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News and Entertainment
Alvin Alcorn - Traditional New Orleans jazz trumpeter who is known for his recordings with Don Albert's swing band and years of appearances in clubs in the New Orlean's French Quarter, and who is credited with starting the New Orleans tradition of the jazz brunch, died July 17 in New Orleans after a long illness at age 90.
Milton Altman - Special effects inventor for television and an instrumental figure in the development of color television, who received an Emmy nomination for his work on the Chroma Key or blue-screen process, and who became a longtime technical director for NBC, died July 6 of Parkinson’s disease in Los Angeles at age 83.
Alberto Bojórquez - Mexican filmmaker who won an Ariel award for his movie "Lo mejor de Teresa" (1978) and directed 10 other movies, all with themes about the universe of the Mexican middle-class woman, died July 14 of heart attack in Mexico City at age 62.
Bruce Brewer - Freelance photographer for the Associated Press and a noted cave explorer, who was leading a group of explorers through a cave near Climax, GA, drowned on July 12 when he tried to swim through an underground spring to another cavern. He was 33 years old.
Benny Carter - One of the most important figures in 20th century jazz, whose career as an arranger, composer, bandleader and top alto sax player was remarkable for both its length and its consistently high musical achievement, who helped to lay the foundation for the swing era of the late 1930's and early 40's, whose biggest hit was 1943’s “Cow-Cow Boogie” (sung by Ella Mae Morse), and who composed the classics “Blues in My Heart”, “When Lights Are Low” and “Blue Star”, died July 12 in Los Angeles at age 95.
Phil Ceccola - Rock music photographer who photographed giants like Elvis Presley, Billy Joel, Jimmy Buffett, David Bowie and Elton John, but who is best known for his photographs of Bruce Springsteen, including the cover shot for Springsteen’s 1998 album “Tracks”, died July12 of brain cancer in Souderton, PA at age 48.
Celia Cruz - Grammy-winning, Cuban-born singer who became known as “Queen of salsa”, who was known for her tight, glittering dresses and huge wigs, who recorded more than 70 albums and was one of the few women salsa singers in the 60’s and 70’s, and who among her numerous awards is the National Medal of Arts awarded by President Clinton in 1994, died July 16 in Fort Lee, NJ of complications of surgery for a brain tumor at age 77.
Winston “Buddy” Deane - Legendary disc jockey who while at WITH radio in Baltimore was one of the first DJ’s to air rock n’ roll music in the 1950’s, who hosted local TV dance show “The Buddy Deane Show” on WJZ-TV that was the basis for John Water’s 1988 movie “Hairspray”, and who was named the No. 1 DJ in America in 1962 by Billboard magazine, died July 16 in Pine Bluff, AK from complications of a stroke at age 78.
Mickey Deans (real name Michael DeVinko) - New York pianist and nightclub singer best known as the fifth and final husband of entertainer and actress Judy Garland, died July 11 in Cleveland, OH after a long illness at age 68.
Tom Green - Christian television program producer for Cornerstone Television and longtime host of the syndicated “Lightmusic” video show (once assailed and boycotted by televangelist Jimmy Swaggart because it showed a Phil Collins video), and who once worked as head of the theater department for televangelist Jim Bakker, died July 18 after heart surgery in Christchurch, New Zealand at age 55.
Marjorie Fowler - Film editor who was nominated for an Oscar for her work on the 1967 film “Doctor Dolittle”, and who was editor of many films during the 1950’s and 60’s including “Elmer Gantry”, “Separate Tables” and “Lover Come Back”, died July 8 in Hollywood Hills, CA at age 82.
Dirt Hooligan (real name Derek Kopetzki) - Bass player for the St. Petersburg, Florida-based rock/punk/reggae band Crizzy & the Punx as well as bassist for the ska-punk group Skif Dank for a good part of the last 4 years, was killed on July 3 after being hit by a car and semi trailer outside a nightclub in New Port Richey, FL. He was 29.
Lulu - Black Chihuahua owned by the TV reality-show family The Osbournes was killed recently when attacked by a coyote outside their southern California home (the Pomeranian, Pipi, was saved by Ozzy however) .
