Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 16

6A DETROIT FREE PRESSWEDNESDAY, AUGUST 19, 1987 FT Man burned. Ml inside car 2 Dog judged ability respected worldvdde Woman ivas anxious to catch flight but in pain recovering 3 By JOEL THURTELL Free Press Staff Writer I 0 7 to be In on a "She was always nice and She had a good eye for a dog. She was very knowledgeable and she was highly respected by everyone you talked to. Some judges don't have that respect." Mrs. Thomsen was held in such high regard that the show's chairman, Saul Waldman, booked her two years in advance.

"She had a very, very good reputation," Waldman said. "She was very honest." People who came into contact with Mrs. Thomsen on Sunday remember that she was anxious to arrive at Metro Airport on time for the flight to Arizona. Pinky Hefty, who accompanied her husband, Bob, as he drove Mrs. Thomsen to the airport, said if Mrs.

Thomsen had missed her flight she would have been forced to fly standby on another, and she was concerned about a connection for a commuter flight from Phoenix. Sadie Hawkins, president of the Pontiac Kennel Club, said Mrs. Thomsen had a reason for getting home. "She wanted to be with her husband," Hawkins said Tuesday. "Today is his birthday." By BILL McGRAW Free Press Staff Writer Erica Thomsen's world revolved around rottweilers, fox terriers, Irish water spaniels and English bulldogs.

served as a judge of dog shows, and her reputation, fellow kennel officials said, extended to four continents after 3 1 years of judging for the American Kennel Club. Mrs. Thomsen, 61, was returning to her home in Lake Havasu City, Sunday night when she died in the crash of Flight 255. She had spent Sunday judging the Pontiac Kennel Club's show for more than 1,550 dogs at Oakland Community College's Highland Lake campus. Mrs.

Thomsen had the honor and responsibility of choosing the show's overall winner, and she picked a bulldog whose name is American and Canadian Champion Tonbray's Garth of Thunder Bay, owned by Ted and Dorthia Begeman of Deford. "After she selected me, she came out in the middle of the ring with a ribbon and I told her that it was his first win in America," Ted Begeman said Tuesday. "She said, 'That's nice. I always like Lawrence Favio was still feeling lot of pain" Tuesday but his said Favio was well enough to joke about what happened to her car when he was trapped in it amid fiery debris as Northwest Flight 225 crashed nearly on top of him Sunday. "Don't panic mom, I'm fine.

ought to see your car," Audrey Favio quoted her son as saying from his bed at the burn center of the University ot. Michigan Medical Center, where remained in critical condition. When the plane crashed, Favio, 30, who lives with his parents in Lincoln Park, was alone driving his car north on Middlebelt Road putting in several hours of overtime at, his job on a ground service crew at Metro Airport. "He heard the plane. I guess knew it was low," his mother said.

His father, Daniel Favio, said his son told them he was waiting at a stopoi sign on Middlebelt when he "saw ir flash and heard a hissing and thing bumped the back of his car and all of a sudden he was engulfed in flames." "He had to crawl out the window WIT. get out." Favio's mother said he owns a two-seat sports car, but the sunroof is broken so he took his mother's full-size car to work. She said Favio did noC think he would have escaped the fire inuh his smaller car. Roy Reneker, a passerby from Romulus, drove Favio to a nearby hospital. He later was moved to U-M.

"If it had not been for that young ni man, I don't think he'd be here," Audrey Favio said. Favio was burned on his arms, face, hands, back and of his legs. "He's in a lot of pain," his mother said. "He goes in and out of conscious- IA ness and we talk to him." "I sure would like to know him and thank him an awful lot," Audrey Favio said. Erica Thomsen, left, accepts an award at a Burlington, Kennel Club show earlier this year.

The two people at right are unidentified. Co-pilot learned to fly at 16, was doing mail runs by 18 penalty in September 1976 for flying over a football field without proper clearance. That same year, the records show, he was cited for failing to maintain a safe minimum altitude while flying over an urban area. Circumstances of the second citation were not available. Gerald Dodds said he was not aware of the citation, and said Northwest representatives who visited his son's home twice in the last two days told him David's "flying record was excellent." "We're dealing with the situation fine," said Gerald Dodds.

"We're a Christian family. Our strength, we know where it's at. We're doing well, considering the severity of the tragic tragedy." "II kidded his mom that she shouldn't be wasting money learning to 7 Gerald Dodds father of co-pilot Real estate broker liked to keep people guessing in rrt. By LORI MATHEWS Free Press Staff Writer He was impulsive and full of surprises. So Matthew McLaughlin's family said they never knew what to expect when visiting him at his Mesa, town house, or when the 29-year-old real estate broker came home to Novi on vacation.

