July 2003

Joan E. “Janice” Bennett, 52, of St. Petersburg, Fla. died July 2, 2003 at Pasadena Manor. Born in Panama, she came here in l985 from Cocoa.

Michael J. Burza, 86, died June 11, 2003 in Plano, Texas. He was a retired Lead Foreman Machinist for the Industrial Division. He lived in the Panama Canal Zone for 35 years, mostly in Margarita and La Boca.

Nadja Camille (Van Hoose) Campbell, 45, died May 23, 2003 at the Hospice House of Northeast Indiana in Fort Wayne. She was born in the Canal Zone in 1957 and graduated from Balboa High School in 1975.

John B. Coffey, Jr., 65, of Dunwoody, Ga., died on July 6, 2003. Born in the Canal Zone, he grew up on the Atlantic side, graduating in June 1957 from Cristobal High School. He went right into an electrical apprenticeship and then to work for the Gatun Hydroelectric Station. He retired on August 3, 1998, as a Supervisory Power Dispatcher.

John Gallagher of Brick, N.J. died on May 27, 2003. He was formerly employed in the Panama Canal Zone. No further information available.

Catherine H.G. Jenkins, 96, died of natural causes at her home in Malvern, Pa. on March 2, 2003. Catherine was employed by the PCC Supply Division at Balboa Warehouse from 1951 until her retirement in 1962.

Earl Casper Keeney, 88, long-time resident of McAllen, Texas and the Panama Canal Zone, died at Seasons Hospital in Rochester, Minn., on June 25, 2003. He was employed by the Panama Canal Company in various financial fields until 1977.

Rhodeva LeWarne, 66, of Indian Rocks Beach, Fla., died June 24, 2003 at Sun Coast Hospital, Largo. She came to Florida in 1969 from the Panama Canal Zone. She was a medical administrator at Bay Pines VA Medical Center.

Thomas Edd McGraw, 54, of Supply, N.C., died March 3, 2003. A 1966 graduate of Balboa High School in the Panama Canal Zone, he was a 1972 graduate of Pembroke College and was employed in Wilmington, N.C.

John Warren Meeker, Jr., 77, of Oldsmar, Fla., formerly of Spring Hill, died June 17, 2003 at Mease Countryside Hospital, Safety Harbor. He was a merchant marine veteran of WWII and relocated to the Panama Canal Zone area where he worked as a ship’s pilot and retired as senior assistant port captain.

Van Neil Morgan, Sr., of Lake Helen, Fla., a retired 14-year engineer for the Panama Canal Railroad, died April 14, 2003, at Hospice Care Center, Port Orange. He was a Navy veteran of WWII and an Army veteran of the Korean War.

Albert J. Neckar, Jr., 71, (BHS’49 and CZJC’51) of Van Buren, Ariz., died May 10, 2003 at his home. He was born in Colon, Republic of Panama and raised and educated in the Panama Canal Zone. Al played baseball and football for the high school and college, as well as the Canal Zone working boys league.

Vera Mae (Miller) Perry, 80, of Orlando, Fla., passed away May 31, 2003 at Florida Hospital in Orlando after a brief illness. She was a teacher in the Panama Canal Zone retiring in 1982 after 30 years at Balboa High School and Cristobal High School.

Ralph Henry Peterson, 67, of Dothan, Ala. died June 6, 2003, at his residence. After three years in the Army, he taught school in Denver, Guam, and the Panama Canal Zone retiring in 1988.

Alice Elizabeth Pierce, 92, died March 31, 2003, in Corpus Christi, Texas. She worked for the Panama Canal Company and the U.S. Army Caribbean Command Transportation Corps in the Procurement and Supply Division..

Herbert William Rose, 90, passed away peacefully April 14, 2003, in Ojai, Calif. He was a retired locomotive engineer, having worked 35 years with the Panama Railroad.

Merlena A. Searle of Colorado Springs, Colo., died March 9, 2003. She moved to the Canal Zone in 1945 and worked for the U.S. Navy at Rodman Naval Station and later for the Federal Aviation Administration until retirement in 1969.