News and Entertainment
Lorene Allen - Nashville songwriter long associated with singer Loretta Lynn, whose songwriting credits for Lynn include "The Pill", "Another Man Loved Me Last Night" and "Let Me Go, You're Hurtin' Me", who also wrote songs recorded by stars like Sonny James, Charlie Louvin, Conway Twitty, Eddy Arnold, Ernest Tubb, Dottie West, Don Gibson, Marie Osmond and Pat Boone, died Jan. 9 in Nashville of lung cancer at age 78.
Vitín Avilés - Puerto Rican-born vocalist known especially for boleros, who sang with the orchestras of Lecuona, Xavier Cugat, Charlie Palmieri and Tito Puente among numerous others, who released several albums of his own including 1995's Canta Al Amor, died Jan. 1 in New York City at age 79.
Alex Barris - Canadian newspaper columnist, author and TV show host, who wrote 'The Barris Beat' entertainment column for the Toronto Telegram, who hosted the like-named musicial-variety series in the 1950's produced and directed by Norman Jewison, who wrote several books including 2001's "Making Music: Profiles from a Century of Canadian Music", which is a compilation of biographies of more than 200 Canadian musicians, and who was awarded the Order of Canada in 1999, died Jan. 15 in Toronto from complications of a stroke at age 81.
Charles Brown - Broadway actor who was nominated for Tony awards for his roles in 1980's "Home" and 2000's "King Hedley II", who is known to TV audiences for playing Martin Luther King in the 1983 mini-series "Kennedy", as well as appearances in such TV shows as "Law and Order", "Kojak" and "All My Children", died Jan. 8 of cancer in Cleveland at the age of 57.
Scott Craig - Child actor who was a Mouseketeer on the short-lived revival of "The Mickey Mouse Club", who as a child was in commercials for Milton Bradley, Mattel, Pioneer Chicken, Arco, and Biz laundry detergent, and who appeared as a solo performer on the "Lily Tomlin Special" and the Dick Cavett Special "Backlot, U.S.A.", died Dec. 30 of unspecified causes in Las Vegas at age 39.
Philip Crosby - One of Bing Crosby's four sons from his first marriage to Dixie Lee (brothers Gary, Lindsay and twin brother Dennis are all deceased), who entered showbiz with his brothers in the 1950's forming a nightclub act called the Crosby Boys that performed in Las Vegas and elsewhere, who made some recordings and had small roles in films such as "Robin and the Seven Hoods", but who, like his brothers, was plagued with various problems like alcoholism and depression as an adult (two of the brothers committed suicide), was found dead on Jan. 13 in his Woodland Hills, California home of unknown but natural causes at age 69.
Alexander "Bink" Dannenbaum - Philadelphia radio and TV pioneer, who began working in radio at WDAS in the 1930's where he initiated the idea of hourly news updates, an idea which was later picked up by radio stations around the country, who was part of the duo that thought up the legendary "Plainfield Teacher's College" hoax, and who later became sales manager at WPTZ-TV, the U.S.'s first commercial television station, died Jan. 10 in Boca Raton, Florida at age 93.
Marty Haag - Dallas broadcast journalism executive and news director at station WFAA-TV for many years, who transformed Channel 8 into the local news juggernaut, and who turned down numerous offers over the years to work at the network level, died Jan. 10 after a stroke in Dallas at age 69.
Uta Hagen - Tony Award-winning theatre actress and one of the all time greats, who was best known for creating the role of the spiteful Martha in Edward Albee's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" (played by Elizabeth Taylor in the film), who also starred opposite Marlon Brando in Tennessee Williams's "A Streetcar Named Desire", who received her first Tony Award for best actress in "The Country Girl", who was equally known as a teacher, starting HB Studio, a school of the performing arts in New York's Greenwich Village, and who was a recipient of a 1999 Tony for lifetime achievement and a 2002 National Medal of Arts, the government's top recognition for artists, died Jan. 14 in New York of complications from a 2001 stroke. She was 84 years old.
