The Blog of Death

Jack Losch

John L. "Jack" Losch managed to pack a full life into 69 years.

As a youngster, he played centerfield for the Maynard Midgets in Williamsport, Pa. In 1947, his team beat the Lock Haven All Stars, 16-7, in Little League's first World Series championship.

"Playing in the Little League World Series gave me the confidence in myself to know there was nothing I couldn't do," Losch once said.

He switched to football in his teens and earned an athletic scholarship to the University of Miami. The 6-foot-1, 205-pound All-American running back set four rushing records there, including the longest run from scrimmage for a 90-yard sprint in 1955. For his achievements, the school inducted Losch into its Sports Hall of Fame.

Losch was selected by Green Bay as a first-round draft pick in 1956. He played one season in the NFL, and in that short time became one of the most effective passers in Packers history.

Losch then enlisted in the U.S. Air Force and spent three years serving as a fighter jet pilot. An injury kept him from returning to professional football, so he pursued a career as an auto executive. For the next 37 years, he worked at General Motors, ending his tenure as the director of Fleet Services. In 1996, he was named honorary chairman of the Little League Baseball World Series 50th Anniversary Celebration Committee.

Losch died on May 27. Cause of death was not released.

Ramona Trinidad Iglesias-Jordan

Ramona Trinidad Iglesias-Jordan, the world's oldest woman, died on May 29 of pneumonia. She was 114.

Born in 1889, Iglesias-Jordan's baptismal certificate listed her birthday as Aug. 31, but her birth certificate said Sept. 1. Regardless of this discrepancy, officials at Guinness World Records declared the supercentenarian to be the world's oldest living woman last April.

The eldest of 11 children, Iglesias-Jordan married Alfonso Alonzo-Soler, a bank manager, in 1912. The couple never had any children; he died in the 1970s. Iglesias-Jordan lived a comfortable life and liked to drink beer. She died in a nursing home in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

George Christiansen

George Thomas Christiansen, who spent 35 years designing cars for General Motors, died on May 17 of cancer. He was 84.

Christiansen was still a boy when his family moved from Norwood, Mass., to Detroit. He earned a bachelor's degree in engineering at the University of Michigan before getting drafted into the Army Reserve. During World War II, Christiansen was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the ordnance branch, and served three years in the China-Burma-India theater.

Christiansen returned to the states and joined the design department at General Motors in 1946. Over the next three decades, he influenced the design of numerous cars to come down the assembly line. From 1963 to 1964, Christiansen contributed to GM's Futurama Pavilion at the New York World's Fair. The $2.5 million exhibit was visited by 10.5 million Americans.

After retiring in 1981, Christiansen moved to Naples, Fla., where he was the president of the General Motors Retired Executives Club.

Joel Dean

Joel Dean, a member of the entrepreneurial team that launched the Dean & DeLuca food and wine empire, died on May 24 of a staph infection. He was 73.

After graduating from Michigan State University, Dean moved to New York to study English at Columbia. He was working at Simon & Schuster in 1977 when he and former schoolteacher Giorgio DeLuca opened the first Dean & DeLuca store in Lower Manhattan.

Over the next three decades, the store expanded across the U.S. and into Japan. Dean & DeLuca moved its main headquarters to a 10,000 square foot building in SoHo in 1988, where it remains a New York landmark.

Dean & DeLuca is known for selling high-priced quality food, wine and kitchenware. Artist Jack Ceglic, who was Dean's companion for 46 years, designed the industrial appearance of each store.

Donald Hinz

Donald "Pappy" Hinz, a veteran pilot, died on May 29 from injuries he received in a plane crash. He was 60.

A member of the Minnesota Wing Commemorative Air Force, Hinz was performing flybys in an historic airplane during the Wings of Freedom Airshow near Red Wing, Minn., when the aircraft's engine failed. He initiated an emergency landing and crashed about a mile from the Red Wing Airport. Hinz later died at the hospital; no one else was injured in the accident.

The Woodbury, Minn., resident enlisted in the Navy in 1965. After completing the Nuclear Power Submarine program, he was assigned to work in the nuclear reactor facility in Windsor, Conn. Hinz earned a bachelor's degree in engineering from the University of Colorado and a master's in aerospace science while stationed in Kingsville, Texas. He then became an advance jet instructor pilot, training Naval aviators in the TA4 Skyhawk.

