Forrest J Ackerman (92) sometime actor, literary agent, and magazine editor who discovered author Ray Bradbury and was widely credited with coining the term "sci-fi." Ackerman was legendary in science fiction circles as founding editor of the pulp magazine Famous Monsters of Filmland. He was also the owner of a huge private collection of fantasy, sci-fi, and horror movie and literary memorabilia that for years filled every nook and cranny of a hillside mansion overlooking Los Angeles. He died of heart failure in Los Angeles, California on December 4, 2008.

George Brecht (82) member of Fluxus, the international group of Conceptual artists that emerged in the early '60s. Brecht's most important and original contribution was a form he called the "event score," consisting of a title followed by eccentric instructions, typically printed on a small white card that he would mail to friends. He died in his sleep in Cologne, Germany, where he had lived since 1972, on December 5, 2008.

William H. Pierson Jr. (97) member of the "art mafia" at Williams College in Williamstown, Mass. who helped to train a generation of prominent curators and museum officials. Pierson died in North Adams, Massachusetts on December 3, 2008.

Warren M. Robbins (85) founder of the Museum of African Art, forerunner to the Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art. Robbins died of complications from a fall at his home in November, in Washington, DC on December 4, 2008.

Dorothy Sterling (95) author whose more than 35 books for children and adults included some of the first nonfiction works about black history for young readers, notably Freedom Train (1954), about Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad. Sterling died in Wellfleet, Massachusetts on December 1, 2008.

Dr. A. Bernard Ackerman (72) pioneer in the field of dermatopathology who trained a generation of doctors to recognize skin diseases under the microscope. Ackerman was also a forceful voice on a wide range of subjects, including the causes of melanoma and the ethical issues that arise when doctors testify in court. He died of heart failure in New York City on December 5, 2008.

Kent W. Clapp (62) chief executive of the Cleveland-based Medical Mutual of Ohio health insurance company, formerly part of the Blue Cross system. Clapp had been with the company since 1976 and was named president in '92 and chairman and CEO in '97. He was killed in a small plane crash that also killed his fiancée, Tracy Turner, and the pilot of the plane they chartered, when it crashed in dense fog into a mountain in the El Yunque rainforest in Puerto Rico on December 3, 2008.

Doris ("Tanta") Dungey (47) blogger, an influential voice on the mortgage collapse. Writing for Calculated Risk, a finance and economics blog, Tanta was a pseudonym for Dungey, who used her extensive knowledge of the loan industry to comment, criticize, and above all instruct. She eventually wrote, for the Calculated Risk site, The Compleat ÜberNerd, 13 lengthy articles on mortgage origination channels, mortgage-backed securities, and foreclosures that constituted a definitive word on the subject. She died of ovarian cancer in Columbus, Ohio on November 30, 2008.

Michael Ganal (54) BMW's former chief financial officer. Ganal joined BMW AG in 1986. He was appointed a member of the board of management in October 2000 and made responsible for sales and marketing. Since October 2007, he had been in charge of the finance division. He died in Frankfurt, Germany on December 4, 2008. 2008

Henry Gustav Molaison ("H. M.") (82) the most important patient in the history of brain science, known in medical studies only as H. M. to protect his privacy. Molaison lived for decades with what neurologists call profound amnesia but in death will be remembered for his groundbreaking contributions to understanding the brain. In 1935 at age 9, Molaison developed seizures after being hit by a bicycle rider and later suffered convulsions and could no longer work as a mechanic; 18 years after the accident, he underwent an experimental brain operation to stop the seizures but lost the ability to form new memories. He could recall life in the ‘40s but virtually nothing after that. Leading surgeons began to study Molaison, and the research helped scientists to understand that there are at least two systems in the brain for creating new memories. Molaison cooperated in more than 50 years of research and hundreds of studies that shed light on learning and memory. He died of respiratory failure in Windsor Locks, Connecticut on December 2, 2008.

Patrick H. Norton (86) former chairman of furniture maker La-Z-Boy in Monroe, Michigan. Norton was a furniture industry pioneer and leader for more than 50 years. He joined La-Z-Boy in 1981 and became board chairman around '97. He was credited with building the company's brand and was inducted into the American Furniture Hall of Fame in 1995. He died in Greensboro, North Carolina on December 4, 2008.

