Sports
Don ‘Ox’ Anderson - Professional wrestler who was active from the 1950’s to the 1980’s who was often associated with The Destroyer, died Jan. 18 of heart failure in Salt Lake City at age 71.
Valery Brumel - Russian high jumper who held the Soviet record from 1961 to 1971 for highest jump, his highest mark being 7 ft. 5 ¾ inches in 1963, died on Jan. 26 after a long illness in Moscow at age 60.
Nick Garen - NHL trainer for the Chicago Blackhawks, New York Islanders and New York rangers in a career spanning nearly 40 years, died Jan. 10 of a stroke in Middletown, NY at age 82.
Forest “Woody” Hunt - Tennis player who was a finalist for the USTA’s junior national championships in 1985, and who played for the U.S. in the Davis Cup in 1991 but never achieved a rank about 250 as a pro, committed suicide on Dec. 21 in California at age 36.
Johnny Mauro - A 1948 Indianapolis 500 racer who finished 8th in that race, and who sometimes raced under the name “Jack Morris” (so his parents wouldn’t know that he was racing), and who later founded the U.S. Truck Driving School in Colorado, was killed in a car accident on Jan. 23 west of Denver at age 92.
David Sandberg - Former standout wrestler at the University of Pittsburgh and nephew of major league baseball player Ryne Sandberg, who was in his first year as graduate assistant wrestling coach at Pitt, died Jan. 29 of meningococcemia (a bacterial infection that poisons the blood and often overwhelms the body in a matter of hours) in Pittsburgh at age 23.
Steve Stroud - Center on the 1977 Arkansas basketball team that went undefeated in the Southwest Conference winning the championship, died on Jan. 27 of pancreatic cancer at age 48.
Tom Swayze - Baseball coaching legend at the University of Mississippi who played minor-league baseball and then coached baseball at the school from 1951 to 1971, leading the Rebels to 3 College World Series in 1956, 1964 and 1969 and for whom the baseball stadium at the school is named, died Jan. 31 in Oxford, MS at age 93.

Arts and Literature
Louis Archambault - One of Canada’s most influential sculptors who is credited with modernizing Canadian sculpture and “bringing it out of churches into contemporary art”, died Jan. 27 on Montreal at age 87.
Natalia Dudinskaya - Renowned Russian ballerina who began her career at the Marjinsky Theatre in acclaimed roles like Odette in “Swan Lake” and Princess Aurora in “The Sleeping Beauty”, and who went on to be one of the country’s greatest teachers, died Jan. 29 in St. Petersburg, Russia at age 90.
Leslie Fiedler - Author and literary critic known for his provocative works like 1960’s “Love and Death in the American Novel” which analyzed the work of Mark Twain, Ernest Hemingway and other writers, and who contended that American literature was defined by alienation, the exclusion of women and homoerotic feelings between men, died Jan. 29 of Parkinson's disease and prostate cancer in Buffalo, NY at age 85.
Larry “Fats” Goldberg - Restaurant owner and author who founded the Goldberg Pizzerias in New York and later in Kansas City, and who wrote several books on cooking and dieting including "Goldberg's Pizza Book" and "Controlled Cheating: The Fats Goldberg Take It Off, Keep It Off Diet Program", died on Jan. 26 of Alzheimer’s disease in Kansas City at age 69.
Alfred Kantor - Jewish artist who chronicled daily life in several concentration camps with sketches and watercolors, many of which were done while he was a prisoner, and whose work was published in 1971’s “The Book of Alfred Kantor”, died Jan. 16 of Parkinson’s disease in Yarmouth, ME at age 79.
Zeljko Kujundzic - Sculptor who worked in clay, metal and stone, who established the art school at the University of British Columbia and whose works are on display all over the world including the Smithsonian, died Jan. 23 in Osoyoos, BC at age 82.
Audrey Laski - British novelist who had a string of best-selling books in the 1960's and 70’s like “Venus In Transit”, “Night Music” and “The Keeper”, died Jan 18 of lung cancer at age 71.
