Robert Delford Brown Jr. (78) painter, sculptor, performance artist, and philosopher whose provocative works challenged both the art world and the world at large. Brown, who had undergone hip surgery and walked with a cane, was known to have been scouting locations for an art project involving several rafts. Missing since Mar. 20, he was found dead four days later in the Cape Fear River in Wilmington, North Carolina, where he had moved a few years ago. His death was ruled an accidental drowning, on March 24, 2009.

Susan Peterson (83) ceramics artist, educator, and writer who brought the lives and techniques of Native American women potters of the Southwest to a broader American audience. As head of the ceramics department at USC starting in the ‘50s, Peterson led summer sessions at the university-sponsored Idyllwild School of Music & the Arts in the San Jacinto Mountains. In the early ‘70s, she won a federal grant to bring influential Native American potters from Arizona and New Mexico to Idyllwild to demonstrate their craft. She also wrote several books on Native American artists and their work. Peterson died in Scottsdale, Arizona on March 26, 2009.

Jack Dreyfus (95) master money manager. As creator of the Dreyfus Fund and its parent Dreyfus Corp., Dreyfus built one of the nation's biggest mutual investment funds and one of the first that actively courted everyday individuals, rather than just professional financiers and institutions. He died in New York City on March 27, 2009.

Robert Holzach (86) one of the best-known Swiss bankers of the 20th century and the focus of an aborted anti-Semitism probe after retirement. Holzach worked for the Union Bank of Switzerland, the country's largest, for over 40 years, considerably shifting its focus in the '70s and '80s and launching important Swiss cultural restoration projects. He died after a short hospital stay in Kuesnacht, Switzerland on March 24, 2009.

Martin J. Klein (84) historian of modern physics and editor of a vast collection of papers that documented the years in which Albert Einstein completed his revolutionary work on the general theory of relativity. Klein died in Chapel Hill, North Carolina on March 28, 2009.

Ciro ("Mario") Marino (76) restaurateur who opened his first Los Angeles restaurant in 1957 and held court at Marino Ristorante near Paramount Studios for more than 20 years. For more than 50 years, Marino served Neapolitan-style Italian cuisine at his LA restaurants. Two of his successive restaurants—Martoni's on Cahuenga Boulevard in Hollywood and Martoni Marquis on the Sunset Strip—were said to be celebrity hangouts. He died of lung cancer in Los Angeles, California on March 25, 2009.

Arthur F. O'Leary (84) Los Angeles architect and construction arbitrator, an expert in the field of architectural forensics. O'Leary specialized in the legal ramifications of architectural practice and construction and was for many years an arbitrator and consultant in hundreds of construction industry disputes. He also wrote several technical books for architects and contractors. In 1986 he retired and moved to Ireland, where he died in County Louth on March 28, 2009.

Steven Lee Carson (66) former archivist and editor who became a historian and lecturer on US Presidential history, notably as an authority on the life of President Abraham Lincoln. Over the last few years, Carson was a Presidential historian at the Woodrow Wilson House in Washington, DC. He died of a heart attack in Silver Spring, Maryland on March 27, 2009.

John Hope Franklin (94) scholar of black history who influenced thinking about slavery and Reconstruction while helping to further the civil rights struggle. Franklin wrote the seminal text on the black experience in the US and worked on the landmark 1954 US Supreme Court case that outlawed public school segregation. Since 1992, he had been James B. Duke professor emeritus of history at Duke University, the first black professor to hold an endowed chair there. He died of congestive heart failure in Durham, North Carolina on March 25, 2009.

A. Blair Helman (88) former Manchester College president who invited Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to the campus in 1968. Helman became president of the liberal arts college at age 35 in 1956 and retired in '86. King's visit on Feb. 1, 1968 was the civil rights leader's last campus visit before his assassination. During Helman's 30-year tenure, Manchester College added 16 buildings to its campus; it now has an enrollment of about 1,150 students. Helman died in North Manchester, Indiana on March 22, 2009.

Sister Dorothy Ann Kelly (79) former president of the College of New Rochelle who built what was a small Catholic college for women into a laboratory for experiments in higher education for people in the work force. Kelly died of a heart attack en route to a hospital in New Rochelle, New York on March 27, 2009.