Edward S. ("Ted") Rogers Jr. (75) media mogul and owner of the Toronto Blue Jays. Rogers was founder of Rogers Communications Inc., Canada's largest cable TV and mobile phone company, which owns the Blue Jays and their home at the Rogers Centre, several TV stations, and an array of other media properties including Maclean's and Chatelaine magazines. Rogers was treated in October for a heart condition and died in Toronto, Canada on December 2, 2008.

Oliver G. Selfridge (82) innovator in early computer science and artificial intelligence. Credited with coining the term "intelligent agents" for software programs capable of observing and responding to changes in their environment, Selfridge theorized about far more, including devices that would not only automate certain tasks but also learn through practice how to perform them better, faster, and more cheaply. He died three days after suffering injuries in a fall, in Boston, Massachusetts on December 3, 2008.

Robert B. Zajonc (85) Stanford University psychologist who studied the mental processes that determine social behavior and helped to create the modern field of social psychology. Zajonc died of pancreatic cancer in Stanford, California on December 3, 2008.

Elizabeth Warnock Fernea (81) scholar of women's studies in the Middle East who delved into the subject as a newlywed in 1956 in Iraq and whose memoir about the experience, Guests of the Sheik, was the first of several of her works that examined the role of women in the region. Fernea was a professor emeritus of comparative literature and Middle Eastern studies at the University of Texas. She died in La Canada Flintridge, California on December 2, 2008.

Jan Kemp (59) University of Georgia English professor, fired after publicly criticizing the university for allowing athletes who failed remedial classes to continue playing sports and stay in school. Kemp sued in federal court after being fired by the university in 1982, contending that she was targeted because she protested the preferential treatment of athletes. She was awarded $1.08 million and reinstated. She retired in 1990 on a disability after being injured in a car crash. She died of complications from Alzheimer's disease, in Athens, Georgia on December 4, 2008.

Paul Benedict (70) New Mexico-born actor who played British neighbor Harry Bentley on the sitcom The Jeffersons (1975-85). Benedict's oversized jaw and angular features were partly attributed to acromegaly, a pituitary disorder first diagnosed by an endocrinologist who saw him in a theatrical production. He was found dead at his home on Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts on December 1, 2008.

Giulio Bertola (87) former choir director at Italy's famed La Scala theater (1983-91). Bertola directed the choir for eight La Scala opera premieres, including Verdi's Guglielmo Tell and Rossini's I Vespri Siciliani, under artistic director Riccardo Muti. Before joining La Scala, Bertola directed the choir for Muti's 1983 concert for Pope John Paul II. He also worked in theaters including the Fenice in Venice and the Academy of Santa Cecilia in Rome. He died in Milan, Italy on November 30, 2008.

Nina Foch (84) veteran actress from Hollywood's film noir era of the '40s who became a widely respected acting coach and teacher of directors. Foch fell ill while teaching "Directing the Actor," a popular course at USC's School of Cinematic Arts, where she taught for 40 years. She also offered the class for years at the American Film Institute. Her best-remembered films include An American in Paris (1951) and The Ten Commandments (1956), followed by a long acting career on TV. She died of complications from long-term myelodysplasia, a blood disorder, in Los Angeles, California on December 5, 2008.

Beverly Garland (82) B-movie actress who starred in '50s cult hits like Swamp Women and Not of This Earth and later played Fred MacMurray's TV wife on My Three Sons during the last three seasons of the popular series that aired 1960-72. Garland and her late husband, real estate developer Fillmore Crank (d. 1999), built what is now called Beverly Garland's Holiday Inn in North Hollywood. Garland died in Hollywood Hills, California on December 5, 2008.

Munetaka Higuchi (49) original drummer and founding member of the veteran Japanese heavy metal band Loudness. The band released their debut album Free World (1997) and featured many famous musicians from the jazz and rock/metal spheres, including Steve Vai, Stanley Clark, Billy Sheehan, Ty Tabor, Terry Bozzio, T. M. Stevens, Ronnie James Dio, and Richie Kotzen. Higuchi died of liver cancer in Osaka, Japan on November 30, 2008.

