The Blog of Death

Loyd E. Newcomer

On April 10, 1961, Navy Cmdr. Loyd E. Newcomer became the first pilot to land in Antarctica during its winter darkness.

Newcomer, an aircraft carrier flight pilot who fought in World War II and the Korean War, did his second tour of duty with Operation Deep Freeze 61. When his squadron learned that Russian scientist Leonid Kuperov needed medical attention, they prepared to launch a mercy evacuation flight to an outpost on the frozen continent.

Despite bitter weather conditions, Newcomer flew a crew of 20 in a C-130 from Christchurch, New Zealand, to Byrd Station, Antarctica, using celestial navigation. The journey is considered so dangerous, by today's standards, that all flights to Antarctica are still suspended between March and November. Newcomer Glacier was named in honor of this accomplishment.

"This mercy flight, in the face of diminishing daylight and increasingly vicious winter storms, breached the curtain of winter isolation for the first time. It will be long remembered as one of the great flights of Antarctic exploration," wrote Rear Adm. David M. Tyree in a 1963 issue of National Geographic.

A recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross, Newcomer retired from the Navy in 1962. He later worked as a flight instructor at Jefferson County Airport in Colorado, and as the chief research pilot at Boulder's National Center for Atmospheric Research.

Newcomer died on Dec. 18 from respiratory failure. He was 85.

Alan Davidson

Alan Eaton Davidson, a career diplomat and best-selling author, died on Dec. 2. Cause of death was not released. He was 79.

Davidson was studying at Queen's College in Oxford when his academic career was interrupted by World War II. From 1943 to 1946, he fought with the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve in the Pacific, the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean. He joined Britain's Foreign Office in 1948 and was given diplomatic posts in Washington D.C., The Hague, Cairo, Tunis and Brussels. In 1973, he served as the British ambassador to Laos.

In 1963, Davidson combined his love of writing and seafood when he self-published the book, "Seafish of Tunisia and the Central Mediterranean." It was reviewed by Spectator writer Elizabeth David, who then contacted the author and introduced him to Jill Norman, her editor at Penguin. This connection lead to the publication of several successful food-related books, including "Mediterranean Seafood," "Seafood of South East Asia" and "North Atlantic Seafood."

In 1979, Davidson founded the publishing company, Prospect Books, and began editing the journal, Petits Propos Culinaires. He is best known for writing the 900-page book, "The Oxford Companion to Food.'' Last month, he received the Dutch government's Erasmus Prize for his contribution to European cultural life.

Earl Hindman

Earl Hindman, an actor who was best known for playing the eccentric and obscure neighbor on the ABC show, "Home Improvement," died on Dec. 29 from lung cancer. He was 61.

After studing acting at the University of Arizona, Hindman moved to New York City to break into show business. He appeared in several on- and off-Broadway plays including "Dark of the Moon" and "The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel."

Hindman spent a decade playing police detective Bob Reid on the soap opera, "Ryan's Hope," and made numerous guest appearances on TV shows like "Spenser: For Hire," "The Equalizer" and "Law & Order."

But he achieved a unique type of fame in the long-running sitcom, "Home Improvement" playing next-door neighbor Wilson. In this role, Hindman gave folksy advice to Tim "The Toolman" Taylor (played by Tim Allen), but never showed his face to the camera. Instead, he was always hidden behind fences and carefully positioned props so that only his eyes and forehead were visible to the audience.

For his recent work in "Julius Caesar" at the Theatre for a New Audience in New York, Hindman won the Actor's Equity Callaway Prize for best performance in a professional production of a classic play. The award was to be presented on Jan. 9.

Father Joe

Father Joseph F. Ognibene, a Roman Catholic priest who helped rescue students from a burning school in the 1950s, died on Dec. 27 from cancer. He was 77.

Ognibene was working as a parish priest in Chicago on Dec. 1, 1958 when fire broke out in a stairwell at Our Lady of the Angels Catholic School.

Ognibene saw the smoke and immediately ran into the school to help lead children to safety. He directed the students downstairs toward the exits and carried some of them out of the building. With the aid of Sam Tortorice, a man who lived near the school, Ognibene transferred students trapped in one classroom to an adjoining classroom where they could safely evacuate.

When the fire was extinguished, Ognibene visited the injured at the hospital and identified victims at the morgue. Three teachers and 92 students died in the incident.

Les Tremayne

Lester Tremayne, one of the best known voices of radio's golden age, died on Dec. 19 from heart failure. He was 90.

Born in England, Tremayne and his family moved to Chicago when he was four years old. As a child, he learned to hide his British accent to avoid getting beaten up by bullies. During the Depression, his father forced him to drop out of high school and find a job. So Tremayne became an actor, taking roles in community theater plays and dancing in vaudeville before moving to radio in 1930.

His big break came in 1936 when he replaced Don Ameche as the debonair, leading man on "The First Nighter," a weekly program of original half-hour radio dramas that were recorded in front of a live audience in Chicago and broadcast to theatre patrons in New York City just before the opening of new plays on Broadway.

For the next six decades, Tremayne found steady acting gigs in radio, television and film. He once estimated that he had worked on more than 30,000 broadcasts, playing lead roles in radio shows like "The Falcon," "The Adventures of the Thin Man" and "One Man's Family." Tremayne made guest appearances on "Alfred Hitchcock Presents," " Shazam!" "The Dukes of Hazard" and "General Hospital." He did voice work for cartoons like "Mr. Magoo"’ and "Jonny Quest." He even appeared in the classic science fiction film, "The War of the Worlds."

In 1995, Tremayne was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame. He was also a charter member of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.

• Listen to a Classic Radio Clip From Les Tremayne

Edna Rosenbaum

Edna Phillips Rosenbaum, the "first lady" of the Philadelphia Orchestra, was so frustrated by the lack of music featuring the harp that she urged composers to write pieces specifically for her. Several complied, including Harl McDonald who composed "Scenes From Childhood," and Paul White who wrote "Sea Chanty."

Rosenbaum began studying music when she was seven years old. She learned to play the piano, but switched to the harp after seeing one in a store window and begging her mother to purchase it.

She attended the Curtis Institute of Music, and was invited to join the Philadelphia Orchestra as first harpist when she was 22. At the time, she was the first woman to occupy a principal position with a major American symphony. Although she officially "retired" from performing in 1946, Rosenbaum returned to the orchestra pit a year later to play for Arturo Toscanini. During a rehearsal, the conductor declared: "That woman is an angel."

For the next 40 years, Rosenbaum worked as the director of the Settlement Music School. She received the Philadelphia Mayor’s Award for artistic pre-eminence in 1955, and the Gimbel Philadelphia Award for music education in 1961.

Rosenbaum died on Dec. 2. Cause of death was not released. She was 96. In June, The Philadelphia Harp Society will honor her memory by performing several of the works she commissioned.

Meyer Kupferman

Meyer Kupferman, a prolific composer, educator and clarinetist, died on Nov. 26 from a heart attack. He was 77.

Although he picked up the violin as a child, Kupferman switched to the clarinet when he was 10 years old. As a teenager, he taught himself the piano, studied at the High School of Music and Art in Queens, N.Y., and launched a career performing in jazz clubs as a clarinetist.

Kupferman wrote his first piano concerto and opera at 22, and followed them up with six more operas, 12 symphonies, nine ballets, nine concertos and more than 200 chamber and solo works. These compositions were recorded on 40 albums and performed by musicians worldwide.

From 1951 to 1993, Kupferman taught composition and music theory at Sarah Lawrence College in New York, where he also served as chair of the music department for five terms and conducted the school's orchestra.

In 1982, he was commissioned by the Hudson Valley Philharmonic to write a piece of music to celebrate the centennial of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's birth. The musical score, "Symphony No. 10: FDR," currently resides in the Roosevelt Library.

Alan Bates

Sir Alan Arthur Bates, a Tony-Award winning actor, died on Dec. 27 from pancreatic cancer. He was 69.

Bates knew he wanted to be an actor by the time he was 11 years old. He earned a scholarship to attend the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, and after serving two years in the Royal Air Force, joined the new English Stage Company at the Royal Court Theatre.

In the 1950s and '60s, Bates was labeled as one of Britain's "angry young men" for appearing in the anti-establishment play, "Look Back in Anger." But in reality, he was known for having a gentle disposition.

Bates landed his first major film role in 1960 when he was cast opposite Laurence Olivier and Albert Finney in "The Entertainer." He appeared as a supporting actor in several small roles until 1964, when he landed a starring part in the film, "Zorba the Greek." He earned a Best Actor Oscar nomination in 1968 for his work in the John Frankenheimer movie, "The Fixer." Recently, Bates appeared in "The Sum of All Fears," "Evelyn," "Gosford Park" and "The Statement."

Although he received notoriety for his appearance in the erotic adaptation of D.H. Lawrence's "Women in Love," in which he wrestled naked with Oliver Reed, Bates was a well-respected actor who appeared in 59 stage productions, including five Broadway plays. He won Tony Awards for his roles in "Butley" and "Fortune's Fool," and did voice work on more than 20 audiobooks.

Bates was made a Commander of the British Empire in 1995; he was knighted in 2003.

Antonio R. Gasset

Dr. Antonio R. Gasset, an ophthalmologist who developed a technique to restore vision to blind patients suffering from a cornea disease, died on Nov. 24 following colon surgery. He was 67.

Gasset completed three years of medical school at the University of Havana before moving to the United States in 1961. He spent his first few years in America learning English and working as a lab technician at the Retina Foundation in Boston.

Once he was proficient in the language, Gasset completed his medical training at Boston University and studied ophthalmology for a semester at Harvard University. In the late 1960s and '70s, he established a reputation for himself as a researcher at the University of Florida's Shands Teaching Hospital. There he and renowned ophthalmologist Herbert Kaufman developed thermokeratoplasty, the first treatment for keratoconus, a disease of the cornea that causes blindness. Gasset was also involved in the development of soft contact lenses.

Gasset traveled the world giving lectures on ophthalmology, and opened the Miami Eye Institute in 1979. He also received numerous honors during his career, including the Physician's Recognition Award from the American Medical Association.

Virginia Rose Steen

Virginia Rose Steen refused to give up on her husband. For more than four years, she worked tirelessly to get Alann Steen released from the custody of the terrorists who kidnapped him.

Steen graduated from the University of Michigan. She was teaching fine arts at Beirut University College when she met Alann, who was working as a communications professor. In 1987, members of Hizballah, an Islamic extremist group, posed as riot police and kidnapped Alann right in front of her. Three other people were also taken.

Steen vowed to get her husband back. She remained in Lebanon for two years until the U.S. State Department forced her to leave. Back in America, Steen continued lobbying government officials to find her husband. After 1,775 days in captivity, Alann was released in Dec. 1991. For their ordeal overseas, the couple received the State Bar of Michigan's Liberty Bell Award in 1992.

In recent years, Steen focused on becoming an accountant. She completed a bachelor's degree from the University of Wyoming and was waiting for the results of her certified public account exam.

Steen died on Dec. 19 from complications of the flu. She was 47.

Art Rosenbaum

Art Rosenbaum, a veteran sports writer and editor for the San Francisco Chronicle, died on Dec. 21 from pneumonia. He was 91.

