Huntingdon Valley

Huntingdon Valley posted a four-man score of 304 yesterday at Doylestown Country Club and led the qualifiers for the Golf Association of Philadelphia's team championships. Philadelphia Country Club, Yardley and Overbrook, which won a tiebreaker for the final position, will join Huntingdon Valley in the finals on July 1 at Springhaven. Huntingdon Valley's team included Jim Sullivan Jr. with a 2-over par 74, James Sullivan (75), David Brookerson (75) and Gary Smith (78), while Chet Walsh of Philadelphia Country Club had the day's low round with a 73. Each team had six players and the lowest four scores from each club were counted.

Favorites Bonnie George of Philmont and Jan Albert of Green Valley encountered strong opposition for 13 holes yesterday before winning the 46th Huntingdon Valley Country Club Invitation golf tournament by 3 and 2 over Waynesborough's Judy Owens and Molly Markle. George-Albert, winners of the medal prize in Monday's qualifying round with a 2-under-par 71 in the better-ball tournament, trailed by 1 from the sixth hole (parred by Owens) through the 10th. George-Albert tied the match with a par on No. 11 and went 1 up when both players parred the 13th, the 135-yard hole with a lake.

Merion, Green Valley and Huntingdon Valley shared first place in the traditional competition for the Philadelphia Cup as the 100th Inter-club Team Series of the Women's Golf Association of Philadelphia began yesterday. In the first of five rounds to be played on succeeding Tuesdays and Fridays, Merion was closely challlenged by Wilmington but escaped from the Wilmington Country Club course with a 4-3 decision. Green Valley made a strong Philadelphia Cup debut on its own course by defeating Riverton, 5-2. Green Valley moved up to the Philadelphia Cup by winning the 1995 Second Cup championship and then capturing a challenge match against the last-place team in the Philadelphia Cup. Huntingdon Valley prevailed on its own course by 5-2 over Philadelphia Country.

A plan announced recently by the U.S. Postal Service to close its Huntingdon Valley office has encountered vehement opposition from area residents. "We're going to fight this tooth and nail," said M.R. Cohen, a local Republican committeeman. The office to be closed is in the Bethayres Shopping Center at Old Welsh Road and Huntingdon Pike. Service to Huntingdon Valley residents would be based in a yet-to-be-constructed building nearly 15 miles away in the northern part of Horsham Township, according to Huntingdon Valley postmaster Robert Heasley.

Jim Howat has a ready answer when asked the reason for Huntingdon Valley's great success in the Country Club Swimming Association of Greater Philadelphia: It's all in the strokes. For Huntingdon Valley's swimmers, that means the butterfly, the breaststroke, and, particularly, the backstroke. Howat believes strongly in teaching them at a young age. "We have kids swimming those strokes when they are 5," said Howat, who has coached Huntingdon Valley to 16 league championships and three second-place finishes in the last 19 years.

Arthur Cantando, 9, of Huntingdon Valley, does board flips in South Philadelphia's Roosevelt Park, which has ramps for skateboarders.

Thomas Paul of Gulph Mills teamed with three players from Huntingdon Valley to win the Golf Association of Philadelphia's season-opening tournament after the chairman's meeting yesterday at LuLu Country Club. Wally Swiger, Robert Kiesling and William Weihenmayer of Huntingdon Valley joined Paul for a winning score of 64-71-135 in the net two-best-balls-of-foursome format, topping a field of 98 players. The results Wally Swiger, Huntingdon Valley; Robert Kiesling, Huntingdon Valley; William Weihenmayer, Huntingdon Valley; Thomas Paul, Gulph Mills - 64-71-135 Darrin Smith, McCall Field; Edwin Donegan, McCall Field; Robert Garis, North Hills; John Darcy, North Hills - 70-69-139 Bruce Dove, Burlington; Reggie DeCarlo, Burlington; David Lampi, Radnor Valley; Eric Levin, Radnor Valley - 67-72-139

Phila. Seniors Association PHILADELPHIA CRICKET CLUB Two best balls of four, shambles. Net Division Ronald Pratowski, Cedarbrook; James McCracken, Riverton; Michael Farrell, Phila. Country; Anthony Merlino, Bala. . . 110 Anton Kemps, Tavistock; Thomas Duff, Rivercrest; James Kelly, Riverton; Eugene Klumpp, Riverton. . . 117 Gross Division John Cech, Riverton; Barry Sandrow, Bala; Donald Gutekunst, Old York Road; Tom Field, Riverton.

