Life In Legacy - Week of March 22, 2008

Art and Literature

Andrew Britton (27) British-born spy novelist dubbed "the next Tom Clancy" by some literary critics. Britton's books topped 25 New York Times best-selling lists. His novels were translated into many languages around the world, and his popularity soared as a new face in the espionage-thriller genre, inspired by such greats as Clancy and even James Bond author Ian Fleming, with novels including The Assassin and The Invisible. Britton died in his sleep of an apparent undiagnosed heart condition at his apartment in Durham, North Carolina on March 18, 2008.

Sir Arthur C. Clarke (90) British-born science fiction writer who, with film director Stanley Kubrick, cowrote the screenplay for 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). Clarke won worldwide acclaim with more than 100 books on space, science, and the future. He was credited with the concept of communications satellites in 1945, decades before they became a reality. Geosynchronous orbits, which keep satellites in a fixed position relative to the earth, are called Clarke orbits. Some of his best-known books are Childhood's End (1953), The City & the Stars (1956), The Nine Billion Names of God (1967), Rendezvous with Rama (1973), Imperial Earth (1975), and The Songs of Distant Earth (1986). Clarke, who had suffered from debilitating postpolio syndrome since the '60s, died after experiencing breathing problems in his adopted home (since 1956) of Colombo, Sri Lanka on March 19, 2008.

Hugo Claus (78) Belgian artist, poet, playwright, and novelist whose books painted a scathing picture of repression and hypocrisy in bourgeois Flanders. Claus produced about 200 works during his career but was best known for his classic The Sorrow of Belgium—a scathing attack on social injustice, stifling family relationships, and Roman Catholic repression in his native Flanders in northern Belgium. Suffering from Alzheimer's disease, he chose to die by euthanasia in Antwerp, Belgium on March 19, 2008.

Jon Hassler (74) writer who chronicled the foibles of small-town life in Staggerford, Grand Opening, and other novels after starting his career late in life, at age 37. Hassler had long suffered from progressive supranuclear palsy, a neurological disorder, and died in St. Louis Park, Minnesota on March 20, 2008.

Arthur Lyons (62) author of several detective novels (The Dead Are Discreet, Castles Burning, etc.) set in California who cofounded the Palm Springs Film Noir Festival with Craig Prater in 2001. As host of the annual festival, Lyons wore "gangster" suits and fedoras that encouraged audiences to dress up like gun molls and mob hitmen. He died of pneumonia and complications from a stroke in Palm Springs, California on March 21, 2008.

Jonathan Williams (79) founder of the Jargon Society, a small publishing house in western North Carolina that for more than 50 years has introduced the works of unknown, little-known, and soon-to-be-better-known writers, photographers, and artists. Williams was himself a poet, essayist, photographer, and graphic artist. He died of pneumonia eight days after his 79th birthday, in Highlands, North Carolina on March 16, 2008.

Business and Science

Roland Arnall (68) founder of Ameriquest Mortgage, a billionaire who became a symbol of the subprime lending industry he helped to create. The Paris-born Arnall built a real estate and financial services fortune in Los Angeles during the housing boom by lending to people with less than stellar credit. The remnants of his company were sold to Citigroup Inc. in 2007. He died of esophageal cancer in Los Angeles, California on March 17, 2008.

Dr. Frank J. Ayd Jr. (87) psychiatrist who, by studying his patients' responses to early antipsychotic and antidepressant drugs, helped to create and nurture the field of psychopharmacology. In May 1955, Ayd reported on his use of two antipsychotic drugs, chlorpromazine, best known by the trade name Thorazine, and reserpine. He received the first permit from the Food & Drug Administration to use Thorazine to treat schizophrenia and found that many of his 300 patients no longer needed to be institutionalized; 80% were usefully employed. Ayd died of coronary artery disease in Baltimore, Maryland on March 17, 2008.