When he left the service, Hinz ran Eagle Sanitation, his own trash hauling business. He also helped restore the rare World War II-era North American P-51C Mustang fighter plane. Considered the signature aircraft of the Tuskegee Airmen, the plane was one of only four P-51C models left in existence. Once its restoration was complete in 2001, the P-51C served as the centerpiece of the Red Tail Project, which honors America's first black military pilots.

Jack Leigh

Photographer Jack Leigh spent his entire adult life capturing the beauty of Georgia's coastal region.

After graduating from the University of Georgia, the Savannah native launched a three-decade career shooting the local environment. His mostly black and white photography appeared in his own gallery, in museums, personal and corporate collections and in five books.

Leigh achieved national recognition for his picture of The Bird Girl, a statue in Savannah's Bonaventure Cemetery. The haunting image appeared on the cover of the 1994 book, "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" by John Berendt. The popularity of the book generated a boom in tourism at the cemetery, forcing local officials to move the statue to a museum to keep neighboring graves from being trampled by increased foot traffic.

Leigh died on May 19 of cancer. He was 55.

Gill Fox

Gilbert T. Fox, a Pulitzer Prize-nominated cartoonist, died on May 15. Cause of death was not released. He was 88.

The New York City native studied art at the former Textile High School in Greenwich Village. He completed the Landon Art Correspondence Course and launched an eight-decade career as an editor, writer and artist.

In 1936, Fox landed a job as an opaquer for the Fleischer animation studio. There he colored transparent, animation cells and inked "Betty Boop" and "Popeye" cartoons. From 1940 to 1943, Fox worked for Quality Comics, drawing covers for comic books and editing "Police Comics." He worked on "Bernie Blood" and "Dogface" for Stars and Stripes during World War II, and later drew backgrounds and wrote scripts for episodes of Will Eisner's "The Spirit." Fox also wrote and drew the newspaper cartoon "Side Glances" from 1962 to 1982.

Despite his well-established career in the funny pages, Fox was most proud of his political cartoons. His artistic commentary, which appeared in the Connecticut Post for six years, was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. Fox won first place in the 1992 Excellence in Journalism competition, sponsored by the Connecticut Society of Professional Journalists, and received the 2003 New England Newspaper award.

Roger Straus

Roger Williams Straus Jr., co-founder of the Farrar, Straus & Giroux publishing company, died on May 25 of pneumonia. He was 87.

An heir to the Guggenheim fortune, Roger's mother was Gladys Guggenheim, and his father, Roger W. Straus, was president of the American Mining and Smelting Co. Despite being raised in wealthy social circles, Straus attended Hamilton College for one year before transferring to the journalism school at the University of Missouri. After graduation, he worked as a reporter for a White Plains, N.Y., newspaper and toiled as an editorial assistant at Current History magazine. During World War II, Straus helped run the New York office of the magazine and book section of the Navy Office of Public Relations.

Straus was only 29 years old when he and John Farrar launched their publishing company in 1946. Over the next six decades, its name changed several times and its focus narrowed to the literary market. The company also developed a reputation for establishing contemporary writers like T.S. Eliot, Flannery O'Connor, Philip Roth, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Pablo Neruda, Shirley Jackson, Maurice Sendak, Susan Sontag, Tom Wolfe and Scott Turow.

Straus often read manuscripts from the company's slush piles and handled most editorial and financial decisions. Although he sold the prestigious publishing house 10 years ago to the Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group, Straus remained largely in charge. In 2001, the Association of American Publishers gave him the Curtis Benjamin Award for Creative Publishing.

• Listen to a Tribute From NPR

David Dellinger

David Dellinger, an author and activist who was tried for taking part in the violent anti-war protests outside the 1968 Democratic National Convention, died on May 25. Cause of death was not released. He was 88.

While attending Yale University, Dellinger decided to devote his life to standing up for his beliefs. He experienced the first of his many arrests in the 1930s while protesting at a union-organizing demonstration. Dellinger was studying to become a minister at the Union Theological Seminary in New York when he declared himself a conscientious objector and refused to register for the draft. Instead of fighting in World War II, he spent three years in prison.

