He was a retired general contractor from Salem. Surviving are his wife, Laura Ester Dickens of the home, a grandson, Charles Calvin Gunter and wife Vickie of Salem; stepdaughters Barbara and Dean Bledsoe, Marsha Felts and Debbie and Ricky Simmons, stepson Albert and Connie Anders, great-grandchildren Ceil and wife Katie Gunter, Ramsey and Kyndal Gunter; step-grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great, great-grandchildren.

Mr. Dickens was preceded in death by a wife, Belva Horton Dickens; son Carroll Dickens, daughter Joan Gunter, stepdaughter Betty Russell, brothers Oden Dickens and Brad Dickens and stepson-in-law Robert Felts.

The night of Friday the 13th, the same captain and Italian-registry ship that Beverly Reger, Ricki Moushegian and Peggy Weaver from Salem and Katie Moushegian of Atlanta sailed on evidently detoured too close to shore, hit a rock and sank off the coast of Italy.

Salem residents Beverly Reger, Ricki Moushegian and Peggy Weaver, from left, and former resident Katie Moushegian sailed the same route from Rome on the Casa Concordia that sank last week.

The confirmed death toll – so far – was reported at more than a dozen out of 4,200 passengers plus crew.

Their cruise together in the fall was the second for Katie, the 19th or so for Reger, and the first for their other friends, Reger said. They sailed from Rome Oct. 23 and returned to the Roanoke Valley on Nov. 2. The first Reger knew it was the same ship was when Katie called her the day after the tragedy.

“She said, ‘You know, it’s our ship.’ ”

It was the same route and the same captain, too: Francesco Schettino, who, according to news reports, abandoned ship before making sure passengers and other crew were off.

Schettino was arrested and charged with manslaughter, shipwreck and abandoning ship, according to a letter Reger received this week from Alan Fox, chairman and CEO of Vacations To Go.

Passengers who told their stories to media after escaping from the sinking ship Reger said was the length of three football fields described chaos and confusion after the ship hit the rock, electrical systems failed as it sank and only a few of the lifeboats were launched.

Reger said from the friends’ experience sailing on the Concordia and the other 18 cruises she has been on, she can understand why passengers didn’t know what to do in an emergency.

“Basically, ships that sail out of foreign ports have 24 hours after sailing to conduct the muster drill (that instructs passengers in what to do in an emergency),” she said. “We had the muster drill o the Concordia on the second day, in keeping with the law of the land.”

Reger said on the friends’ October cruise, “We had people from 26 countries aboard the ship. We were made aware that crew would go through 15 or 16 languages with each announcement.”

She said on their cruise, “Sometimes you would stop someone and they didn’t speak English. They would find someone for you who did.”

Another aspect she found unusual compared about the Concordia compared to other cruises was that at its stops in Barcelona, Palermo, Malta and Mallorca, “They took on different people at different ports. There were maybe 25 people coming and going at each port,” she added.

Although she feels sorrow for passengers who went through the ordeal and those who died, Reger said from what she understands, the captain “took it upon himself to go off course. I do not believe he went inland when we were aboard. I know we did not see any land while we were at dinner. I’m fairly certain.”

She has thought about what it must have been like for the passengers that night. “I can’t imagine anybody who had not been on a cruise before and who had no idea what the routine was. I have no idea what I would have done,” Reger said. “I probably would have had a heart attack.”

The Concordia was a subsidiary of Carnival Cruise lines.

Only a few of the Concordia’s lifeboats were launched, passengers told media. Some jumped into the water and swam about 200 feet to the shore, where residents of the small island of Giglio, Italy, took them in, the CEO said.

Until they could be rescued, other passengers held onto railings and other stationary objects on the severely listing ship that had a 160-foot-long hole in the hull, CEO Fox said in his letter.

Reger had made the same cruise several years ago with her Aunt Molly, she recalled.

Will she take a cruise again?

Absolutely. “I would like to go on a cruise again in March. By then I will be tired of winter.”

And would any of them sail on a Costa ship again? Reger and Katie Moushegian, for whom the October trip was her second cruise, said they would.

