Sports
Herb Brooks - Hockey coach who lead the U.S. Olympic team to the “Miracle on Ice” victory over the Soviet Union in the 1980 Olympics, who went on to coach in the NHL from 1981 to 1998 for the North Stars, Devils and Rangers, and who was inducted into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame in 1990, was killed in a car accident on August 11 north of Minneapolis at age 66.
Jimmy Davis - British football player who was set to make his competitive debut in Watford, was killed in a car accident on August 9 at the age of 21.
Martin Dermer - World champion horse-racing handicapper, considered one of the best in the business at picking winners, who published the “Doctor's Turf Journal” tipsheet and eventually started the racing tip website racingdigest.com, and who was a close friend and associate of the late Gene Siskel, died August 11 of esophageal cancer in Lake Forest, IL at age 58.
Charles Devens - Pitcher for the New York Yankees from 1932 to 1934, who was the last living Yankee from Babe Ruth's championship season of 1932 and who witnessed Ruth's famous "called shot" against the Cubs in the World Series, died August 13 in Milton, MA at age 93.
Lothar Emmerich - West German soccer player remembered for one kick he made in the 1966 World Cup final against England, who in the closing seconds of regulation kicked the ball at a seemingly impossible angle and speed to teammate Wolfgang Weber who put it in the goal and forced overtime (England eventually won), died August 14 in Dortmund, Germany of lung cancer at age 61.
Ray Harford - English football coach considered as one of the sports finest coaches and enduring personalities, who was instrumental in helping Blackburn win the Premiership title in 1995, died August 9 of cancer at age 58.
Keith Hutton - Australian-born U.S. sprint car driver who was primarily a mechanic for other drivers, but raced three or four times a year, was killed on August 13 in an accident during a race at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa, IA at age 53.
Kieran Kelly - A leading Irish jump jockey who had his best season in 2001 when he rode 32 winners, died on August 12 in Dublin, four days after falling from a horse during a race. He was 25 years old.
Lesley Manyathela - South African soccer superstar, whose nickname was “Slow Poison”, and who was last year’s top scorer in South Africa’s Premier Soccer League, was killed in a car accident on August 9 near Musina, South Africa at age 21 (his death has created such an outpouring that league play has been suspended and the stadium in Musina has been renamed in his honor).
Alonzo Pettie - Professional bull rider who spent many years "opening" at rodeos from 1927 to 1948, but who was barred from competing because he was black, and who helped start one of the first rodeos for blacks in Denver in 1948, died August 2 of prostate cancer in Denver at age 93. (While not depicted in film, it's estimated that nearly 25% of real life Old West cowboys were black).
Helmut Rahn - German soccer legend who scored the winning goal to give Germany the 1954 World Cup title in an upset 3-2 victory over Hungary, in a play that has become known as the “miracle of Bern”, died August 14 after a long illness in Essen, Germany at age 73.
Billy Rogell - Major league baseball player who played with the Tigers, Red Sox and Cubs from 1925 until 1940, who played in the World Series with the Tigers in both 1934 and 1935, and who was the second oldest living major league player (Paul Hopkins is older by 2 months), died August 9 in Detroit of pneumonia at age 98.
Howard Shelley - Co-host with the late Mort Neff of the long running local TV show Michigan Outdoors, died July 30 at age 93.
Scott Stocki - Public address announcer for the Wichita Wranglers, a class AA baseball team, and radio personality at radio station KICT, where he did a popular sports segment as ‘Coach’ on the morning show there as well as traffic reporter for several stations, died of a heart attack on August 7, just prior to going on the air. He was 42 year old.
Rosa Stokes - Head women’s basketball coach at Georgia Southwestern University, who started the basketball program there two years ago, and who had served as an assistant coach at Long Beach State and Louisville, died August 6 in Lebanon, GA of heart disease at age 38.

Art and Literature
Jean Appleton - Painter who was one of Australia’s best-known artists over the last 60 years, who was one of the few women artists to emerge from Australia during the 1930’s, and whose work is prominently displayed at the Macquarie Galleries in Sydney, died August 8 in Sydney at age 91.