Odetta Holmes ("Odetta") (77) folk singer with a powerful voice who moved audiences and influenced fellow musicians for 50 years. With her booming, classically trained voice and spare guitar, Odetta (born Odetta Holmes) gave life to songs by workingmen and slaves, farmers and miners, housewives and washerwomen, and blacks and whites. First coming to prominence in the '50s, she influenced Harry Belafonte, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and other singers who had roots in the folk music boom. Odetta was hospitalized with kidney failure about three weeks ago and died of heart disease in New York City on December 2, 2008.

Robert M. Jelenic (58) former chairman and chief executive of Journal Register Co., whose flagship newspaper is the New Haven (Conn.) Register. The company owns 22 daily newspapers, including the Lorain Morning Journal and the Willoughby News-Herald, both in Ohio, and approximately 300 nondaily publications. Jelenic died after a three-year bout with cancer, in Yardley, Pennsylvania on December 3, 2008.

Mike Kavanagh (57) longtime Atlanta radio talk show host. Kavanagh was host of WSB's Money Matters, which made its debut in 1990. He also spent 15 years as a coanchor of Atlanta's Evening News on WSB radio. In the early '80s, he worked as a radio and TV anchor for CNN, appearing on Headline News. He died of a heart attack on his 57th birthday, in suburban Atlanta, Georgia on December 6, 2008.

Anastasiya Khabenskaya (35) radio journalist and actress married to popular Russian actor Konstantin Khabensky, best known to American audiences for his role in the Angelina Jolie action-adventure movie Wanted (2008). Khabenskaya died from a brain tumor in Los Angeles, California on December 3, 2008.

Anca Parghel (51) Romanian jazz singer who fought a highly publicized battle with ovarian cancer. The diminutive singer with flashing dark eyes was one of Romania's best-known musicians. Parghel appeared at jazz festivals in the US and across Europe. She fell ill with breast cancer in 1994, but the disease went into remission; her diagnosis of ovarian cancer last June prompted a national campaign in Romania to raise money for her treatment. She was treated in hospitals in Austria, Serbia, and Romania but died hours after being admitted to a hospital unconscious, in Timisoara, Romania on December 4, 2008.

Sophia Rubenstein (95) singer, dancer, pianist, and mother of actress Barbara Spiegel, perhaps best known for portraying Judge Harriet Doremus on the long-running TV series Law & Order. Rubenstein died in New York City on December 2, 2008.

Derek Scott (21) aspiring musician and artist featured earlier this year in a reality road trip series on YouTube called Ragged Road. The show followed five young talents as they drove cross-country. Scott was killed in a car accident in Portland, Oregon on November 30, 2008.

Roland Scrivner (79) retired chief deputy firefighter in the Berkeley Fire Department and US Army veteran who pursued a career later in life as a stage, TV, and film actor. Scrivner landed a supporting role as Oscar Beasley in the Francis Ford Coppola fact-based movie Tucker: The Man & His Dream (1988). He became a presence on the San Francisco-area theater scene, where he played Alfred Doolittle in five separate productions of My Fair Lady and later dabbled in the short-lived TV show Midnight Caller before making his feature film debut. He died from injuries suffered in a golf cart accident in Walnut Creek, California on November 30, 2008.

Syed Alwi Syed Hassan (78) pioneering playwright who won Malaysia's highest cultural accolade for writing seminal plays that shaped his country's theater scene after independence from Britain. Syed Alwi's son found his body at his bungalow. Authorities discovered no signs of a break-in but were investigating the cause of death because there were bruises on Syed Alwi's body, later determined to be injuries from a fall. He died on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on November 30, 2008.

Elmer Valentine (85) cofounder of the Whisky a Go Go, the legendary live rock showcase on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood that gave birth to the go-go dancer phenomenon of the '60s. The Byrds, the Doors, the Kinks, the Who, Them, Love, and Buffalo Springfield were among the bands that played there. Valentine died after suffering from various ailments for the last four years, in Studio City, California on December 3, 2008.

Richard van Allan (73) British bass-baritone, a commanding presence on the world's opera stages. Van Allan had been diagnosed with lung cancer in 2006 and died in London, England on December 4, 2008.

Carlos Abascal (59) former Mexican interior secretary, a supporter of putting Christianity back into that nation's politics in a country with strong anticlerical traditions. Abascal died of stomach cancer in Mexico City, Mexico on December 2, 2008.

