Memorial Wall

Honoring Those Who Have Gone Before Us

Over the years, we at PRO have consistently been asked to create a special place to honor loved ones who’ve lost their battle with Parkinson’s – a place of remembrance and healing for those who are left behind. Our response is the Memorial Wall.

Recent Memorial Wall Additions

Ben S. Wood III

Ben S. Wood III

July 5, 1945 - September 21, 2023

Ben S. Wood III, 78, died peacefully on Wednesday, September 21, 2023, after a long battle with Parkinson’s Disease. Ben was the son of Ben S. Wood II and Rachel Humphries Wood. He died in his home on Blue Lantern Farm, the only home in which he ever lived.

Ben was a well-known, local businessman who owned the Copper Still stores and Blue Lantern Farms, among other business ventures. He loved history and was an avid student of genealogy, having served as President of the Christian County Historical Society. Ben served on numerous boards and committees, including the Hopkinsville-Christian County Library Board.

Having a fondness for antiques, Ben accumulated several collections of historical items, including old whiskey jugs, antique spoons, lap blankets, and China tea cups. Ben loved animals, and he established a pet cemetery on his property. Ben and his father owned several horses, and they raised and raced trotting horses at the Red Mile in Lexington. After he retired, Ben continued to attend races there.

Ben is survived by his long-time companion, Kathy Faye Collins, his sister, Diane (Joey) Wood Pendleton, Kathy’s children, Richard Dale (Stacy) Collins, and Brooklyn (Kristopher) Collins Bliss, Kathy’s grandchildren, Richard Dale Collins Jr. and Zackery Hunter Collins, and Ben’s beloved pets, George and Rocky.

 

Remembering Ben S. Wood III

Use the form below to make your memorial contribution. PRO will send a handwritten card to the family with your tribute or message included. The information you provide enables us to apply your remembrance gift exactly as you wish.

Dr. Ross Carl Sugar

Dr. Ross Carl Sugar

February 8, 1960 - September 18, 2023

Dr. Ross Sugar, a loving husband, dedicated father, fantastic friend and accomplished physician, passed away in Baltimore on September 18, 2023, at home, surrounded by his family. He leaves behind a legacy of love, laughter, and a life enthusiastically lived.

Born on February 8, 1960, at Sinai Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, Ross was the beloved son of Jack and Judy Sugar. He grew up in Garrett Park, Maryland, surrounded by sisters who adored him and a broader family who cherished him dearly. During his youth, he displayed a natural aptitude for math and science, and a love for athletics, excelling in tennis, golf, and running.

Ross had a lifelong bond with tight-knit groups of friends from high school and college. His friends appreciated his humor, kindness, sense of adventure, and enthusiasm for life. He was there to support and help any friend, anytime, anywhere, for whatever they needed. His friendships endured throughout the years, until the very end.

Ross attended Charles W. Woodward High School in Rockville and Duke University, where he earned a degree in mathematics. His passion for learning led him to a career in programming, where he met his future wife, Julie, who worked on his software development team. Their love story began at JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) in California, where they shared a passion for travel, humor, and calculus, and embarked on a journey that would define their lives.

They married in 1990 in Baltimore, surrounded by family and friends. Throughout their marriage, Ross and Julie supported each other professionally, challenged each other intellectually, and never stopped making each other laugh. They enjoyed traveling the world together and shared a passion for restoring old houses, renovating 8 of the 9 homes they owned together. Julie’s pragmatic nature complemented Ross’s visionary outlook, and she excelled at turning Ross’s ideas into reality. Everyone who knew them was aware of their deep respect, reverence, and love for each other.

During his first career, Ross had the privilege of working on many exciting projects, including some at NASA, where he contributed to cutting-edge scientific endeavors. However, he felt a calling for a new adventure and craved to follow closer in his physicist father's footsteps. At the age of 34, he embarked on a second career by enrolling in medical school.

