Helen Gardiner (70) Canadian philanthropist and art collector who cofounded the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Arts in Toronto with her late husband, businessman George R. Gardiner (d. 1997). Helen Gardiner died of cancer in Caledon, Ontario, Canada on July 22, 2008.

Roger Hall (89) former agent for the Office of Strategic Services (precursor to the Central Intelligence Agency) who later wrote a humorous memoir of the experience, You're Stepping on My Cloak and Dagger (1957), a book that taunted humorless, lockstep military thinking. Hall took great pleasure from accounts he received from inside the agency that the book had become part of CIA training on what not to do. He died of congestive heart failure in Windsor Hills, a suburb of Wilmington, Delaware, on July 20, 2008.

Sid Craig (76) Canadian-born cofounder of Jenny Craig Inc., who built the weight-loss company with his wife, Jenny, in 1982 in Melbourne, Australia. The company eventually grew to include 655 weight-loss centers in four countries. In 2006, Nestle SA bought the Carlsbad, Calif.-based company for $600 million. Craig died in San Diego, California on July 21, 2008.

Eugene Dahl (83) former two-term North Dakota state representative who, with his four brothers-in-law, developed the Melroe Manufacturing Co., now known as Bobcat, before selling it in 1970. Dahl then became a leader of Steiger, a Fargo company that helped to pioneer big four-wheel-drive tractors. After leaving Steiger, Dahl helped his sons Howard and Brian start Concord Inc., a maker of air seeders. He died after battling cancer for a year and suffering a heart attack in June, in Fargo, North Dakota on July 23, 2008.

Dr. Eugene A. Foster (81) pathologist who helped to establish genetically the long-alleged liaison between third US President Thomas Jefferson and his slave mistress Sally Hemings. Foster died after a long bout with prostate cancer and leukemia, in Charlottesville, Virginia on July 21, 2008.

H. Tracy Hall (88) physical chemist who invented the first reproducible process for making diamonds in the laboratory, kicking off a multibillion-dollar industry. The feat had been a goal of chemists, alchemists, physicists, and scam artists for more than two centuries when Hall—ostensibly part of a team at General Electric but working primarily on his own—pulled it off in 1954. He died of complications from Alzheimer's disease and diabetes, in Provo, Utah on July 25, 2008.

Dr. Victor A. McKusick (86) key architect of the Human Genome Project and winner of the National Medal of Science, the top US scientific prize, in 2001. McKusick's work explored the links between genetics and disease. He founded the Johns Hopkins Division of Medical Genetics in 1957 and in '73 became chairman of its Department of Medicine and physician-in-chief of the Johns Hopkins Hospital. Two disorders carry his name: McKusick-type metaphyseal chondrodysplasia, a form of dwarfism found among the Amish, and McKusick-Kaufman syndrome, a developmental disorder marked by congenital heart disease, buildup of fluid in the female reproductive tract, and extra fingers and toes. He died of cancer in Towson, Maryland on July 22, 2008.

Dr. John M. Salyer (96) pioneering heart surgeon in Orange County (Calif.) who performed what is believed to be the first open-heart surgery there in 1961 when he repaired a hole in the heart of 5-year-old Steven Colliflower at St. Joseph Hospital in Orange. Salyer also performed Orange County's first cardiac pacemaker implant in 1963, again at St. Joseph Hospital. He died in Coronado, California on July 25, 2008.

Donald G. Stokes (94) former chairman of the British Leyland Motor Corp., at the heart of the rise and fall of Britain's automotive industry in the '60s. Stokes died in London, England on July 21, 2008.

Dr. Allan Moore (31) physician and son-in-law of current Ohio State University president E. Gordon Gee who married his daughter Rebekah in 2006. Moore died after being injured in a scooter accident near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on July 24, 2008.

Randy Pausch (47) Carnegie Mellon University professor of computer science whose "last lecture" made him a symbol of the beauty and brevity of life. A year after being diagnosed with incurable pancreatic cancer in 2006, Pausch delivered the popular speech entitled "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams," which became a best-selling book, The Last Lecture (2008), cowritten with Wall Street Journal writer Jeffrey Zaslow. Pausch's message and story were so powerful they landed him on the Internet and on Oprah and other TV shows. He lived five months longer than the six months a doctor gave him as an upper limit in August 2007. He died in Chesapeake, Virginia on July 25, 2008.

