Sports
Peter “Possum” Bourne - Popular New Zealand rally car driver who won both the 2001 and 2002 Rally of South Australia and who was considered the most successful competitor in that sport in Australia, died April 30 in Central Otago, New Zealand from injuries suffered in a road accident on April 18. He was 47 years old.
Sherwood Brewer - All-Star second baseman in the Negro Leagues who played for teams in Indianapolis, Chicago and New York, who managed the Kansas City Monarchs for 2 seasons, and who played with and trained Ernie Banks and Jackie Robinson, died April 23 in Chicago at age 79.
Trevin Dilfer - Son of Seattle Seahawks quarterback Trent Dilfer, died April 27 in Kirkland, CA of heart disease at age 5.
Dick Fick - Colorful college basketball coach at Morehead State from 1991 to 1997 who was a cult favorite of ESPN college baskeball coverage, and who was twice voted Ohio Valley Conference Coach of the Year, was found dead on April 28 at his home in Joliet, IL, apparently of complications from chronic alcoholism. He was 50 years old.
Johnny Griffith - Head football coach at the University of Georgia from 1961 to 1963 coaching them to a 10-16-4 record during those years, who had previously played on Georgia’s undefeated 1946 team, died April 28 in Duluth, GA of heart problems at age 78.
Sue Sally Hale - The “grand dame of U.S. polo” who for many years disguised her self as a man by using tape to flatten her chest and wearing a fake mustache to participate in tournaments organized by the U.S. Polo Association, but who was finally admitted as a woman to the association in 1972, and who was the only woman named as a “legend of polo”, was found dead on April 29 of unknown causes at her ranch in Indio, CA at age 65.
Elizabeth Heulette - Wrestling personality known to TV fans as “Miss Elizabeth”, who managed wrestlers Hulk Hogan, Randy “Macho Man” Savage (her then-husband) and Lex Lugar (her current boyfriend), died May 1 of an apparent drug overdose in Cobb County, GA at age 42.
Samson Kitur - Kenyan who won a bronze medal in the 400-meter run at the 1992 Olympics at Barcelona, and who held the Kenyan record for the 400, died April 26 in Nairobi after a long and unspecified illness at the age of 36.
Dr. James Klint - Team doctor for the San Francisco 49’ers NFL team for more than 20 years, who helped draft the league’s substance abuse policies, died April 19 of stomach cancer in Atherton, CA at age 60.
Sidney Shlenker - Flamboyant entrepreneur and promoter who once owned the Denver Nuggets and was chief executive of the Houston Astrodome's parent company, and who was known for bringing wild events to the Astrodome in the 70’s and 80’s, including the “Battle of the Sexes” tennis match between Billy Jean King and Bobby Riggs in 1973, died April 23 of heart failure in Los Angeles at age 66.
Charlie Tolar - NFL running back who played seven seasons with the Houston Oilers from their inaugural season in 1960 until 1966, and who helped them win AFL championships in 1960 and 1961, died April 28 of cancer in Houston at age 65.

Art and Literature
Italo Botti - American artist who worked in glass, mosaics, sculptures and painting, who was known for the rapidity of his creations, often creating two paintings in a single evening, who founded the Botti Studio of Architectural Arts which created or restored paintings for churches, hospitals, government buildings and museums, died April 23 during heart surgery in Sarasota, FL at age 80.
Lynn Chadwick - Highly-regarded sculptor whose works, from medals to monumental bronzes, combined imagination and high technical skill, who has been widely regarded as the successor of Henry Moore, and whose pieces are represented in leading museums of modern art all over the world, died April 25 at age 88.
Jean Conil - French-born chef who made it his life's work to eradicate bad cooking from Britain, who produced more than 100 cookbooks, wrote for magazines and newspapers, and appeared on TV and radio, died April 18 at age 85.
Blaga Dimitrova - Well-known Bulgarian poet and communist-era dissident, who won respect and popularity under communism with her novels “Avalanche” and “Face” in which she succeeded in criticizing the country's political system despite censorship by the regime, died May 2 in Sofia, Bulgaria at age 81.
Maggie Duff - Children’s author who penned books like “Rum Pum Pum” and “The Princess and the Pumpkin”, both on the best children’s books lists in public libraries, died April 25 in Taos, NM at age 87.
Fernand Fonssagrives - Fashion photographer in the 1950s who was regarded as an important figure in 20th-century photography, whose earliest subjects included his wife, Lisa Fonssagrives, a storied Swedish beauty who became one of the world's top models, and who was among the most sought-after commercial photographers in New York during the 1950’s, died April 23 in Little Rock, AR at age 92.