His dedication and brilliance were evident as he achieved the highest grade in the country on his subspecialty boards, winning him the Elkin’s award. As a pain management doctor and exceptional diagnostician, Ross was known for his analytical mind. His scientific approach to medicine enabled him to unravel complex medical mysteries. In his residency, after lamenting the lack of quick-reference books for PM&R (Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation) residents, he co-authored one using his own personal notes and drawings. Called the “PM&R Pocketpedia,” it is used by medical residents across the country.

His patients admired and adored him, recognizing his caring and compassionate nature. He had a “no shortcuts” approach to patient care and pain management that resulted in him being voted Baltimore’s Top Doctor many times. His professional journey took him all over the country, including to Los Angeles, Atlanta, Richmond, and Baltimore.

Ross first became a father while in medical school, and was incredibly proud of his children, Kirsten and Nevin, whom he cherished above all else. Parenthood was a central part of his life and he believed it was the most important thing he would do. He coached his son’s sports teams and participated in his daughter’s nightly piano practices, never missing a night. He was their emotional mentor, confidante, and biggest supporter, never missing a single game, show, or event and always answering every phone call.

Dr. Ross Sugar had a lifelong thirst for mastery and knowledge. He played the guitar and violin, enjoyed golfing, tennis, running, skiing, and hiking, and had a diverse set of ever rotating hobbies and pursuits. His retirement allowed him to explore these interests fully and start up new ones. He took up drumming, drawing, and songwriting. He and his sister Erica took boxing lessons together. He edited scientific papers and even wrote a horror screenplay in his later years.

Even after his Parkinson’s diagnosis at 54, he was obsessed with pushing his body and his endurance to their limits. He cycled (he preferred the hills), continued to ski (the steepest black diamonds), climbed mountains (at the age of 53, he and three friends climbed part of Mt. Ranier), and undertook long distance hiking (he walked 500 miles on foot from New York City to Toronto over the course of months in early retirement to raise money for Parkinson’s research). He was fascinated with achieving peak physical fitness and was constantly reading books and researching in pursuit of this goal.

Music was an equally integral part of his life. He was a true aficionado of classic rock and classical music. His ability to identify songs and artists was unmatched and he wasn’t afraid to shed a tear over a powerful chord or a moving lyric.

He had a satirical, self-deprecating sense of humor, and a glimmer in his eye that always made you feel in on the joke (he was a master joke teller, often in character). He had a talent for giving moving toasts and telling engaging stories.

Ross was a dreamer, always brimming with new ideas that he eagerly shared with those around him. He also had a knack for explaining complex things in understandable terms. He was a charming and gentle soul, who had a talent for making others feel like they were the most interesting person in the room. He was open-minded and had an insatiable curiosity, always eager to learn new things.

Dr. Ross Sugar's legacy will live on in the hearts of his family, friends, and the countless lives he touched through his medical practice. His unconditional love, boundless humor, and infectious excitement for life will be remembered with reverence and gratitude.

He leaves behind his wife Julie, his children Kirsten and Nevin (and wife Hilal), his sisters Eve Clancy (and husband Tom) and Erica Sugar (and husband Bobby), his nephew Sam, his uncle Don Blumberg, his aunt Judy Brodsky, his cousins Karen Sledge and Rich Belzer, his sisters-in-law Georgia VanBeck, Linda Kacur (and husband John), and brother-in-law Bob Rappold (and wife Barbara). Ross is also survived by many loving nieces and nephews and countless dear friends.

Remembering Dr. Ross Carl Sugar

Use the form below to make your memorial contribution. PRO will send a handwritten card to the family with your tribute or message included. The information you provide enables us to apply your remembrance gift exactly as you wish.

Lisa Walsh

Lisa Walsh

January 1, 1954 - September 14, 2023

From the day she started editing the Longboat Observer to the day she handed over editing duties of the four newspapers she built with her husband, there was never a frantic rush, never a shout, never a tense flurry of activity to meet deadlines. 

No matter how late the papers to the printers or how big the story, Lisa Walsh was never anything but poised. 

It had nothing to do with how much she cared about the papers — and make no mistake, she cared down to the comma — running around barking orders or breathing down reporters’ necks to get copy just wasn’t her nature.

