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Sports
George Bamberger - Noted major league pitching coach for the dominating Baltimore Oriole teams of the late 60's to mid-70's, who helped produce AL Cy Young Award winners four times and 20-game winners 18 times during his tenure there (astonishing feat!), who went on to twice manage the Milwaukee Brewers, including their Bambi's Bombers teams of the late 70's, as well as managing the New York Mets in the early 80's, died April 4 of cancer at his home in North Redington Beach, Florida at the age of 80.
Bruce Edwards - Caddie for golfer Tom Watson for 31 years (since Edwards was 18 years old), who won 35 PGA events with Watson, who was diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) in February 2003 and was awarded Ben Hogan Award by the Golf Writers Association of America on April 7, succumbed to the disease on April 8 at his home in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida at the age of 49.
Tybius Flowers - Popular Philadelphia welterweight boxer and a rising star in the sport, who had compiled a career 17-6 record with 10 knockouts, was shot and killed while sitting in his car on March 2 in Philadelphia. He was 32 years old and had been subpoenaed to appear in court to testify in a murder trial. Police believe he was killed to silence him.
Jim McClure - Nineteen-time champion motorcycle drag racer and one of the sport's biggest stars, who rode his nitromethane-powered Harley-Davidsons in the IHRA's Screamin' Eagle class, who held the official speed record for a motorcycle of 216.76 mph and the best elapsed-time mark for a quarter mile of 6.42 seconds, and who was nicknamed "Da Judge" in racing circles, died April 2 in Williamsburg, Virginia of liver and pancreas failure (he had a heart transplant in January, 2004). He was 62 years old.
Larry McGrew - NFL linebacker who played 11 seasons, most of them for the New England Patriots, whose best years were with the 1984 Patriots when he made a career-high 167 tackles, and 1985 when he led the Patriots to the Super Bowl, and who also played for the 1990 Super Bowl champion New York Giants, collapsed and died on April 2 at his home in Lancaster, California at the age of 46. The cause of death is under investigation.
Ken Patterson - Popular figure on the NASCAR circuit, who was public relations director at Talladega Superspeedway, who was former sports editor and later managing editor at The Anniston Star, died on April 2 in Talladega, Alabama of myelodysplasia syndrome, a disease of the blood cells. He was 38 years old.
Robert Sangster - One of England's most successful horse breeders and racers, who raced more than 100 Group One stakes winners, including 27 wins in Europe's classic races, who holds the record for the most paid for a horse at public sale, paying $13.1 million for a half-brother to American Triple Crown champion Seattle Slew, named Seattle Dancer (who raced only 5 times earning $152,413), died April 7 of pancreatic cancer at his London home at the age of 67.
Alberic "Brik" Schotte - Belgium's world bicycle road racing champion who twice won the Tour of Flanders and claimed victory on the final stage of the Tour de France in 1947, and who earned his nickname because of his apparent indifference to pain on the tough one-day classic races, died after suffering from lung problems on April 4 after in Flanders at the age of 84.
Ron "Fritz" Williams - NBA basketball player who spent five seasons with the Golden State Warriors and also played for the Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Lakers, who was one of the first black basketball players at West Virginia University and was also once drafted by the Dallas Cowboys, died April 5 of a heart attack in San Jose, California. He was 59 years old.
Art and Literature
Roger D. Aycock - Science fiction writer who wrote under the pseudonym Roger Dee, publishing "An Earth Gone Mad" and over 50 stories in science fiction magazines, who was a local historian for Rome, Georgia, died in Rome on April 7 at age 89.
Gébé (real name Georges Blondeau) - French artist best known for his illustrations that appeared in the satirical magazines Hara-Kiri and Charlie Hebko (he edited both magazines at one point), died of cancer on April 4 in Melun, Seine-et-Marne, France at the age of 75.
Rene Gruau - Artist who worked for decades as an illustrator for fashion houses including Christian Dior and Givenchy, and whose drawings appeared in Elle, Vogue and Harper's Bazaar, died on March 31 in Rome at the age of 95.
Pierre Koenig - Modernist architect whose sleek glass-and-steel houses in Los Angeles, known as Case Study Houses #21 and #22 and built in the late 1950's, became emblems of the progressive values of Postwar suburbia, and who was a key figure in a generation that helped make Los Angeles one of the great laboratories of 20th century architecture, died April 4 of leukemia in Brentwood, CA at the age of 78.
Walter B. Miller - Anthropologist and nationally renowned expert on youth gangs, who believed that gang members were normal youth who were trying to achieve belonging and status according to the criteria of their own lower- and working-class communities, who was project director for the National Youth Gang Survey, the first national survey of violence by youth gangs and groups, and who wrote several notable books including "The Growth of Youth Gang Problems in the United States: 1970-98", died March 28 of congestive heart failure at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts at the age of 84.
