Koser, Douglas Rolland passed away on January 6, 2016 in Weatherford, TX. Douglas was the oldest of 3 children born in Lincoln, NE on August 5th, 1925 to George Rolland and Margaret (Rathburn) Koser. Doug started his life on a farm assisting his family in the Dairy Business, enlisted into the Navy at the age of 18 to serve his Country in World War II. Assigned as a signalman to the USS Gambier Bay, he survived the sinking of the ship off the island of Samar, Philippines on October 25, 1944 by floating in a net life boat for 2 days in the Pacific Ocean until rescued. Ironically, it was aboard another aircraft carrier the USS Enterprise that he met his future wife Florence (Darrington) Koser, one year to the day of the sinking while docked in the New York harbor during a Navy day celebration. After the war, Douglas and Florence returned to Lincoln where they both worked in the family owned business, Koser Supply Company a Wholesale Plumbing and Heating Company. Upon retirement they moved to Gulf Breeze, Florida so they could continue their passion for playing golf, Doug taught Flo how to golf in their earlier years and both were fierce competitors in the sport. In 1999, they moved to Weatherford, TX to be closer to their daughter Susan and live out their remaining years of their lives together. Their union produced 3 children, Robert, Stephen and Susan, 4 grandchildren, Jason, Henry, Myles and George Koser, and 1 great granddaughter Mia Koser all of which are still surviving, along with his sister Jolene Weart.

Michael Rubrecht, 61, passed from this life on January 16, 2016, at home in Ferris, TX after a year long battle with esophageal cancer.

Michael was born on May 31, 1954, in Frankfurt, Germany to Jacob and Mercedes Rubrecht.
He is survived by his wife, Angela Bivings of the home, sisters Sandra and husband Bud Wilkinson, Mary Elizabeth and husband Al Crider of San Antonio, Joanne and husband Scott Barker, of Sequin, TX, Monica Rubrecht of San Antonio, Theresa and husband Wayne Lee of Belton, TX and brother David Rubrecht of San Antonio, TX. Son, Chris Rubrecht and wife Jamie of Cincinnati, OH, daughter, Mackenzie and husband Chris Pasteur of Warren, OR, other children Goldie Jackson of Norman, OK and Kit Jackson and wife Candice of Denton, TX, six beautiful grandchildren, Ashton, Reece, and Jackson Rubrecht, Jenna and Benson Pasteur, and Teale Jackson, six nieces, nine nephews, nine great nieces and eight great nephews and countless friends.

Michael graduated high school in 1972 from Alamo Heights in San Antonio to go on to University of North Texas in Denton where he graduated in 1974 with a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration.
Michael went on to be an entrepreneur with several businesses and eventually went into car sales and finance, he finished his career doing something he loved and enjoyed in remodeling homes.

Michael loved life and spent most of his spare time on Lake Tawakoni enjoying his lake family and friends. He loved to fish, garden, cook and eat great food.

Samuel “Sam” David Green or “Boy” as he was affectionately called by close family and friends.

Sunrise December 28, 1954 - Sunset January 24, 2016

A student at Harnett High School, up to the 10th grade. Sam has worked for the City of Dunn for over 18 years. Sam was a beloved father, a loving brother, uncle, cousin and was called friend by many who know him from his years working for the City of Dunn.

Born to the late Samuel Green of Sumter, SC and Rosetta Porter Green of Dunn, NC. He is preceded in death his Uncle John Henry ”Buddy” Porter and by older sisters Gloria Faye (Dunn, NC), and Rosa Lee Green (‘95) of Raleigh, NC.

Sam is survived one child, Samantha Green.
And step-son, Maurice Smith.

Other Surviving family members include: Attelia “Aunt Tel” Porter. Surviving siblings include Magdalene Saunders (Raleigh, NC), Stella Green (New Haven, CT), Josephine Green (Raleigh, NC), Portia Green (Dunn, NC), Diane Green (Dunn, NC), Evon Green (Fayetteville, NC), Lewis Green (Garner, NC), George Green (Benson, NC), and Renee Green (Erwin, NC). Close friends by the name of Vince Washington (Dunn, NC), Dorothy Blue (Dunn,NC), Anthony Oates (Dunn, NC) Terry Bethea (Dunn,NC) Big Byrd (Dunn, NC) John Boy (Dunn, NC) Sam is also loved and adored by 14 nieces and nephews, a host of great-nieces and great-nephews, cousins, great aunts, friends and loved ones, including his special long-time girlfriend Katie Hart, who was also his loving care-giver during his final days.

George Gerakos passed away peacefully on January 26, 2016 with his wife Katherine nearby. He will be greatly missed but will live on in the hearts and memories of those who loved him.

