Sports
Matt Bartosek - ATV racer and competitor who was the 1999 national champion for 90 CC modified ATV’s, was killed on Jan. 3 during the ATV Winter Olympics in Gainesville, FL when his ATV flipped and landed on top of him crushing his chest. He was 19.
Vic Bottari - College football star halfback at California who was the MVP of the 1938 Rose Bowl (the last Rose Bowl ever won by Cal), and who had only one loss in his entire four year college career, died Jan. 6 of natural causes in Walnut Creek, CA at age 86.
Basil Hayden - Basketball player at the University of Kentucky in the 1920’s leading the team to the 1921 SEC conference championship, who was UK’s first All-American player, and who coached the team for one season in 1926, died on Jan. 9 in Paris, KY at age 103.
Donald Jones - Executive for the American Power Boat Association and director of Seattle’s Seafair festival, who is credited with vastly improving the safety and corporate sponsorship of hydroplane racing, died Jan. 7 of cancer in Seattle at age 73.
Eugene Litman - Pittsburgh real estate developer who was part owner of the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team, died Jan 6 of respiratory failure in McKeesport, PA at age 87.
Will McDonough - Emmy-winning football commentator and and one of America’s foremost sportswriters as columnist for The Boston Globe, who had covered every Super Bowl since the championship game began nearly four decades ago, died of a heart attack at his home (reportedly while watching SportsCenter) in Hingham, MA at the age of 67.
Durwood Merrill - American League umpire from 1976 until 1999, who umpired several AL championship series and three All Star Games, died on Jan. 11 in Texarkana, TX from complications of a heart attack on Jan. 4. He was 64.
Bud Metheny - Outfielder for the Yankees from 1943 to 1946, with a career average of .247, and who appeared in the World Series for the 1943 champion Yankees, died Jan. 2 at age 87.
Joe Ostrowkski - Major league pitcher for the Browns and Yankees who went 23-25 in five years in the big leagues, including pitching in the 1951 World Series for the champion Yankees, died Jan. 3 at age 86.
Per Petterson - Swedish yachtsman who won three European match championships and was the son of Pelle Petterson, the first Swede to launch an America’s Cup challenger, was struck by dyspnoea (?) while playing floorball (?) and died on Jan. 6. He was 38.
Joe Ruetz - Star football player at Notre Dame who went on to play 2 seasons in the AAFC and who became athletic director at Stanford in 1972 until 1978 and who is credited with giving football Hall of Famer Bill Walsh his first coaching job, died Jan. 2 in Stanford, CA at age 86.
Mario “Motts” Tonelli - Star running back at Notre Dame and later fullback in the NFL for the Cardinals, who played his rookie season in 1940, was drafted in 1941, was captured by the Japanese in WW2 and survived the infamous “Bataan Death March”, returning from the war at 90 lbs (from 215 before the war), but amazingly returned to the playing field for the Cardinals in 1945, died on Jan. 7 in Chicago of a parasite infection contracted over 60 years ago during his WW2 ordeal. He was 86 years old.

Art and Literature
Jim Church - Underwater photographer and writer for diving and travel magazines, including every issue of Skin Diver Magazine since 1966, and author of the instructional books "Beginning Underwater Photography" and "Jim Church's Essential Guide to Underwater Photo Composition", died on Dec. 31 in Miami Lakes, FL after a brief illness at age 70.
John Cole - Author of more than a dozen books that capture life in the backwoods and waters of Maine including "Striper" and "Breaking New Ground,", and who was an author and co-founder of the Maine Times newspaper, died Jan. 8 of cancer in Brunswick, ME at age 79.
Robert F. Jones - Novelist and outdoors writer for magazines like “Outdoor Life”, who is best known for writing the 1974 cult classic novel “Blood Sport”, died Dec. 18 of natural causes in Bennington, VT at age 68.
Kostas Kazazis - Noted linguist and author who specialized in illuminating the variation within individual languages, and who wrote a famous article titled “Sunday Greek”, which showed that everyday Greek speech includes a wide spectrum of forms, from learned to colloquial, even though the speaker may not realize it, died Dec. 23 at the age of 68.
Jean Kerr - Humorist who had a gift for finding humor in the common anxieties of suburbia and married life and wrote best-selling books like “Please Don’t Eat The Daisies” and long-running plays like “Mary, Mary”, died on Jan. 5 in White Plains, NY of pneumonia at age 80.
Prince of Wales (aka Midpul) - Australian aboriginal painter known for his “Body Marks” paintings, which are exhibited in most major Australian galleries, died Dec. 27 in Darwin, Northern Territory at age of about 60.
