Lafayette Hill

It's a shock at first. Then a definite relief: Susie Essman is no dragon lady. The Curb Your Enthusiasm star who plays one of the most foulmouthed, sarcastic borderline personalities on TV isn't one herself. She is, dare one say, charming. Sweet. "People are always disappointed when they meet me," Essman, 57, said in a phone chat about her stand-up act next Saturday at Congregation Or Ami in Lafayette Hill. Fans, she said, often ask her to insult them using one of the many choice - and unprintable - epithets that flow so mellifluously from her tongue on the HBO show.

A 33-year-old Lafayette Hill man was killed Monday evening when he lost control of his car on Ridge Pike and spun into a car coming in the opposite direction, according to Whitemarsh police. Thomas Fairly McGoldrick, of the 800 block of Pine Tree Road, was pronounced dead at Montgomery Hospital. The driver of the second car, Jeffrey Evan Cohen, 23, of Philadelphia was taken to Chestnut Hill Hospital, where he was admitted with undetermined injuries. He was listed in stable condition yesterday.

BET Investments of Horsham has purchased the 216-unit garden-style Lincoln Woods Apartments on Germantown Pike in Lafayette Hill for $25.5 million. The 10-year loan for the purchase of the complex, built in 1991, was arranged through Fannie Mae by Berkadia Commercial Mortgage L.L.C. in Horsham. It represented 80 percent of total acquisition costs plus short-term capital budget. BET has acquired 1,000 apartment units in the region in the last six months.

John J. Schimpf Sr., 87, of Lafayette Hill, a retired tool- and die-maker and former landscaper for a prominent businessman/philanthropist, died Sunday at Chestnut Hill Hospital in Philadelphia. Mr. Schimpf was born and educated in Philadelphia but resided in Lafayette Hill most of his life. He worked for Corson Lime Co. in Whitemarsh Township for about 20 years, then spent the next 30 years as a tool- and die-maker for the former Globe Hoist Co. in Wyndmoor. For 15 years before his retirement, Mr. Schimpf was a landscaper on the estate of F. Eugene "Fitz" Dixon, a Philadelphia-area businessman and philanthropist.

Felisa Lloren Ojeda of Mays Landing, N.J., a homemaker and former resident of Lafayette Hill, died Monday at the Hershey Medical Center, one week before her 92d birthday. She had been injured in a traffic accident the previous day while being driven to a daughter's funeral in Minnesota. Mrs. Ojeda and another daughter, Georgiana Papa, were ejected when their rented sport-utility vehicle hit an embankment on the Pennsylvania Turnpike in Lancaster County. Papa was treated at Hershey Medical Center and released.

Whitemarsh Township police have released composite drawings of two people sought in the shooting of a man during an apparent ambush in Lafayette Hill on Aug. 21. According to police, the 32-year-old victim met a woman in the Germantown section of Philadelphia and took her to his home on the 4100 block of Joshua Road. After getting out of the car around 9:30 p.m., the man was shot twice when he was confronted by two men during an apparent robbery attempt, police said. The woman who was with the victim then fled with two assailants in a car, police said.

Joe Forman and his family needed temporary housing while their new home was being built. Jerry Nichols was looking for longer-term housing near his work, yet close enough to Philadelphia and one of its cultural hot spots, Manayunk. Both the Forman family and Nichols ended up among the first residents of the newly opened Glen at Lafayette Hill, a luxury apartment complex in Whitemarsh Township, near the intersection of Ridge Pike and Joshua Road. Virtually across the street from Green Valley Country Club, the Glen at Lafayette Hill features such amenities as a business room with computer, copier and fax machine; a dozen 100- to 150-square-foot business suites; and Direct TV. The Direct TV provides residents with up to 95 channels and the cost is included in the rent.

The Fixer: Susan Sabo, 46, Organizers Inc., West Chester, www.organizersinc.com The problem: Although Joffe never neglected her clients, her success with them had outstripped her ability to handle routine business functions, such as billing. She lost notes scribbled on scraps of paper. Her disorganization interfered with her enjoyment of her family. The solution: Sabo advised Joffe to review her schedule for the next day at night and to make better use of technology, such as invoicing software and computerized faxing for contacting the media.

The names of the apartments bespeak a stately elegance: the Englander, the Devonshire, the Chesterfield. Now, it is just a matter of leveling piles of dirt, putting in sewers, and turning skimpy wooden frames into 139 units of lush living quarters. The Glen at Lafayette Hill - formerly known as the Andorra Glen Apartments - at the corner of Joshua Road and Ridge Pike, will be ready for occupancy by mid-August, developer Barbara Kravitz said. The entire project, five buildings in all, will be completed by December.

In a swoop for the hoop, this threesome enjoys a game of basketball at Miles Park in Plymouth. They are (from left) Jordan Knight, Brian Carpenter, and Jordan Friter, all of Lafayette Hill.

It's a shock at first. Then a definite relief: Susie Essman is no dragon lady. The Curb Your Enthusiasm star who plays one of the most foulmouthed, sarcastic borderline personalities on TV isn't one herself. She is, dare one say, charming. Sweet. "People are always disappointed when they meet me," Essman, 57, said in a phone chat about her stand-up act next Saturday at Congregation Or Ami in Lafayette Hill. Fans, she said, often ask her to insult them using one of the many choice - and unprintable - epithets that flow so mellifluously from her tongue on the HBO show.

