Sports
John Amberg - Defensive back for the New York Giants who played every game of the 1951 and '52 NFL seasons for the Giants before his career was cut short by the Korean War, who was president of NFL Alumni Inc. Southern California chapter and a member of NFL Alumni's national board of directors, died on May 4 of pancreatic cancer in Los Angeles at the age of 75.
Patrick Berhault - French mountaineer who climbed Mt. Everest and who set out on March 1 with fellow climber Philippe Magnin to scale the 82 highest Alpine peaks over 82 days, a feat about which he and his partner were writing a book, fell to his death while pushing for the summit of the Taeschhorn in Switzerland, the 66th of the 82 peaks. Poor weather conditions prevented a helicopter search and his body was retrieved on April 29. He was 47 years old.
Robert "Pink" Erickson - Longtime high school football coach who also coached at the University of Montana and the University of Idaho and was the father of San Francisco 49ers coach Dennis Erickson, died after a long illness on April 29 in Everett, WA at the age of 79.
Frank Fallon - Veteran broadcaster and the "Voice of the Baylor Bears", who broadcast the University's football and basketball games for more than four decades before retiring in 1995, who was also the public address announcer for the NCAA Final Four from 1978 to 1998, a play-by-play announcer for NBC and ESPN, and the general manager of KWTX radio in Waco for 29 years, and who was named Texas Sportscaster of the Year five times, died in Waco on April 30 of Parkinson's disease at the age of 73.
Joseph "Pepper" Gomez - Professional wrestler and one of the top stars of the 50's and 60's, who competed as a body-builder before becoming a wrestler, who earned the nickname "The Man with the Cast Iron Stomach" after a stunt during an Oakland A's game where owner Charlie Finley drove a Volkswagen over his stomach, and who was known during wrestling events to challenge people from the audience to jump off a ladder onto his stomach (comedian Ray Stevens once took the challenge and landed on Gomez's throat, prompting a longtime feud between the two), died May 6 of undisclosed causes at a hospital in Oakland, California at the age of 77.
Ian Groom - World champion stunt pilot who donated his time to train Department of Homeland Security pilots after September 11, was a FAA accident prevention counselor, and set several world records for air maneuvers, plummeted more than 2,500 feet and crashed his single-seat plane into the Atlantic Ocean on April 30 while performing a practice flight in preparation for the Fort Lauderdale Air and Sea Show, an accident that was witnessed by hundreds of people. He was 56 years old.
Eddie Hopkinson - 5 ft. 8 in. tall British football (soccer) player whose fearless play defied his diminutive stature, who became a sturdy stalwart for Bolton playing 518 league games from 1956-1970, winning an F.A. Cup winners medal when Wanderers beat Manchester United 2-0 in the 1958 final, died April 25 in Royton, Lancashire, England at the age of 68.
Darrell Johnson - Major league baseball player turned manager, best remembered for piloting the Boston Red Sox to the 1975 World Series in the classic battle with the Cincinnati Reds, who became the Seattle Mariners inaugural manager when they entered the league in 1977, and who also was manager of the Texas Rangers in 1982, died May 3 of leukemia at his home in Fairfield, California at the age of 75.
Rev. Edmund P. Joyce - Longtime official at Notre Dame who served 35 years as executive vice president, second in command to university president Theodore Hesburgh, who oversaw the school's building programs and finances, as well as heading the university's athletics department which saw national football championships in 1966, 1973 and 1977 during his tenure, died May 2 at the Holy Cross House on the campus of the Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. He was 87 and died from stroke complications.
Winnie Roach Leuszler - The first Canadian to swim the English Channel, a mother of three who took a one-way ticket to France to enter a contest to swim the Channel, counting on the prize money to get her back home to Toronto, and who went on to win the prize against 20 top athletes from around the world by crossing the channel in 13 hours and 25 minutes, died on May 1 in White Rock, British Columbia from diabetes. She was 78 years old.
Nando Martellini - Italian TV journalist best known for covering the Italian national team at four World Cups, starting in 1970, who earned his place in Italian sporting lore with his triple exclamation "World Champions! World Champions! World Champions!" at the end of the 1982 final in Madrid that saw Italy beat Germany for the country's last World Cup championship, died May 5 at a hospital in Rome at the age of 82.