Mamdouh Mahran - Editor of the controversial tabloid-style weekly Egyptian newspaper Al-Nabaa, who was charged in 2001 with undermining public security, publishing scandalous photos, insulting religion, and causing civil turmoil for publishing a story about a monk's alleged sex-and-blackmail scheme, and who was serving a three-year jail sentence for these charges, died July 13 of a heart attack at a cardiology center in Cairo at age 58.
Ramolao Makhene - Popular South African television, theatre and film actor who appeared several U.S. movies including “Cry of the Beloved Country”, “Cyborg Cop” and “The Air Up There”, died July 13 in Johannesburg of liver cancer at age 46.
Lee Roy Matocha - Leader of the six-piece polka band, the Lee Roy Matocha Orchestra, that toured the southwest U.S. performing at dances, weddings and other festivities, and who hosted the Lee Roy Matocha Czech Hour and the Polka Show, in his home in Fayette County, Texas, died July 12 of a heart attack in Fayetteville, TX at age 70.
Compay Segundo - Cuban singer and guitarist who after years in obscurity rose to fame at age 90 with the 1997 release of the “Buena Vista Social Club” movie and subsequent album, who won a Grammy award in 1998 and who went on to release several more albums that sold over two million copies, died July 13 in Havana, Cuba at age 95.
Markland Taylor - Critic and journalist for Variety who covered New England theatre for more than a decade, who was known for rarely liking a production and his straightforward and caustic reviews, died July 6 of a heart attack in Southbury, CT at age 65.
Rosalyn Tureck - Concert pianist and harpsichordist, who devoted more than six decades to performing, researching, teaching and writing about the works of Johann Sebastian Bach, who recorded numerous albums of his work, but who was more popular in European venues, died July 17 in Riverdale, NY at age 88.
Eliot Wald - Television and film producer and writer best known for coming up with the idea of pairing film critics Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel for the show “Sneak Previews” on PBS in 1975, who went on to write for TV’s “Saturday Night Live”, and who was screenwriter for movie comedies like “Hot Paint”, “Camp Nowhere” and “Down Periscope”, died July 12 of liver cancer in Los Angeles at age 57.
Alexander Walker - British film critic noted for his controversial views, who served as governor of the British Film Institute from 1988 to 1994 and who penned autobiographies of stars like Elizabeth Taylor and Peter Sellers, died July 15 after a short illness in London at age 73.
Elisabeth Welch - American-born singer whose successes on Broadway in the 1920’s and 30’s, including introducing the Charleston and singing “Love For Sale” and “Stormy Weather”, lead to a long career as a star of stage, film and radio in England, died July 15 in London at age 99.
Sports
Mark Lovell & Roger Freeman - Two of Britain’s leading rally car competitors, who had been sharing the same cockpit on race courses across the world for the last 20 years, and who joined the American rally league in 2001 to compete in the U.S., were killed on July 12 in Hillsboro, OR during the Oregon Trail Rally when their Subaru Impreza left the road just after the start of the first stage and crashed into a ditch. Lovell was 43 and Freeman 52.
Brad Rone - Heavyweight boxer who learned the day before a schedule bout in Cedar City, Utah that his 66-year-old mother Thelma Rone had died of heart failure, who decided to box anyway in order to honor his mother and help raise money for the funeral, collapsed and died of a massive heart attack after the first round of the match on July 18. He was 34 years old.
Tex Schramm - Legendary Hall of Fame president and general manager of the Dallas Cowboys from 1960 until 1989, who guided the franchise to 20 consecutive winning seasons (an NFL record), who made the Cowboys the most-recognized sports team in the world during that time, reaching 5 Super Bowls and winning 2, and who created the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, died July 15 in Dallas at age 83.
Art and Literature
Roberto Bolaño - One of the Chile's most respected writers, who wrote more than a dozen novels and several books of poetry, and won numerous literary awards in Spain and the Romulo Gallegos award in Venezuela, died July 15 from liver disease in Barcelona, Spain, at age 50.
Gordon Creighton - Former British diplomat who was editor of the Flying Saucer Review, one of the oldest and most respected UFO journals in the world, and who is one of the biggest names in ‘ufology’, died July 16 in England at age 95.
