Don Congdon (91) editor turned literary agent who spotted the talent of science fiction author Ray Bradbury (Fahrenheit 451) early in both their careers. Congdon’s list of celebrated authors also included William Styron, Jack Finney, Evan S. Connell, William L. Shirer, and David Sedaris. He died in Brooklyn Heights, New York on November 30, 2009.

Alfred Hrdlicka (81) Austrian artist whose controversial works in metal, paint, and pencil alienated as much as attracted the public. For Hrdlicka, art was Communist political propaganda, and his purpose as an artist was to educate the public to oppose war and violence. An atheist, he combined religious themes with topics considered taboo among believers. He died in Vienna, Austria on December 5, 2009.

William J. Lederer Jr. (97) writer and US career naval officer who, with Eugene Burdick (d. 1965), wrote The Ugly American (1958), a novel among the first books to deal with American involvement in Southeast Asia that was a blistering critique of the nation’s foreign policy there. It was made into a 1963 movie starring Marlon Brando. Lederer died of respiratory failure in Baltimore, Maryland on December 5, 2009.

Milorad Pavic (80) internationally prominent Serbian writer whose novels upended the traditional relationship between reader and text, taking the form of dictionaries or crossword puzzles. Pavic died of a heart attack in Belgrade, Serbia on November 30, 2009.

Vytautas Cekanauskas (80) former Hughes Aircraft electrical engineer who served as honorary consul general of Lithuania in Los Angeles for more than 30 years (1977-2009). Lithuanian-born Cekanauskas immigrated to the US in 1949 and became a citizen in the ‘50s. He died of cancer in Thousand Oaks, California on November 30, 2009.

Robert Allan Crane (81) founder of the property management firm Crane Realty & Management Co. When Crane’s firm was acquired by Grubb & Ellis Co. in 1998, it managed 3.5 million square feet of space in southern California
. Crane died of an infection related to a blood disease in Newport Beach, California on December 3, 2009.

Brian H. Mason (92) Smithsonian scientist internationally known for his study of meteorites and moon rocks who was the first to discover that a rock found in Antarctica came from the moon. Mason died of renal failure in Chevy Chase, Maryland on December 3, 2009.

Dr. Malcolm Oliver Perry 2nd (80) vascular surgeon who attended to President John F. Kennedy at Parkland Memorial Hospital after he was shot in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963. Perry performed a tracheotomy on Kennedy, followed by cardiopulmonary resuscitation until no brain activity was detected and the President was declared dead. Perry died of lung cancer in Dallas, Texas on December 5, 2009.

Peter R. Scanlon (78) former chairman and chief executive (1982–91) of one of the world’s largest public accounting firms, Coopers & Lybrand, which merged with Price Waterhouse in 1998 to form PricewaterhouseCoopers. During Scanlon’s tenure, the company was one of the Big Eight, but with consolidation in the industry and with Arthur Andersen out of business, PricewaterhouseCoopers is now one of the Big Four. Scanlon died of cancer in Jupiter, Florida on December 3, 2009.

Dr. Ed Thompson (62) nationally prominent health official in Mississippi credited with improving health statistics in the state after years of poor performance. During Thompson’s two terms (1993-2002, ‘07) as chief of the state’s Department of Health, Mississippi made significant strides against infant mortality, sexually transmitted diseases, and tuberculosis. He died of cancer in Ridgeland, Mississippi on December 1, 2009.

Harold Bell (90) cartoon marketing agent who, along with two forest rangers and a colleague, in 1970 created Woodsy Owl, the US Forest Service mascot in a red-feathered cap who ever since has asked children to "Give a hoot, don’t pollute." Bell died in Los Angeles, California on December 4, 2009.

Harry Hurt (81) one of the world’s foremost authorities on motorcycle crashes and their causes. Hurt was the principal investigator of the Hurt Report, an in-depth, on-scene investigation of 900 motorcycle accidents in Los Angeles (1976-77). Published in 1981, his groundbreaking research still forms the basis of many US motorcycle safety programs and is credited with saving countless lives. Hurt died of a heart attack, a complication of back surgery he underwent a week earlier, in Pomona, California on November 29, 2009.

Edmund Lindop (84) author of more than 30 history books for high school and middle school students. Lindop taught history and government (1957-86) at University High School in Los Angeles. He died in Santa Monica, California on December 3, 2009.