Rosenbaum was a 17-year-old high school senior when he began working for The Chronicle in 1929. He continued contributing to the paper while he attended San Francisco State and the University of California-Berkeley. He earned his first byline in 1931 and landed a full-time staff position in 1933.

During his 60-year career in journalism, Rosenbaum wrote articles and columns on almost every major sports event, from the World Series to the Super Bowl to 10 Olympiads. He also spent 25 years as The Chronicle's sports editor, and worked as a special correspondent for Sports Illustrated.

When he left the newspaper in 1991, Rosenbaum's retirement dinner raised enough money to fund three annual scholarships for local high school sportswriters.

Priscilla Kidder

Priscilla Comins Kidder, a noted wedding dress designer, died on Nov. 30. Cause of death was not released. She was 86.

Kidder graduated from the New England School of Design and took a job as a wedding dress model at the R.H. White department store in Boston. Within a few years, she worked her way up to buyer of the store's bridal section. In 1948, Kidder became a custom dressmaker/wedding consultant and opened her own boutique. She made a fortune selling wedding finery to post-war brides -- the store grossed $10,000 in its first week of business.

For more than half a century, Priscilla of Boston was known as an elegant establishment that produced wedding gowns designed to make a bride feel like a queen. Kidder's bridal fashions actually adorned royalty; she designed the dress actress Grace Kelly wore when she wed Monaco's Prince Ranier. Her stylish clothing also appealed to women in American high society. Luci Baines Johnson, the daughter of President Lyndon B. Johnson, and Julie and Tricia Nixon, the daughters of President Richard M. Nixon, wore Priscilla dresses for their weddings.

She sold the wedding dress company in 1993 to oil heiress Patricia Kaneb. In 2000, several of Kidder's dresses and prints were incorporated into the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Institute's Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.

Jim Phillippe

James R. Phillippe, the voice of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, died on Dec. 15. Cause of death was not released. He was 84.

Phillippe earned a bachelor's degree in theatre from Indiana University, and a master's from Cornell University. After working as a radio announcer in Evansville, Ind., and Huntington, W. Va., he became a professor of drama and radio at Butler University in Indianapolis. Phillippe chaired the drama department and the radio and television department, managed the student radio station and broadcast the school's home basketball and football games during his 35-year tenure.

In 1950, he was invited to work as a track announcer with Tom Carnegie at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Phillippe relished the opportunity and announced every race at the speedway for the next half century.

A member of the Indiana Broadcasters Hall of Fame, Phillippe received the Butler Medal of Honor, the university's highest honor. He also won the Unsung Hero Award for his longtime service to the Speedway.

Kriangsak Chomanan

Gen. Kriangsak Chomanan, the 15th prime minister of Thailand, died on Dec. 23 from a severe blood infection and kidney failure. He was 87.

Kriangsak graduated from Chulachomklao Royal Military Academy, and took a job as a secretary-general to the prime minister's advisory council. During the 1940s, he served as a platoon leader in the war against Indochina. He fought in the Korean War, Vietnam and Laos, reached the rank of general in 1973 and was named army chief of staff a year later.

Kriangsak was working as the supreme commander of the military in 1977 when he helped overthrow the government during a bloodless coup. For the next three years, he served as the country's prime minister, establishing ties with Russia and China, expanding the Don Muang airport and approving the building of the Din Daeng-Bang Na-Tha Rua expressway. He issued amnesty for 18 members of a left-wing student organization, and for former members of the Communist Party of Thailand.

In an effort to restore a parliamentary democracy, Kriangsak set up a more mixed civilian and military government. This last move proved to be his undoing. He lost the military's support then ran into fierce public opposition when he increased prices for electricity and petrol. Protests were held in the streets of Bangkok and the parliament passed a no-confidence motion against him. Kriangsak was the country's first and only prime minister to officially resign from office.

Determined to remain in the political arena, Kriangsak formed the National Democratic Party and was elected to parliament. Then on Sept. 9, 1985, he and several military friends were arrested for plotting an abortive coup against the Prem Tinsulanonda government. Kriangsak and the other retired generals went on trial in 1987, but were later amnestied.

Oleg Troyanovsky

Oleg Alexandrovich Troyanovsky, who served as the Soviet Union's ambassador to the United Nations from 1977 to 1986, died on Dec. 21. Cause of death was not released. He was 84.

Troyanovsky was born into diplomacy: his father, Aleksandr A. Troyanovsky, served as the first Soviet ambassador to the United States from 1934 to 1938. Although he was born in Moscow, Oleg attended the Sidwell Friends prep school in Washington, D.C., and Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania before returning to the Soviet Union to complete his education at the Moscow Institute for Foreign Languages and Moscow University. After spending two years as a soldier in the Red Army, Troyanovsky joined the Russian Foreign Ministry to work as an assistant and interpreter for Soviet leaders like Josef Stalin and Nikita Khrushchev.

Troyanovsky served as the Soviet Union's ambassador to Japan before he was appointed to the United Nations. During his nine years in New York, he was known for his wit and cool composure. In 1980, two members of a dissident Marxist group sneaked into the U.N. Security Council chamber and threw red paint on Troyanovsky and U.S. Ambassador William vanden Heuvel. The Russian's response: "Better red than dead." And when he was forced to listen to a recording of Soviet fighter pilots shooting down a Korean jumbo jet in 1983, Troyanovsky remained poker-faced and impassive.

"Mr. Troyanovsky was a brilliant diplomat who represented his country with singular expertise and adroitness at an acutely challenging time in the world and the history of the Organization," said U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

From 1986 to 1990, he held his final diplomatic post as the ambassador to China. Troyanovsky spent his retirement years working on his memoirs and giving lectures in Russia and abroad.

George Elliott Jr.

George E. Elliott Jr., the former Army radar operator who first detected the attack on Pearl Harbor, died on Dec. 20 from complications of a stroke. He was 85.

Elliott and Pvt. Joseph L. Lockard were on duty at Kahuku Point on the northern tip of Oahu. Using a new device -- radar -- the soldiers were able to see 130 miles out to sea. Just after 7 a.m. on Dec. 7, 1941, a large blip appeared on the radar screen.

When he called headquarters to warn of aircraft approaching Pearl Harbor, Elliott was told the radar blip was actually an image of B-17s flying in from California. Within the hour, however, Japanese aircraft started bombing battleship row. The attack, which brought the United States into World War II, damaged and/or destroyed 19 ships and 188 planes. More than 2,400 military personnel and civilians died.

Elliott, who received the Distinguished Service Medal, spent 33 years working for New Jersey Bell Telephone, then retired to Port Charlotte, Fla.

Ben Johnson

Ben Johnson, a veteran journalist and radio talk show host, committed suicide last weekend. Johnson, 53, died from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. His body was found behind a tree in Huntsville, Ala., and police have ruled out foul play.

After high school, Johnson became a Marine and fought in the Vietnam War. When he returned to the states, he earned a bachelor's degree from Lincoln University, and attended graduate school at Wayne State University and the University of Missouri. He also spent five years teaching journalism at UM, and co-founded the school's Multicultural Management Program.

For nearly 30 years, Johnson worked as a reporter, copy editor and columnist for major newspapers, including the The Huntsville Times, Detroit Free Press, the Chicago Sun-Times, the St. Petersburg Times and The Washington Post. He wrote about topics of interest to the black community, from affirmative action to Kwanzaa to the Confederate flag.

Since 1997, Johnson hosted the "Just Talking" radio show five days a week on WEUP-AM 1600.

Julia Tavalaro

Julia Tavalaro, a wheelchair-bound quadriplegic who eventually wrote her own memoirs, died on Dec. 19. Cause of death was not released. She was 68.

Tavalaro was a young mother and wife when she suffered paralysis as a result of two strokes in 1966. Although she spent seven months in a coma, she eventually woke up, fully conscious and aware, but unable to communicate with anyone.

For six years, she stayed at a chronic-care facility in New York where the medical community declared her to be in a vegetative state. However, Tavalaro could understand and remember. All of her senses were intact. She could even move her head and eyes. She was a prisoner in her own body.

In the 1970s, speech therapist Arlene Kratt discerned cognizance in Tavalaro's eye movements. With the aid of therapist Joyce Sabari, a rehabilitation program was designed to help Tavalaro communicate. They trained her to use eye movements to point at letters on an alphabet board.

Eventually, she learned how to touch a switch with her cheek, which maneuvered a motorized wheelchair. The switch also operated a computer. Tavalaro used that computer to write poetry, and with the help of writer Richard Tayson, she penned her autobiography, "Look Up for Yes."

Tavalaro spent the rest of her life in a private nursing home. For the past few years, she was able to leave the facility for occasional visits.

John Taylor

Sgt. John Taylor, a former search and rescue chief in Snohomish County, Wash., died on Nov. 28 from complications of a heart attack and Parkinson's disease. He was 60.

His first rescue mission occurred when he was 17 years old. Taylor was working at a lodge just east of Granite Falls when local deputies asked for his assistance in helping a woman who'd been injured on a steep hillside.

He served in the Army and the National Guard for 41 years, including two in Vietnam. When he returned to the states in 1968, Taylor joined the sheriff's office. He spent the next quarter century building the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office Search and Rescue into an efficient team of volunteers willing to work in life-threatening situations.

An expert in operating rescue boats, scuba diving, parachuting and rappelling from cliffs and helicopters, Taylor personally rescued hundreds of lost and injured people in the wild. Even after he retired in 1997, he helped the sheriff's office in coordinating search and rescue missions.

He received a citation from President Richard M. Nixon for rescuing a boy stuck on a rock in the middle of a rain-swollen river, the Washington State Law Enforcement Officer of the Year award from the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the Hal Foss Award, the most prestigious honor given by the National Association for Search and Rescue. Two years ago, the search and rescue operations base was renamed "Taylor's Landing."

Speedy West

Wesley Webb "Speedy" West, a steel guitar pioneer, died on Nov. 15. Cause of death was not released. He was 79.

West's interest in music began in childhood when his father bought him a Hawaiian guitar. As an adult, he attended a Grand Ole Opry tent show and decided to pursue a career in music.

With only $150 in his pocket, he and his family moved from the Midwest to Los Angeles. He landed a job playing with the Spade Cooley band, and introduced audiences to the pedal-steel guitar. West was the first country music steel-guitarist to use pedals.

From 1950 to 1956, West recorded with Capitol Records, performing on more than 6,000 records for 177 different artists. It was during this time that he hooked up with electric guitarist Ivy Jimmy Bryant. Known as The Flaming Guitars, the duo released several albums, including "Two Guitars Country Style" and "West of Hawaii."

West also produced Loretta Lynn's first album, and Johnny Horton's final one.

Harold von Braunhut

Harold Nathan Braunhut, the creator of Amazing Sea Monkeys, died on Nov. 28. Cause of death was not released. He was 77.

Von Braunhut, who lived in New York City for most of his life, specialized in creating quirky inventions and marketing them to children. He built a mail order empire selling X-Ray Spex, Crazy Crabs and Amazing Hair-Raising Monsters by advertising in comic books.

Of the 195 patents he held, von Braunhut was best known for his Sea Monkeys -- tiny, brine shrimp that would come to life when water was added. Over the past 43 years, he sold billions of the creatures. In the early '90s, CBS aired a Sea Monkeys sitcom, and 400 million went into space with John Glenn in 1998.