In the 1950s and 1960s, Dellinger became a strong supporter of civil rights. He joined freedom marches in the South and led many hunger strikes to demand equal access to educational and political opportunities for all Americans, regardless of race. A pacifist who believed in nonviolent social change, he also protested against the Korean War and the Bay of Pigs Invasion.

In 1968, representatives from the National Mobilization to End the War in Vietnam, the Youth International Party, the Black Panther Party and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference all decided to protest at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. To combat these planned demonstrations, government officials, led by Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, installed an 11 p.m. curfew and requested the assistance of 7,500 Army troops and 6,000 national guardsmen to maintain order with the city's 12,000 police officers.

During the convention, relations between law enforcement and the demonstrators culminated in a mass riot. The American public watched in horror as the television news showed police tossing tear gas into the streets and beating protestors and reporters.

Eight men were charged with inciting a riot, but one defendant, Black Panther Bobby Seale, was bound, gagged and removed from the case. At the Chicago Seven trial in 1969 and 1970, Dellinger and four co-defendants -- Tom Hayden, Jerry Rubin, Abbie Hoffman and Rennie Davis -- were convicted of conspiracy to incite a riot. A federal appeals court later overturned those convictions.

To avoid paying taxes that could be used by the government to finance war, Dellinger worked "under the table" as a small press editor and publisher. He also wrote six books, including the 1993 memoir, "From Yale to Jail: The Life Story of a Moral Dissenter."

• Listen to a Tribute From NPR

Glenn Cunningham

Glenn D. Cunningham, the first black mayor of Jersey City, N.J., died on May 25 of a heart attack. He was 60.

Cunningham enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps right out of high school. He left the military four years later as a corporal, and joined the Jersey City Police Department. For the next quarter century, Cunningham worked his way up the law enforcement ranks from beat cop to captain, and earned a bachelor's degree in political science from Jersey City State College.

After retiring from the police department in 1991, Cunningham accepted the post of Hudson County Director of Public Safety. In 1996, President Bill Clinton nominated him for the position of U.S. Marshal for the State of New Jersey. Once confirmed by the Senate Judiciary Committee, he became the first African-American to hold the post.

A registered Democrat, Cunningham won the Jersey City mayoral race in 2001. Once he became the first black mayor of the city, he set his sights on a higher political office. In 2003, the determined politician won a state Senate seat.

When he wasn't participating in the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee or teaching criminal justice classes at Jersey City State College, Cunningham was a passionate history buff. At the time of his death, he was writing a book on local African-American history.

Richard Biggs

Richard Biggs, an actor known for playing physician roles, died on May 22. Cause of death was not released. He was 44.

The Columbus, Ohio native was only 17 when he decided to become an actor. Biggs studied performing arts at the University of Southern California and spent his off-hours teaching at the 32nd Street Magnet School in Los Angeles. After graduation, he taught at the Will Geer Theater and performed in its productions of "Tempest," "Cymbeline" and "The Taming of the Shrew."

His big break came in 1987 when he landed the role of Dr. Marcus Hunter on the NBC soap opera, "Days of Our Lives." Biggs regularly appeared on the daytime drama for five years and won a Soap Opera Digest Award for Best Supporting Actor. Since 2001, he also had recurring roles on the CBS soap "Guiding Light" and on the Lifetime drama, "Strong Medicine."

Biggs took his medical and theatrical prowess into space when he was cast as Dr. Stephen Franklin on the SCI FI show, "Babylon 5." He played the part for four seasons and in three subsequent TV movies. Biggs also made guest appearances on numerous prime time shows, including "JAG," "ER" and "NYPD Blue." Last month, he played Dr. Flynn on an episode of NBC's "Crossing Jordan."

Rod Hall

Rod Hall, a prominent British literary agent, was murdered last weekend at the age of 53.

When Hall didn't show up for his daily appointments, a friend visited his London flat and contacted the police. Hall's body was found on May 23 in an upstairs room; the case is still under investigation. Cause of death was multiple stab wounds to the chest and abdomen.

Growing up in Sussex, Hall was the next door neighbor to actress Vivien Leigh. His 25-year publishing career was highlighted by numerous accomplishments. He launched the U.K.'s first film and television tie-in department at Penguin Books in 1978. Six years later, he established the Film, Television & Theatre Department at AP Watt, the oldest literary agency in the world.