Pompeo Posar - Playboy magazine's number one photographer for more than 30 years beginning in the early 1960's, who published 65 centerfolds and 40 covers for the magazine, who was known for his uncanny ability for finding a model and convincing her to take her clothes off, died recently at the age of 83 (any help with date, place and cause is appreciated).
Phillip Rock - Author and screenwriter best known for the trilogy of "Passing Bells" novels ("The Passing Bells", "Circles of Time", "A Future Arrived") about an aristocratic English family, whose also wrote the 1967 book "The Extraordinary Seaman", and the subsequent screenplay of the 1969 film starring David Niven, whose screenwriting credits also include "Escape From Fort Bravo" and "The Most Dangerous Man Alive", and who was the son of silent screen star Joe Rock, died April 3 of cancer in Los Angeles at the age of 76.
Politics and Military
Larisa Bogoraz - Soviet-era dissident and widow of noted dissidents Anatoly Marchenko and Yuly Daniel, who rose to prominence for a 1968 protest in Red Square against the Soviet government's invasion of Czechoslovakia, for which she was sentenced to four years of exile in Siberia, who campaigned for human rights and published "Memory", a book chronicling Stalinist repression, died on April 6 at the age of 74.
Christel Boom - One of the most significant spies of the Cold War, who with her husband Gunther Guilluame (died 1995) trained as East German intelligence officers then emigrated to West Germany posing as refugees, who got jobs within the Social Democratic Party and eventually were able gain high level access in the administration of West German chancellor Willy Brandt, bringing his downfall in 1974, and who received the highest honor of the state, the Karl Marx Medal, upon their return to East Germany in 1981, died March 20 in Berlin at the age of 76.
Helen Cole - Longtime Oklahoma state representative and senator, who was known for her battles to reduce teenage drinking and to promote ethics in government, and who was the mother of U.S. Congressman Tom Cole, died April 7 at a hospital in Norman, Oklahoma after a stroke at the age of 81.
Richard Fiske - Marine who was stationed on the USS West Virginia on Dec. 7, 1941 when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, who survived the attack that sank the ship by swimming to Ford Island, who later became a volunteer at the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor, and whose story of post-war friendship with Japanese fighter pilot Zenji Abe is told in the book "Pearl Harbor Warriors" by Dorinda Nicholson, died April 2 at his home in Moiliili, Hawaii at the age of 82.
Roberta "Bobby" Hathaway - First lady of Wyoming from 1967 to 1975, who was married for 57 years to former Governor Stanley Hathaway, who during her husband's tenure became a force in her own right, advocating for women, children, American Indians, the arts and the mentally ill, died April 5 in Cheyenne, Wyoming of natural causes at the age of 79.
Lt. Col. Fred Olivi - Co-pilot of the the B-29 Superfortress "Bockscar" that dropped the atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan on August 9, 1945 that killed thousands of people but hastened Japan's surrender to the U.S. six days later ending World War II, who in later years toured the U.S. giving speeches, visiting museums and promoting his book "Decision at Nagasaki", died April 8 at a Chicago hospital from the effects of a 2003 stroke. He was 82 years old.
Frank A. Sieverts - State department specialist in refugee and relief issues who was himself child of German-Jewish refugees, who helped coordinate the return of U.S. prisoners of war during the Vietnam War era and the resettlement of Southeast Asian refugees in the wake of the war, and who most recently was a top Washington official for the International Committee of the Red Cross, died March 31 of a heart attack in Washington, DC. He was 70 years old.
Janet Steiger - Longtime government official and head of the Federal Trade Commission under Presidents Bush and Clinton, who was instrumental in the first government actions against tobacco companies for using cartoon characters to appeal to youths, who was a catalyst in starting what became the "do not call" list, who pushed the first antitrust investigation of Microsoft Corp. and who was the widow of Republican Congressman William A. Steiger of Wisconsin, died April 3 of lung cancer at her sister's home in Fort Myers, Florida at the age of 64.
Social and Religion
Keith Cylar - AIDS activist who co-founded one of the largest AIDS self-help efforts in the country, Housing Works, which provides social services and finds shelter for homeless New Yorkers living with AIDS, who himself was diagnosed with AIDS in 1989, died on April 6 in New York of cardioarrhytmia, a heart ailment. He was 45 years old.
James Hamner - The youngest son in a family immortalized by television's "The Waltons" (a show created by Hamner's older brother Earl), who was the model for the character Jim-Bob Walton, and who lived nearly all of his life in his childhood home which also served as the model for the famed Walton's house, died on April 1 in Charlottesville, VA of emphysema and heart ailments at the age of 67.
Jack Herbert - Central figure in an Australian police corruption scandal of the 1980s prosecuted under Queensland's Fitzgerald commission, who admitted collecting more than $3 million in bribes to protect illegal gambling and prostitution, who implicated 90 individuals as being involved in corrupt dealings, bringing down police commissioner Terry Lewis and the government of Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen (Herbert was given immunity for his testimony), and who remained under police protection for many years after the hearings, died April 8 of a brain tumor at a hospital in Gold Coast, Australia at the age of 78.
