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News and Entertainment
James H. Binger - (88) Powerful, aristocratic chairman of Jujamcyn Theaters,
which owns five Broadway houses and is the third largest owner of theaters
on Broadway, who was listed as a producer on such successful shows as “Angels
in America” and “Jelly’s Last Jam,” and who also served as CEO of Honeywell,
Inc. and bred a Kentucky Derby winner (1990’s
Unbridled), died of cancer on November 3 in Minneapolis, MN
Joe Bushkin - (87) Jazz pianist and songwriter who co-wrote Frank Sinatra_s
first hit (called “Oh! Look at Me Now) and performed with some of the best
musicians of his time, including Fats Waller, Billie Holiday and Bing Crosby,
who enjoyed a 50-year career in show business that included work with big bands,
cabaret, in Hollywood, and on Broadway, died of pneumonia on November 3 in
Santa Barbara, CA.
Damon Chappie - (40) Washington DC investigative reporter who uncovered
congressional corruption even after losing his eyesight, who initiated investigations
involving ethical conflicts surrounding former House Speaker Newt Gingrich,
Rep. Henry Hyde, former Rep. James Traficant, and House Majority Leader Tom
DeLay while working for Roll Call, a small but influential newspaper that examines
the inner workings of Capitol Hill, who was also named an “unsung hero” of
Washington journalism by the American Journalism Review in 2002, and who continued
his influential work, despite having hemophilia, HIV and hepatitis which he
contracted from a tainted blood transfusion, and becoming blind after contracting
a fungal infection in Mexico, died of congestive heart failure and other health
problems on November 5 in Washington, DC.
Fred Dibnah - (66) Steeplejack turned television presenter known for his
love of steam engines, who became an unlikely cult hero in Britain and appeared
in 20 documentaries, and who was given 12 months to live three years ago when
diagnosed with prostate cancer, but refused chemotherapy in order to tour the
UK on his 1912 engine as part of a 12-part television series for the BBC, died
of cancer on November 6 in Lancashire, England, just weeks after completing
the filming of his farewell television show.
Pete Jolly - (72) Jazz pianist and accordion player known for his disciplined
work as a studio musician and his improvisational keyboarding in live performances,
who led the Pete Jolly Trio for more than 35 years and was nominated for a
Grammy in 1963 for his composition “Little Bird”, whose talents were featured
on the soundtracks of more than 200 films and on television shows including
Dallas, Get Smart, and M*A*S*H, died of bone marrow cancer and an irregular
on November 6 in Pasadena, CA.
Howard Keel - (85) Legendary stage and screen actor who lent his good
looks and rich baritone to such movie musicals as "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" and “Annie
Get Your Gun” and made numerous appearances on Broadway, before reinventing
himself as the macho star of westerns and later starring on TV’s "Dallas," died
of colon cancer on November 7 in Palm Desert, CA.
Gibson Kente - (72) South African playwright whose musicals-including "Manana, The Jazz Prophet," "How Long" and "Sikhalo" focused
on issues in the poor black townships of South Africa, who produced about 23
plays and 3 TV dramas between 1963 and 1992 and who earned praise from President
Nelson Mandela for defying social mores by announcing he had HIV/AIDS in 2003,
died on November 7 in Soweto, South Africa.
Robert Brice Morrow - (47) Convicted murderer who was sentenced to death
for the beating and murder of 21 year-old Lisa Allison in 1996-he abducted her
from a car wash where she was washing her father’s car while home on Spring Break,
was executed by lethal injection on November 4 in Huntsville, Texas-the 20th
person executed in Texas and the 55th in the United States in 2004.
Sports
Eddie “Steady Eddie” Charlton - (75)
Australia’s number one snooker player for more than 20 years, who was ranked
No. 3 in the world for five consecutive seasons and was three-times runner-up
in the world championships at both snooker and billiards, and who was considered
one of the most consistent and hard to beat players, died of cardiac arrest
on November 8 in New Zealand, having suffered from a tumor in the bile duct
in recent years.
