Paula B. Thomas, a classically-trained accordionist, clarinetist and pianist who was the state's first woman to earn a degree in music education, died Thursday. She was 86. Mrs. (Today)

Vincent Chianese, who became a Pittsburgh icon after more than five decades of owning and operating the renowned Vincent's Pizza Park, died Sunday at Forbes Regional Hospital in Monroeville. (Yesterday)

Merlin Olsen, a Hall of Fame pro football defensive lineman with the Los Angeles Rams who was a charter member of the team's famed Fearsome Foursome, then made a remarkably smooth transition into careers in broadcasting and acting, has died. He was 69. (Yesterday)

As chancellor of Penn State Fayette, Eberly Campus, Emmanuel I. Osagie worked to bring the campus closer to the community and to the world at large. (03/11/2010)

The Rev. James Ruggiero, 74, who left a career in supermarket management to become a Catholic priest, died Tuesday of cancer. (03/11/2010)