Fred Holstein - Chicago-area folk music singer, known for his interpretations of traditional and contemporary folk songs, who worked with other Chicago-area folk-singers such as Steve Goodman and John Prine, died Jan. 8 in Chicago during surgery at age 61.
Erle Jolson - Widow of legendary entertainer Al Jolson, whom she met in 1944 when she was 22 and he was 58, who moved to Hollywood with Jolson and had bit parts in several films including "A Thousand and One Nights", and who was married to Jolson from 1945 until his death in 1950, died Jan. 11 in Century City, California of cancer at age 81.
Anthony "Tuba Fats" Lacen - Popular New Orleans brass band tuba player, who helped rekindle interest in traditional New Orleans brass band jazz and its historic role in jazz funerals, second-line parades and other cultural traditions, and whose band, The Chosen Few, were regular performers on Jackson Square and throughout the French Quarter, died of a heart attack on Jan. 10 in New Orleans at age 53.
Jimmi Lawrence - Guitarist of the up-and-coming British rock band Hope of the States, whose debut single "Enemies Friends" recently hit the top 30 in England, who had recently signed a recording deal with Sony, and were recording their debut album at Peter Gabriel's Real World Studios, was found hanging on Jan. 15 at the studio in Box, Bath, England, an apparent suicide. He was 26 years old.
Mike Masters - Burly character actor in films and television, who appeared in dozens of TV shows including "Combat!", "The Man from U.N.C.L.E.", "Perry Mason", "The A-Team" and most notably "Wild, Wild West" as both a stuntman and semi-regular actor, and who acted in movies such as "The Manchurian Candidate", "Seven Days in May" and "Cheech & Chong's Nice Dreams", died Dec. 2 in Arleta, California of cancer at age 74.
J. Kenneth McEldowney - Los Angeles florist and real estate agent, who in the 1940's complained to his wife, an MGM publicist, about one of her studio's films, who took his wife's dare to make a better movie and produced the 1951 classic "The River", based on Rumer Godden's romantic autobiographical novel set in colonial India, which opened in New York with a record 34-week run at reserved-seat prices and was on several 10-best-movie lists in 1951, died Jan. 5 in Burbank, California at age 97.
Sidney Miller - Actor, director and songwriter who appeared in over 100 films beginning in the early 1930's as a contract actor with MGM, whose films included "Boy's Town", "Men of Boy's Town", "Experiment in Terror" and "Memories of Me", who became a notable TV director in the 1950's and 60's on such shows as "The Real McCoy's", "My Mother The Car", "Get Smart", "That Girl", "The Monkees" and "The Addams Family", and who with partner Inez James wrote songs for several of the Donald O'Connor musicals including "This Is the Life" and "Chip Off the Old Block", died Jan. 10 in Los Angeles of Parkinson's disease at age 87.
Allen Miner - Writer, director and producer best known for his work on TV on such series as "Wagon Train", "Perry Mason" and "The Untouchables", who directed and produced several films including "The Naked Sea" in 1955 and "Black Patch" in 1957, and who wrote and directed the 1968 film "Chubasco", died Jan. 4 in San Marcos, California at age 86.
Frances Morris - Actress best-known as a leading lady in B-westerns starting in the late 1920s, who appeared or starred in movies with titles like "The Rawhide Terror", "Nevada Cyclone" and "The Ridin' Fool", who went on to appear in nearly 150 movies in more minor roles including such well-known films as "The Perils of Pauline", "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" and "Joan of Arc", and who had several roles on TV including Clark Kent's adoptive mother on the first episode of "The Adventures of Superman" in 1952, died Dec. 2 in Santa Clarita, California at age 98.
Joaquim Nin-Culmell - Cuban-born composer and pianist, who was a longtime professor in the music department at the University of California at Berkeley, and who was the brother of avant-garde French novelist Anaďs Nin, died Jan. 14 in Oakland, California at age 95.