Sally Michel - Artist, illustrator and widow of the painter Milton Avery, whose work is in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Corcoran Gallery of Art, among others, died Jan. 9 in Manhattan at age 100.
Wendy Owen - British novelist and wife of publisher Peter Owen, who wrote eclectic and often off-beat novels like “Whatever Happened to Ruby?”, “The Cat Lover” and “Sesame”, died Dec. 29 at age 72.
Annemarie Schimmel - One of the world’s foremost scholars of Islamic culture who published more than 50 books on Islamic literature, mysticism and language including “Deciphering the Signs of God: A Phenomenological Approach to Islam”, died Jan. 25 in Cologne, Germany at age 80.
Hugh Trevor-Roper - British historian and expert on Adolph Hitler and wrote the highly-acclaimed “The Last Days of Hitler” which concluded that Hitler's life came to an end in an underground Berlin bunker, died of cancer on Jan. 26 in Oxford at age 89.

Politics and Military
Donald Hall - Pioneer in weapons systems analysis who designed mechanisms and directors for antiaircraft weapons during WW2 and whose work led to the development of the M-16 rifle, died Jan. 20 in Tustin, CA at age 86.
Edward Korry - U.S. ambassador to Chili from 1967 to 1971, who found himself in the middle of a Congressional investigation after Chilean president Salvatore Allende was killed in a military coupe, and who was accused of playing a role in planning Allende's ouster, died Jan. 29 of cancer in Charlotte, NC at age 81.
Jerry Kratz - Michigan state representative who was just elected to office in November 2002, and who had previously been a school superintendent before running for office, died Jan. 28 in Lansing of a heart attack while exercising on a treadmill at age 69.
Josephine Lin - New York Chinese-community activist and GOP fundraiser known as the “grandmother of the Asian Republican Party movement”, who helped bankroll campaigns for New York Republican politicians George Pataki, Alfonse D’Amato and Rudy Giuliani, was found brutally murdered on Jan. 28 along with her husband Shan Lin, 70, in their Brooklyn apartment. She was 65 years old.
Maury Maverick - Texas state legislator, attorney and civil-rights advocate who served in the Texas House of Representatives from 1950 to 1956, and later as a civil rights attorney represented clients like atheist Madalyn Murray O’Hair and communists, died Jan. 28 in San Antonio at age 82.
Frank "Ted" Moss - Democratic U.S. Senator from Utah who served from 1958 until losing to Orrin Hatch in 1976, who was an outspoken opponent of the Vietnam War and championed conservation including the establishing of national parks, died Jan. 29 of natural causes in Salt Lake City at age 91.
N.T. Naicker - Attorney and leader of an East Indian group that helped end apartheid in South Africa, who signed the original “Freedom Charter” in the 1950’s, and who represented Nelson Mandela in the 1957 treason trial (he too was later indicted), died Jan. 19 in Sacramento, CA at age 80.
Jaromir Obzina - Communist Interior Minister of Czechoslovakia under Vaclav Havel from 1973 to 1989 who was charged for abuse of power in 2001 for his role in an operation to crush political dissention in the 70’s and 80’s, died Jan. 24 of Cancer in Prague at age 73.
Capt. Arthur Schultz - Navy captain who is credited with dropping the bomb that sank the Japanese aircraft carrier the Shoho during the Battle of the Coral Sea during WW2, and who was awarded the Navy Cross for bravery, died Jan. 23 after heart surgery in Sarasota, FL at age 84.
Andrew Small - Wisconsin man who was likely the U.S.’s oldest WW1 veteran (last week’s obit for 109-year-old Jesse Edmisten was incorrect), who also chased Pancho Villa around Mexico with the U.S. Army before serving in WW1, died in Weston, WI on Jan. 31 at age 111.
David R. Wendell - Assistant to President Gerald Ford who served as the liaison to the news media on domestic and international trips, and who also served as press secretary to vice-president nominee Bob Dole during the 1976 elections, died on Jan. 22 of brain cancer in Essex, MA at age 49.
