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Ted Brown - (80s) Radio talk-show host and disc jockey, who was a fixture in the New York radio scene for more than 40 years on the stations WMGM, WNEW, and WNBC, who broadcast during the 1950’s and 1960’s and who was a familiar voice in New York City through the end of the golden age of AM radio, died in the Bronx, New York on March 20, 2005.
Cushing N. Dolbeare - (78) Crusader for fair housing who gave a voice to those who couldn’t afford homes after low-income programs were temporarily suspended by President Nixon in 1973, who created the National Low Income Housing Coalition in 1974 to spotlight the needs, and who served as an advisor to several secretaries of housing and urban development and was a former member of the President's Commission on Housing, died of cancer in Mitchellville, Maryland on March 17, 2005 of cancer.
Lois Dwan - (91): Restaurant critic for the Los Angeles times for over 30 years, whose reviews were generally positive and she wrote without being overly mean but at the same time was fair in her opinions, who started doing reviews for the paper in 1972 with her column “Roundabout” which appeared in the Calendar sections on Sundays, who also wrote several guidebooks to eating in Southern California and also on entertaining outdoors, died of congestive heart failure in Santa Monica, California on March 16, 2005.
Lisa Fittko - (95) American who helped Jews and members of the anti-Hitler resistance movement to escape from nazi-occupied France to Spain, who joined the resistance movement in the early days of Hitler’s reign, who continued her mission for seven months in 1940 and 1941 in other European countries, who wrote two books about her experiences-"Escape Through the Pyrenees" and "Solidarity and Treason: Resistance and Exile, 1933-1940”, died of pneumonia in Chicago, Illinois on March 12, 2005.
Midori Lederer - (81) Founder and president emeritus of Japanese-American Social Services Inc., and organization which helps fill the needs of the Japanese and Japanese American communities helping elderly, abused women, hospital patients who do not speak English, who came to New York after serving time in an interment camp during WWII, who worked professionally as a publicist (and through that, helped introduce Silly Putty to many) but beginning in 1971, started doing volunteer work and eventually in 1981, formed JASSI, eventually helping to bring her charity to Japan, died of respiratory failure in Manhattan on March 9, 2005.Jessica Lunsford - (9) Florida girl who wanted to be an Olympic swimmer and a fashion designer who enjoyed doing gymnastics and cheerleading, who disappeared from her bed on the night of February 26, spurring a full-scale search including helicopters and bloodhounds, but who remained missing until a suspect, John Evander Couey, who was living in a trailer near her home, failed a lie detector test and then confessed to kidnapping and killing her, and eventually her body was discovered near the trailer on March 19, 2005 in Homosassa, Florida.
David Masters - (52) Missouri prosecutor who, following a failed bid for re-election, started a downward spiral, but who previously was known for having a firm grasp of right and wrong, who was named to the county prosecutor job by then Governor John Ashcroft, who was known for working many hours to fill the part-time position and then keep his private practice afloat, but whose law license was eventually suspended in 2004, and who was allegedly murdered by a syringe full of cocaine after he was three weeks late on his rent and had flirted with one of the women he lived with, and was found in a river in the Ozarks on March 3, 2005.
John H. Pickering - (89) Lawyer who was a founding partner in the District of Columbia law firm Wilmer, Cutler and Pickering-which eventually became one of the city’s largest law firms, who tried many cases in front of the Supreme Court, including his first ever appearance in front of a court in 1946, who retained an emphasis in pro bono work and worked full time up until this year, died of a stroke in Washington, D.C. on March 19, 2005.
Bobby Short - (80) Cabaret singer who was a fixture at his piano in the New York hotel the Carlyle for more than 35 years, and whose career spanned nearly 70 years, who was was nominated for a Grammy in 2000 for "You're the Top: Love Songs of Cole Porter." In 1993, he was nominated for "Late Night at the Cafe Carlyle," who appeared in several movies and who taught himself piano, leading to his first jobs playing in saloons when he was nine years old, died of leukemia in New York City on March 21, 2005.
