Fouad al-Tikerly (81) renowned Iraqi novelist. Al-Tikerly was one of the last surviving of Iraq's generation of pioneering novelists and rose to fame in the '70s with the novel al-Rajea al-Baeed, Arabic for The Long Way Back. Later translated into English, the novel was unique for its time and widely hailed as a brave depiction of the suffering of four generations of an Iraqi family in Baghdad under the various post-monarchy regimes, especially that of Saddam Hussein—one of the only books to criticize the system so directly. Al-Tikerly died of pancreatic cancer in Jordan on February 11, 2008.

Steve Gerber (60) creator of "Howard the Duck," the dour, disagreeable, and wildly popular comic-book hero of the '70s. Published by Marvel Comics, Howard the Duck attracted a cult following that endures to this day. Gerber conceived the character and wrote the first 27 issues. He was also known for suing Marvel in the late '70s over creative control of the character. The suit was among the first cases to bring the issue of creators' rights to wide public attention. Gerber died of pulmonary fibrosis in Las Vegas, Nevada on February 10, 2008.

Naziha Salim (81) prominent Iraqi painter who came from a family of artists. Salim was born to Iraqi parents in Turkey in 1927. Her father was a painter and her late brother, Jawad Salim, was one of Iraq's best-known modern sculptors. Naziha Salim graduated from the Fine Arts Institution in Baghdad in the '40s, then pursued her studies in Paris. In the '60s, she started teaching at Fine Arts Institute in Baghdad until retiring in the early '80s. She died of complications after a 2003 stroke that left her paralyzed, in Baghdad, Iraq on February 15, 2008.

Jamie Davies (73) woman who with her late husband, Jack Davies (d. 1998), founded Schramsberg Vineyards in the Napa Valley, one of the first vintners in the US to produce sparkling wines using traditional French Champagne methods and grapes. Jamie Davies died of complications from Parkinson's disease in Calistoga, California on February 12, 2008.

Dr. George ("Skip") Gay (77) physician who pioneered treatment for heroin addicts at San Francisco's Haight Ashbury Free Clinic. An anesthesiologist, Gay worked with concert promoter Bill Graham in 1973 to start Rock Medicine, an aid organization caring for drug- and alcohol-impaired fans at Grateful Dead concerts in Golden Gate Park. His awareness of the need for rural medicine led him to move to Alaska several years ago, where he was the only anesthesiologist within a 100-mile radius. He was working until two weeks before his death from a heart attack, in Anchorage, Alaska on February 13, 2008.

Margaret Anne Inman (90) founder in 1965 of Providence Speech & Hearing Center in a small, adobe house in Orange, California who built it into one of the largest treatment facilities of its kind in the country. Inman had a heart condition and died in her sleep in Newport Beach, California on February 15, 2008.

Dr. Ernst R. Jaffé (83) hematologist who helped to reveal the mechanics of a hereditary disorder that impairs red blood cells' ability to transport oxygen. Jaffé worked on a type of anemia called methemoglobinemia, more widely known as blue baby syndrome when diagnosed in infants. A bluish pallor is often observed in patients with the disorder, which can be congenital or acquired by exposure to antibiotics or nitrites, and leads to a deficiency of oxygen in the bloodstream. Jaffé and others studied the congenital type and helped to determine that it was caused by the lack of an enzyme, cytochrome b5 reductase. He died of acute respiratory failure in Port Washington, New York on February 16, 2008.

William D. Modell (86) chairman of the Modell's Sporting Goods chain who oversaw its expansion throughout much of the Northeast. Modell joined the 118-year-old family-owned business at the end of World War II and became chairman in 1985, but he had effectively run the corporation since '63, working alongside his father, Henry, who was chairman. In 1975, the chain consisted of 10 stores in New York and on Long Island, with annual revenue of about $10.5 million; there are now 136 Modell's stores in eight states and Washington, DC, with revenue in 2007 of approximately $635 million. Modell died of prostate cancer in New York City on February 14, 2008.

