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Bernie Ebbins - (88) Former road manager for several leading jazz and pop music figures, including singers Billy Eckstine and Vic Damone and band leader Count Basie, who also managed the syndication department at William Morris Agency and held a similar position at Paramount Studios during his 40-year career, died in Los Angeles on December 27, 2004.
Gonzalo Gavira - (79) Mexican sound effects wizard who worked on numerous films including "The Towering Inferno", "The Good, the Bad & the Ugly," and "The Exorcist," for which he won an Oscar as part of the film's sound team (he created the famed sound of the possessed young girl's head revolving completely on her body), and who worked on at least 60 films in Mexico and abroad, died of blood circulation problems in Mexico City on January 9, 2005.
James Arthur ''Jimmy'' Griffin - (61) Singer-songwriter and a founding member of the '70s pop group Bread whose harmony vocals and guitar work were crucial elements in the band's success, who won an Oscar for co-writing The Carpenters' hit "For All We Know" for the movie "Lovers & Other Strangers," who also wrote country hits for Conway Twitty's and Restless Heart and later was a member of a country band called the Remingtons, died of cancer in Nashville, TN on January 11, 2005.
Rudolph Moshammer - (61) Germany's most flamboyant fashion designer who created clothes for celebrities such as Arnold Schwarzenegger. He was a well-known figure on the German celebrity circuit known for his extravagant hairstyle and flamboyant dress. He was found dead at his home in Munich. was found dead apparently strangled with a telephone cord, on January 15, 2005.
Thelma White - (94) Former actress whose portrayal of a hard-boiled addiction queen in the 1936 movie "Reefer Madness" was largely forgotten until the film resurfaced in the '70s as a cult classic, who was a carnival performer as a toddler, progressed to vaudeville, radio, and then to movies, appearing alongside such legendary performers as W. C. Fields, Will Rogers, Red Skelton, and Jack Benny, who later worked as an agent for such stars as Robert Blake and Ann Jillian and was a producer for many years, died of pneumonia in Woodland Hills, CA on January 11, 2005.
George L. Campbell - (92) British linguist who was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records during the 1980s as one of the world's greatest living linguists, who could speak and write fluently in at least 44 languages and had a working knowledge of perhaps 20 others, and who wrote the "Compendium of the World's Languages", a 2-vol work that includes articles on more than 250 tongues, died of pneumonia in Brighton, England on December 15, 2004.
Thomas E. Sparling- (87) Electrical engineer and cofounder of the Sparling, the nation's largest electrical engineering and technology consulting company, who was a winner of the Richard Howard Kaufmann Award and the Outstanding Achievement Award of the Institute of Electrical & Electronic Engineering, and who, during WWII, directed the installation of shipboard radar systems at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard Washington, died of a heart attack in Phoenix, AZ on December 5, 2004.
Arthur Rosenblatt - (73) Architect who had a large hand in reshaping the Metropolitan Museum of Art and helped to give form to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC, who was in charge of architecture and planning at the Met when the museum underwent more than $1 billion worth of construction and renovation and was involved with the restoration of the NY Public Library, and who also was a founder of RKK&G Museum & Cultural Facilities Consultants, died of cancer in New York City on January 10, 2005.
Lady Veronica Maclean of Dunconnel- (84): Widow of Sir Fitzroy Maclean, Baronet, on whom Ian Fleming was said to have based the character of James Bond, who led a glamorous and adventurous life and accompanied her husband on several undercover trips, and who authored four cookbooks, ran the family hotel and was an accomplished hostess, died on January 7, 2005.
Joseph S. Frelinghuysen - (92) Veteran from a prominent New Jersey family whose memoir, "Passages to Freedom", chronicled his escape from a prison camp in Italy during WWII in which he and another soldier crawled through the camp's wire fences and were taken in by a young Italian couple, who repaid the couple several years later by helping them and their children move the U.S, died of pneumonia in Morristown, NJ on January 8, 2005.
Sir Stephen Hastings - (83) Conservative Member of Parliament whose support for white minority rule in Rhodesia brought him the hostility of Socialists and the polite disapproval of his own party, though he was recommended for knighthood by Margaret Thatcher in 1983, died in England on January 10, 2005.
Alessandro "Dado" Ruspoli, Prince of Italy- (80) Playboy prince and member of one of Rome's most important noble families, who was known for his jet-setting in the "Dolce Vita" years, his prominence in the social life of Rio de Janiero and Sao Paulo, Brazil, and his late night strolls down the streets of the island of Capri with a parrot on his shoulder, who was a poet, painter, photographer and sometime film actor who appeared in a small role in "The Godfather, Part III," died in Rome after suffering from respiratory problems, on January 11, 2005.