But that doesn’t mean she wasn’t effective. As she leaned over your desk and said, “We’re going to need that story now,” writers got the message. Despite her petite 5-foot-4 frame, perfectly styled hair and manicured nails, she was tough. And everyone knew it.

Of course, everyone knew this by the way she faced challenges — head on. She sought solutions instead of indulging in problems. She let logic prevail over emotion. And in her understated way, whether it was navigating three deadlines a week, sorting out a crisis at a nonprofit or even battling a rare form of Parkinson’s disease for seven years, she led with patience, grace and dignity.

It was that way until the end. She died at 12:25 a.m. Thursday, September 14th, 2023, from complications from her Parkinson’s. She was 69. 

Walsh died at Sarasota Memorial Hospital. When her health began deteriorating rapidly Tuesday, September 12th, 2023, doctors gave her four to six hours to live. She kept going for 27 more.

“My mother, tiny though she was, was incredibly strong and determined and never gave up,” said Emily Walsh, her eldest daughter.

Walsh was surrounded when she died by her husband Matt and three adult children, Emily, Kate, and Brian. Walsh is also survived by three grandchildren, Rhys Parry, 13; Maeve Walsh, 6; Jackson Walsh, 3; her father, David Beliles, of Sarasota and her brother, David Beliles Jr., Lincoln, Nebraska.  

On Longboat Key and in Sarasota and east Manatee County, the Walshes are most known publicly for the Observer Media Group, which publishes multiple weekly print publications, seasonal and quarterly magazines and daily news websites. 

But Lisa Walsh, based on accounts from her family and friends in Sarasota and beyond, was much more than a newspaper editor. 

She was a devoted wife, mother and grandmother, quick with advice and counsel and also quick to host and prepare a feast-worthy Christmas dinner. She was a behind-the-scenes executive, idea-generating machine and tight-knit business partner with Matt — they were married 47 years — as they and the Observer Media Group navigated the rapidly-changing media industry for nearly three decades.

Walsh was an intensely loyal philanthropist who gave time and treasure to a host of causes; and a go-to friend for many who loved to giggle with her partners-in-crime while also providing a trusted and empathic shoulder — in addition to recipes, suggestions for books and what TV shows to watch. On that last point, one of her more recent TV recommendations was Bosch, an Amazon Prime show based on the Michael Connelly novels.

“She was brilliant and beautiful,” said Brian Lipton, director of the West Coast Florida chapter of the American Jewish Committee, one of the organizations Lisa Walsh supported. “She was a kind lady and a class act.” 

Despite her title of vice president and executive editor, Walsh was happy to let others have the spotlight. In the business, she let Matt do most of the talking at companywide presentations, but the two shared all big decisions. 

Every business expansion or sale, every hire or fire was discussed around the dinner table — with Lisa providing the level-headed counterbalance to Matt’s passion and eagerness to grow. 

From the height of the toilets in the ladies’ room to the fonts of the redesigned print editions to the company’s taglines — many of which she dreamed up in her witty style — were subject to the Lisa taste test. 

Humor was a primary tool for persuasion for Lisa. In response to one angry reader who wrote a searing letter to the editor complaining about the conservative nature of the Longboat Observer’s editorial page and its incorrect bridge column, Lisa retorted: “We do apologize for the error in the bridge column, and in the future, we will keep it just like our opinion page: right.” 

Devotion to community and her friends and family were another hallmark of Walsh’s life. On the community side, she served as president of the boards of Safe Place and Rape Crisis Center and the Longboat Key Center for the Arts and on the boards of the Longboat Key Chamber of Commerce and Ringling College Library Association. As the chair of galas for the American Jewish Committee, Neuro Challenge Foundation for Parkinson’s and Sarasota Ballet, she raised thousands of dollars for those organizations.

Those community activities paid off for Walsh as well. She made close, lasting friendships. Derek Billib, another longtime SPARCC board member, says Walsh was the most sensitive person of their group. “She was so compassionate, sincere and genuine,” Billib said. “When she was talking with you, she was always listening, always paying attention.”

