The Baltimore Sun from Baltimore, Maryland • 15

MarylandObituaries 2 The Sun Monday, August 13, 2001: Page 7b Francis Eugene Belt, 79, organist, choir director at Brown Memorial streets. In addition to his wife, Mr. Belt is survived by a son, William Edward Belt of Philadelphia; two daughters, Hallie Aldrich Belt of Chicago and Regina Rigsby Belt of Anchorage, Alaska; one brother, Edward Worthington Belt of Mor-ristown, N.J.; and three granddaughters. Rosa Valeiiziano Matassa, 90, dress and hat designer Rosa Valenziano Matassa, a seamstress known for her homemade meatballs, died Thursday from heart failure at Howard County General Hospital. She was 90.

She was one of 18 children born into a farming family in Chefalu, TS I "mil ft -i -4 9 peratures and humidity, be thrown against walls without breaking and last 30 days without refrigeration. His early efforts at Pillsbury led to ready-made doughs that would last up to 90 days In a refrigerator, compared with seven days in the 1940s. Carlos Hank Gonzalez, 73. a flamboyant millionaire and politician who helped shape the party that ruled Mexico for seven straight decades, died Saturday in Mexico City of prostate cancer. Mr.

Hank Gonzalez, famous for coining the phrase "A politician who is poor is a poor politician," was a behind-the-scenes force hi the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, which ruled Mexico from 1929 until last year, when President Vicente Fox became the first opposition candidate to win the presidency. Mr. Hank Gonzalez served as Mexico City's mayor, governor of Mexico state, agriculture secretary and head of Mexico's tourism ministry. He exemplified Mexico's old-guard political leaders, who built careers on doing small favors for supporters in rural areas. Stanislav RostoLsky, 79, a Russian director whose films depicted Soviet life from World War to the reforms of perestroika, died Friday of heart failure.

Mr. Rostotsky was in the city of Vyborg near St. Petersburg for the opening Saturday of an annual film festival he helped organize, Window on Europe. Mr. Rostotsky was wounded while fighting in the Red Army against the Nazis in World War II.

After the war, he studied at the State Cinematography Institute in Moscow under renowned director Sergei Eisenstein. One of his most enduring films was the 1972 Dawns Here Are Quiet, about an all-female regiment in World War II. His film White Bim Black Ear, centering around a dog's fate, was nominated for an Oscar in 1978. as a soprano. The two married in 1990.

When Brown Memorial had two locations, Mr. Belt would shuttle between the two Sunday services, with maybe 15 minutes travel time between the North Charles Street and Park Street locations. Later, when the two locations split into distinct churches, Mr. Belt stayed with the Bolton Hill church. Even when Mr.

Belt taught at Gettysburg College from 1966 until his retirement in 1988 and lived near the college in Pennsylvania, he commuted at least twice a week to Brown Memorial, his wife said. He loved the people at the church and its organ, a vintage Skinner built in the early 1930s that has "sounds that can't be reproduced today," said David Bucher of Baltimore, who assisted Mr. Belt for two decades and began studying organ with Mr. Belt when he was 13. Tall, thin and known for wearing berets of different colors, Mr.

Belt was recognized as "one of the finest organists in the city" and often held recitals, Mr. Bucher said. Throughout his career, he often premiered composers' works in Baltimore and held presentations, festivals and recital series. "Musically, he taught me everything I know about playing the organ," said Mr. Bucher, who is now 59.

"Personally, he was a second father to me as well as a good friend." Brown Memorial honored Mr. Belt on his big anniversaries. In 1994, for his 40th anniversary with the church, the church presented him with a music fund named in his honor. By Easter, though, his health was failing. When he performed the "Widor Toccata," a favorite of the congregatjon, at Easter service, he "played it better than ever," his wife said.

The next weekend, he played "exquisitely," she said. "His doctor and I kind of wondered if this wasn't his swan song. And that was the last time he played," she said. Mr. Belt was also involved in Meals on Wheels and as a tutor in the church's tutoring program.

Because Mr. Belt donated his body to science, no funeral will be held, his wife said. Instead, friends are organizing a memorial service to be held Sept. 14, complete with organists and choirs, at Brown Memorial at Park and Lafayette 5755 Cedar Lane, Columbia 21044. George Carville Porter, 83, student of the Civil War George Carville Porter, an avid student of the Civil War and longtime member of a local historical society, died Saturday at his home in Middle River.