Dr. Peter B. Neubauer (94) child psychiatrist and researcher who raised public alarms early on about the possible effects of TV violence on the emotional development of children. In 1960, as part of a Columbia University panel looking at the issue, Neubauer contended that TV could provoke nightmares in young viewers and lead to emotional problems. He died in New York City on February 15, 2008.

Morton J. Savada (85) Midtown Manhattan record dealer who lined the narrow aisles of his store with nearly a quarter of a million 78-rpm records, offering fans of King Oliver, Ma Rainey, Artie Shaw, and Benny Goodman the chance to hear the artists' original sounds. For more than 30 years, starting in the mid-'70s, Savada's second-floor store, Records Revisited, was a source for die-hard collectors of the fragile, mostly 10-inch disks, with one short tune to a side, popular until they were made obsolete by 45- and 33-1/3-rpm records in the '50s. Today, LPs have been replaced by digital CDs. Savada died of lung cancer in Harrison, New York on February 11, 2008.

Vivian Sheehan (90) speech pathologist who, with her husband, Joseph (d. 1983), developed the "Sheehan approach" to treating stuttering. Starting in the late '40s, the Sheehans adopted techniques of group psychotherapy in treating stutterers. In weekly meetings, they encouraged patients to talk, no matter how badly they stuttered, and to tell people about their stuttering because it reduced the fear of rejection. Vivian Sheehan died in Santa Monica, California on February 14, 2008.

Bob Voris (85) businessman who established the real-estate firm Bob Voris Realty, one of the top companies in Santa Cruz (Calif.) County, where he participated in many building projects including the Villa Granada Townhouses and the Pacific Avenue Mall. Voris retired in 1989 to pursue other interests, including serving as executive producer for his granddaughter's first feature film, Jelly, which will open later this year, the last film of actor David Groh, who died a day earlier. Voris died after suffering a massive stroke in Sunrise Playa Vista, California on February 13, 2008.

Ray Wu (79) Cornell University professor of molecular biology and genetics widely recognized as one of the fathers of genetic engineering. Wu developed and sought to feed the world with a higher-yielding variety of rice that resists insects and drought. He died of cardiac arrest in Ithaca, New York on February 10, 2008.

Byron Morgan (87) documentary filmmaker whose work for NASA in the '50s and '60s provided lasting images of the early days of the manned space program. Morgan made dozens of documentaries, including The Astronauts: United States Project Mercury, Flight of Freedom Seven, and Project Apollo: Manned Flight to the Moon. The films helped to introduce Alan Shepard, John Glenn, and the other Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo astronauts to the American public. Both educational and entertaining, the documentaries fascinated the nation and helped to pave the way for congressional funding of the expensive space program. Morgan died of pulmonary failure 10 days after his 87th birthday, in Long Beach, California on February 13, 2008.

Murray L. Schwartz (87) former dean of the UCLA School of Law (1969-75) and a longtime professor there. A specialist in criminal law and legal ethics, Schwartz was the author of several books. He died of heart failure in Santa Monica, California on February 15, 2008.

Rudy Abramson (70) former longtime Washington reporter for the Los Angeles Times (1966-93) who also wrote a highly praised 1992 biography of American statesman W. Averell Harriman and coedited, with Jean Haskell, the Encyclopedia of Appalachia (2006), the first comprehensive reference work on the region that covers 13 states from Mississippi to New York. Abramson was one of the first national reporters assigned to the space program. He sustained massive head injuries in a fall Feb. 12 at his home in Reston, Virginia and died late the next day at a hospital in Fairfax, Virginia on February 13, 2008.

Gregory Barker (29) free-lance pianist and singer who frequently performed at several Montreal-based senior residences, played in numerous jazz groups for parties and corporate events, and later sang with the professional choir Harmonie-Cite. Barker was killed in a car accident in Montreal, Canada on February 13, 2008.

Freddie Bell (76) forerunner in the '50s rock 'n' roll era whose toe-tapping versions of "Giddy Up a Ding Dong" and "Hound Dog" inspired Elvis Presley to cover those songs. Bell was performing at the Sands casino-hotel on the Las Vegas Strip in the mid-'50s when Presley was just an opening act across the street at the New Frontier. Bell's upbeat covers, and perhaps his knee-wiggling dance moves, inspired Presley. Bell died of lung cancer in Las Vegas, Nevada on February 10, 2008.