Bruce Adler (63) stage actor who earned Tony nominations for his Broadway performances and lent his voice to some Disney films. Adler starred for four years on Broadway in the Tony-winning Gershwin musical Crazy for You. His performance earned him nominations for the 1992 Tony and Drama Desk Award as best featured actor in a musical. He was previously nominated for those awards for his 1991 performance in Those Were the Days. Adler's voice was featured in the Disney animated film Aladdin, where he sang the opening song, "Arabian Nights." He also had lines in Beauty & the Beast and made a guest appearance on NBC's Law & Order. He died of liver cancer in Miami, Florida on July 25, 2008.

Joe Beck (62) jazz guitarist who collaborated with artists such as Frank Sinatra, Miles Davis, and James Brown. Beck was a prolific studio and session performer, arranger, and producer, with an identifiable harmonic and rhythmic sound. He died of lung cancer in Danbury, Connecticut on July 22, 2008.

Michael Berniker (73) record producer whose diverse projects won nine Grammys over 40 years. Best known for producing the first three Barbra Streisand albums on Columbia and numerous Original Broadway Cast albums, Berniker also produced Latin jazz, spoken word, comedy, and classical records. He died of kidney disease in Great Barrington, Massachusetts on July 25, 2008.

Bud Browne (96) innovator in surf filmmaking. Starting in the '50s, Browne filmed more than a dozen surf movies, including Goin' Surfing and Hawaiian Surf Movie. An avid surfer himself, Browne's work was marked by his water shots that brought viewers close to surfers. He died in his sleep in San Luis Obispo, California on July 25, 2008.

Hiram Bullock (52) jazz and rock guitarist, a member of the original band on Late Night with David Letterman. Bullock played on some blockbuster pop albums, including The Stranger with Billy Joel, Steely Dan's Gaucho, and the soundtrack to A Star Is Born with Barbra Streisand. His best-known solo was on the 1987 Sting album Nothing Like the Sun, in a version of Jimi Hendrix's "Little Wing." He was found to have cancer of the tongue in the fall of 2007 and died in New York City on July 25, 2008.

Harriet Burns (79) first woman hired to work as a designer for Walt Disney Imagineering, who helped to create and build prototypes for such Disneyland attractions as Sleeping Beauty Castle and the Pirates of the Caribbean. Burns died of complications from a heart condition in Los Angeles, California on July 25, 2008.

Norman Dello Joio (95) composer who won wide popularity in the mid-20th century with his many lyrical works. Dello Joio wrote dozens of pieces each for chorus, orchestra, solo voice, chamber groups, and piano and scores for TV and three operas. He died in East Hampton, New York on July 24, 2008.

Khia Edgerton (29) disk jockey at Baltimore's Radio One hip-hop station 92Q James (WERQ-FM) who worked under the name Club Queen K-Swift. Edgerton had established quite a following and was the first female deejay at the station. She was found unresponsive in the pool at her home in an apparent accidental drowning and was pronounced dead at a hospital in Baltimore, Maryland on July 21, 2008.

Estelle Getty (84) Emmy-winning actress best known as a wise-cracking octogenarian on the popular '80s-'90s sitcom The Golden Girls. Getty spent 40 years in show business before winning fame and critical recognition as Bea Arthur's sassy, 80-year-old mother on the hit show, even though she was a year younger than her on-screen daughter and about 20 years younger than the character she played. She is pictured above as herself and as Sophia Petrillo, matriarch of the Golden Girls. Getty suffered from Lewy body dementia, a degenerative brain disease, and died in Los Angeles, California on July 22, 2008.

Johnny Griffin (80) Chicago-born tenor saxophonist who jammed with such greats as Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, and Art Blakey. Griffin's speed in bebop improvising marked him as the "Fastest Gun in the West." In the early '60s, dismayed by the changes in jazz—which he called "noise"—at a time when he was also having marital and tax troubles, he moved to Europe, where he became a celebrated jazz elder. He died in the village of Availles-Limouzine, France, where he had lived for 24 years, on July 25, 2008.