Sam Nahem - Major league pitcher nicknamed 'Subway Sam', who played with with the Dodgers, Cardinals and Phillies, compiling a career 10-8 record from 1938 to 1943 with some of the worst teams of that era, died April 19 at his home in Berkeley, California at the age of 88.
Robert Timmons - Former basketball coach at the University of Pittsburgh, who led the team to four postseason tournaments in 15 seasons during the 1950s and 1960s, and whose teams included the first African American to play for the University, died on April 29 in Shaler, PA at the age of 92.

Art and Literature
Allen Cohen - Poet and counterculture pioneer who helped put Haight-Ashbury on the map as founder of the underground newspaper the San Francisco Oracle during the 1960s, which featured Beat generation poetry, fiction and artwork, who urged young people to come to San Francisco for what became known as the "Summer of Love," died of liver cancer in Walnut Creek. He was 64 years old.
Tage Frid - Master woodworker and Danish-Modern designer who helped revive the art of handmade furniture in the U.S., and who was long associated with the Rhode Island School of Design and whose three-volume "Tage Frid Teaches Woodworking" is one of the most respected manuals on the subject, died May 4 at a nursing home in Newport, Rhode Island from complications of Alzheimer's at the age of 88.
Paul Guimard - French writer known for combining his passions of writing and the sea in works such as "Les Choses de la Vie", which was adapted into the 1994 movie "Intersection" starring Richard Gere, died of cardiac complications on May 2 in Hyeres, France at the age of 83.
Dr. Frederick Karl - Writer and biographer who analyzed the lives of a variety of literary icons, but who was best known as a biographer of Joseph Conrad and for producing literary guides such as "A Reader's Guide to the Great 20th Century English Novels," "Joseph Conrad: The Three Lives" and "Americans Fictions 1940-1980," died April 30 of kidney disease in New York City at the age of 77.
Lygia Pape - Multimedia artist and founding member of Brazil's vanguard Neoconcrete movement, who was part of a young generation of Rio de Janeiro artists that were captivated by ideas of geometric abstraction espoused by the European avant-garde in the 1940s and 1950s, and who also created ballets that set geometric dance forms to experimental music and books that doubled as sculptures that could be manipulated by the viewer, died on May 3 in Rio de Janeiro after suffering from a degenerative disease that affected her spinal cord. She was 75 years old.
Daniel Thompson - Poet who promoted poetry as a performance art for more than 40 years, and whose work was published in two volumes, "Famous In the Neighborhood" and "Even the Broken Letters of Heart Spell Earth", died May 6 of leukemia in Cleveland at the age of 69.

Politics and Military
John J. Barton - Former mayor of Indianapolis, a Democrat elected in 1963 who served one term and was the last Democrat to hold the office until the city's current mayor was elected in 1999, who was an intelligence officer in the Navy in World War II and served 21 years on the Indiana Parole Board, died on May 4 in Indianapolis at the age of 97.
Daniel Bernard - French Ambassador to Britain from 1997 to 2002 and close associate of French President Chirac, who came under fire in December, 2001 after a remark he made at a private party was leaked to the public (he stated that the current troubles in the world were all because of 'that shitty little country Israel'), and who was soon after reassigned as ambassador to Algeria, died April 29 in Algiers of natural causes at the age of 62.
Abe Caylor - One of the U.S.'s oldest military veterans, who enlisted in the Army in 1915 and served in Panama during World War II guarding the canal, died May 5 in Orting, Washington at the age of 104.
J. Calvitt Clarke - U.S. District Judge nominated to the bench in 1974 by President Gerald Ford who oversaw the salvage rights of the Titanic, as well as the salvage and ownership rights of the Lusitania wreckage, who convicted Arthur J. Walker of spying for the Soviets, whose parents founded the Christian Children's Fund, an agency that assists children in over 30 countries globally died May 6 in Virginia Beach, Virginia after a long illness at the age of 83.
Lee Loevinger - FCC commissioner in the 1970's who originated the idea of the 9-1-1 emergency telephone number in the U.S., who pushed the idea through in 1968 despite the objections of AT&T, and who was a successful anti-trust lawyer and Minnesota Supreme Court judge who was appointed to the FCC by John F. Kennedy, died May 3 in Washington, DC at the age of 91.