“To me, it’s like a plane crash that’s pilot error…,” Reger said, adding, “This will not keep me from going on a cruise tomorrow, even if it was the Costa Line.”

The bank plans to expand on the back, but not touch the front of the building that is part of the New Castle Historic District listed on the National Register of Historic Places, said bank board chairman Pat Charlton.

Farmers & Merchants Bank has purchased the former G.W. Layman Insurance Agency building from Barker Realty that used it for the agency's office in Craig County. Photo by Gwen Johnson

Barker Realty and the bank were scheduled to close the sale on Jan. 17. The real estate company has owned the little building for the last 10 years.

“We don’t know exactly what we’re going to use the property for yet,” said Charlton Monday. “We’ve got to sit down with the architects,” explained Charlton, who is one of seven members of the bank’s board. “We just need more room. I can assure the public we don’t want to take away from the looks of the historic building. We’re glad we could purchase it from the Barkers.”

Barker Realty President George Barker said his company was not interested parting with the building at first. “When the bank approached us several weeks ago to see if we were interested in selling, we were not. Over a period of time we decided to go ahead and sell it to them,” added Barker, who did not disclose the purchase price.

Barker assured the community that agent Ginny Fisher is continuing to work for Barker Realty, from the Salem officer and from her home in New Castle

Barker added he is glad the bank has plans to use the building. “It will be a great addition to Main Street in New Castle,” he said. “For that reason, I’m glad to see it’s going to happen.”

The 1.5-mile-section in South Salem will run from a parking area and trail head that has been named Riverside Park on West Riverside Drive near the River Rock restaurant, and will eventually connect to Salem Rotary Park on Rt. 419.

Salem representatives and others turn ceremonial dirt to break ground officially Jan. 18 for the third section of Roanoke River Greenway in Salem. Photo by Meg Hibbert

Like other the other two completed portions of the Greenway in Salem, the majority of the money to grade, pave and plant the path for walking, running and bicycling comes from a combination of federal funds for transportation alternatives, state money and local money and in-kind services. Money from industries, businesses and citizens also comes into play.

Mark McClain, one of Salem’s appointed representatives on the Greenway commission and the current chairman, told the 40 people gathered on a windy, blue-sky day how pleased he and other commission members are to “Have a dream and see the dream realized.”

Those wielding shovels were four of the five Salem City Council members, Roanoke County Supervisor Charlotte Moore, citizen representatives on the Roanoke River Greenway Commission and outdoor supporters.

The roots of the greenway system in Salem, Roanoke County, City of Roanoke and the Town of Vinton date back to the mid-1990s when members of Valley Beautiful discussed a trail system, said Pam Ogden of Salem, who was on Valley Beautiful at the time.

The other completed portions of the Roanoke River Greenway in Salem are the David Smith section in Moyer Park that was built in the late-’90s, and a 1.3-mile section that runs between Apperson Drive and Colorado Street.

A short section of paved trail near Woodbridge Subdivision was financed and built with other moneys, said Salem Planner Ben Tripp. Green Hill Park in Roanoke County has a trail section, and other heavily used portions are in Roanoke City near downtown and in the Town of Vinton.

Eventually, plans call for connecting the Roanoke Valley with trails from the Roanoke County-Montgomery County line through Salem, Roanoke City, Vinton and to Explore Park near the Blue Ridge Parkway.

The next section in Salem that is currently out for bid will run from Apperson behind Salem Ridge Apartments and to the Roanoke City line.

Tripp said he expects that one may be completed before the West Riverside portion, because of a small section of the latter that will require construction of a footbridge where West Riverside Drive falls away toward the river at 12 O-Clock Knob road.

Craig County School Superintendent Ron Gordon was one of 16 area school superintendents who held a news conference at Virginia Western Community College on Jan. 9 to talk about what they call their “blueprint for the future of education in the Commonwealth.”

Craig County School Superintendent Ron Gordon speaks at an area superintendents' press conference Jan. 9. Salem City photograph

Gordon was one of the speakers, and he emphasized needs rural school have and what can be done to prepare students for life, no matter if they are going to college or looking for work immediately after high school.

