Age 43 of Getzville, NY, fought valiantly with ovarian cancer. She gained her angel wings and peacefully joined her father on Thursday August 24th, 2023.
Beloved wife of 9 years to Jeffrey R. Smith; loving mother to Autumn and Graham; dearest daughter to Karen J. Gentry (Koch) and the late Mark E. Gentry; sweet grand-daughter to Janice K. Koch; caring sister to Kiel Gentry (Jina) Gregory Gentry (Jessica) Emily Krantz (Daniel) Amie Gentry (Louis) Carrie Gentry (Johnathan); daughter-in-law to Richard and Gail Smith; sister- in-law to Richard Smith II (Laurie) Bonnie Lorentz (Brian); Kate loved being an aunt to all her nieces and nephews (total of 19); also survived by aunts, uncles, cousins and many friends. Family will be present to receive relatives and friends Saturday, September 2nd, 2023 from 1pm-5pm at DENGLER, ROBERTS, PERNA FUNERAL HOME at 8630 Transit Road East Amherst NY 14051. A Celebration of Life will be held at a future date. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Kate’s children, Autumn and Graham. Fond memories and condolences may be shared at www.denglerrobertspernafuneral.com.
The Amherst Central Alumni Foundation, Inc. (ACAF) will begin the 2023-2024 school year with new leadership.
Samantha (Sweeney) General ’07 has been elected as President by the ACAF Board of Directors earlier in August. Others elected to officer roles on the board were Susan (Hens) Smith ’74 – Vice President, Jessica Muenter ’90 – Treasurer, and Emily (Warren) Zimmer ’06 – Secretary.
Samantha Sweeney, on her new role with the ACAF, said, “Welcome to the start of another exciting year in the Amherst School District. As I begin my role as President, I look forward to what this year has in store and for all we can accomplish together as a community. There is so much we can do together for the benefit of our schools, and I know the Board of Directors is passionate about encouraging all Amherst Tigers to reach for the stars. Thank you to the Amherst community for your continued support of our mission and vision, and above all – Go Tigers! 🐯”
In addition to the new leadership, the ACAF welcomes Susan Fretz ’73, Eric Hauser ’76, Carol (Carson) Mollach ’82, Robert Wagner ’98, and Marina P. Woolcock ’63 to our board.
The ACAF Board would like to thank departing members Ginna Coon ’60, Ellen Marshall ’69, Clay Pasternack ’68, and Nicole Phillips ’79 for their years of service to the Foundation and the Amherst Central School District.
The ACAF is looking forward to another great year. More information about the ACAF can be found by visiting www.AmherstAlumni.org. If you are interested in donating, click here.
The 2023-2024 Amherst Central Alumni Foundation Board of Directors
(nee Walsh) of Binghamton, NY. May 14th, 2023. Beloved wife of the late Matthew Robinson. Devoted mother of Madelyn Teresa Slocum and Olivia Kathleen Slocum. Dear daughter of Teresa and Joseph Walsh; dear sister of Michael, Paul, Mark, and Kathleen Walsh. Also survived by many aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, cousins and friends. Celebration of Life to be held soon at the convenience of the family.
Joseph Donald Schlaerth, Jr., age 62, of Newburgh, IN, passed away Thursday, June 22, 2023, at his home.
Joseph was born December 7, 1960, in Buffalo, NY, to Joseph Donald Schlaerth, Sr. and Sally Gallagher Schlaerth. He graduated from Amherst Central High School in 1978 and earned his Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Buffalo. Joseph was the News Director for 14 News WFIE in Evansville for eight years. Before coming to Evansville in 2015, Joe worked for nearly 15 years at WIVB in Buffalo, starting as Producer, moving up to Executive Producer and finally to News Director for 10 years.
Joe enjoyed swimming laps in his pool and the company of his dog, Toby. Mostly he loved being with his children and watching them grow. A broad smile would cross his face as he talked about their many accomplishments.
Joe’s newsrooms were perennially successful, almost always #1 in every time slot. He and his teams won multiple Emmy, Edward R. Murrow, National Society of Professional Journalists’ Sigma Delta Chi awards just to name a few. The Indiana Broadcasters Association declared 14 News the 2018 Station of the Year. 14 News is currently nominated for an Emmy award for News Excellence because of Joe’s leadership.
Joe always insisted on an unwavering commitment to the highest journalistic and ethical standards. He painstakingly searched out and found the very best talent possible to bring onto the 14 News team so that the station would carry on its legacy of news and weather leadership in Evansville.
Joe was a former President and longtime member of the New York State Associated Press Broadcast Board, an adjunct professor at Buffalo State College (State University of New York), and served on the American Red Cross Leadership Council, Southwest Indiana.