Bonnie August - Clothing designer most famous for creating the multipurpose leotard that could go from the dance studio to the street, that became the "uniform" of women during the disco era, whose designs are on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology and a rock and roll museum in Seattle, died August 9 of ovarian cancer in New York City at age 56.
Ward Bennett - American interior, furniture and textile designer who rose to prominence in the 1960's and is credited with originating the "high-tech" interior style characterized by the conversation pit, sunken living room and U-shaped sofa, died August 13 in Key West, FL at age 85.
Stanley Eichelbaum - Journalist, restaurateur and cookbook author, who was a theater and film critic for the San Francisco Examiner for 19 years, who later opened several restaurants and became a food columnist for a number of publications, and who wrote several cookbooks including “The Open Hand Celebration Cookbook” and “Cooking for Heart and Soul”, died August 11 in San Francisco of throat cancer and emphysema at age 78.
Albert Field - Art archivist hired by prolific painter Salvador Dalí, to catalog the thousands of authentic Dalí works, who became an arbiter, often in court, of which paintings were real and which were fakes, and who published his years of work in 1998’s “Official Catalog of the Graphic Works of Salvador Dalí”, died August 4 in New York City at age 86.
Donald Goddard - British author and journalist best-known for his books on organized crime, like “Joey”, a biography of the mobster Joey Gallo, and “All Fall Down: One Man Against the Waterfront Mob”, died August 10 in Burgess Hill, England of pancreatic cancer at age 75.
Bhupen Khakhar - Indian painter who came to prominence in the 1960’s as part of the Narrative Figurative movement in art, who is one of the few Indian painters to have enjoyed an international reputation, and whose work is featured in galleries throughout Asia and Europe, died August 8 of prostate cancer in Vadodara, India at age 69.
James Romano - Curator at the Brooklyn Museum of Art and noted scholar in the field of Egyptology, who specialized in the sculpture, reliefs and minor phases of Egyptian art of the 18th dynasty, and among whose publications is 2002's "In the Fullness of Time: Masterpieces of Egyptian Art from American Collections", was killed in a car accident in Lynbrook, NY on August 11 at age 56.
Antonis Samarakis - One of Greece's most popular contemporary writers, who was best known for his collection of short stories called “I Deny” and the novel “Mistake”, whose works have been translated into 30 languages, and who in recent years served as UNICEF National Goodwill Ambassador, died August 8 of heart and lung problems in Pilos, Greece at age 84.
Kirk Varnedoe - Chief curator of painting and sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, known as a dazzling speaker who had a genuine rapport with artists, who collaborated on gallery exhibitions with some of the greatest artists of his generation, and who helped reshape the museum's collections during his tenure, died August 14 in New York City of colon cancer at age 57.

Politics and Military
Idi Amin - Military dictator who ruled the African country of Uganda from 1971 to 1979, whose reign was characterized as "a reign of terror laced with buffoonery", who is said to have murdered up to 500,000 of his real and imagined enemies, whose actions in business sent the country into economic chaos, who called Hitler a hero, who named himself Dada or "Big Daddy" and declared himself "president for life", but who was overthrown by the Tanzanian troops in 1979, only to be exiled into a life of luxury in Saudi Arabia, died August 15 in Jiddah, Saudi Arabia of kidney failure at age 80.
Joe C. Baxter - Elections expert who served as the registrar of voters in Washington, DC and completely rebuilt the voter rolls, whose model was drafted by Congress for the 1994 National Voting Rights Act, who became an international elections consultant helping set up election commissions and voter registries in places like Uganda, Namibia, South Africa, Equatorial Guinea, Malawi, Nigeria, Pakistan, Georgia and Armenia, died August 9 in Washington, DC of cancer at age 53.
Richard E. Bennis - Coast Guard Rear Admiral who directed the New York Harbor evacuation of 500,000 people after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, who had served as as captain of the three largest East Coast ports, Charleston, SC, Hampton Roads, VA, and New York City, died August 3 of melanoma in Fredericksburg, VA at age 52.
Laura Rapaport Borsten - Last surviving member of the Navy’s first group of women officers, who became an officer in August 1942 after President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a bill creating the Navy’s Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES), died August 11 in Los Angeles after a stroke at age 91.
Robert Broadbent - Nevada politician and official in the Reagan administration, who was appointed commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation in 1981, and who became the first assistant Interior secretary of water and science in 1984, died August 9 in Las Vegas of cancer at age 77.