“I talked specifically about Goal 1 of the plan, which is career readiness,” said Gordon in a telephone interview Monday afternoon. “Basically, I said we must prepare students for life, not for tests. In our classrooms we must have methods and skills so our students can meet the real-world problems.”

Gordon emphasized schools in Virginia should take a business perspective, “such as collaboration, responsibility, critical thinking. All of these must be taught with contemporary tools, such as SmartBoards, iPods, Active Boards, those are just a few.”

The Craig County School Superintendent said the area superintendents also proposed changed in curriculum to give students a career development experience, “to make sure that our curriculum offers such things as welding and auto mechanics if their schools do not offer them.”

This is the second year Craig County has had a working relationship with Botetourt County Public Schools that allows Craig students to take classes at Botetourt Tech Center such as auto mechanics, welding, criminal justice and nursing that Craig schools do not offer.

He explained that over the last year, he and Botetourt County Superintendent Dr. Tony Brads “have gotten our heads together and decided that Botetourt would accept Craig County students for a fee. We started out last year with six students, and that has presently grown to 22 students that we are sending.”

Gordon said he is hopeful of support for the superintendents’ goals by Delegate Greg Habeeb of Salem in this year’s General Assembly session that started this week on Jan. 11. Habeeb represents Craig County, Salem, part of Roanoke County and Montgomery County.

“I have been in communication with Delegate Habeeb. He has been out here three times this year. I was very impressed. He has sent every student who made the honor roll a personal letter,” Gordon added.

The governor calls his plan the “Opportunity to Learn”

Education Agenda. Legislative and budget actions he said that will be introduced in the General Assembly include:

• revising the state-mandated Standards of Quality to make sure local school divisions use money appropriated for prevention, intervention and remediation, specifically reading intervention services, for students in third and fourth-grade students who have deficiencies based on reading tests. Those intervention services have to be provided before a student can be promoted from third grade to fourth or fourth grade to fifth, under the governor’s proposal.

• repeal of the so-called “Kings Dominion” law that requires most Virginia schools to schedule their first day of school after Labor Day. Craig County Schools and others that frequently miss many days each year due to snow and ice have been exempted for years from that requirement, and open in mid-August in order to get in the required number of days and still have Craig County High School graduation in early June.

• a Special Diploma available for students with disabilities who complete requirements of the Individual Education Plan and are not eligible for other types of Virginia high school diplomas.

• establishing a “positive youth development academy pilot program for rising 8th and 10th graders in selected regional of Virginia. It would focus on life skills, according to the governor’s plan, such as civics, financial literacy, community service, preventive health, character education and leadership skills. Which schools was not spelled out.

• dual enrollment with community colleges spelling out the paths for students to complete an associate’s degree or a one-year Uniform Certificate of General Studies from a Virginia Community College at the same time as a high school diploma.

Gov. McDonnell also committed more than $300 million to support the state’s commitment to teacher retirement, according to the press release from his office Monday.

Salem School Superintendent Dr. Alan Seibert is chairman of the area superintendents’ group.

In addition to Craig County, Roanoke County and Salem, other participants were superintendents from Alleghany, Bedford, Botetourt, Floyd, Franklin, Henry, Montgomery, Patrick and Pittsylvania counties, and the cities of Covington, Danville, Martinsville and Roanoke.

Here is the month-by-month recap of what happened in 2011, as documented in the issues of the Salem Times-Register, your hometown newspaper since 1854:

January

Andrew Paul Schaltegger leads off the 2011 news as the first baby born in Salem and the Roanoke Valley. Photo by Meg Hibbert

• Andrew Paul Schaltegger is the first baby of 2011 in the Roanoke Valley, born at 12:30 a.m. on Jan. 1 at LewisGale Medical Center in Salem. He is also the first for his parents, Zachary and Kimberly Schaltegger of Roanoke County.

• After a four-day jury trial, Sam Hale is sentenced to three years in prison for fatally stabbing Josh McCoy, his roommate and best friend, according to Hale, almost a year before.