Dr. Frank M. Berger (94) physician who helped to start the modern era of drug development with his invention of Miltown, the first mass-market psychiatric drug and a forerunner of medical and cultural phenomena like Valium and Prozac. Berger died of cardiac arrest after a fall at his home in New York City on March 16, 2008.

Geri Cook (83) woman who turned bargain-hunting in Los Angeles into a brisk business, with a monthly newsletter, TV segments, a call-in hotline, and a newspaper column on how to beat retail prices. By the mid-'80s Cook had built a bargain-shopping empire; along with her newsletter, LA's Best Bargains, she gave subscribers a telephone hot line number to call with questions, led tours to discount outlets, did radio spots, and appeared regularly on KCBS's evening news, where she was known as "the super shopper." She died of emphysema in Los Angeles, California on March 19, 2008.

William L. Kraushaar (87) pioneer in high-energy astronomy and a former physics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Wisconsin. Kraushaar died of complications from Parkinson's disease, in Gorham, Maine on March 21, 2008.

Dr. Michael Lesch (68) medical educator whose name is attached to a hereditary disorder characterized by self-mutilation that he helped to identify as a medical student. Although he spent his career as a cardiologist, Lesch was best known for the research he performed as a student while working with his mentor, Dr. William L. Nyhan, at Johns Hopkins in the early '60s. The rare disorder they identified quickly became known as Lesch-Nyhan syndrome, characterized by frequent biting of fingers and lips, often leading to amputations. Lesch died in his sleep while on a fishing trip in Patagonia on March 19, 2008.

William Ludwig 2nd (91) son of the founder of Ludwig Drum Co. and its former president. Ringo Starr was so proud to play a Ludwig drum set during the Beatles' first televised appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964 that he asked Ludwig to build a special set for him with the company name printed in bold letters at the top of the bass drumhead. Ludwig died in Chicago, Illinois on March 22, 2008.

Claus Luthe (75) influential German car designer whose 1967 NSU Ro80, with its sloping hood and tail-to-headlight crease line, was a precursor to many models of recent decades. As BMW's chief designer (1976-90), Luthe was credited with refining the work of his predecessor, Paul Bracq, in developing BMW's 3, 5, and 7 Series, sleek cars that became status symbols for many baby boomers and greatly increased the company's profits. In 1990, after 14 years at BMW, Luthe was convicted of murder after stabbing his 33-year-old son, Ulrich, to death during a violent argument. He was sentenced to 33 months in prison but did not serve his full term. He died in Munich, Germany on March 17, 2008.

Morris Mendelson (85) University of Pennsylvania professor who helped to develop a plan to computerize the New York Stock Exchange. Mendelson and two colleagues, securities consultant Junius Peake and computer finance whiz R. T. Williams Jr., formalized a plan in which computer transactions could replace shouting traders and mountains of paper records. The trio presented the plan to the Securities & Exchange Commission in 1975. Their idea took root in the '80s, when the stock exchange began to computerize its operations, revolutionizing the industry. Mendelson died of cancer in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on March 16, 2008.

Harvey Picker (92) former president and chairman (1946-71) of a major X-ray equipment maker, Picker X-Ray Co., whose wife's illness inspired him to start a foundation, the Picker Institute, considered a leader in promoting patient-friendly medical care. Picker died in Camden, Maine on March 22, 2008.

James Reva (67) California fashion designer who owned boutiques starting in the early '70s and later sold his label through specialty stores in Beverly Hills and New York. Reva was found dead of a heart attack at his studio, in Los Angeles, California on March 17, 2008.

Dr. Charlotte T. C. Tan (84) oncologist who for many years was a driving force behind the testing of drugs that proved effective in treating children with leukemia and other cancers. Tan conducted her research (1952-96) at what became the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan. She died of pneumonia in Brookline, Massachusetts on March 22, 2008.