Hope Lange

Hope Elise Ross Lange, an Emmy Award-winning actress, died on Dec. 19 after suffering an infection caused by an intestinal inflammation. She was 72.

Lange was born into a show business family; her father worked as a composer for the Ziegfield Follies and her mother was an actress. At 12, Lange landed her first part on Broadway in the Pulitzer Prize-winning play, "The Patriots."

Film producer Buddy Alder saw Lange perform and encouraged her to move to Hollywood. She did so, and quickly found fame in "Bus Stop." The film also starred Marilyn Monroe, who demanded that Lange dye her hair brown.

In her third movie role, Lange played Selena Cross in the 1957 film, "Peyton Place," which was based on the best-selling novel by Grace Metalious. Lange received Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations for her portrayal of a girl from the wrong side of the tracks who murders her stepfather after being raped by him. She appeared in several other movies, including "The Young Lions" and "A Pocketful of Miracles," then turned her sights on TV in the late 1960s.

Starring opposite Edward Mulhare, Lange earned two Emmy Awards for her work as Caroline in the romantic sitcom, "The Ghost & Mrs. Muir." She appeared in "The New Dick Van Dyke Show" from 1971 to 1974 before returning to film and stage productions. Modern audiences will remember her as Charles Bronson's victimized wife in the first "Death Wish" movie, and as a senator in the Harrison Ford picture, "Clear and Present Danger."

Mimi Carrere

Mimi Carrere, one of the first women to fly a U.S. military plane, died on Dec. 17 of natural causes. She was 86.

Known at the time as Mary Clare "Mimi" Platter, Carrere learned how to fly when she was a teenager. Her father bought her a Piper Cub, which she used to check on his cotton crops and to visit her mother. She graduated from H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College in Louisiana in 1943.

During World War II, Carrere enlisted in the Army Air Corp. Out of more than 25,000 applicants, she was one of only 1,074 who became Women Airforce Service Pilots. As a WASP, she flew B-17 and B-26 bombers in training missions. One of these missions helped prepare a group of glider pilots for the Battle of Normandy.

When the war ended, Carrere married, raised seven children and worked at the Parks-Chambers men's clothing store in Atlanta. WASPs were accorded veteran status by Congress in 1977.

Teddy Randazzo

Teddy Randazzo, a singer/songwriter who wrote more than 600 songs, died on Nov. 21. Cause of death was not released. He was 68.

Randazzo was a 15-year-old accordion player when he became lead singer of the band, The Three Chuckles. The group appeared on the "Ed Sullivan Show" seven times, and in several movies like "Hey, Let's Twist" and "Mister Rock and Roll." Their first hit, "Runaround," sold more than 1 million copies.

Although the Brooklyn native became one of the first rock icons, Randazzo was best known for his songwriting skills. He and co-writer Bob Weinstein wrote "Pretty Blue Eyes," a No. 1 song for Steve Lawrence. They also penned the songs "Goin' Out of My Head," "Hurt So Bad" and "I'm on the Outside Looking In," all of which became Top 20 hits for Little Anthony & the Imperials. "Hurt So Bad" actually topped the charts twice more when The Lettermen and Linda Ronstadt covered it. Frank Sinatra and Dionne Warwick also sang versions of the break-up ballad.

Both Randazzo and Weinstein have been nominated for induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Tony Canadeo

Anthony R. Canadeo, a Hall of Fame halfback for the Green Bay Packers, died on Nov. 28 from an aneurysm. He was 84.

While playing college football at Gonzaga University in Washington, Canadeo became known as the "Grey Ghost" for his prematurely grey hair. In 1941, he was a seventh-round draft pick of Green Bay, and became a starter for the Packers two years later. Although Canadeo took a year off to serve in the U.S. Army during World War II, he returned to play with the Packers until 1952.

At 5-foot-11 and 195 pounds, Canadeo was the third 1,000-yard rusher in pro football history when he rushed 208 times for 1,052 yards in 1949. For running 4,197 yards on 1,025 carries, he still ranks as the No. 4 rusher in Packer history. After he retired from football, the Chicago-native became a broadcaster and a member of the Packer's executive team. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1974.

In memory of Canadeo, the current Packers team recently added a black decal to the back of their helmets; they plan to continue sporting the decal, which bears a white No. 3, for the remainder of the season. Canadeo's uniform number was one of only four retired by the franchise.

• Statistics From Pro-Football-Reference.com

Gordon Onslow Ford

Gordon Onslow Ford, a Surrealist painter, died on Nov. 9 from complications of a stroke. He was 90.

After serving in the British Navy, Onslow Ford moved to Paris in 1937 to study art. "I was born wanting to paint," he once said.

Under the tutelage of painters like André L'hote, Fernand Leger and Roberto Matta, he developed a colorful technique of spontaneously pouring paint onto a canvas. His method predated Jackson Pollock's own drip technique by 10 years.

When World War II broke out, Onslow Ford went back to England, but later moved to New York where he gave a series of lectures on surrealism and automatism at the New School for Social Research. The last surviving member of a 1930s group of famous Surrealist painters led by Andre Breton, Onslow Ford is best known for painting circle, line and dot compositions of what he called the "inner worlds."

Onslow Ford's work appeared in several retrospectives and solo exhibitions in Britain, Chile, Germany, Spain and the U.S. The author of the books, "Painting in the Instant" and "Creation," he was also married to poet Jacqueline Johnson until her death in 1976.

Johnny Cunningham

John James Cunningham, a Celtic fiddle player and songwriter, died on Dec. 15 from a heart attack. He was 46.

Born in Scotland, Cunningham began playing the harmonica when he was only five years old. By the time he was eight, he'd tried the piano and the accordion, and declared the fiddle to be his favorite instrument.

During the 1970s, Cunningham co-founded the band, Silly Wizard, and performed on the folk festival circuit throughout Europe. He moved to the United States in 1981, where he played with several other groups like Relativity, Nightnoise and the Raindogs.

Cunningham became famous in 1996 for reworking the J.M. Barrie classic, "Peter Pan," into an elaborate musical using puppets and shadows. He wrote the music and lyrics for the theatrical production, which toured in regional theatres from San Francisco to New York. In 1997, "Peter and Wendy" won an Obie Award for Best Production.

Cunningham also won three National American Independent Music Awards. He spent the last year of his life promoting the CD, "A Winter's Talisman," and touring with Irish singer, Susan McKeown.

• Discography

Jeanne Crain

Jeanne Crain, an Oscar-nominated actress, died on Dec. 14 from a heart attack. She was 78.

Crain took to the stage in her teens, playing lead roles in school plays. In 1942, she won a beauty contest and was named Long Beach, Calif.'s Camera Girl, a title that attracted the attention of 20th Century-Fox. The studio signed her to a standard contract, and a star was born.

Crain appeared in dozens of films, but was best known for her work in the lightweight romances and comedies of the 1940s. Playing opposite Frank Sinatra, Kirk Douglas and William Holden, she became a leading star in the wartime and postwar years. Her girl-next-door looks were popular with soldiers serving overseas, and her fan mail was second only to pin-up queen Betty Grable.

In 1949, Crain received an Academy Award nomination for her stirring performance as a black girl passing for white in "Pinky," a film directed by Elia Kazan and John Ford. Although the movie's depiction of racial prejudice was hailed by critics, it met with opposition in the South. The town of Marshall, Texas, even banned the film.

The controversy caused Crain's popularity to soar, and allowed her to continue starring in movies for the next decade. After retiring in the 1960s, she worked on her two ranches and painted.

Barry Long

Barry Long, the Australian spiritual guru known as the "Tantric Master of the West," died on Dec. 6 from prostate cancer. He was 77.

Although he worked as a journalist and editor in Sydney, Long abandoned his media career in his 30s to find spiritual enlightenment. He traveled to India where he experienced a "mystic death." He moved to London where his spiritual quest culminated in a "transcendental realization."

Long started teaching in 1968, and for 35 years, gave seminars and recorded videos and tapes offering his own brand of meditation and cosmic consciousness. He was particularly noted for his tantric teachings, and offered lessons on how to distinguish love from sex.

The spiritual guide moved back to Australia in 1986 and published a series of books advocating the search for God through self-discovery. Several topped the best-seller list, including "Origins of Man and the Universe," which described the Big Bang in spiritual terms and contained Long's description of consciousness -- the basis of his teaching.

• Article Long Wrote About His Death

Joseph A. Ferrario

Joseph A. Ferrario, the first U.S. bishop publicly accused of molesting a young boy, died on Dec. 12. Cause of death was not released. He was 77.

The Pennsylvania native was ordained in 1951, then moved to Hawaii to teach at the St. Stephen Seminary in Kane'ohe. For the next two decades, Ferrario focused on implementing the reforms handed down by the Second Vatican Council, including having priests speak in the language of the congregation, instead of Latin.

Ferrario was promoted to bishop of the Catholic diocese of Honolulu in 1982. Seven years later, however, one of his parishioners held a press conference and accused the religious leader of sexual molestation. The alleged victim filed suit, but it was dismissed because the statute of limitations had already passed.

Ferrario denied the charges, and retired early. Before he left the church, he excommunicated six of his critics; the Vatican eventually overruled him. His final years were spent raising money for Catholic scholarships as vice president and chief executive of the Augustine Educational Foundation.

Charles Benjamin Ripstein

Dr. Charles Benjamin Ripstein, a world renowned surgeon, died on Dec. 13 after a long illness. He was 90.

Born in Winnipeg, Ripstein earned his M.D. from McGill University School of Medicine in 1940. During World War II, he served as a squadron leader in the Royal Canadian Air Force.

Ripstein returned to Canada to complete his surgical rotation at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal before moving to the United States. Within three years, he became a full professor at the State University of New York Downstate, and the director of surgery at Maimonides Hospital.

An early pioneer of open heart and mitral valve surgery, Ripstein was one of the first doctors to perform open heart surgery under cryogenic conditions. He also discovered that Thorazine cured the hiccups. After learning of his research, the Vatican persuaded Pope Pius XII to treat his intractable hiccups with the drug. Ripstein's treatment was a success. Board-certified in general, thoracic, and colon and rectal surgery, Ripstein was best known for developing a method to repair rectal prolapse. The procedure was even named after him.

The pope wasn't his only famous patient. As the first director of surgery at the newly established Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, Ripstein was one of the last doctors called in on consultation to perform an operation on the genius. Einstein, who was dying of a ruptured aneurysm, eventually refused the procedure.

Ripstein later served as director of surgery at Brookdale Hospital in Brooklyn, N.Y., on the clinical staff at Cornell University Medical College, as a clinical professor of surgery at the University of Miami and on the medical staff of The Miami Heart Institute.

Alice Kolnick

Alice Kolnick, one of the first female attorneys practicing in Chicago, died on Dec. 13 from cancer. She was 84.

Kolnick received a bachelor's degree in teaching and a master's degree in education, then taught history at two public high schools in Chicago. In her spare time, she took enough courses at DePaul University to earn her law degree in 1945.

In the male-dominated legal system of the 1950s, Kolnick broke barriers by practicing probate and real estate law. She was known for her "amazing style'' and "absolute good reputation."

"She was a trailblazer. She had a great sense of humor and a great love for the law," said fellow attorney Elizabeth Rochford.