George Grivakis (61) film distributor and executive producer who helped to produce a couple of low-budget movies like Lauderdale (1989) and Body Trouble (1992). Grivakis died of cancer in Montreal, Canada on July 22, 2008.

Gladys Nederlander (83) theater and TV producer of nine Broadway shows (1976-93), most notably a revival of West Side Story in 1980. Nederlander produced under a former married name, Gladys Rackmil, in partnership with her third husband, Robert E. Nederlander, and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. She died of heart failure in New York City on July 21, 2008.

Kathryn Skatula (54) film, stage, and TV actress and singer best known as a founding member of the stage organization Musical Theater Guild, devoted to presenting rarely performed musical productions. Skatula had a supporting role in the excellent indie film Purgatory House (2004) and portrayed Jessica Savitch's mother in the TV movie Almost Golden: The Jessica Savitch Story (1995). Her other screen credits include Life Stinks, Out on a Limb, and Riptide. She died of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig's disease, in Studio City, California on July 21, 2008.

Barbara Ann Teer (71) actress, founder, and longtime chief executive of the performing arts organization National Black Theater. Teer had appeared in the Broadway productions of Where's Daddy (1966) and Kwamina (1961) and won a 1965 Drama Desk Award for her performance in Home Movies. She died in Harlem, New York City on July 21, 2008.

Artie Traum (65) guitarist, songwriter, and producer who helped to carry the spirit of the '60s Greenwich Village folk scene to Woodstock. In a varied career, Traum played folk music and smooth jazz; recorded 10 albums of his own and four with his brother, Happy Traum; produced albums; composed film scores; created guitar-instruction books and videos; teamed with Happy for a radio program; and made a documentary film about the Catskill water system. He died of liver cancer in Bearsville, New York, near Woodstock, on July 20, 2008.

Carol Vitale (61) Playboy magazine's Playmate of the Month in its July 1974 issue who later had a brief career in TV, appearing on an episode of Caribe (1975). Vitale was an associate producer on several episodes of Remington Steele in 1982 and Airwolf in 1984-85 and later hosted a Miami-based talk show, The Carol Vitale Show (1989). She had suffered from lupus and scleroderma for several years and died in Aventura, Florida on July 23, 2008.

Nicky Yunupingu (26) dancer and yidaki player who had performed for several years in a handful of annual ceremonial festivals throughout small commmunities and elsewhere with Australia's best-known traditional rock band Yothu Yindi. Yunupingu was also the nephew of Aboriginal indigenous leader Galarrwuy Yunupingu. He was found dead, an apparent suicide by hanging, after stabbing and wounding a female friend during an argument in Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Australia on July 23, 2008.

Michael J. Daly (83) retired US Army captain awarded the Medal of Honor as a 20-year-old lieutenant in World War II for heroism and valor in combat. On April 18, 1945 in Nuremberg, Germany, Daly engaged in four single-handed fire fights to protect his men, killing 15 Germans, silencing three enemy machine guns, and wiping out an entire enemy patrol. He entered the war as an 18-year-old private after leaving West Point and was awarded three Silver Stars, two Purple Hearts, and a Bronze Star with "V" for acts of bravery. He died in Fairfield, Connecticut on July 25, 2008.

Eric Dowling (92) Briton who helped to plan the mass wartime breakout from a German prison camp that inspired the movie The Great Escape (1963). Dowling died near Bristol in southwest England, one day before his 93rd birthday, on July 21, 2008.

Thomas Lloyd Hayes (91) retired US Air Force brigadier general who won designation as an ace pilot in Europe and the Pacific during World War II. The requirement for ace status is five or more documented aerial victories. Hayes was credited with the destruction of 8-1/2 German and two Japanese aircraft while flying 485 hours in 143 combat missions. He died of Alzheimer's disease in Reston, Virginia on July 24, 2008.