George was born in 1935 in Geraki, a small village in Greece. After growing up during the German occupation in World War II, George went to law school in Greece but dreamed of being an architect. After two years of law school, he had the opportunity to move to the United States and live with his aunt while attending Rochester Institute of Technology. There he studied architecture and art until he was drafted into the US Army, serving two years at Fort Knox in Kentucky (1962-1964) and earning the Army Commendation Medal, the highest award during peacetime.

When he left the army, what little money he had went to his sister’s wedding in Greece, so he was unable to continue his education. He craved excitement and did not want to sit behind a desk, so he returned to his aunt’s house in Rochester and worked in their family restaurant, the Crossroads at Twelve Corners in Brighton. George opened his own Crossroads at Northgate Plaza in Greece, NY the following year.

In 1971, he married Katherine in Greece, and the newlyweds returned to their house in Greece NY where they raised their family and lived together for 45 years. Their daughter, Cleanthe (Candie) was born in 1972 and named for the aunt that gave him the opportunity to come to the United States. Their son, Angelis (Lee) was born in 1975 and named for George’s father. George was very active in the Greek Orthodox Church, serving as President of the parish council, singing in the choir and organizing community events.

In 1986, George and Katherine bought the Crystal Barn, a fine dining restaurant in a historic landmark in Pittsford, NY. Together, they ran the restaurant for 25 years. George loved the restaurant business and was a charter member in the Rochester Landmark Restaurants, founded in 1992. George has been a longstanding member of the Confrérie de la Chaîne des Rôtisseurs, an international gastronomic society founded in 1950 in Paris to revive the traditions of the royal guild of goose roasters chartered in 1248, having the title Vice Charge de Presse of the local chapter. In 2002 he received the prestigious Silver Spoon Award from the New York State Restaurant Association, a great honor, since it is bestowed on the restaurateur of the year by his peers.

With ailing health, George retired from the restaurant in 2010 but remained connected to the industry as a consultant. George had received a kidney transplant in that same year and also suffered from pulmonary fibrosis. George was fortunate to have had many wonderful doctors and nurses throughout the years. Special thanks goes to his nurse Colleen.

George was predeceased by his parents, Angelis and Panagiota, and his brother Peter. He is survived by his wife Katherine and his son Lee, Lee’s wife Erica and their sons George and Leo; and Candie, her husband Christopher and their son Griffin.

He is also survived by his sister, Cleo and her daughters Zetta and Betty and their families; his sister-in-law Zoe and her children Elena and Dimitri and their families; and his brother-in-law Saki, his wife Mary and their children Bill, Zoe and Olga and their families. He was also predeceased by his aunt Cleanthe, his brother-in-law Vangelis and husband of his sister-in-law, Sotiris. He was also survived by Vangelis' wife Eugenia and sons Laki and Mihali and their families.

Adelaide Ann (Davy) O’Keefe, 86, a North Fort Myers, FL resident for the last 28 years, formerly of Oak Park, IL, passed away Friday, January 22, 2016 in Denver, Colorado. She was born September 18, 1929 in Chicago, IL to Edward and Florence Davy, now deceased.

Adelaide is survived by her seven children, Susan M. DiMascio and husband Rev. Clifford DiMascio of Dyer, IN, R. Kevin O’Keefe and wife Camilla of Centennial, CO, Adelaide A. Waters and husband Michael of Aspen, CO, Patrick J. O’Keefe and wife Tammy of Denver, CO, Margaret M. O’Keefe and husband Kevin Burich of Deerfield, IL, Mary O’Keefe of Denver, CO and Helen Bridget O’Keefe of Denver, CO; one brother, James Davy of Glen Ellyn, IL; nine grandchildren; three great grandchildren; as well as ten nieces and nephews.

Along with her parents, Adelaide was preceded in death by her sisters, Helen Mahoney and Sister Florence Davy, BVM and brothers, Edward (Bud) and Robert Davy.

Memorial Contributions in memory of Adelaide A. O’Keefe are suggested to The Alzheimer's Association (www.alz.org).

Jay Beckett Wailes, CFA
March 10, 1956 – January 21, 2016

Greensboro, Georgia (January 21, 2016) – Jay Beckett Wailes of Reynolds
Plantation in Greensboro, Georgia, son of the late John Beckett Wailes and
Dorothy (Carey) Wailes of Naples, Florida, died unexpectedly on January 21, 2016
at 59 years old.

Born in Baltimore, he was a member of the class of 1974 at the McDonogh School in
Owings Mills, Maryland. In 1978, he graduated from Denison University in Granville,
Ohio with a B.A. in History. After graduation, he returned to Baltimore to begin his
career with Mercantile Safe Deposit and Trust Company. Jay married Nina Lynn
Peddy of Lutherville, Maryland on May 1, 1982.