Jean Coyle

Jean Coyle, a hospital patient who survived a potentially lethal drugging by serial killer Efren Saldivar, died on Dec. 13 of respiratory distress. She was 65.

Before she became ill, Coyle lived a quiet life, working as a housekeeper and raising four children on her own. She was the only victim known to have survived the "Angel of Death," a former respiratory therapist currently serving a life sentence in prison.

Coyle was hospitalized with severe emphysema in 1997 and placed under Saldivar's care. In the middle of the night, he injected her with succinylcholine chloride, a paralyzing drug that respiratory therapists would never be authorized to use. She was revived by another nurse after a "code blue" emergency was declared.

"I gave her, I think, a half dose. Something in me just held back," Saldivar said during questioning by police.

Saldivar was sentenced in 2002 after pleading guilty to six counts of murder and one of attempted murder. He claims to have killed as many as 50 patients during his years at the Glendale Adventist Medical Center in Glendale, Calif. -- in order to reduce his workload.

Yesterday, Saldivar settled a wrongful death lawsuit, and was ordered to pay $20 million to the families of Coyle, Salbi Asatryan, Myrtle Brower and Balbino Castro.

Otto Graham

Otto E. Graham Jr., the Hall of Fame quarterback for the Cleveland Browns, died on Dec. 17 from an aneurysm of the aorta. He was 82.

At birth, Graham weighed 14 pounds, 12 ounces, the Illinois record for the largest male. He studied music at Northwestern University on a basketball scholarship and played intramural football until Wildcats coach Lynn "Pappy" Waldorf invited him to a spring tryout. Graham made the team and led Northwestern to two upset wins over Ohio State. He was serving as a naval aviation cadet during World War II when the Browns signed him.

"Automatic Otto" never missed a game as a professional football player. From 1946 to 1955, the six-foot one-inch, 196-pound quarterback passed for 23,584 yards and 174 touchdowns. He holds the NFL career record for average yards per passing attempt (8.63), and took the Browns to the championship game in every season he played.

When the team joined the National Football League in 1950, Graham's first pass against the defending champion Eagles went for a touchdown. He was also the first football player to wear a face mask, after being elbowed in the mouth by San Francisco linebacker Art Michalik.

Graham announced his retirement in 1954, but was talked into making a comeback just before the 1955 season opener. Not one to shirk his duties, he led the Browns to yet another title. After he left the NFL, Graham worked as the athletic director and football coach at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, and as the general manager of the Washington Redskins.

Named Most Valuable Player of the All-America Football Conference three times, Graham was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1965, and selected for the NFL's 75th anniversary team in 1994. In his autobiography, former Cleveland coach Paul Brown described Graham as the greatest football player in history.

Bob Ross

Bob Ross, a gay rights activist and the publisher of the Bay Area Reporter, died on Dec. 10 from complications of diabetes. He was 69.

Born in New York, Ross served in the U.S. Navy before settling down in San Francisco. He was working as a chef when he co-founded the Bay Area Reporter with Paul Bentley in 1971. The newspaper eventually became a political and cultural force in the gay community.

The Bay Area Reporter was known for publishing obituaries of people who had died of AIDS. At the height of the epidemic, these death notices filled two or three pages of newsprint. Then in 1998, the San Francisco-based weekly published a front page headline that read: "No Obits." It was the first time in 17 years that an AIDS-related obituary was not included in the paper.

Ross was also active in gay and civic organizations. He served as president of Meals on Wheels and as a director of the Gay Games.

David Holt

David Holt, a child actor who appeared in 40 films, died on Nov. 15 from congestive heart failure. He was 76.

Holt was only five years old when he was discovered by Will Rogers. The humorist told Holt's mother to bring the boy to Hollywood and he would put David in movies. A year later, Holt's father quit his job at the Ford Motor Co., and moved the family to California. But when they appeared in Rogers' office, he reportedly refused to see them. The Holt patriarch was unable to find steady work so the family ate in soup kitchens to survive.

Undaunted, David's mother started taking him to casting calls. His first role was as the body double for Cheetah in "Tarzan the Fearless." In 1934, Paramount signed David to a long-term contract and began casting him in a variety of movies, including "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer," "Beau Geste," "Courage of Lassie" and "Pride of the Yankees." At the time, he was touted as the "male Shirley Temple."

Holt continued working in films and television until the mid-1950s when he became a jazz musician and composer. He co-wrote the song, "The Christmas Blues," with Sammy Cahn, which appeared on the "L.A. Confidential" soundtrack. Holt was writing his autobiography, "The Holts of Hollywood," at the time of his death.

Rita Bell

Rita Bell Hansen, one of Detroit's most popular TV personalities, died on Dec. 16 from cancer. She was 78.

Bell graduated from Marygrove College in Michigan, and became a public relations representative. She also performed with big bands in and around Detroit. One night, the general manager of WXYZ-TV Channel 7 heard Bell sing; he promptly offered her a job as the first female weathercaster in Detroit television history.

At the end of TV's black-and-white era, Bell stopped announcing snowstorms in order to host Channel 7's "Prize Movie." Each weekday morning from 1959 to 1977, she played a song and offered a cash prize to anyone who called in during the show with the correct title. Out of the 6,000 films Bell hosted, her favorite was "Gone With the Wind."

Sol Leon

Sol Leon, an executive vice president of the William Morris agency, died on Dec. 5 from heart failure. He was 90.

Leon attended New York University and City College of New York, and earned a law degree from the Brooklyn Law School before joining the William Morris agency in 1940. He briefly served in the Army Signal Corps during World War II, then returned to William Morris where he worked his way up from the mailroom to running its television department in New York.

For more than half a century, Leon represented major entertainment figures, including Woody Allen, Joan Crawford, Ted Knight, Merv Griffin, Dionne Warwick, Raymond Burr and Dick Van Dyke. He signed actress Loretta Young to an NBC contract in 1953; two years later, she became one of the first Academy Award-winning actresses to nab an Emmy. Leon also drew up the first TV contract for comedic legend Milton Berle.

Keith Magnuson

Keith Magnuson, a hockey coach and former Chicago Blackhawk, died on Dec. 15 in a car accident. He was 56.

Magnuson played hockey as a two-time All-American at the University of Denver. There he helped the Pioneers win NCAA championships in 1968 and 1969.

He spent 11 years playing defense for the Chicago Blackhawks before retiring in 1979. Always ready for a fight, Magnuson tallied only 14 goals during his career -- mostly because he spent 1,442 minutes in the penalty box. He worked as the team's assistant coach under Eddie Johnston before being promoted to head coach in 1980. He lead the team for a season and a half, earning a record of 49-57-26.

In 1997, Magnuson was declared the Western Collegiate Hockey Association's All-Time Best Defenseman and listed on the All-Time All-WCHA First Team. He was also named to the NCAA Championship's 50th Anniversary Team and to the Blackhawks' 75th Anniversary All-Star Team.

Magnuson and former Maple Leafs captain Rob Ramage were returning from the funeral of former NHL player Keith McCreary when the three-car collision occurred just south of Toronto. Ramage, 44, has been charged with impaired driving causing death, which carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

Gary Stewart

Gary Stewart, a country music singer and songwriter, committed suicide on Dec. 16. Authorities say the cause of death was an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the neck. He was 58.

Stewart spent his teens playing rock and country in Florida bars. He was discovered by Mel Tillis, who encouraged the young guitarist with the vibrato-laden tenor voice to head to Nashville.

Stewart followed this advice and teamed up with Bill Eldridge to write songs like Stonewall Jackson's 1965 hit, "Poor Red Georgia Dirt." He also recorded records for the Cory and Kapp labels before signing on with RCA.

Stewart's fusion of honky-tonk and southern rock turned the song, "Drinkin' Thing" into a top 10 hit. He released "She's Actin' Single (I'm Drinkin' Doubles)" in 1975, which reached No. 1 on the Billboard chart. In the 1980s, however, Stewart faded from view, perceived as being too country for rock audiences and too rock for country audiences.

For the past decade, he performed in small venues near his Ft. Pierce, Fla., home. His final album, "Live at Billy Bob's Texas," was released this year.

• Discography

• Watch Stewart Perform "She's Actin' Single"

Mark Sheldon

Mark Sheldon, an announcer for the Classical Public Radio Network, died on Dec. 9 from cancer. He was 43.

Sheldon graduated from Brigham Young University with degrees in music education and choral conducting. After college, he worked as an announcer in Utah and as a station manager in Indiana.

Sheldon joined Minnesota Public Radio in 1992 as a syndicated classical music host. He also produced national radio broadcasts for the Minnesota Classic Orchestra, the Utah Symphony and the Grand Teton Musical Festival.

In 1999, Sheldon was hired by the Classical Public Radio Network, which is co-owned by KUSC and Colorado Public Radio. There he hosted the late afternoon classical music program on weekdays, and the "Sacred Classics" show on Sunday mornings.

He discussed his 15-year battle with a rare form of ocular melanoma on the air and in an online journal. When his insurance company dropped him just before a cancer treatment, friends held a benefit concert in his honor.

In his spare time, Sheldon sang with the Grammy-nominated Dale Warland Singers, and guest-conducted the St. Martin's Chamber Choir in Denver.

• Interview With Colorado Public Radio

Fadwa Toukan

Fadwa Toukan, the Palestinian poet who chronicled the suffering of her people under Israeli occupation, died on Dec. 12. Cause of death was not released. She was 86.

Born in Nablus to a wealthy Palestinian family, Toukan's eldest brother forced her to quit school in the fifth grade after a rumor spread that she'd received a flower from a young admirer. Although she lacked a formal education, another one of her brothers, poet Ibrahim Toukan, gave her books to read.

Toukan eventually published eight poetry collections, which were translated into English and Farsi. Although her book, ''Alone With the Days," focused on the hardships faced by women in the male-dominated Arab world, Toukan eventually attended Oxford University, where she studied English and literature.

After Israel invaded the West Bank and Gaza in the 1967 Middle East War, Toukan's poetry focused on the hardships of occupation. One of her best known poems, "The Night and the Horsemen,'' described life under Israeli military rule. Toukan was also one of Palestinian leader Yassir Arafat's favorite writers.

David Perlov

David Perlov, a film director who won the Israel Prize for Cinema in 1999, died on Dec. 13. Cause of death was not released. He was 73.

Born in Brazil to a circus magician, Perlov spent his 20s in Paris, learning about photography and cinema. In 1958, he immigrated to Israel and began a film career that lasted for half a century.

His first project was commissioned by the Histadrut Labor Federation. It was supposed to be a pleasant public relations piece about its senior citizen homes; Perlov's movie showed a different view, one that included death.

Perlov's 1963 documentary, "In Jerusalem," which played on the film festival circuit, is considered one of the most important films in the history of Israeli cinema. He then spent two decades working on "Diary," a six-hour film that chronicles Israeli society through the eyes of his family and friends.

From 1973 to 1999, Perlov taught cinema at Tel Aviv University. His final documentary, "Photos 1952-2002," was screened in Jerusalem in July.

Sally McDonnell Barksdale

Sarah "Sally" Weems McDonnell Barksdale, a philanthropist and education advocate, died on Dec. 8 from cancer. She was 60.

Barksdale graduated in 1965 with a bachelor's degree in business from the University of Mississippi. She married James Love Barksdale, an Internet pioneer and the former CEO of Netscape, and raised three children.