Kirk Browning (86) former music librarian at NBC who became an award-winning director of the enduring series Live from Lincoln Center. In a career spanning 58 years, Browning directed 185 broadcasts of Live from Lincoln Center, winning 10 Emmys, and such pioneering works as Frank Sinatra's first TV show and the world premiere of Gian Carlo Menotti's Amahl & the Night Visitors, the first opera written for TV. Browning died of cardiac arrest in New York City on February 10, 2008.

John Brunious (67) Dixieland jazz trumpeter, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band's leader and senior member. Hurricane Katrina flooded Brunious's New Orleans apartment to the ceiling in August 2005. He was rescued by a passing boat but was among the thousands stranded without food or water at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center for five days before being evacuated. He lost all six of his trumpets to the flood. He died of a heart attack in Orlando, Florida, where he had been living since the storm, on February 12, 2008.

Ashley Callie (32) South African actress best known for her role as Lee Haines in the long-running popular TV soap opera Isidingo. Callie died of head injuries she received a week earlier in a head-on car accident, in Johannesburg, South Africa on February 15, 2008.

David Groh (68) actor best known for his role on the '70s TV sitcom Rhoda as the title character's husband. Groh became an instant celebrity in 1974 when he starred as easygoing Joe Gerard opposite Valerie Harper's neurotic Rhoda Morgenstern on the Mary Tyler Moore Show spinoff. But by the third season the couple divorced and he was off the show. He later had recurring roles on such prime-time series as Police Story and on daytime TV as D. L. Brock on General Hospital, and guested often on Law & Order. He died of kidney cancer in Los Angeles, California on February 12, 2008.

Kon Ichikawa (92) Japanese director who combined artistic technique with humanistic spirit in such films as the Oscar-nominated Harp of Burma (1956) and Tokyo Olympiad, a documentary on the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. Known for his artistic technique and the wide range of genres in which he worked, Ichikawa won a jury prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1960 for his movie, Kagi. He had been hospitalized since late January and died of pneumonia in Tokyo, Japan on February 13, 2008.

Ron Leavitt (60) cocreator with Michael G. Moye of the sitcom Married...with Children, about luckless shoe salesman Al Bundy and his dysfunctional family that ran on the Fox network (1987-97) and became Fox's second-longest running sitcom behind The Simpsons. Leavitt was the show's executive producer and helped to write nearly 150 episodes. He broke into TV in the '70s writing episodes of Busting Loose, Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley, and The Bad News Bears. In the '80s, he had a stint as a producer of The Jeffersons. He died of lung cancer in Los Angeles, California on February 10, 2008.

Perry Lopez (78) veteran film and TV actor whose career ranged from roles in Chinatown to Star Trek. Born in New York, Lopez got his start on the stage before moving into film with an uncredited role in The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954). He later appeared in dozens of movies and TV shows, including The Lone Ranger, Bonanza, Charlie’s Angels, Mission: Impossible, and Star Trek. He starred opposite Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway as Lt. Lou Escobar in the 1974 classic Chinatown and reprised that role in the '90 sequel, The Two Jakes. During his 40-year career, Lopez shared the screen with stars like Jack Palance, Clint Eastwood, Omar Sharif, and John Wayne. He died of lung cancer in Beverly Hills, California on February 14, 2008.

Bobby Lord (74) country music artist and TV show host. Lord produced hits including "Without Your Love," "Life Can Have Meaning," "You & Me Against the World," and "Wake Me Up Early in the Morning." He was a member of the Grand Ole Opry and had his own syndicated TV show beginning in 1965, The Bobby Lord Show. He died in Stuart, Florida on February 16, 2008.

Colette Maire (55) French film and stage actress who had appeared in a handful of acclaimed feature films, including Philippe De Broca's The Keys to Paradise (1991) and Claude Lelouch's One 4 All (1999). Maire died in Paris, France on February 11, 2008.

