Lawrence Delclos Sr.
Company vice president
Lawrence A. Delclos Sr., retired vice president of Rowan Controller Co. of Westminster who emigrated from Spain at age 14, died Nov. 22 of Lou Gehrig's disease at Bedford Court by Marriott, a retirement community and nursing home in Silver Spring. He was 89.
He retired from the Carroll County electrical motor controls manufacturer as vice president of operations in 1968.
Born and educated in Palamos, Spain, Mr. Delclos moved to the United States with his family in 1919 when his father, an employee of Crown Cork & Seal, was offered a position at the company's Baltimore plant.
Mr. Delclos attended St. Anne's School and became a U.S. citizen in 1936.
He was a welder for Tanners, a Baltimore company later taken over by Rowan Controller Co. He became a sales manager before being named vice president of operations.
Mr. Delclos and the former Mildred Elizabeth McGuiness were married in 1938.
The couple lived in Towson for more than 20 years. After his wife's death last year, Mr. Delclos moved to the Heartlands retirement community in Ellicott City. He moved to Bedford Court after being diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease this year.
Mr. Delclos was a member of the Knights of Columbus and was active in the Roman Catholic Church.
For about 15 years, he and his wife delivered home-cooked meals to Our Daily Bread in Baltimore.
A Mass of Christian burial was to be offered at 10 a.m. today at the Church of the Nativity, 1800 Vista Lane in Timonium.
He is survived by two sons, Lawrence A. Delclos Jr. of Springfield, Va., and James R. Delclos of Long Valley, N.J.; five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Memorial donations may be made to Our Daily Bread, 19 W. Franklin St., Baltimore 21201. William L. "Pete" Keidel Sr., who reared a family of seven children on the Bible and his earnings as a butcher, died Friday of an aneurysm at Peninsula Regional Medical Center in Salisbury. The Salisbury resident was 59.
He had recently retired from the meat-cutting business -- a career that spanned four decades and took him from the Pantry Pride meat counter on Ritchie Highway to the Warehouse Food Market in Salisbury -- to help two of his sons open their own construction business.
"You might say he wound up running us," said his son Timothy S. Keidel, 28, of Salisbury. "My father always believed that if you were going to do something, you should do it right. He never did anything halfway, and he wouldn't let us do it that way either."
Mr. Keidel grew up in the working-class Brooklyn section of Baltimore, and was 19 when he met a 15-year-old neighborhood girl named Dawn Ferguson over a game of pinball in a street corner arcade. They later married and recently celebrated their 40th anniversary.
Blind in one eye from birth, Mr. Keidel took up the meat-cutting trade to support his family, which grew over the years to include seven children and 16 grandchildren.
The former Glen Burnie resident imparted his love of Maryland's bays and backwaters and a fair measure of knowledge about crabbing and fishing to all his children.
"He was a religious man, but not a churchgoing man," his son said. "He read the Bible, and he knew the Bible, and he raised us up by the Bible. He told us that if you help one person in life, then your life will have been worth living.
"According to that, his life meant something. Nobody ever met my dad who didn't like him."
Services will be held at the Holloway Funeral Home, 501 Snow Hill Road, Salisbury, at 11 a.m. tomorrow, followed by burial at the Riverton Cemetery in Salisbury.
In addition to his wife and son, Mr. Keidel is survived by six other children: Lt. Cmdr. William Lloyd Keidel Jr. of Jacksonville, Fla.; Kimberly Ann Keidel and Samuel J. Keidel of Salisbury; Victoria Iorio of Pasadena; Susan D. Filesi of San Diego; and Richard K. Keidel of Mardela Springs.
Winfield Ningard
Armco pipefitter
Winfield Frederick "Bud" Ningard, who worked for Armco Steel in Baltimore for 36 years, died of lung cancer Tuesday at Pikes Peak Hospice in Colorado Springs, Colo. He was 78.
Mr. Ningard, a pipefitter at Armco Steel's Biddle Street plant, retired in 1976.
A Baltimore native, Mr. Ningard served in the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Depression and helped Paw Paw, W.Va., clean up from a flood in 1936.
Mr. Ningard was married for 54 years to the former Mary Holly. They lived in Glen Arm for more than 30 years before moving to live with their daughter, Winnie Brickett, for the past 1 1/2 years in Monument, Colo.
Mr. Ningard was a member of the Old-Timers Skeet & Trap Club of Loch Raven.
Services were to be held at 11 a.m. today at the Evans Chapel of Memories, 8800 Harford Road in Parkville.
In addition to his wife and daughter, Mr. Ningard is survived by another daughter, Charlotte Morris of Frederick, and four grandchildren.
Saunders Almond Jr.