B.C. Sanyal - The ‘Grand Old Man of Indian Art’, who was considered on of the most important Indian artists of the 20th century and was looked upon in India as a guru, and who was who known worldwide for his water colors and well known paintings like “The Flying Scarecrow”, “Cow herd” and “Despair”, died Jan. 9 in New Dehli of age-related problems at age 102.
Peter Tinniswood - Respected British novelist and playwright, best known for bringing many memorable characters to radio and TV in England, most notably his novels “Tales From A Long Room” and “More Tales From A Long Room” which were produced on television, radio and the stage, died Jan. 9 after a long battle with cancer in London at age 66.
Sabine Ulibarri - Writer, poet and pioneer in the field of bilingual books who published books printed in both Spanish & English including “Tierra Amarilla: Cuentos de Nuevo Mexico”, died Jan. 4 in Albuquerque, NM of cancer at age 83.
Suzee Vlk - Test preparation specialist who authored a series of “Dummies” books on test-taking such as “The SAT for Dummies” and “The GRE for Dummies”, and had just finished “SAT Vocabulary for Dummies” to be published in March 2003, was killed on Jan. 6 in Linda Vista, CA when a tree fell on her as she was walking her dog. She was 49.
Hiram Williams - Florida-based artist whose paintings and drawings are part of collections in major museums like New York's Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Guggenheim, died on Jan 5 in Gainesville, FL at age 85.
Monique Wittig - French-born author who was critically-acclaimed for both her novels like “The Lesbian Body” and writings on women’s issues and gender like “The Straight Mind”, died Jan. 3 of a heart attack in Tuscon, AZ at age 67.
Lila Zali - Famed ballet teacher who was the founder of Ballet Pacifica, which gave about 70 performances a year throughout Southern California, and who continued teaching daily ballet classes until Jan. 7, died Jan. 10 of natural causes in Laguna Beach, CA at age 84.

Politics and Military
Gabriel A. Almond - Political scientist and expert on political culture who was a prolific writer of books of political analysis, died Dec. 25 of heart disease in Palo Alto, CA at age 91.
Andrew Batavia - Quadriplegic Florida lawyer who helped write the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act and crusaded for legalizing doctor-assisted suicide, who worked as a special assistant to Attorney General Richard Thornburgh in the Bush administration and later served as an assistant for Arizona Senator John McCain, died Jan. 6 of complications from a chronic urinary tract infection in Miami at age 45.
Henry Botterell - Fighter pilot for the Canadian Royal Navy during World War I who was believed to be the last one surviving, died on Jan. 3 in Toronto at age 106.
C. Douglas Dillon - Secretary of the Treasury in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, who was a key devisor of U.S.’s economic policy in the 1960’s, and who was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1989, died Jan. 10 of an infection in New York at age 93.
David R. Heebner - Much-honored electrical and systems engineer who was deputy director of defense research and engineering at the Defense Department from 1968 to 1975 and served as chairman of the Naval Research Advisory Committee, died of cancer on Jan. 3 in McLean, VA at age 75.
Lord Roy Jenkins - British politician who was one of the "Gang of Four" politicians who split from the Labor Party to form the Social Democrats in 1981 whose goal it was to liberalize England’s laws, died suddenly on Jan. 5 at his home in Oxfordshire at age 82.
Lila Mayoral - First lady of Puerto Rico when her husband Rafael Hernandez Colon was governor in 3 non-consecutive terms (1972-1976, 1980-1984 and 1988-1992), who led fund-raising efforts to help islanders devastated by Hurricane Hugo in 1989, died on Jan. 7 of colon cancer in Ponce, PR at age 60.
Michael Novak - Michigan state representative who served from 1942 to 1985 who compiled a 98 percent attendance record in the Michigan legislature, died Jan. 2 of pneumonia in Waterford, MI at age 85. .
Joseph Remcho - Attorney for the Democratic Party who was a fixture in California Democratic politics and a 1st Amendment and elections law expert, who had been mentioned as a potential appointee to the California Supreme Court, was killed in a helicopter crash on Jan 3 near the San Joaquin River Delta. He was 58.
William E. Stevens - Air Force brigadier general who served as an air attaché in Africa and as assistant deputy undersecretary of the Air Force, died on Jan. 6 of colon cancer in Fairfax County, VA at age 54.
Thomas Watson - Two-term state Senator from Carroll County, MS, died Jan. 9 of heart failure in Grenada, MS at age 93.

Social and Religion
Lizzie Brown - Fayetteville, GA woman whose father fought in the Civil War and who was the oldest person in Georgia with proof of age, died Jan. 3 at the age of 111.