He was 83. A native of eastern Baltimore County, Mr. Porter attended old Orems School, a two-room school-house built in 1860. Later, he joined many reunions of the school's replacement, Orems Elementary School, including the dedication of a historical marker placed there several years ago. He was one of the first graduates of Kenwood High School in 1933 and served stateside in the Army during World War n.

Mr. Porter was employed for more than two decades at the now-defunct Bethlehem Steel Shipyard in Sparrows Point. He retired in 1982. A member of the Heritage Society of Essex and Middle River, Mr. Porter also was a member of the Ballestone Preservation Society, the sons of the Union Army Lin-coln-Cushing Camp, Sons of the Blue and Grey and Society of Huguenots.

"Mr. Porter had a strong interest in local and Civil War history," said Paul M. Blitz, historian of the Heritage Society of Essex and Middle River. "He had an incredibly sharp memory, knew lots of people. He will truly be missed." Six years ago, Mr.

Porter attended the dedication of the Maryland monument at the Gettysburg battlefield. He also attended the auction sale of Tudor Hall, the boyhood home of John Wilkes Booth in Bel Air, about the same time. In his spare time, Mr. Porter enjoyed reading and gardening. Services will be held at 10 a.m.

today at Bruzdzinski Funeral Home, 1407 Old Eastern Ave. Burial will be in United Methodist Church Cemetery in Middle River. Survivors include a niece, a nephew, and numerous great-nieces and great-great-nieces. Elsewhere Howard Bauman, 76, who led Pillsbury effort to design space food for astronauts, died Wednesday in Minnetonka, of complications from pulmonary disease. Mr.

Bauman was a Pillsbury food scientist for 36 years. His team designed food for 1960s space flights that could resist high tem By Lisa Goldberg SUN STAFF Francis Eugene "Gene" Belt, an organist who directed the choir at Brown Memorial Presbyterian Church for nearly a half-century and was at the forefront of the for gender inclusive-ness in the church, died Thursday of a brain tumor at his Towson home. He was 79. Mr. Belt was among the great organists, including Virgil Fox and Richard Ross, who played at Brown Memorial over the years, according to the church's pastor, the Rev.

Roger Gench. Mr. Belt started at the church as Mr. Ross assistant he had studied organ with Mr. Ross at the Peabody Conservatory in 1950 and took over as organist and choir director after Mr.

Ross' death in 1954. The thing I really loved about Gene was not just his music but his spirit," said Mr. Gench, who is in his 12th year at the church. "He had a very liberal spirit." He was interested in rights issues as well as urban affairs, Mr. Gench said.

When it came time for the church to address male-female language in hymns, Mr. Belt brought the issue before the choir and talked to them about making a change, the pastor said. For those who called him teacher, Mr. Belt was "inspiring," said David Dasch of Abingdon, who had served as Mr. Belt's assistant and now plays organ for St.

Joan of Arc Church in Harford County. "He was a champion of 20th-century music. I guess I would describe Gene as a very gentle man rather soft-spoken, a '( very loving man, really," Mr. Dasch said. "And he certainly loved that Sicily, where she later graduated from a dress design school and opened a dress shop.

She met Dominic Matassa in her home village and the couple mar ried in 1937, then immigrated to the United States. They settled in Staten N.Y. Mr. Matassa died in 1987. She designed hats for a New York milliner until she and her husband moved to Pigtown in Southwest Baltimore in 1943.

The couple moved to Catonsville in 1961. Mrs. Matassa retired in 1976 from her job as a seamstress at Lebow Brothers menswear factory in Baltimore. Mrs. Matassa was well known for her hospitality and her Italian cookies and meatballs.

"Those meatballs were awesome," said Tracy Burdis, a longtime friend of the family. "They were generous in their size. They had the precise amount of garlic; her homemade sauce was wonderful. And the bigger the crowd eating at her house, the better she liked it." Services will be held at 12:30 p.m. today at St.

Agnes Roman Catholic Church in Catonsville. Burial will be in Dulaney Valley Gardens. Survivors include a daughter, Tina Broccolino of Catonsville; a brother, Pasquale Valenziano of Ellicott City; a sister, Josephine Greco of Catonsville; four grandchildren; three great-grandchildren; and many nieces and nephews. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the Howard Hospital Foundation, 4tm Albert J. Silverman, 94, teacher who headed history department of Polytechnic Institute Francis E.Beit was recognized as "one of the finest organists in the city," said a friend.

church." Born in Hampstead and raised in Glyndon, Mr. Belt began studying piano at age 8 and received his degree in music education from Western Maryland College in 1942. During World War II, he served as an Air Force bombardier in the South Pacific. After he returned home, he studied organ under Mr. Ross at Peabody, graduating in 1949.