Jay was a CFA charterholder with 37 years of investment management experience.
For the last five years, Jay was a Senior Investment Advisor with Wilmington Trust
in their Boston office serving private clients and institutions. Prior to Wilmington
Trust, he spent seven years with Boston Private Bank, where he served as a senior
vice president and senior portfolio manager. Jay's work in the Boston finance
industry included positions at Beacon Asset Management, State Street Bank and
Trust, and Bank of New England.

Jay was an avid golfer who reveled in traveling to play anywhere from the Links
courses in Ireland and Scotland to The Ocean Course at Kiawah Island, South
Carolina. He was a beloved husband and father whose infectious laugh brightened
everyone’s days as well as his curing hugs.

Jay is survived by his wife of 34 years and their two daughters, Jessica Beckett
Wailes, of Evergreen, Colorado and Suzanne Taylor Wailes of Boston,
Massachusetts. He is also survived by two brothers, Richard Wailes of Ashburn,
Virginia and Christopher Wailes of Houston, Texas and a sister, Suzanne Wailes
Obrecht of Baltimore, Maryland and was loved by six nieces, three nephews, one
great niece and three great nephews.

A celebration of life service will be held Saturday, January 30th, at McCommons
Funeral Home at 2 pm in Greensboro, GA. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made
in his name to Pine Street Inn at 444 Harrison Avenue, Boston, MA or Second
Harvest of South Georgia at 1411 Harbin Circle, Valdosta, GA 31601.

IN HONOR OF MY DAD, LONNIE L. LANE. Thank you for being one of my biggest fans, cheering my accomplishments. Thank you for the times together on the couch, you sitting on the left and me on the right, watching sports or something else together. Thank you for the warnings when storms were on their way or checking on me after they left. Thank you for checking on me when you hadn’t heard from me for some time. Thank you for detecting something was wrong when I wouldn’t tell you. Thank you for checking on my household when I was out of town on business. Thank you for the small talk about the weather or the yard or the Bears or the Bulls. Thank you for remembering everyone’s birthday, every year. Thank you for the numerous breakfast outings together. I am sure there is more but I will end with this...

I will miss you and I love you. Ron Sr

Iain was the first person I knew that actually owned a digital watch. In fact, it was the first time that I knew such things actually existed, That day, in 1979, there for all of us to wonder at was a glowing red LED display worn on a black – digital – watch, and we gathered around to view and marvel.

We, his 12 year old classmates, were standing in the classroom of Miss Young, our much liked teacher of Bridgend Primary School in Alness, a little town – some might say village – in the north of Scotland. Iain had other wonders too. There was the day he took in something called a portable audio cassette player, around about the same time, and fun was had – as I recall – with this amazing device that could record voices!

In the beginning …

Odd things stay in my mind. For no good reason, I remember Iain exclaiming to a group of friends in what must have been Primary 2, or 1973, that he felt he should have a nickname. He must have been no more than 7 years old. For a brief time, he called himself “Ding Dong”, but that may have been a period of only days – it’s too long past to tell for sure but very quickly afterwards there appeared “Dinger”, and there it stayed.

Iain’s humour – was him. Imagine if you went to school with Muhammed Ali. Well, I did! At least, growing up in the 70’s the person who Dinger most reminded me of at times was Muhammed Ali. Larger than life, always quick to laugh, and with Dinger often as star of his own life – which I say with a smile. Who can forget his great singing skills, such his rendition of “Wings of a Dove”
"Oh, for the wings, for the wings of a … DOVE"
- the first line sung in a beautiful, poetic, choir style and the last word thundered out three octaves lower. Iain found this incredibly funny, and some 30 years later, I admit that I still do.

Iain was my classmate for much, if not all, of those 7 years in Bridgend Primary and my 5 years in Alness Academy. Undoubtedly the best years of Primary School were the final two, P6 and P7, in which we stayed in the same classroom to be taught by Miss Young. In 1977 the James Bond film “The Spy Who Loved Me” was released. I have vivid memories of everyone in our class who could get hold of one playing with the fantastic car from that film! That, and plentiful games of Wildman (couresty of our friend Norman, inpired by The Incredible Hulk) and Machine Gun-Knife, inspired by … well, World War Two. "Wildman" would often be the focal point of both games, oh Norman how we had fun in those days!

March 1979 - The School trip to Edinburgh

It was traditional for the school to organise a trip to Edinburgh for all pupils in Primary 7. The cost, as I remember it, was £29.00. We travelled down by train from Alness to Edinburgh Waverley station, then on to the Arden Hotel on Royal Terrace. I shared room with James, Dinger and Ryan. I remember the excitment of entering the room first to find bunk beds! The mad scrambling up to the top bunk, though I managed to get barely an inch off the ground before Dinger pulled me back down to claim that bunk as his. There was never any resentment at this, this was the way it was in the world of 12 year old boys - and Dinger especially.