Joseph is survived by his wife of 23 years, Vicki Ehrenberg Schlaerth; twin children, Aurora Paige and Joseph Donald Schlaerth: sisters, Katherine Curriden (Scott) of San Diego, CA, and Sharon Sharth (Mark Bryan) of Arcadia, CA.
Joseph is preceded in death by his parents and his sister, Sally Jo Schlaerth, who passed away in 2014.
A Celebration of Life will be held at 7:00 p.m. CST, Thursday, June 29, 2023, at Methodist Temple, 2109 Lincoln Avenue, Evansville, IN with Pastor Randy Moore officiating. Burial will be private.
Joseph D. Schlaerth Jr., 62, award-winning former news director at WIVB-TV
Joe Schlaerth had just guided the TV news department he directed to the nomination for an award – an Emmy for News Excellence – when he died unexpectedly June 22 in his home in Newburgh, Ind., a suburb of Evansville. He was 62.
Since the early 1990s, Mr. Schlaerth had regularly achieved high honors as a broadcast journalist. During nearly 10 years as news director at WIVB-TV in Buffalo, he and his teams had collected several of them.
The station’s coverage of the crash of Flight 3407 in 2009 brought him two national Edward R. Murrow Awards.
He also received two National Society of Professional Journalists’ Sigma Delta Chi awards – one in 2007 for an interview with Lynn DeJac Peters after she served 13 years in prison on a wrongful conviction for the murder of her daughter, and one in 2012 for an investigative series on bullying in schools and online.
Born in Buffalo, one of four children, Joseph Donald Schlaerth Jr. was the son of J. Don Schlaerth, radio-television columnist and TV Topics editor for The Buffalo News, and Sally Gallagher Schlaerth, head librarian at The News.
“I’ve always loved television news,” he told News TV columnist Alan Pergament in 2005. “I remember sitting there with my father, my mom and sisters watching the (casualty) numbers from Vietnam. When I was in school, I rushed home to watch the Watergate hearings. I always had the media bug.”
A 1978 graduate of Amherst High School, he worked his way through Erie Community College and the University at Buffalo. He was a bartender at a racquetball club and a hopper for The News, jumping off trucks to deliver bundles of newspapers to carriers and stores.
He was a year away from graduating from UB when he landed a job in 1985 as an intern at WIVB after another intern didn’t show up for work.
Mr. Schlaerth went on to become assignment editor, then was co-creator and first producer of “Wake Up!,” the station’s morning program, which gained top ratings.
He had similar success as producer and executive producer of news programs at 5 p.m., 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. He was WIVB Employee of the Year in 2001.
“He’s done it the right way and the hard way,” WIVB anchor Jacquie Walker told Pergament after Mr. Schlaerth was promoted to news director in 2004. “He’s a journalist through and through and knows what’s important in news in this community.”
Under his guidance, WIVB won New York State Emmy Awards for documentaries on Buffalo Mayor Byron W. Brown in 2006 and development of Buffalo’s waterfront in 2007. The station won three regional Edward R. Murrow Awards for investigative coverage in 2013-2014.
His tenure ended in July 2014, a year after the arrival of a new general manager who was unhappy to see the station’s newscasts slipping in the ratings.
He went on to become news director for WFIE, an NBC affiliate in Evansville, ranked 107th among the nation’s TV markets. Under his leadership, it was named Station of the Year in 2018 by the Indiana Broadcasters Association.
“He insisted on an unwavering commitment to the highest journalistic and ethical standards. Joe painstakingly searched out the very best talent possible,” WFIE anchorman Randy Moore said after his death.
He was former president of the New York State Associated Press Broadcast Board, a board member of the Associated Press Broadcasters Association, a former adjunct professor of broadcast journalism at what was then Buffalo State College and served on the American Red Cross Leadership Council, Southwest Indiana.
Survivors include his wife of 23 years, Vicki Ehrenberg Schlaerth, an occupational therapist; twin children, Aurora Paige and Joseph Donald III; and two sisters, Katherine Curriden and Sharon Sharth.
A celebration of his life was held June 29 in Evansville.
Thank you to everyone who came out and supported our annual Alumni Golf Classic on Thursday, July 27! We love our sponsors and golfers and volunteers who made the event a success. More importantly, the funds raised help support our mission of enhancing the school experience for students across the district . Thank you, Tigers!
🐯👍 If you couldn’t make the golf event and want to support the foundation, you can Venmo us a donation @amherstalumni 🙂 or visit https://www.amherstalumni.org/Donate.htm.
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Tiger Tracks 