Remembering some of DuPage County's notables who died in 2008

Remembering some of the DuPage County notables who passed away in 2008:

Maheen Ahmad

The 9-year-old Naperville fourth-grader was playing on a pond near her home on Thanksgiving Day when she fell through the thin ice and drowned. A cousin, who also fell into the icy water, was rescued.

Patrick Amerena

The longtime Addison businessman and community leader died Jan. 1 at age 78. He worked with the village's chamber of commerce for several decades until 2002 and served as a member of the Addison Fire Protection District.

Donald 'D.J.' Andries

The Naperville police officer, known in the department as the "Gentle Giant," died unexpectedly at age 47 in December. He was a 16-year department veteran who served briefly in Glen Ellyn before coming to Naperville.

Kirstin Blockinger, Del Waugh, William Mann and Ron Battiato

Kirstin, a 17-month-old infant from near Sandwich, and her Air Angels flight crew all perished around midnight Oct. 15 when their medevac helicopter crashed into a 750-foot radio antenna along Eola Road near Liberty Street in far east Aurora. Waugh was flying the emergency mission to rush Kirstin to Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago.

Brandon Bringas

The 14-year-old Naperville boy died in July doing something he loved - riding his dirt bike with his dad at a park in Ottawa. The teen, who would have been an eighth-grader at Scullen Middle School, was critically injured when he landed incorrectly while practicing one of his jumps and crushed his torso on the handlebars.

Kenneth Carmignani

The 71-year-old former Naperville resident died in February of a viral form of cirrhosis of the liver in a Ft. Myers, Fla., hospice. He lived in Naperville for about 35 years before leaving in 2003. He joined the city as public works director in the 1960s and was involved in many projects that affect Naperville residents to this day - improving sewers, water systems and roads to allow for the town's growth. He also served as Oak Brook village manager.

Rev. Donald E. Castle

The 60-year-old retired rector of Calvary Episcopal Church in Lombard died in November after battling a long illness. He was chaplain for the Lombard Fire Department. An Elmhurst resident, he served at Calvary from 1977 to 2007 and was nominated as Lombard's Man of the Year.

Carl Dobbs

The former Wheaton police chief died in December after a long battle with cancer. He was remembered as an advocate for community policing long before it became a buzz word in the law enforcement community.

Zamarri Doby

The 16-year-old Waubonsie Valley High School student died unexpectedly in June while playing for the AAU Illinois T-Wolves 16-and-under basketball team at Plainfield South High School. Zamarri, it turned out, had an undiagnosed enlarged heart.

Dr. Martin Doot

The 60-year-old Villa Park man, a leading health expert, died in November. He most recently served as associate medical director for Advocate Medical Group and chief of the addiction treatment program at Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge.

Gene Drendel

The longtime Naperville educator, who spent 30 years as a teacher and administrator in what's now Unit District 203, died in October at age 71. A fifth-generation Napervillian, he also was actively involved in numerous community organizations.

Gayle Dubowski and Daniel Parmenter

The two graduates of DuPage County high schools were among the five Northern Illinois University students killed Feb. 14 when a former student with a history of mental illness burst into a lecture hall on the campus and opened fire. The 20-year-old Dubowski was from Carol Stream and had graduated from Glenbard North High School in 2006. Westchester resident Parmenter, 20, was a graduate of York High School in Elmhurst who was visiting the class when he was killed.

Giddy Dyer

DuPage County's first female county board member died at age 88 at her North Carolina home Feb. 28. Dyer was a former resident of Hinsdale who served on the board from 1960 to 1968 and later served six terms in Springfield as a state representative.

Joe and Becky Fontana

Joe, a 7-year-old student at Nerge Elementary school, was shot along with his mother, Becky, in their Roselle home. Police said Joe's father, Mike, shot his son and wife before killing himself.

Leonard L. "Lenny" Gulczynski

The 19-year-old Carol Stream soldier died in Baghdad on Sept. 17 after he was ejected from a Humvee that crashed into another vehicle. Gulczynski graduated from Bartlett High School in 2007 and entered the Army immediately thereafter. Both his father and grandfather were Army servicemen.

James Hale

The 23-year-old corporal who had attended Naperville Central High School was killed Aug. 13 when his vehicle struck a roadside bomb in Baghdad. He was on his second tour of duty in Iraq.

Jane Rennels Hallwachs

The Naperville woman was 90 when she died in late January, but her passion for the city never waned. As the only kindergarten teacher in Naperville in the 1940s, she taught at both Naper and Ellsworth elementary schools. For the three decades that followed, she devoted her life to education, also teaching at Beebe and Elmwood elementary schools.

James A. Hamlin

The longtime West Chicago resident and the town's first paid fire chief died in July following a long illness. He began his career in 1954 as a volunteer firefighter and was instrumental in moving the fire department from a volunteer-based force into what is now the West Chicago Fire Protection District.

Sylvia "Chris" Harris

The one-time citizen advocate, who later joined the ranks of the elected as the Bloomingdale Township Clerk, died Nov. 4. She was the first female president of the DuPage Airport Authority.