Gen. Robert T. Herres (75) high-ranking US Air Force official, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Gen. Colin Powell. Herres was also a pioneer in the space program and later became chief executive for seven years of San Antonio-based insurance company USAA beginning in 1993. He died after a two-year battle with brain cancer, in San Antonio, Texas on July 24, 2008.

David H. Popper (95) former US ambassador to Chile and Cyprus. Popper was a career foreign service officer who became US ambassador to Chile months after Gen. Augusto Pinochet overthrew Socialist President Salvador Allende. Popper died of complications from a fall, in Washington, DC on July 24, 2008.

Dinko Sakic (87) last known living commander of a World War II concentration camp. Sakic was a former chief of Croatia's infamous Jasenovac camp, where tens of thousands of Serbs, Jews, Gypsies, and anti-Fascist Croats were killed in the worst of about 40 camps run by the then-Nazi puppet state in Croatia. Sakic fled the country at the end of the war and lived in Argentina for decades until 1998, when he was extradited to Croatia for a trial that sentenced him to 20 years in prison. He had heart problems and was recently transferred to the prison hospital, where he died, in Zagreb, Croatia on July 20, 2008.

Clay T. Whitehead (69) official in the Nixon administration who laid the groundwork for Open Skies, the policy that led to the creation of the domestic satellite system that brought cable TV and lower-cost long-distance telephone service into millions of American homes. As director of the White House Office of Telecommunications Policy (1970-74), Whitehead was a technological innovator with a free-market approach to the newborn information revolution. He died of prostate cancer in Washington, DC on July 23, 2008.

Charles Z. Wick (90) long-serving (1981-89) director of the US Information Agency who raised its profile, doubled its budget, and extended its ability to reach foreign audiences through new technology such as satellite TV. Wick died in Los Angeles, California on July 20, 2008.

Paul Bentley (87) retired Dallas police detective who helped to arrest JFK assassin Lee Harvey Oswald at the Texas Theater on Nov. 22, 1963. Bentley worked for the Dallas Police Department for 21 years, starting as a patrol officer and retiring as a detective in 1968, five years after Kennedy's assassination. He died in Dallas, Texas on July 21, 2008.

Charles L. Brieant Jr. (85) former chief judge of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York who presided over many controversial and sometimes unusual cases. Brieant issued rulings or oversaw settlements in cases involving race and gender discrimination, whether Alcoholics Anonymous is a religion, and the separation of church and state in a dispute involving a Hindu god. He died of cancer in New York City on July 20, 2008.

Jimmy Chagra (63) drug kingpin accused of leading a 1979 conspiracy to assassinate US District Judge John Wood Jr. ("Maximum John"), set to preside over Chagra's drug trial. Hit man Charles Harrelson, father of actor Woody Harrelson, was convicted of the murder and died in federal prison in 2007 while serving two life sentences. Three months after Wood's assassination, Chagra was convicted of masterminding an international drug-smuggling venture. He was sentenced to 30 years and was freed on parole in 2003. He had been battling cancer since November 2007 and died in Mesa, Arizona on July 25, 2008.

Edward Davidson (35) "Spam King," sentenced in federal court to 21 months in prison and ordered to pay $714,139 to the IRS after pleading guilty to falsifying header information on spam e-mails, tax evasion, and criminal forfeiture on April 28. Prosecutors said that during 2002-06 Davidson's business, Power Promoters, sent hundreds of thousands of unsolicited commercial e-mails for companies selling items like watches and perfume. Davidson also sent spam messages promoting "penny stocks" on the public market with false headers, which concealed the sender from the recipients, from all of which he was reported to have earned $3.5 million. Four days after escaping from a minimum-security federal prison camp, Davidson was found dead with his wife and their 3-year-old daughter in an apparent murder-suicide outside Bennett, Colorado on July 24, 2008.

Richard Egbert (61) prominent New England criminal defense lawyer whose famous clients included Massachusetts House Speaker Thomas Finneran and Providence Mayor Vincent ("Buddy") Cianci. Egbert collapsed and died of a suspected heart attack while on vacation in upstate New York on July 24, 2008.

