Wesley W. Mansir
Wesley W. Mansir, a US Army Air Corps veteran who helped invent the space blanket used to insulate NASA spacecraft and space suits, died Wednesday at the Park Avenue Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Arlington. He was 85 and lived in Lexington and had previously resided in Cambridge.
During World War II, Mr. Mansir served in the South Pacific as a nose turret gunner and assistant flight engineer aboard B-24 Liberators. He flew 43 combat missions and received the Air Medal with five Oak Leaf Clusters.
After the war, while working at the former
He was devoted to his family, relatives said.
"Everyone loved him; he was just a true family man," said his daughter, Christine Fowler of Lexington.
In addition to his daughter Christine, Mr. Mansir leaves another daughter, Carolyn Schilling of Carlisle; a brother, Clifford of Somerville; a sister, Mary Grover of Arlington; two grandsons; and two great-grandchildren.
A funeral Mass will be said at 10 a.m. today at St. John's Church in Cambridge.
Steven Roe Schatz
Steven Roe Schatz, a former Boston television reporter, died Wednesday in Naples, Fla., of a heart attack. He was 66.
Mr. Schatz was born and raised in the suburbs of Chicago. He played football at Wake Forest University and later transferred to the University of Missouri to pursue a degree in journalism. After graduating, he went to work for WPRO-TV in Providence. He eventually became a television news reporter and anchor in Washington, D.C., Detroit, Boston, and most recently for CNN.
At Boston's CBS affiliate WBZ-TV, Mr. Schatz covered such issues as violence during the desegregation of Boston schools in the 1970s and the conflict in Northern Ireland. In the mid-1970s, he won an Emmy Award for "Children Bearing Children," a documentary on teen pregnancy. "The New England Mind," a special series he did with cinematographer Jim Arnold, focused on the people who made New England what it was.
"He was very well known and recognized and celebrated, and he loved Boston, absolutely loved Boston," said his daughter Stacy Swierenga of Allen, Texas. "He was a tremendous writer with a magnificent sense of humor, and he was really ahead of his time in terms of editing and producing his pieces. I think that set him apart."
In addition to his daughter, Mr. Schatz leaves another daughter, Amy Browne of Lititz, Pa.; two sons, Michael of Atlanta and Casey of Los Angeles; a brother, David of Osprey, Fla.; his former wife, Nancy of McLean, Va.; and seven grandchildren.
Services have been held.
