HOBE SOUND — The architect who designed the Sears Tower as well as skyscrapers in Hong Kong, London and Cairo, died Saturday morning in Hobe Sound.

A memorial service for internationally known architect Bruce J. Graham, 84, will be at 4:30 p.m. in St. Christopher Church, Hobe Sound. Graham died Saturday morning from complications associated with Alzheimer’s disease, said Mike Grossman of SCC Grossman, a Chicago public relations firm representing the family. (more…)

OCEAN BREEZE PARK — America’s oldest, active mayor, Dorothy Geeben, died Monday night after complaining of a cold. She was 102 years old and would have turned 103 in March.

“We had a council meeting on Monday,” said David Myers, president of the Ocean Breeze Town Council. “She was supposed to be there, but called into to say she wasn’t feeling well. She thought it was a cold. About 1:30 p.m., the paramedics went to her home and took her to Martin Memorial Medical Center where she passed away.”

Myers said Geeben devoted much of her life to Ocean Breeze Park and its residents.

“She was very active in keeping the park when plans were announced to sell it,” Myers said. “She fought hard to keep our homes.

“She was a kind, sweet woman who always had a smile.”

Gregory Minchak of the National League of Cities in Washington, D.C., said Geeben was definately the oldest, active mayor in the country before her death.

Stuart Mayor Mike Mortell said Geeben’s passing “will leave a huge void in this community. She always had such a positive attitude and attracted positive attention to our area. We will all miss her dearly.”

Martin County Commission Chairman Doug Smith, whose district includes Ocean Breeze Park, called for a moment of silence on memory of Geeben at the start of Tuesday’s commission meeting.

“Let’s just take a moment to remember Dorothy Geeben, who was the mayor of Ocean Breeze who passed away.

“It was a terrible loss. She was a wonderful person and a wonderful mayor.”

Geeben attracted attention, appearing on the “Today” show and in numerous publications. But she was proudest of her efforts to save the then faltering Jensen Beach Christian Church, where she was an active member.

“Mayor Dorothy” as many people called her, moved to Ocean Breeze Park with her first husband in 1952.

Beginning in 1976, she was elected president of the council for 31 years until the death of Mayor Ruth Hoke, daughter of Gene Hoke, town founder and first mayor, in 2001. Geeben was appointed to fill the post and continued to serve until her death.

The U.S. House of Representatives recognized Geeben as the nation’s oldest mayor in April 2008. The Meals on Wheels Association of America survey also recognizes her status. National Conference of Mayors officials said that while they don’t keep a record of mayors’ ages, they know of no one who is older and still actively running a government.

Funeral plans are incomplete, as are plans for a memorial service at town hall.

By Joe Crankshaw

Staff Writer George Andreassi contributed to this report.

ST. LUCIE COUNTY — A 25-year-old Fort Pierce resident was killed Saturday night in a three-vehicle accident in northern St. Lucie County, according to a Florida Highway Patrol report.

Juan Alberto Lopez was northbound on King’s Highway just before 10 p.m. when he lost control of his vehicle about 500 feet south of Palomar Parkway and crossed into the southbound lane into the path of two vehicles, according to the report.

The first vehicle, driven by Port St. Lucie resident Lacy Catherine Mahon, 17, swerved and hit the left front of Lopez’ vehicle. Mahon and her passenger, Fort Pierce resident Taryn M. Horvath, also 17, sustained minor injuries.
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PORT ST. LUCIE - In a turnabout decision, the City Council Monday night gave an initial 4-1 vote to increase the property tax rate by 11 percent.

The council also unanimously approved a 2009-2010 revised total budget of $430 million.

A final vote on the property tax rate and budget is scheduled for a 7 p.m. Sept. 28 public hearing at City Hall.

Last week, the council made a last-ditch effort to avoid an earlier proposed 26 percent property tax increase and held a special meeting to discuss using half of the city’s general fund reserves to help offset a more than $18 million deficit in the general fund.
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A former Jupiter Island Town Commissioner died Monday in Rhode Island in what police there are investigating as a possible suicide.

Finn Caspersen, 67, was found dead Monday at the Shelter Harbor Golf Club in Westerly, R.I. from what police believe is a self-inflicted gunshot wound, said Westerly police Capt. Edward St. Clair.
Caspersen a philanthropist, was first elected as town commissioner in Jupiter Island in 2005. He resigned on Aug. 4. Caspersen also had a home in the Shelter Harbor Golf Club where he died.

“As a public servant, policy-maker and overall gentleman, Finn Caspersen exceeded every standard of good measure,” said Jupiter Island Mayor Charles Falcone. “Stoic and soft-spoken, he did a lot of listening during town meetings before carefully weighing in with insight and informed expertise.”

An assistant reached at Knickerbocker, LLC said the family did not want to comment. No funeral information was available.

Caspersen served as the chief executive officer for the Beneficial Corp., a major financial holding company, from 1976 to 1998. More recently he was serving as the chairman of Knickerbocker, a private management company that oversaw numerous trusts and foundations. Caspersen personally donated money to Harvard Law School in Massachusetts as well as the Morristown Memorial Hospital, and schools such as the Peddie School and the Drew University Caspersen School of Graduate Studies, all in New Jersey

Longtime friend Tom McNicholas described Caspersen as “approachable and genuine” and said: “Each time I would refer to him as Mr. Caspersen he would peer over his glasses, softly chuckle and say, ‘Call me Finn.’ He was a friend and always fair to everyone.”