Emery Stoops (106) University of Southern California alumnus, philanthropist, and professor emeritus at the USC Rossiter School of Education. Stoops taught at USC for 17 years before retiring in 1970. In 1994, Stoops and his wife, educator Joyce King Stoops, created a $1.25-million trust fund to establish an educational administration chair in their names at Rossiter. In 1996, an additional $2.25-million gift from the couple—along with a $250,000 contribution from the Rita H. Small Charitable Trust—endowed the chair in perpetuity. Stoops died in Playa Vista, California on March 25, 2009.

Steven Bach (70) former studio executive at United Artists who took the fall for the colossal failure of the western epic Heaven's Gate (1980) but later wrote Final Cut, a gripping insider account of the debacle. For the last 10 years a professor of film and literature at Bennington College, Bach died of cancer in Arlington, Vermont on March 25, 2009.

Marilyn Borden (76) actress and singer, half of the acting duo the Borden Twins with her late sister Rosalyn (d. 2003) when they began an early acting career at age 3. They later appeared on numerous TV programs, including their best-remembered appearances as Teensy and Weensy, twin daughters of the sheriff, in a classic episode of I Love Lucy entitled "Tennessee Bound" (1955), starring country music legend Tennessee Ernie Ford. Marilyn Borden died of congestive heart failure in Modesto, California on March 25, 2009.

Travis Criscola (24) guitarist for the Seattle-based indie power pop band Cute Lepers. The band recently released a full-length album on 1-2-3-4 Go! Records and was scheduled to perform a show in Philadelphia as part of their US tour. Criscola died in his sleep of an apparent drug overdose in Cincinnati, Ohio on March 28, 2009.

Larry Glick (87) radio personality whose late-night talk show from Boston made listeners laugh from coast to coast. Glick spent nearly 20 years at WBZ-AM; the station's powerful signal reached 38 states and parts of Canada after dark, creating legions of "Glicknics" who tuned in nightly to hear his unpredictable antics. After moving to WHDH in 1988, Glick retired in '92. He died of complications after heart surgery, in Boca Raton, Florida on March 26, 2009.

Jade Goody (27) British dental assistant turned reality-TV star whose journey from poverty to celebrity to tragedy became a national soap opera in Britain. Goody gained fame at age 21 in 2002, when she joined the reality TV show Big Brother, on which contestants live together for weeks and are constantly filmed. Her loud and brash personality sparked debate about race, class, and celebrity in Britain. She didn't win the show but did earn millions through TV and magazine appearances, an autobiography, a perfume, and a series of exercise videos. After diagnosis in 2008, she died of cervical cancer in her sleep in Essex, southeast England, on March 22, 2009.

Ted Jarrett (83) songwriter and recording producer whose 1957 hit "You Can Make It If You Try" crossed over to pop and wound up on the debut 1964 album of the Rolling Stones. Jarrett also counted "Love Love Love" among his hits. He was credited as a writer and producer on songs from the Grammy-winning Night Train to Nashville (2004) album. He died of liver failure in Nashville, Tennessee on March 23, 2009.

Uriel Jones (74) Motown drummer whose hard-driving funk propelled classic tunes by the Temptations and Marvin Gaye. Jones was the last surviving drummer in the Motown session band known as the Funk Brothers. He survived a heart attack in mid-February and had been showing signs of improvement but relapsed and died in Dearborn, Michigan on March 24, 2009.

Irving R. Levine (86) NBC newsman who explained the fine points of economics to millions of viewers for nearly 25 years. Known for his dry delivery and bow ties, Levine was a presence at NBC since 1950, when he began covering the Korean War, until his retirement in '95. He became the network's full-time economics correspondent in 1971 and appeared on Meet the Press more than 100 times. He died of prostate cancer in Washington, DC on March 27, 2009.

Wayne Lewellen (65) former longtime head of distribution at Paramount Pictures (1973-2005). Lewellen was responsible for distribution of some of Hollywood's most successful franchises, including Titanic, Forrest Gump, Top Gun, Beverly Hills Cop, and Star Trek. He died of cancer in Los Angeles, California on March 26, 2009.

John Mayhew (61) former drummer for the progressive rock band Genesis who had replaced previous drummer, John Silver, in August 1969 and later appeared on their second studio album Trespass as well as the Genesis Archive 1967-1976 box set before he was replaced by Phil Collins in 1970. Mayhew had lived in Australia and Scotland for a number of years, where he eventually found work as a carpenter for a furniture company. He reportedly died of heart failure in Scotland on March 26, 2009.