George T. James - Potter and design director at Franciscan Pottery, who designed the popular and collectible Eclipse Starburst dinnerware shape as well as the Contours line of vases and accessories, died July 11 after a fall in Glenwood, CA at age 82.
Gary MacEoin - Author, activist and reporter, most recently with the National Catholic Reporter, who published more than 25 books dealing mostly with politics and poverty in Latin America, died July 9 of cardiac arrest while visiting in Leesburg, VA at age 94.
Rollie McKenna - Photographer and author best known for her portraits the stars of English literature such as Dylan Thomas, W. H. Auden, T. S. Eliot, Edith Sitwell, Seamus Heaney, Sylvia Plath and numerous others, and whose own literary works include “Portrait of Dylan: A Photographer's Memoir” and her autobiography “A Life in Photography”, died June 14 in Northampton, MA at age 84.
Carol Shields - Novelist and poet who wrote the 1993 Pulitzer Prize-winning book “The Stone Diaries”, who was known for her novels and stories about ordinary people in everyday situations like “A Fairly Conventional Woman” and “Happenstance”, died July 16 in Victoria, British Columbia of breast cancer at age 68.
Reetika Vazirani - Author who published two award-winning volumes of poetry, “White Elephants” and “World Hotel”, and who had taught as a writer-in-residence at William & Mary, as well as the University of Virginia and University of Oregon, killed her 2-year-old son, Jehan Vazirani Komunyakaa, before committing suicide by slitting her own wrists on July 16 in Chevy Chase, MD. She was 40 years old.
Politics and Military
Rear Admiral Walter M. Enger - Highly-commended naval rear admiral who was chief of the Navy’s civil engineers and commander of the Seabees (the Navy’s construction force) during WW2 and the Vietnam war, died June 28 of leukemia in Fairfax, VA at age 89.
David Kelly - British weapons expert and former U.N. weapons inspector in Iraq who specialized in biological weapons, who had been accused of doctoring intelligence findings in the British government’s campaign to gain public support for going to war in Iraq, committed suicide by slitting his wrists on July 18 near his home in Oxfordshire, England at age 59.
Rajendra Singh Thakur - Leader of the Hindu nationalist organization Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (or RSS), which is the ideological fountainhead of India’s Bharatiya Janata Party, and who many think encouraged the government to carry out nuclear tests, died July 14 of a heart attack in Pune, India at age 82.
Rear Adm. Almon Wilson - Physician who was the architect of the Navy’s mobile hospital system during WW2, who as commander of the 3rd Medical Battalion during the Vietnam war was one of the first to secure helicopters to transport wounded Marines to offshore hospital ships, and who served as physician to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, died June 30 of heart disease in Silverdale, WA at age 79.
Social and Religion
Paul Bernal - Pueblo Indian tribal elder who served as a liaison between the Taos Pueblo Indians and the federal government, and helped them recover the title to the sacred Blue Lake region in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in northern New Mexico that had been appropriated away from the Pueblos by the U.S. government in 1906, and whose efforts came to fruition in 1970, died July 16 in Taos Pueblo, New Mexico at age 92.
Paul Childs - 15-year-old developmentally disabled Denver, Colorado youth, who often suffered seizures and confusion, who on July 5 was playing around with a knife and apparently threatening his mother, who answered the door holding the knife when police came to the house, but did not drop it when they ordered him to, was shot and fatally wounded by the police officers, even though it’s not likely he understood their orders.
Kevin McCarthy - Los Angeles filmmaker whose first feature-length film “The Rouge Shoes” was recently completed, was killed along with his 41-year-old wife Diana and 8 other people on July 16 when a car driven by 86-year-old Russell Weller plowed into the farmers market in Santa Monica, CA. He was 50 years old.
George Napier - Survivor of the 1921 Tulsa race riots, where on May 31, 1921 as many as 300 African Americans were gunned down or fell victim to other violence in one of the bloodiest race riots in U.S. history, died July 18 in Elverta, CA of a heart attack at age 106.
