Courtney H. C. Valentine, 81, schoolteacher
Courtney Hughes Carter Valentine, a retired special education teacher, died of cancer Sunday at Sinai Hospital. She was 81 and a longtime resident of Morgan Park.
She joined the Baltimore school system in the late 1930s as a teacher of children with hearing and speech impairments. She retired in 1979.
“She was an understanding and very patient teacher,” said Emma Bright, a friend of 66 years and a retired city school principal.
The former Courtney H. Carter was a Baltimore native and a graduate of Frederick Douglass High School. She earned a bachelor’s degree in 1941 from what now is Morgan State University and a master’s from New York University in 1954.
She was a 50-year member of Alpha Kappa Alpha, the nation’s oldest black sorority.
She also was a member of the League Serving People with Physical Disabilities Inc., the Child Study Group and the Morgan Park Association. She worked in the gift shop of Walters Art Gallery and was a member of the Daytimers, a senior citizens club, and the Needles and Pins Club.
A Mass of Resurrection will be offered at 11: 30 a.m. tomorrow at St. James Episcopal Church, Arlington and Lafayette avenues.
Survivors include her husband, Wilbur Grant Valentine, whom she married in 1943; a son, Courtney Grant Valentine of Baltimore; a brother, James Hughes Carter, and a sister, Mary C. Francis, both of Washington; and several nieces.
Albert C. Crusey, 76, Balto. Co. fire captain
Albert C. Crusey, a retired Baltimore County fire officer, died of heart failure Saturday at Anne Arundel Medical Center. He was 76 and lived in Edgemere.
In 1971, he retired as a captain in the county Fire Department. He joined the department in 1948 and spent his career at the Pikesville fire station.
Born and raised in Pikesville, he was a graduate of Pikesville High School. The World War II Navy veteran, who was discharged in 1945, enjoyed yard sales and collected firefighting memorabilia.
Services will be at 12: 30 p.m. today at Loring-Byers Funeral Home, 8728 Liberty Road, Randallstown. He is survived by his wife of 53 years, the former Agnes Adams; a son, Edward A. Crusey of Red Lion, Pa.; a granddaughter; and two cousins.
William O. Schach, 71, Merrill Lynch executive
William O. Schach, a retired Merrill Lynch executive and former Baltimorean, died Saturday of pulmonary fibrosis at his home in Pittsburgh. He was 71.
The former Guilford resident began his career as an account executive with the brokerage firm in Baltimore in 1951 and became manager of the Charles Center branch in 1962. In 1970, he was named resident vice president in Pittsburgh. He retired in 1989.
The Catonsville native graduated from Polytechnic Institute in 1941, the Coast Guard Academy in 1945 and the Sloan Graduate School of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1950.
A memorial service will be tomorrow in Pittsburgh. He is survived by his wife of 42 years, the former Frances Sawtelle Ratchford; two daughters, Carrington Coburn North of Rowayton, Conn., and Ann Tracy Sawtelle Schach Simpson of Paris; a sister, Lenore Tierney of Baltimore; and three grandchildren.
