World War

Joseph R. Castoro, a retired Baltimore businessman and a World War II veteran, died Dec. 5 of multiple organ failure at Brightview Assisted Living in Bel Air. He was 87. The son of a builder and a homemaker, Joseph Robert Castoro was born in Camden, N.J., and moved with his family to a home near Patterson Park. After graduating from Calvert Hall College High School in 1943, he immediately enlisted in the Army Air Forces. A musician who played drums and guitar and wrote music, Mr. Castoro dreamed of becoming a bandleader.

Harry Ratrie Jr., a World War II and Korean War veteran who became a leading businessman in Maryland's highway construction industry, died Dec. 8 of a heart attack at a hospital in Naples, Fla. The longtime Baltimore County resident, who moved to Florida in his later years, was 90. Mr. Ratrie was the retired founder, CEO and board chairman of Bryn Awel Corp., an asphalt paving and highway construction firm and the parent company of smaller construction,...

James R. LaVey, a retired systems equipment engineer who was also a decorated World War II gunner and longtime Boy Scout advocate, died Saturday of pneumonia at his Timonium home. He was 87. "He was a giant among Scout volunteers and was a kind friend to many," said Jack Simons, a longtime friend and Scoutmaster who lives in Cockeysville. "He will be dreadfully missed. " James Robert LaVey, the son of a production manager and a homemaker, was born and raised in Chicago, where he graduated in 1942 from Kelvyn Park High School.

In Maryland, 93,000 teens and young adults are neither working nor in school, a trend that threatens future financial stability and predicts chronic joblessness, advocates said Monday. And unemployment among those ages 16 to 24 is the highest in the country since World War II, a Kids Count policy report shows. Patrick McCarthy, president of the Baltimore-based Annie E. Casey Foundation that compiles the Kids Count data, said young people, without education or experience, are the least likely to find jobs in a stagnant economy.

Charles Carey Deeley, a retired sales executive of a dental supply business and a World War II veteran, died of complications from congestive heart failure Nov. 13 at the Pickersgill Retirement Community in Towson. The Roland Park resident was 88. Known as Skip, he was born in Baltimore and raised on Hawthorne Road, the son of Haskin Updegraff Deeley Jr. and Lillian Carey Justice. He attended Roland Park Public School and was a 1942 graduate of Polytechnic Institute, where he played lacrosse.

Dr. Charles E. Rath Jr. and Charles Shyab both earned the Bronze Star for their valor in battle, but neither soldier collected his medal. At a recent ceremony at Fort Meade, the two veterans, who served in battles more than two decades apart, stood together and received the Bronze Star, awarded for valor and meritorious service. Officials also awarded each a congressional citation and an American flag that has flown over the Capitol against a background of plaudits from a U.S. senator, Army officers and a roomful of young soldiers.

Bernard J. Conroy, a retired career Army officer who served during World War II and Vietnam and later became a nursing home volunteer, died Nov. 5 of cancer at Stella Maris Hospice in Timonium. He was 85. Bernard Jackson "Jack" Conroy was born and raised in New Orleans, where he graduated in 1943 from Fortier High School. The next year, he enlisted in the Navy and served in the Pacific Theater from 1944 to 1946 aboard a Landing Craft Support vessel. Mr. Conroy participated in the invasion of Okinawa, did mine sweeping between Formosa and the China Coast, and served on the Yangtze River patrol.

Two Army veterans, who tended to comrades injured in battle in wars that were more than two decades apart, received long overdue military honors Friday before an audience of family, friends and some 200 members of the Armed Forces at Fort Meade. Dr. Charles E. Rath Jr., an Army captain and surgeon 67 years ago during World War II, and Charles Shyab, a medic during the Vietnam War 45 years ago, both received the Bronze Star from Col. Jeremy Martin, commandant of the Defense Information School at the Army post in Anne Arundel County.

Sunday marks the 94th anniversary of the end of what would for a time be known as The War to End All Wars, but has since been re-named to reflect the unfortunate reality that not only was it not the last, but also not the last on an epic scale. These days, the history books call it World War I. The centennial of the beginning of the complicated conflict that shaped the world we live in is but two years away, and in the 100 years since the beginning of the first world war, there has been not only a second world war, but also countless other deadly conflicts.

Elizabeth G. Kirkpatrick, a homemaker who had been an Army nurse during World War II, died Oct. 29 from complications of cancer at Gilchrist Hospice in Towson. The longtime Ruxton resident was 91. The daughter of a career Army officer and a homemaker, Elizabeth Reily Gross was born and raised in Harrisburg, Pa., where she graduated from the Seiler School. A boarding student, she graduated in 1939 from St. Timothy's School and earned a bachelor's degree in 1942 from Bryn Mawr College.