Elaine C. Cowell - Mohrsville, PA woman who was returning from a ski trip with her husband and three children on Jan. 3, and was killed when someone threw a 20 lb. chunk of ice off an overpass crashing thru the windshield of the Cowell’s car. She was 33 years old.
Dante “Tex” Gill (real name Lois Gill) - Pittsburgh “madam” who ran a string of parlors that were fronts for prostitution, who insisted that she was a man and told everyone to call her “Mr. Gill”, and who was able to sidestep the law for years but did serve time for tax evasion, died Jan. 9 of kidney failure in McKeesport, PA at age 72.
Douglas Herrick - Wyoming taxiderminst who is credited with creating the famed jackalope, by screwing horns from an antelope into a mounted jack rabbit, and the legend took off from there, died on Jan. 3 at age 82.
Bob Holstein - Liberal activist and former Jesuit priest who was in the news 1995 when he was jailed for leading a protest at the School of Americas training center at Ft. Benning labeling the school the “School of Assassins” and re-enacting the 1989 murders of 6 Jesuit priests and 2 women in El Salvador, died Dec. 31 in Riverside, CA at age 61.
Yayori Matsui - Feminist who campaigned for the rights of Asian women, founded Violence Against Women in War in Japan and authored “Women in New Asia: From Pain to Power”, died Dec. 27 of liver cancer in Tokyo at age 68.
Steven Pattah - High school student who in 1994 got into a fistfight with another student Desmon Ven and was knocked to the ground striking his head during the fight, leaving him comatose for the last 9 years, died of complications of those injuries on Jan. 8 in Pontiac, MI at age 25. Murder charges have now been filed agains Ven.
Rusty - Beloved orangutan at the San Francisco Zoo, known for blowing kisses to zoo keepers and visitors, died of organ failure on Jan. 8 at age 35.
Albert Schussler - Elderly New York man accused last year of masterminding the largest tax scam in the city’s history (he bribed tax assessors to lower property values for clients over a 35 year period), and who was set to go on trial on Jan. 27, died Jan. 6 of a stroke at age 86.
Mamie Till-Mobley - Civil-rights figure who was the mother of 14-year-old Mississippi lynching victim Emmett Till in 1955 (beaten to death for supposedly whistling at a white woman), who allowed his mutilated body to be viewed and photographed, outraging many Americans at this act of violence and signaling the end of the “Jim Crow” south, and who went on to become a champion for children in poor neighborhoods, died on Jan. 6 in Chicago of kidney failure and cardiac arrest at age 81.
Sulayman Zainulabidin - Muslim chef in the news last year who had been arrested in London in Oct. 2001 for sponsoring “The Ultimate Jihad Challenge” on a website that purportedly was set up to train terrorists, but who was acquitted after spending 10 months in prison (he claimed the website was a joke and was about to remove it after the events of 9/11), and who was homeless after his release, died on Dec. 22 of a septic knee after knee surgery in London at age 44.

Business and Science
William G. Bennett - Multimillionaire Las Vegas developer and casino owner who turned around the failing Circus Circus and Sahara casinos, and was the visionary who began expanding the strip southward by building Excalibur and Luxor casinos, died on Dec. 22 in Las Vegas after a long illness at age 78.
Dr. George Van Brunt Cochran - Mountaineer and explorer who was president of the Explorers Club from 1981 to 1985 who was known for leading expeditions to unmapped mountains in the Canadian Arctic territories, died Jan. 6 of Parkinson’s disease in Ossining, NY at age 70.
F. William Free - Advertising executive who created the controversial “I’m Cheryl – Fly Me” National Airlines ads in 1971, which were denounced by feminist groups like NOW who created their own slogan “I’m Bill – Fire Me” (referring to Mr. Free), died Jan. 1 of lung cancer in Poughkeepsie, NY at age 74.
Dr. Paul F.J. New - Noted neuroradiologist who helped advance the use of computer-aided tomography (CAT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) as diagnostic tools, and who wrote the standard neuroradiology textbook ''Computed Tomography of the Brain and Orbit'', died on Dec. 31 in Marblehead, MA at age 80.
Harry Woolf - Historian of science and former director for the Institute for Advanced Study, who was known as a master fund-raiser, died Jan 6 in Princeton, NJ of Parkinson’s disease at age 79.
Thomas Wyman - Former chairman and CEO of CBS from 1983 to 1986 who was in the news in Dec. 2002 when he resigned his membership from the Augusta National Golf Club because of its exclusion of women members, died Jan. 8 in Boston of complications of surgery for an abdominal infection at age 73.
Steve Young - National president of the Fraternal Order of Police who was a 26-year member of the organization and had been elected president in 2001, died of cancer on Jan. 9 in Columbus, OH at age 49.