He later taught piano at Peabody Preparatory School. He earned a master's degree in music from New York University. In 1953, he married Willie Jean Rigsby, who was first treated for a brain tumor in 1979 and later died. He met his second wife, Phyllis Barry Mcintosh, in 1978 when she joined the Brown Memorial choir Mr. Silverman established a fellowship at the Peabody Conservatory, where his wife had studied piano.

The couple had resided in Pikesville. Services were to be held at noon today at Sol Levinson and 8900 Reisterstown Road at Man killed on N. BY A SUN STAFF WRITER A gunman opened fire at a car traveling on North Pulaski Street in West Baltimore yesterday afternoon, killing one man and injuring another, police said. Police identified the dead man, Anthony Carlest, 35, of the 4200 block of Labyrinth Road in Northwest Baltimore, as the driver of the car. Melvin McAllister, 39, of the 2400 block of W.

Baltimore St. in West Baltimore was shot in the back and was listed in good condi Obituaries Because of limited space and the large number of requests for obituaries, 77ie Sun regrets that it cannot publish all the obituaries it receives. Because The Sun regards obituaries as news, we give a preference to those submitted within 48 hours of a person's death. It is also our intention to run obituaries no later than seven days after death. Mount Wilson Lane.

Burial will be in Beth Tfiloh Congregation Cemetery on Windsor Mill Road. Other survivors include two sons, Dr. David Silverman of Las Vegas and Dr. Thomas Silverman of Santa Cruz, and five grandchildren. Pulaski Street tion at Maryland Shock Trauma Center, police said.

Detective Dave Peckoo said the shooting occurred about 2:25 p.m. while the men were driving a Ford Escort in the 300 block of N. Pulaski St. A gunman fired numerous shots through the back windshield of the car, striking both men, Peckoo said. The car traveled a short distance before striking a second car, which was occupied, he said.

Nobody in that car was injured. 21-year-old man, and the driver of the Camry, a 45-year-old man, were killed. Police were trying yesterday to identify the third victim, a passenger in the Camry. The third victim is a girl who appears to be about 11 years old, said Officer Debbie Sabel, a Prince George's police spokeswoman. Sabel said wet roads and excessive speed appeared to be factors.

1 By Joe Nawrozki SUN STAFF 'I Albert J. Silverman, author and former head of the history depart-. ment at Polytechnic Institute who taught generations of students, died Saturday of pneumonia at Northwest Hospital Center. He was 94. Born on Gay Street in Baltimore, he was a graduate of City College Poly's cross-town rival.

He graduated from what is now Towson University and from the Johns Hopkins University, where he earned a master's degree in history. Sharp-witted and indefatigable, Mr. Silverman's legacy is his work at Poly from the mid-' 1930s to 1974, when he retired. "He influenced generations of boys; that meant so much to him," said his daughter, Sally Wyte of La Jolla, Calif. "It was quite remarkable, funny really, when men in their 70s would walk up to Dad and saw, 'Hi, Mr.

Silverman, remember me? I was one of your students at Mrs. Wyte said. In addition to teaching at Poly, Mr. Silverman taught teaching methods at Hopkins. He wrote two books: Baltimore, City of Promise, a civics text used in city schools, and a novel, Unseen Harvests.

He also penned numerous articles and short stories. Some of those articles were printed in The Sun's op-ed pages. In 1996, he wrote a lyrical lamentation about the disappearance of singing and whistling in contemporary America: "How lovely it was in yesteryear to stroll by a school in spring and hear beautiful, childish voices floating from open windows in the strains of the Schubert Serenade, or 'Funiculi, Soon after his retirement from Poly, he founded the Senior Men's fellowship, a public affairs forum, served as its president for seven years. When his wife of 50 years, the former Rosa Kirsch, died in 1985, immtmm i ft :4 .1 it Three die in Laurel car crash Three people were killed Saturday in a rainy-night collision in Laurel in Prince George's County. Prince George's police said a 1994 Toyota Celica was traveling south on Laurel Bowie Road near Powder Mill Road when the driver lost control of the car, crossed the center line and hit a 1985 Toyota Camry traveling north.

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