Ron O'Neal - Stage and film actor best known as star of the surprise hit 1972 movie "Superfly", who played badass cocaine dealer Youngblood Priest, a role which made him an overnight star and for which he spent much of the rest of his career distancing himself from, and whose post-"Superfly" credits include movies "The Master Gunfighter", "When a Stranger Calls" and "A Force of One", and TV roles like "The Equalizer" and "Bring 'Em Back Alive", died Jan. 14 in Los Angeles of pancreatic cancer at the age 66.
Delia Scala - Italian classical ballerina who became a star in the world of Italian television in the 1950's, who starred in several variety shows throughout the 50s and 60s, and was one of Italy's most beloved TV showgirls, died Jan. 15 in Livorno, Italy at age 74.
Ray Stark - The last of the great independent Hollywood producers, who made films that were often based on best-selling books or hit plays, rich in production value and cast with major stars, whose career as producer was notable for his association with Barbra Streisand, who was the producer of such films as "Funny Girl", "The Way We Were", "Funny Lady", "The Sunshine Boys" and "The Goodbye Girl", and who in 1980 received the Motion Picture Academy's Irving G. Thalberg Award for consistent high quality of production, died Jan. 17 at his Los Angeles home after a long illness at age 88.
Joe Walls - Singer with the Washington, DC-area R&B vocal group the Rainbows, who was a member of the reformed 60's group that recorded for the Dave and Gramo labels, and who was instrumental in the ongoing efforts of the group, died Dec. 16 in Washington, DC at age 65.
Randy Van Warmer - Singer/songwriter/guitarist who had a big hit in 1979 with "Just When I Needed You Most" (#1 adult contemporary, #4 pop), who went on to a second successful career as a country songwriter, penning hits like "I Guess It Never Hurts to Hurt Sometimes ", a #1 country hit for the Oak Ridge Boys in 1984 and "I'm in a Hurry (And Don't Know Why)", a #1 country hit for Alabama in 1992, died Jan. 12 in Seattle of leukemia at age 48.
Sports
John Friedmann - Director of the Jackson County Sports Complex Authority in Kansas City, Missouri, who managed the Truman Sports Complex, home of the stadiums for both the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals, who was lauded as one of the great stadium managers in the United States, died Jan. 9 in Kansas City from injuries he received from being shot during a carjacking on Dec. 28. He was 71 years old.
Mike Goliat - Starting second baseman for the Philadelphia Phillies on the Whiz Kids' 1950 National League championship team that lost in the World Series to the Yankees, who played four years in the major leagues with a career average of .225, died Jan. 13 of heart failure at his home in Seven Hills, Ohio at age 82. Catcher Andy Seminick is the only living member of the eight starting position players from the 1950 team.
Robert Jordan - One of the America's leading bridge players, who dominated the U.S. national game during the 1960's, who in 1960 won the McKenney Trophy for the best American performance in a calendar year and who, with partner Arthur Robinson, finished runner-up on three occasions for the world title during the 1960's, died Jan. 10 in West Palm Beach, Florida of lung cancer at age 76.
V.J. Lovero - Photographer for Sports Illustrated whose photographs appeared on the cover 39 times, who shot photos for Upper Deck's baseball card collection, who worked as a photographer for the Anaheim Angels baseball team for more than 20 years and was the Anaheim Mighty Ducks' hockey team's official photographer since the club's inception in 1993, died Jan. 12 in Newport Beach, California of lung cancer at age 44.
Gus Suhr - All Star first baseman who once held the National League record for most consecutive games played, 822, during the 1930's (later broken by Stan Musial in 1957), who played 11 seasons in the majors from 1930 to 1940 for the Pittsburgh Pirates and Philadelphia Phillies, who had a lifetime average of .279 with 84 home runs and 818 RBI's, including 3 100+ RBI seasons, and who was the second oldest former major leaguer, died Jan. 15 at his home in Scottsdale, Arizona at the age of 98.
Duane Sweeney - The chief starter of the Indianapolis 500 from 1980 until 1996, who waved the flags of different colors to signal the various stages of the race, died Jan. 15 in New Berlin, Wisconsin at age 81.