 

Some friendships go back to Walsh’s University of Missouri college days, in the early 1970s. That’s when she both pledged the Pi Beta Phi sorority and met Merry Gnaegy, a fellow sorority sister, who went on to become a lifelong friend. 

Gnaegy introduced Walsh, then Lisa Beliles, to a Mizzou journalism major and baseball player named Matt Walsh, setting the pair up on a blind date. 

Walsh and Gnaegy were roommates for several years. They danced to Elton John’s “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,” attended formal dinners, line danced to “China Grove” and hit the “Double Bubble” at the Ramada Inn, Gnaegy recalls. 

Even back then, echoing a theme in her life, Gnaegy says Walsh “always seemed put together. She had that perfect complexion that didn’t require makeup. She was smart, cute and perky, even in our standard attire of overalls, saddle oxfords and red bandanas.”

Walsh became president of the Pi Phi house in her junior year. In recent years, after Walsh became a primary financial contributor to rebuild the sorority house, the sorority named the president’s suite after her, with her name in a plaque on the wall next to the door.

Last fall, on a trip through Columbia, Missouri, Lisa and Matt stopped at the sorority house. She wanted to see the plaque for the first time in person. It was on the second floor of house — a house with no elevator.

Unable to walk because of her Parkinson’s, with Matt holding her up from behind and bystanders watching in amazement, Lisa held on to the stair railings and pulled herself up two flights of stairs and shimmied down two flights of stairs.

“I learned early on in our marriage,” Matt says, “despite her diminutive size and elegant demeanor, it was never a good idea to tell her she couldn’t do something. She had amazing inner strength and determination; always poised, never a raised voice, never complain; she would do what needed to be done, never giving up. It was that way to her last breath. A role model for us all.”

 

Remembering Lisa Walsh

Use the form below to make your memorial contribution. PRO will send a handwritten card to the family with your tribute or message included. The information you provide enables us to apply your remembrance gift exactly as you wish.

Dean Esslinger

Dean Esslinger

January 1, 1942 - September 5, 2023

Dean Esslinger, a Towson University history professor who started an international faculty exchange program, died September 5th, 2023 at a Towson assisted living community of complications from Parkinson’s disease. He was 81.

“He was really easygoing and had a very quick, dry wit but was quiet,” said his daughter, Regina Esslinger Hall of Baltimore. “He was very capable and calm. He was a happy man. He was always a happy man.”

Born in Clifton, Kansas, he was the son of Lucy Esslinger, a homemaker, and Firmin Esslinger, a businessperson. Mr. Esslinger met his wife of 59 years, Sandra, at what was then Clifton High School and graduated from the University of Kansas in 1964. He earned a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in U.S. history from the University of Notre Dame.

After graduate school, Mr. Esslinger moved to Towson in 1968 to teach U.S. history at what was then Towson State College, where he worked for 38 years until retirement. He acted as the director of faculty development and later created the university’s international faculty exchange program, becoming an associate vice president for International Programs. It started when Mr. Esslinger took a trip to China in 1985.

He “made some connections with universities there and brought some Chinese faculty to Towson to teach,” Ms. Hall said. “And then [Towson] sent some of their faculty to China and then that opened up to other countries as well. So there were exchange programs in Germany and Poland and Korea and Japan.”

“Then some of the other Maryland state universities used that as a model to do the same thing,” Ms. Hall said. “So it became a program throughout several local state universities.”

Mr. Esslinger wrote five books about Maryland, including a high school textbook, a history of Friends School for the Baltimore Quaker school’s 200th anniversary, and a history of Towson University. He contributed to other books.

“His Ph.D. and his field of study was on immigration. And Baltimore was one of the biggest ports of entry on the East Coast for immigrants, second to New York City,” Ms. Hall said. “When he started working at Towson he really dug into learning more about Maryland history.”

Dean Esslinger, Towson history professor who spearheaded the university’s international exchange program, dies.

Dean Esslinger, a Towson University history professor who started an international faculty exchange program, died September 5th, 2023 at a Towson assisted living community of complications from Parkinson’s disease. He was 81.