Hall and colleague Clare Barker left AP Watt in 1997 to found a rival agency for playwrights and screenwriters. The Rod Hall Agency represents 60 of Britain's top film and TV writers, including Juliette Towhidi ("Calendar Girls"), Lee Hall ("Billy Elliot") and Simon Beaufoy ("The Full Monty").

[Update - Aug. 8, 2005: Usman Durrani, 22, received a life sentence for killing literary agent Rod Hall. After meeting on the Internet, the pair began a brief relationship and indulged in sadomasochistic sex, with Hall acting as the "slave" and Durrani as "the master." Durrani confessed to being Hall's killer but claimed manslaughter on the grounds that he was mentally ill at the time of the killing. A jury convicted Durrani of murder and Judge Gerald Gordon sentenced him to life in prison.]

Vernon Jarrett

Vernon Jarrett, a trailblazing Chicago journalist, died on May 23 of respiratory failure due to cancer. He was 84.

Jarrett was born in Paris, Tenn., to two schoolteachers whose parents were former slaves. After graduating from Knoxville College, he moved to Chicago and became a reporter for the Defender, the nation's most influential black newspaper. Jarrett covered a race riot his first day on the job. In 1970, the Chicago Tribune hired him to become its first black syndicated columnist. Thirteen years later, the outspoken writer took his political and social commentary to the Chicago Sun-Times, where he worked until 1994.

Jarrett championed civil rights in his broadcasting career as well. From 1948 to 1951, he and composer Oscar Brown Jr. produced WJJD-AM's "Negro Newsfront," the first black daily radio broadcast in the U.S. He produced nearly 2,000 broadcasts on race relations and politics for WLS-Channel 7, and received the Silver Circle Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

A founding member of the National Association of Black Journalists and the current president of one of the group's Chicago chapters, Jarrett also dedicated himself to education. He taught history and journalism at several colleges and founded the Afro-Academic Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics, an intellectual competition for black high school students.

In recent years, Jarrett wrote a column for the New York Times' New American News Syndicate and produced The Jarrett Journal, a news broadcast on WVON-AM, Chicago's only African American-owned radio station. He was inducted into the National Literary Hall of Fame in 1998.

• Watch a Tribute From WLS

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Anthony Ainley

British actor Anthony Ainley, who was best known for playing the Master on the 1980s TV show "Doctor Who," died on May 3. Cause of death was not released. He was 71.

The London native may have been destined to lead a dramatic life. His father, Henry, achieved fame on the West End stage, and his brother, Richard, acted in two dozen Hollywood films. Anthony made his own movie debut at five. After training as an insurance clerk, he joined the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and spent many years working in the theatre.

In the 1960s, Ainley delved into television and movies. His dark, swarthy looks led to romantic and villainous parts on TV shows like "The Avengers" and "Upstairs Downstairs."

Ainley joined the cult series, "Doctor Who," in 1981 as the extraterrestrial who "killed" the television hero. The second actor to play the Doctor's archnemesis, Ainley performed in 10 stories and became a favorite guest at "Doctor Who" conventions. He retired from acting professionally in the late 1990s. His later years were spent playing cricket with the London Theatres Cricket Club team.

Robert Camp

During his 25 years as a Special Agent with the U.S. Secret Service, Robert Ephriam Camp Jr. protected six American presidents. From Richard M. Nixon to Bill Clinton, he was always willing to risk his own life to secure the safety of the commander-in-chief.

At 20, Camp joined the Army as part of Company F, 75th Infantry Rangers in Vietnam. He served two tours of duty, and earned a Bronze Star and two Purple Hearts. When he returned to the states, Camp joined the U.S. Secret Service. He handled counterfeit cases and was the intelligence coordinator for the Secret Service during the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta.

After Camp retired in 1999 to care for his terminally ill father, the Kennesaw, Ga., resident became an outspoken supporter of gun ownership.

He died on May 16 of cancer at the age of 55.

Emma Wagner

Not all World War II riveters were named Rosie.

While the men went off to fight the Japanese and Germans, Emma C. Wagner, worked the 3 p.m.-to-11 p.m. shift as a riveter for Western Electric Co. in Baltimore. When the war ended, she toiled in a sewing factory and spent 25 years working on an assembly line at the Joseph E. Seagram & Sons Distillery.

Born on a vegetable farm in East Baltimore, Wagner left school in the second grade to help raise her 13 siblings. It wasn't until she had a daughter of her own that Wagner learned to read and write.