Nelle Becker Slaton (88) longtime educator and cofounder of groups promoting science education for minority students and advanced degrees for blacks. Slaton, who taught elementary school in Los Angeles for 35 years, founded Community Science Workshops Inc. in 1961 with her chemist husband, William. The program eventually served 200 students a year in small classes that provided hands-on lessons in physics, rocketry, chemistry, electronics, and other subjects. Nelle Slaton died in Los Angeles, California on December 1, 2009.

Stephen Toulmin (87) London-born philosopher who conducted inquiries into ethics, science, and moral reasoning and developed a new approach to analyzing arguments known as the Toulmin model of argumentation. A professor at the University of Southern California since 1993, Toulmin died of heart failure in Los Angeles, California on December 4, 2009.

Paul Bryant (76) South Los Angeles jazz master whose precocious skills in the arts earned him the nickname “The Central Avenue Kid." A child actor, Bryant appeared in 22 films in the ‘40s, but his most lasting legacy was his role as an organist and pianist in the development of West Coast jazz. He had been suffering from complications after recent surgeries and died after a lengthy hospitalization in Los Angeles, California on December 4, 2009.

Liam Clancy (74) Irish balladeer, last of the Clancy Brothers troupe whose songs of old Ireland struck a chord worldwide. With his two elder brothers, Tom (d. 1990) and Paddy (d. 1998), and friend Tommy Makem (d. 2007), Liam Clancy (shown at left above with Tom, Paddy, and Makem) immigrated to the US in the ‘50s. After recording a 1956 album of Irish rebel songs, the quartet built a New York following. Scouts for The Ed Sullivan Show spotted them performing at Greenwich Village’s White Horse Tavern, and their 16-minute TV appearance in March 1961 turned them into an Irish-American folk phenomenon. The youngest of 11 children born in County Tipperary, Ireland, Liam Clancy died of pulmonary fibrosis, a lung disease, in Cork, Ireland on December 3, 2009.

Jack Cooke (72) longtime bass player and singer with Ralph Stanley’s Clinch Mountain Boys. The group won a Grammy for best bluegrass album in 2002. Cooke died in a hospital after collapsing at home, in Norton, Virginia on December 1, 2009.

Mary Curtis-Verna (88) Metropolitan Opera soprano of the ‘50s and ’60s who became famous for stepping into the roles of ailing, stranded, or otherwise indisposed divas, often on only a few hours’ notice. Curtis-Verna died of complications from a broken hip in Seattle, Washington on December 4, 2009.

Edward (Umaga) Fatu (36) former pro wrestler who performed under the name Umaga. Fatu was born in American Samoa and was part of a wrestling family that includes cousin Dwayne (“The Rock”) Johnson. He worked on and off for World Wrestling Entertainment for several years before the organization terminated his contract in June for violating its Wellness Program and refusing to enter rehab. Fatu was found unresponsive at home by his family and never regained consciousness. He died of a heart attack in Houston, Texas on December 4, 2009.

(Big) Bill Lister (86) country singer and musician who toured with Hank Williams and, at 6-foot-7, was once billed as “Radio’s Tallest Singing Cowboy.” In 1988, Lister gave Hank Williams Jr. a ‘51 demo recording of his father’s song “There’s a Tear in My Beer” that he’d found in his attic. In 1989 Hank Jr. overdubbed his own voice onto the demo to turn his father into his posthumous duet partner; that record won a Grammy in 1990. Lister died in San Antonio, Texas on December 1, 2009.

Solange Magnano (38) former Miss Argentina of 1994. A mother of twins, Magnano died of a pulmonary embolism after three days in critical condition following a gluteoplasty, or cosmetic surgery on her buttocks, in Buenos Aires, Argentina on November 29, 2009.

Steve Meltzer (56) puppeteer who ran a one-man theater and museum operation, the Santa Monica Puppetry Center, for more than 10 years. Two hours after he performed his final show and permanently closed his puppetry center on Aug. 16, Meltzer had a stroke; days later, he underwent surgery for a brain tumor. He died of melanoma in Santa Monica, California on November 30, 2009.

Richard Nader (69) former disc jockey whose popular oldies concerts at New York’s Madison Square Garden in the ‘70s helped to jump-start a revival of classic rock ‘n’ roll and opened up second careers for many former stars. Nader died of melanoma in Santa Monica, California on November 30, 2009.