 

“He was really easygoing and had a very quick, dry wit but was quiet,” said his daughter, Regina Esslinger Hall of Baltimore. “He was very capable and calm. He was a happy man. He was always a happy man.”

Born in Clifton, Kansas, he was the son of Lucy Esslinger, a homemaker, and Firmin Esslinger, a businessperson. Mr. Esslinger met his wife of 59 years, Sandra, at what was then Clifton High School and graduated from the University of Kansas in 1964. He earned a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in U.S. history from the University of Notre Dame.

After graduate school, Mr. Esslinger moved to Towson in 1968 to teach U.S. history at what was then Towson State College, where he worked for 38 years until retirement. He acted as the director of faculty development and later created the university’s international faculty exchange program, becoming an associate vice president for International Programs. It started when Mr. Esslinger took a trip to China in 1985.

He “made some connections with universities there and brought some Chinese faculty to Towson to teach,” Ms. Hall said. “And then [Towson] sent some of their faculty to China and then that opened up to other countries as well. So there were exchange programs in Germany and Poland and Korea and Japan.”

“Then some of the other Maryland state universities used that as a model to do the same thing,” Ms. Hall said. “So it became a program throughout several local state universities.”

Mr. Esslinger wrote five books about Maryland, including a high school textbook, a history of Friends School for the Baltimore Quaker school’s 200th anniversary, and a history of Towson University. He contributed to other books.

“His Ph.D. and his field of study was on immigration. And Baltimore was one of the biggest ports of entry on the East Coast for immigrants, second to New York City,” Ms. Hall said. “When he started working at Towson he really dug into learning more about Maryland history.”

As a professor, Mr. Esslinger taught that history is about people’s individual stories, not just dates and names. “There’s always something interesting to learn by listening to people’s stories,” Ms. Hall said.

 

Remembering Dean Esslinger

Use the form below to make your memorial contribution. PRO will send a handwritten card to the family with your tribute or message included. The information you provide enables us to apply your remembrance gift exactly as you wish.

Fernando Botero

Fernando Botero

April 19, 1932 - September 15, 2023

Fernando Botero, a Colombian artist who developed a signature style painting rotund, inflated yet sensuous figures with a whimsical or satirical edge, and who branched into monumental sculptures that adorned some of the world’s most famous boulevards, died September 15th, 2023 at a hospital in Monaco. He was 91.

Mauricio Vallejo, a co-owner of the Art of the World gallery in Houston and a close friend of Mr. Botero’s, confirmed the death and said the artist had pneumonia and Parkinson’s disease.

Mr. Botero’s aesthetic — often shorthanded as Boterismo — became a major draw at contemporary art museums and decorated the Champs-Élysées in Paris, Park Avenue in New York, Madrid’s Paseo de Recoletos and other renowned thoroughfares, as well as parks and plazas from Buenos Aires to Moscow to Tokyo. His emblematic oversized figures helped turn global attention to Latin American artists in the second half of the 20th century.

With deadpan irreverence, he scoured Colombia’s bourgeois urban scenes for imagery of extravagance, pomposity and greed. Mr. Botero early in his career seized on sharp visual contrasts: Tiny snakes, parrots, flies and bananas adorn his portraits of blimpy bullfighters, bishops, prostitutes, acrobats, ballroom dancers and politicians. Men with rotund faces sport tiny mustaches; hefty ladies smoke miniature cigarettes.

His figures on the canvas and cast in bronze were often voluptuous and slyly fanciful, although he would turn later to darker themes inspired by current events, such as drug violence in Colombia and torture at the U.S.-run Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

Mr. Botero’s work was highly popular and could fetch millions of dollars. Critics, however, especially in the 1960s, did not always approve of his work. Some dismissed it as gimmickry or caricature. An ARTnews reviewer once belittled his enlarged figures as “fetuses begotten by Mussolini on an idiot peasant woman.”

Edward J. Sullivan, a New York University professor who specializes in Latin American contemporary art, traced such animosity to the humor and accessibility of Mr. Botero’s public art installations, which challenged an establishment that often embraced inscrutability and jealously guarded its gatekeeper role.

