Big Interview, featuring Dan Rather's 2013 interview with Haggard, AXS officials said. In addition, the network on Friday will air the 2004 concert Merle Haggard-Live at Billy Bob’s Texas, which features Haggard singing several of his most popular songs, including "Ol’ Country Singer," Natural High" and his cover of Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues," the network said. 

David Carr, the New York Times media columnist whose coverage ranged from television and film to the decline of print and the rise of digital media, died Thursday night (Feb. 12) in Manhattan at the age of 58. According to the Times, he collapsed in the newsroom before 9 p.m. and was pronounced dead shortly after at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital in Manhattan.

The cause of his death was not immediately known. Earlier in the day, Carr had moderated a "Times Talks" panel discussion for the film Citizenfour that featured subject Edward J. Snowden, director Laura Poitras and journalist Glenn Greenwald.

Carr joined the Times in 2002. He began as a business reporter, and originated the paper's Hollywood awards-season feature "The Carpetbagger." He went on to write deeply reported pieces of massive scope — notably his 2010 piece on the ransacking of Tribune Company under mogul Sam Zell, featured in the 2011 documentary Page One (see photo) — as well as celebrity profiles typically featured on the front of the arts-and-leisure section. His column "Media Equation" documented the tension between legacy and digital media as the latter ascended and the former struggled to adapt.

Prior to the Times, Carr worked at Twin Cities Reader in Minnesota, Washington City Paper and Inside.com, and wrote for The Atlantic and New York magazine. In his 2008 memoir The Night of the Gun, he documented his path to the Times and his struggles as a recovering crack cocaine addict. .

Of joining the Times, Carr wrote in his memoir: “I got a call from Dave, the media editor at The New York Times, who had read some of my work at Inside, and he asked if I was interested in talking about a job. I thought it was the most preposterous thing I had ever heard.”

The Times published Carr's obituary on its front page this morning (Feb. 13).

Read more, including the reaction on Twitter, at broadcastingcable.com.

Lynne Buening, 61, a longtime programming and marketing executive in the cable-TV industry, died on Nov. 6 following a seven-year battle with a chronic blood disorder, family and friends said. A memorial service has been scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 6, at 11 a.m. (after visitation at 10 a.m.) at the Norman Chapel at Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati.

A Cincinnati native, she graduated from Marian High School and received her bachelor of arts degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Her career in the telecommunications industry early on included marketing and sales positions in newspaper, broadcasting and cable operations, including at the Playboy Channel and as programming director at Viacom Cable. In 1993 she became vice president of programming and a corporate officer at Los Angeles-based Falcon Cable, then a top-10 cable provider (later sold to Charter Communications). She continued working in the industry as an independent consultant for RCN, where she was head of programming, and other cable operators.

An avid traveler, she was always planning her next adventure and eagerly recruited family and friends to join her on trips to destinations around the globe or simply to visit her in the cities she lived, which included Chicago, Denver, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Washington, D.C.

Michael Buening, her nephew, who followed her into the cable industry with her help and encouragement, said she was very well known by her friends and family for her support, involvement and generosity, and enjoyed helping people, personally and professionally. 

Skip Harris, a former Falcon Cable colleague, and his wife, Victoria Harris, remained close friends with Buening, who made Victoria's wedding dress. Before she moved from Los Angeles to the Washington, D.C., area to work for RCN, "Lynne ran her own small business designing and manufacturing beaded hand bags, wallets and eye glass cases," Harris said. "She launched a small manufacturing facility in Vietnam and supported a small village employing many of the town’s people. She established a day care center for the children of the employees so the parents could work in her facility. She travelled to Vietnam two to three times a year during this period. She continued to consult to cable networks and distributors even as she ran this small hand bag business."

“Lynne was a tough negotiator, wonderful giving friend, world traveler and a fun and competitive dominoes champ," Harris said. "We both treasured our relationship with her and will miss her clever ‘one-liners’ that always made you smile.”

Lynne Buening is survived by her 99-year-old mother, Mary Geraldine (Schaefer) Buening; her brother, Jerry M. Buening Jr.; her sister, Mary Pamela Deshler; niece Karin Redelberger; nephews Kevin Deshler and Michael Buening, and their families. In lieu of flowers, the family encourages a memorial donation to Interlochen Center for the Arts, PO Box 199, Interlochen, MI, 49643-0199 (attention Samantha Charnes/Advancement Dept.), or to the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health.