William T. Young - Founder of W.T. Young Foods, which created Big Top Peanut Butter in 1946, which later became the Jif Peanut Butter Product, but who was better known as a top horse breeder and owner of Overbrook Farm, which produced such champions as 1996 Kentucky Derby winner Grindstone, died Jan 12 in Gulf Stream, Florida at age 85.
Art and Literature
Lois Anderson - 60's counterculture artist who worked under the name Lotus Carnation, who was known for her bejeweled assemblages such The Throne, an old armchair covered with jewels transformed into a glittery sculpture, and whose pieces are owned by celebrities and art collectors and are part of a permanent collection at the Oakland Art Museum's wing for visionary art, died Jan. 11 of cancer at her home in Mill Valley, California at the age of 77.
Andrea Badenoch - British crime novelist who was known for exploring social issues as in her plot lines in such urban thrillers as "Loving Geordie" (2002), "Blink" (2001) and "Mortal" (1998), and who also co-edited the journal "Writing Women", died Jan. 6 of breast cancer at age 52.
Gunther Barth - Author on the history of the American West, who wrote such books as "The Age of Industrialization in America" (1968), "Instant Cities" (1975) and "City People" (1980), and who was a professor at the University of California from 1962 until 1995, died Jan. 7 in Berkeley, California after a brief illness at age 78.
Harriet Braiker - Psychologist, author and expert on stress management for women, who was well-known to readers of Working Woman and other magazines for her articles about how such issues as work, success, expectations, love and holidays can be stressful for women, who made frequent appearances on such shows as "The Oprah Winfrey Show", "The Today Show" and "Larry King Live", and who wrote numerous best-selling self-help books including "The Type E Woman", "Getting Up When You're Feeling Down", "The Disease to Please" and "Who's Pulling Your Strings?", died Jan. 10 in Huntington Beach, California of respiratory failure at age 55.
Jack Cady - Acclaimed author of science fiction and supernatural novels who penned such books as "The Hauntings of Hood Canal" (2001), "The Off Season" (1996) and "Inagehi" (1993), and who was the winner of the Nebula, Phillip K. Dick, World Fantasy and Bram Stoker awards for science fiction, died Jan. 14 of bladder cancer in Port Townsend, Washington at age 71.
Olivia Goldsmith - Author whose first novel "The First Wives Club" in 1992 became a best seller and spawned the 1996 movie starring Goldie Hawn, Diane Keaton and Bette Midler (Hawn's character was a Hollywood diva who had plastic surgery to retain her youthful looks), who went on to write more than a half dozen humorous novels including "Switcheroo" (1998) and "Young Wives" (2000), died Jan. 15 in New York City a week after a bad reaction to anesthesia during plastic surgery had put her into a coma. She was 54 years old.
Billy Kluver - Scientist and engineer best known for co-founding Experiments in Art and Technology in the 1960's, an organization where scientists, such as Mr. Kluver, collaborated with artists such as Robert Rauschenberg on multimedia art forms that fused art and technology, such as snowflakes that fell upward and tennis rackets that gave out sounds like huge temple bells, died Jan. 11 in Berkeley Heights, NJ of melanoma at age 76.
David Lees - Photographer who captured decades of Italian history in hundreds of pictures for Life magazine, who began collaborating with Life after World War II, who covered fashion shows and celebrities, and was often the photographer of choice for elusive personalities, such as poet Ezra Pound and Italian artist Giacomo Manzu, died Jan. 10 in Florence, Italy of pneumonia at age 86.
Tom Parramore - Historian, author and expert on the Wright brothers' first flight, whose books on North Carolina history are used as texts in North Carolina's public schools, and whose most notable work, "First to Fly: North Carolina and the Beginnings of Aviation", was published in time for the Wright brothers centennial in 2003, died Jan. 14 in Raleigh, North Carolina of a heart ailment at age 71.
Jirayr Zorthian - Eccentric Southern California artist and sculptor, whose artwork, which has been exhibited around the world, focused primarily on the naked female form, who was known for hosting sprawling parties on his 9-acre ranch that featured naked nymphs and celebrities like Andy Warhol and musician Charlie Parker, died Jan. 13 of congestive heart failure in Altadena, California at age 92.
