A revered former mayor of Scranton, a former police officer who lit up the holidays and a local, college and NFL standout whose sudden death shocked fans and friends from West Scranton to Wisconsin top the somber list of notable deaths in 2025.<\/p>\n
A pair of trailblazers died young and a pair of beloved community pillars left the stage with legacies that live on. Who we lost in 2025:<\/p>\n
Samuel Dino Argo: 73, Pittston, known as Danny Argo, local musician who often played La Festa Italiana, and was a longtime member of Pittston City Council, July 18.<\/p>\n
George Bieber: 70, Moosic, president of Moosic Borough Council, 14-year member of Riverside School Board who served 17 years as public safety director at Wilkes-Barre\/Scranton International Airport, June 20.<\/p>\n
Alex \u201cAce\u201d Brogna: 86, Pittston native, minor league baseball player and a well-respected basketball and football official, helped bring back professional baseball to area with the Scranton\/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons, June 7.<\/p>\n
Tom Culkin of Scranton decorates his Moosic Street house for Christmas in November 2022, which he enjoyed doing for more than 50 years. (FILE PHOTO)<\/p>\n
Tom Culkin: 77, South Scranton, Vietnam War veteran and decorated officer over a 32-year career with the Scranton Police Department, known for extravagant holiday displays at his home, July 17.<\/p>\n
William \u201cBilly\u201d Ferrario: 47, West Scranton native and standout offensive lineman with the Wisconsin Badgers and the Green Bay Packers, Sept. 23.<\/p>\n
Paul LaBelle: 78, South Abington Twp., musician, conductor and bandleader best known for founding and leading the Exact Change Band, June 20.<\/p>\n
Melanie Naro: 59, Dunmore, first female president of Dunmore Borough Council and first woman elected chair of the UNICO board of directors, Nov. 15.<\/p>\n
Christopher Musti: 48, Scranton, Pennsylvania state constable and youngest director elected to Scranton School Board, Feb. 7<\/p>\n
Richard N. Roman: 52, Butler Twp., served since January 2019 as the district executive for PennDOT\u2019s Engineering District 4, Nov. 1.<\/p>\n
John \u2018Stanky\u2019 Stankovic performs during the Kielbasa Festival in Plymouth on Saturday, Aug. 9, 2025. (JASON ARDAN \/ STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)<\/p>\n
John \u201cStanky\u201d Stankovic: 89, Nanticoke, legendary Northeast Pennsylvania polka king who entertained millions of people from around the world for decades, Dec. 25.<\/p>\n
John L. Stopay: 86, Plains Twp., ran family\u2019s candy business until 2012 when it was sold, Nov. 27.<\/p>\n
Thomas Robert Woods: 86, a well-known local radio and TV personality at WARM Radio, WILK Radio and WBRE-TV, May 19.<\/p>\n
Former Scranton Mayor and Veteran, David Wenzel, says a few words at the start of the Rolling Thunder Inc. Pennsylvania Chapter 3 Salute to Veterans Ride on Sunday, July 21, 2013.<\/p>\n
David J. Wenzel: 80, Scranton, lifelong public servant, decorated disabled Vietnam combat veteran and advocate for the disabled who served as tax collector and mayor of Scranton, Nov. 5.<\/p>\n
\u00a9 2025 The Times-Tribune (Scranton, Pa.). Visit thetimes-tribune.com<\/a>. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.<\/a><\/p>\n \n Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup.\n <\/p>\n \n Error! There was an error processing your request.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A revered former mayor of Scranton, a former police officer who lit up the holidays and a local,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18787,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[50,178,180,179,726,2349],"class_list":{"0":"post-72250","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scranton","8":"tag-politics","9":"tag-scranton","10":"tag-scranton-headlines","11":"tag-scranton-news","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-veterans"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72250\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}