Sports
Jose-Maria Jimenez - Spanish cyclist and nine time stage winner of the Tour of Spain, who was once touted as a successor to five-time Tour de France winner Miguel Indurain, but whose career was sidelined by a series of misfortunes and battles with mental illness, died of a heart attack on Dec. 6 at a psychiatric hospital in Madrid at age 32.
Egnatius "Iggy" Katona - The winningest driver in ARCAS history, who earned 79 career series wins including title wins in six different years in a career that stretched from 1953 to 1974, who finished in the top 10 in points an astonishing 21 consecutive years, died Dec. 4 in Daytona Beach, FL at age 87.
Ricky Lannetti - Leading wide receiver on Lycoming College's football team, who became ill with flu-like symptoms just hours before his team's NCAA Div. III quarterfinal playoff game against Bridgewater College, died Dec. 6 of sepsis, a blood infection, in Williamsport, PA at age 21. The game was postponed on Dec. 6 due to snow, but played anyway on Dec. 7 (Lycoming lost).
Norm Sloan - Head basketball coach at North Carolina State from 1967 to 1980, who led the Wolfpack to a 30-1 record and a national championship victory over Marquette in 1974, who went undefeated in 1973 with a 27-0 record, but the team was ineligible for post-season play due to NCAA violations, and who finished his career coaching at Florida, died Dec. 9 of pulmonary fibrosis in Durham, NC at age 77.

Art and Literature
John Brimhall - Noted piano arranger who simplified the arrangements on hundreds of popular tunes for many beginner-level piano students, who pioneered the 'Bach to the Beatles with Brimhall' approach to musical education, which became a global success by enabling beginning pianists to play the music of the Beatles while learning the classical lessons of musical theory, died Dec. 2 in Las Vegas at the age of 75.
Jeff Brown - Author who created Flat Stanley, the two-dimensional hero of an enduring series of children's books, the first, "Flat Stanley", was published in 1964, and the latest "Stanley, Flat Again!" was published in 2003, and whose books have sold nearly one million copies in the United States, died on Dec. 3 of a heart attack while walking near his home in New York City at the age of 77.
Michael Tarantino - Esteemed American-born art curator, who created thematic art shows at galleries in the U.S. and Europe, who was head of exhibitions at the Oxford Museum of Modern Art in Britain, and who was a pioneering supporter of artists' video and film installations, died Nov. 28 of cancer at age 55.
Stefan Wul (real name Pierre Pairault) - French science fiction author who published seven books between 1956 and 1959 including 1957's Le Temple du Passe (The Temple of the Past) which was translated into English, whose book Oms en Serie was adapted into the animated film "Fantastic Planet" in 1973, died Nov. 26 at age 81.

Politics and Military
John Haley - Whitewater figure and Arkansas lawyer who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge filed by Whitewater prosecutors, involving James and Susan McDougal, the partners of President Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Whitewater land deal, and who was once the personal lawyer for Arkansas Governor Jim Guy Tucker, died on Dec. 4 in a plane crash in northwest Arkansas at age 72.
Harold Lewis - World War I veteran who was honored with the French Legion of Honor, the McCrae Medallion and the Queen's Certificate by the Canadian government, and who was one of just 10 living Canadian veterans of World War I, died Dec. 1 in Monterey, CA, just days short of his 103rd birthday.
Azie Taylor Morton - U.S. Treasurer from 1977 to 1981, appointed by President Jimmy Carter, whose signature appears on U.S. currency issued during those years, who was the only African-American person to serve as Treasurer of the United States, and who had previously served on the Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity under President Kennedy, died Dec. 7 in Austin, TX after a stroke at age 67.
Carlos Arana Osorio - President of Guatemala and a general who ruled as a hard-line conservative from 1970 to 1974, who expanded government efforts to bring armed rebels under control while also persecuting student radicals, workers' groups and political opponents, died Dec. 6 in a Guatemala City of a serious, but undisclosed illness at the age of 85.
Paul Simon - U.S. Senator and Congressman from Illinois, known for his trademark bow tie and straightforward style, who served two terms in the Senate and five in Congress in a political career that spanned 40 years, who was a moderate liberal who was the chief Democratic sponsor of the balanced budget amendment while in the Senate, and who ran an unsuccessful campaign bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1988, died Dec. 9 in Springfield, IL after heart surgery at age 75.

Social and Religion
Thomas I. Crimando - History professor at State University of New York at Brockport, who was walking to his parked car at the university on Dec. 5, was struck and killed by a car driven by university English professor Mark Anderson. Crimando was 49. Anderson was charged with driving while intoxicated.
John Pridonoff - Thanatologist who served as executive director of the Hemlock Society, a group that formed in 1980 to advocate a legal right to die for terminally ill patients, who was instrumental in the passage of Oregon's controversial Right to Die law, and who pushed for a U.S. constitutional amendment permitting what he called "death with dignity" across the country, died Nov. 24 in Sherman Oaks, CA of heart failure at age 64.
Eduardo Sanchez - Disc jockey at the popular Winnipeg nightclub Village Caberet, who was known as DJ Phonosys and Grandmasta Sanchez, who vanished without a trace after work on Oct. 12, 2002, was found dead on Dec. 3 behind a wall in the nightclub, his body in a mummified state. He was 21 years old. He apparently wriggled into an opening between the two walls for an unknown reason, became trapped and asphyxiated. If not for a recent citywide ban on smoking in bars which went into affect in September, they might never have found the body (Think about it).
Dru Sjodin - 22-year-old college student at the University of North Dakota, who vanished from a Grand Forks mall after she left her job at Victoria's Secret on Nov. 22, and whose blood and a bloody knife were found in the car of convicted rapist Alfonso Rodriguez (he had been released from prison in May, 2003 after 25 years for previous offenses), is not believed to be alive authorities announced on Dec. 9.

Business and Science
Paul-Louis Halley - Principal shareholder in the French supermarket chain Carrefour, the world's second largest retailer, who was named by Forbes magazine as one of the 10 richest people in France, was killed along with his wife Annick, 63, in a plane crash on Dec. 6 near Oxfordshire, England. He was 69 years old.
Rhoda Metraux - Anthropologist and longtime research assistant to Margaret Mead, whose research focused on childhood, mental health, and national culture traits, and who co-wrote several books with Mead including "The Study of Culture at a Distance" and "Themes in French Culture", died Nov. 26 of Alzheimer's disease in Vermont at age 89.
Ross Millhiser - Philip Morris executive who was a driving force behind the company's creation of the Marlboro Man, who in 1954 as brand manager of the then women's cigarette brand (really?), oversaw the redesign of its packaging and hired the firm that created the successful Marlboro Man advertising campaign, sending the brand's popularity soaring toward its current No. 1 ranking, died Dec. 6 of heart failure in Richmond, VA at age 83.