“My popularity has to do with the divorce between modern art, where everything is obscure, and the viewer who often feels he needs a professor to tell them whether it’s good or not,” Mr. Botero told the Los Angeles Times. “I believe a painting has to talk directly to the viewer, with composition, color and design, without a professor to explain it.”

Mr. Botero’s cheekiness showed in his paintings of Marie Antoinette sauntering through the cobble-stoned street of a Colombian town, a humongous ballet dancer en pointe at the barre, and a serious-minded cleric lying in comical repose in a park. In a self-portrait, Mr. Botero depicted himself as a painter dressed in full bullfighting regalia.

He rejected suggestions that he should move beyond the voluminous figures in his paintings and his bulbous sculptures.

Fernando Botero Angulo was born in Medellín on April 19, 1932, the second of three siblings. His father, a salesman who sometimes made his rounds on horseback, died of an apparent heart attack when Mr. Botero was 4. His mother, a seamstress, struggled to maintain the family.

An uncle enrolled Mr. Botero in a bullfighting school, where pupils practiced passes before imaginary bulls. “We were about 20 pupils in the school. After much training, one day, the professor finally said, ‘Now, we’re going to experience with a real bull.’ Nineteen left the school, me included,” Mr. Botero told the South China Morning Post.

He began sketching scenes from the bullring, finding a passion outside his Jesuit school, where priests, scandalized by an admiring essay he wrote on the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, expelled him in 1949.

Mr. Botero graduated from a public high school, eventually moving to Bogotá, the Colombian capital, a breathtaking experience that thrust the young artist into a creative milieu — artistic and literary — far removed from provincial Medellín. When one of his paintings placed second at a national competition in 1952, he used the prize money to study art in Madrid.

He visited the Louvre in Paris and settled in Florence in 1953, delighting in Renaissance paintings. But upon returning to Colombia in 1955, Mr. Botero bombed in his efforts to sell his work.

Mr. Botero and his first wife, Gloria Zea, moved a year later to Mexico City, where Mr. Botero seized on what would become his signature style. A Botero painting from this era — depicting a mandolin with an improbably tiny sound hole that made the instrument appear out of proportion — signified the artist’s exploration of volume.

He told the South China Morning Post that he resented the tendency among some viewers to dismiss his subjects as fat. “For me, it’s an exaltation of volume and sensuality,” he said. “I’ve done the opposite of what most artists do today — I’ve given importance to volume. I’ve also given importance to subject matter and expression — poetry. I don’t want to shock people. I want to give them pleasure.”

 

Remembering Fernando Botero

Use the form below to make your memorial contribution. PRO will send a handwritten card to the family with your tribute or message included. The information you provide enables us to apply your remembrance gift exactly as you wish.

The Memorial Wall is a virtual place to

  • Honor the diversity and rich legacies of the people we have already lost to Parkinson’s and demonstrate to the world the high human cost of this neglected disorder.  

  • Provide a place for the living to visit so they can gain solace and understanding around the battle of a loved one with Parkinson’s.

  • Serve as a memorial when the family prefers donations in lieu of flowers or tributes at anniversaries or other significant dates.

Our work to ensure no one is isolated because of Parklinson’s has always been a labor of love. The Memorial Wall is an extension of that lovea virtual place for love to gather, reminisce, celebrate, as well as a ‘show of force’ to remind the world what we’ve already lost to this hideous disease. 

If you wish to honor your loved one and share your memories in a public fashion or establish a memorial event, such as a golf tournament, tennis tournament, or special award presentation in the name of the family or decedent, please complete this submission form or contact us at info@parkinsonsresource.org.

If you wish to honor your loved one and share your memories in a public fashion or establish a memorial event, such as a golf tournament, tennis tournament, or special award presentation in the name of the family or decedent, please complete this submission form or contact us at info@parkinsonsresource.org.

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Address
Parkinson's Resource Organization
74785 Highway 111
Suite 208
Indian Wells, CA 92210

Local Phone
(760) 773-5628

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(877) 775-4111

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info@parkinsonsresource.org

 

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Updated: August 16, 2017