Education

Denis Cosgrove (59) British-born UCLA cultural geographer who studied the connection between art and its representation of geography. Landscape and how it is viewed through art history, architecture, and design formed the basis of much of Cosgrove's writing. He died of stomach cancer in Los Angeles, California on March 21, 2008.

Leo Kolligian (90) San Joaquin Valley attorney and developer, a former chairman of the University of California Board of Regents who championed the construction of the first new UC campus in 40 years, UC Merced. Since its opening in 2005, UC Merced has grown to include more than 90 full-time professors and 1,800 students. One of the first buildings on its campus was the library, named after Kolligian and his first wife, Dottie, who died in 2002. Kolligian died of leukemia in Fresno, California on March 20, 2008.

Mary Meader (91) aerial photographer who as a new bride in the '30s took off on a 35,000-mile trip with her first husband, neurosurgeon Dr. Richard Light, a former military pilot, to advance geographic knowledge by making the first aerial photographs of South America and Africa. First cousins and heirs to the Upjohn pharmaceutical fortune, the Lights responded to the American Geographical Society's encouragement of photographic flights over parts of those continents never before photographed from the air. Meader died in Kalamazoo, Michigan on March 16, 2008.

Michael H. Robinson (79) British-born former director of the Smithsonian National Zoological Park for 16 years (1984-2000). Robinson died of pancreatic cancer in Alexandria, Virginia on March 22, 2008.

Miriam Rom Silverberg (57) UCLA professor emeritus of history celebrated for her writings on modern Japan and known for infusing scholarly research with wit and humor. Silberberg died of complications from Parkinson's disease, in Los Angeles, California on March 16, 2008.

News and Entertainment

Robert U. Brown (95) former president and editor (1953-99) of the leading newspaper industry trade publication, Editor & Publisher, then owned by his family. Brown later helped to found the Inter-American Press Association, which promotes press freedom. He wrote commentaries urging newspapers to uphold tough reporting standards. In 1998 he called on editors to crack down on the use of anonymous sources and decried journalistic sins like plagiarism. He died in Greenwich, Connecticut on March 20, 2008.

Ola Brunkert (62) former drummer for the '70s Swedish pop group ABBA, whose two male and two female vocalists were among the world's best-known faces in the '70s with hits including "Waterloo" and "Dancing Queen." Brunkert was possibly the only instrumental musician to appear on all their albums. He was found dead after an apparent accident in his home. He bled to death from a throat wound that police suspect was caused after he accidentally smashed a pane of glass, in Mallorca, Spain on March 17, 2008.

Klaus Dinger (61) drummer for the '70s German band Neu!, whose beats had a wide influence on underground rock. Dinger formed Neu!, which means New!, with guitarist Michael Rother in Düsseldorf in 1971. He died of heart failure in Germany on March 20, 2008.

Ivan Dixon (76) actor, director, and producer best known for his role as US Staff Sgt. James Kinchloe on the TV series Hogan's Heroes (1965-71), a popular satire set in a German prisoner-of-war camp during World War II. In charge of electronic communications, Kinchloe could mimic German officers on the radio or phone. Besides acting on TV, Dixon also directed hundreds of episodes for other TV series, including The Waltons, The Rockford Files, Magnum, PI, and In the Heat of the Night. He died after suffering a hemorrhage and kidney failure, in Charlotte, North Carolina on March 16, 2008.

Robert ("Bob") Dyk (71) longtime Maine broadcaster and a former ABC-TV network correspondent who covered the 1979 hostage crisis in Iran. Dyk died of cancer in Falmouth, Maine on March 22, 2008.

John Fowler (42) original drummer for the '90s glam metal band Steelheart who had played on the group's first two albums Steelheart (1990) and Tangled in Reins (1992). Fowler died four days after falling into a coma from a sudden brain aneurysm in Orange, Connecticut on March 21, 2008.