Monica Morell (54) Swiss pop singer who scored major hits in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria in the '70s, which regularly reached the Top 50 German sales chart. Morell died of cancer in Zürich, Switzerland on February 12, 2008.

Inga Nielsen (61) Danish soprano who performed at some of the world's leading opera houses. One of Denmark's best-known sopranos, Nielsen performed on stages such as La Scala in Milan, the Vienna State Opera, and London's Covent Garden. She sang at festivals across Europe, including Bayreuth in Germany and Salzburg in Austria, Aix-en-Provence in France and Edinburgh, Scotland, and at the Mostly Mozart festival in New York. She died of cancer in Copenhagen, Denmark on February 10, 2008.

Charles Ryan (92) musician and songwriter who cowrote the hit song "Hot Rod Lincoln." Ryan and W. S. Stevenson wrote the song, and Ryan first recorded it in 1955 with the rockabilly beat and the vivid lyrics describing a nighttime car chase. It has been recorded many times since. Commander Cody & the Lost Planet Airmen made it a hit in 1972, and it has been a mainstay of popular culture for decades. The song passed the 1 million-play mark in the summer of 2000. Ryan died of heart disease in Spokane, Washington on February 16, 2008.

Henri Salvador (90) French musician credited with inspiring the bossa nova, bringing American rock 'n' roll to France, and helping to create the music video. Salvador died of an aneurysm in Paris, France on February 13, 2008.

Roy Scheider (75) actor, a two-time Oscar nominee best known for his roles as a small-town police chief in Jaws (1975) and his portrait of famed choreographer Bob Fosse (d. 1987) in All That Jazz (1979). Scheider earned his first Oscar nomination for his supporting role as a narcotics detective partnered with Gene Hackman in the 1971 crime drama The French Connection. In 1979, he was nominated as best lead actor for playing the womanizing, pill-popping Fosse alter ego Joe Gideon in the semiautobiographical All That Jazz, which Fosse cowrote and directed. But Scheider will perhaps best be remembered as the intrepid police chief of a small seaside resort who goes on a hunt for a giant man-eating shark in Steven Spielberg's blockbuster thriller Jaws. One of his most memorable lines from the film, "You're gonna need a bigger boat," was ranked No. 35 on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest movie quotes. He died of complications from multiple myeloma, a cancer of the blood cells, in Little Rock, Arkansas, where he had been treated for the disease off and on over the past two years, on February 10, 2008.

Howard Seelye (86) former political writer for the Orange County edition of the Los Angeles Times. Seelye died in Fallbrook, California on February 12, 2008.

Lionel Mark Smith (62) character actor, one of playwright and screenwriter David Mamet's stock film and stage players whose casting in the play Oleanna created controversy in Los Angeles theater circles. The play was set to debut at the Mark Taper Forum in 1994 when Mamet insisted on casting Smith as a professor in his two-character drama about sexual harassment on a college campus. Taper officials reportedly contended that Smith, who was black, would inject a confusing racial angle into the play and refused to stage it. Smith died of cancer in Inglewood, California on February 13, 2008.

Roger Louis Voisin (89) French-born classical trumpeter, at 17 the youngest musician ever to join the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Voisin was a member of BSO's trumpet section (1935-73) and was principal trumpet (1950-65). He later was chairman of the trumpet department at the New England Conservatory, taught at Boston University, and organized and directed the Boston Symphony Brass Ensemble. He died in Boston, Massachusetts on February 13, 2008.

Richard K. Warren (87) former publisher (1955-84) of the Bangor (Me.) Daily News. Warren guided the newspaper through a series of physical and technological changes. In 1955, the newspaper moved to new offices across the city, the mail room was later modernized, and new presses were added. Warren also led the News in the transition to "hot type" production using Linotype machines with computers for electronic editing and page composition. Satellite dishes were installed on the roof to receive news from major wire services. Warren died in Bangor, Maine on February 15, 2008.

