Sports
Alta “Schoolboy” Cohen - Baseball player who appeared in 29 games as an outfielder for the Brooklyn Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies in 1931 and 1932, who is one of only a handful of Jewish baseball players in the games’ history, died March 11 in Maplewood, NJ at age 94.
Al Gionfriddo - Major league outfielder who played three seasons for the Pirates and Dodgers, who is best known for robbing Joe DiMaggio of a tying home run in the 1947 World Series, collapsed and died while playing golf on March 14 in Solvang, CA at age 81.
Andrei Kivilev - Top international cyclist from Kazakhstan who finished fourth in the 2001 Tour de France, died on March 12 after fracturing his skull in a fall during the Paris-Nice race (he had taken off his helmet at the start of a climb to keep cool) near Saint Etienne, France. He was 29 years old.
Marvin Lee - Trinidad soccer player and team captain who suffered a neck injury in a collision with U.S. player Landon Donovan during the 2001 World Cup qualifier against the United States, who was confined to a wheelchair, and whose medical bills had been paid for by FIFA, soccer’s governing body, died March 9 after he stopped breathing at his home in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad at age 21.
Harry “The Kid” Matthews - Boxer who compiled an 87-7-7 record from 1937 to 1956 in the middleweight, light heavyweight and heavyweight divisions, but whose career took a downturn after a second round knockout loss to Rocky Marciano in front of 20,000 fans in New York in 1952, died Feb. 21 in Seattle at age 80.
Carol Newsom - Well-known tennis photographer who captured many of the most important tennis matches in the last 30 years thru her pictures, and who became the official photographer of the woman’s tennis tour in the 1970’s, died March 13 of breast cancer in Framingham, MA at age 56.
Ludek Pachman - International chess grandmaster, who was a seven-time Czech chess master but later emigrated to Germany, and who was the author of dozens of chess textbooks including “Modern Chess Strategy” and “Decisive Games in Chess History”, died March 6 in Passau, Germany at age 78.
Barry Sheene - Two-time world champion motorcycle racer, and the best-known British motorcycle racer of all time who was a sex symbol in England during the 1970s as a pinup and pitchman for Brut after-shave, who was the catalyst for the surge in popularity of motorcycle racing in England during that time, died March 10 of throat and stomach cancer in Gold Coast, Australia at age 52.
Naftali Temu - Olympic runner from Kenya who won the gold medal in the 10,000 meter competition in the 1968 games, becoming the first Kenyan to win Olympic gold, died March 10 in Nairobi of kidney failure. He was believed to be in his mid-50’s.
Dick Whitman - Major league baseball player who was a reserve outfielder in six seasons in the majors, playing for the Dodgers and Phillies, who specialized in pinch-hitting and led the National League in pinch-hits with the Phillies in 1950 with 12, and appeared in two World Series, died Feb. 12 in Phoenix of a heart attack at age 82.
Hoover John Wright - Longtime track & field coach and former football coach at Prairie View A&M who led the school to it’s last winning football season in 1976, and who recovered from injuries sustained in a 2000 van accident that killed four track athletes and returned to work in 2002, died March 7 in Prairie View, TX at age 74.
Wayne Wright - One of the nation’s top money-winning jockey’s during the 1930’s and 40’s who won the Belmont Stakes on Peace Chance in 1934, the Kentucky Derby aboard Shut Out in 1942 and the Preakness in 1945 on Polynesian, died March 11 in Yerington, NV at age 86.

Art and Literature
Bob Curran - Award-winning columnist and author who wrote the “Curran’s Corner” column for the Buffalo News for 32 years, and who wrote several books including “The Kennedy Women”, “The Violence Game” and “Pro Football in the Rag Days”, died March 13 in Stony Brook, NY at age 80.
Howard Fast - Best-selling author known as a political radical, who wrote such historical fiction classics as “Sparticus”, “Freedom Road” and “Citizen Tom Paine”, but who was known just as much for his leftist ideology that landed him in jail for three months for failure to cooperate with the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1950 and who was blacklisted for many years, died March 12 of natural causes in Greenwich, CT at age 88.
Claire Flanders - Photographer whose mystical and mesmerizing black-and-white visions of cathedrals, palaces and natural environments earned her critical praise, whose work is displayed in art museums in the U.S. and Europe, died March 8 of cancer in Washington, DC at age 66.
Monica Hughes - Author who wrote science fiction novels for adolescents, whose best-known works are “Isis Trilogy”, “The Story Box” and “The Maze”, and who won several prestigious awards for her work, died March 7 in Edmonton, Alberta after a stroke at age 77.