Bryan Jay O'Byrne (78) character actor since the ‘50s with a TV career spanning over 40 years. O’Byrne often portrayed a clerk or an agent like the clerk on The Untouchables, the ticket agent on The Fugitive, the depot agent on Death Valley Days, a clerk on Gunsmoke, and a hotel clerk in the TV movie Killer by Night (1972). He was a pet shop owner on Bewitched and the character of Hodgkins in five episodes of Get Smart, among many other roles. He died in Pacifica, California on December 4, 2009.

John Storm Roberts (73) London-born writer, record producer, and scholar whose work explored the varied and surprising ways in which the popular music of Africa and Latin America influenced that of the US. Roberts died from complications of a blood clot, in Kingston, New York on November 29, 2009.

Jack Rose (38) guitarist whose improvisations on 6-string, 12-string, and lap steel guitar won him a devoted cult following. Rose died of a heart attack in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on December 5, 2009.

Aaron Schroeder (84) songwriter behind the Elvis Presley hit “It’s Now or Never.” Schroeder was credited with writing 2,000 songs, including the theme for the TV cartoon show Scooby Doo, Where Are You?, and wrote several hits for Presley, among them “Stuck on You” and “A Big Hunk o’ Love.” He died of complications from Alzheimer’s disease, in Englewood, New Jersey on December 1, 2009.

Vjekoslav Sutej (58) Croatian conductor who led orchestras in the US, Italy, and Spain and worked with opera singers Placido Domingo and Montserrat Caballe. Since 2003 Sutej had led the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra. He died of leukemia in Zagreb, Croatia on December 2, 2009.

Eva Szorenyi (92) Hungarian actress and refugee, a leader of the World Federation of Hungarian Freedom Fighters. After participating in the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, an anti-Soviet uprising crushed within two weeks, Szorenyi fled her homeland with her family and settled in Los Angeles. When she arrived in the US, she had already made about 40 films. Over the next 15 years she had guest roles on several TV shows. She died in Studio City, California on December 1, 2009.

Vyacheslav Tikhonov (81) film actor known for his roles as Soviet spies and Russian princes. Tikhonov was known in the West largely for his role as a Russian prince in the 1967 Oscar-winning film version of War & Peace. He died days after suffering a heart attack, in Moscow, Russia on December 4, 2009.

Richard Todd (90) Irish actor who reenacted his own wartime exploits in the 1962 film The Longest Day and was author Ian Fleming’s first choice to play James Bond. A scheduling conflict gave the role to Sean Connery. Todd was nominated for an Oscar for the 1949 film The Hasty Heart (costarring Ronald Reagan) but lost to Broderick Crawford for Todd also starred as US Senate chaplain Peter Marshall in A Man Called Peter (1954). He died of cancer in Lincolnshire, in central England, on December 3, 2009.

Eric Woolfson (64) Scottish-born cofounder of the ‘70s British progressive rock group Alan Parsons Project, known for the hits “Eye in the Sky” and “Don’t Answer Me.” After the group disbanded in the ‘90s, Woolfson continued to work as a music producer and composer of musicals; his musical Edgar Allan Poe is currently playing in Berlin. He died of cancer in London, England on December 2, 2009.

Torrie Zito (76) versatile music arranger who worked with swingers like Bobby Darin, Tony Bennett, and Frank Sinatra and younger performers like John Lennon, Sinead O’Connor, and Clay Aiken. Zito started out as a jazz pianist but found lasting success as an arranger and orchestrator with a special flair for string arrangements. He died of emphysema in New York City on December 3, 2009.

Marie Harris (87) community activist and a former honorary mayor of Pacoima, Calif., one of three San Fernando Valley residents who signed the paperwork that officially set in motion the failed Valley secession movement to break away from Los Angeles in 1998. Harris died of pneumonia in Northridge, California on December 2, 2009.

Paula Hawkins (82) first woman elected to a full US Senate term (R-Fla., 1981-87) from the South and without a family political connection. Hawkins was a champion of children and working mothers and an enemy of drug dealers. She had been in poor health recently, suffering a stroke and a fall, and died in Orlando, Florida on December 4, 2009.

