"Her father's name was Lt. Thomas Porterfield," Loane said. "The sword was presented to him by his company, after the siege of Petersburg, Va., in 1864. He was a member of Battery D, 2d Pennsylvania Heavy Artillery, under Gen. Grant."
Loane's paternal great-great-grandfather, also named Paul Loane, was an artificer, similar to a blacksmith, with Matthew Hastings' Keystone Battery of Pennsylvania Artillery. Two paternal grand-uncles, John and Robert Porterfield, were both privates with Company A, 29th Pennsylvlania Volunteer Infantry.
The history was interesting, but it was holding the sword and looking through the field glasses that ignited what was to become Loane's lifelong interest in American history, and especially in collecting Civil War memorabilia.
"They weren't just things," he said. "They were the next best thing to knowing the men themselves."
Loane's passion for the past continued through his college years at Rutgers University, where he majored in American history and later received a master's degree in education. Today, he is the director of alumni relations at Rutgers' Camden campus and is frequently consulted by museums to identify and authenticate Civil War artifacts.
In the early 1980s, about 20 pieces of Loane's collection were included in the 26-volume Time-Life series on the history of the Civil War. Last spring, Time-Life tapped about 70 pieces for a new three-volume series, Echoes of Glory, that features maps and documents as well as Confederate and Union relics. The series was released in February.
Loane's collection appears in the Union volume. His contribution includes the uniforms of officers and enlisted men, writing kits, insignia, hats, battle flags and even Army shipping crates.
Loane is a member of the Company of Military Historians, a Rhode Island- based organization for collectors and military enthusiasts. And his interest in history is not limited to being a collector.
He is a major in the 2d Pennsylvania Regiment of the Continental Line and a major in the 43d Regiment of Foot Inc., two groups that portray American and British soldiers of the Revolutionary War.
He has traveled to France and England to participate in living history re- enactments. He also has participated in ceremonies and battles at Valley Forge, in Germantown, and on the Brandywine Creek.
"I think portraying the battles of the 18th century gives me a good view into the reasons why the Civil War armies fought the way they did in the 19th century," he said.
Loane, who recently married, said his wife, Judy, is an understanding and supportive enthusiast. "I even have a room in our home that's temperature- controlled, where I keep some pieces of the collection," he said. ''Perhaps I am a museum curator at heart."
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When Gov. Florio appointed a second osteopathic physician to the New Jersey Board of Medical Examiners this spring, he didn't select a surgeon or an internist or some other kind of specialist; he chose a family doctor, a general practitioner.
And one who's proud of it - Albert A. Talone of Moorestown.
"I'm in one of the rarest forms of medicines - general practice," said Talone. "We're rapidly becoming dinosaurs. I do not seek high-tech medicine.
"We get it all. We're down in the trenches day in and out. Heart, lungs, cancer, high blood pressure, diabetes, broken bones."
Talone, 43, was appointed to a three-year term in March under a new statute increasing osteopathic representation to two physicians on the 13-member board. The first D.O. to become president of the board still sits on it, Michael Grossman of Stratford, a colleague of Talone's.
The board reviews applications for licensing in the state, holds disciplinary hearings and promulgates regulations in health-care practice. Talone attended his first meeting in April.
Talone was nominated for the position by the New Jersey Association of Osteopathic Physicians and Surgeons, of which he was state treasurer until March.
He is a 1970 graduate of the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science and a 1975 graduate of the Kansas City College of Osteopathic Medicine. He sits on the latter's board of trustees and heads its alumni association.
For four years, he has been an assistant professor at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in Stratford, a college of osteopathic medicine. Since 1976, he has been in practice with Sunset Medical Associates in Burlington Township and is on the medical staff at Rancocas and Zurbrugg Hospitals.
Talone's wife, Sabina, is a registered nurse and works at Our Lady of Good Counsel School in Moorestown. They have three children - Maria, 17, Albert John, 15, and Aaron, 12.
For George Nardello, the choice between rearing his child or continuing his musical career was clear-cut, so Nardello put down his saxophone. The musical scene, he calculated, was not a fit one in which to bring up a daughter.
When his daughter was 5, Nardello moved to Medford and studied to be a personal financial planner, a nice 9-to-5 job much better suited to parenting.
That was a dozen years ago, during which he made a good living fiddling with figures, but not hitting many hot licks. Then about a year and a half ago, he plunged into a project that could rejuvenate the career he put on ice. In January, he released his first album in more than two decades. Good things are happening because of it.
He had always fancied doing an easy-listening collection. When a good friend, Georgina "Gene" Reinke of Cinnaminson, encouraged him, they decided to go for it. "She got behind me and became executive producer, so I just dusted off the sax and went back into the studio," he said.
The result is a mostly instrumental recording, Sacred Sax, which got a big boost when St. Jude's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., the facility founded by comedian Danny Thomas, decided to promote it. The hospital will derive 20 percent of the profits on every tape and CD sold. St. Jude officials are sending tapes to radio stations and planning advertising, Nardello said.
Nardello, 54, used to be a studio musician and played for Elvis Presley, Frankie Avalon, Patti LaBelle and Chubby Checker. He also recorded "Harlem Nocturne" as the theme to the Mike Hammer TV series and Ravel's Bolero from the movie 10 for CBS-Pavillion. Twice he conducted at the Philadelphia Academy of Music, and in 1987, he was awarded an honorary doctorate at Combs College of Music in Philadelphia.
During the nearly 18 months it took to produce the new album, Nardello couldn't steal time from his firm, Financial Associates in Gibbsboro, "so I would play weekends or late at night, going in sometimes at 8 and leaving at 1 in the morning."
To order Sacred Sax, call 1-800-360-6874, or send check or money order for $9.95 (cassette) or $13.95 (CD) to Celebrity Directors Inc., Lakeview Commons, Suite 103, Gibbsboro, N.J. 08026. New Jersey residents add 7 percent sales tax.
HONORABLE MENTION:
Edward C. German of Haddonfield, senior partner in the law firm of German, Gallagher & Murtagh, will co-chair the 32d annual Pop Warner Awards Dinner on June 16 at the Wyndham Franklin Plaza Hotel in Philadelphia. The national nonprofit organization serves 185,000 children in football, cheerleading, scholastic and drug education programs.
Two seniors at Bishop Eustace Preparatory School in Pennsauken have won full-tuition scholarships to La Salle University in Philadelphia. Nagib Chalfoun, of Marlton, president of the National Honor Society, and a member of the varsity football, track and westling teams, was awarded a Christian Brothers' Scholarship. Alfred Stashis of Audubon, an Honor Society member and leader of the annual blood drive and tutoring program, was awarded a University Scholarship.
Robert F. Williams of Haddonfield, a professor at Rutgers University School of Law, received the first Outstanding Professor of the Year Award at the law school, after a student election sponsored by the Rutgers-Camden Student Bar Association. Williams is the author of State Constitutional Law: Cases and Materials and The New Jersey Constitution: A Reference Guide. He joined Rutgers in 1980, and was promoted to full professor in 1989.
