Sports
Albert Brüells - German football (soccer) player and member of the German National team, who twice played in the World Cup (Chile, 1962 and England, 1966), died March 27 of cancer in Neuss, Germany at the age of 67.
V. J. "Lefty" Nickerson - Horse trainer who trained two-time Horse of the Year John Henry and other top horses over five decades, and who mentored Hall of Fame conditioner Richard Mandella, died March 26 in Smithtown, NY after a long illness. He was 75 years old.
David Rickman - Heavyweight boxer who on March 27 was making only his fourth pro appearance in a bout with Earl Ladson at a venue in Savannah, Georgia, but who was knocked down by several blows to the head by Ladson in the fourth round, died March 29 at a Savannah hospital, never regaining consciousness. He was 29 years old.
Norris Steverson - Star football player at Arizona State Teachers College (now Arizona State University) from 1928 to 1932, who became the first ASU player to play in the NFL when he signed with the Chicago Bears in 1934, playing one season, who later coached football, track, swimming, boxing, basketball, gymnastics and trail riding at the school for many years, and who was a charter member of the ASU Sports Hall of Fame, died March 23 in Mesa, Arizona at the age of 93.

Art and Literature
Carl Bakal - Author and editorial writer best known for his 1966 book "The Right To Bear Arms", which examined the tradition of firearm ownership in the U.S., who argued that the easy availability of guns and weapons had increased the level of violence and bred criminals, died March 18 at a hospital in New York City at the age of 86.
Emily Morison Beck - "Literary archaeologist" who edited three editions of Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, who added feminist voices, the singers James Brown and Bob Dylan and the first words spoken on the moon to the famous reference book, died of kidney failure on March 28 in Canton, MA at the age of 88.
Denny Dent - Performance artist who mixed rock imagery and music into what he called "a two-fisted art attack", who painted countless rock stars, sports figures and politicians using his unique method of flinging and swirling paint to create portraits on six-foot canvasses, and who performed at Woodstock '94 and more recently for John Travolta's 50th birthday party, died March 29 of kidney failure and a heart attack in Aurora, CO. He was 55 years old.
Enrique Grau - Painter, sculptor and one of Columbia's most acclaimed artists, who was considered one of three modern Colombian masters, along with the Fernando Botero and Alejandro Obregon, who style 'combines refined mimetic skills with satire', and whose work has been featured in retrospectives in Colombia, as well as at the Guggenheim Museum in New York and Paris' Museum of Modern Art, died April 1 of pulmonary disease at a hospital in Bogata at the age of 83.
George Heard Hamilton - Museum director and author who was an authority of modern art and trained art historians and museum curators, who taught at Yale and wrote numerous books on modern art including "Manet and His Critics", died on March 29 in Williamstown, Mass. at the age of 93.
Joel Feinberg - Philosopher who was known for his research in moral, social and legal philosophy and writings on issues such as capital punishment, the treatment of the mentally ill and civil disobedience, and whose book "Reason and Responsibility" is one of the most widely used textbooks in the history of philosophy, died March 29 in Tucson from complications of Parkinson's disease at the age of 77.
Michael King - New Zealand historian and literary icon, who had published 34 books, including biographies, historical treatises and his own memoirs, whose 2003 book "History of New Zealand" has become one of the country's all-time best-selling history books, and who in 2003 was awarded the Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement in non-fiction, was killed in a car accident, along with his wife Maria Jungowska, on March 30 near Maramarua, New Zealand at the age of 58.
Alan Levy - Journalist and author who was the founder and editor of the Prague Post, an English-language newspaper in the Czech capital, who was hailed for his coverage of the Cuban revolution and who published several books on the Russian-led invasion of Prague in 1967, including "Rowboat to Prague" in 1968, died of cancer April 2 in Prague at the age of 72.
Robert Merle - Acclaimed French author best known for his 1949 novel "Week-end a Zuydcoote" ("Weekend in Zuydcoote"), which was awarded the Goncourt, France's most prestigious literary award, and among whose other titles is "Un Animal doue de raison" ("The Day of the Dolphin"), which was turned into a 1973 film starring George C. Scott, died March 27 at his home in Yvelines, France at the age of 95.
John Sack - Fabled war correspondent and journalist, who wrote the landmark 1966 Vietnam War article, "Oh My God, We Hit a Little Girl" for Esquire magazine in 1966 (a 33,000 word article that remains the longest in the magazine's history), which was considered a pioneer work of New Journalism, and who wrote 10 books including "M" (based on the Esquire article), the controversial "An Eye for an Eye" and his last, "The Dragonhead", from 2001, died March 27 at a hospital in San Francisco of complications from a transplant for myelodysplasia (a bone marrow cancer) at the age of 74.
Werner Wildner - American artist who drew on Germanic influences, surrealism and other trends in Western art to craft intricate, darkly humorous paintings often with grotesque creatures, who mysteriously faded from public view in mid-career and who lived the last 20 years in self-imposed social and artistic exile, died of complications from pneumonia April 1 in Clarksville, TN at the age of 78.