Politics and Military
Niculae Cerveni - Romanian anti-communist resistance fighter who was convicted in 1949 of plotting against the communist regime and spent five years in prison, and who went on to serve as a senator after the fall of communism in 1989, died Jan. 15 in Bucharest at the age of 77.
Perry Duryea - Longtime New York politician and legislator, who was a powerful Republican in the state legislature from 1960 to 1978, who was house speaker from 1969 through 1973, and minority leader from 1974 to 1978, who ran for governor of New York in 1978 but lost to incumbent Hugh Carey, died Jan. 11 at a hospital in Southampton, New York from injuries suffered in a car accident. He was 82.
Yossi Ginossar - Key figure in Israel's Shin Bet security service, who as an agent under Israeli prime ministers Rabin, Peres and Barak , forged close ties with Palestinian officials during peace negotiations, often holding nighttime talks with Yasser Arafat, and who spent a career devoted to peace and security for the Israelis and Palestinians, died of cancer on Jan. 12 at his home in Jerusalem at age 58.
Mary Hanford - Mother of North Carolina Senator Elizabeth Dole, who lived to see her daughter become that state's first female senator in 2002, died Jan. 14 in Salisbury, NC at age 102.
David N. Henderson - U.S. Congressman from North Carolina who served as a Democratic from 1961 to 1976, who chaired the Post Office and Civil Service Committee, and who helped create Cape Lookout National Seashore, died Jan. 13 in Wilmington, North Carolina at the age of 82.
Thomas Kindness - U.S. Congressman from Ohio, who served as a Republican from 1975 to 1987, who was an unsuccessful candidate for the Senate in 1988 and then lost when he re-ran for Congress in 1990, died Jan. 8 of cancer at his home in Exeter, England at the age of 74
Myron Leavitt - Longtime Nevada politico who was currently a state Supreme Court Justice, who had previously served as Nevada's lieutenant governor, a Las Vegas city councilman, a Clark County commissioner and justice of the peace, and who unsuccessfully ran for governor of Nevada in 1982, died Jan. 9 in Las Vegas of undetermined causes (he had had a kidney transplant in Nov. 2003) at the age of 73.
Paul Sunderland - Oldest known World War I veteran in Missouri, who enlisted in 1917 and was stationed on the USS Charleston, which was part of a continuous convoy that delivered soldiers and supplies to the Allied war effort in Europe, died Jan. 9 in Kansas City, Missouri at age 107.
Social and Religion
Richard Ausley - Virginia man who in 1973 was convicted of abducting a 13-year-old boy, burying him in a box and sexually molesting him for more than a week, and who was sentenced to 43 years in prison, was found dead in his jail cell at the state prison in Waverly, Virginia at the age of 64. He had been strangled and had suffered blunt trauma to the torso.
Donald Barnhart - Pennsylvania man who was being sought by the police for the shooting deaths of his girlfriend's sister, her husband and 19-month-old daughter (a 9-month-old baby was found unharmed), who had bragged to friends that he planned to kill the family, who on Jan. 16 was driving in a stolen car near Apollo, PA when police spotted the car and turned on their lights and sirens, set off an explosive device in the car and blew himself up as police attempted to pull him over. He was 31 years old.
Kenneth Bruce - Texas man who in 1990 along with three of his cousins, invaded the home of 58-year-old Helen Elizabeth Ayers and her husband, shot each of them twice killing Helen (her husband survived and was permanently paralyzed), and stole $10 in cash and some costume jewelry, was executed by lethal injection on Jan. 15 in Huntsville, TX at the age of 32.
Jalal Shahiki Chahmaleki - Iranian man who survived 13 days under the rubble of the devastating Dec. 26 earthquake in Bam, Iran that killed more than 30,000 people, in a rescue described as a "miracle" (people rarely survive being buried under rubble more than 3 days), died Jan. 11 of respiratory and heart failure at a hospital in Bam at age 57.
