William S. Bartman (58) art patron and founder of ART in LA, a nonprofit publishing company and exhibition space that he later moved to New York City. Bartman began his career in theater and film and instituted a theater program at the federal penitentiary in Lompoc, California. He founded the Distribution to Underserved Communities Program, which distributes free books on art to rural and urban libraries across the country. He died of multiple organ failure after suffering for many years from numerous health problems, including an HIV infection, in New York City on September 15, 2005.

Stanley Burnshaw (99) well-known literary critic and publisher who edited the works of his long-time friend, poet Robert Frost. Burnshaw also wrote poetry and books including Andre Spire & His Poetry (1933). He died in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts on September 16, 2005.

Toni Trent Parker (58) author who helped to advance the cause of books featuring black children. With two friends, Donna Rand and Sheila Foster, Parker established Black Books Galore!, a company to help promote such books, and later wrote a series of four guides. She died of a brain tumor in Stamford, Conneticut on September 15, 2005.

Henryk Tomaszewski (91) Polish graphic artist known for creating posters rich in metaphoric imagery, whose works are found in the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and other leading museums. Tomaszewski's characteristic use of letters as art forms won him fame in Poland and abroad, and he was considered one of the founding fathers of the so-called Polish poster school, a movement that used satire and symbolism to turn posters—often advertisements for theater, films, or art exhibitions—into an art form of its own. He died after being bedridden for the last five years, in Warsaw, Poland on September 11, 2005.

Harold L. Friedman (82) chemist who studied the structural and thermodynamic properties of liquids in work that has relevance to both oceanography and human physiology. Friedman taught chemistry for 30 years at Stony Brook University on Long Island, New York. He died of Parkinson's disease in Stony Brook, New York on September 16, 2005.

Gordon Gould (85) scientist who fought for 30 years for recognition of his work in the invention of the laser. In 1957, Gould came up with insights into how to build a device that shot out a narrow, intense beam of light. He eventually won millions of dollars in royalties. He died in New York City on September 16, 2005.

Jay M. Gould (90) statistician and epidemiologist whose contention that radiation from nuclear power plants was causing high rates of cancer in surrounding neighborhoods made him a leading figure in the antinuclear movement. Gould routinely warned that low levels of radiation from nuclear reactors were far more dangerous than commonly believed and were quietly poisoning Americans. He died of heart disease in New York City on September 16, 2005.

Serge Lang (78) leading mathematical theorist who became better known for his academic jousts with nonmathematicians on social and political issues than for his work in geometry and the properties of numbers. Lang taught for more than 30 years in the Yale University mathematics department before retiring earlier this year. He wrote more than 40 mathematics textbooks and research monographs and well over 100 research articles. He died in Berkeley, California on September 12, 2005.

John H. Slade (97) former star hockey player in Germany who fled the country in the '30s and over the next 70 years established a career as a prominent investment banker on Wall Street. Slade was a senior managing director of Bear Stearns, where he had worked since arriving in the US in 1936, and was believed to be the oldest active member of the New York Stock Exchange. He died in New York City on September 12, 2005.

F. Ross Holland Jr. (78) dean of American lighthouse historians and the author of a book on the Statue of Liberty's restoration in the '80s. Holland was a historian for more than 30 years with the National Park Service and wrote numerous books about lighthouses and their builders and keepers. He was director of restoration and preservation of the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation and won the Department of the Interior's Distinguished Service Award. He died of Alzheimer's disease in Mason, New Hampshire on September 16, 2005.

David C. Anderson (62) member of the editorial board of the New York Times, journalist, and author who wrote extensively about criminal justice. With his son, Anderson wrote the book The No-Salt Cookbook: Reduce or Eliminate Salt Without Sacrificing Flavor, a project that came from his efforts to lower his blood pressure. Anderson died of cancer of the biliary tract in New York City on September 15, 2005.

Al Casey (89) guitarist whose playful acoustic rhythms and solos were a defining feature of Fats Waller's band in the '30s and '40s. Casey also worked with Teddy Wilsons big band and recorded with Billie Holiday, Frankie Newton, and Louis Armstrong. He was recognized in 1944 as a leading jazz musician in the Esquire magazine readers' poll and was coaxed out of retirement in '81 to join the Harlem Blues & Jazz Band, in which he played until 2001. He died of colon cancer in New York City on September 11, 2005.