Evelyn Mandela - Nelson Mandela's first wife and mother of four of his children, who supported the family financially while her husband completed his law studies, but whose marriage to the former South African president and anti-apartheid leader ended in bitter divorce when she asked him to choose between her and the African National Congress liberation movement, died of a respiratory ailment on April 30 at the age of 82.
Wayne Rasmussen - Chief historian for the U.S. Department of Agriculture who enjoyed a 50 year career with the USDA before retiring in 1987, who wrote several books including "A History of the Emergency Farm Labor Supply Program, 1943-47" (a real page turner I bet!) and who received the department's Distinguished Service Award, died of Parkinson's disease on April 30 in Concord, Mass at the age of 89.
Marvin Runyon - The nation's 70th Postmaster General, who was credited in the 1990s with restructuring the Postal Service (the nation's largest civilian employer at the time) to stress customer service, creating a training program for employees on ways to prevent workplace violence, and implementing a tight budget put the department in the black for the first time in years, and who in the 1980's was appointed by President Reagan to be chairman of the Tennessee Valley Authority, died on May 3 of lung disease in Nashville at the age of 79.
Decatur "Bucky" Trotter - Longtime Maryland state Democratic party leader, who served 16 years in the state senate, who was a foe of capital punishment and a watchdog for misconduct by law enforcement as well as a determined advocate of judicial fairness and of equity in political redistricting, died May 3 of bone cancer at a hospital in Baltimore at the age of 72.

Social and Religion
Elsie Abbott - California woman whose son was convicted in the 1955 slaying of 14-year-old school girl Stephanie Bryan, who staunchly and vocally defended her son, campaigning to find some way to show he was innocent, despite what appeared to be overwhelming evidence, who continued in her efforts to clear her son's name long after he was executed in 1957, even pursuing DNA testing in the 1990's, and whose story was told in two books, "A Trail of Corn: A True Mystery" by Keith Walker, and "Shallow Grave in Trinity County" by Harry Farrell, died April 26 in the eastern U.S. at the age of 100.
Caesar - Silverback gorilla and Los Angeles Zoo's most beloved primate, who was the first gorilla to be delivered by Caesarean section (giving him his name) and was on loan from the L.A. Zoo, where he was born, to Zoo Atlanta for a breeding program, was found dead in his sleeping quarters on May 4, minutes after being noted as alert and resting by zookeepers while recuperating from a stomach ailment, and the cause of death is unknown. The 525-pound gorilla died before he was able to sire any offspring, and was 26 years old.
Andrew Robert Buxton Cavendish - The 11th Duke of Devonshire, who maintained his family's historically grand way of life by selling art masterpieces and converting his Chatsworth estate, a 297-rooms 16th-century mansion, into one of Britain's most visited attractions, who found himself in line to become Duke when his older brother William (the husband of John F. Kennedy's sister, Kathleen), was killed in combat, and who himself was a war hero and prized horse breeder once estimated to be wealthier than the queen, died May 3 at Chatsworth at the age of 84.
Robin Farnsworth - 16-year-old Searcy, Arkansas girl who left for school on January 31, 1995 and never returned home, and whose disappearance was reported to the sheriff's office that day, was positively identified from remains that were in a cardboard box in the same sheriff's office in Bald Knob, Arkansas. Hunter's discovered the skeleton in a wooded area in 1997, the remains were collected and put in storage but forgotten about and never investigated. A new sheriff discovered the remains and had them DNA tested.
Libby Libra - Cat-in-residence at the Haysville Community Library in Haysville, Kansas for the last 20 years, who was abandoned as a kitten in 1983 in front of the library, and was adopted by the library staff, who served well as both a mouser and a greeter at the library and who was featured in Roni Jay's 2000 book "The Kingdom of the Cat", was euthanized on April 30 due to persistent thyroid problems at the age of 20.
Ian Malone - Brain-damaged boy who caught Al Gore's attention during the 2000 presidential campaign because an HMO threatened to cut his coverage, whose story was used in a Gore campaign commercial to illustrate the need for universal health care, and who ultimately became the poster child for the Patients' Bill of Rights and health care reform, died in his sleep on May 1 in Everett, WA. He suffered from a condition called hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy, which did not allow him to swallow, and was 4 ½ years old at the time of his death.