Judy Frankel (65) classical musician who performed and recorded long-forgotten songs that originated with Sephardic Jews living in Spain in the 15th century. Folk songs written in Ladino, a language that mixes Spanish and Hebrew, first caught Frankel's attention in the early '60s. Over the next 40 years, she became known as one of the leading interpreters of traditional Sephardic music. She died in San Francisco, California on March 20, 2008.

John Gonsalves Sr. (85) Massachusetts man who made national headlines after winning a $5.1 million Megabucks lottery jackpot in 1994, yet he didn't let the fortune change his life. Relatives said Gonsalves had lived a modest life even after winning the jackpot. He enjoyed the freedom the money gave him and liked to buy nice clothes and jewelry, yet he wasn't frivolous. He died in a house fire in New Bedford, Massachusetts on March 20, 2008.

Philip Jones Griffiths (72) Welsh-born photojournalist who spent years traveling across Vietnam to capture the effects of the war on its people. Jones Griffiths was a former president of the Magnum photo agency and was perhaps best known for his book Vietnam Inc.—described as one of the most detailed studies of any conflict. He died of cancer in London, England on March 19, 2008.

Lee Joon-yub (19) University of Sydney student and younger brother of popular South Korean actor and pop singer Lee Dong-gun. Lee Joon-yub was stabbed to death by two groups of men during an apparent racially motivated restaurant brawl in Sydney, Australia on March 20, 2008.

Israel ("Cachao") Lopez (89) Grammy-winning Cuban bassist and composer credited with pioneering the mambo style of music. Lopez left Communist Cuba and came to the US in the early '60s. He continued to perform into his late 80s. He died of kidney failure in Coral Gables, Florida on March 22, 2008.

Daniel MacMaster (39) former lead vocalist of the British rock band Bonham. Founded by drummer Jason Bonham, son of the late Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham, the band released two albums: The Disregard of Timekeeping (1989), which peaked at No. 38 on the Billboard charts, and Mad Hatter (1992). MacMaster had released a solo album entitled Rock Bonham...and The Long Road Back (2005), reissued by Suncity Records in 2006. He died of a staph infection in London, England on March 16, 2008.

Anthony Minghella (54) Oscar-winning British film director. Minghella won an Oscar for directing The English Patient (1996), one of a series of literary adaptations that include The Talented Mr. Ripley and Cold Mountain. He suffered a fatal hemorrhage after undergoing an operation the preceding week for a growth on his neck, in London, England on March 18, 2008.

Hyo Jin Moon (45) musician, concert performer, multimedia executive producer, and eldest son of Rev. Sun Myung Moon, founder of the Unification Church (later renamed Family Federation for World Peace & Unification). The younger Moon ran the Manhattan Center Studios, a New York multimedia facility used by musicians and orchestras for recordings and broadcast events. He founded MC Korea and MC Japan. He died of a heart attack in Seoul, South Korea on March 17, 2008.

Mia Permanto (19) Finnish pop singer and radio host who performed the songs "Nobody Knows" by Pink and "Ironic" by Alanis Morisette. Permanto placed sixth in the finals on the TV program Idols in 2007. She had recently begun to record an album with Helsinki Music Works and released her single "Rising Sun" on the Idols 2007 compilation album. She died suddenly in Helsinki, Finland on March 19, 2008.

Jason Rae (31) saxophonist with the funk band the Haggis Horns who had performed and recorded with top artists, including Amy Winehouse, Mark Ronson, and Nightmares on Wax. Rae was also the husband of Grammy-winning chanteuse Corinne Bailey Rae. He was found dead of a suspected drug overdose at his home in Leeds, England on March 22, 2008.

Juliana Redding (21) aspiring model and actress who had recently moved to Los Angeles from Arizona to begin her professional modeling career. Redding's one and only film credit was a featured role as a college student in the comedic film Kathy T Gives Good Hoover (2005). She was found dead at her home in an apparent homicide in Santa Monica, California on March 16, 2008.