Richard Kammes

The Carol Stream man, 86, died in August at Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield after battling Alzheimer's disease for several years. He was a local business owner, running a bus company that served local schools. She also served as a village trustee, president of the Carol Stream Fire Protection District and as a member of the Wheaton Council 2601 of the Knights of Columbus. In addition, Kammes was a lifelong farmer in DuPage County.

Sara Lee

The former Glen Ellyn trustee died in May after a brief battle with cancer. A longtime Glen Ellyn resident and volunteer, she was elected to the village board in 2005.

John Lies

The longtime Naperville physical education teacher and track coach was known as "Crazy Legs" and was dedicated to teaching kids about the importance of physical fitness. He died in March after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

Anthony Mihalo

The 23-year-old Marine died in August from a roadside bomb attack while on foot patrol in Afghanistan. The 2004 Naperville North High School graduate had served two previous tours in Iraq before arriving in Afghanistan and was awarded a total of four Purple Hearts for his service.

Adam Miller

The 5-year-old Bolingbrook boy was in the back seat of his father's car when it blew a tire and stopped along Plainfield/Naperville Road in mid-November. A second driver apparently didn't see the car and struck it from behind, trapping the child inside. Adam died a short time later at Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago.

Robert Miller

The 24-year-old Army sergeant and 2002 Wheaton North High School graduate was killed Jan. 24 while performing combat operations in Afghanistan. Miller was an elite Green Beret and his special forces unit had been stationed along the Pakistan border since 2006.

Nicholas Modaff Sr.

The longtime Naperville farmer, who worked the land for more than 70 years, died in late May at age 94. As a young man just out of high school, he worked on the stone wall that eventually would help support the Riverwalk.

John "Bill" Moran

The former Lombard parks official died in October at age 84 after complications from a prior stroke. Moran moved to Lombard from Chicago in 1952 when he became a gym teacher for Lombard Elementary District 44 and Lombard Park District's first recreation director. Later, he became the park district's executive director. After his retirement in 1990, he served two, six-year terms on the park board. He led a successful referendum in 1957 for the park district's first pool, which was renamed Moran Water Park when he retired.

Jim Nasti

The 51-year-old Naperville man's goal was to climb the highest peak in all 50 states. He was on his 49th climb at Mount McKinley in Alaska in early July when he died unexpectedly just after reaching the 20,320-foot summit. It was close to the end of climbing season and so his body was left on the mountain, buried beneath the snow.

Senobio Nila

When he arrived in Aurora more than 80 years ago, he was one of the first Mexican immigrants to put down roots in the community. Now Aurora is more than one-third Hispanic and he was credited with helping spark that transformation. He died March 7 at age 106.

John Pearce

He spent 20 years as choral director at Naperville Central High School, always trying to immerse his students in a professional atmosphere. When they performed "Annie Get Your Gun," he obtained some of Ethel Merman's costumes. When they staged "The King and I," they used part of Yul Brenner's wardrobe. He died in early June at age 80.

Dawid Pietrek

The 24-year-old Bensenville resident was a Polish immigrant who joined the Marines to gain U.S. citizenship. He was killed June 14 in Afghanistan along with three other Marines when a roadside bomb detonated as their vehicle drove past. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C.

Dr. Ed Rall

Dr. Joseph Edward "Ed" Rall, one of North Central College's most notable alumni, died Feb. 28 in Maryland. He was 88. The son of a North Central president, Rall was a thyroid specialist who studied victims of radioactive fallout after the atomic bomb testing at Bikini Atoll in the 1940s and '50s. The therapies he helped develop were used later to prevent thyroid disease after the incidents at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl nuclear sites.

Jeffrey Randall

The 44-year-old Naperville man died in September when he had a heart attack during a 13.1-mile half marathon as part of Lake Zurich's Alpine Races. The Lake County coroner said Randall had an undiagnosed heart disease.

Artur Shehu

The Villa Park cabdriver, 33, suspected of shooting his parents to death in January, was pulled from Lake Michigan three months later. An autopsy showed he suffered a gunshot wound to the head. He had been missing since his parents were found slain early Jan. 7 in their Villa Park home.

James Spurgeon

The 48-year-old Lisle man was swimming to a raft in Indiana in late July when he apparently began to struggle, slipped under water and drowned.

Nathaniel Strasser

The 20-month-old Aurora boy wandered away from his home and was found a short time later drowned in a retention pond at a neighboring apartment complex. Police said the boy's death was accidental.

Paul Sutton

The former Naperville resident, who died in March at age 70, spent 38 years teaching at North Central College. During his stay he taught mainly physics and chemistry, but also helped launch the school's computer science department.

Rose Volkert

A member of the West Chicago City Council from 1998 to 2005, Volkert continued to deliver Christmas cookies to firefighters and police officers after her term ended to show her appreciation for their service. She died of metasticized lung cancer in July.

Isaac Wright

The 11-year-old Wheaton boy captured the city's attention - and its hearts - when word spread his family needed to raise $85,000 for a double-cord blood transplant to treat his leukemia. He died Dec. 1 after chemotherapy needed before the surgery failed to put his disease into remission.

Robert Zeidler

Robert Zeidler, patriarch of the family-owned Mr. Z's, an award-winning Lombard landmark, died in December at age 80 after a battle with colon cancer. The Villa Park resident not only ran the supermarket but also supported many community endeavors.