Moshe Carmel - Israeli general who led the Israeli army's capture of the city of Haifa and northern Galilee during the 1948 War of Independence, who twice served in Israel's parliament after retiring from the military, died August 14 in Tel Aviv at age 92.
Staff Sgt. Richard S. Eaton - U.S. Army counterintelligence analyst who escaped death when a hijacked jetliner slammed into his office at the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001 (his office was being remodeled at the time of the crash and he was in temporary quarters elsewhere), and who was stationed in Iraq doing intelligence work, died August 12 of a pulmonary edema in Ar Ramadi, Iraq at age 37.
Lady Diana Mosley - Widow of Britain’s notorious pre-war fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley, who married Sir Oswald in Berlin in 1936 at the home of Josef Goebbels with Adolf Hitler in attendance, who counted Hitler among their close family friends, and who along with her husband, spent much of WW2 in prison, died August 11 in Paris at age 93.
Edward Northrop - Federal judge appointed by John F. Kennedy in 1961, whose most high-profile case was the sentencing of priest Philip Berrigan to prison for his anti-Vietnam War activities in 1968, and whose cases touched on some of the most incendiary matters of the day including racial discrimination and war protests, died August 12 of an abdominal tumor in Sandy Spring, MD at age 92.
Dale Racicot - Marine Master Sergeant who had been stationed in Iraq and Kuwait since December 2002, who headed an intelligence team that analyzed statements from Iraqi prisoners of war, and whose active duty ended and he returned home to New Hampshire on August 8, collapsed and died of a heart attack three hours after returning to his home in Weare, NH. He was 54 years old.
Tamaki Sawa - Japanese actress and singer turned lawmaker, who starred in the popular TV show “Play Girl”, which was Japan’s answer to the U.S.’s “Charlie’s Angels”, who had several hit records in Japan in the 70’s, and who was elected to the Japanese parliament for a 6 year term in 1998, died suddenly on August 9 of a heart attack in the parliament dormitories in Tokyo at age 66.

Social and Religion
Edward Porter Alexander - An authority on museums and president of the American Association of Museums, who wrote numerous articles and books including "Museums in Motion: An Introduction to the History and Functions of Museums" and "The Museum in America: Innovators and Pioneers", died July 31 in Chevy Chase, MD at age 96.
Susan Brennan - Philadelphia woman who was seven months pregnant and a mother of two, who was separated from her husband and was struggling with a drug addiction, was found dead in Philadelphia on August 12, naked with her body smeared with peanut butter, who had apparently been strangled by drug dealer Linwood Burley, who later committed suicide. She was 32 years old (police have no idea what was up with the peanut butter).
Bob Brown - American Indian cultural preservationist, who chaired the Mendota Mdewakanton Dakota community, and who fought to protect sites in Minnesota that he believed were part of Dakota history and culture, died August 8 of a heart attack in St. Paul, MN at age 62 .
Linwood Burley - Philadelphia drug dealer who was known to have a drug-related and possible sexual relationship with pregnant mother Susan Brennan, and who is thought to have strangled her to death on August 12 and dumped her naked, peanut butter-covered body on a dead end Philadelphia street, committed suicide by jumping into the Schuylkill River on August 13. He was 35 years old and took the mystery of the peanut butter with him to the grave.
Terre Cass - Court administrator in Tallahassee, Florida who was thrust into the spotlight during the highly contested 2000 presidential election as media spokesman for Circuit Judge George Reynolds, who announced to the media among other things that Secretary of State Katherine Harris could accept late results from counties that decided to manually recount their ballots, died August 14 of cancer in Tallahassee at age 47.
Father Constantin Galeriu - Romanian Orthodox cleric, who was imprisoned in the 1950’s by the Communists for his religious views, who became a symbol of freedom in Communist Romania, who publicly prayed with President Emil Constantinescu after the fall of Communism, and who was a frequent guest on news programs and religious broadcasts in recent years, died August 10 in Bucharest after a stroke at age 84.