That night, I remember watching Dinger repeat this immensely funny act: he’d lean over, look down at James in the bunk below and distainfully spit on him, to howls of protest from James and howls of laughter from Dinger! Not serious spitting of course, just comedy spitting – more noise than anything – Iain was well raised but it drove James so mad. Dinger would wait … just until James got comfortable again … then lean over and spit on him again to howls of protest from James and howls of laughter from Dinger. Even now it makes me laugh! He then took to throwing sweet wrappers down on James. As night fell, so Ryan in the single bed by the window fell asleep inside. Oh big mistake. Iain and I ever so gently decorated Ryan’s face with toothpaste – and still he slept! More and more toothpaste was piled on until Iain eventually resorted to throwing pillows at Ryan to wake him up, we were laughing ourselves silly!

I remember, too, that on that trip Iain’s family were in Edinburgh and took him to see the new movie Battlestar Galactica. Had the Cylons really ever found Earth, Balthazar would no doubt have been quickly replaced - by Dinger. I also remember we had fun tapping on the door of the Irish school kids next door who were also staying, then darting back in our room and hiding, listening to their (then) strange accents as they wondered what was going on while we fell about laughing at our mischief. Hey we were 12!

Strict instructions were also given by our teachers when visiting Edinburgh Castle not to take any of the rock as a souvenir. These instructions fell upon slightly deaf ears in Iain’s case. I recall a story that Iain wrote in Primary 7 which he was asked to read to the class, the only part of which sticks in my mind is the words –

“…B.O.C – the Big Oil Company”

– a pun, and also prophetically perhaps given his future career!

The Academy Years

After 7 wonderful years in Bridgend we had to grow up and attend Alness Academy. Once again, Dinger again was in practically – if not every – class of mine. My least favourite class, to put it mildly, was PE (Physical Education). Dinger would never pick me for his football teams - very wisely so - making big fuss that he had to do so on occasion because there was no-one else to pick. But this was Dinger.

To mention PE and Dinger in the same breath is to conjure up the most remarkable image – that of Iain running style! As anyone who ever knew him will attest, he had the most remarkable running style, and it seemed that both feet would shoot out sideways, performing little circles of their own. Still he was fast!

Dinger, I believe, did everything for humour, for the entertainment of him doing it. Once, around about 1983 in a discussion on book reviews, our English teacher Mrs Isobel Porter explained that leeway was available for anyone reading a book of significant length. Without a seconds pause there shot up Iain’s hand as he exclaimed (barely able to speak the words for laughing) –

“Please Miss! I’m reading “War and Peace” – how about 1999?”

following by riotous laughter, both from Iain and the class. Even our teacher, who wasn’t light with discipline, had to smile.

The Last Time We Met

The last time I saw him, we had accidentally crossed paths in Edinburgh when I was at University. He seemed very pleased to see me, and I certainly was to see him. Grown up, having left school some 5 years earlier, this was around the year 1990 and at the junction of East Preston Street and Oxford Street. Long since lost is the memory of what we spoke about, but my recollection remains one of genuine and mutual happiness to have met once again.

Of January 26th 2010

Iain was buried in Creich Buriel ground, just east of Bonar Bridge, Sutherland, Ross-shire on January 26th 2010, a little after 3pm. It is a beautiful part of Scotland, the view over the Dornoch Firth being known locally as the Million Dollar view. It's a small cemetary, he's not hard to find.

It was only yesterday that we were all having fun in school. It would be wonderful to be able to say – “THANKS! For being in my class all those years and making the day a funnier place”. I wish I could.

Iain Ross "Dinger" Dingwall.
Lived: a great life, as far as I can tell.
Died: Far too soon, aged 42 years, on Friday January 8th 2010, Houston, Texas.

Stephen "Pete" McDonald was born November 26, 1949 and passed away peacefully at 66, surrounded by family and friends on January 5, 2016.

Anyone who knew Pete will remember him for his kind and generous heart, beautiful and booming voice, infectious laugh and his very strong will. His love for his family was forever growing. Pete left behind an amazing legacy and touched many people's lives. He was a beloved husband, father, grandfather, brother, uncle and friend.

Pete is survived by his best friend and wife, Karen McDonald. His son and daughter-in-law, Grant and Cathy McDonald. His daughter, son-in-law and grandson, Kerri, Robby and Oliver Lyon. His 4 sisters and their families; Linda and John Freemott, Claudia Kokinda, Florence and Ric Crowther, and Rebecca and Damani Johnson. Multiple nephews and nieces, and many beloved friends.

Pete was born in Memphis, Tennessee and raised in Bellevue, Washington. He had a long and successful career in the automotive industry. He loved his Cadillacs and spending summers boating on Lake Washington.

In lieu of flowers, please donate to the King County Humane Society in honor of Pete's love for animals.