John Paul Ofwono - Uganda man who at 229 cm (7 foot 6 inches) was the world’s third tallest living man, who rose to prominence in 1999 as Uganda’s tallest man, becoming the spokesman for a line of soft drinks, and who finished second in the voting for “man of the 20th century” in Uganda (finishing behind president Yoweri Museveni), died July 10 in Kampala, Uganda of the affects of craniopharyngioma at age 43.
Rebecca Park - Lieutenant in the Army Reserve and medical school student at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, who disappeared on the evening of July 12 when she went jogging in Philadelphia’s Fairmont Park, was found dead in the park on July 17, a rape and murder victim. She was 30 years old.
Clothilde Rey - One of Germany’s oldest citizens, who was born Nov. 21, 1892, died July 9 in Germany at age 110.
Gerard Starck - French Red Cross volunteer who in 1997 undertook a six-year world motorcycle tour to promote humanitarian goodwill, who had logged 200,000 km (124,300 miles) on his trip and had visited 149 of the worldwide 179 Red Cross societies, and who anticipated finishing the tour by October, was killed in a road accident on July 13 when his motorbike was hit by a car in heavy rain in southern Kyrgyzstan. He was 57 years old.
Dmitry Vasilyev - Leader of the anti-Semitic Russian nationalist organization Pamyat, which rose to prominence in the late 80’s during Mikhail Gorbachev's glasnost campaign to allow freedom of expression, and whose participants condemned Jews and other “alien races”, died July 16 of blood disease in Pereslavl-Zalessky, Russia at age 58.
Lynne Ann Weaver - Daughter-in-law of actor Dennis Weaver (“McCloud”), who was married to Weaver’s son Robby, was one of 10 people killed on July 16 when a car driven by 86-year-old Russell Weller plowed into the farmers market in Santa Monica, CA. She was 47 years old.
Business and Science
Dr. Benjamin Baker - Internist at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine known for his list celebrity clients in the 1920’s that included the Duke of Windsor, H.L. Mencken, Clark Gable, Carole Lombard and F. Scott Fitzgerald, died July 14 in Baltimore at age 101.
Ernest "Ernie" Boch - Boston car dealer and millionaire businessman who was known for his signature TV commercials where he would smash windshields while telling customers he was smashing prices and invite people to “Come on down!”, died July 13 in Edgartown, MA of liver cancer at age 77.
C. E. “Jim” Compton - Inventor and coal company founder, who started the Grafton Coal Company in 1942, who was a pioneer in surface mining and land reclamation techniques, and whose inventions including the coal auger machine landed him in the inaugural class of the Coal Hall of Fame in 1998, died July 12 in Bridgeport, WV after a long illness at age 88.
John Gerhart - International expert in African agriculture and land use who had a 29-year association with the Ford Foundation, who worked on agricultural development and land reform in post-apartheid South Africa, and who became president of the American University in Cairo in 1998, died July 15 in New York City of cancer of the appendix at age 59.
Robert Mullaney - Aeronautical engineer who was project manager of the Lunar Excursion Module program in 1962 at Grumman Corp. that produced the lunar vehicle that the astronauts used to travel back and forth between the Apollo 11 and the moon, died July 6 in Bellport, NY at age 82.
Lucille Roberts - Founder of the Lucille Roberts Health Club, one of the largest health club chains in the Northeastern U.S., which specializes in exercise and weight control programs for women at low cost, and who wrote two books about health and fitness, “Computercise” and “The Lucille Roberts 14 Day Makeover”, died July 17 of cancer in New York City at age 59.
Chesterfield Smith - Giant of the law profession and founder of the Holland & Knight law firm, the country’s eighth largest, who as president of the American Bar Association in 1973 and 1974, criticized Richard Nixon’s “Saturday night massacre” firing of federal prosecutors, which eventually lead to his own involvement in the Watergate investigation, died July 16 of cardiopulmonary complications in Coral Gables, FL at age 85.
Dr. E. Paul Torrance - Psychologist known for his research of the construct of creativity, who created the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking, and who published numerous books on the subject including “The Manifesto: A Guide to Developing a Creative Career” and “Why Fly?: A Philosophy of Creativity”, died July 12 in Athens, GA at age 87.
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