In 2000, the Barksdales created a $100 million endowment to establish the Barksdale Reading Institute, an organization focused on improving the reading skills of young children. It was the largest private gift to early childhood literacy in U.S. history. They gave $5.4 million to the University of Mississippi to establish the McDonnell-Barksdale Honors College, and funded full medical scholarships for African-American students attending the University of Mississippi Medical Center.

For her charitable efforts, Barksdale was awarded the University of Mississippi Humanitarian Award, and the Friends of Education Award by the Mississippi Association of School Administrators.

Hans Hotter

Hans Hotter, a world renowned opera singer, died on Dec. 6. Cause of death was not released. He was 94.

A naturalized Austrian, Hotter studied piano and musical theory at the Munich Academy. Although he planned to become a conductor, vocal coach Matthäus Roemer convinced him to make singing his profession. Hotter launched his operatic career in 1930.

The leading Wagnerian bass-baritone of his time, Hotter was best known for his Wotan in "Ring Cycle." The part of Jupiter in Strauss's "Die Liebe Der Danae" was written expressly for him, but its premiere was disrupted in 1944 when all theatres were closed after an assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler.

Hotter sang with the Munich Opera for more than half a century, and as a member of the Vienna Opera from 1939 to 1970. He performed in venues all over Europe, and made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in 1950. He also worked as a producer and director; his final production was "Fidelio" in Chicago in 1981.

The Bavarian State Opera plans to dedicate a performance of Mozart's "The Magic Flute" in his honor.

Dola de Jong

Dorothea Rosalie "Dola" de Jong, an award-winning novelist, died on Nov. 19. Cause of death was not released. She was 92.

De Jong moved from the Netherlands to North Africa just before the Nazis invaded during World War II. Her father, stepmother and brother refused to flee; they were all killed. She then immigrated to America, and attained citizenship in 1947.

De Jong became an author and a linguist, fluent in English, French, German, Dutch, Flemish and Afrikaans. Her children's books, "The Level Land" and "Return to the Level Land," focused on the trials and tribulations of a Dutch family caught up in the Nazi invasion. Her literary novel, "The Tree and the Vine," also focused on the war, but dealt with the subject from a lesbian couple's point of view.

Although de Jong won the City of Amsterdam Literature Prize in 1947 for her novel, "And the Field Is the World," which was republished in 1979 as "The Field," she was best known for her mysteries. In 1963, she was nominated for an Edgar Allan Poe Award for her novel, "The House on Charlton Street." A year later, she won the prize for "The Whirligig of Time."

In her 70s, de Jong went back to school, and graduated from Empire State College in New York City. She also taught creative writing there for several years.

Earl Gillespie

Earl Gillespie, the radio voice of the Milwaukee Braves in the 1950s, died on Dec. 12 from respiratory failure. He was 81.

A minor league baseball player for the Green Bay Blue Jays in the early 1940s, Gillespie decided to become a sports broadcaster while serving as a fighter pilot during World War II. His re-creations of the Packers-Bears games were so entertaining, the soldiers fiiled the barracks with their cheers.

When the Braves moved to Milwaukee in 1953, he was hired to call the games. For the next 11 years, thousands tuned in to WTMJ 620AM to hear Gillespie exclaim "Holy Cow!" every time one of the Braves hit a home run or made a big play. From 1963 to 1985, he did commentary on WITI-TV Channel 6 in Milwaukee, and broadcast the play-by-play action for the Green Bay Packers, Marquette University and the University of Wisconsin.

He received the "Wisconsin Sportscaster of the Year Award" eight times, and was inducted into the Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame in 2001.

William B. Macomber Jr.

William Butts Macomber Jr., the former ambassador to Jordan and Turkey, died on Nov. 19 from complications of Parkinson's disease. He was 82.

Macomber received a master's degree in government from Yale University, a master's degree in social science from the University of Chicago and a law degree from Harvard University. During World War II, he served as a lieutenant in the Marines, working for the Office of Strategic Services.

After his tour of duty ended, Macomber taught government at Boston University, spent two years with the CIA, then joined the State Department. President John F. Kennedy appointed him ambassador to Jordan in 1961, and three years later, he became an assistant administer at the U.S. Agency for International Development.

From 1969 to 1973, Macomber served as the assistant secretary of state for congressional relations and the deputy undersecretary of state for administration and management. Although President Richard Nixon made him the ambassador to Turkey in 1973, Macomber refused Nixon's order to punish all Foreign Service officers who protested against the Vietnam War.

Macomber spent the 1980s as the president of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The author of "The Angels' Game: A Handbook of Modern Diplomacy," Macomber was also a founding member of the American Academy of Diplomacy.

Marcia Coggs

Marcia Coggs, the first black woman state representative of Wisconsin, died on Dec. 9. Cause of death was not released. She was 75.

Coggs graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and spent 13 years working for the former Milwaukee County Children's Home. She was elected to the 18th Assembly District in Milwaukee in 1977.

During her 16 years in the state legislature, Coggs focused on housing, education and integration issues. She was also the first black person to sit on the state legislature's Joint Finance Committee. The 4-foot-10 Democrat retired in the early 1990s.

The Coggs family have long served the people of Wisconsin. Her husband, Isaac, served in the Assembly from 1953 to 1963. Her nephew, Leon Young, has been a Democratic state representative since 1992; her other nephew, G. Spencer Coggs, won a seat in the state Senate in November after serving as a state representative since 1983.

The human services building in Milwaukee County will be renamed in her honor in 2004.

Keiko

Keiko, the killer whale who starred in the "Free Willy" movies, died on Dec. 12 from pneumonia. He was 27.

Born in the Atlantic Ocean near Iceland, the whale whose name means "Lucky One" in Japanese, was captured in 1979 and held in an Icelandic aquarium. He was sold twice, first to Marineland in Ontario where he became a performing animal, then to Reino Aventura, an amusement park in Mexico City. Because his tank was too small, the 6-ton, 35-foot-long mammal suffered.

In 1993, he starred in the first of three "Free Willy" movies, which became box office hits and gave the whale's plight international attention. The project to rehabilitate Keiko at the Oregon Coast Aquarium, then reintegrate him with a pod of wild killer whales, cost more than $20 million.

After being airlifted to Iceland, Keiko was released in 2002. Instead of joining his own kind, however, Keiko swam 870 miles in search of human companionship. He found it near the village of Halsa, Norway. There Keiko allowed fans to pet and play with him until animal protection authorities imposed a ban on the practice.

• Keiko's Vocal Dialect

Frank Schubert

Frank P. Schubert, the last of the Coast Guard's civilian lighthouse keepers in the United States, died on Dec. 11 of natural causes. He was 88.

Schubert always had an affinity for the water. He worked as a lifeguard after graduating high school, and took a job as a seaman aboard the Tulip, a tender ship that maintained buoys. In 1939, the Coast Guard gave him his first lighthouse assignment -- caring for the beacon off Staten Island.

During World War II, Schubert served in the Army, then returned to New York City to man the lighthouse on Governor's Island. He took over the lighthouse on Coney Island's western tip in 1960, a job that also provided him a home for his wife and three children.

For 43 years, Schubert stood watch over New York's gateway to the Atlantic, insuring that the ocean traffic found safe passage around the end of Brooklyn. Over the course of his career, he maintained the grounds and the 1,000-watt bulb of the fog signal, and was credited with saving the lives of 15 sailors.

Even after the lighthouse became automated in the late 1980s, Schubert remained, serving as a reminder of maritime history. Although he rarely left his post, and never took a vacation, Schubert was visited by thousands of lighthouse buffs.

"The Coast Guard mourns the loss of its most courageous sentry of the sea. His devotion to duty and courage are unequaled," said Capt. Craig T. Bone, commander of Coast Guard Activities New York.

• NPR Interview With Schubert

Evan Ruderman

Evan Ruderman, an electrician and AIDS activist, died on Nov. 18 from complications of the disease. She was 44.

Ruderman worked as an electrician in New York City, and was the fifth woman to join the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 3. She was a founding member of Women in the Trades and the Nontraditional Employment for Women organization.

In 1988, Ruderman learned she was HIV positive. She continued working until she developed full-blown AIDS two years later. To educate others about the disease, Ruderman wrote a monologue for a Star Theater production that was performed at New York-area elementary schools. That monologue eventually became part of a documentary shown on PBS.

Ruderman helped create the Foundation for Integrated AIDS Research, and worked to obtain equal access to treatment for HIV patients around the world. A delegate to the World AIDS Conferences in Durban and Barcelona, she called on all governments to budget 50 percent of their AIDS spending on women.

Jerome Evans

Jerome Evans, the frontman for the R&B group, the Furys, died on Nov. 30 from a heart attack. He was 65.

Born in Los Angeles, Evans was a teenager when he launched his singing career. The talented baritone performed in amateur shows, then he and his friends -- Robert Washington, Melvin White and George Taylor -- formed the Cyclones in the mid-1950s.

The group eventually evolved into the Furys, which released the singles, "So Tough," "Never More" and "Zing Went the Strings of My Heart.'' With Evans doing lead vocals, the band scored a couple of local hits, then toured in Japan and throughout southeast Asia.

After the Furys disbanded in the early 1970s, Evans continued performing with bands like the Coasters, the Medallions and the Drifters. He was in the process of recording a new album at the time of his death.

Derk Bodde

Derk Bodde, the first American Fulbright scholar, died on Nov. 3. Cause of death was not released. He was 94.

Born in Massachusetts, Bodde spent part of his childhood in China where his father worked as a physics professor in Shanghai. After earning a bachelor's degree in English from Harvard University, Bodde received a scholarship to study at Yenching University in Beijing.

He earned a doctorate in Chinese studies from the University of Leiden in Amsterdam, then returned to the states and became a professor at the University of Pennsylvania. An expert on the Qin dynasty of the late third century B.C., Bodde was dedicated to making Chinese history, language and customs understandable to his students.

During World War II, he left academia to aid the Office of Strategic Services' Research Analysis Division in the Library of Congress, and the Office of War Information. Once his services were no longer needed, Bodde returned to Penn, where he remained until his retirement in 1975.

When the Fulbright program was launched in 1948, Bodde was the first American to receive a one year fellowship to study in Peking. He was in the city when the Communists took over, an experience he later recounted in the book, "Peking Diary: A Year of Revolution." Bodde also spent 20 years working on translations of Fung Yu-lan's "A History of Chinese Philosophy." In 1995, Bodde received the Distinguished Scholarship Award from the Association of Asian Studies.

John Sidgmore

John W. Sidgmore, the former president of WorldCom who revealed the company's shoddy accounting practices, died on Dec. 11 from complications of acute pancreatitis. He was 52.

Sidgmore graduated from State University of New York in 1973 with a bachelor's degree in economics. He was hired by General Electric, and over the next 10 years, worked his way up to manager and vice president of information services. During his four years in the unit, Sidgmore tripled its net income and achieved 20 percent in growth in revenue.

At the start of the Internet boom, Sidgmore led a series of technology companies, including UUNET Technologies, which grew from $6 million in revenue in 1995 to $4 billion in 1999. UUNET is now the world's largest Internet access provider.