Lyle Zieman - Iowa state senator who served two terms as a Republican from 1992 to 2000, died Jan. 25 from an aneurysm in Postville at age 81.

Social and Religion
Jane Bautista - Santa Ana, California woman who on Jan. 14 was strangled and dismembered by her 15 and 20-year-old sons who said they were duplicating a murder they saw on “The Sopranos” (her torso thrown into a ravine, and her head and limbs were found in the apartment where she lived with her sons). She was 41 years old.
Alva Curry - One-time gang member and drug dealer who was convicted of the 1991 shooting death of 20-year-old convenience store clerk David Vella after Vella had fully cooperated with Curry and his accomplice, and who killed another store clerk in a separate robbery a week later, netting at total of $271 in the two robberies, was executed by lethal injection on Jan. 28 in Huntsville at age 33.
Richard Dinkins - Texas man convicted of shooting and killing two nurses at a massage therapy clinic in 1990 after he became involved in a dispute over a bounced check with the owner of the clinic, was executed by lethal injection on Jan. 29 in Huntsville at age 40.
Jeffrey K. Hadden - Authority on trends in religion and the Christian Right who published 25 books including 1969’s “The Gathering Storm in Churches”, and who was a longtime professor at the University of Virginia, died Jan. 26 of pancreatic cancer in Charlottesville, VA at age 66.
Ito Kinase - The sixth oldest documented person in the United States and eleventh oldest in the world, died Jan. 24 in Kaneohe, HI at age 113.
Hazel Luther - The world’s ninth-oldest person and the fifth-oldest American, who attended Julliard and was a classical music performer and teacher before retiring in the 1950’s, died Jan. 31 of a cold in Daytona Beach, FL at age 113.
Granville Riddle - Texas man convicted of breaking into the home of an acquaintance Ronnie Bennett in 1988, beating him to death with a tire iron (hit in the head 15 times), and stealing his wallet and truck, was executed by lethal injection on Jan. 30 in Huntsville at age 32.
Kathryn Sneider - Palatine, Illinois woman who became the second mother in a week to be decapitated by their child when on Jan. 29 police found her head on the front porch of the house she shared with her 26-year-old son Karl Sneider, who has been charged with her murder. She was 49 years old.
Father John Tolkien - Oldest son of “Lord of the Rings” author JRR Tolkien and heir to the family estate, who spent 50 years as a Catholic priest in England, but who had been under police investigations over allegations of sex abuse of young boys over many years, died Jan. 25 in Birmingham, England at age 85.
Evelyn "Bobbi" Trout - Record-setting pioneer woman aviator and the last surviving participant in the first women's transcontinental air race in 1929, who was a charter member of the Ninety-Nines women’s flying organization, died Jan. 24 of a heart attack in LaJolla, CA at age 97.

Business and Science
Columbia shuttle astronauts - Seven astronauts who were aboard NASA’s shuttle Columbia (21-year-old space shuttle with 27 previous successful missions), who were returning to earth after a 16-day scientific mission, were killed when the shuttle broke up over Texas as it was approaching a landing at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Killed were commander Rick Husband, 45; pilot William McCool, 41; payload commander Michael Anderson, 43; astronaut Kalpana Chawla, 41; Navy captain David Brown, 46; Navy medical officer Laurel Clark, 41; and Israeli air force colonel Ilan Ramon, 48.
Grace DuMond - Owner and co-founder of the Monkey Jungle, an attraction in the Miami area opened in the 1930’s duplicating a jungle environment where visitors can traipse through cage-like walkways for a glimpse of monkeys and apes in a natural environment, died Jan. 24 of congestive heart failure in Miami at age 95.
Allan Fromme - Clinical psychologist who authored 8 books on relationships and child care including “The Ability to Love”, “The ABC’s of Child Care” and “Understanding the Sexual Response in Humans”, died Jan. 30 in Sarasota, FL at age 87.