Lauren Crossan - Captain of the cheerleading competition squad at Randolph High School in New Jersey, who was selected by the National Cheerleaders Association to perform with nearly 600 other cheerleaders from across the country at the halftime show of the Hula Bowl in Hawaii, was found dead on Jan. 12 just hours after checking in to her hotel room in Maui. She was naked and had plunged to her death from a ninth-floor hotel balcony, a room registered to two California men who were questioned and released (they said they were asleep and didn't know what happened). She was 18 years old.
Tyrone Darks - Oklahoma man convicted of the 1994 murder of his ex-wife, Sherry Goodlow, whom he shot six times before taking the couple's 2-year-old daughter, who was in the news in January 2003 while on death row, when he was caught trying to defraud up to a $1 million from the compensation fund set up for victims of the Sept. 11 2001, was executed by lethal injection on Jan. 13 in McAlester, Oklahoma at age 39.
Sheila Hernandez - 5-year-old student in a pre-kindergarten program in rural North Carolina, who on Jan. 13 was boarding a school bus as her mother watched nearby, was killed when a tractor-trailer hauling chickens slammed into the back of the stopped bus near Maxton, North Carolina, propelling the bus more than 400 feet and into the yards of houses. The crash critically injured Shelia's mother, Marie Hernandez, and more than a dozen other pupils. Charges are pending against the truck driver who said he was looking for his cell phone at the time of the accident.
Tom Hurndall - British peace activist who was a member of the International Solidarity Movement, a Palestinian-led group which campaigns against Israeli occupation using non-violence, who on April 11, 2003 was shot in the head by an Israeli soldier as he was attempting to rescue two children caught in a crossfire (he was wearing the required orange day-glow journalism jacket), died of those injuries on Jan. 13 at a hospital in London at the age of 22. Murder charges have been brought against the Israeli soldier who shot him.
Dr. Rainer Hildebrandt - German human rights activist who fought both the Nazis and Communism, who was jailed for criticizing the Nazis during the 1940's, who during the cold war, supported rescuers who smuggled people to the West, and who in the 1960's established the Berlin Wall museum near what used to be Checkpoint Charlie crossing at the Berlin Wall, died Jan. 9 in Berlin at age 89.
Molly Kelly - Aboriginal woman who was the subject of the 2002 film "Rabbit Proof Fence", who as a child was taken from her family along with her sister and a cousin under Australian government policy which removed Aboriginal children from their parents, who were taken 1600 kilometers away to north of Perth, Australia, but who escaped and in a remarkable feat of endurance and courage and took nine weeks to walk home (around 1000 U.S. miles), died Jan. 13 in Jigalong, Western Australia at age 87.
Dr. Harold Shipman - Notorious British serial killer known as "Dr. Death", who as a family doctor in the town of Hyde near Manchester, England, was found to have murdered at least 215 patients from 1975 to 1998, mainly elderly women whom he injected with large amounts of diamorphine, and whose motives for the killings were never clear (it is believed that early on it was only terminally ill patients and then later patients he found annoying or uncooperative), was found dead on Jan. 13 in his prison cell in Wakefield prison in West Yorkshire, apparently a suicide by hanging. He was one day short of his 58th birthday.
Lewis Williams - Ohio man convicted of beating and shooting 76-year-old Leoma Chmielewski during a robbery in Cleveland in 1983, who had had previous executions stayed as his attorneys argued that he was mentally retarded, was executed by lethal injection on Jan. 14 in Lucasville, Ohio at age 45. As he was being led to the death chamber, he struggled with guards, screamed for God's help, and grabbed a table from his knees which took four guards to pry him loose from. The ordeal left witnesses, guards and administrators shaken.
Business and Science
Zane Barnes - Chairman and CEO of AT&T from 1973 until it was broken up in 1984, who then became president and CEO of the Southwestern Bell Corporation until his retirement in 1989, who set the course for the company's takeover of other Bell offshoots like Pacific Telesis and Ameritech, died Jan. 9 in St. Louis from complications of injuries sustained in a fall during a trip in 2001. He was 82.
John Bernhard - President of Western Michigan University from 1974 to 1985, and Western Illinois University from 1968 to 1974, who during the 1950s was a personal aide to the eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes, died Jan. 12 of kidney failure in Kalamazoo, Michigan at age 83.