Marjorie Pay Hinckley - Wife of Mormon church president Gordon B. Hinckley, who was married to her husband for 67 years, died in Salt Lake City on April 6 after falling ill returning with her husband from the dedication of a Mormon temple in West Africa. She was 92 years old.
Berle Kanseah - Longtime Apache tribal council member and leader of the Chiricahua Apaches on the Mescalero reservation, who served as a technical advisor on the 2003 film "The Missing", helping actor Tommy Lee Jones learn Chiricahua, the Apache language, for the film, died April 5 of cancer at a hospital in Ruidoso, New Mexico at the age of 65.
Katherine Malone and Tye Brown - Paramedics working the overnight shift April 2 at a station in Edwardsville, Kansas, who returned to the isolated station after midnight from a medical call, were ambushed and shot to death by Malone's estranged husband Matthew Bass. Malone, who was living with Brown, had gotten court orders to keep Bass away (he had earlier been arrested with a loaded gun in front of her apartment). Malone was 31 and Brown was 33. Bass, 37, later committed suicide in Lees Summit, Missouri.
Timothy - Tortoise who was discovered on board a Portuguese privateer in 1854 and went on to become the ship's mascot during the Crimean War, as well as a succession of other naval vessels, who "retired" to Powderham Castle in Exeter, England in the late 19th Century where he made a home in the rose garden for the last century, died over the weekend of April 3-4 at the age of 160.
Gavin Vernon - One of four Scottish "conspirators" who became legendary figures in the U.K., when, in 1950 as college students at Glasgow University, they broke into Westminster Abbey in London and carried off the Stone of Destiny (the stone was taken by England's Edward I from Scotland in a raid in 1296), who escaped England with the stone becoming national heroes in Scotland, died around March 20 in Vancouver, Canada at the age of 77. The students ended up not being charged for the stunt and the stone was taken back to Westminster Abbey, but in 1996 England returned the Stone to Scotland in a goodwill gesture.
Business and Science
Dr. Max Britton - One of the first environmental scientists to specialize in the study of the Arctic, who initiated the idea of establishing research stations on ice floes that allowed scientific research into such areas as animal habits, plant study, ocean currents and the behavior of the polar ice, and who was the chief scientific officer of the Naval Arctic Research Laboratory from 1955 to 1971, died March 16 of emphysema at his home in Arlington, Virginia at the age of 92.
Victor M. Carter - Business turnaround specialist best known for his purchase of the struggling lumber and hardware chain Builders Emporium in 1949, who built it into the biggest hardware store in the United States by the time he sold it in the mid-1950's, who in 1959 acquired controlling interest in Republic Pictures and in a similar fashion, turned around its shaky fortunes, and who in later years served as president of the philanthropic organization United Way, died April 3 of natural causes at a hospital in Los Angeles at the age of 94.
Richard Gelb - Businessman who was the former chief executive of Bristol-Myers Squibb, once the second largest drug company in the world, former president of Clairol (which was founded by his parents), and a former director of The New York Times Company, died on April 4 in New York City at the age of 79.
Dr. H. Sherwood Lawrence - Pioneering immunologist best known for his 1949 discovery of a substance known as "transfer factor", a product of T-lymphocytes which plays a crucial role in defending against a wide variety of infectious agents, whose discovery led to the branch of biology that explores the function of lymphocytes, whose research has led to breakthroughs in getting the body to accept transplanted organs, and who was the founding editor of the journal Cellular Immunology, died April 5 in New York City at the age of 87.
J. Warren McClure - Newspaper executive who once owned the Burlington Free Press and was the first vice president of marketing for Gannett Company (home of U.S.A. Today among others), and who became a well-known philanthropist after his retirement from the newspaper industry, died on April 7 of pneumonia at the age of 84.
Luke Williams - Inventor who with his brother created the alternating time and temperature sign now seen commonly on office buildings throughout the world, and who founded American Electronic Sign Company, which made electronic scoreboards in sports stadiums, died on April 5 in Spokane, WA after suffering a series of strokes. He was 80 years old.
Vernon Young - Biochemist who revolutionized scientific understanding of how the human body processes nutrients into protein, who studied how the body metabolizes amino acids and helped develop guidelines on how much protein people really need to eat according to their age, general health and other factors, which turned out to be much less than previously thought, who was a distinguished professor at M.I.T., receiving numerous awards, and who authored more than 600 publications, died March 30 of renal cancer in Wellesley, Massachusetts at the age of 66.
Joseph Zimmerman - Inventor who in 1948 crafted the very first telephone answering machine (patenting in 1949), the first of which physically lifted the phone off the hook, played a 78-rpm recorded message and then recorded a 30-second message via a wire recorder on top of the unit (see the photo at the end of the pictures section), and who also owned a dozen other patents, died April 1 in Milwaukee at the age of 92.