Electrician

Protected from elements, visitors to The Mall in Columbia can enjoy a winter wonderland - without the cold. The mall's Santastic display uses MagicSnow, a nontoxic water-based product that looks like the real thing. It floats from the chimneys of the buildings in the mall display, is blasted at children dropping letters into Santa's mailbox and evaporates when it hits the ground. Adam Williams, a former electrician, came up with the idea of the fake flakes for a magic show.

Window dresser Greg Baranoski is in full glamour mode, deciding which fringed pants and bohemian blouse to put on a sexy reclining mannequin at the new Octavia in Pikesville. Suddenly he and store president Betsy Wendell Dugan find themselves in the middle of a shoe crisis. The crisis? No shoes.Baranoski hops into his burgundy Ford Ranger, lights a cigarette and sets off for Owings Mills Mall, not to hunt for Guccis, Blahniks and Coles, but to pillage Payless.It's all part of a manic, mismatched day in the life of a window-dresser during the holiday season.

DICK AND NANCY Councill, in the midst of a two-story addition and renovation to their house in Baltimore County, have been lucky with the weather; it didn't turn nasty until their project was already under roof. And even though this is the first time they've done anything like this, they seem to be taking it all in stride."I think overall it's going well," Dick Councill said of the project. He admitted that some aspects had been a little "exciting" -- like finding out the original brick walls wouldn't support the second story of the addition -- "but you've got to be flexible," he said.

Ronald R. Hudgins, 52, electricianA memorial Mass for Ronald R. Hudgins will be offered at 10 a.m. Aug. 19 at New All Saints Roman Catholic Church, 4408 Liberty Heights Ave.Mr. Hudgins, an electrician with the Baltimore City Board of Education, died of cancer July 19 at Villa St. Michael Nursing and Retirement Center. He was 52 and lived in Catonsville.He is survived by a daughter, Kavonne Harville of Petersburg, Va.; a son, Brandon Allen; his mother, Sarah R. Hudgins; a sister, Karen L. Webb; and his fiance, Lisa Allen, all of Baltimore.

Melvin Hartung Levy, 81, designed kitchensMelvin Hartung Levy, who retired in 1986 as a designer of kitchens and bathrooms, died of leukemia Jan. 13 at Sinai Hospital. He was 81 and lived in Milford Mill.The native of Tuscon, Ariz., was raised in Harlingen, Texas. Interested in electronics and a ham radio operator, he opened Mel's Radio and Appliance Repair in Harlingen in the late 1930s."It was in 1940 when he picked up signals that were going to Argentina and then to Germany. He reported them to the FBI, which led to the arrest of a German agent who was posing as a counselor at a local camp," said a stepdaughter, Stephanie Whippo-Gotschall of Reisterstown.

Name: Patrik ProchazkaTeam: Czech RepublicPosition: MidfieldAge: 30Birthplace: PragueThe skinny: The 5-foot-10, 180-pound player has been on the Czech national team since 1994. He first played lacrosse eight years ago after his brother-in-law took him to a game. "I was interested immediately after the first time I saw lacrosse," he said through an interpreter. He currently lives in Prague and is an electrician there. He has a wife named Monica. Prochazka said he was very nervous before the game against Germany and is relieved that it's over.

Sylvan Johnson, 60, electricianSylvan Johnson, a retired electrician and lifelong Baltimorean, died of cancer Monday at Johns Hopkins Hospital. He was 60 and lived in West Baltimore.Mr. Johnson was an electrician at Liberty Medical Center from 1970 to 1982 and at Fort Meade from 1982 until he retired in 1995.He enjoyed fishing and golfing at Carroll Park and was a member of the Colonial Golf Club.Services are scheduled for 11 a.m. today at Nutter Funeral Home, 2501 Gwynns Falls Parkway.He is survived by his wife, the former Sylvia Monroe, whom he married in 1970; a son, Anthony Johnson; three brothers, Samuel Johnson, Charles Johnson and Robert Johnson; a sister, Estelle Moan; and a granddaughter.

A caption with an article about an electrician pre-apprenticeship program in Sunday's Anne Arundel County edition of The Sun incorrectly identified a man in the photo. Dennis Thomas is president of Independent Electrical Contractors Chesapeake and one of three instructors for the program.The Sun regrets the error.Pub Date: 6/23/98

Independent Electrical Contractors Chesapeake, the Odenton firm hired by the Anne Arundel County Job Center to prepare clients in low-wage, low-skill jobs for apprenticeships in electrical or related jobs, will graduate another class in two weeks.The six who graduate Dec. 17 will bring to 13 the number of graduates of the three-month program, which started in the spring. Of those, seven will be enrolled in electrical apprenticeships by January, and four more have jobs in the field, a program official said.