Sidgmore was the vice chairman of WorldCom's board when the company began inflating its earnings in order to appear more profitable. A few weeks after he was named president and chief executive officer in April 2002, Sidgmore disclosed the company's accounting errors.

The Securities and Exchange Commission filed civil fraud charges against WorldCom for improperly accounting for nearly $4 billion in expenses. The charges caused the company's stock to drop to less than $.10/share and forced WorldCom to declare Chapter 11 bankruptcy in July 2002. Sidgmore left WorldCom five months later, and became the chairman of Electronic Commerce Industries in Virginia.

Carol Bundy

Carol Bundy, the accomplice of the "Sunset Strip Slayer," died of heart failure on Dec. 9 at the Central California Women's Facility where she was serving a 52-year sentence. She was 61.

A former vocational nurse, Bundy was dating Douglas Daniel Clark in 1980 when he began murdering runaways and prostitutes in Hollywood. Bundy would sometimes accompany her serial killer boyfriend as he cruised Sunset Strip, and even helped abduct and kill his victims.

Although they were suspected in the deaths of up to 50 people, Bundy plead guilty in 1983 to two counts of first degree murder. She admitted to killing a young girl and her former lover, Jack Murray.

Clark, a necrophiliac who kept the head of at least one victim in his refrigerator, was also convicted of killing six women in 1983. He is currently sitting on death row in San Quentin State Prison.

Donald R. Griffin

Donald Redfield Griffin, the zoologist who discovered how bats navigate in the dark, died on Nov. 7. Cause of death was not released. He was 88.

Griffin received his bachelor's, master's and doctorate degrees from Harvard University, and became a full-time college professor. He worked at Cornell University and Harvard for many years before joining the Rockefeller University faculty in 1965. He was granted tenure at Rockefeller, and remained a professor of animal behavior until his retirement in 1986.

His breakthrough in bat communications came in 1938, when he was still an undergrad at Harvard. Griffin earned the nickname "Batman," after he and his lab partner, Robert Galambos, placed a special microphone in a dark room to prove that bats could "see" in the dark by emitting ultrasonic sounds and then navigating through the air using the echoes as an internal guidance system. In his 1958 book, "Listening in the Dark: The Acoustic Orientation of Bats and Men," Griffin described this "sixth sense" as echolocation.

A pioneer in the practice of studying animals in their natural environments, Griffin also advocated cognitive ethology, or the belief that animals possess consciousness. In his 1976 book, "The Question of Animal Awareness: Evolutionary Continuity of Mental Experience," he suggested that animals, like humans, could be capable of thinking and awareness, a theory considered taboo in scientific circles of the time.

Ruben Gonzalez

Ruben Gonzalez, a Cuban pianist who achieved worldwide fame in the mid-1990s with the Buena Vista Social Club, died on Dec. 8. Cause of death was not released. He was 84.

Although he planned to become a doctor, Gonzalez gave up his medical studies in 1941 to devote his life to playing mambo and jazz. He traveled the Cuban countryside for 50 years, performing with Enrique Jorrin's orchestra and Arsenio Rodriguez's ensemble.

In 1997, Gonzalez came out of retirement to contribute to the Buena Vista Social Club's revival of traditional Cuban "son" music. The band was led by Compay Segundo, who died in July. The "Buena Vista Social Club" album sold over 5 million copies and won a Grammy Award in 1998 for best tropical Latin album. The movie by the same name won a New York Film Critics Circle award for best documentary in 1999, and received an Academy Award nomination that same year.

Described as a "cross between Thelonious Monk and Felix the Cat," Gonzalez returned to the studio in his late 70s to release his only two solo albums: "Introducing … Ruben Gonzalez" and "Chanchullo."

Robert L. Bartley

Robert Leroy Bartley, the Pulitzer Prize-winning editor emeritus of The Wall Street Journal, died on Dec. 10 from cancer. He was 66.

Bartley earned a bachelor's degree in journalism from Iowa State University, and a master's degree in political science from the University of Wisconsin. In 1962, he became a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, working in the newspaper's Chicago and Philadelphia bureaus before moving to its headquarters in New York.

Bartley joined the editorial section in 1964 and within eight years, became the editorial page editor. He was named editor of the Journal in 1979, won the Pulitzer for editorial writing in 1980 and became a vice president of Dow Jones & Co. in 1983. As one of the most powerful conservative voices in America, Bartley weighed in on economic and political policy, Watergate and the Clinton presidency. Although he retired in 2001, Bartley continued to write the weekly column, "Thinking Things Over,'' and penned "The Seven Fat Years: And How to Do It Again," a book on the economic policy of the Reagan administration.

He won numerous awards, including a citation for excellence from the Overseas Press Club, and an award for distinguished journalism from the American Council on Science and Health. Last week, the White House chose Bartley as a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.

"Robert L. Bartley is one of the most influential journalists in American history. He helped shape the times in which we live," President George W. Bush said.

Jeff Brown

Jeff Brown, the author of the popular "Flat Stanley" children's series, died on Dec. 3 from a heart attack. He was 77.

Born and raised in New York City, Brown was a child actor who performed on the radio and in several Broadway shows. He moved to Hollywood, where he worked with producer Samuel Goldwyn Jr., and with Pennebaker Productions, Marlon Brando's company at Paramount.

When he returned to New York, Brown became a senior editor at Warner Books. His articles and fiction appeared in numerous magazines, including The New Yorker, Life, The Saturday Evening Post and Esquire.

One night, 30 years ago, while tucking his sons J.C. and Tony into bed, they inquired as to what would happen if the bulletin board on the wall fell on top of them. Brown said they would wake up flat, and the idea for the character Flat Stanley Lambchop was born.

"Best idea I ever had, and I didn't even know I'd had it. Not for many months, until a friend in the kid-book business, who knew about the flat stories, suggested I make them into a book," Brown once stated.

The first "Flat Stanley" adventure was published in 1964. Since that time, nearly 1 million books have been sold in the U.S. The stories, which are used by elementary school teachers all over the world, have also been translated into many languages. Brown's final book, "Stanley, Flat Again!" was published in October.

Iggy Katona

Egnatius James Katona Jr., a stock car racing legend, died on Dec. 4. Cause of death was not released. He was 87.

Katona began racing motorcycles in 1934. He won most every competition he entered, including the Michigan Motorcycle Championship. After serving a year in the U.S. Army during World War II, Katona focused on racing open-wheel midget cars, AAA big cars and roadsters.

From 1953 to 1974, Katona finished in the top 10 in points, 21 consecutive times. The winningest driver in Automobile Racing Club of America Series history, Katona earned 79 career series wins, and holds the all-time series championship mark with six titles in 1955, '56, '57, '62, '66 and '67. He was also the oldest superspeedway winner in history when he won his third victory at Daytona in 1974 at the age of 57.

Paul Simon

Paul Simon, the bow-tie-wearing U.S. senator from Illinois, died on Dec. 9 after undergoing heart surgery. He was 75.

Simon was only 16 when he enrolled at the University of Oregon to study journalism. He transferred to Dana College in Nebraska, then dropped out at 19 to take over the Troy Tribune, a failing weekly newspaper in southern Illinois. As the nation's youngest editor/publisher, Simon focused on crime and corruption, exposing local syndicate gambling connections. His newspaper coverage got the attention of then-Gov. Adlai Stevenson, who ordered a series of state police raids. Hailed in Life and Newsweek for his journalistic exploits, Simon was then asked to testify before the U.S. Senate hearing on organized crime. He eventually owned 13 newspapers before selling the chain in 1966.

After serving two years in the Army as an intelligence agent in Eastern Europe, Simon decided to delve into politics. He ran for the Illinois House of Representatives as a Democrat, won the election in 1953 and later served in the state Senate. He was elected lieutenant governor in 1968 -- the first lieutenant governor in the state to be elected while belonging to a different party than the governor -- then campaigned for the state's top spot in 1972. He lost to Republican Dan Walker in the party primary.

Undaunted, Simon spent the next two years lecturing at universities before returning to the political arena. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1974, served five terms, and sat on the budget, labor and human resources, judiciary and Indian affairs committees. In 1984, he beat GOP Sen. Charles Percy, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, to win a seat in the U.S. Senate.

During his first term in the Senate, Simon decided to run for president. Although he won the Illinois primary, Simon dropped out of the race in 1988. He wrote the book, "Winners and Losers," to describe his campaign experiences, and eventually penned 21 other books, including "Our Culture of Pandering" and "Healing America: Values and Vision for the 21st Century."

During his second term in the Senate, Simon helped overhaul the federal student loan program and crusaded against violence on television. He retired in 1997 to teach political science and journalism at Southern Illinois University and to run the Public Policy Institute, a bipartisan think tank he also founded.

Margaret Singer

Margaret Bridget Thaler Singer, a professor, clinical psychologist and cult expert, died on Nov. 23 from respiratory failure. She was 82.

Singer earned a doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of Denver. She became an adjunct professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and conducted several widely known studies on schizophrenia with the National Institute of Mental Health, the U.S. Air Force and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

In 1953, Singer's fascination with mind-control techniques grew out of her job as a psychologist at the Walter Reed Institute of Research in Washington, D.C. There she interviewed U.S. soldiers who were brainwashed into making treasonous statements while they were P.O.W.'s in North Korea.

Over the next 40 years, Singer interviewed more than 3,000 cult members and co-wrote "Cults in Our Midst,'' with sociologist and former cult member, Janja Lalich. Singer testified at more than 200 trials, including the 1976 bank robbery trial of newspaper heiress Patty Hearst, and several trials against the Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church.

Singer won the Hofheimer Prize and the Dean Award from the American College of Psychiatrists. She was twice nominated for the Nobel Prize.

Mr. Rodeo

Cecil Cornish, a rodeo performer and National Cowboy Hall of Famer, died on Dec. 4. Cause of death was not released. He was 94.

Cornish began his rodeo career in the early 1920s riding bucking horses and roping. For 35 years, he traveled across the United States and Canada, performing in rodeos and training as a trick rider.

Danger, his Brahma bull, could leap over cars and through fire. His trick horse, Smoky, entertained audiences by pretending to have a broken leg. Cornish also trained Hollywood horses, including Roy Rogers' horse Trigger, and the horses used in the film, "Ben Hur."

"Mr. Rodeo, Himself -- Cecil Cornish, His Life and Treasures," by Robert Gray, was published in 1990. Former Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating proclaimed April 20, 1998, as Cecil Cornish Day. And this year, he was inducted into ProRodeo Hall of Fame.

Bob Carmichael

Bob "Nails" Carmichael, an Australian tennis player and coach, died on Nov. 18. Cause of death was not released. He was 63.

Carmichael started his tennis career in the early 1960s, and went on to become one of the most respected players in the game. A founding member of the Association of Tennis Professionals, he based himself in Versailles, France, and reached the quarterfinals of Wimbledon in singles, doubles and mixed doubles in 1970, the same year he achieved a top-10 ranking in singles. In 1979, his last year on the circuit, Carmichael was a doubles semifinalist at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open.

A coach with Tennis Australia and the Australian Institute of Sport, Carmichael trained Pat Rafter, Lleyton Hewitt and Darren Cahill. In 1999, he coached leading doubles specialist Leander Paes, who won three of the four Grand Slam doubles titles with Mahesh Bhupathi.