• Greg Habeeb of Salem wins the Virginia House of Delegates seat representing Salem and this portion of Roanoke County, defeating Ginger Mumpower. Republican Habeeb will fill out the remainder of the term of former delegate H. Morgan Griffith who is now representing Virginia’s 9th District in Congress. In November, Habeeb will run and win a full two-year-term.

• Andrew Lewis Middle School seventh-grader Madison Rose receives a portion of the liver of her brother, Jordan, during an emergency transplant in a Pittsburgh hospital.

February

• Investigation into the murder of Glenvar mother Tina Smith continues, as her boyfriend, 37-year-old Jeff Easley, is held in jail until a future trial on a charge of abducting Smith’s 12-year-old-daughter, Brittany, and absconding with her to San Francisco. Later the charge will be upped to abduction with intent to defile, in other words, to have sexual relations with the pre-teen who now lives with her father in South Boston, Va.

• Salem City Council agrees to sell a portion of Elizabeth Campus to Salem Montessori to build a new school. Neighbors contend the city broke its promise the land adjacent to the Salem YMCA would be single-family homes.

March

• Fowl flap causes feathers to fly, as Salem City Council considers law changes to prohibit backyard hens on any property other than that zoned agricultural. The proposal is tabled for future discussion after several of the estimated 10 families with backyard chickens object.

• Family doctor Gene Godwin retires after 43 years of doctoring.

• Salem YMCA announces expansion plans.

• Salem High School Forensics Team wins unprecedented sixth state championship.

April

• City plans health clinic for employees and their families.

• Salem Montessori breaks ground for new school building near the Salem Family YMCA on Elizabeth Campus.

• Andrew Lewis High School graduate Brewster Milton Robertson publishes epic novel about Korean War, with

Salem friend Bo Bohon and his wife as characters.

May

• Glenvar residents consider plans for the community’s future look, in a series of meetings to come up with a proposed Glenvar Village plan.

• Glenvar Middle School students create “green” classroom with tall hoop house to expand their science learning and by growing cool-weather vegetables.

• Wounded Warrior Sgt. Seyward McKinney, retired, who served in Iraq and stateside trains to compete in national Warrior Games in Colorado as a member of the Army Team.

• Salem passes stiffer law to punish owners for leaving dogs in hot cars.

• DJ Judd Poindexter alerts fire department and sleeping couple Park and Normie Dickerson their house is on fire. He noticed flames as he drove by in the early morning after providing music at Alleghany High School’s prom.

June

• Thirty-year-old Jennifer Agee who lived in Salem and worked at Mac and Bob’s restaurant is shot to death at a Roanoke gas station by her ex-husband, a Franklin County Deputy Sheriff. He flees through Salem and Roanoke County before wounding a Virginia State Police Trooper when officers attempt to stop the sheriff’s office car on I-81 in Montgomery County.

• Jeff Easley, who has been held in jail in Roanoke County since police escorted him back from San Francisco the week after former girlfriend Tina Smith’s body was found Dec. 5, 2010, is charged with her murder. A two-week jury trial is set for spring 2012 for the homicide and abducting her 12-year-old daughter Brittany “with intent to defile.” Roanoke County Police still have not released information on how Smith was killed before co-workers from Richfield’s Recovery and Care Center discovered her body when they went to check on the registered nurse.

• Billy’s Barn, a favorite restaurant since it opened in 1969 at Hanging Rock near the Salem line, is re-opened by retired Salem High School Coach Bill Miles and son Chad. XXX months later, a blaze the fire marshal determines started near heating and air conditioning equipment, closes the restaurant for repairs.

July

• Fireworks return to the Salem Fair, on a smaller scale, after years without them due to construction of new office buildings on the former site on Elizabeth Campus.

• A footbridge on the Roanoke River Greenway is dedicated in memory of Salem Patrolman Russell “Mac” McCurry who was fatally shot in February 1976 while staking out a motel where young men were breaking into cars.