Otto Graf Lambsdorff (82) former economy minister (1977-84) who represented Germany in the negotiations to set up a compensation fund for Nazi-era slave laborers. Lambsdorff died unexpectedly in Bonn, Germany on December 5, 2009.

Col. Jack Pitchford (82) retired USAF fighter pilot from Mississippi who survived seven years in the notorious Vietnamese prison camp known as the “Hanoi Hilton." Pitchford was shot down over North Vietnam in 1965 and held at Hoa Lo prison, a hellish place where many Americans, including US Sen. John McCain, endured brutal torture. Pitchford died of a brain tumor in Jackson, Mississippi on December 3, 2009.

William A. Wilson (95) first American to serve as ambassador to the Vatican and a member of President Ronald Reagan’s “kitchen cabinet” of advisers. Wilson died in Carmel, California on December 5, 2009.

Harold A. Ackerman (81) federal judge in New Jersey for 30 years whose hundreds of cases included trials of crooked politicians, corrupt union officials, and reputed organized crime chieftains. Ackerman died in West Orange, New Jersey on December 2, 2009.

Ruben Castro 
(80) head of Catholic Charities in Moorpark, Calif. for 20 years. Castro also worked for the Commission on Human Concerns and was appointed by Gov. Pat Brown in 1966 to the Ventura County Fair board and reappointed by Gov. Ronald Reagan in ‘70. 

He died in Moorpark, California on December 2, 2009.

Tim Costello (64) truck driver who became a labor advocate and theorist, coauthor of four books, and founder of Global Labor Strategies, an organization that fought globalization. Costello died of pancreatic cancer in Cambridge, Massachusetts on December 4, 2009.

Clarence Petty (104) former Adirondack Park ranger who spent virtually all his adult life fighting to preserve the pristine Adirondack wilderness. For decades Petty defended what he called the Dacks, a 5.8-million-acre oasis of publicly owned and private land in upstate New York considered the last great wilderness in the eastern US. He feared that the park would be nibbled away, lot by subdivided lot, and vigorously opposed the intrusion of motor vehicles. Petty died in Canton, New York on November 30, 2009.

John Silard 

(80) civil rights and labor attorney

 who with law partner Joseph L. Rauh Jr. (d. 1992) formed one of the US’s foremost practices specializing in civil rights, civil liberties, and labor law. A nephew of Manhattan Project physicist Leo Szilard, John Silard had been in a coma for two months after a procedure to alleviate heart ailments when he died in Washington, DC on November 29, 2009.

Bobby Wayne Woods (44) Texas man convicted of raping and killing an 11-year-old girl in 1997. Woods’s lawyers lost a battle to persuade the courts that he was too mentally impaired to qualify for capital punishment; on IQ tests he scored between 68 and 86 (100 is average). He was executed by lethal injection in Huntsville, Texas on December 3, 2009.

Margaret Buckner Young (88) widow of civil rights leader and former National Urban League executive director Whitney M. Young Jr. (d. 1971). Margaret Young died in Denver, Colorado on December 5, 2009.

Foge Fazio (71) popular football coach at his alma mater, the University of Pittsburgh, who succeeded Jackie Sherrill and later was a defensive coordinator for the NFL’s Vikings and Browns. Fazio died of leukemia in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on December 3, 2009.

Tommy Henrich (96) right fielder known as “Old Reliable” who helped to propel the New York Yankees to seven World Series championships in the ‘40s. Henrich was the oldest living Yankee and the last survivor of their teams of the ‘30s, playing alongside Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, and Babe Ruth. He died in Dayton, Ohio on December 1, 2009.

Tim McKernan (69) airline mechanic and fan of the Denver Broncos who attended games dressed in nothing but an orange barrel and a cowboy hat and boots. McKernan began the habit after a $10 bet with his brother and started wearing the barrel at age 17. Over the years he went through 21 different barrels, including one signed by the Superbowl-winning side, which he sold for $30,000. He died of lung failure in Denver, Colorado on December 5, 2009.

Al Shaw (102) former Williams College men’s basketball coach. Shaw coached the Ephs for 24 seasons (1949-73) and had a record of 302-171. Under his guidance, Williams competed in the NCAA Division I tournament in 1955, and his teams played in the NCAA Small College Tournament in ‘59 and ’61. He died several days after suffering a stroke, in North Adams, Massachusetts on November 29, 2009.