She died on May 9 of lung cancer at the age of 90.

Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer

Marjorie Eileen Doris Courtenay-Latimer, a renowned South African museum curator who discovered an ancient fish, died on May 17 of pneumonia. She was 97.

Courtenay-Latimer always had a passion for ornithology, botany and cultural history. At 24, she became the first curator of the East London natural history museum. Over the next four decades, she turned it into a world-class facility. Much of its original collection came from her family's archive, including what is believed to be the only dodo egg in existence.

Courtenay-Latimer loved working in the field. On weekends, she enhanced the museum's exhibits with wild flowers, birds' eggs and insects she gathered. In 1935, she and Eric Wilson excavated an almost complete fossil skeleton of the dicynodont Kannemeyeria simocephalus, a dinosaur of the Triassic period.

She became friendly with local fishermen while studying sea birds on the west coast of South Africa. In 1938, the captain of an area trawler contacted her about an unusual fish he had caught. When Courtenay-Latimer arrived at the fish market, she immediately noticed the creature's unique blue fin, iridescent silver-blue-green sheen and puppy-dog tail. Convinced the fish was unique, she decided to take the 127 lb. specimen back to her museum and have it preserved.

Unable to find any texts that positively identified the fish, Courtenay-Latimer requested the aid of James Smith, a chemistry professor at Rhodes University who had taught himself ichthyology. After examining its remains, he confirmed that the fish was a coelacanth, a creature thought to have been extinct for 70 million years. This discovery sparked an international search for other coelacanths. The fish's genus was named Latimeria chulumnae after Marjorie and the river where it was found.

Courtenay-Latimer spent her later years writing a book on wild flowers and establishing the Gonubie bird sanctuary.

Robert Morgan

Col. Robert K. Morgan, commander of the famed World War II B-17 bomber "Memphis Belle," died on May 22 of complications from a fall. He was 85.

The North Carolina native lost his mother in 1936 when she was diagnosed with cancer and committed suicide. After her death, Morgan attended the Wharton School of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania then joined the Army Air Corps in 1940. Five days after Pearl Harbor was attacked, he pinned on his pilot wings and received his Second Lieutenant bars.

In 1942, Morgan flew the Memphis Belle to England and joined with the 91st Bomb Group, 324th Bombardment Squadron. Named after his wartime sweetheart's hometown, the B-17 became the first 8th Air Force World War II bomber to complete 25 combat missions in the European theatre and return to the United States.

During its dangerous daylight missions over France, Belgium, Holland and Germany, the Memphis Belle was struck by 20mm cannon shells, flak and machine gun bullets. Still, the "Flying Fortress" managed to drop more than 60 tons of bombs on the enemy. Upon its triumphant return to the U.S. in 1943, the plane's heroic crew embarked on a 30-city tour to boost morale and help sell war bonds. Morgan's exploits were featured in a 1944 combat documentary and in the 1990 movie, "Memphis Belle."

Morgan was then given command of his own B-29 squadron. In 1944, he became the pilot of a brand new bomber named Dauntless Dotty, which he flew in the first B-29 raid on Tokyo. He completed another two dozen B-29 missions in the Pacific before returning home to serve in the United States Air Force Reserve. Morgan retired in 1965 as a full colonel. His post-military years were spent running a furniture business with his former co-pilot Jim Verinis (who died in 2003), and selling real estate.

For his heroism and service, Morgan received the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal. His autobiography, "The Man Who Flew the Memphis Belle," co-written with Ron Powers, was published in 2001.

Bernard Lefkowitz

Bernard Lefkowitz, an investigative journalist and author, died on May 21 of cancer. He was 66.

A native New Yorker, Lefkowitz worked as a reporter and assistant city editor at the New York Post during the 1960s. He served in the Peace Corps, then returned to Manhattan and became a best-selling author.

Over the course of his three-decade publishing career, Lefkowitz researched and wrote four books about contemporary culture. He was best known for the 1997 true crime book, "Our Guys: The Glen Ridge Rape and the Secret Life of the Perfect Suburb," which explored the 1989 gang rape of a mentally disabled girl by popular high school jocks living in an affluent New Jersey suburb. An Edgar Award finalist, the harrowing story focused on the way the townspeople rallied around the perpetrators and disparaged the victim.