Maj. Gen. William J. ("Bud") Breckner Jr. (74) former USAF fighter pilot and Vietnam prisoner of war. In 1965, Breckner flew 100 missions off the coast of North Vietnam as an exchange pilot with the Navy, racking up 219 carrier landings on the USS Intrepid. He returned to southeast Asia in 1972 as operations officer for the 435th Tactical Squadron, flying F-4 Phantoms. On July 30 that year, his plane was hit by a surface-to-air missile while over Hanoi, and he spent nine months as a PoW. He was killed in a car crash along Colorado Highway 105 while driving home to Monument after visiting a friend when he lost control on a curve and slid into trees, on February 16, 2008.

Sam Bith (74) former Khmer Rouge guerrilla commander serving a life sentence for masterminding the abduction and murder of three Western tourists in 1994. In December 2002, Sam Bith was found guilty of conspiring to kill Australian David Wilson, Briton Mark Slater, and Frenchman Jean-Michel Braquet in southwestern Cambodia, where a train on which the three were passengers was ambushed on July 26, 1994. The rebels held the three foreign backpackers under miserable conditions and killed them three months after the attack when protracted government negotiations for their release failed. Sam Bith had been ill with diabetes and high blood pressure and was hospitalized 10 days before he died in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on February 15, 2008.

Brendan ("The Dark") Hughes (59) senior Irish Republican Army commander (1976-80) who split with former comrades when they pursued compromise and peace in Northern Ireland. Hughes was the IRA's commander inside Maze prison in Northern Ireland when he led a 53-day hunger strike seeking "political prisoner" status for the inmates. Near death, he called off the strike when IRA leaders believed they had struck a deal with British authorities. But it fell through, triggering a second hunger strike in 1981 that ended in the deaths of 10 other prisoners. Hughes died in Belfast, Ireland on February 16, 2008.

Tom Lantos (80) US congressman (D-Calif.) who as a teenager twice escaped from a Nazi-run forced labor camp in Hungary and became the only Holocaust survivor to win a seat in the US Congress. Lantos, who referred to himself as "an American by choice," was born to Jewish parents in Budapest, Hungary and was 16 when Adolf Hitler occupied Hungary in 1944. He survived by escaping from the labor camp and coming under the protection of Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who used his official status and visa-issuing powers to save thousands of Hungarian Jews. After being diagnosed with cancer in January, Lantos announced his retirement and said, "It is only in the United States that a penniless survivor of the Holocaust and a fighter in the anti-Nazi underground could have received an education, raised a family, and had the privilege of serving the last three decades of his life as a member of Congress. I will never be able to express fully my profoundly felt gratitude to this great country." He died of esophageal cancer in Bethesda, Maryland on February 11, 2008.

Imad Mugniyah (45) senior member of the Shia Islamic militant organization Hezbollah who masterminded the infamous 1985 hijacking of the passenger airliner TWA Flight 847 that left hundreds of Americans and Israelis dead, including US Navy diver Robert Stethem. Mugniyah was also linked to numerous kidnappings of Western civilians in Beirut through the '80s, most notably that of journalist Terry Anderson, then was implicated in several attacks, including the 1992 Israeli embassy bombings in Argentina, in which 29 people were killed and 242 injured. Mugniyah was killed by a car bomb blast in Damascus, Syria on February 12, 2008.

Vuk Obradovic (61) former Yugoslav army general, one of the opposition leaders who toppled strongman Slobodan Milosevic. As a young officer in the former Yugoslav army, Obradovic was one of the most promising generals in the once-mighty military of the Yugoslav federation. But in 1992 he left the military and turned to private business. He was president and one of the founders of the Social Democratic Party, part of a multiparty coalition that ousted Milosevic in 2000. A year later, Obradovic became one of the vice premiers in the first post-Milosevic government, but was forced to resign over a sex scandal. He died in Belgrade, Serbia on February 12, 2008.

Robert C. ("Bob") Oshiro (83) former state representative who became a political kingmaker in Hawaii. Oshiro was elected to the state House in 1959—the year Hawaii became a state. He was chosen state Democrat Party chairman in 1962 and later managed the election campaigns of Democrat governors John A. Burns, George Ariyoshi, and John Waihee. Oshiro died of a ruptured aortic aneurysm in Honolulu, Hawaii on February 12, 2008.