Frances Milstead (88) mother of the late screen comedian/actor and drag performer Divine (born Harris Glenn Milstead), best known for his larger-than-life roles in several John Waters films including Pink Flamingos, Female Trouble, and the original Hairspray. After her son's death in 1988, Frances Milstead became a proud protector of his legacy and a popular and revered figure in the Florida gay community. She was the author (with Towson University film instructor and documentary filmmaker Steve Yeager) of the 2001 memoir My Son Divine and was later the subject of her own documentary, Frances: A Mother Divine. She died of a stroke in Fort Lauderdale, Florida on March 24, 2009.

Kathie Molland (62) '70s fashion model and wife of composer and rock guitarist Joey Molland, probably best known as the last surviving member of the '60s Welsh pop-rock musical group Badfinger. The couple met and married in London in 1972 but later moved to Minnesota and settled into a private life. Kathie Molland died of cancer in Shorewood, Minnesota on March 24, 2009.

Manny Oquendo (78) Latin bandleader, timbale player, and percussionist, an expert with the típico Cuban rhythmic style who later infused it into Latin jazz. Oquendo died of complications from kidney surgery, in the Bronx, New York on March 25, 2009.

Jorge Preloran (75) Argentine filmmaker with more than 60 films to his credit, known for turning his subjects into collaborators who helped to shape his unusual documentaries. A pioneer of the ethnobiography, a cinematic form that explores an individual’s life story, Preloran died after a 10-year battle with prostate cancer, in Los Angeles, California on March 28, 2009.

Dan Seals (61) country singer and songwriter who performed as England Dan in the folk-pop duo England Dan & John Ford Coley. Their first single, "I'd Really Love to See You Tonight," reached No. 2 on the pop charts in 1976; the duo had eight more light-rock hits over the next four years. Seals won even greater acclaim in the country field, where he had 11 No. 1 singles (1985-90). He died of complications from the treatment of mantle cell lymphoma, in Nashville, Tennessee on March 25, 2009.

Ronald Tavel (72) playwright and screenwriter who wrote some of Andy Warhol's early films and helped to mold the off-off-Broadway avant-garde theater movement in the '60s and '70s. Tavel died of an apparent heart attack on a flight from Berlin to Bangkok, Thailand, where he had lived for the past 12 years, on March 23, 2009.

George Weber (47) longtime WABC-AM radio reporter. Weber worked at WABC for 12 years as on-air reporter for popular shows such as Curtis & Kuby. The station let him go amid programming changes in 2008, and he had since worked as a free-lancer for ABC News Radio, the national network. When he failed to show up for work, Weber was found dead at his apartment, bound at the ankles and stabbed at least 50 times, in Brooklyn, New York on March 22, 2009. On March 24, police arrested John Katehis (16), who confessed to killing Weber after arranging a meeting on the Internet.

Frank Bogert (99) former cowboy mayor of Palm Springs who promoted the Coachella Valley desert as a movie star playground. Bogert served two terms as Palm Springs mayor (1958-66), then again in 1982 for a pair of two-year terms. The former rodeo performer and announcer came to Palm Springs in 1927 and rented horses to tourists in the desert oasis known as a winter getaway for riding and hiking. He had been hospitalized recently for various health problems and died in Palm Springs, California on March 22, 2009.

Gus Cifelli (84) star tackle who helped to lead Notre Dame to three national championships and the Detroit Lions to the 1952 NFL title. In 1973 Cifelli was elected a judge of the 48th District Court in Bloomfield Hills. He retired from the bench in 2000 and died in Royal Oak, Michigan on March 26, 2009.

Lt. Col. David P. Cooley (49) retired US Air Force pilot, a versatile test pilot since 1989 and a trainer and mentor of future test pilots. Cooley flew a long list of aircraft that included the F-111, F-15, F-117, and F-22. He was killed in the crash of an F-22 near Edwards Air Force Base in Mojave, California on March 25, 2009.

Janet Jagan (88) Chicago native who became Guyana's first white and first female president. A Jewish woman and a naturalized Guyanese, Jagan was elected president of the English-speaking South American country in December 1997, succeeding her husband, Cheddi Jagan, who died earlier that year. After suffering a mild heart attack, Janet Jagan stepped down in August 1999, less than two years after taking office. She died of an abdominal aneurysm in Georgetown, Guyana on March 28, 2009.

