Europe

Europeans have long extolled centralized planning and tolerated large government bureaucracies. But when it comes to approving medical devices, Europe has taken a decidedly decentralized approach — to the great benefit of patients and health care workers. It is an example the United States would do well to follow. Consider the field of cardiology. A national medical conference, such as the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions, gives you a glimpse into the future.

It wasn't all that long ago when you could scour the professional soccer fields of Europe in vain looking for an American player. Those days are gone, but simply because there are now scores of U.S. players plying their trade at various levels all across the continent does not mean that all are thriving. In fact, the opposite is true. You need fewer than 10 fingers to count the Americans who are regarded as key figures on their respective European teams — Tim Howard at Everton, Clint Dempsey at Fulham, Steve Cherundolo at Hannover 96, Maurice Edu at Rangers, Michael Bradley at Borussia Monchengladbach, Brad Friedel at Aston Villa, Stuart Holden at Bolton Wanderers, Michael Parkhurst at FC Nordsjaelland and Carlos Bocanegra at Saint-Etienne.

Dr. Lester Aubrey Wall Jr., a retired Baltimore internist who during his professional career personified the virtues of the old-fashioned general practitioner, died Tuesday of complications from Alzheimer's disease at a daughter's home in The Woodlands, Texas. The longtime Guilford and Towson resident was 94. The son of a banker and homemaker, Dr. Wall was born in Baltimore and raised on Kenwood Avenue. He was a 1933 graduate of City College and earned a bachelor's degree in 1937 from St. John's College in Annapolis.

John Joseph Glister, a retired millwright and World War II veteran, died Jan. 6 from complications of Alzheimer's disease at Golden Living Center in Westminster. He was 93. Mr. Glister was born and raised in Springfield, Mass., where he graduated from high school. During World War II, he enlisted in the Army and served with the Rainbow Division in the European Theater. He was discharged in 1946 with the rank of corporal. He returned to his job as a millwright at Simond's Saw Steel Co. in Fitchburg, Mass.

The producers of "The Raven" insist they aren't giving Baltimore the bird. It seems that a heavily fictionalized movie version about Charm City's favorite son, Edgar Allan Poe, is in the works. The film stars John Cusack, and even is set in mid-19th-century Baltimore, where the master of the macabre is buried. So, it makes sense that filmmakers, in search of locations that will evoke our city's authentic essence, that unmistakable dash of Old Bay, are shooting in … Budapest?

Gabriela "Gaby" Rosenberg, an interior designer who survived World War II as a Jew in Europe, died of cancer Nov. 16 at Gilchrist Hospice Care. She was 71 and lived in Pikesville. She was born Gabriela Goldmann in Katowice, Poland, in 1939, shortly before the German army invaded the country. "Her mother, grandmother, aunt and cousin saw what was on the horizon. With their blonde hair, blue eyes and German background, they were able to obtain false papers as German Catholics," Cantor Nancy Ginsberg said in a eulogy.

Donald Myron "Donny" Cohen, a World War II P-51 fighter pilot who flew on the last combat mission over Germany and later became a chemical engineer at Aberdeen Proving Ground, died Nov. 5 at his Fallston home from complications of Parkinson's disease. He was 86. In the early hours of May 8, 1945, Mr. Cohen was sitting in the cockpit of the Lady Ellen, the P-51 fighter that he named after his wife, and waiting to take off from Ansbach Airfield, a captured former Luftwaffe base in northern Bavaria.

Donald Thomas Warren, a retired Baltimore County fire official and a World War II veteran, died Oct. 2 of congestive heart failure at the Charlestown retirement community. He was 92. Mr. Warren was born and raised in Owings Mills. He was a 1935 graduate of Franklin High School. He enlisted as a private in the Army in 1941 and fought with an infantry unit in the Aleutian Islands and later in Europe. He was wounded and earned the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star. Mr. Warren was discharged in 1945 with the rank of lieutenant, and two years later joined the Baltimore County Fire Department.