Emlyn Hughes - (57) Soccer great who was the former England and Liverpool
captain, leading Liverpool as they dominated European soccer in the ‘70s, who
won an Order of the British Empire for his services to sport and later became
a successful television personality on a popular BBC quiz show, died of a brain
tumor on November 9 in Sheffield, England.
Lennox Miller - (58) Sprinter from Jamaica who won medals in the 1968 and
1972 Olympics in the 100 meters, who, with his daughter, Inger, became the first
father and daughter pair to win Olympic track and field medals, who anchored
the U.S.C. team that set a world record of 38.6 seconds for the 4x110-yard relay
(the second leg was run by O. J. Simpson,) died of cancer on November 8 in Pasedena,
California.
Virginia Muise - (111) Believed to be the oldest resident of New England
and the 31st oldest person in the world, who had been an avid Boston Red Sox
fan since her family moved to Boston in 1923, who was 19 when living in Halifax,
Nova Scotia and saw the coffins from the Titanic shipwreck in the Halifax dock,
who was a frequent visitor to Fenway Park until her health began to decline and
kept a Red Sox hat next to her bed, and who was fond of saying “If I'd known I was going to live so long, I'd have taken better care of myself,” died
on November 2 in Haverhill, New Hampshire.
Al Onofrio - (83) Former head coach at Missouri, who was the defensive coach
under Dan Devine from 1958 to 1970 when the team had a record of 93-37-7 (and
two Big Eight titles and six bowl appearances) and then took over the position
of head coach in 1971 and coached for seven years for a record of 38-41 (and
two bowl appearances), died of heart failure a week after learning he had non-Hodgkin’s
lymphoma in Mesa, Arizona on November 5.
Johnny Warren - (61) Australian soccer star known as “Captain Socceroo” for his passion for the game, who played in Australia’s only appearance in the World Cup finals in 1974, who played 42 internationals from 1965 to 1974, who became the first Australian soccer figure honored as a Member of the British Empire (MBE), and who also wrote a best-selling book on Australian soccer and was a popular TV broadcaster, died of cancer in Sydney, Australia on November 6.
Sergei Zholtok - (31) Hockey player who played center for the Nashville Predators who, in 70 games during the 2003_04 season with the Minnesota Wild and the Predators, Zholtok had 14 goals and 17 assists and during his career, he had 111 goals and 147 assists, who missed several games in the 2003-2004 season because of fatigue and dizziness and was once diagnosed with an irregular heartbeat, but who was cleared return to play but due to the lockout went to overseas to play for HC Riga 2000 (in Minsk, Belarus,) where he left a game on November 3 early and collapsed on his way to the locker room. It was later determined he died of heart failure.
Cara Dunne-Yates - (34) Disabled athlete who became blind as the result of cancer when she was 5 (she learned to ride a bike the same year,) who developed a technique for skiing that involves a blind skier following the sounds of a skier in front, she won the a bronze medal in Alpine skiing at the Paralympic Championships in Innsbruck, Austria in 1988, who while in college joined a tandem cycling team, who was diagnosed with cancer shortly after competing in the 2000 Sydney Paralympics, died as the result of the disease in Sutton, Massachusetts on October 20.
Jimmy McLarnin - (96) Boxer known as “Babyface” and two-time welterweight champion (he won in 1933 and 1934) who was a member of Canada's Sports Hall of Fame and the International Boxing Hall of Fame, and who retired with a record of 62-11-3 with 20 knockouts in his career, died in Richland, Washington on October 28.
Art and Literature
Robert Koch Woolf - (81) Interior decorator whose clients included a number of Hollywood celebrities including Cary Grant, Myrna Loy, Judy Garland and David O. Zelznick, whose work was work was the subject of a 2003 exhibition, “The Art of Luxury,” at the UC Santa Barbara Art Museum, died of post-surgical complications in Montecito, California on November 8.
David Shulman - (91) Lexicographer and cartographer who poured over old texts to find the obscure origins of thousands of words (and phrases like "The Great White Way," "Big Apple," "doozy," "hoochie-coochie" and "hot dog”) and contributed them to the Oxford English Dictionary, who considered the New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue his real home, died in Brooklyn, New York on October 30.