"Matthew liked nothing better than to keep you guessing. Surprising people was his specialty," Peter McLaughlin, Matthew's 27-year-old brother, said. "There was nothing that made him happier than pleasing people. All of us have special memories of the happy times Matt gave us. The void left behind will never be filled." Matthew had come home to introduce his fiancee, Jeanna Tawzer, to his family.

She and Matthew were among the 158 people killed when Northwest Flight 255 crashed Sunday. In the short time the two were here, they dined with family members in Detroit, visited a family summer home in Port Sanilac, and visited Cedar Point and Canada. "He was so much in love and wanted the world to know about it. It's a cia's children and a former high school wrestler, was described by his father as a man who "built his life around" his four sons, ages four, eight, 10 and 12, and his wife, Jeanette. GERALD DODDS said his son and his family lived in a picturesque area near a ski resort about three miles outside Galena, 111., a community of about 4,000 about 15 miles east of Dubuque.

He said his son, a jogger, hunter and avid golfer, did not appear to be overworked in the days before the accident. "His flying record was always absolutely impeccable," said Dodds. FAA records show, however, that David Dodds was fined $300 in a civil said: "I had prayed so hard for that miracle that somehow, some way, even though there wasn't hope he'd be alive. That's what miracles are." Patrick Gleason was, hisfamily said, gentle, altruistic and conscientious. For now, Kay Gleason clutches her few pictures of him as she talks to their dog, Maggie, soon to be her only companion in the house she and her husband had said was "far too big for the two of us." feet," Walker said.

They used to study the hours away as students at West Bloomfield High School, she said, and planned on taking a psychology class together at MSU. "She would always have to try so hard to do good in school," Walker said. "I would be over at her house studying and studying until we got it." Sometime down the road, David Wilner believes, he and Joanne would have been married. "We were on the way to the airport," he said. "She was reading a magazine horoscope that said you should get engaged this weekend.

When we were in West Branch (the weekend before) I bought her a little silver ring. She said, 'Oh, this will be our little fake engagement shouldn't be wasting money learning to fly," said his father, speaking by telephone from the family home in Dubuque, Iowa. "He'd say, 'Buy those lessons for He just loved it. He really was an expert pilot." AT 18, David Dodds was flying the mail among Dubuque, and Waterloo and Des Moines. Within a few years, he had earned a degree in aviation administration from the University of Dubuque and married the daughter of his flight instructor.

He held at least two corporate flying jobs before he landed his first commercial billet, with North Central Airlines, in May 1979. David, the third of Gerald and Patri- -TT The relatives of Patrick Gleason sit wife, Kay, and son Mike. good education. "HE THOUGHT he pushed us too hard," said Chris Gleason, 25. "But he always pushed us in the right direction.

Dad used to joke, 'You can go to any college you want, as long as it's Michigan Chris and his brother, Mike, 23, also a graduate of Michigan Tech, said they admired and hoped to emulate their father. ield student ange County, Calif. Her father, David, and Brian, 15, moved two months earlier to California. Her mother, Rochelle, had moved last week, and her sister, Stacy, on Saturday. Joanne, 18, was living in the family's West Bloomfield home until it was sold.

"SHE COULDN'T WAIT to go out there," Wilner said. "She talked about how much she missed her father and brother." But the Continental flight was canceled because there was something wrong with an airplane wing. Joanne called Wilner at 7 p.m. to tell him she taking another flight. "I asked her if she wanted me to 1 TOf vf 'y" i By ERIC KINKOPF Free Press Staff Writer About the time Patricia Dodds hustled the last of her seven children off to kindergarten, she decided she wanted a different challenge.

So she took up flying. She soloed a few times, then quit, said Gerald, 63, her husband. "She accomplished what she wanted to do." Neither Gerald nor Patricia Dodds imagined that a mother's whim would turn into a son's passion. David Dodds, the co-pilot on Flight 255, began flying at 16 and never stopped, said his father. He was 35 when he died.

"He kidded his mom that she Engineer cherished roots in UP By MARGARET TRIMER Free Press Staff Writer Patrick Gleason was happiest with his family, teaching his two sons woodworking, or with his wife, Kay, refurbishing their cottage on the Dead River Basin near Ishpeming, near his birthplace in the Upper Peninsula. He recently finished a white cedar sauna house. "It was his favorite place, and it was important because we all helped build it," Kay Gleason said on Tuesday, two days after her husband was killed on Northwest Flight 255. "Now I don't know if I should keep it or sell it," Gleason, 49, was a senior project engineer for General Motors, where he worked for 27 years. He planned to retire soon to spend more time in northern Michigan, his "favorite part of the world," Kay Gleason said.