David Hemmings

David Leslie Edward Hemmings, a British director, singer and actor who worked on more than 160 films, died on Dec. 4 from a heart attack. He was 62.

Hemmings was only nine years old when he launched his entertainment career as a boy soprano in the opera, "The Turn of the Screw." At 12, he began appearing in movies; by the time he was 14, he had his own apartment in London.

Although he appeared in numerous films, including "Barbarella," "Gladiator," "Gangs of New York" and "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen," Hemmings was best known for playing the hip, fashion photographer who may have photographed a murder in the 1966 cult classic, "Blowup."

In between acting jobs, Hemmings produced and directed movies and TV series, like "The A-Team" and "Magnum PI." He received a Silver Bear award at the 1973 Berlin Film Festival for his direction of "The 14."

Hemmings had just finished shooting scenes on location in Romania for the film, "Blessed," when he collapsed. Paramedics were unable to revive him.

• Filmography From IMDb

Len Karlin

Leonard Karlin, a journalist and P.R. man who helped establish the George Polk Awards for journalism, died on Nov. 14. Cause of death was not released. He was 81.

Karlin received bachelor's and master's degrees from Long Island University, where he served as the editor of the school's newspaper. He took a job as an assistant to the university's president and in 1949, co-created the George Polk Awards with journalism professor Ted Kruglak.

Established to memorialize the CBS News correspondent who died while reporting on a civil war in Greece, the Polk Awards have become one of the most respected journalism honors in America. Past winners have included Jimmy Breslin, Walter Cronkite, Peter Jennings, Ted Koppel, Charles Kuralt and Edward R. Murrow.

Karlin wrote many of the citations for the awards, and served on the committee that selected the winners. He taught journalism at LIU and worked as the director of communications for the school until 1967 when he left academia to pursue his own career in publishing.

In the 1970s and '80s, Karlin edited Sports Inc. magazine and published Careers Magazine. He also wrote several books on career opportunities. A scholarship has been created at LIU in his honor.

José María Jiménez

José María Jiménez, a cyclist who won nine stages in the Tour of Spain, died on Dec. 6 from a heart attack. He was 32.

Known as "El Chava" (the popular one), Jiménez entered professional cycling in 1992 when he was signed by the Spanish iBanesto team. The cyclist was a strong climber who was named King of the Mountains four times.

Jiménez was forced to retire in 2000 to undergo treatment for depression. As the winner of 28 races, he was offered a spot on the iBanesto roster for the 2002 season, but declined for health reasons.

Ethel Winant

Ethel Winant, the first female executive of a major television network, died on Nov. 30 of complications from a heart attack and stroke. She was 81.

Winant began her career in show business in the 1940s as a production assistant on the Broadway plays, "A Streetcar Named Desire" and "Death of a Salesman." i Her interest in television blossomed after her first visit to a studio rehearsal. She returned the following day to learn everything about making a TV show -- from running errands to directing productions.

In the "Golden Age of Television," most women worked as secretaries or assistants. Winant, however, broke through the glass ceiling when she was made senior vice president of talent, casting and special projects at CBS. There she babysat "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," a project others at the network disliked. Winant loved its premise and personally cast the ensemble series. The sitcom became a ratings hit from 1970 to 1977, generated three spin-offs and won 29 Emmy Awards. During her years at CBS, Winant also worked on "The Twilight Zone," "Lost in Space," "Green Acres" and "Hogan's Heroes."

Winant later served as the vice president for program development at the Children's Television Workshop, and as the senior vice president of mini-series and novels for TV at NBC. She won numerous awards, including a special Emmy for her work on the show, "Playhouse 90," two Peabodys, the Humanitas Prize and the Crystal Award from Women in Film. In 1999, Winant was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

Earl Battey

Earl Jesse Battey Jr., an All-Star for the Minnesota Twins, died on Nov. 15 from cancer. He was 68.

Battey was only 21 years old when he became a professional baseball player. He spent 13 years in the majors, playing for the Chicago White Sox, the Washington Senators and the Minnesota Twins. He was a member of the Twins' 1965 American League championship team and finished in the top 10 of the league's MVP voting that year.

One of baseball's best catchers, Battey was an All-Star in 1962, 1963, 1965 and 1966. He had a career batting average of .270, and won three Gold Glove awards. In 2000, Battey was named the catcher of the Twins' All-Time team.

• Statistics From Baseball-Almanac.com

Addie Byers

Addie Byrd Hamplet Byers, the Georgia educator who challenged a policy that barred black children from using local libraries, died on Dec. 2. Cause of death was not released. She was 97.

Byers earned a bachelor's degree from Savannah State College and a master's from Columbia University. She taught in the public school system for more than 30 years, yet also became a political activist and civil rights supporter. During the 1950s, she lobbied for black children to have the right to use public libraries. At the time, one librarian allegedly claimed the children weren't allowed to visit because they "never asked."

"I told the members of the library board that the black community didn't ask to pay taxes, either,'' Byers once said.

Byers served on the Georgia Democratic Executive Committee and was the first black woman on the Chatham-Effingham-Liberty Regional Library board. In 1985, she received the Freedom Award from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. A roadway in Savannah also bears her name.

Paul Grant

Paul Grant, a former Mr. Universe, died on Nov. 23. Cause of death was not released. He was 60.

Born a twin in 1943, Grant spent his childhood in Wales as a slim boy who excelled at cross-country running. He dropped out of school at 16 to start his own bread delivery business, but he spent each night working out and bulking up.

Grant rose to prominence in bodybuilding circles during the 1970s, winning Mr. Europe and Mr. World titles against some of the most muscular men on the planet. With a 50 inch chest and a 33 inch waist, the blond bodybuilder beat Lou Ferrigno, the star of the TV series "The Hulk," for the Mr. Universe title in 1973.

Grant's bodybuilding career was cut short in 1984 when he was diagnosed with a rare kidney illness. The disease affected his eyesight and forced him to spend eight hours a day, three days a week, attached to a kidney dialysis machine.

After undergoing a kidney transplant in 1985, Grant ran a health food store and a gym which produced several champion bodybuilders. He also served as the president of the Welsh Federation of Bodybuilders for 25 years.

Grant is survived by his wife, Christine Mason, who was once Miss Universe Bikini.

Elizabeth Lawrence

Elizabeth Atwood Lawrence, one of the only female veterinary-anthropologists in America, died on Nov. 11 from multiple myeloma. She was 74.

Lawrence graduated from Mount Holyoke College with an English degree, then attended the University of Pennsylvania to obtain a doctorate in veterinary medicine. As one of the few women allowed to study at the school in the 1950s, Lawrence often faced discrimination. Female students were even barred from going on farm calls with practitioners.

"Men in every position at the school made it clear that women did not belong, that we should be at home raising families and that we were unsuited to handling and treating animals,'' Lawrence once stated. Despite this chauvinistic environment, she also earned a doctorate in anthropology.

Lawrence then traveled to all seven continents to examine the interdependence of humans and animals. She studied the bond between the Crow Indians and their horses, the travel habits of the wandering albatross in Antarctica and the ancient European tradition of the wren hunt.

When she wasn't in the field, Lawrence ran her own animal hospital. She also raised a family and published five books on human-animal relationships. From 1979 to 1999, she taught veterinary medicine at Tufts University.

Lawrence received numerous awards during her career, including the first International Distinguished Scholar Award from the International Association of Human-Animal Interaction Organizations, The American Veterinary History Society's Distinguished Service Award and the American Veterinary Medical Association's Outstanding Woman Veterinarian of the Year award.

Earl Bellamy

Earl Bellamy, a Hollywood director who worked on more than 1,600 episodes of television, died on Nov. 30 from a heart attack. He was 86.

Bellamy's father was a railroad engineer who moved the family from Minnesota to Hollywood in 1920. After graduating from Hollywood High School in 1935, Bellamy received a degree from City College-Los Angeles and took a job as a messenger for Columbia Studios. Within four years, Bellamy had worked his way up to second assistant director before taking time off to serve in the U.S. Navy's photographic unit during World War II.

When Bellamy returned to Hollywood, he became a well-respected director who was particularly adept at westerns. Although he directed nearly two dozen feature films, Bellamy was best known for his work on "The Lone Ranger," "Rawhide,'' "The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin" and "The Virginian."

Family fare was his forte in the '50s; he directed shows like "Lassie," "Leave It to Beaver" and "The Donna Reed Show." In the '60s, he focused on comedic sitcoms like "The Munsters" and "McHale's Navy." Medical dramas, like "M.A.S.H.," "Marcus Welby M.D." and "Trapper John M.D.," kept him busy in the '70s. And just before retiring in 1986, Bellamy directed the science fiction miniseries, "V."

In 2002, the Motion Picture and Television Fund gave him the prestigious Golden Boot Award.

• Filmography From IMDb

Clark Kerr

Clark Kerr, the former president of the University of California system of higher education, died on Dec. 1 from complications of a fall. He was 92.

Kerr was raised by parents with a strong reverence for education. His father, Samuel, was the first member of his family to go to college, and spoke four languages. His mother, Caroline, dropped out of school in the sixth grade, but put off marriage until she had saved enough money to pay for her future children's college educations.

Kerr graduated from Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania and joined the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker organization that sent him on a "peace caravan" through California to educate the public about social issues. He later received a master's degree in economics from Stanford University and a doctorate from the University of California Berkeley.

Kerr became a successful labor negotiator, handling over 500 cases, then taught at Antioch College in Ohio, the London School of Economics, Stanford and the University of Washington. When he returned to UC Berkeley in 1945, Kerr tapped into his labor background to run the school's new Institute of Industrial Relations. He spent eight years as the campus' first chancellor, during which time he helped organize the Pacific Athletic Conference (PAC-10).

After UC President Robert Sproul resigned in 1958, Kerr took on the position, and presided over the creation of three new campuses: UC Irvine, UC San Diego and UC Santa Cruz. During his nine-year tenure, Kerr served as the chief architect of the California Master Plan for Higher Education, a policy adopted in 1960 that made college affordable by granting the top eighth of the state's high school graduates instant eligibility into the University of California system. This plan inspired other states and nations to follow suit, and landed Kerr on the cover of Time Magazine.

Kerr's downfall began in 1964, when the Free Speech Movement was born at UC Berkeley. Much to the dismay of the school's regents, the students participated in sit-ins, demonstrations and strikes. Many of these students would have been expelled or injured by authorities during their protests if Kerr hadn't intervened on their behalf. That intervention, however, cost him politically.

Governor Ronald Reagan retaliated against Kerr by cutting the university's budget by 10 percent and proposing students be charged tuition. Kerr's decision to temporarily freeze admissions led to his dismissal. Although President Lyndon Johnson considered naming Kerr the secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, the offer was withdrawn after the FBI lied in a White House report about his character.

Kerr was offered jobs at prestigious institutions like Harvard and Stanford, but he opted to chair the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education and run the Carnegie Council on Policy Studies in Higher Education. He also wrote three books: "The Uses of the University," which changed the way America viewed the modern research institution, and a two-volume autobiography.

Dorothy Loudon

Dorothy Loudon, a Tony award-winning actress, died on Nov. 15 from cancer. She was 70.

Loudon's mother taught her to sing more than 1,500 songs. Although she eventually attended Syracuse University and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, Loudon was only a teenager when she moved from Boston to New York, seeking stardom. Her big break came when a nightclub owner gave her a job as his featured performer. She soon developed a lounge act, and appeared on "The Perry Como Show" and "The Ed Sullivan Show."