Politics and Military
Yasser Arafat - (75) Palestinian Authority President and cofounder of
the Palestine Liberation Organization, who worked to gain independent statehood
for his people but who was seen by many as a terrorist, who for more
> than fifty years wore the alternate faces of a guerrilla, diplomat and would-be
peacemaker and won a Nobel Prize in 1994 (which he shared with Yitzhak Rabin
and and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres) , and who in a 2000
> meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak failed to come to a peace deal,
leaving Israel and Palestine in continued conflict over Jerusalem, which both
countrires claim as their capital, died of unknown causes on November 11 in Paris.
Elliot Bredhoff - (83) Leading labor lawyer who represented many nationally
known unions and was special council to the United Steelworkers of America
for nearly 30 years, for decades one of the nation_s leading labor, who often
appeared before the US Supreme Court and appellate courts as a leading authority
on labor law, constitutional law, and civil rights issues and was named one
of the 100 most influential lawyers by the National Law Journal, died of complications
from heart surgery on November 2 in Chevy Chase, MD.
Rear Adm. Maurice J. Bresnahan Jr. - (68) Retired Navy officer and the
President of the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, the nation’s oldest coed maritime
college, who presided over a over a significant increase in the institution’s
student body and $60 million in capital improvements to the school, but was
known on the campus for his personable nature (which including eating with
cadets in the mess hall and attending their birthday parties), and who during
his military career received the Distinguished Service Medal, three Legion
of Merit awards, and the Meritorious Service Medal, died of a brain tumor on
November 6 on Cape Cod, MA.
Edwin Arthur Hall - (95) United States
Congressman from New York, He was the last living U.S. Congressman living that
served in the 1930's. He served from November 7, 1939-January 3, 1953. He was
born February 11, 1909 and died on October 18, 2004. There are only 9 living
U.S. Representatives still living from the 1940's. The oldest living U. S. Representativeis
Rep. Augustus Hawkins born in 1907.
Richard Hongisto - (67) San Francisco politician and law enforcement official
known for his support of liberal causes, who had a turbulent, two-decade career
that included a six-week stint as the city’s police chief and a jail stint
while he was the sheriff (he refused to evict elderly tenants from a Chinatown
hotel), who, despite encountering controversy, was also known for his pioneering
efforts on behalf of minorities and women, died of an apparent heart attack
after a dispute with his girlfriend on November 4 in San Francisco, CA.
John H. Waller - (81) Former member of the CIA and historian who wrote full time after his retirement from the position of the CIA’s Inspector General in 1980, who is perhaps best known for "Beyond the Khyber Pass The Road to British Disaster in the First Afghan War," published by Random House in 1990, and who wrote several other books on espionage, died of pneumonia in Washington, D.C. on November 4.
David Chandler - (70) Military historian whose narrative on Napoleon, “The
Campaigns of Napoleon” (written in 1967) is one of the most comprehensive published,
who was considered the most knowledgeable authority on the Emperor, who was a
proponent of the theory that Napoleon was murdered as opposed to suffering a
death from stomach cancer-a theory that was at first scoffed at but has recently
been scientifically backed, died on October 11.
Harry Fleischman - (90) Former officer of the American Socialist Party who was also the biographer of Norman Thomas, who was a Socialist candidate for president in six elections, "Norman Thomas A Biography" was published by W. W. Norton in 1964, who spent much of his professional life trying to smooth the sometimes rocky terrain where issues of labor and race intersect, died of cancer in New York City on November 1.
Social and Religion
Alexander Bassin - (92) Social worker and criminologist who co-founded
Daytop Village, the oldest continuing residential drug treatment program in
the US, which today comprises more than two dozen treatment centers in NY,
NJ, Pennsylvania, and California and has treated more than 100,000 people since
it began, died on November 3 in Tallahassee, FL.
Lady Hermione Cobbold - (99) Matriarch of Knebworth House, the historic
Tudor family mansion that is also known to many Brits for its open-air rock
concerts, who was an energetic supporter of many charities and local organizations
including the YMCA, who was married for 57 years to the first Lord Cobbold,
and who before her marriage had been Winston Churchill’s first great love,
died on November 3 in Hertfordshire, England.