Sébastien Japrisot (real name Jean-Baptiste Rossi) - French novelist, screenwriter and film director known for his recognizable style and story-telling technique, who produced a screenplay for nearly every one of his novels and directed the films for several, and whose works included the novels/screenplays for “The Sleeping Car Murders”, “The Lady in the Car with Glasses and a Gun” and “A Trap for Cinderella”, died March 4 in Vichy, France at age 71.
Helena Lopata - Sociologist and author who was one of the first to study homemakers, and who wrote 21 books such as “Operation Housewife” and “Current Widowhood: Myths & Realities”, died Feb. 12 of an abdominal aneurysm in Milwaukee at age 77.
Edwin “Buzz” Potter - Poet and founder of the Hobo Times magazine, who as a youth hopped trains to travel to various jobs all over the country, who started the Hobo Times to help preserve hobo history and headed the National Hobo Association for several years (betcha didn’t know that existed!), died March 9 of heart problems at his home in Gull Lake, MN at age 65.
Jane Rice - Sci-fi author who along with writer Ruth Allison wrote under the pseudonym Allison Rice, the best-known book being “The Loolies Are Here” in the first volume of Damon Knight's Orbit anthology series died March 2 in Greensboro, NC. Her age and cause of death were not available.
Nhlanhla Xaba - Award-winning South African painter who had been with the Artists Proof Studio since 1991, who was working on an exhibition due to open in June, was killed on March 9 when a fire swept through the Artists Proof Studio in Newtown, South Africa, which also destroyed a great number of Mr. Xaba’s paintings. He was 43 years old.

Politics and Military
Sunil Aghi - Founder of the Indo-American Political Foundation and the man who gave a political voice to thousands of Indian Americans around the country, who was in the news recently when he endorsed an episode of “Xena” which many in the Hindu community found offensive, died of a heart attack on March 7 while attending a celebration of the death anniversary of his father in Meerut, India at the age of 42.
Zoran Djindjic - Prime Minister of Serbia who was leading the former Yugoslav republic towards democracy, who was chief organizer of the October 2000 democratic revolution that toppled Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, was assassinated by gunshot on March 12 outside the main government building in Belgrade (the government is blaming a criminal group called Zemun clan and is linked to Djindjic’s efforts to stamp out organized crime in the country). He was 50 years old.
Jim Donald - Quadriplegic attorney who conceived many of the laws that made public buildings and transportation in California accessible to the disabled, who helped fight for regulations that made such amenities as curb cuts and wheelchair lifts part of everyday life, died Feb. 24 at his Sacramento, CA home of accidental asphyxiation when his wheelchair fell over and he was unable to breathe in that position (eek!). He was 57.
John Dow - U.S. Congressman from New York who served as a Democrat from 1964 until he was defeated by Benjamin Gilman in 1972, who ran again against Gilman in 1980 at the age of 85 and lost, and who was a staunch opponent of the Vietnam War, died March 11 of natural causes in Suffern, NY at age 97.
Bernard Dowiyogo - President of the tiny island nation of Nauru (south of the equator in the Pacific Ocean near Australia), who was key in mending diplomatic ties with Washington, who served 6 separate terms as president beginning in the 1980’s, but whose country is currently in political and economic turmoil, died March 9 after collapsing while on a diplomatic visit to Washington, DC the previous week and after undergoing surgery for a heart condition. He was 57 years old.
Gen. Wallace M. Greene - Four-star general who was the Marine Corps. commandant during the early days of the Vietnam War, and who oversaw the growth of the number of enlisted personnel by nearly 70% during his tenure from 1964 to 1967, died March 8 of multiple myeloma at age 95.
Ivar Hansen - Speaker of Denmark’s parliament since 1998, and who had served in the Danish parliament since 1973, died March 11 in Copenhagen of undisclosed causes at age 64.
Claus Helberg - Norwegian resistance fighter and war hero in WW2, who took part in the Telemark commando strike in 1943 against the occupying Germans, and who later became a legend for building Norway’s network of mountain hiking trails, died March 6 of a heart attack in Oslo at age 84.
Zivorad Igic - Ranking official in Slobodan Milosevic’s Socialist Party in Serbia, who remained staunchly loyal to Milosevic after his ouster and during the subsequent war crimes tribunal, died March 13 in Belgrade of natural causes at age 60.
Edward “Ted” Rogers - Media and political advisor who was hired by Richard Nixon in 1950 to help with personal appearances and TV interviews, who is best known for saving Nixon’s political career in 1952 by writing the infamous “Checkers” speech that kept him as Eisenhower’s running mate, died March 13 in Sarasota, FL after a long illness at age 82.
Yaroslava Stetsko - Ukrainian dissident who campaigned against Soviet rule of Ukraine in the 1930’s, who moved to Germany in 1943 and stayed until the fall of the U.S.S.R. in 1991, returned to the Ukraine eventually running for and winning a parliament seat in 1998, becoming the oldest member of the ruling government, died March 12 in Munich, Germany at age 83.