Politics and Military
Col. Aaron Bank - Military commander during World War II, who was best known for his postwar role in forming of the Army's elite Special Forces known as the Green Berets, who conceived and organized the unit in the early 1950's for the purpose of carrying out unconventional operations, such as parachuting behind enemy lines and organizing civilian natives into guerrilla forces in enemy-held territory, who has became a military icon credited with creating the system of Army Special Forces that still operates today, who was known as an exercise buff who continued a daily regimen of lifting weights, riding a stationary bike and walking until weeks before he died, and who wrote several books including "From OSS to Green Berets: The Birth of Special Forces", published in 1987, died April 1 at an assisted-living facility in Dana Point, California at the age of 101,.
Contractors killed in Iraq - Four American employees of Blackwater Security Consulting, a firm that provides paramilitary training for private and government needs, who were all former U.S. Special Operations troops, were killed in an ambush on March 31 in Falluja, Iraq when their vehicle was hit by rocket-propelled grenades. Their charred bodies were mutilated and dragged through the streets filled with cheering Iraqis. The dead were identified as Jerry Zovko, 32, of Willoughby, Ohio; Mike Teague, 38, of Clarkson, Tennessee; Wesley Batalona, 48, of Honokaa, Hawaii; and Scott Helvenston, 38, a celebrity fitness trainer from Oceanside, California.
Arthur Ray "Hawk" Hawkins - Pilot with the legendary Blue Angels and one of the Navy's top flying aces during World War II, who was ranked 10th during the war with 14 confirmed and three probable aerial victories, all while flying F6F Hellcats, whose war record included destroying 39 aircraft on the ground and assisting in the sinking of a battleship, and who received numerous awards, including three Navy Cross and two Distinguished Flying Cross medals, died March 21 in Pensacola, Florida of complications from a stroke at the age of 81.
Chung Soon-duk - South Korean woman who was the last communist rebel guerrilla to be captured following the Korean War, who continued fighting the war from the Chiri Mountains for 3 years after the war ended in 1953, who remained on the loose until 1963 when she lost a leg in a bloody gunfight that ended in her capture, who was imprisoned for 22 years and after her release in 1985, remained under constant police surveillance until she was immobilized by a stroke, died on April 1 of a heart attack in Seoul at the age of 71.

Social and Religion
Marjorie Alexander - Long Island woman who recently went public with her 15-year relationship with married mobster Peter Gotti (brother of late mob boss John Gotti), who supported him as he awaited sentencing on federal racketeering charges and sent numerous letters to the judge asking for leniency, was found dead in a New York hotel room on March 31 of an apparent suicide. She was 43 years old.
Dennis Orbe - Virginia man who during a 1998 crime spree, shot and killed 39-year-old convenience store clerk Richard Burnett during an armed robbery, was executed by lethal injection on March 31 at the state prison in Jarratt, Virginia at the age of 39.
Frances Schreuder - New York woman who in 1978 convinced her teenage son Marc to kill her wealthy father, Franklin Bradshaw, one of the country's wealthiest men, in what became the inspiration for two books (including Shana Alexander's "Nutcracker: Money, Madness, Murder: A Family Album"), two TV miniseries and a recent documentary on Court TV, who wanted her father killed because of what she considered his stinginess, died March 30 of emphysema at a San Diego hospice at the age of 65.
Gurcharan Singh Tohra - Sikh religious leader who headed Sikhism's highest administrative body, the Sikh Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee, which administers Sikh religious and cultural institutions worldwide, died April 1 of a heart attack in New Delhi at the age of 79.
Cecilia Zhang - Toronto girl abducted from her bed last October, whose disappearance gained international attention when her parents appeared on America's Most Wanted and eventually involved Chinese police in the investigation, and whose picture was posted throughout the city including inside the windows of 4,000 taxicabs, was found dead in a wooded ravine near Toronto on March 27, three days before her 10th birthday.

Business and Science
Warren Cotton Ashley - Chemist, researcher and formulator, who during the 1960's developed the formula for colored markers known as Magic Markers, who also invented many of special lacquers and adhesives found in popular household products today, died March 29 of heart failure in Naperville, Illinois at the age of 99.
Pierre Bonelli - Electronics engineer who became a leading computer industry executive, who as CEO of Sema Group, expanded the company from a staff of hundreds to more than 20,000 employees, and who became chairman and CEO of French computer maker Bull SA in 2001, died March 31 in Paris of sudden but undisclosed causes at age 64.
Murray Gart - Longtime journalist and executive for Time magazine, who became the editor of the struggling 126-year-old Washington Star newspaper in 1978, which was owned by Time, who attempted to turn it around but ultimately failed in his efforts (it ceased publication in 1981), died March 31 at his home in Mitchellville, Maryland from complications of heart surgery at the age of 79.
Herman the Bull - World's first farm animal carrying a human gene, who was genetically engineered in 1991 and was saved from slaughter at the end of the experiment after a public outcry led by animal rights activists, was euthanized in the Netherlands on April 2 because he was suffering from a form of arthritis. He was 13 years old (not too old for a bull!) and his ailment was not related to his genetic manipulation.
Janet Mattei - Astronomer and foremost expert in the area of variable stars (decaying stars that twinkle or pulsate), who classified variable stars based their characteristics, like the eruptive, cataclysmic type, or the pulsating variable with very slow and steady beat, and who was the longtime director of the American Association of Variable Star Observers, which monitors some 600 telescopes, both earthbound and mounted on space satellites, died March 22 of leukemia at a hospital in Boston at the age of 61.
Hoke Smith - University president who led Baltimore's Towson University for 22 years, during which time the institution grew from a small teacher's college to the second largest university in the Maryland, died of liver cancer on March 27 in Baltimore at the age of 72.
Thomas Willers - Top oil industry executive who was president of Hooker Chemical for many years, who became president of Occidental Petroleum in 1968 after Hooker was acquired by Occidental, who was seen as a possible heir to Occidental's founder and chairman, Armand Hammer, but who quit in 1971 when he became disenchanted by how Occidental was run, died March 24 of respiratory failure at his home in Riverside, Connecticut at the age of 84.