• Cable television negotiations hit a snag between Comcast and the City of Salem and Roanoke County. More than 300 people packed a community meeting in August 2010 to express their dissatisfaction with Comcast before the agreement with the local governments ran out in October. After company officials met with city and county representatives Sept. 25 in closed session, council members said they were disappointed Comcast chose “not to make the citizens of Salem a priority when it comes to the future of cable services in our city.” Comcast continues to serve the area, without a contract.

August

• Salem and Roanoke County seek new cable TV provider to announce the two jurisdictions are looking for alternative providers while Comcast is still providing cable television to Salem and the Glenvar area, after its contract ran out and without the company upgrading service as requested.

• Salem’s about-to-open dog park gets a name: Salem Rotary Dog Park.

• The Salem Donut Shop closes, with the owner blaming the bad economy; it reopens with new owners as a vegetable-plate-oriented restaurant, Veggies to Go, that also has donuts made by the same donut baker.

• A 5.9-point earthquake north of Charlottesville shakes Salem residence, causing cracks in houses and shaken residents.

September

• The Salem Times-Register and its six sister newspapers in the Roanoke Valley and New River Valley return to local ownership, when Montgomery Publishing LLC enters into a purchase agreement to buy the papers owned for the past 10 years by two men from Alabama. Wayne and Dolores Brockenbrough of Christiansburg are principals in Montgomery Publishing. Daughter Connie Brockenbrough-Vaughan, who lives in Southwest Roanoke County, is president.

• Actress Kathy Garver, who played “Cissy” in the television show “Family Affair,” signs copies of her “The Family Affair Cookbook” at Olde Salem Days after teaching classes at and raising money for the performing arts program at the Burton Center for Arts and Technology.

• Community yard sale raises more than $16,000 for two young brothers badly burned in a backyard fire.

• Chick-fil-A restaurant announces it will locate in Salem, in the parking lot in front of Kmart on West Main. Salem economic developers and other city officials wooed the Georgia-based restaurant for about eight years before the company agreed to come.

• The Roanoke River Greenway portion in South Salem gets a state grant to expand the trail for walking and bicycling for another 1.2 miles, this time in South Salem.

October

• Glenvar Library closes to make way for a new building on the same site that will be three times larger. A portion of the library’s collection opens for customers in a building on the opposite site of West Main Street, near Diuguids Lane.

• Students from Salem High School, ordinarily a rival for Cave Spring High School, raise $9,000 for CSHS cheerleader Kendall Bayne who was diagnosed with a rare form of life-threatening cancer.

• Salem Education Foundation and Alumni Association inducts 16 new members into the Salem Alumni Hall of Fame.

• Two possible plans for a new building for South Salem Elementary School are unveiled at a community meeting. Most attending favor rebuilding instead of renovating.

November

• Incumbents hold onto their jobs in local Roanoke County, Virginia Senate races.

• Glenvar Village concept endorsed by Roanoke County Planning Commission.

• Roanoke River Greenway gets $100,000 grant from Roanoke Women’s Foundation, to go toward construction of a 4.1-mile unfunded section of the greenway between Bridge Street in Roanoke City and Salem Rotary Park at Rt. 419.

December

• Salem passes 2-cent meals tax increase to finance school capital improvements, starting with South Salem Elementary.

• Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus arrive in Salem for the first time in an antique sleigh – on top of a Salem fire truck – at the conclusion of the annual Salem Christmas Parade. The parade is the beginning of a three-day celebration of Christmas in downtown Salem.

• 90-year-old Chaplain Tom Clay is surprised with the dedication of two stained-glass windows and a party in the chapel at Richfield Retirement Community.

• Chick-fil-A breaks ground for a free-standing restaurant in front of Kmart. Salem native son Shaine Miles will be the owner-operator.

• Jacob Semones for winning the 2011 State AA, Wrestling Championship.

• Salem High School Tennis Team for winning the 2011 State AA Tennis Championship.

• Salem High School Forensics Team for winning the 2011 State AA Forensics Championship.

• Salem High School “Laconian” Staff for winning the national 2010 Gold Crown Award for the school’s yearbook.

NOTE: In the Salem Times-Register’s original post Jan. 4, it erroneously said students would be honored at the Salem Civic Center. Instead, the reception for them will follow council meeting in City Hall at 7 p.m.