Walter William Riedel, a retired electrician and Navy veteran of World War II who participated in the Normandy invasion, died Thursday from complications of pancreatitis. He was 75 and lived in Ferndale.The Southwest Baltimore native also offered his expertise in electrical work as a volunteer helping to restore the Liberty ship John W. Brown, and on the Sanctuary, the former Navy hospital ship that is being converted into a detoxification center for women.He enlisted in the Navy in 1942, and was assigned as a fire controlman aboard the USS Thomas Jefferson, a converted Navy attack transport that had been the American President Lines' passenger ship President Garfield.

Herbert Ray "Speedy" Kennedy, a retired Lehigh Portland Cement Co. electrician and an avid outdoorsman, died Monday of complications from colon surgery at Frederick Memorial Hospital. The Union Bridge resident was 81. Mr. Kennedy, the son of a Portland Cement Co. heavy equipment operator and a homemaker, was born and raised in Union Bridge. After graduating from Elmer A. Wolfe High School in 1945, he enlisted in the Navy and served in Cuba and Panama aboard the submarine tender USS Orion.

Samuel H. Adams Jr., a former all-city halfback and an electrician who returned to college in his 50s, died of heart failure Tuesday. He was 84. Mr. Adams, of Ellicott City, was born in 1924 in Baltimore. He attended Polytechnic Institute and was named an all-city football player. After high school, he joined the Army Air Corps. He served as a second lieutenant and was a navigator aboard a B-17 bomber from 1943 to 1946. After getting out of the service, he attended the University of Maryland and played on the football team for several years.

A 19-year-old contractor for Baltimore Gas and Electric died Saturday night after he fell into a hole he had dug in Severna Park and came into contact with a live power line, Anne Arundel County police said. Thomas Kikas Jr. of Middle River, an electrician trainee with Riggs Distler and Co., was restoring electricity to four homes in the 200 block of Berrywood Drive when he slipped and fell into a hole, about 3 feet deep, where a cable was leaking voltage, according to the president of Riggs Distler, a BGE subcontractor.

Protected from elements, visitors to The Mall in Columbia can enjoy a winter wonderland - without the cold. The mall's Santastic display uses MagicSnow, a nontoxic water-based product that looks like the real thing. It floats from the chimneys of the buildings in the mall display, is blasted at children dropping letters into Santa's mailbox and evaporates when it hits the ground. Adam Williams, a former electrician, came up with the idea of the fake flakes for a magic show.

Mitchell Phillip Myers, a retired maintenance electrician and former Cumberland resident, died Sunday of a heart attack at a hospital in Spartanburg, S.C. He was 81. Mr. Myers was born in Baltimore and raised in Hampden. He was a vocational school graduate and enlisted in the Navy during World War II. "He was an electrician aboard a ship that was sunk during the Battle of Okinawa. He earned a Purple Heart but never talked about the war very much," said his wife of 60 years, the former Margilee Fletcher.

Brodie Lee "Holly" Haith Jr., a Vietnam War veteran and electrician who volunteered to help veterans struggling with substance abuse, died July 8 of cirrhosis of the liver at Maria Parham Medical Center in Henderson, N.C. The former Baltimore resident was 57. Born and raised in West Baltimore, Mr. Haith left high school in the 11th grade to learn to be an electrician at the Baltimore Job Corps Skills Center. Mr. Haith then enlisted in the Army and was stationed in Vietnam doing telecommunications work for nearly three years.

Anthony A. Wajer, an electrician and veteran of the Army and Maryland National Guard, died of mesothelioma, a form of lung cancer, Monday at Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care. The longtime Baltimore County resident was 83. Born and raised in Fells Point, Mr. Wajer attended City College and later earned his high school equivalency diploma. At age 18, he was drafted into the Army, spending three years as an infantryman. His unit was shipped to France after D-Day, said his son, Stephen D. Wajer of Towson.

Officials from the Maryland Office of Safety and Health were investigating yesterday the death of an electrician who was killed while working at a downtown office building. Michael Hembree, 35, of Clinton was installing a light switch Wednesday shortly after 10 p.m. in an office building at 7 St. Paul St. when something went wrong, according to Matt Selmer, his business partner. A person working with him "heard the sound of an electrical pop," according Officer Nicole Monroe, a Baltimore police spokeswoman.

Nicholas Charles Guerieri, who during a 55-year career as an electrician scaled the heights of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and strung wire and cable deep in the earth, died of the asbestosis-related lung disease mesothelioma Oct. 3 at his Perry Hall home. He was 87. Born in Baltimore and raised on South Curley Street, he was a 1937 graduate of Polytechnic Institute. In an unpublished family memoir, My Life As Far Back As I Can Remember, he recalled paying a nickel for the streetcar tokens to ride to school.

Edwin William Balcer, a retired electrician, died of a heart attack Thursday at his home in the Graceland Park neighborhood of Baltimore. He was 82. He grew up in Highlandtown and graduated from Patterson High School in 1941. As a teen, he earned extra money by painting window screens for family and neighbors. He also worked with his father, a cabinetmaker. After training as an electrician, he landed a job at Bethlehem Steel. He remained with the company for 30 years and retired in the early 1980s.