Honey Bruce Friedman (78) onetime nightclub singer and stripper and former wife of comedian Lenny Bruce who successfully lobbied to clear her ex-husband's 40-year-old obscenity conviction. Friedman died in Honolulu, Hawaii on September 12, 2005.

Guy Green (91) Oscar-winning cinamatographer of Great Expectations (1946), a founding member of the British Society of Cinematographers. Green was nominated for a Golden Globe award in 1965 for his work on A Patch of Blue. He died of kidney and heart failure in Beverly Hills, California on September 15, 2005.

Jack Lesberg (85) steadfast and versatile bassist who worked with many legends of jazz in the '40s and '50s and had a career as a symphonic player. Lesberg first studied the violin, which he played in area clubs before switching permanently to double bass in the late '30s. He survived the Cocoanut Grove nightclub fire, which killed 492 people in 1942, and performed with the New York Symphony Orchestra (1945-48), primarily under the baton of Leonard Bernstein. Lesberg died of Alzheimer's disease in Englewood, New Jersey on September 17, 2005.

Sid Luft (89) producer credited with reviving the career of Judy Garland (d. 1969), whose production credits included Kilroy Was Here (1947), French Leave (1948), and most notably the first remake of A Star Is Born (1954; starring Garland). Luft was married to Garland (1952–65) and was father to Lorna and Joey Luft. He died of a heart attack in Santa Monica, California on September 15, 2005.

Constance Moore (84) versatile actress of Hollywood films in the '30s and '40s who appeared in comedies, dramas, musicals, and westerns. Moore acted in several B pictures and the classic W. C. Fields comedy You Can’t Cheat an Honest Man. She died of heart failure in Los Angeles, California on September 16, 2005.

Helen O'Brien (79) British cofounder with her husband Jimmy of the legendary Eve nightclub that opened in an alley off Regent Street in 1953 and ran for 39 years. The club was the most discreetly daring establishment in London during its Cold War heyday and counted among its regular customers Errol Flynn, Judy Garland, and Aristotle Onassis. Helen O'Brien died in France on September 16, 2005.

Sterling Dorwin Weed (104) America's oldest known active bandleader whose Weed's Imperial Orchestra played from the early '30s to the summer of 2005. Weed's band played at the inaugural balls for three Vermont governors, and he was the first music director at several schools in northwestern Vermont dairy country, at one point serving as band director in five different school districts—one each day of the week. He died in St. Albans, Vermont on September 11, 2005.

Robert Wise (91) filmmaker who won four Oscars as producer and director of the classic '60s musicals West Side Story and The Sound of Music. Wise was nominated for seven Oscars during a career that spanned more than 50 years, including a nomination for editing the 1941 Orson Welles classic Citizen Kane and for producing the '66 best picture nominee The Sand Pebbles. He was president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences and the Directors Guild of America and directed 39 films in all, ranging from sci-fi to drama to war stories to Westerns, besides his famous musicals. He died of heart failure after falling ill in Los Angeles, California on September 14, 2005.

Steffen W. Graae (64) senior District of Columbia Superior Court judge who ordered the District's public housing agency into receivership in the '90s. Graae died of heart disease in Baltimore, Maryland on September 16, 2005.

Joe Smitherman (75) former mayor of Selma, Alabama, first elected in 1964 as a segregationist during a time when only about 150 blacks were registered to vote in Selma. Six months later, marchers seeking equal voting rights were beaten by police on a Selma bridge in what came to be known as Bloody Sunday and led to passage of the Voting Rights Act. At the time Smitherman was opposed to blacks voting in large numbers and once referred to Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. as Martin Luther Coon, claiming it was a slip of the tongue. He eventually apologized for his segregationist past and in later years openly campaigned for black votes. He was defeated in 2000 by James Perkins, an information technology consultant who became the city's first black mayor. Smitherman died in Montgomery, Alabama on September 11, 2005.

