Obituaries
AGIUS. On March 24, at Mater Dei Hospital, Dr LAWRENCE AGIUS, of Rabat, aged 68, passed away peacefully comforted by the rites of Holy Church. He leaves to mourn his loss his brother Mark, sister Therese and her husband Gary Hunter, his nephews and nieces Rachel and her husband Colin, Alex, Emma and Judy, other relatives and friends. The funeral cortège leaves Mater Dei Hospital tomorrow, Saturday, March 26, at 8am, for St Dominic church, Rabat, where Mass præsente cadavere will be said at 8.30am, followed by interment in the family grave at Santa Maria Addolorata Cemetery. No flowers by request but donations to Puttinu Cares would be appreciated. Lord, grant him eternal rest.
FALZON. On March 24, MARIA STELLA, aged 100, passed away peacefully. Wife of the late John Falzon, she left to mourn her children Ivan and his wife Johanna, Godwin and his wife Rita, Marie and her husband Michael, Carmen, Alfred and his wife Simone, Anton and his wife Christine, together with her 17 grandchildren, and her 23 great-grandchildren. The funeral cortège leaves St James Hospital, Sliema tomorrow, Saturday, March 26, at 8am, for Balzan parish church, where Mass præsente cadavere will be said at 8.30am, followed by interment at Santa Maria Addolorata Cemetery. Lord, grant her eternal rest.
SHEPHERD. On March 15, JACOB NATHANIEL SHEPHERD Jr., Captain, US Army Air Corps, passed peacefully to his heavenly reward, with loving family and devoted caregivers at his side at LiveWell Assisted Living in Durham, NC. He was 98 years old, within 500 days of the century mark in a charmed life that mapped his American dream – wartime heroism, corporate leadership, global adventure, community service, literary accomplishments, and boundless family love given and received.
He was born August 5, 1923, in Greensboro, NC, third child and only son of Jacob Nathaniel Shepherd, Sr. and Susie Ann Hornbuckle, and was known as “Jake” from childhood. His father was a real estate dealer and council member of Greensboro’s First Lutheran Church, while his mother was a beloved homemaker who inspired many stories of thrifty determination during childhood with sisters Christine and Kathryn in the Great Depression.
He graduated Greensboro Senior High in 1939, City Business College in 1940, and that fall joined Blue Bell, Inc., as “Office Boy and Mail Clerk” for what was then a local work-apparel company. He would work for Blue Bell off and on for more than 35 years in a career spanning the global “blue denim revolution”.
Shortly after Pearl Harbour, Jake took a leave from Blue Bell to join the Army Air Corps at the age of 19, receiving his pilot’s wings at Stewart Field, NY. Originally trained on a B-24 bomber, he arrived in England in November, 1944, assigned as pilot of a new B-17 dubbed “Bottle Baby” in the famous 401st Bombardment Group of the Mighty Eighth Air Force at Deenethorpe Air Base. He and his crew contributed centrally to the Allied victory in Europe with two dozen combat missions to Germany, including two daring bomb-runs on heavily defended Berlin, and was awarded the Air Medal with two Oak Leaf Clusters. His active duty ended in September 1945, but he then completed 10 years of USAF Reserve service. He was a lifelong follower of aviation and USAF activities, including as a board member of the 401st Bomb Group Association and other veterans’ organisations, and as an honoree for Memorial Day and Veterans Day events.
Jake rejoined Blue Bell in 1945 in its national Sales department, working in the Empire State Building in New York City, but was granted another leave to attend NC State on the GI Bill. He earned his BS in Mechanical Engineering in 1949 and entered Blue Bell’s Industrial Engineering Department, where he helped the company launch the famous Wrangler blue jeans brand which became the world’s number one cowboy jean. In 1949 he also married Lucile Cobb Smoot, Duke University graduate and the sister of an Air Corps buddy from Tarboro, North Carolina. The young couple moved to Luray, Virginia, where Jake managed a six-factory division for booming blue jean production and grew the division from 250 to 1,200 employees.
In 1953, Lucile died tragically from a sudden illness. In 1955, Jake married Joann Learu Yates of Luray, beginning a nearly half-century love affair. Over their 47 years of marriage, they raised four daughters and three sons while Jake’s career took him from his mail room origins to corporate leadership. After completing UNC’s Executive Education programme in 1959 and rising at Blue Bell, he was recruited away in 1964 to the role of Vice President for Quality Mills, Inc. in Mount Airy, NC. While there, he led a major manufacturing computerisation effort cited by IBM as “a model of excellence”, drawing experts from major corporations to see it in operation. Jake was also fond of diverting computer runtime to print out Snoopy cartoons for his children, who like him loved living in the idyllic “Mayberry”. When he rejoined Blue Bell in 1972, it was to help lead a major expansion of global denim production to meet the 1970s explosion in popularity of blue jeans. Jake moved the family from North Carolina to Europe where he managed major production facilities in Malta and Ireland before taking the role in Brussels, Belgium of VP of International Manufacturing, overseeing all Wrangler operations in Europe and Africa. His tightknit family benefitted greatly from living overseas, with Jake and Joann encouraging the children through local schools and universities, forging lifelong friendships, and leading the way on legendary family vacations crisscrossing Europe crammed in a Volvo station wagon.
Having secured Wrangler a place rivalling Levi Strauss in the global market, Jake returned to the US in 1981 as Corporate Vice President for Research and Development for what was now a Fortune 300 corporation. He retired after 36 years of service in 1985, but he maintained close ties with colleagues and family friends around the world for the next four decades.