Gus Yatron - U.S. Congressman from Pennsylvania who served in Congress from 1969 until 1993 and was a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, died March 13 of a heart attack in Fairfax County, VA at age 75.

Social and Religion
Rev. Harry A. Clinch - Roman Catholic bishop who was a participant in the historic Second Vatican Council in 1962 that initiated sweeping changes into the worldwide church, died March 8 of pneumonia in Santa Cruz, CA at age 94.
Bobby Cook - Texas man who was convicted of shooting sleeping camper Edwin Holder to death in 1993 along the Trinity River, while he and two accomplices robbed Holder’s campsite, was executed by lethal injection on March 11 in Huntsville at age 42.
James “Fan Man” Miller - Man who made international headlines for parasailing into the ring during a 1993 fight between Evander Holyfield and Riddick Bowe at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas, and then parasailing buck naked covered in green paint on top of Buckingham Palace, was found dead near the Resurrection Pass trailhead near Anchorage, AK. He had been missing since September 2002 and had apparently committed suicide at that time. He was 39.
Mustang Ranch - Notorious brothel east of Reno, NV that opened in 1971, and was by far the most famous of the Nevada houses of prostitution, but was seized by the feds in 1999 after a fraud and racketeering trial and shut down, will be demolished by the Bureau of Land Management.
Pastor Cornelius R. Stam - Popular radio evangelist in the 1970’s who founded the Berean Bible Society and whose program “Bible Time” played on more than 100 radio stations nationwide, died March 9 of cancer in Carol Stream, IL at age 94.
William Sunderman - Editor of the medical journal Annals of Clinical and Laboratory Science, which he started after retirement 30 years ago, who had written more than 300 scientific papers and 16 scientific books, and was the oldest known working person in the U.S. until a few weeks ago, died March 9 in Center City, PA at age 104.
Michael Thompson - Alabama man who was convicted of the 1985 kidnapping and murder of 57-year old convenience store clerk Atalla Gray, whom he forced into a well and shot from above, was executed by lethal injection on March 13 in Altmore, AL at age 43.

Business and Science
José Ayres - Conservation zoologist who coordinated an effort to save large swaths of the Amazon rain forest by setting up the Amanã and Mamirauá Sustainable Development Reserves protecting nearly 20,000 square miles of rainforest, died March 7 of lung cancer in New York at age 49.
Bonnie Cone - The “mother of UNCC” who was responsible for transforming a fledgling night school that held classes in a high school in the 1940’s into the 4-year Charlotte College in the 1950’s, and then into the University of North Carolina-Charlotte in the 1960’s, now with an enrollment of 19,000 students, died March 8 in Saluda, SC at age 95.
Dr. William W.L. Glenn - Pioneer in cardiac surgery who in 1950 with medical student William Sewell devised the first working model of an artificial heart pump using pieces from an Erector set (this model is on display at the Smithsonian), and who developed the Glenn Shunt, an artery shunt used to improve the chances of survival of babies born with congenital heart defects, died March 10 of pneumonia in Peterborough, NH at age 88.
Robert Hanna - One of the U.S.’s leading experts on landscape architecture whose forte was the shaping of open spaces in urban settings, and who had been involved in major urban developments all over the world, died March 8 in Philadelphia at the age of 67.
Dr. Elliot Jaques - Psychologist who was a pioneer in human development theory, who is well-known for developing tests measuring human behavior and it’s potential that have been adopted by both the military and corporations and used in selection of potential leaders, who coined the phrase “mid-life crisis” and who wrote over 20 books including “The Life and Behavior of Living Organisms” and “Social Power and the CEO”, died March 8 in Gloucester, MA at age 85.
Jean-Luc Lagardere - One of France’s most powerful businessmen as and chairman of conglomerate Lagardere SCA, whose holdings included companies in the media, aeronautics and defense industries, died March 14 of a neurological illness in Paris at age 75.
Peter Petroff - Former engineer at NASA who worked on the Saturn rocket in the Apollo space program, but who is best known as an inventor who started Care Electronics, a high-technology company that developed a wireless heart monitor for hospital use and created the prototype of the digital wristwatch (the first ones marketed in 1971 sold for around $2,100), died Feb. 27 in Huntsville, AL at age 83.
Peter Smithson - Influential British architect, who with his late architectural partner and wife Alison became the proponents for “New Brutalism” architecture, and who were prolific writers of books and articles in architecture periodicals, died March 2 at age 79.
Theodore Walker - Marine biologist who became the world's foremost authority on the California gray whale and helped launch the whale-watching phenomenon on the West Coast, died Feb. 28 in Seattle at the age of 88.