Harold B. Gerard - Social psychologist who studied such issues as school desegregation and was a pioneer in experimental social psychology, who found that expected dramatic improvements in minority student school performance did not materialize after desegregation, died Jan. 16 of kidney failure in Los Angeles at age 79.
Dr. L. James Grold - Los Angeles area psychiatrist known for testifying in high-profile court cases who was often sought after by the media for comments on traumatic events that affected the community, and who founded the Mental Health Referral Service of Southern California, died Jan. 24 of cancer in Los Angeles at age 70.
Dan J. Hesser - CEO of Invesco Funds Group retiring in 1998 who oversaw a rise of company assets from $2 billion to $17 billion during his tenure, died Jan. 26 in Denver from injuries suffered in a horseback riding accident at the age of 63.
Marcel Jovine - Toy designer best known for rubberized plastic dolls including Visible Man and Visible Woman (had removable plastic organs and came with or without genitalia), who went on to become an award-winning coin designer including the $5 gold piece marking the bicentennial of the Constitution in 1987, died Jan. 20 in Cloister, NJ at age 81.
Daniel Kivelson - Chemist and professor at UCLA who spent 50 years studying the way molecules move in liquids, and who wrote or co-wrote several books including "A Brief Introduction to Supercooled Liquids" and "Introduction to Turkoman Weaving" (I swear I didn’t make that up), died Jan. 22 of cancer in Los Angeles at age 73.
Richard “Skip” LeFauve - President of Saturn Corp., the division of GM that makes Saturn automobiles, who was president from company inception in 1986 until he retired in 1999, and who was responsible for creating the customer-friendly company image, died Jan. 26 in West Palm Beach, FL of complications from a heart attack at age 68.
Joseph W. Lippincott - The last president and chairman of the family publishing company J.B. Lippincott Company before it was acquired by Harper & Row in 1978, who for years published schoolbooks and medical specialty publications along with books for general readers, died Jan. 25 in Bryn Mawr, PA at age 88.
Ray Schulenberg - An expert in prairie restoration and a pioneer in science-based land restoration who was the curator at Morton Arboretum in Illinois, died Jan. 12 of heart failure in Joliet, IL at age 81.
Hisashi Shinto - The first president of Japanese telecommunications giant Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. from 1985 until he was forced to resign over a bribery scandal in 1988, which also implicated two prime ministers and more than a dozen other senior politicians, government officials and corporate executives, died Jan. 26 of pneumonia in Tokyo at age 92.
Edward C. Stone - Professor of forestry at UC-Berkeley and leader in the field of forest ecology, whose research led to major changes in nursery practices, died Jan. 11 in Walnut Creek, CA at age 85.
Dr. Alexander Thomas - Child psychiatrist who in the 1950’s, with his wife Dr. Stella Chess, undertook the research project known as the New York Longitudinal Study, which followed the emotional and social development of 133 children for 30 years and established among other things that over the years parents and children tend to become more like one another, died Jan. 29 in Manhattan at age 89.
John Philp Thompson - President and CEO of the Southland Corp. from 1961 to 1996, owners of the nationwide 7-Eleven chain of convenience stores, who expanded the Texas family-owned business into a nationwide chain, died Jan. 28 of brain cancer in Dallas at age 77 (www.thejohnphilpthompsonfoundation.org ).
Francesco Trussardi - Chairman of Italy’s popular Trussardi SpA fashion house and the son of its founder, Nicola Trussardi who was killed in a car accident in 1996, was killed in a car accident on Jan. 26 outside Bergamo, Italy at age 29.
Ruth L. Swanson Venn - President of the Archway Cookie Company from 1954 until she retired in 1988, who started the company in 1936 with her late husband Harold Swanson, died Jan. 27 in Battle Creek, MI at age 93.
Maurice "Moose" Warnock - President and CEO of Armstrong World Industries (make Armstrong floors and ceilings) from 1962 until 1976 who started as a salesman at the company in 1926, died Jan. 25 in Delray Beach, FL at age 100.