 M AYOR NUTTER hobnobbed with the stars on Tuesday night at the Time 100 gala, honoring the hundo people the weekly magazine deemed influential. Beyonce and Jay-Z (who made the list) bailed on the party, so Nutter was clearly the next best thing. I hear the mayor chatted it up with Oprah 's BFF and "This Morning" co-host Gayle King , Padma Lakshmi of "Top Chef," Vice President Joe Biden , White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett , U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice and all-time great actress, activist and Marian Anderson award winner Mia Farrow . The gala didn't make it onto the mayor's itinerary for Tuesday, though, and the only tweet Nutter sent out that day read, "In NYC w/ @joshk & @bobmoul meeting w/ investors & entrepreneurs to promote Philly & #StartupPHL," which got me curious.

James Martin Stewart, 87, of Lafayette Hill, a businessman and naturalist who was a founding member of the Wissahickon Valley Watershed Association, died Friday, April 19, at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital of complications from a fall. The longtime resident of Ambler had lived for the last few years at the Hill at Whitemarsh retirement community. Mr. Stewart devoted much of his life to nature conservation. "He really felt that God revealed himself in nature," said his son Mahlon.

BET Investments of Horsham has purchased the 216-unit garden-style Lincoln Woods Apartments on Germantown Pike in Lafayette Hill for $25.5 million. The 10-year loan for the purchase of the complex, built in 1991, was arranged through Fannie Mae by Berkadia Commercial Mortgage L.L.C. in Horsham. It represented 80 percent of total acquisition costs plus short-term capital budget. BET has acquired 1,000 apartment units in the region in the last six months.

As a teen, Marcus Severs worked the counter at his uncle's seafood place, Cap'n Cats Clam Bar & Tavern in West Deptford. In the last two weeks, since he added a market to his Little Tuna restaurant (141 Kings Highway East, Haddonfield, 856-795-0888), Severs feels like a kid again. The seven-day weeks? "The interaction with customers," said Severs, one of the chattiest guys in the business. "I talk to every customer, whether on their way in or on their way out. " The subway-tiled market, taking over the space that was the gift shop Jamaican Me Crazy (which relocated to Rowan University)

Pierre Joseph "Pete" Marcolina, 82, a masonry contractor whose stonework can be seen on venerable buildings throughout the Philadelphia area, died Saturday, March 9, of cancer at a hospice in Vero Beach, Fla. Mr. Marcolina retired in 2000 after more than 50 years in the family business, Marcolina Bros. Inc., formerly on Mermaid Lane in Chestnut Hill. He became president after his father, Pietro, retired in the mid-1950s. The Marcolina Bros. property included a quarry off Waverly Road from which Wissahickon schist was taken to be used on the exteriors of buildings in Philadelphia and the Main Line.

James J. Neve, 92, of Lafayette Hill, a Conshohocken businessman, died of heart failure Monday, Jan. 14, at his home. In 1936, Mr. Neve started J.J. Neve Coal & Fuel Co. He served as its owner-operator before retiring in 1980. Under Mr. Neve, the business expanded to encompass an iron and steel trucking warehouse and storage facility, and an iron ore unloading facility. The consolidated firm, James J. Neve Inc., is now run by Mr. Neve's son Joseph A. It is a warehousing, unloading, and distribution center for railway cargo.

When the nurses came into the Abington Memorial Hospital delivery room yelling: "Happy New Year!" Sara and Greg Stokes knew their baby was close. "We had to get pushing," said Sara Stokes, of Lafayette Hill. Five minutes later, their daughter Marguerite Lynn - Maggie Lynn - was born. Across the region, hospitals and parents were keeping close tabs to see who had delivered the first baby of 2013. Abington Memorial, where 5,000 infants are born each year, seems to have claimed the title with Maggie Lynn.

Don't forget Leslie Richards Larry Platt's column on the new amity among the Montgomery County commissioners lauds Chairman Josh Shapiro and minority commissioner Bruce Castor ("Functionality restored on Montco board," Sunday). However, Platt completely overlooks Leslie Richards, vice chairman of the commissioners, who has brought a strong background in civil engineering to the board, which is especially important with all the infrastructure problems the county faces. Also ignored was Richards' adept leadership of the Whitemarsh Township commissioners.

Ruth A. Robinhold, 99, of Lafayette Hill, who cofounded the Philadelphia Girls' Rowing Club in 1938, when rowing was a predominantly male sport, died Thursday, Dec. 13, of pneumonia at Chestnut Hill Hospital. The former Ruth Adams had placed an ad in a local newspaper seeking women to form a rowing club. Almost 100 women showed up at the first meeting; after a $5 monthly fee was levied, 17 stayed to form the club. The group, believed to be the oldest competitive women's rowing club in America, was fostered by Mrs. Robinhold, who continued to row on the Schuylkill until well into her 80s. "Ruth was up in years, but she was not old," said Sophie Socha, current club president.