As a town commissioner, Caspersen was pushed for a town referendum on whether to bury power lines on the island underground. He also got involved in Martin County’s contentious debate over real estate development, paying $17,000 out of his own pocket in 2006 to bankroll a phone survey of 500 Martin County residents about their views of population growth. He also created a political action committee, Keep Martin green, that ran advertisements opposing rapid growth in the county.

“Finn had strong convictions towards protecting our environment and he invested a lot of his own money and time to support local causes like Keep Martin Green which focused on smart growth and environmental protection,” McNicholas said.

This is the second longtime Jupiter Island official to die in recent months. Town Manager Joe Connolly, a friend of Caspersen, died of Lou Gehrig’s disease just days after Caspersen resigned from the town commission in August. Deputy Town Manager Gene Rauth said the town is considering a memorial to Caspersen.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

ST. LUCIE COUNTY — After weeks of police officer training in a classroom, Indian River State College students move on to a small platform that provides a high-tech simulation of how they react in a real-life situation.

They’re given a weapon that only emits lasers and equipped with a belt that zaps them if they put themselves in danger.

“It teaches consequences if they make bad decisions,” Stephen Huntsberger, associate dean of Public Service Education for IRSC, said of the VirTra Systems simulator at the complex.

The simulator is one of the planned demonstrations at Friday’s public open house at the new Indian River State College Public Safety Complex.
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ST. LUCIE COUNTY — St. Lucie County Health Department officials confirmed Thursday the county’s first death from H1N1 flu, commonly called the swine flu.

Jason Christopher Schenck, 23, of Port St. Lucie, died Tuesday at St. Lucie Medical Center from the H1N1 virus, his family said.

“He had more friends than I knew he had, and he was just a good kid. He was a good all around kid. He was very polite,” father Clifford Schenck said. “They’re (Jason’s friends) calling me and telling me that Jason was the only one they could talk to and they know he would listen.”

Schenck suffered from asthma his entire life, Clifford Schenck said. And that condition along with several bouts of pneumonia left scars on the young man’s lungs and made him susceptible to the virus, his father said.

Clifford Schenck said his son, who had been in the hospital since Aug. 15, became ill after attending a concert with friends in West Palm Beach. None of his friends have reported feeling sick, his father said.

“When we took him in on the 15th, when he got admitted, his fingers were turning purple and his toes from lack of oxygen,” Clifford Schenck said. “I don’t care if you’re 23 or 70 years old, you don’t need to go out with this because it eats you up.”

The public shouldn’t panic with the county’s first death from the swine flu but practice good hygiene skills, said Arlease Hall, St. Lucie County Health Department spokeswoman.

“It’s imperative that if you sneeze or cough, to do so in your sleeve and not in your hands,” she said. “Wash your hands, and if you are sick, please, just stay home.”

Known as swine flu, H1N1 is a unique strain of the influenza virus that emerged this spring first in Mexico and now is widespread throughout the United States.

“I can tell you, if someone has flu symptoms, it is almost certainly H1N1,” said Karlette Peck, epidemiologist for the St. Lucie County Health Department.

Symptoms include fever, chills, aches, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and fatigue.

People most at-risk: pregnant women, infants and children and those with chronic health conditions, including morbid obesity.

People born before 1957 seem to have some immunity to the H1N1 strain.

Like any flu virus, H1N1 is spread person-to-person through droplets.

Staff writer Hillary Copsey and WPTV contributed to this report.

By Keona Gardner, TCPalm.com

PORT ST. LUCIE — Alfredo Felipe opened his new barber shop in Port St. Lucie because he liked the hometown feel of the community.

Felipe, 33, never thought that a month after his grand opening, an odd theft would occur at his business, Fredo’s Barbershop Hair Trends International, 698 Southwest Port St. Lucie Blvd.

Felipe said his homemade, 7-foot barber pole, made out of Styrofoam, mesh, stucco and some light metal materials, was stolen between 12:30 and 1:30 p.m. Friday at his shop.
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VERO BEACH — New Orleans resident Lionel Sims broke a hole in his roof to be rescued from Hurricane Katrina’s devastating flood waters in August 2005, but he had to leave behind a best friend, his dog Peanut.

Rescuers said they couldn’t take the dog.

Sims didn’t know if Peanut was dead or alive for about two months, until an American Red Cross volunteer tracked it to the Humane Society of Indian River County and Vero Beach.

And the two were reunited.
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FORT PIERCE — After Julia Rolon-Estrada died of a gunshot wound to the artery in her leg on July 26, 2006, she was wrapped in a blue tarp and again in a green blanket before being buried in the yard of her Port St. Lucie home, near a rear sliding glass door.

A dog trained to find cadavers helped authorities locate the newly tilled grave, which was covered with a wooden pallet holding 20 mulch bags stacked on top.

Rolon-Estrada’s jailed husband, 43-year-old Albert Estrada, state prosecutors say, is the man guilty of killing his wife and high-school sweatheart, who had walked out on him the night before she died at age 39.
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