Irene McCabe - (69) Anti-busing activist who formed the “National Action Group” (NAG),
an organization developed in 1971 to fight interracial integration in Pontiac,
Michigan through bussing, who went on a 620 mile march to Washington, D.C. to
push for federal anti-busing laws, died from complications during surgery on
November 2 in Pontiac, Michigan.
Charles F. Kennedy - (67) Central Park naturalist who was shown rescuing a baby hawk in the documentary “Pale Male” (about a red-tailed hawk that became famous for nesting on the ledge of an apartment building near Central Park,) who was also featured in Red-“Tails in Love A Wildlife Drama in Central Park”(1998), a book written by Marie Winn about the hawks and their devotees, and who was a member of Central Park Conservancy's Woodlands Advisory Board and created the park's butterfly garden, died of lymphoma in New York City on October 20.
Business and Science
John LaMontagne - (61) Deputy director of the National Institute of Allergy & Infectious
Diseases, who helped develop new AIDS medications, a whooping cough vaccine,
and a world program to deter malaria, and who most recently proposed a method
of delivering the flu vaccine that used less of the vaccine and would allow more
people to get shots, collapsed and died of unknown causes on November 2 in a
Mexico City, Mexico airport.
Herman Postma - (70) Former director of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory who was 40 when he was appointed lab director in 1974, the first director without Manhattan Project experience, who made many contributions to the science and technology of heating and confinement of fusion plasmas in magnetic mirror and other configurations, died of a cerebral hemorrhage while traveling in Hawaii on November 6.
Fritz J. Russ - (84) Electrical engineer whose many contributions to science included testing space suits and designing equipment for nuclear tests during WWII, helping to develop a power supply now used in every TV set and the first transistorized wireless electric guitar, who was appointed by President Ford to the president's committee on science, who, with his wife, developed the Fritz J. and Dolores H. Russ Prize which is one of the world's top two engineering prizes, died November 3 in Dayton, Ohio.
Ronald A. White - (55) Lawyer who, along with 11 others (including former Philadelphia city treasurer Corey Kemp), was accused of corruption in June on charges that Kemp steered city business to White and his clients in exchange for cash and gifts (White plead innocent to the charges,) who was agents secretly taped with Kemp in the office of Mayor John Street, allegedly discussing how to shake down businessmen for campaign donations and funnel city contracts to friends, died of pancreatic cancer in Philadelphia on November 4.
Dr. William I. Young - (56) Los Angeles physician who led efforts to increase the diversity among staff at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, who fought to improve the health of those living in underprivileged neighborhoods, who worked to form a bond between the hospital and the black community and who founded the a nonprofit called Health Encouragement Through Active Living in 1999 to provide medical information to those communities, died after a short battle with cancer on November 1 at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles.
Pat Taylor - (67) Philanthropic oilman who developed a program to help send every student in Louisiana to college through a program called the “Taylor Plan,” was picked up and became the state-financed Tuition Opportunity Program for Students, or TOPS- the first state to initiate a state-funded, merit-based tuition program and today 19 states have similar programs, died of complications during heart surgery in New Orleans on November 6.
James Rowse - (96) President of beverage company Veryfine Products Co. from 1958 to 1972, a company his father bought in 1900 and turned it from a nearly broke cider press operation and bought equipment that allowed the company to pasteurize its product, thus transforming it from cider to apple juice, and purchased a machine that was supposed to make apple juice, but left too many solids in the liquid and as the result the company started making a new product-apple sauce, died in Mason, New Hampshire on November 2.
Theodore Taylor - (79) Nuclear physicist and maker of bombs who came to despise the devices of death and destruction, who worked at the Los Alamos National Laboratory from 1948 to 1956 and at the time, thought his designs were going to be used to avoid war, but soon realized his work might be used for other, darker purposes, who later researched ways to use nuclear research for energy and space exploration, died of coronary artery disease on October 28 in Silver Spring, Maryland.
Thank you Helen, Lori, Karen, Angie and Gail for putting this page together.
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