Sports
Amar Brisco - Defensive back at UNLV who lead the Rebels to a 2000 Las Vegas Bowl win was shot and killed outside a nightclub by security guards over an argument about a valet parking space (can you think of a better cause to die for? I can't). He was 24.
Jim Crawford - Scottish born racecar driver who raced in 8 Indy 500's finishing sixth in 1988, but disappeared from the circuit after failing to qualify for the 1995 Indy, died of undisclosed causes at age 54 (apparently not a crash - surprise!).
Chick Hearn - L.A. Laker's legendary broadcaster who was the only broadcaster the L.A. Laker's ever had, who starting in 1965 broadcast 3,338 consecutive games until an illness in December 2001, died after injuring his head in a fall at age 85.
Charles "Ookie" Miller - Football player with the Chicago Bears from 1932 to 1937 who was the oldest living former Bear died of heart failure at age 92.
Mike Payne - Former Atlanta Braves pitcher in 1984 who contracted Eastern equine encephalitis probably from a mosquito bite, succumbed to the illness at age 40.
Darrell Porter - Major league catcher for 16 years with the Brewers, Royals, Cardinals and Rangers who played in 3 world series but was troubled by drug and alcohol abuse (and love of good accent - inside joke) which he overcame and chronicled in the book "Snap Me Perfect! The Darrell Porter Story" was found dead next to his car in a park of a drug overdose at age 50.

Art and Literature
Meredith Baylis - Ballet dancer and teacher known for her years as a dancer with Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo and years as a teacher with the Joffrey Ballet School died after heart surgery at age 72.
Edward Brodney - Painter best known for his Army-commissioned paintings of soldiers at work and play during World War II, died of bladder cancer at age 92.
Francisco Coloane - Chilean author known for his sea-faring adventure novels who was relatively unknown outside of Chili until recently being discovered by the French (his novels are now French best-sellers), died at age 92.
Joe Delaney - Popular entertainment columnist for the Las Vegas Sun for the last 35 years who was a fixture on local radio and TV shows died after a stroke at age 80.
Thomas Harding - Photographer who developed the "pinhole" technique with cameras made from beer cans, and known for his book of pictures of outhouses across the country (not a good month for wierd photographers) died at age 91.
Robert Lenkiewicz - Prolific British painter who among his hundreds of paintings include 70 of people near death, including one of himself on his deathbed, died of a heart ailment at age 60.
Franco Lucentini - Italian author of mystery novels and avant-garde works such as "La Donna della Domenica" died after committing suicide by flinging himself down a flight of stairs (he suffered terminal cancer) at age 81.
Duncan Noble - A highly regarded ballet teacher at the North Carolina School of the Arts, and performer with Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo died at age 80.
Freidann Parker - Founder of the Colorado Ballet and considered one of the 20th centuries greatest ballet pioneers died of complications related to an E. coli bacteria at age 77.
Sandy Thompson - Las Vegas Sun opinion columnist who wrote award-winning columns on family rights, died in a car accident at age 54.
Fumio Yoshimura - Sculptor known for intricate wood carvings of everyday objects, and marriage to feminist Kate Millett, died of pancreatic cancer at age 76.

Politics and Military
Ralph Bhola - Former acting prime minister of Grenada and prominent figure in that country's development died at age 80.
William Crawford - Former U.S. ambassador to both Yemen and Cyprus died of cancer at age 74.
Tran Do - Decorated North Vietnamese war veteran and Communist Party leader who was expelled from the Communist Party in 1999 for advocating that the party give up it's monopoly on power, died of acute diabetes at age 78.
Celia Alta Haskins Faubus - Former first lady of Arkansas while married to notorious Arkansas governor Orval Faubus who tried to keep Little Rock schools from integrating during the "Little Rock Nine" incident in 1957 (she divorced him in 1969), died at age 89.
Woodrow Wilson Mann - Mayor of Little Rock during the "Little Rock Nine" desegregation crisis in 1957 who asked President Eisenhower for federal assistance in getting Central High School desegregated despite the backlash from the majority of Arkansans at that time, died from complications of a stroke at age 85.
Vu Ngoc Nha - An advisor to South Vietnam presidents Ngo Dinh Diem and Nguyen Van Thieu who was unmasked as a North Vietnam spy by U.S. intelligence, and who was later promoted to major general in the Communist party, died after a long illness at age 74.
Ken Pattisson - British pilot is is believed to have dropped the torpedos that sank the infamous German battleship the Bismarck during WW2 died at age 85.
Charles Poletti - Italian American who served a month as governor of New York in 1942 governor Herbert H. Lehman resigned, but is best known for his work with Secretary of War Henry Stimson in the reconstruction of Italy after World War 2, died at age 99.
Jean Sauvagnargues - Foreign minister in France who was instrumental in developing the close ties with Germany that proved to be the motor behind the European Union (and his name ends in "argues"!) died at age 87.
Dick Schafer - World War 2 pilot who earned the Distinguished Flying Cross with 10 oak-leaf clusters for his flying missions in Europe, died after a series of strokes at age 82.
Leslie Slote - Press secretary to New York mayor Robert Wagner and later NY governor Nelson Rockefeller died of liver cancer at age 78.