Oreste Rizzini (67) Italian voice actor best known for working on various Italian-language versions of American films, including his well-known voice dubbing of Michael Douglas in many films from Basic Instinct through Traffic. Rizzini was also known for dubbing Bill Murray in Ghostbusters and narrating the documentary Italy after the War (1994). He died of stomach cancer in Rome, Italy on March 18, 2008.

Paul Scofield (86) British actor famed for his Oscar-winning portrayal of Sir Thomas More in A Man for All Seasons (1966). A private actor who spurned the limelight, Scofield had the power, voice, and presence to outdo any other classical actor, with unforgettable performances in roles ranging from Shakespeare's King Lear to a homosexual barber in the comedy Staircase. But the glitz of Hollywood did not appeal to him, and he was happy never to match the glamour of contemporaries like Richard Burton and Laurence Olivier. Scofield died of leukemia in southern England on March 19, 2008.

Ilyas Shurpayev (32) Russian journalist and free-lance blogger who had worked for several years as a correspondent with state-controlled Channel One television. Shurpayev reported from many conflict zones in the North Caucasus's former Soviet Union regions, which include Dagestan and Chechnya. He was found stabbed and strangled at his apartment in Moscow, Russia on March 21, 2008.

Joe D. Smith Jr. (85) former general manager, president, publisher, and board chairman of The Town Talk of Alexandria, La. Smith retired from The Town Talk in 1996 after a 50-year career with the newspaper. He also was chairman and president of the American Newspaper Publishers Association, led the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association, and was on the board of the Associated Press for several years. He died in Alexandria, Louisiana on March 20, 2008.

Michael John van Dyke (48) construction foreman on several movie sets, including The Matrix Reloaded, Dr. Dolittle 2, Star Trek: Nemesis, and Karate Kid II. Van Dyke was listed as prop foreman on the remake of Pyscho and was a longtime friend of the contractor working on actor Mel Gibson's property. Van Dyke was reportedly involved in a messy divorce and having financial problems but had no connection to Gibson. He committed suicide by hanging on Gibson's property near Malibu, California on March 19, 2008.

Gary Richard Williams (66) pro wrestler and manager, also known as "Playboy Gary Hart." World Wrestling Entertainment credits Williams with propelling professional wrestling to international heights by establishing a rivalry between the famed Texas wrestling family the Von Erichs and the Fabulous Freebirds. He died of heart disease in Bedford, Texas on March 16, 2008.

Justin Wright (27) storyboard artist at Pixar Studios who had worked on the much-lauded 2D line drawings featured in the credits of Ratatouille (2007). Wright was also working on a new animated short to be released with Wall-E in theaters in June 2008. He died of a heart attack in Los Angeles, California on March 18, 2008.

Politics and Military

Anura Bandaranaike (59) former Sri Lankan foreign minister and member of the country's famous Bandaranaike political dynasty. Both his parents and his sister led Sri Lanka, but Bandaranaike's own political ambitions were frustrated by political battles within his family. He died in Colombo, Sri Lanka on March 16, 2008.

Waltrude Schleyer (92) widow of a top German official whose killing by Marxist-Leninist terrorists shocked that nation in the '70s. Hanns Martin Schleyer—then head of West Germany's employers association—was kidnapped and killed in 1977 by the Red Army Faction, or RAF, terrorist group, also known as the Baader-Meinhof gang after two early leaders, Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof. Waltrude Schleyer died in Berlin, Germany on March 21, 2008.

Society and Religion

José Bailey (11) California boy shot and fatally wounded by two suspects approaching him while standing outside with a group of people in an apparent gang-related shooting, which also injured a 20-year-old man. Investigators do not believe either victim was gang-affiliated. Bailey died in Long Beach, California on March 17, 2008.

Obie Clark (75) former Mississippi chapter president (1969-2003) of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People who helped to protect black churches in the '60s and later sought to get the Confederate battle emblem removed from the state flag. Clark died of cancer in Meridian, Mississippi on March 19, 2008.