Lawrence R. Devlin (86) the Central Intelligence Agency's station chief in Congo in 1960 who avoided carrying out an order to assassinate ousted Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba. The US feared Lumumba might ally the mineral-rich Congo with the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War. By his own account, Devlin chose not to openly defy the order, believing he would be replaced by a more willing assassin; instead, he said, he stalled, pretending to go along. After Lumumba was slain by Congolese political opponents, Devlin took from his safe the poison toothpaste previously delivered to him and threw it in the Congo River. He died of emphysema in Locust Grove, Virginia on December 6, 2008.

Constantin Ticu Dumitrescu (80) once imprisoned Romanian Communist-era "enemy of the state" who spent years fighting to reveal details of his country's troubled past. After communism ended in 1989 with the overthrow and execution of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, Dumitrescu was elected to Parliament, where he helped to draft laws that led to the publication of the millions of files of the feared Securitate secret police. He died two weeks after being released from the hospital where he was treated for liver disease, in Bucharest, Romania on December 5, 2008.

Raymond F. Lederer (70) former US congressman (D-Pa.) imprisoned for taking a bribe in the FBI's ABSCAM investigation more than 25 years ago. Lederer was videotaped on Sept. 11, 1979 at a New York motel accepting a $50,000 bribe from two FBI undercover agents. Authorities said Lederer accepted the payoff in return for promising to help two fictitious Arab sheiks enter the US. In all, six House members and one senator were convicted in the ABSCAM sting. Lederer, whose family has been involved in Philadelphia politics for decades, died of lung cancer in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on December 1, 2008.

Rawson Macharia (96) key prosecution witness at the controversial trial of the Kapenguria Six who gave false testimony against former Kenyan prime minister Jomo Kenyatta (who would have become Kenya's first president) in order to get favors from the colonial government. Macharia had worn an affidavit claiming he was mislead by the colonial masters to give false evidence that would land Kenyatta in jail together with the six comrades in the freedom of struggle when he was handed a six-month jail term in the early 1980s. He died after being hit by a motorcycle while crossing the road in Thika, Kenya on December 5, 2008.

Mike Terry (61) Briton who led England's antiapartheid movement for nearly 20 years and played a pivotal role in turning British public opinion against South Africa's white minority rule. Terry's Anti-Apartheid Movement launched protests and demonstrations that helped to persuade British universities, churches, unions, businesses, and local governments to pull their investments from South Africa, a former British colony. He died of a heart attack in London, England on December 2, 2008.

Richard Topus (84) lifelong homing pigeon enthusiast who became a successful executive in the food industry. During World War II, Topus helped to train US Army spies and other military personnel in the use of carrier pigeons. After the war he became a vice president of Friendship Dairies, now in Jericho, NY. He died of kidney failure in Scottsdale, Arizona on December 5, 2008.

Beatriz Valdez (69) stenographer who rose to become the first woman registrar-recorder of Los Angeles County. When Valdez was appointed to the office in 1993, she also became the first Latino to hold that position since Ignacio del Valle was voted into office in 1850 in the county's first elections. As head of the largest election agency in the US, Valdez was in charge of 700 permanent employees and directed an annual budget of $60 million. She was responsible for conducting elections within the county for local, state, and federal offices and oversaw voter registration. She died of a heart attack in Montebello, California on December 5, 2008.

Patriarch Alexy II (79) Russian Orthodox Patriarch who presided over a post-Soviet revival of faith but was accused of making the church a force for nationalism. Alexy II had long suffered from a heart ailment and died outside Moscow, Russia on December 5, 2008.

Joseph M. L. Gardner (38) South Carolina man convicted in the 1992 kidnapping, rape, and slaying of 25-year-old Melissa ("Missi") McLauchlin. Police said Gardner and his codefendants decided to kill a white woman as retribution for slavery. He was executed by lethal injection in the state's death chamber in Columbia, South Carolina on December 5, 2008.

Alexandros Grigoropoulos (15) Greek student shot and killed by special guard Epaminondas Korkoneas in the inner district of Exarcheia when he launched a petrol bomb at an officer while accompanying a group of boys throwing rocks at police. The fatal shooting set off multiple consecutive riots, causing immense damage in Athens, Thessalonika, and many other suburban Greek cities, along with solidarity demonstration movements in big cities around Europe (Frankfurt, Barcelona, Madrid, Rome, Copenhagen, Instabul, London, and Berlin). Grigoropoulos died in Athens, Greece on December 6, 2008.