Xavier Maniguet (62) French Secret Service agent and one of four men aboard the yacht Ouvea who smuggled explosives that sank the Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior in New Zealand's Auckland Harbour in 1985 in a bid to stall protests against French nuclear tests in the South Pacific. Maniguet worked as a reserve officer in the French Navy and was an expert diver, parachutist, aerobatic pilot, and sailor. He continued to work for the Secret Service in recent years, including a secret mission to free French hostages in Somalia in 2008. He was killed in a small plane crash in the French Alps on March 22, 2009.

Arnold Meri (89) decorated Red Army veteran charged with genocide for deporting hundreds of his Estonian countrymen to Siberia in 1949. Meri was a former Communist Party official and cousin of late Estonian President Lennart Meri (d. 2006). Arnold Meri acknowledged taking part in the deportations but pleaded not guilty to genocide, claiming he was just carrying out orders as a civil servant. He died during his trial in Tallinn, Estonia on March 27, 2009.

Walter Palmer (87) one of Indiana's last living members of a famed World War II group of black fighter pilots known as the Tuskegee Airmen. Palmer flew on 158 missions over Italy and Germany during the war. The all-black Tuskegee 99th Fighter Group was formed in 1941 and trained in Tuskegee, Alabama. Palmer died of stomach cancer in Indianapolis, Indiana on March 28, 2009.

Muhsin Yazicioglu (54) Turkish politician, leader and founder of the ultranaturalist right-wing political party Great Union Party. Yazicioglu had been a leading Islamic campaigner of the far-right nationalist movement in Turkey since the '70s, but his small political party was not expected to make a strong showing in the legislative polls. He was among six people killed in a helicopter crash in the southeastern Turkish province of Kahramanmaras, on March 25, 2009.

Archie Green (91) shipwright turned folklorist whose interest in union workers and their culture transformed the study of American folklore. Green single-handedly persuaded Congress to create the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. He died of kidney failure in San Francisco, California on March 22, 2009.

James H. Hastings (91) retired justice of the California state Court of Appeal. Hastings was diagnosed with cancer in July and died in Rancho Palos Verdes, California on March 24, 2009.

Alpha and Kipper (48, 9) two primates living in Chicago-area zoos. Alpha (left) was a female gorilla born in the wild that became one of the oldest lowland gorillas living in captivity. She was in the final stage of kidney failure and had started to show signs of discomfort in the past few weeks. Because her condition did not improve, she was euthanized at the Brookfield Zoo in Brookfield, Illinois, a Chicago suburb, on March 26, 2009. Kipper (right), a male chimpanzee at Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo, fell ill with a mysterious respiratory infection. Six other chimpanzees he lived with were put under quarantine with similar symptoms. Kipper died of pneumonia in Chicago, Illinois on March 24, 2009.

Rev. Kosuke Koyama (79) theologian known for using metaphors drawn from his experience as a missionary to convey a vision of Christianity as compatible with Asian traditions. Koyama, who taught at the Union Theological Seminary in Manhattan, tried to make the teachings of Christ meaningful to Asians without sacrificing the essential Gospel message. He suffered from esophageal cancer but died of pneumonia in Springfield, Massachusetts on March 25, 2009.

Alycia Mesiti (17) California girl who disappeared at age 14 on Aug. 14, 2006. Her family reported her missing as a runaway two days later, and she had not been heard from since. It was originally thought that Alycia had gone camping with her friends, but her family had no details about where she might have gone. The girl's father and his girlfriend were recently arrested on drug charges and child endangerment, but are now considered possible suspects in connection with Alycia's disappearance and death, after her remains were found buried in the backyard of their vacant house in Ceres, California on March 26, 2009.

Clarice Pearson (110) supercentenarian, believed to be one of the oldest living residents in Oregon and among the world's longest-lived people who had reached at least 110 years or older. Pearson lived under 20 US Presidents during her lifetime, and at her 110th birthday party in December 2008, she remarked on the downturn in the economy from the perspective of a farm wife who raised two sons during the Great Depression of the '30s. She died in Corvallis, Oregon on March 22, 2009.