Mike Bonaccorsi - Vintner and master sommelier, who owned southern California's Bonaccorsi Wine Co., which specialized in Burgundies and Pinot Noirs, was found dead on Jan. 15 in his Buellton, California apartment of unknown but apparently natural causes. He was 43 years old.
H. Peter Burg - Chairman and CEO of FirstEnergy Corp., the Akron, Ohio-based utility company that is the U.S.'s fifth largest electric utility system, whose company took much of the blame for the August 14 blackout that affected the northeastern U.S. (the company failed to trim trees beneath high-voltage transmission lines causing the first power failures that day, and a computer malfunction at the utility then played a major role in allowing the problems to cascade), but who staunchly disputed the report by the energy commission task force, died Jan. 13 in Cleveland of leukemia at age 57.
James M. Early - Electrical engineer and inventor responsible for much of the design theory of bipolar transistors at Bell Laboratories, whose work at Fairchild Semiconductor helped revolutionize the chip industry and became the entrepreneurial breeding ground for companies such as Intel Corp. and National Semiconductor, and who held 14 patents by the time he retired in 1986 from Fairchild, died Jan. 12 in Palo Alto, California at the age of 81.
Dr. Bela Julesz - Neuroscientist who performed groundbreaking studies on the way the human brain perceives depth, texture and shape, who developed the random-dot stereogram test which proved that the human brain first perceives three-dimensional depth, then motion and finally the form of an object, and whose 1971 book "Foundations of Cyclopean Perception" received academic acclaim, died suddenly on Dec. 31 in Warren, New Jersey of undetermined causes at age 75.
Montague Keen - Psychic researcher, journalist and magazine editor, who was the principal investigator of the Scole Group and author of the Scole Report, which was published in 1999 and detailed the physical phenomena produced during sittings with a mediumistic group, and who for three years served as scientific adviser to the Center for Crop Circle Studies, died Jan. 15 of a heart attack while speaking at a debate on telepathy in London. He was 78 years old.
Asher "Dick" Kelty - Inventor who in the early 1950's developed the backpacks bearing his name which revolutionized backpacking, who designed the backpacks with aluminum external frames and waist straps that took the weight of the pack off the shoulders and redistributed it to the hips, and which earned the reputation as the Cadillac of backpacks, died Jan. 12 of congestive heart failure at his home in Glendale, California at the age of 84.
Georgette Klinger - Skin care expert who became famous for the facials given at her Georgette Klinger skin care centers in and around New York City, whose methods of skin care helped lay the foundation for today's multibillion-dollar spa industry, died Jan. 9 in New York City at age 88. Note: the above photo was taken when Ms. Klinger was in her 60's.
Charles Lewis - Horticulturist who was at the forefront of what came to be called horticultural therapy, who studied the effects of growing plants and the soothing benefits for human lives, who was among the first to mobilize diverse experts, including psychologists, city planners and landscape architects, to develop and use the new thinking, and who wrote the college text "Green Nature, Human Nature - The Meaning of Plants in Our Lives" (1996), died Dec. 19 in Albuquerque, New Mexico of pancreatitis at age 79.
Arne Naess - Norwegian shipping magnate, well-known adventurerer and one-time husband of Diana Ross, who was estimated to be worth $100 million when he met and married Ross in 1985, whose marriage was the popular subject of tabloids worldwide, and who shocked many, including Ross, when he announced plans to divorce on a TV interview show in 1999, fell to his death on Jan. 13 while climbing mountains near Cape Town, South Africa at the age of 66.
Dr. Peter Valk - Internist who pioneered the clinical use of P.E.T. scans (an imaging technology that scans the metabolic activity of internal organs) for the diagnosis of cancer, Alzheimer's disease and epilepsy, who was medical director of the Northern California P.E.T. Center, and whose text "Positron Emission Tomography: Basic Science and Clinical Practice", was published in 2003, died Dec. 16 in Berkeley, California of lung cancer at age 63.
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