"These boys were regarded as something special, as athletes often are in our culture. As long as they performed on the athletic field, they were spared the judgment and opprobrium of adults. Character was separated from achievement," Lefkowitz once said. "Our Guys" was adapted into a 1999 TV movie starring Ally Sheedy and Eric Stoltz.

When he wasn't writing books or articles for publications such as Esquire, The Los Angeles Times and Sports Illustrated, Lefkowitz taught writing classes at Columbia University.

• Read an Excerpt From "Our Guys"

Dessi Espana

Dessi Espana, an aerial acrobat, died on May 22 after she fell 30 feet onto a concrete floor during a Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus show in St. Paul, Minn. She was 32.

España was twirling upside-down, hanging by her legs from long chiffon scarves tied to a metal bar when either the silky cloth or a mechanism holding the cloth in place failed. Chiffon acts traditionally do not use safety nets. España later died at the hospital from her injuries.

Because the show must go on, a group of clowns began performing to distract the audience from the accident, which occurred 25 minutes into a three-hour show. It was the first fatal accident during a Ringling Bros. circus in a decade.

España came from a family of Bulgarian performers. As part of the Kehaiovi teeterboard act, the troupe earned two places in the Guinness Book of World Records, a decoration from the Bulgarian Ministry of Culture and the Silver Clown Award. At 13, España broke a world record by swirling 75 silver hoops simultaneously around her body. She broke her own record twice, with 88 then 97 hoops. The latter feat was broadcast on the "Live With Regis and Kathy Lee" show.

Dessi married Mexican trapeze artist Ivan España during a Ringling Bros. show in 1992. She occasionally performed in his motorcycle act -- standing in the center of a steel sphere as he and other cyclists rode around her. Their children, Zore and Sian, were also training to become circus entertainers.

Shoko Ota

At 63, Shoko Ota accomplished a stunning feat of endurance. She climbed to the top of Mount Everest and became one of the oldest women ever to reach its summit. (Tamae Watanabe was also 63 when she scaled the 29,035-foot mountain in May 2002.)

Ota was just beginning her descent from the world's highest mountain peak on May 20 when she experienced a lack of oxygen. Despite receiving resuscitation from her guide, the Japanese internist lost consciousness and died. The exact cause of death has not been determined.

The Tokyo-based Adventure Guides Co. released a statement that said the other members of Ota's tour group were in good health. Her body was left about 1,100 ft. from the summit until it could be retrieved by authorities the following day.

Ota was in her 40s when she started mountain climbing. In 2001, she scaled Mt. Kilimanjaro in Kenya, Africa's highest peak. The next year, Ota climbed Mount Cho-Oyu, a 26,900-foot Himalayan peak. Since Mount Everest was first scaled by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953, at least 1,300 people have made it to the summit. Nearly 200 others have died in the attempt.

Richard Hock

Richard Hock saved many lives during his 34 months as a combat medic in Vietnam. But one patient stuck with him -- an infant Vietnamese girl who was brought into his field hospital in May 1969.

Suffering from severe shrapnel wounds, she was left for dead in her mother's arms -- the only survivor of a Viet Cong attack that wiped out her village. With the help of his unit's chief nurse, Donna Rowe, Hock rushed the four-month-old child into surgery and watched over her recovery. He also had the baby baptized Catholic so she could be accepted into a Catholic orphanage in Vietnam. Hock and Rowe served as her godparents.

The fighting in Vietnam continued, and other patients soon needed Hock's aid. He and Rowe lost touch with each other after the war, and with the little girl they saved. When they returned to their respective Georgia homes, Rowe worked in real estate and Hock became a firefighter and paramedic with the Fulton County Fire Department.

An American family adopted the orphan, who was named Kathleen Epps. She grew up to become a wife and a mother of three children in California. Curious about her past, Epps spent more than a decade searching for her godparents. With the help of people she met on the Internet and producers working on the Vietnam documentary, "In the Shadow of the Blade," Epps finally found Hock and Rowe in 2003. The trio were reunited by the filmmakers last April in Fort Sam Houston, Texas. Their story was then featured on the CBS broadcast of "The Early Show."