Loudon made her stage debut in 1962 in "The World of Jules Feiffer," a play directed by Mike Nichols. She hit Broadway that same year in the musical comedy, "Nowhere to Go But Up," and followed it with a series of starring roles in short-lived shows. Although the play, "The Fig Leaves Are Falling" only lasted for four performances, Loudon received a Drama Desk Award and a Tony nomination for best actress in a musical. She was also nominated in 1979 for her work in "Ballroom," but lost both times to Angela Lansbury.

Her luck changed when she starred in the Broadway hits "Sweeney Todd" and "Noises Off." Her depiction of Mrs. Hannigan, the mean owner of an orphanage in the play, "Annie," which earned Loudon the Tony, a Drama Desk Award and the Outer Critics Circle Award. Although she was most comfortable on the stage, Loudon also appeared in the films, "Garbo Talks" and "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil."

Loudon was previously married to the late Emmy Award-winning composer Norman Paris, who wrote the theme song for the television game show "I've Got a Secret." He died in 1977.

• Play List From IBDb

Lee Roberts

Lee Roberts, the singer/songwriter known for the 1967 hit, ''Sweet Soul Music,'' died on Nov. 17 from intestinal cancer. He was 57.

Born Arthur Lee Conley, Roberts began his musical career in 1959 as the lead singer of Arthur and the Corvets. Otis Redding discovered the 18-year-old after hearing his song, "I'm a Lonely Stranger," and arranged for him to re-record it at Stax Studios in Memphis.

Together they turned Sam Cooke's "'Yeah Man'' into ''Sweet Soul Music,'' a single that hit No. 2 on the pop and R&B charts. In 1967, Roberts toured Europe with the Stax/Volt Revue, a show that featured Redding, Booker T. and the MG's, Eddie Floyd and Sam and Dave.

When Redding died in a plane crash in 1967, Roberts' career faltered. Unable to handle the stress of the music industry, he moved to the Netherlands, changed his name and started his own record label.

To honor his mentor, Roberts wrote the tribute, "Otis Sleep On," which was included on the "Soul Directions" album. He also recorded the song, "Funky Street," and served as the adviser to "The Original Sixties R&B and Soul Show."

• Discography

Barber B. Conable Jr.

Barber Benjamin Conable Jr., a Republican congressman who also headed the World Bank, died on Nov. 30 from complications of a staph infection. He was 81.

Conable graduated from Cornell University and its law school, then served as a Marine in World War II and the Korean War. After he returned to the states, he practiced law in Batavia, N.Y., until 1962, when he was elected to the New York state Senate.

A conservative with a socially libertarian streak, Conable represented the 30th District of New York in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1965 to 1985. He was the ranking minority member of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, and refused to accept more than $50 from any campaign contributor.

From 1986 to 1991, Conable was president of the World Bank, which lends billions of dollars annually to developing nations. Combating poverty and bolstering primary education were his main objectives.

He decided against seeking a second five-year term at the bank after his friendship with President George H.W. Bush went sour. Conable's final years were spent teaching at the University of Rochester.

William S. Rader

William S. Rader, an Air Force brigadier general who flew missions over Europe and the Pacific during World War II, died on Nov. 5 from cardiac arrest. He was 89.

Rader was enrolled in a pilot training program at Wittenberg College, but dropped out in 1940 to enlist as an aviation cadet in the Army Air Corps. During World War II, Rader flew 17 reconnaissance flights over the Pacific as a B-17 aircraft commander. At one point, his plane was so badly damaged that it fell from the sky and crashed 100 miles from Hawaii. The general floated in the water, supported by his life jacket, for 18 hours before he was rescued. He and his crew then flew 72 missions over Europe, bombing ball-bearing plants and aircraft factories, without losing a single plane or crewman.

In the 1960s, Rader flew "Looking Glass" missions. In the event the underground Strategic Air Command was destroyed, he and his crew were to remain aloft and serve as a nuclear command post.

Rader amassed more than 10,000 hours of flight time during his career, and received the Silver Star, the Legion of Merit and the Distinguished Flying Cross for his leadership skills and bravery. He also earned a degree in military science from the University of Maryland.

Albert Nozaki

Albert Nozaki, an Oscar-nominated art director, died on Nov. 16 from pneumonia. He was 91.

A Japanese native who moved to the United States when he was three years old, Nozaki received a bachelor's degree in architecture from the University of Southern California, and a master's in architectural engineering from the University of Illinois. After taking a tour of the Paramount studios in 1934, Nozaki applied for a job in the art department and was hired as a draftsman.

When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, the studio fired Nozaki. He spent the duration of World War II incarcerated in a Japanese relocation camp.

Nozaki was eventually rehired by Paramount, only to become the studio's supervising art director for features. Until a degenerative eye disease caused him to go blind, Nozaki worked on numerous films, including "Houdini," "The Pony Express" and the science fiction classic, "War of the Worlds." He received an Academy Award nomination with Hal Pereira and Walter H. Tyler for their work on the 1956 epic, "The Ten Commandments."

In 2000, the Art Directors Guild Film Society paid tribute to Nozaki's career.

Cyclops Brown

Air Commodore Cyril Bob Brown, a British fighter pilot, died on Nov. 1. Cause of death was not released. He was 82.

Brown joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve in 1939, and completing his pilot training in time to join the 245 Squadron at the Battle of Britain. Based in the Orkney Islands, his squadron protected the Grand Fleet at Scapa Flow during World War II.

He flew patrols over the midlands with the 616 South Yorkshire Squadron until a German bomber shot at his plane during a firefight in 1942. Brown lost his right eye in the attack, but refused to let his disability end his flying career. Donning a black patch over the socket, Brown became a fighter weapons test pilot and an expert in rocket-firing.

In 1960, Brown and his crew set a long distance helicopter record when they flew a twin-rotor Bristol 192 from Gatwick to Malta in 12 hours. After commanding the V-bomber airfield in Waddington, Brown was promoted to Air Commodore and Commandant of the Air Warfare College. He also spent three years as the Director of Flight Safety in London.

Brown was named an honorary fellow to the American Society of Experimental Test Pilots in 2003.

Joe Kleinerman

Joe Kleinerman, a long-distance runner who helped found the New York Road Runners Club, died on Nov. 11. Cause of death was not released. He was 91.

Kleinerman spent 32 years working for the post office in New York, but his true passion was running. He ran approximately 500 races in his lifetime, and finished in 10th place in the 1941 and 1942 Boston Marathons.

A founding member of the Road Runners Club of America and its local New York chapter, Kleinerman helped organize the first New York City marathon in 1970. He also lobbied to grant women access to compete in races longer than a mile.

A scholarship fund has been established in his name by the New York Road Runners. Next spring, it will be awarded to a track star attending a New York City public school.

Barry Thumma

Barry L. Thumma, a veteran photojournalist for The Associated Press, died on Nov. 25 from complications of multiple myeloma. He was 56.

Thumma attended Millersville University in Pennsylvania before launching his journalism career as a part-time photographer for the Lancaster New Era. In 1973, he joined the AP in Cincinnati, where he covered the Reds and the Bengals.

After two years as the Ohio photo editor, Thumma moved to Washington, D.C. to cover the White House. He captured images of the famine in Ethiopia, and took more than 100 flights on Air Force One to photograph presidents Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

Trudy Ederle

Gertrude Caroline Ederle, the first woman to swim the 21-mile-wide English Channel, died on Nov. 30. Cause of death was not released. She was 98.

The American swimmer was only 19 years old when she won a gold medal in the 400 meter freestyle relay, and bronze medals in the 100 meter and 400 meter individual freestyle events at the 1924 Olympics in Paris. The following year, Ederle swam from the tip of Manhattan to Sandy Hook, N.J., in seven hours, 11 minutes, breaking the record previously set by her male counterparts.

The first time she tried to swim the English Channel, she was disqualified by a worried trainer who touched her. Undaunted, Ederle tried again on Aug. 6, 1926, using the crawl stroke to battle rip tides, driving rain and dangerous aquatic creatures like poisonous jellyfish and sharks. She arrived in Kingsdown, England, in 14 hours and 30 minutes.

When she returned to America, Ederle was honored with a ticker-tape parade in her hometown of New York, met President Calvin Coolidge and even played herself in the movie, "Swim, Girl, Swim.'' In 1933, she fell down a flight of stairs, dislocating a pelvic joint and injuring her spine. After six years of struggle, including two trapped inside a body cast, Ederle was able to perform at the 1939 World's Fair. She spent her later years teaching deaf children how to swim and staying out of the spotlight.

Sports Illustrated listed Ederle at #42 in its list of the 100 Greatest Female Athletes.

Stephen A. Benton

Stephen A. Benton, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor who invented rainbow holograms, died on Nov. 9 from brain cancer. He was 61.

Benton first became interested in optics at 11 when he wore a pair of 3-D glasses to view the Vincent Price movie, "The House of Wax." He earned an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering from MIT, then received his master's and doctorate degrees from Harvard University.

In 1968, he was working for the Polaroid Corporation when he invented the rainbow hologram, a hologram visible to the naked eye that uses common white light fused on film or glass. Benton's holograms were eventually embedded into credit cards and driver's licenses to provide protection against counterfeiting.

The man who described holography as a true "intersection of art, science and technology," held 14 patents in optical physics and photography. His work has been featured at the Museum of Holography in New York, and used to create three-dimensional CT and MRI images.

For the past 20 years, Benton taught media arts and sciences at MIT. He was also the director of the MIT Center for Advanced Visual Studies.

Guy Livingston

Guy Livingston, a theater critic for Variety, died on Nov. 12 from septic shock. He was 92.

Born in Tilton, N.H., Livingston joined the Circus of Australia when he was 18 to do public relations for the circus' theatrical press agents. He studied journalism at Boston University, then worked in the Office of War Information during World War II.

Although he freelanced for numerous publications, Livingston was best known for his 30-year career as a part-time drama critic for Variety. In this position, he reviewed the Broadway shows that performed previews in Boston before making their debuts in New York. Not one to let his P.R. background go to waste, Livingston also served as the press agent for Judy Garland, Nat King Cole and Ray Charles.

Eddie Gallaher

Eddie Gallaher, a popular morning radio host in Washington D.C. for more than half a century, died on Nov. 26 from complications of hip replacement surgery. He was 89.

Gallaher attended the University of Tulsa and served in the Navy during World War II. After returning to the states, he became the voice of the nation's capitol on WTOP-AM in 1947. When WTOP switched to a news/talk format in 1968, Gallaher moved to WASH-FM. Fourteen years later, he was hired by WWDC-AM, where he remained until his retirement in 2000.

With his mellifluous, baritone voice, Gallaher put on a low-key radio show -- the antithesis to the loud, morning jocks now heard on the airwaves. He offered birthday greetings, weather reports, consumer tips, and closed every broadcast with his signature phrase: "It's so nice to know so many nice people." When he wasn't offering play-by-play coverage of the Washington Redskins, he broadcast Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra, musicians who performed what he called "unforgettable music."

Gallaher was a founding member of the Washington Quarter-Century Broadcasters. He was also the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement in Radio Award that was sponsored by the March of Dimes.