Here is a recap of top stories month-by-month, as reflected in articles and photographs published in The New Castle Record.

January 2011

Postal patrons in the community of Paint Bank who used to get and send mail at the Paint Bank Post Office before it closed can still use free-standing postal boxes outside the general store. Mail for rural route customers goes through West Virginia. Gwen Johnson photo

• Craig County makes the list for federal drought aid;

• Heroin supplier Edwin Cartagena from Pennsylvania admits role in bringing drugs to Craig and Roanoke Valley;

• dental care comes to Craig schools;

• New Hope Union Church rises from ashes; the church was torched in September 2009;

• Girl Scout Lena Hutchinson earns place among top cookie sellers.

February

• Michael Osborne of New Castle is sentenced to 10 years for setting the fire that destroyed New Hope Union Church.

• forest fires burn acreage on Pickle Creek, CC Mountain – also known as Nutter Mountain – and more than 600 acres of National Forest and private land;

• New Castle resident Barry “BJ” Owens, 30, pleads guilty to federal drug charges and later this year is sentenced to 20 years in federal prison, for his part in bringing in what federal officers estimate was $1 million in street-value heroin into the Roanoke Valley. He was the only local drug defendant charged and convicted in federal court. Thirty-two Craig people are sentenced in Craig County Circuit Court throughout the year on a total of 56 drug charges from a November 2010 bust.

March

• Littlest readers celebrate Read Across America Day at Craig County Public Library.

• rising waters from heavy rains send Upper Craigs Creek over the road to flood farm property;

• Six-year-old Maci Winebarger of New Castle has intricate surgery at Johns Hopkins Medical Center in Baltimore, Md., to remove a fast-growing tumor on her brain stem;

• Foul light poles removed from Craig County Schools ball fields.

April

• Craig men charged with operating a mobile meth lab in a vehicle stopped on road in another county;

• 4-H livestock teams win in regional and state livestock competitions;

• Craig Health Center gets stand-by generator.

May

• Virginia House of Delegates’ district shifts to take in Craig County. Republican Greg Habeeb will represent the county, Salem, Glenvar and part of Montgomery County;

• Craig Board of Supervisors passes proposed 2011-2012 budget with no local tax increase. It includes a one-time 3 percent pay increase for county employees. School employees get 5 percent stipend;

• annual Hooked on Fishing, Not on Drugs gives hundreds of county kids a day of good clean fun.

June

• Virginia State Police Officer Trevor Craddock and his German shepherd, Baron, graduate from Basic Canine Handlers School;

• New Castle High School Class of 1961 celebrates 50-year reunion;

• Craig County High School Appalachian Music Class students present year-end concert;

• Craig schools close early because of 90-plus-degree heat. Students taking year-end SAT tests are moved to air conditioned-classrooms;

• Marguerite Noga, part-time director of the Craig County Public Library for four years, resigns to take a media center job in a Roanoke school.

July

• McCleary Elementary first-grader Maci Winebarger returns home after after complicated surgery and three months of rehabilitation in Baltimore, Md.;

• Craig-Botetourt Electric Cooperative offers buyout plan and early retirement to 10 of its 26 full-time employees with the most years, as a cost-cutting measure;

• 4-H Livestock Team members win in regional lamb competitions;

• three VDOT employees earn awards for coming up with a better way to remove snow, cut grass.

August

• post offices in Paint Bank, Oriskany face threat of closure as postal service looks for ways to save money. The Paint Bank Post Office does close when the building’s owner chooses not to renew the post office lease. Mail goes to West Virginia for rural delivery in Craig, and free-standing postal boxes are erected outside the Paint Bank General Store;

• Craig library gets Virginia Commission of Arts grant to honor old trees;

• Girl Scout Olivia Dudding works toward Gold Award by raising money and consciousness for pet adoptions through Roanoke Valley SPCA;

• The New Castle Record and sister newspapers return to local ownership. The Brockenbrough family of Christiansburg, purchases the papers Wells Fargo took over from Alabama owners. Connie Brockenbrough-Vaughn, who lives in Roanoke County, becomes president of Montgomery Publishing and oversees day-to-day operations.

