Our View: Appreciate those who gave, now are gone

They served our communities, were leaders, or were influential, leaving their marks and legacies in ways large and small. Whether we always agreed with the things they did or said, they still deserve our gratitude and appreciation for their public service — which came to an end this year.

2024 featured its share of retirements, step-downs, and moves-on to other challenges and opportunities. And, of course, there was an election, with winners and losers. There also were, as always, deaths among those of prominence in the Northland, some unexpected or shocking and all sad to someone.

Our locals joined national lists that featured actresses Teri Garr and Shannon Doherty; velvet-voiced actor James Earl Jones; actors Donald Sutherland, Carl Weathers, and “Hutch,” David Soul; actor and singer-songwriter Kris Kristofferson; actor and comedian Bob Newhart; record producer and composer Quincy Jones; TV talk show host Phil Donahue; TV sex therapist Ruth Westheimer; VHS-era exercise guru Richard Simmons; baseball greats Willie Mays and Pete Rose, even if Rose was perhaps as infamous as he was famous; and (speaking of infamous) Pro Football Hall of Famer and accused-then-acquitted murderer O.J. Simpson — to name just a few we lost this year.

Locally, Duluth-born and Duluth-raised Mike Berman, the deputy chief of staff for Vice President Walter Mondale, died in January. He was 84 and the author in 2006 of “Living Large: A Big Man’s Ideas on Weight, Success, and Acceptance,” about his health challenges.

Randy Bolen, mayor of Two Harbors from 2009 to 2016, died in October at 48. He also was a Two Harbors City Council member and an engineer for the Canadian National Railroad.

Matthew Carter, a racial-justice warrior in Duluth, died in November at 98 . He and his wife, Helen Carter, Duluth’s first Black public-school teacher, helped desegregate housing in Duluth in 1962 when they and a white minister bought a lot on London Road where the Carters then built a house. The minister made the purchase using the Carters’ money and then transferred it to them. When neighbors learned of the ruse , they vandalized the house, including with racial slurs.

Polka great Florian Chmielewski of Sturgeon Lake died in April at age 97. He was a longtime member of the Chmielewski Funtime Band , which toured and recorded extensively and became television's “ Partridge Family of polka ,” according to the News Tribune. Chmielewski also served in the Minnesota Senate from 1971 to 1997.

Activist Portia Johnson died in July. She served as president of the Duluth NAACP and was a member of the Arrowhead Regional Correction Advisory Board, the News Tribune Editorial Board, the Duluth Public Schools Desegregation/Integration Council, the African American Educational Advisory Council, the League of Women Voters, and the St. Louis County End to Homelessness Committee. Johnson also was a founding member of the Clayton Jackson McGhie Memorial committee . In 2007, the road leading to Duluth Central High School was renamed in her honor .

A fixture along the Gunflint Trail, legendary lodge owner Bruce Kerfoot died in October. He was 85.

Theater director and educator Liz Larson, an inspiration to generations of Twin Ports students, died in September. She led productions in the Duluth Public Schools, at the University of Wisconsin-Superior, and elsewhere after being an actress herself, including as one of the Lovely Liebowitz Sisters, who toured and starred in their own series of spinoff shows. Larson was also a secretary at Duluth Central and an attendance secretary at Duluth East.

Former U.S. Rep. Rick Nolan, who served six terms in Congress, including as representative of Northeastern Minnesota’s 8th Congressional District, died in October. He was 80 and also had been a business leader. Nolan, a Democrat, was known as a “a fiery speaker who fiercely advocated for the region and was willing to work across the aisle to get things done,” as the News Tribune reported .

Known for his disability-rights advocacy and love of the outdoors, John Nousaine of Superior died while diving at a shipwreck in Lake Superior in July. He was 70 and had been the executive director of North Country Independent Living.

Mike Sertich, a Duluth hockey icon who devoted 18 years to lifting up the University of Minnesota Duluth hockey program, died in August after a two-year battle against pancreatic cancer. He was 77.

James E. Ulland, who represented St. Louis, Lake, and Cook counties in the Minnesota House from 1969 to 1976 and then served in the state Senate until 1985, died in November. He was 82. He also was a minority leader in the Senate, a banking senior vice president, the commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Commerce, and the founder of Ulland Investment Advisors.

The landmark Lincoln Park drive-in restaurant A & Dubs didn’t reopen this year and remains boarded up this Christmas season, leaving Duluthians to wonder if it, too, has died. After 76 years of slinging burgers and root beer floats, its owners announced in April that health concerns made it unfeasible to continue. “A & Dubs has changed little since it … opened as an A & W in 1948, reportedly the first drive-in in Duluth, and now apparently the last,” the News Tribune eulogized .

In April, 6th Judicial District Judge Dale Harris, who is chambered at the St. Louis County Courthouse in Duluth, announced he wouldn’t seek reelection.

Also in April, St. Luke’s co-president and chief financial officer, Eric Lohn, retired .

David Montgomery, the chief administrative officer for the city of Duluth, announced in November that he’s stepping down — for the second time. Montgomery served in the role for nine years under Mayors Don Ness and Emily Larson, retiring in 2018. He returned this year to assist new Mayor Roger Reinert.

Rep. Liz Olson left the Minnesota House in July to work for the McKnight Foundation as a senior program officer. She had represented western Duluth since her election in 2016.

The Rev. John Petrich retired this month after 34 years with the St. Louis County Law Enforcement Chaplaincy.

Lake Superior College President Patricia Rogers announced in August her intent to retire at the end of the 2024-25 academic year. She led the college for five years and will officially step down June 30.

And in March, the Boise Philharmonic in Idaho announced it had hired away Brandon Vanwaeyenberghe, who had served as executive director of the Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra for nearly five years

We all have our lists of those who played roles big and small in our lives and in our communities, who left us this past year, and who we can recall now on the occasion of another fast-approaching New Year's.

It's no small commitment, this taking your turn in the public eye and in public service, contributing, whether as an elected official or in some other high-profile leadership role. Our communities depend on and need those who take on the responsibility and who are willing to sacrifice time with family, leisure activities, and other pursuits.

May they all be remembered fondly and revered as we prepare to enter a new year. May they be thanked and appreciated. And may they inspire others to also step up, to put themselves out there, to be willing — for the good of community.