Social and Religion
Leonard Atole - Former president of the Jicarilla Apache Nation in New Mexico died of undisclosed causes at age 60.
George Bushnell - Outspoken Detroit-area attorney known as the "liberal curmudgeon" for championing the cause of the underdog, and who was former president of the ABA died at age 77.
Jessie Hurley - Austrailia's oldest person and the world's 11th oldest who first got married in 1908(!) died at the age of 112 (of old age we assume).
Richard Kutzner - Texas man convicted of robbing and brutally murdering two women in 1996 for about $440 in cash, a computer keyboard and a VCR was executed at age 59.
Bruce Johnston Sr. - The ringleader of a Chester County PA burglary ring who was convicted of murdering six of his cohorts including his stepson (and attempted murder of his own son), and whose story was told int he movie "At Close Range" (portrayed by Christopher Walken) died of liver disease at age 63.
T.J. Jones - Texas man who at age 17 shot and killed 75-year old Willard Davis in a carjacking after he had surrendered his car, was executed in Texas at age 24.
Thomas McGehee - Florida man who was the owner of Mac Papers and started the "Dreams Come True" foundation, which brings to reality the wishes of dying children, died at age 78.
Junius Scales - The only person ever arrested just for being a Communist in the U.S. who was convicted after a 6 year court battle in 1961 but whose sentence was commuted by John Kennedy, died after a stroke at age 82.
Lavon Taylor - Detroit youth who drowned after jumping in the water at a lake and helping a 12-year old boy who was struggling in the water back to safety, was 17.
The chickens of Tyson - 55,000 chickens were "murdered" when someone maliciously turned off the ventilator causing them to suffocate (there had been many angry complaints about the smell from Tyson from the community - "smothered" chicken, anyone?).
Destiny Wright - Philadelphia girl was abducted, raped and killed by the brother of her father's girlfriend. She was 6.

Business and Science
Conseco - Insurance and banking conglomerate whose meteoric collapse during a time when it's CEO's were taking 9 digit salaries (9 digit!) files chapter 11 bankruptcy, defaulting on 4 billion dollars in debt and stranding 14,000 employees.
Edsger Dijkstra - One of the great computer programming pioneers of the post-WW2 generation known for his computer science theory in books like "A Discipline of Programming" died of cancer at age 72.
Dr. John T. Edsall - Harvard biochemist whose research on proteins in the 1940's revolutionized our understanding of protein molecules and amino acids died at age 99.
Isador Faber - Second president of Faberware, the cookware company founded by his father, who quit the business in 1970 to care for his ill wife, died at the age of 96.
Donald Furr - Retired chairman CEO of Furr's Cafeteria from 1959 to 1985 which grew into the nation's second largest cafeteria chain in that period died at age 74.
Dr. Count D. Gibson - Civil rights leader and founder of Columbia Point Health Center in Boston (now Gieger-Gibson Health Center) considered the first community health center for low-income families died after a stroke at age 81.
Bernhard Kohn - Former president of Kohn Brothers Tobacco (currently Culbro Corporation) died of cancer (what else) at age 81.
Paul F. Lorenz - Ford Motors executive and Ford of Europe president who was called "the father of the Cougar" for pushing through it's development as competition to the Mustang, died of dementia (yikes - good time to use "undisclosed causes") at age 85.
Raymond Malone - IBM engineer who helped write the computer programs for the Apollo Spacecraft program that put astronauts on the moon, and whose picture was buried on the moon in tribute on one one of the missions, died at age 76.
William March - Founder of March Funeral Homes, one of the largest black-owned funeral homes in the country, and who helped found Harbor Bank of Maryland, died of Parkinson's disease at age 79.
Archer Martin - Nobel prize winner in 1952 in chemistry with Richard Synge for the development of partition chromatography, a technique for separating solutions into their component parts, died at the age of 92.
Justin Meyer - Co-founder of Northern California's Silver Oak Cellars known for their cabernet wine, died of a heart attack at age 63.
Helen Matthew Robinson - Owner of the Ni'ihau Island in Hawaii (7th largest and the last all-Hawaiian community where the 200 or so residents only speak the Hawaiian language, and there is no electricity, indoor plumbing or paved roads), who rejected millions of dollars for the island from corporate interests, died at age 91.
Edgar Stueve - Co-founder of the Alta Dena dairy in Southern California, along with his brother Harold, which at one time was the largest dairy in the world, died of ALS at age 86.