September

• School Superintendent Ron Gordon meets with Athletic Boosters to talk about how athletic field light poles taken down could be replaced. A committee is formed to work on raising money and restoring poles;

• Bonnie Williams dies in apartment fire in downtown New Castle after she apparently fell asleep while smoking;

• New Castle Church of Christ members make apple butter in old-fashioned way to sell at Fall Festival;

• JC’s Depot opens as Christ-centered community center;

• hunters as young as 6 years old kill deer on Youth Day.

October

• Kimsey Long and Kora White are crowned Craig County High School’s 2011 Homecoming King and Queen;

• Craig’s first Relay for Life raises $7,600 to fight cancer;

• teen Danielle Holtman earns Open Water Recreational Scuba Diver certification.

November

• Carl Bailey defeats Jennifer Durling for her seat on the Craig County Board of Supervisors;

• Field of Dreams gets $30,000 grant from Roanoke Women’s Foundation for project to develop youth athletic fields;

• Students, staff raise more than $4,000 in Dimes for Dan to help Craig County High School Principal Dan Bowman in his fight against cancer.

• Seven-year-old Maci Winebarger’s family learns her aggressive brain stem tumor is growing, and she prepares to start a year-long course of chemotherapy.

December

• Santa Claus comes to town in the county’s Christmas Parade;

• Craig County Public Library starts search for a new part-time-director – again – after the hire stays only a month;

• Beta Club at CCHS taps new members;

• Daughters of American Revolution celebrates John Crenshaw as outstanding American history teacher, and CCHS senior Jordan Labiosa receives DAR Good Citizen Award;

• McCleary Elementary kindergarten and first-graders write Letters to Santa that are published in The New Castle Record.

Now Nordt believes the work she is doing on the James Webb Space Telescope will eventually benefit humanity more than if she had pursued the chance to live on the international space station for several months, she said while in Salem over Christmas to visit her parents, Paul and Sydney Nordt.

Dr. Alison Nordt, a former Salemite, is fulfilling her interest in space with her work on the James Webb Space Telescope. Frances Stebbins photo

The work Dr. Nordt is doing as the Integrated Product Team Lead for the primary instrument is at Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Technology Center in Palo Alto, Calif. Now 41, she’s excited about the JWST project which involves the use of instruments to answer fundamental questions like:

What did the first light in the universe look like? Is there water on planets around other stars which would be necessary to support life? How do galaxies form?

This, says Nordt, has both religious and humanitarian implications. Spending her teens in Salem Presbyterian Church, she and her family now are active in Trinity Presbyterian Church in San Carlos, Calif. That’s quite unusual in the technology center of California where intellectual non-believers are common, she noted.

She’s worked for Lockheed Martin for 12 years, on several astronomical missions. Her present work on the Near Infrared Camera for the JWST project is said to be the largest scientific mission undertaken by NASA. Some findings may reach back more than 13 billion years.

She shares her expertise in technology with her husband, Dr. Glen Sapilewski, who works in the field of GPS systems used on farm tractors. Like her, he earned a doctorate from Stanford University in Palo Alto. The company for which he works, Novariant, has developed a program which enables land cultivation to be greatly increased. Again, this is intended to benefit humanity.

Alison and Glen met at Stanford while helping build a satellite. He’s from Sterling Heights, Mich., where the Christmas holidays were shared with the Salem Nordts. The family now includes Clair,7, and in second grade and Paul, 4, a pre-schooler.

Alison’s younger sister, Elizabeth, who is married to Henry Altorfer and the mother of Andrew, 2, also earned a doctorate from Stanford and is a professional tutor. The sisters live near each other, and the Sapilewskis recently bought their own home in Redwood City, Calif.

Their parents, Paul and Sydney Nordt, have lived in Salem since 1984 when the family corporation, the John C. Nordt Co., a maker of jewelry, relocated to the Airport Road area from New Jersey.