Throughout his life, Jake’s community service was richly varied. He was a church leader and lay preacher in the Lutheran, Methodist and Presbyterian Churches, United Fund president, Rotary Club president, YMCA chapter president, and member of the Salvation Army Board of Directors. He was also a board member of Guilford Technical Community College and of Fellowship Hall addiction treatment center. He served as a business consultant, including a six-week Rotary Exchange trip to the USSR and Finland, and a 1991 trip to post-communist Hungary on behalf of David Rockefeller’s International Executive Service Corps to assist the new government in developing its commerce. He checked more American Dream bucket-list items, becoming an actor and poet. He and wife Joann had extra roles in several Wilmington movie productions. In his late 80s, inspired by his deep abiding faith and love for Christ, Jake published two poetry books: Good Morning Dear Jesus, A Book of Prayers and Poems in 2011, followed by Let a Shepherd Be Your Guide in 2013. He posted new poems regularly to his Facebook account for friends around the world into his 90s.
Jake was preceded in death by his beloved parents and sisters, Christine Stephens and Kathryn Wrightson. His wife Joann, devoted partner through his distinguished career and family life, died after a long battle with cancer in 2002. He met his surviving beloved wife Rosemary (Maldony) Shepherd as fellow members of Little Chapel on the Boardwalk Presbyterian Church in Wrightsville Beach, and they enjoyed many happy years together.
His deeply devoted seven children survive him and will miss his easy laugh, his inappropriate limericks, his lifelong generosity, and the harmonica tunes he played up to his final weeks in hospice care. His children are Jacob Nathaniel Shepherd III and family of Newnan, GA, Susan Elizabeth Shepherd Sharp and family of Durham, NC, Andrew Lewis Shepherd and family of Washington, DC, Joann Yates Shepherd Bristol and family of Durham, NC, Rebecca Joyce Shepherd Opitz and family of Charlottesville, VA, John Hilary Shepherd and family of Los Angeles, CA, and Mary Mildred Christine Shepherd of Durham, NC. He is also survived by his sister-in-law, Joann’s much-loved sister Mildred Joyce Dawson of Albuquerque, NM, nieces and nephews, eight grandchildren, and one great-granddaughter, all of whom he loved dearly.
A private family service will be held. The family is forever grateful to his caregivers and appreciates the many messages of love and sympathy. As Jake was an active Rotarian for almost 60 years, the family requests that memorial donations be directed to the work of the global Rotary Foundation, at https://www.rotary.org/donate. A documentary created by grandson Christian Opitz and featuring Jake sharing childhood and wartime memories can be found on YouTube at https://youtu.be/PAe2Pp00eAs.
VELLA BRINCAT. On March 22, PRASSEDE, of Sliema, aged 94, passed away peacefully comforted by the rites of Holy Church. She leaves to mourn her loss her daughters Rita, Eleonora and her partner Mariano, nephews and nieces, relatives and friends. The funeral cortège leaves Mater Dei Hospital today, Friday, March 25, at 1.30pm, for the Sanctuary of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart (Sacro Cuor), Sliema, where Mass præsente cadavere will be said at 2pm followed by interment in the family grave at Santa Maria Addolorata Cemetery. No flowers by request but donations to Id-Dar tal-Providenza, Siġġiewi, will be greatly appreciated. Lord, grant her eternal rest.
WHAPHAM. On March 15, at Hartfield Care Home, Surrey, England, DOROTHY née Borda, of Sliema, aged 84, passed away peacefully. Another victim of COVID-19. She leaves to mourn her loss her brother Patrick, relatives and friends. Lord, grant her eternal rest.
In Memoriam
ABELA. In loving memory of our dear father GODWIN on the 17th anniversary of his passing away to eternal life.
Words are few, thoughts are deep
Memories of you we will always keep.
Fondly remembered by his children Charlaine, Daphne, Karen, Duncan and their respective families. Lord, grant him eternal rest.
AQUILINA – LINO. In loving memory of a dear father and grandfather, today the 29th anniversary of his passing away. His children Tony, Eddie, Mimi, Tito, Emma, Helena and Julia, in-laws and grandchildren. Forever in our thoughts and prayers.
CARUANA – IRIS. In loving memory of Iris, today being the 23rd anniversary of her demise. Fondly remembered by her loving children, Maurice, Antonella, Elena, Hugh and Maria. Always in our hearts Mum.
GHIRLANDO. In loving memory of MARIA on the 12th anniversary of her death. She lives on in the hearts and minds of her husband Robert; James and Vicky, Louise and Adrian; her siblings Martin, Tanya, Connie and her husband Edgar, and her sisters-in-law, Stephanie and Margaret and their families.
GHIRLANDO – MARIA. Treasured memories of a beloved sister on the 12th anniversary of her passing to eternal life. Lovingly remembered by Connie and Edgar, Tanya, Martin and their families. Dear Lord, grant her eternal rest.
PULLICINO – EILEEN. Treasured memories of a mother and a beloved grandmother, on the 16th anniversary of her passing. Sadly missed and lovingly remembered by her daughters Stephanie, Pat and her husband Chris and Graziella. Her precious grandchildren Francesca, Alexia and Elviana. Lord, grant her eternal rest.
PULLICINO. In loving memory of my dear sister EILEEN, on her anniversary. Always in our thoughts and prayers. Her sister Tania, Peter Paul Portelli and family.
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