Theodor Uppman - (85) Baritone who was the principal singer at the New York Metropolitan Opera from 1955 to 1978, who was chosen by Benjamin Britten to bring to life the roll of Billy Budd in 1951-which in it’s first performance garnered 17 curtain calls, died in New York City on March 17, 2005.
Buddy Webber - (82) Radio personality and television show host in Seattle, Washington, who was known for his zany goofs and stunts, who began his career in Indianapolis, eventually moving to the Seattle area where he was on KOMO Television as host of the morning Buddy Webber Show and had an afternoon show on KOMO Radio, died pulmonary fibrosis in Bothell, Washington on March 11, 2005.
Walter Hopps - (72) Art dealer and museum curator, founder of the Menil collection who was famous for his landmark exhibitions over his 50 year career including Marcel Duchamps’ first American show and Andy Warhol’s first private show, who is estimated to have organized more than 250 museum shows and who served as curator for 20th century art at the National Collection of Fine Arts, a branch of the Smithsonian, died from complications from a fall he suffered on March 20, 2005 in Los Angeles, California.
Walter Reuter - (99) German photographer who fled Nazi Germany to become a well-known photographer of Mexican culture with his photos of the colorful less fortunate and indigent areas of Mexico, who became one of the first outsiders to shoot the indigenous women after he arrived in the country broke and shooting film on a borrowed camera, which are best known fro bringing to light the conditions in which they lived, died of kidney failure in Mexico City on March 20, 2005.
John Z. DeLorean - (80) Automaker who gave up an up-and-coming career in the Detroit auto world-where he was responsible for creating the GTO, to create his namesake stainless steel sports car, which was perhaps best known as the car used in the “Back To The Future” movies, of which only 8,900 were produced, but whose company crashed a year after his arrest on drug charges and was accused of moving cocaine to help finance his company, but who was acquitted after his defense used entrapment defenses, died in Newark, New Jersey of complications from a stroke on March 19, 2005.
Robert Dale Reed - (75) Aeronautics researcher who created the program that lead to the Space Shuttle, an idea known as the “lifting body” where a wingless vehicle could be shot into space and then return to earth and land safely, who began working with NASA in 1953 and garnered several patents, including one for a solar guidance system capable of steering an airplane, died of cancer in San Diego, California on March 18, 2005.
Sir Donald Thompson - (73) Tory MP who was strongly devoted to Yorkshire, where he lived all his life and represented for 18 years, who became a key member in the Thatcher Government, who in 1996 helped found a charity, Friends of War Memorials, now known as the War Memorials Trust, to conserve and preserve the 65,000 different memorials in the UK and was knighted in 1992, died on March 14.
William H. Graves - (90) Father of former Kansas Governor Bill Graves and entrepreneur who started Graves Truck Line, Inc. with his father and brothers, who owned the former Graves Truck and Auto Museum in Salina and served as president of the Kansas Motor Carriers Association and was on the board of governors of American Trucking Associations Inc., died in Salina, Kansas on March 18, 2005.
Sol M. Linowitz - (91) Lawyer and businessman who, in 1966, put his business career on hold when he accepted the position ofU.S. ambassador to the Organization of American States and U.S. representative on the Inter-American Committee of the Alliance for Progress, who in 1977 helped to negotiate the transfer of the Panama Canal to the Panamanian government, died in Washington, D.C. on March, 18, 2005.
George H. O'Brien Jr. - (78) Lieutenant in the Marines who took charge and organized the capture of an enemy-hill during the Korean War while injured, for which he won the Medal of Honor which was awarded by President Eisenhower one year to the day after his exploits at the Hook for his "exceptionally daring and forceful leadership in the face of overwhelming odds," died of emphysema on March 11, 2005 in Midland, Texas.