David S. Lavender - Prolific Western historian who published more than 40 meticulously researched volumes on everything from cowboys and campfires to the boardrooms of railroad barons, and who was twice nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, died April 26 of natural causes in Ojai, CA at age 93.
Nanjunda Rao - Indian artist who helped found the Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath art institute in Bangalore, India, and who relentlessly and successfully promoted the rejuvenation of several ancient Indian art forms, died May 1 of a heart attack at age 72.
Elaine Steinbeck - Widow of one of America's most famous authors, John Steinbeck, who was an actress and one of the first women ever to work as a stage manager on Broadway, and who spent her last years as keeper of her husband’s legacy, died April 27 in New York at age 88.
Sir Graham Stuart Thomas - One of the world’s greatest gardners, who introduced hundreds of nearly forgotten roses and other plants to both American and British gardens, who was an accomplished writer and artist, including 19 books like “Old Shrub Roses” and “The Garden Through the Year”, died April 16 inWoking, England at age 94.
Muriel Topaz - Writer and editor for Dance Magazine, director of the Dance Notation Bureau and the dance division of the Juilliard School and an authority on the choreography of Antony Tudor, who was a champion of the notation system known as Labanotation (but aren’t we all?), died April 28 of liver disease in Branford, CT at age 70.
Ella King Torrey - President of the San Francisco Art Institute from 1995 to 2001 who is credited with raising the art school's national and international profile and more than tripling its endowment, died April 30 of undisclosed causes in San Francisco at age 45.

Politics and Military
Jerome Berlin - Prominent Florida Democratic fund-raiser who served as national finance chairman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in the late 1980’s, who had recently fired the wife of his business partner Michael Pecora from her job as catering director, was shot to death on April 29 in Davie, FL after an argument by Pecora, who then killed himself. Berlin was 60 years old.
Janko Bobetko - Croatian army chief who was hailed by some as a hero in Croatia’s 1991 struggle for independence, but who was charged by a U.N. tribunal with war crimes for killing at least 100 civilians, died April 29 in Zagreb of heart and respiratory failure at age 84.
Rosemary Brown - First black woman elected to a Canadian legislature when she was elected to the British Columbia Legislature in 1972 and who held her seat through 1986, who worked to pass legislation to bar discrimination based on gender, died April 26 of a heart attack in Vancouver, BC at age 72.
Felix Doh - Ivory Coast political leader of the Ivorian Popular Movement of the Far West, who was one of three Ivorian rebel leaders to sign a peace agreement in France this year creating a power sharing deal among the factions, was slain after capture on April 25 in an ambush near the Liberian border by fighters from Sierra Leone. He was in his late 30’s.
Princess Haya bint Saad al-Sudairi - One of the wives of King Abdul Aziz, the founder of modern Saudi Arabia, died April 18 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia at age 90.

Social and Religion
David Brewer - Ohio man convicted of the 1985 brutal rape and murder of a friend’s wife, 21-year-old Sherry Byrne, was executed by lethal injection on April 29 at the state prison in Lucasville, OH at the age of 44.
Amarjit Chohan - Indian-born British millionaire who vanished with his wife, two young sons and mother-in-law in February, 2003 under mysterious circumstances and without a trace, which has been the subject of much media speculation there (he had just signed power of attorney rights to two top employees), was found dead on April 30 floating in the ocean. He was 46 and cause of death has not been established. Police continue to search for the other family members.
Morgan Griffin - Former Seattle Symphony bassoon player who along with his wife Marilyn launched the “No Iraq War” signs that became prominent nationally prior to the Iraq war, died April 8 in Seattle of pneumonia after breaking his hip at age 66.
Kevin Hough - Indiana man convicted of the 1985 slayings of Gene Reubrake and Ted Bosler, landlords who were involved in a rent dispute with his cousin, was executed by lethal injection on May 2 in Michigan City, IN at age 43 becoming the first person executed in Indiana in two years.
Olav Hovatn - Oldest known person in Norway, died April 26 in Froland, Norway at age 110.
Dr. John Kullberg - President of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals from 1978 to 1991, who served as the first executive director of the ASPCA’s Wildlife Land Trust, died April 27 in Rockville, MD of cancer at age 64.
Rev. Paul Moore - New York Episcopal bishop who pushed for political and social change within both the city of New York and the national Episcopal denomination, who spoke out against issues like corporate greed and racism, and who was an early advocate of women’s ordination, died April 30 in New York of lung and brain cancer at age 83.