Carol Jean Vigil (61) first Native American woman elected a state district judge in the US (1998-2005). Vigil had several health problems, including diabetes, and died in her sleep in Tesuque Pueblo, New Mexico on March 27, 2009.

Johnny Blanchard (76) hard-hitting catcher and outfielder known as "Super Sub" who played in five consecutive World Series for the New York Yankees in the '60s. Blanchard was mainly a catcher but had little chance of breaking into the starting lineup because the Yankees already had Yogi Berra and Elston Howard. He set a major league record in July 1961 with home runs in four consecutive at-bats over three games; that record was equaled by Jeff Manto of the Baltimore Orioles in '95. Blanchard died of a heart attack in Robbinsdale, Minnesota on March 25, 2009.

Irina Gabashvili (48) Georgian-born gymnast who won the gold medal with the ball and the bronze medal in the all-around world title at the 1979 Rhythmic World Championships in London. Gabashvili spent several years coaching the Malaysian gymnastics team, which won gold at the 1998 Commonwealth Games, but moved to the US in 2000 and became a coach at Westside Gymnastics Academy in Portland, Ore., where she worked with 2001 US World Championships Team member Danielle Lord. Gabashvili died of breast cancer in Portland, Oregon on March 24, 2009.

George Kell (86) Hall of Fame third baseman who won the American League batting title in 1949 with the Detroit Tigers and was a longtime broadcaster for the team. Kell played in the AL for 15 seasons, was an All-Star 10 times, and had a career batting average of .306 with 2,054 hits. In 2004, he was severely injured in a car crash but was able to walk with a cane. He died in his sleep in Swifton, Arkansas on March 24, 2009.

Howard ("Butch") Komives (67) sharpshooting guard who played for 10 seasons in the NBA but was perhaps best remembered for the trade that sent him to the Detroit Pistons from the New York Knicks in exchange for future Hall of Famer Dave DeBusschere. Komives lately had difficulty walking because of knee and ankle problems. He was found unconscious and died after surgery for head trauma that apparently resulted from a fall at his home, in Toledo, Ohio on March 22, 2009.

Raúl Macías (74) former world bantamweight boxing champion. Macías won the world bantamweight title over Chamrern Songkitrat of Thailand in 1955. He successfully defended the title twice before losing it to Alphonse Halimi on a split decision in 1957. He retired in 1962 at age 28 with a professional record of 41-2, with 25 knockouts. Macías died of cancer in Mexico City, Mexico on March 23, 2009.

Giovanni Parisi (41) former Olympic and world champion boxer. Parisi won the featherweight gold medal at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. He was the World Boxing Organization's lightweight champion (1992-94), then stepped up to the junior welterweight division. He was knocked out trying to claim the WBO welterweight title in 2000, then fought only three times before his last reported bout, in 2006, a loss for the European welterweight title. He had a professional record of 41-5-1 and 29 knockouts. Parisi was killed when the car he was driving collided head-on with a van on a highway outside Voghera, Italy on March 25, 2009.

Arthur Richman (83) longtime baseball writer who later spent 40 years as an executive with the New York Mets and Yankees. Richman's biggest contribution to the Yankees came in 1995, when he recommended that the team hire Joe Torre as manager. Richman died in his sleep in New York City on March 25, 2009.

Lloyd Ruby (81) one of the best—and unluckiest—Indy 500 auto racers in history. Ruby was a standout in long-distance racing and on oval tracks. In 1966, he was a winning codriver, with Ken Miles of England, of the 12-hour race in Sebring, Fla. and the 24-hour race at Daytona International Speedway—two of the world's most prestigious sports-car races. But in 18 consecutive Indianapolis 500 races (1960-77), he came close but never won. He died of cancer in Wichita Falls, Texas on March 23, 2009.

Harless Wade (80) longtime sportswriter for the Dallas Morning News. Wade covered golf and other sports for the paper (1956-94). He died in Dallas, Texas on March 28, 2009.

Leon Walker (20) British rugby league player who recently signed with the professional rugby league club Wakefield Trinity Wildcats as a second rower or loose forward after spending three years at Salford City Reds, where he earned representative honors with Yorkshire and England during his rookie season in 2007. Walker died unexpectedly after collapsing during a reserve game against the Celtic Crusaders at Maesteg rugby union ground in Swansea, Wales on March 22, 2009.