She started to smile and said, "I always told him he was going to die with a hammer in his hand." Then she paused and whispered, "I guess he didn't." The Gleasons had been married 26 years; their two sons, said Kay Gleason, learned from their father to build things. And Patrick Gleason, a graduate of Michigan Technological University in' Houghton, urged his sons to get a West Bloomf By ZACHARE BALL Free Press Slaff Writer A friend said she could call Joanne Surowitz at 4 a.m. with her problems. And Brian Surowitz said his sister's death in the crash of Northwest Flight 255 meant he lost "a partner." "We were all so close," he said. "She liked everything; she never thought of hate.

"She just taught me how to love. She used to pick out my clothes, to make me look right. She made me feel better about myself. We were such a good family." When her friend, David Wilner, drove her to the airport Sunday night to catch a 5:50 p.m. Continental Airlines flight, Joanne Surowitz was looking forward to joining her family in Or was GEORGE GRYZENIASpeclal to the Free Press at home.

From left: Chris Gleason and his wife, Jill, Patrick Gleason's "He just put everyone else first," Chris said. "I know he was thinking about my car problems when he was waiting on the runway." Patrick Gleason began Sunday at church; later he dined with son Mike, then drove himself to Metro Airport in a company car. He was traveling to Phoenix on business. CHRIS GLEASON'S wife, Jill, 23, small consolation to know these eight months with Jeanna were the happiest of his life," Peter McLaughlin said, "but not much. Matthew McLaughlin had 12 lings, many living around the country, and five step-siblings from out of state.

All arrived here late Sunday and early Monday. "Our first question was, 'WhyS Peter said. "My family has had enough tragedies this summer." In May, Matthew's Aloysius Korte, was murdered in a case of mistaken identity while driving in North ville. Aloysius was married toHI Matthew's sister, Fredericka. Matthew's mother, Mary McLaughlin, lost her mobile home uC June when a tornado struck a park in Novi.

ill IN "What has happened hasn't really, hit any of us yet," Peter said. "We're numb, trying to take care of things and be there for each other. But soon I 'M know I'll wake up and know I can't- pick up the phone and call my brother. That's when I think I'll lose it." the employes, and said other employes would be called in to assist them coping with the disaster. Postma said that assistance, in most" Instances, would come from colleagues" who were close friends of the deceasedr They would be asked to make travel and other arrangements for the family members, and notify the company of the family's needs.

Each of the families would be immediately eligible for a GM disaster allowance, about a month's salary, he said. The nature of the assignments that took the employes, most of them engineers but working for five different divisions, to Arizona was not available, Postma said. But it was unlikely they were working on a joint project, he said. Postma said no one he had spoken to could remember a disaster striking GM so hard. According to Free Press reports, two AC Spark Plug employes died April 7, 1958, aboard a Capital Airlines flight that crashed at Tri-City Airport near Saginaw Most of 14 lost GM workers were on company business 'couldn't wait' for trip By DAWSON BELL Free Press Staff Writer Fourteen General Motors Corp.

employes and seven members of the employes' families are believed dead in the crash of Northwest Flight 255 a tragedy of unprecedented scope for the huge company, GM spokesman Don Postma said Tuesday. But the circumstances that brought all of those people with ties to the company together on one jetliner to Phoenix are common, Postma said. Most of the employes were en route to the GM Desert Proving Ground in Mesa, a facility on the eastern outskirts of Phoenix used for hot-weather testing of cars and trucks. Two, including proving ground manager Don Briggs, were returning to work from vacations with their families in Michigan. "We're sending people back and forth from there all of the time," Postma said.

GM Chairman Roger Smith issued a statement In which he expressed condolences to the families and friends of i come out there. She said, 'No, that's stupid, they could get me on a flight any he recalled. She called him back at 7:55 p.m. to say she had been booked on Northwest Flight 255. "She was so happy she didn't even have to get off the plane, it was just stopping in Phoenix." In California, brother Brian was going to take her to the beaches, to Universal Studios for a tour and to downtown Los Angeles.

"She couldn't wait to go out to the beaches," Brian said. IN THE FALL, Joanne was going to attend Michigan State University, rooming with her friend Michelle Walker. Wilner also attends MSU. "She was a special person. She was always perfect.

Always dressed per-.