Anthony deSeta (23) student at Pennslyvania's Millersville University reportedly found dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound in a residence hall. The incident sparked a campuswide alert and had police and school officals worried about a "possible Virginia Tech situation." No one else on campus was in danger. DeSeta died in Lancaster, Pennsylvania on March 20, 2008.

Arbella Perkins Ewings (114) considered the oldest person in Texas, second-oldest American, and third-oldest person in the world. Ewings celebrated her birthday Mar. 13, when she blew out all 114 candles on her birthday cake. But during the party, she warned that she wouldn't be around much longer. Born in 1894, she died in Dallas, Texas on March 22, 2008.

Ronald H. Haines (73) former bishop (1990-2000) of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, DC, who ordained a lesbian priest less than a year after taking office and in 1997 presided over the wedding of former Vice President Al Gore's daughter Karenna. Haines died of cancer in Lancaster, Pennsylvania on March 21, 2008.

Metropolitan Laurus (80) Russian Orthodox Church prelate who played a key role in healing an 80-year schism between his church and an offshoot set up abroad after the Bolshevik Revolution. Laurus was head of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia. In May 2007, Laurus and Moscow Patriarch Alexy II signed a reunification pact at a nationally televised ceremony in Moscow's Christ the Savior Cathedral. The rift in the church came after the 1917 revolution; the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia cut all ties in 1927 after then-Moscow Patriarch Sergiy declared loyalty to the Communist government. Reunification talks began after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. Laurus was found dead at his residence at the Holy Trinity Monastery in rural Jordanville, New York, about 60 miles northwest of Albany, on March 16, 2008.

John E. List (82) former Westfield, New Jersey Sunday school teacher on the run for more than 17 years after killing his mother, wife, and three teenage children in 1971. It was more than a month before the bodies were discovered in the family's 18-room mansion. List had two mortgages on his house, was failing as a financial consultant, and had been siphoning money from his mother’s $200,000 savings account. He was arrested in June 1989 just days after being profiled on TV’s America’s Most Wanted, in Midlothian, Virginia, a Richmond suburb, where he had remarried and was working as an accountant under the name Robert P. Clark. He died of pneumonia four days after being taken from New Jersey State Prison to St. Francis Medical Center in Trenton, on March 21, 2008.

Chantal Sebire (52) French woman with a rare facial tumor whose plea for doctor-assisted suicide was rejected by a court earlier in the week after she urged French President Nicolas Sarkozy to intervene and grant her request for a prescription of lethal drugs in a TV interview. Sebire was diagnosed with esthesioneuroblastoma in 2000, which left her nearly blind and with no sense of taste or smell. As the tumor burrowed through her sinuses and nasal cavities, causing intense pain, her nose swelled to several times its size and one eye socket was pushed out of her head. Pictured above before the onset of her illness, Sebire was found dead at her home in Dijon, France on March 19, 2008.

Ama Sumani (39) Ghanaian woman who had been receiving kidney dialysis and terminal cancer treatment in her home country after immigration officials deported her from a Welsh hospital in January 2008. More than $70,000 in donations had been raised to pay for the drug she needed to prolong her life (thalidomide), which is not available in Ghana. Sumani died in Accra, Ghana on March 19, 2008.

Abigail Taylor (6) Minnesota girl whose injury in a swimming pool freak accident led to federal legislation to make pools safer. Abigail underwent transplant surgery to receive a new small bowel, liver, and pancreas after being injured in the accident, when she sat on a wading pool drain at the Minneapolis Golf Club in St. Louis Park, Minnesota and its powerful suction ripped out part of her intestinal tract on June 29, 2007. The Minnesota legislation in December approved a ban on the manufacture and sale of drain covers that don't meet antientrapment safety standards. Taylor had been suffering from setbacks including a cancerous condition sometimes triggered by organ transplants. She died in Omaha, Nebraska on March 20, 2008.