Badri Patarkatsishvili (52) exiled Georgian opposition figure and billionaire businessman accused of plotting to overthrow the ex-Soviet republic's government. Patarkatsishvili had accused the pro-Western Georgian government of tilting toward autocracy and corruption. He died of an apparent heart attack in London, England on February 12, 2008, but authorities were viewing his death with suspicion.

Erna Wallisch (85) Austrian woman under investigation for allegedly beating an inmate to death while serving as a Nazi concentration camp guard. The case was launched in January 2008 after Polish authorities provided new evidence implicating Wallisch in the beating death of an inmate at Poland's Majdanek death camp. She had evaded prosecution on murder charges in the '60s for lack of evidence. Authorities closed the investigation after Wallisch died in Vienna, Austria on February 16, 2008.

Rev. Walter J. Burghardt (93) Jesuit priest widely known for emphasizing social justice in the many books he wrote and the seminars he gave on the history and art of preaching. Burghardt, who edited an influential Jesuit journal, Theological Studies, also wrote more than 25 books, the last of which was Justice: A Global Adventure (2004). Over more than 40 years he held many workshops on what he called socially relevant preaching, sessions attended by clergy members of many faiths. He died in Merion Station, Pennsylvania on February 16, 2008.

Brianna Denison (19) student at Santa Barbara (Calif.) City College, abducted, raped, and strangled by an unidentified serial rapist from a friend's off-campus rented home in Reno, Nevada nearly a month earlier. The case attracted prominent national media attention after Denison was last seen sleeping on a couch on January 20 while visiting her hometown over winter break. DNA evidence links her kidnapping to two other attacks on women, presumbly by the suspected rapist, near the University of Nevada/Reno late in 2007, and an earlier campus attack also could be related. Denison's body was found in a brush-covered field about 8 miles from the house where she was last seen, in Reno, Nevada on February 16, 2008.

Michele Greco (84) imprisoned ex-Mafia boss, nicknamed "the pope" when he was at the top of the mob leadership decades ago. Greco was serving a life sentence at Rome's Rebibbia prison after convictions for ordering numerous murders, including the 1982 assassination of Italy's top anti-Mafia fighter, Gen. Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa and his wife. Greco died of lung cancer in Rome, Italy on February 13, 2008.

Steven Kazmierczak (27) former sociology graduate student who fatally shot five students and injured 16 others during a class in a large lecture hall with 150-200 students on the campus of Northern Illinois University. One witness reported that at least 30 rounds were fired by the gunman; many victims were shot in the head, with at least six in critical condition and several others severely wounded. Kazmierczak shot and killed himself shortly before authorities arrived at the scene in DeKalb, Illinois on February 14, 2008.

Lawrence King (15) student at E. O. Green Junior High School in Oxnard, California, allegedly shot in the back of the head and severely wounded by an unidentified male student in front of two dozen other students in the school's computer lab during a first-period English class. King was hospitalized and later declared brain dead in Oxnard, California on February 12, 2008.

Shawn Lonsdale (39) anti-Scientology activist whose one-man crusade made him a public enemy of the church. Never a Scientologist himself, Lonsdale had no connection to the church before arguing with a Scientologist over redevelopment issues at a City Council meeting. But the self-described loner stepped into his new role with enthusiasm. At night, he dropped fliers on the doorsteps of downtown businesses. On his lunch break, he parked his car across the street from the church's cafeteria with posters in his window that claimed people could find free versions of secret church texts on the Internet. He even scavenged church-related documents from piles of trash in front of a Scientology-owned business and posted them online. But in recent months his protesting stopped because of financial constraints. Lonsdale was found dead at his home, an apparent suicide, in Clearwater, Florida on February 16, 2008.