Women's Golf Association INTER-CLUB TEAM MATCHES Round 5 of 5. Philadelphia Cup Final standings: Merion 5-0, Phila. Cricket 4-1, Sunnybrook 3-2, Huntingdon Valley 2-3, Manufacturers 1-4, Gulph Mills 0-5. Sunnybrook 4, Huntingdon Valley 3 Merion 4, Phila. Cricket 3: Kerry Rutan, PC, def. Catherine Elliott, 3 and 2; Liz Haines, M, def. Melana Regan, 3 and 2; Alison Shoemaker, PC, def. Kim Simmons, 2 up; Loraine Jones, M, def. Marji Goldman, 2 and 1; Nancy Porter, M, def. Jan Albert, 1 up; Katie Sibel, M, def. Cynthia Clough, 4 and 2; Becky Sanderson, PC, def. Vinny West, 4 and 3. Manufacturers 6, Gulph Mills 1: Tracy Albertelli, M, def. Alexandra Frazier, 2 and 1; Sarah Easton, M, def. Ellen Miller, 4 and 3; Sue Klauder, M, def. Dina Gibson, 2 up; Kathy Platt, M, def. Hattie Laveran, 1 up; Ann Gilmore, M, def. Molly Connell, 1 up; Anne Marie Lewis, M, def. Missy Wietlisbach, 2 and 1; Cameron Peake, GM, def. Tricia Delaney, 5 and 2.

Charles H. Diamond, 76, of New Hope, executive director of the Bucks County Housing and Development Corp., died of pulmonary fibrosis Saturday, March 17, at home. For the last decade, Mr. Diamond headed the nonprofit corporation, which manages 26 properties housing low- and moderate-income families. Previously, he had been director of La Salle University Bucks County Center, the extension campus in Newtown, headed training at Crown Cork & Seal, and was an administrator for Holy Redeemer Health Systems.

Sister Mary Anne McDonagh, 73, a caregiver who founded a food pantry in Cape May County, died Monday, Feb. 27, of cancer at the Provincialate of the Sisters of the Holy Redeemer in Huntingdon Valley. The nuns operate Holy Redeemer Health System, providing health care and social services in four counties in Southeastern Pennsylvania and 11 counties in New Jersey. In 1982, Sister Mary Anne, a licensed practical nurse, helped open Holy Redeemer Home Care in Swainton, N.J. On her visits to the sick, she realized that many families and seniors were living on limited incomes and lacked adequate nutrition, and she began sharing food from her convent kitchen with her clients, said Sister Anne Marie Haas, provincial superior of the Sisters of the Holy Redeemer.

Michael F. Rafferty, 51, of Huntingdon Valley, a family physician, died Friday, Feb. 24, of pancreatic cancer at home. Since 2003, Dr. Rafferty had a family practice at Holy Redeemer Hospital in Meadowbrook. Before that, he had been with a practice in Northeast Philadelphia for 13 years. Dr. Rafferty grew up in Drexel Hill and Northeast Philadelphia and graduated from George Washington High School. He earned a bachelor's degree in 1982 from La Salle University, where he played trombone in the pep and jazz bands.

Daria Alexandra Pushkar Shust, 79, of Huntingdon Valley, a retired teacher, died Monday, Feb. 20, at Abington Memorial Hospital. For 15 years, Mrs. Shust taught Spanish at St. Basil Academy, a private girls' high school in Jenkintown. She retired in 1999. Previously, she taught at the former Raven Hill Academy in East Falls and at the Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception School in Philadelphia. In 1949, Mrs. Shust emigrated with her parents from Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union.

William J. Spiegel, 85, formerly of Huntingdon Valley, owner and president of the company that developed tamper-resistant, heat-shrinkable plastic seals, died of lung cancer Sunday, Jan. 15, at Jupiter (Fla.) Medical Center. Mr. Spiegel grew up in South Philadelphia. His first job was working for his father, a wholesale furrier. In 1961, he and his younger brother, Jacob, started a firm, Gilbreth International. With $10,000 in borrowed money, they opened a tiny office in Germantown and began importing basic chemicals.

Joseph Leporace, 79, of Huntingdon Valley, an engineer, developer, and entrepreneur, died of lymphoma Friday, Dec. 23, at home. In the early 1960s, Mr. Leporace established NDI Engineering Co. and was later president of Wavetech Inc. in Pennsauken. The firm was sold in the early 1990s. In 1989, he developed Landmark Plaza, a shopping center in Bensalem where he opened Celebrations, a banquet facility, and LaCena Ristorante. In the 1970s, he operated Villa Anna Ristorante in Northeast Philadelphia.

WASHINGTON - Regulators yesterday shuttered a small bank near Philadelphia, boosting to 65 the number of U.S. bank failures this year. The pace of closures has slowed as the economy has slowly improved and banks work their way through the bad debt accumulated in the Great Recession. By this time last year, regulators had shuttered 118 banks. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. seized Public Savings Bank, in Huntingdon Valley, with one branch, $46.8 million in assets and $45.8 million in deposits.