Christopher Scott Emmett (36) Virginia killer convicted of beating a coworker to death with a brass lamp in 2001 so he could steal the man's money to buy crack cocaine. Emmett was executed by lethal injection after a federal appeals court upheld the procedure as the primary method of capital punishment in the nation's second-busiest death chamber, in Jarratt, Virginia on July 24, 2008.

Alfredo Ferrer (43) Connecticut man facing a murder charge in the fatal shooting of his pregnant girlfriend, Amanda Realie (27), in front of their two children during a standoff in their tavern apartment on April 14. Investigators said Ferrer later told them that he accidentally shot and fatally wounded Realie as they got into an argument over her heroin use and his long criminal history as a sex offender. His trial was scheduled to begin this week. Ferrer was found dead in his cell, an apparent suicide by hanging, in Newtown, Connecticut on July 23, 2008.

Ryan Hummert (22) son of former Maplewood (Mo.) Mayor Andy L. Hummert. Ryan Hummert had been a firefighter for the St. Louis-area Maplewood Fire Department for almost 11 months after graduating from paramedic training at the St. Louis County Fire Academy in 2007. He was shot and killed by an unknown gunman during an early morning standoff after firefighters responded to a report of a burning pickup truck in Maplewood, Missouri on July 21, 2008.

Mark Knobbe (52) retired Navy veteran believed to be the gunman responsible for fatally shooting firefighter Ryan Hummert (22) and injuring two police officers during an apparent ambush outside his home after emergency workers responded to a report of a burning pickup truck in the St. Louis suburb of Maplewood. Investigators also found a long barrel that came from a rifle or shotgun after witnesses indicated a person inside the burned house was seen setting clothes on fire during the attack. Knobbe's remains were believed to be recovered after he apparently died in the house fire, in Maplewood, Missouri on July 22, 2008.

Christopher Laurie (33) arts director at the popular Christian ministry chapel Harvest Christian Fellowship and son of its founder, evangelist Greg Laurie. Christopher Laurie had a history of involvement in serious car wrecks that included more than a dozen citations in southern California since 2002. In 2001 he was charged with possession of a controlled substance, but the charge was dropped after he successfully completed a court-ordered drug program. He was killed in a car accident in Corona, California on July 24, 2008.

Jasmine Sanders (8) Los Angeles girl fatally struck in the chest by a stray bullet while playing with other children in the fenced courtyard of her apartment building when two male teens approached and opened fire at a nearby group of people in an apparent gang-related shooting. Sanders became the latest unintended victim of Los Angeles gang violence mainly targeting children. She died in Los Angeles, California on July 23, 2008.

Update: On July 28, Jasmine's 13-year-old male cousin was charged with her murder. The boy said he was "shooting at someone else" in retaliation for an assault that occurred earlier in the day.

Frank ("The German") Schweihs (78) reputedly one of Chicago's most feared mob enforcers. Schweihs had been in federal custody for more than two years. Prosecutors said he was responsible for killing two potential federal witnesses. He died of cancer while awaiting trial on charges he took part in a conspiracy that included numerous organized crime murders, in Chicago, Illinois on July 23, 2008.

Derrick Sonnier (40) Texas man sentenced to die for the 1991 rape and capital murder of his neighbor, Melody Flowers (27), and the fatal stabbing of her 2-year-old son, Patrick, after his sexual advances were rejected at their home in a Houston suburb. Sonnier was one of three inmates put to death in the state since the US Supreme Court in April rejected a challenge to the three-drug cocktail used in most executions in the last 30 years. He was executed by lethal injection in Huntsville, Texas on July 23, 2008.

Dr. Daniel Bukantz (90) national champion and Olympic fencer and a longtime Olympic fencing referee while pursuing a career in dentistry. Bukantz died of lung cancer in Forest Hills, Queens, New York on July 26, 2008.

David E. Cawood (64) former high-ranking National Collegiate Athletic Association executive (1975-97) who coordinated media and marketing for the men's Final Four. Cawood helped to negotiate the first $1 billion rights fee for a sporting event with CBS and the subsequent $1.725 billion agreement. He collapsed after a morning run and was rushed to a hospital, where resuscitation efforts were unsuccessful, in Louisville, Kentucky on July 20, 2008.