Kenji Ito - California attorney and civic leader who in 1941 was arrested on charges of being a spy for Japan (along with hundreds of other Japanese-Americans after the invasion of Pearl Harbor) because of a public stance he took in the 30’s supporting Japan’s conquest of Manchuria, but who was exonerated of all charges due in part to his dramatic patriotic appeal during closing arguments, died August 10 of Alzheimer’s disease in Alhambra, CA at age 94.
Eddie Mathis - Leader of a New York crack cocaine ring, who was the triggerman in double homicide in 1997, who was on the FBI's 15 Most Wanted list and had evaded capture for nine years, and had recently been profiled for a fourth time on the TV show "America's Most Wanted", was shot to death by federal marshals on August 16 in a hotel room in Redford, MI at the age of 39.
John Munn - U.S. Olympic wrestler who competed in the 1956 games, who founded the 4-H Natural Resources program in 1972, which was one of at least 28 educational programs he organized to help people of all ages learn about, appreciate and enjoy nature, died August 8 in Arlington, WA of a stroke at age 71.
Dr. Walter Ong - Jesuit priest, renowned scholar and author, best known for his 1982 book “Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the World”, whose ideas about how forms of communication shaped cultures drew a wide circle of followers in diverse areas such as feminism and psychology, and who was president of the largest scholarly society in the world, the Modern Language Association of America, died August 12 in St. Louis after a long illness at age 90.
Katy Reeves - Spokane, Washington teenager who was vacationing with her family in Zimbabwe at the remote Mana Pools National Park, who on August 11 was viewing wildlife from a canoe with her family and two highly experienced guides, was suddenly snatched from the canoe by a crocodile and killed. She was 17 years old.
Victims of the Charleston sniper shootings - Three people were gunned down in Charleston, West Virginia at convenience stores by an unknown sniper driving a black truck: Gary Carrier, 44, a mechanic, was shot in the head while using a pay phone on August 10; Jeanie Patton, 31, a school cook, was shot in the head while pumping gas on August 14; Oakey Meadows, 26, a former Air Force cadet, was shot in the neck as he was paying for gas.

Business and Science
Armand Borel - Influential Swiss-born mathematician who is credited with helping reconceptualize the whole field of mathematics after WW2 and the development of modern mathematics, and who is best known for his work with Lie groups (certain continuous collections of mathematical symmetries, but you already knew that), died August 11 in Princeton, NJ of cancer at age 80.
Martha Chase - Molecular biologist, who as a 21-year-old research assistant to Alfred Hershey in 1952, shared in one of the most important discoveries of molecular biology in the 20th century, who used a common blender to show that DNA, not protein, is the genetic material of life (Hershey was awarded the Nobel Prize and the blender is on display at the DNA Learning Center), died August 8 in Cleveland Heights, OH at age 75.
Dietrich "Dee" Dirks - Broadcasting pioneer who formed the KCOM Broadcasting Co. and started TV station KTIV in Sioux City, Iowa in 1953, died August 12 in Sioux City at age 101.
Tammi Gower - Founder and co-owner of the trendy Derby nightclub in Los Angeles, which opened in one of the original locations of the famous Brown Derby restaurants, which was originally built by Cecil B. DeMille in 1920 and closed in 1960 (this building had been used as a location in numerous TV shows and films including the exterior of Arnold’s Drive-In in “Happy Days”, and as a café in the film “Speed”), and who was honored by the city of Los Angeles for her role in revitalizing the area, died of cancer on August 9 in Los Angeles at age 51.
Allen Latham - Inventor of blood processing systems which have revolutionized transfusion medicine, who in 1973 invented the Latham bowl, a discontinuous-flow system, and who founded Haemonetics, one of the largest medical devices companies in the Eastern U.S., died August 5 of heart disease in Jamaica Plain, MA at age 95.
Roxie Laybourne - Ornithologist who developed the specialty of identifying dead birds from their feathers (forensic ornithology) while working at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, and whose work has been used to help protect airplanes from collisions with birds, died August 7 in Washington, DC at age 92.
Dr. Hatten Yoder - Geophysicist and expert on volcanic basalt, whose research about the effects of high pressure and temperature on minerals contributed to knowledge about the origins of life, who served as president of the Mineralogical Society of America, and who published numerous books including the page-turner “Generation of Basaltic Magma”, died August 2 in Bethesda, MD of sepsis at age 82.