Danielle Martin - Acclaimed piano professor at the University of Texas, who had been with the school for over 30 years and headed the keyboard division in the School of Music, was hacked to death with a meat cleaver on April 29 at her home in Austin, Texas by graduate student Jackson Fan Chun Ngai, who had served as her assistant. She was 56 years old and Ngai is believed to have been psychotic.
Dr. Arthur Naparstek - Public housing and urban redevelopment expert whose work helped redefine the function of public housing through community building, and whose ideas for rebuilding Cleveland's impoverished neighborhoods became the model for the Department of Housing and Urban Development's HOPE IV program, which gave community leaders and tenants a role in creating the revitalization plans for their dilapidated housing projects and more control over operations, and who also led community revitalization efforts in Israel, died of lung cancer on April 24 in Cleveland. He was 65 years old.
Donald Ray Wheat - Alabama man awaiting execution on death row for a two-state 2002 crime spree that included the murders of four men at a Blockbuster store in Anniston, Alabama (store employees Douglas Neal, 27, and Austin Joplin, 23, and customers Joseph, 20, and Andrew Burch, 19, who were brothers), died May 6 of natural causes at a prison in Atmore, Alabama at the age of 50.

Business and Science
Federico Bloch - Longtime CEO of Grupo Taca, Central America's largest air carrier, who led the company for 25 years and built the small Salvadoran airline into a major force in Latin America, was found shot to death in a roadside attack on the outskirts of San Salvador on April 26, just 10 days after he retired from his position to spend more time with his ill son. No motive for the killing has been established. He was 50 years old.
John Dowling - One of the U.S.'s leading real estate brokers, whose clients included many of the nation's largest companies including General Electric, I.B.M., Texaco and MCI, and who worked as a real estate advisor with many different company presidents and chairmen, died May 4 of melanoma at his home in Boca Grande, Florida at the age of 66.
Nicholas J. Grant - Pioneer in the study of metals and alloys at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who was a researcher on the atomic bomb project during WW2 and eventually published more than 500 technical and scientific papers, and who also was awarded more than 30 U.S. patents and 100 international patents, died May 1 at a nursing home in Brockton, Massachusetts of Alzheimer's disease at the age of 88.
Maurice Lazarus - Executive in the family-owned retail giant Federated Department Stores, founded by his father Fred Lazarus Jr., who served as president and chairman of Filene's, one of Federated's regional department stores, and who was involved in the founding of one of the U.S.'s first HMO's, Harvard Community Health Plan, died May 4 of lung cancer at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts at the age of 88.
Dr. Leo Postman - Professor of psychology and a dominate figure in the study of human memory, who studied perception, learning and memory but focused his research on the process of forgetting, who was the architect of modern interference theory which holds that forgetting is the result of interference from a variety of sources, including past memories, various aspects of the current memory, and new memories acquired subsequently, and who in 2002 was listed as article one of the 100 most eminent psychologists of the last century in the 'Review of General Psychology', died April 22 of heart failure at his home in Marblehead, Massachusetts at the age of 85.
Dr. Richard Varco - Pioneering surgeon from the University of Minnesota who was part of the team of doctors responsible for the world's first open-heart surgery, who co-created the world's first implantable drug-infusion pump (similar to the one that today delivers insulin to diabetics), and who performed the first organ transplant at the University of Minnesota, died on May 3 in Half-moon Bay, British Columbia at the age of 91.
Jane Hollister Wheelwright - Pioneering Jungian psychoanalyst with her husband Joseph Wheelwright (died 1999), who were among the first Jungian psychoanalysts on the West Coast, who established the Society of Analytical Psychologists, and later were co-founders of the C.G. Jung Institute of San Francisco, and who was the heir to California's historic Hollister Ranch, died April 27 in Santa Barbara, California at the age of 98.
Alec Zino - Ornithologist and conservationist who was instrumental in protecting the Zino's Petrel (aka Pterodroma Madeira, but renamed in his honor), one of Europe's rarest seabirds of which only 45 pairs are known to exist and which make their home on the Portuguese island of Madeira, died March 3 at the age of 88.