Lawyer
Saunders Mann "Sonny" Almond Jr., a retired Towson lawyer, died of cancer Friday at the Blakehurst Life Care Community. He was 75.
A 1949 graduate of the University of Maryland Law School, Mr. Almond began his career with the law firm of Jenifer and Jenifer in Towson, which later became Jenifer Pitts and Almond. In the early 1970s, he opened his own Towson firm.
"He was the kind of person you would hope all lawyers would be," said 81-year-old Mary Frances Shepperd, a 20-year client of Mr. Almond. "He was a person of greatest integrity. I could not praise him enough."
For clients such as Ms. Shepperd and her sister, Regina B. Shepperd, Mr. Almond would often visit or call twice a week to give his legal expertise or just to "make sure we were all right" -- even after he retired.
"We just considered him a son," Mary Shepperd said. "I don't know who we're going to have to look after us now. We've lost our best friend."
Born in Baltimore, Mr. Almond was a 1937 graduate of McDonogh School, where he fell in love with his lifelong hobbies of horseback riding and gardening. He attended William & Mary College in Williamsburg, Va., and was an Athletic Hall of Fame member for his accomplishments on its swimming team.
In 1941, Mr. Almond joined the Navy, serving in the Atlantic and Pacific fleets during World War II and attaining the rank of lieutenant commander. Then he earned a law degree at the University of Maryland School of Law.
"He just enjoyed life," said his wife of 21 years, the former Anne Wollman McCormick. "He was a really happy person and loved to help people. He walked down the streets of Towson and he would know practically everybody he passed."
In addition to his wife, survivors include two sons, Saunders M. Almond III of Timonium and John Howard Almond of Monkton; a daughter, Jenifer Howard Almond of Baltimore; a sister, Grace Almond Baker of Baltimore; two stepsons, John G. McCormick of Stevenson and Robert N. McCormick of Carmel, Calif.; and seven step-grandchildren.
Services will be held at 12:30 p.m. tomorrow at the Trinity Episcopal Church, 120 Allegheny Ave., Towson.
Memorial donations may be made to the Saunders M. Almond Jr. Memorial Fund at William & Mary College, Williamsburg, Va. 23185. James Mitchell Coyle Jr., the owner or partner in three area electrical firms for more than a quarter-century, died Friday of a heart attack at his longtime home in Reisterstown. He was 71.
From 1950 to 1955, Mr. Coyle was a partner in Coyle & Cauyle Electric, which was operated from his home on Old Hanover Road. For the next 17 years, he was a partner with Henry Albert Jr. in the Fred Claggette Electric Co. He owned Reisterstown Electric Co. from 1973 to 1976.
Mr. Coyle retired in 1979 and worked part time at the Liquor Barn in Taneytown from 1987 until four weeks ago.
Born in Arbutus and raised in Owings Mills, Mr. Coyle was a veteran of World War II and served in the 82nd Airborne and 101st Airborne Division's "Screaming Eagles" in Normandy, France. He was a member of the American Legion's Reisterstown Post 116.
Services were to be held at 1:30 p.m. today at the Eckhardt Funeral Chapel, 11605 Reisterstown Road in Owings Mills.
He is survived by three sons, James M. Coyle III and Bruce R. Coyle, both of Westminster, and Michael G. Coyle of Baltimore; a daughter, Kathleen M. Maras of Reisterstown; four brothers, John Coyle of Reisterstown, Gordon Coyle of Finksburg, David Coyle of Owings Mills and Nathan Coyle of Lutherville; five sisters, Alice Rizzo of Rosedale, Naomi Hundertmark of Reisterstown, Thelma F. Fertitta of Owings Mills, Florence Aversa of Pikesville and Eleanor Aversa of Randallstown; and 12 grandchildren.
Rita H. Billstone
Active volunteer
Rita H. Billstone, 74, a longtime Towson resident and civic volunteer, died of cancer Saturday at Stella Maris Hospice.
The former Rita Helmkemp, an Ohio native, was a graduate of the International Business College in Fort Wayne, Ind., and worked as a private secretary there before her 1942 marriage to John A. Billstone. They moved to the Baltimore area in 1946.
While raising two daughters, she was active in the Girl Scouts and as a volunteer at St. Mary's Villa and Children's Hospital, where she served on the women's board. An avid golfer, Mrs. Billstone was a member of the Hillendale Country Club.
A Mass of Christian burial will be offered at 10 a.m. tomorrow at Immaculate Conception Roman Catholic Church, Baltimore and Ware avenues in Towson.
Mrs. Billstone is survived by her husband, a retired executive for the National Brewing Co.; their two daughters, Nancy B. Brooks and Debbie B. Sperato, both of Baltimore; a brother, Elmer J. Helmkemp, and a sister, Alice M. Scherger, both of Delphos, Ohio; and three grandchildren.