James Forman - (76) Civil rights pioneer and the executive secretary of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), who brought a fiercely revolutionary vision and masterly organizational skills to virtually every major civil rights battle-ground in the ‘60s, organizing demonstrations and campaigns from Selma to Birmingham to the Mississippi Delta to the March on Washington, who was also known for his opposition to many of the efforts of Martin Luther King, Jr., arguing that a monolithic leader hurt the development of what he called "a people's movement, died of colon cancer in Washington, DC on January 10, 2005.
Bishop Sherman Howard - (77) Church pianist and gospel radio personality who rose to become head of the New Bethel Church of God in Christ in Washington, which was known for its live radio broadcasts of services and grand concerts that brought diverse crowds, who was credited with expanding his denomination's membership in the DC area and was one of the first male black gospel radio announcers in Washington, died of hypertensive cardiovascular disease in Washington, DC on December 11, 2004.
Alan Loy McGinnis - (71) Clergyman, counselor, motivational speaker, and best-selling author of self-help books including "The Friendship Factor," "The Romance Factor", and "The Power of Optimism," who spent 20 years ministering to Presbyterian congregations in Illinois, NJ, and California and was a popular guest on radio and TV talk shows, as well as a frequent motivational speaker for organizations including Merrill Lynch, IBM, and the Marine Corps, died of Lou Gehrig's disease in Glendale, CA on January 9, 2005.
Robin Needham- (51) British charity leader and head of CARE Nepal (a branch of the American-based International charity that is active in 70 countries), who was involved in relief efforts for deprived parts of Asia and Africa for more than 30 years, who was particularly concerned with the protection of children from conflict and was a revered figure in Nepal and an influential voice in the wider world of international relief work, was killed by the tsunami in Thailand after he was last seen urging others away from the beach on December 26, 2004.
Richard W. Reuter - (86) Executive director of humanitarian organization CARE International from 1954 to 1962, during whose tenure the organization changed the focus of its mission from postwar Europe to developing areas of the world including Asia and Latin America, who worked with President Kennedy and Sargent Shriver to start the Peace Corps and served as an assistant Secretary of State under President Johnson, and who also worked for Kraft Foods as vice president and director of purchasing, died of cardiac arrest in Lake Bluff, IL on January 7, 2004.
Dave Shaw - (50) Australian world-record diver who attempted to recover the skeletal remains of a 20-year-old man who had died in South Africa's Boesmansgat Cave a decade ago. Shaw had successfully cut Deon Dreyer's suited-up skeleton from its dive equipment, and had put the man's remains in a bag. But he became entangled in the line and before he could cut himself free, began to suffer the effects of oxygen toxicity. A video camera attached to Shaw's helmet recorded his final minutes of life. Both mens' remains later floated to the surface, and were recovered by police and other divers. Died in Northern Cape Province, South Africa, January 8, 2005.
John Wieneke - (59) Soft-spoken conservationist who gained widespread recognition when he co-founded Wisconsin Citizens Concerned About Cranes & Doves and spearheaded a campaign against a Wisconsin hunting season for the mourning dove bird, whose efforts helped lead to a court injunction in 2001 that blocked what would have been the first dove hunt (the season remained blocked until an appeals court allowed the first hunt in 2003), died of cancer in New London, WI on January 11, 2005.
Robert Bert Clark Jr. - (74) Former Washington State football coach whose 1965 "Cardiac Kids" beat three Big 10 teams on the road, who also played at Oklahoma and was an assistant coach at New Mexico, as well as a coach with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the Canadian Football League, died in Katy, TX on December 13, 2004.
Fabrizio Meoni - (47) Received motorcycle title in 2001 and 2002, and second place overall behind France's Cyril Despres. Died from the crash in the Dakar Rally about 6 miles into the 11th stage, a 431-mile stretch between Atar and Kiffa on January 11, 2005.
Arthur Kamii - (74) Longtime Los Angeles educator who made headlines with his post-WWII arrival in LA from Japan at age 17 for treatment for poliomyelitis (infantile paralysis), a rare disease in Japan at the time and was twice denied permission to go the US until he was personally cleared by Gen. Douglas MacArthur, who then underwent five major surgeries to correct his condition and went on to enjoy a 42-year career as a teacher and counselor at Kennedy-San Fernando Community Adult School, died of heart failure in Encino, CA on December 21, 2004.
Michel Thomas - (90) World famous linguist fluent in 10 languages known as the "linguist to the stars", who founded the Michel Thomas Language Centers in New York, Los Angeles and London, where he taught foreign languages to thousands of political leaders, celebrities, corporate executives and dignitaries from around the world using his unique language-teaching method, and who won the prestigious Silver Star for bravery during WWII, died of heart failure in NYC on January 8, 2005.