Alison Nordt recalled that well before that happened when she was 14 and began studies at North Cross School, she dreamed of being one of the beings that left the earth for space travel. She was fascinated by the heavens from early childhood, her mother mentioned.

A good student in math and the sciences, Allison faced long years of preparation and began it on her high school graduation in 1988. She entered Cornell University that fall for a mechanical engineering major winning her degree in 1992.

In her college summers she worked at a camp for young people interested in space careers held in Huntsville, Ala., and for Rockwell International. She also put in time at the family business, but following her Cornell graduation took a year off, “to play, I thought, but it turned out to be great preparation for learning about people and for teaching,” she recalled.

She traveled to places like Colorado and the British Virgin Islands where she taught skiing and scuba diving indulging her skills in several sports.Then she got really serious about her space ambitions and enrolled at Stanford University for masters and doctorate.

After her graduation, marriage and starting work at Lockheed Martin, she applied to be an astronaut with NASA in Houston, Texas and was selected for the first round of interviews there. Meanwhile, the program was changed and now American shuttles have been discontinued. NASA is now only selecting astronauts for long duration missions aboard the Space Station.

To have pursued her goal further at this time would have required training in Russia as well as in the United States. It would have been too great a sacrifice, she and Glen decided.

She indicated it was satisfying to speak several weeks ago to the upper school at her alma mater, North Cross, about the project she is working on and how her goals have been met though dedication to a dream and hard work. Though both she and Glen fly as recreation, she is not permitted to do this for business trips she occasionally makes to the NASA and Lockheed offices in the Washington area.

“I’d still love to go on a shuttle,” she says.

There’s still a future.

– Frances Stebbins

“It’s just like the Macy’s Christmas Parade,” said the Jolly Old Elf, as he and his wife prepared to climb into the antique blade runner loaned by Dr. and Mrs. Jim Reinhart of Salem.

Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus arrive together in a sleigh for the first time in the Salem Christmas Parade on Dec. 2. Photo by Cady Garst

Santa usually arrives in the bucket of Salem Fire & EMS’s Tower 1, but with that truck out of commission this year, the star of the parade enlisted the help of additional elves.

In a surprise move known only to a few, on Friday afternoon fire department personnel transported the sleigh and used a winch to lift it onto the back of a fire truck.

The D.A.R.E. and Salem Police Department float won first place in the Dec. 2 Salem Christmas Parade. Photo by Meg Hibbert

Santa and his wife, who are known to be close friends of Buster and Julie Mowles, were escorted by the Glenvar High School Marching Highlander Band – which was also judged best band.

The 90-minute parade was organized by the Salem-Roanoke County Chamber of Commerce. Members of the Salem Kiwanis Club lined up parade units from neighborhoods surrounding Carrollton Avenue all the way to the Salem Ice Cream Parlor. Sponsors say the Salem parade is the largest in Southwestern Virginia.

The weather was a balmy 40 degrees at the beginning of the parade. Unlike some years, kids, parents and pets didn’t have to be swaddled in layers of coats, blankets, hats and mufflers.

Winners in various categories were:

• 1st Place – D.A.R.E. Float from Salem Police Department;

Students from HopeTree Academy and HopeTree Family Services won second place with their mill. Photo by Meg Hibbert

• 2nd Place – HopeTree Academy and HopeTree Family Services;

• 3rd Place – Virginia Western Community College Motor Sports Mini Baja Cars fully decorated for the holidays;

• Best Old Fashioned Christmas – Adams Construction Co.;

• Best Band – Glenvar High School;

• Best Religious Entry – East Gate Church of the Nazarene;

• Best Organized Children’s Group – Bethel Baptist Church;

Glenvar High School Marching Highlanders won best band in the Salem parade. Photo by Meg Hibbert

• Honorable Mention – Col. Fleming’s Fife & Drum Corps in their debut performance with the Salem Christmas Parade.

The event was recorded and CDs will be available for purchase through the Salem-Roanoke County Chamber of Commerce for $15, said Chamber Director Debbie Kavitz. Plans are already being made for the 2012 Salem Christmas Parade on Dec. 7. The deadline to enter is Nov. 9, 2012.