Catherine Hagel (114) supercentenarian who became the oldest person ever recorded in the state of Minnesota and the third-oldest validated person in the world after the death of 115-year-old Edna Parker on November 26. Hagel died in Dayton, Minnesota on December 6, 2008.

Nicholas Montos (92) oldest prison inmate in Massachusetts, a career criminal and first person to make the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list twice. Montos was serving 33-40 years for robbery in the state prison in Norfolk. He committed his first crime at age 14. He had said in a request to commute his sentence that he was being treated for prostate cancer, hypertension, arthritis, and gout, among other ailments. He died in a hospital in Boston, Massachusetts on November 30, 2008.

Lloyd E. Ohlin (90) criminologist who explored the social underpinnings of crime and the social consequences of punishment, especially relating to youthful offenders. Ohlin died of Shy-Drager syndrome, a neurodegenerative disease, in Santa Barbara, California on December 6, 2008.

Rabbi Emanuel Rackman (98) spiritual leader of the prominent Fifth Avenue Synagogue in Manhattan and an outspoken advocate of a more inclusive, intellectually open Orthodox Judaism. Rackman argued for a more flexible interpretation of Orthodoxy and the relevance of traditional Jewish law to modern life. He died in New York City on December 1, 2008.

Ramon S. Velez (75) son of a Puerto Rican farmer who became head of an array of poverty programs in the South Bronx, earning praise for registering hundreds of thousands of Hispanic voters and criticism for profiting from his humanitarian efforts. Starting with a $50,000 grant from the Johnson administration's war on poverty, Velez built his social services agency, the Hunts Point Multi-Service Center, into a vast program including centers for the elderly, housing, health clinics, and substance-abuse programs. His power came from the $300 million in government funds that his organization attracted over 25 years. He died of complications from Alzheimer's disease in New York City on November 30, 2008.

Martha ("Sunny") von Bulow (76) heiress who spent the last 28 years of her life in a coma after what prosecutors alleged in a pair of sensational trials were two murder attempts by her husband, Claus von Bulow, finally acquitted in 1985. Sunny von Bulow died in a New York City nursing home on December 6, 2008.

Joseph P. Wirthlin (91) the Mormon Church's oldest living apostle. Wirthlin was ordained a member of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles in 1986, about 10 years after being called to full-time church service. The quorum is the second tier of church leadership and is charged with various management responsibilities. Wirthlin died in Salt Lake City, Utah on December 1, 2008.

Harris Armstrong (12) aspiring young golfer whose 14-month battle against pediatric cancer attracted national attention on the Golf Channel. Armstrong won an estimated 50 local, regional, and junior state tournaments in Tampa at age 5 and was a two-time runner-up in the Golf Channels National Championship. He met Tiger Woods while taping a show for the Golf Channel in Orlando earlier this year. He was diagnosed with anaplastic astrocytoma when doctors discovered a tumor at the base of his spine in October 2007. He died in Tampa, Florida on December 1, 2008.

Pierre Chabloz (91) founder of the European Gymnastics Union and former secretary general of the Swiss Olympic Committee (1981-85). After serving as president of Switzerland's Federal Gymnastics Society (1973-79), Chabloz founded the European Gymnastics Union in 1982 and was president until '93. He was a member of the Swiss Olympic Committee (1973-81) before becoming secretary general. He was hospitalized for several weeks with an unspecified illness and died in Lausanne, Switzerland on December 4, 2008.

Travis Hearn (19) high school football player paralyzed from the neck down after a collision during a 2006 game whose story caught the attention of President-elect Barack Obama and former Chicago Bears coach Mike Ditka. Hearn's community raised thousands of dollars to offset medical costs and build an accessible home. He had been hospitalized since the end of November and died in Rock Island, Illinois on December 4, 2008.

Hubert ("Pit") Martin (64) four-time NHL All-Star in the '60s and '70s. Martin played 1,101 NHL games with the Detroit Red Wings, Boston Bruins, Blackhawks, and Vancouver Canucks, amassing 809 points (1963-79). He was presumed dead after his snowmobile plunged into an icy lake in Quebec, Canada on November 30, 2008.