Rev. James E. Orange (65) lieutenant of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference who worked alongside Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. during the civil rights movement. Orange marched in Atlanta in 1963 alongside King and Rev. Ralph David Abernathy to help integrate facilities and transportation. Later he became a regional coordinator with the AFL-CIO in Atlanta, where he incorporated King's nonviolence philosophy and promoted unity between national labor leaders and King's "beloved community." Orange had suffered complications from gallbladder surgery and died in Atlanta, Georgia on February 16, 2008.

John L. Phillips Jr. (83) retired New York Civil Court judge who owned theaters in Brooklyn that were a prominent platform for black activists in the '80s. Phillips collapsed in an elevator at the building where he lived and was pronounced dead at a Brooklyn hospital on February 16, 2008.

Steve Fossett (63) multimillionaire adventurer who risked his life again and again, attempting and often succeeding in setting 116 records in sailboats, high-tech balloons, gliders, and jets. A retired commodities trader who had made millions in soybean futures, Fossett in 2002 became the first person to circle the world solo in a balloon. He was known for his methodical pursuit of pushing endurance envelopes, including swimming the English Channel, completing the Ironman Triathlon, and competing in the Iditarod dog sled race. At 8 a.m. on Sept. 3, 2007, Fossett took off alone from the Flying-M Ranch, near Yerington, Nevada, in a Citabria Super Decathlon, a single-engine two-seater. He was scheduled to be back by noon but never returned. That evening, a search was begun, with airplanes and a helicopter scouring the wild terrain on the Nevada-California border over which he had disappeared. The search was called off after several weeks. More than five months after he vanished, Fossett was declared legally dead, on February 15, 2007.

Update: On October 1, 2008, federal investigators found remains amid the wreckage of Fossett's airplane in the mountains of eastern California. The debris covered an area 400 feet long and 150 feet wide in a steep section of the mountain range. It appeared that Fossett plowed head-on into a mountainside.

Chuck Heaton (90) prolific columnist and Cleveland Browns writer in his 60 years at the Plain Dealer. Heaton, who retired in 1993, was the father of actress Patricia Heaton, who played the wife of sportswriter Ray Barone, portrayed by Ray Romano on the TV series Everybody Loves Raymond. Chuck Heaton had thousands of by-lines in the Plain Dealer; during the '60s and '70s, he wrote a sports column called "Plain Talk" that ran four times a week while serving as the Browns beat writer and writing a weekly TV sports column. In football's off-season, he wrote columns while handling sidebar stories from Indians home games. He covered the Kentucky Derby, Indy 500, golf and tennis tournaments, and 24 of the first 25 Super Bowls. He died of pneumonia in the Cleveland suburb of Westlake, Ohio on February 14, 2008.

Jerry Karl (66) race car driver who started six times (1970-85) at the Indianapolis 500. Karl's highest finish was 13th in 1975's rain-shortened race. His best run came during the 1974 race, when he climbed to seventh just before hitting the Turn 3 wall on his 116th lap. He died from injuries suffered in a car accident in Baltimore, Maryland on February 16, 2008.

Torakichi Nakamura (92) Japanese golfer who more than 50 years ago helped to fuel a post-World War II golf boom in Japan by winning the 1957 Canada Cup. Nakamura and Koichi Ono beat the US team of Sam Snead and Jimmy Demaret to win the Canada Cup, forerunner of the World Cup of Golf. Standing 5 feet 2, Nakamura used an unusual two-step swing that added a twist at the end of the backswing. He played golf into his 80s. He died near his home in Zama, south of Tokyo, Japan on February 11, 2008.

Rahatullah (18) Pakistani first-class cricketer who had played three matches for the 2007-08 Quaid-i-Azam Trophy in Peshawar, Pakistan shortly after he had previously represented the Pakistan Under-19 cricket team with whom he toured both Australia and India. Rahatullah was shot and killed by unknown assailants outside a stadium in Peshawar, Pakistan on February 11, 2008.

Sidney Watters Jr. (90) Racing Hall of Fame racehorse trainer who saddled the champion colts Hoist the Flag and Slew o' Gold, the latter a son of 1977 Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew. Watters died of pneumonia in Towson, Maryland on February 14, 2008.