Julio Cesar Turbay (89) former Colombian president who led the nation (1978-82) and negotiated the release of dozens of diplomats held hostage by leftist rebels for 61 days in 1980. Turbay was praised for his calm and measured handling of one of the most difficult politicomilitary acts that Colombia had faced. His journalist daughter, Diana, was abducted in 1990 by gunmen working for drug kingpin Pablo Escobar and killed in '91 during a botched rescue attempt. Turbay died of heart failure in Bogota, Colombia on September 13, 2005.

Rev. Donald S. Harrington (91) Unitarian minister who crusaded for social justice and was the public face of New York City's Liberal Party in its heyday as a candidate for public office. Harrington was an apostle of liberalism from the pulpit of the interfaith interracial congregation he helped to build on East 35th Street in Manhattan and was Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr.'s running mate for lieutenant governor in 1966. Having never fully recovered from gall bladder surgery in the spring of 2005, he died in Romania on September 16, 2005.

Cyril K. Harris (68) former chief rabbi of South Africa who helped to ease long-standing mistrust of the Jewish community among poor blacks. Harris became a good friend of Nelson Mandela and served on South Africa's National Religious Leaders' Forum, set up by Mandela to promote interfaith understanding and to act as a collective religious voice on human rights and other issues. Harris forged greater ties with Christian, Hindu, and Muslim groups and won the Jerusalem Prize for services to the Jewish community. He died of cancer in the southern coastal resort of Hermanus, near Cape Town, South Africa on September 13, 2005.

Frances Newton (40) Texas woman convicted of the fatal shootings of her husband and two children in 1987. Newton was the third woman and the first black woman to be put to death in the state since executions resumed in 1982. She was executed by lethal injection in Huntsville, Texas on September 14, 2005.

Donn Clendenon (70) power-hitting first baseman selected as the Most Valuable Player in the New York Mets 1969 World Series victory. Clendenon later wrote about the victory along with his battle with drug addiction in the book Miracle in New York. He died of leukemia in Sioux Falls, Iowa on September 17, 2005.

Toni Fritsch (60) former Austrian soccer player who switched sports and became an NFL place-kicker. Fritsch played in nine matches for the Austrian national soccer team before moving to the US to play for the Dallas Cowboys, despite never before having seen an American football game. He helped the Cowboys to reach two Super Bowls, including their winning year in 1972. Fritsch also played for the San Diego Chargers, Houston Oilers, and New Orleans Saints during an 11-year NFL career. He died of heart failure after eating at a restaurant in Vienna, Austria on September 13, 2005.

John J. McMullen (87) former owner of the New Jersey Devils and the Houston Astros, credited with bringing NHL hockey to New Jersey when he bought the Colorado franchise in 1982 and presided over Devils teams that won two Stanley Cup championships. McMullen died in Montclair, New Jersey on September 16, 2005.

Adrian Nicholas (43) British skydiving expert who pioneered new types of skydiving and made more than 6,500 jumps in five years in 30 different countries. Nicholas made the first free-fall flights through the Grand Canyon and over the Great Wall of China. He won numerous medals for extreme sports and set world records for the farthest unassisted human flight and for the longest free fall in 1998. He was featured in the IMAX film Adrenalin Rush and appeared on many TV programs and in a documentary about his life called Lord of the Skies. He was killed in a skydiving accident in Holland on September 17, 2005.

Chris Schenkel (82) sportscaster whose easy-going baritone won over fans during a more than 60-year broadcasting career in which he covered everything from bowling to the Olympics. Schenkel was the first to cover the Masters Tournament on TV in 1956, the first to call a college football game coast-to-coast on ABC, and the first to serve as live sports anchor from the Olympics in Mexico City in '68. His career highlights included calling gymnast Nadia Comaneci's perfect 10 at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal. He was the TV voice of the New York Giants for 13 years and longtime voice of the Professional Bowlers Association. He was inducted into 16 halls of fame, including the National Sportscasters & Sportswriters and College and Pro Football halls. He won an Emmy for Lifetime Achievement in 1993. Schenkel died of emphysema in Fort Wayne, Indiana on September 11, 2005.