Guy Mountfort - Well-known ornithologist who helped found the World Wildlife Fund, an organization that works to save endangered species and preserve tropical rain forests, wetlands and coral reefs, died April 23 in Bournemouth, England at age 97.
The Old Man of the Mountain - Natural rock outcropping in Franconia State Park in New Hampshire that looked like a gnarled human face, which was one of the most photographed sites in the state and considered New Hampshire's state symbol, appearing on travel brochures and even the state quarter, collapsed into indistinguishable rubble May 2 or 3.
Michael Pecora - Business partner of Democratic fund-raiser Jerome Berlin in the Signature Grand banquet hall in south Florida, who became angry when Berlin fired his wife as banquet director earlier in the week, and who shot and killed Berlin on April 29 after an argument and then shot himself to death. He was 51 years old.
Frank Shields - Florida businessman and father of actress Brooke Shields, died April 26 of cancer in Palm Beach, FL at age 61.
Richard Sinnott - The last municipal official empowered to ban wickedness in Boston, a tradition that went back to the days of the Pilgrims where a public official has the ability to withdraw licenses from theaters and ban books and artwork they found objectionable, and who served in that capacity from 1960 until the position was ended in 1980, died April 30 of a heart attack in Hyde Park, MA at age 76.
Frank Wright - Las Vegas historian who was longtime curator of the Nevada State Museum and Historical Society, who was considered the consummate authority on the history of the gambling capital, died April 26 of colon cancer in Las Vegas at age 64.

Business and Science
Business Men’s Assurance (BMA) - Kansas City-based insurance company, which has sold life and health insurance and investment products for many years, and which has been my employer for the last 12 years, ceased operations on April 30 after 94 years in business.
Edward Gaylord - Billionaire Oklahoma publishing mogul, who was editor and publisher of The Daily Oklahoman newspaper since 1974 (named the worst newspaper in America by Columbia Journalism Review in 1999) and who also owned Gaylord Production Company which in the 70’s produced syndicated programs like “Hee Haw” and “The Glen Campbell Show”, died April 27 of cancer in Oklahoma City at age 83.
Albert Hakim - Iranian-born Silicon Valley businessman who was a central figure in the Reagan administration's Iran-Contra scandal of the 1980’s, who served as a functionary for Oliver North and was charged in the scheme to sell arms to Iran for use in its war against Iraq, but who never served time in prison, died April 26 of a heart attack in Inchon, South Korea at age 66.
Dr. Ira Herskowitz - Geneticist and pioneer in the effort to learn how genetic differences among people influence the effectiveness of drugs, who focused much of his research on baker's yeast because it is the simplest single-cell organism that operates in a manner similar to a human cell, died April 28 of pancreatic cancer in San Francisco at age 56.
Stuart Kind - Leading forensic biologist who helped British police crack the "Yorkshire Ripper" serial murder case, where the murders of 13 women by a serial killer in the 1970’s had gone unsolved for 5 years, who established Forensic Science Society and who wrote the books “The Skeptical Witness” and “Science Against Crime”, died April 19 in Harrogate, England of cancer at age 78.
George Kozmetsky - Entrepreneur, scholar, investor and philanthropist, who founded technology conglomerate Teledyne in 1960 and became an expert in forging relationships between academia, business and government, and who established IC2, the technology think tank at the University of Texas, died May 1 in Austin, TX at age 85.
Barry Leiner - One of the key individuals instrumental in the development of the Internet, whose biggest accomplishment was in persuading a multitude of private companies working on their own systems to share a common language, called TCP/IP, that would become the bedrock for connecting computers around the world, died April 2 of ALS in Sunnyvale, CA at age 57.
Dr. Jeff Schell - Microbiologist who developed some of the first procedures for introducing artificial genes into plants to increase their hardiness and improve their ability to grow, who succeeded in actually altering their gene structure, died April 17 of progressive supranuclear palsy in Brussels, Belgium at age 67.
Rufus “Red” Tindol - Icon in the pest control industry, who founded two exterminating businesses, co-founded a state association of exterminators and lobbied legislators about laws regulating the industry, who introduced termite-sniffing beagles, and who was elected to the Pest Control Hall of Fame in 2000, died April 27 of heart failure in Roswell, GA age age 85.
Wesley Vance - President and chief operating officer of Diebold Corp., the company that makes automated teller machines, was killed in a plane crash in southern Ohio on April 26 at age 45.