"It just does my heart good to know that we did this and that she made it and you know, turning into the beautiful woman that she is, has a beautiful family, beautiful children. It makes it all worthwhile," Hock once said. In the past year, he and Epps became close friends. Hock even gave her his Combat Medic Badge, which he received for doing three tours in Vietnam.

Hock died on May 11 of a heart attack. He was 54.

Arnold Gridley

Arnold Stirewalt Gridley, the inventor of the "motorized cable car," died on May 8 of kidney failure. He was 92.

The San Francisco native worked in his family's businesses -- a rice farm and a bar -- before expanding into real estate in the 1930s.

A part-time inventor and entrepreneur, Gridley purchased several old California Street cable cars at an auction in 1958 and transformed them into motorized vehicles that could be driven on any street. By replacing the regular metal wheels with a truck chassis and engine, he was able to remove the need for cable tetherings.

Gridley was the owner of the largest collection of motorized cable cars in the world and the founder of Cable Car charters, the first San Francisco motorized cable car company. His 60-car fleet, which retained its traditional cable car appearance, was used in parades, movies and in all the Rice-A-Roni commercials.

For his funeral last week, Gridley's casket was driven to the cemetery in a procession of motorized cable cars.

• Listen to a Tribute From NPR

Yang Shen-sum

Yang Shen-sum, a prominent Chinese artist, died on May 15 of a heart attack. He was 92.

The Chinese painter studied art in Kyoto, Japan, and spent the rest of his life becoming a master of the Lingnan school of painting, a style that combines traditional techniques with Japanese and Western realist approaches. Yang added his own flair by painting with the use of dry textural stroke

He was best known for his bird, animal and floral pictures, and elegant calligraphy. His giant pine tree painting, "Evergreen Forever," is currently displayed in Beijing's Great Hall of the People.

Yang moved to Canada in 1988, and was in Hong Kong on a visit when he died.

Jack Eckerd

Jack Eckerd decided to become a millionaire by the time he was 20. After graduating from Culver Military Academy in Indiana and serving as a pilot for the Army Air Corps during World War II, Eckerd moved to Florida and started working on his version of the American Dream.

In 1952, Eckerd borrowed $150,000 from his father, purchased three run-down drugstores in Tampa and turned them into a multibillion dollar empire. The Florida-based chain spread across the South and by 1975, consisted of 465 drugstores in 10 states. At that point, Fortune magazine tabulated Eckerd's worth at $150 million.

Eckerd Corp. was sold to J.C. Penney for $2.6 billion in 1997. Even before he divested of his retail responsibilities, Eckerd was a generous philanthropist. He gave $10 million to Florida Presbyterian College (which was renamed Eckerd College in 1978), founded Eckerd Youth Alternatives, a non-profit organization to help troubled and at-risk youth, and contributed funds to the Ruth Eckerd Hall, a performing arts center in Clearwater, Fla., that was named after his wife of 57 years.

Eckerd also tried his hand at politics. The Republican ran for the Florida governorship twice and once for the U.S. Senate, but lost all three elections. He did serve as head of the General Services Administration from 1975 to 1977.

Eckerd co-authored two books: "Eckerd: Finding the Right Prescription" with Paul Conn, and "Why America Doesn’t Work" with Chuck Colson. He was honored with numerous accolades, including "Floridian of the Year" by the Orlando Sentinel and "Mr. Clearwater" by the Greater Chamber of Commerce. The Ledger newspaper in Lakeland, Fla., named him one of the "50 Most Important Floridians of the 20th Century."

Eckerd died on May 9 of complications from pneumonia. He was 91.

Elvin Jones

Elvin Ray Jones, a legendary jazz drummer known for his creative improvisations and explosive style, died on May 18 of heart failure. He was 76.

Born in Pontiac, Mich, Jones grew up in a musical family. The youngest of 10 children, his brother Hank became a professional jazz pianist, and his brother Thad, who died in 1986, became a successful trumpet and flugelhorn player. Elvin, however, was passionate about percussion and taught himself to play the drums when he was only 13.

After he was discharged from the Army, Jones followed his older brothers into the Detroit music scene. He moved to New York in 1956 and earned a reputation as a talented freelance drummer. From 1960 to 1966, Jones performed with the influential John Coltrane Quintet. He enhanced the ensemble's unique sound on pivotal jazz albums like "A Love Supreme" and "Live at the Village Vanguard."

During the course of his five-decade career, Jones performed on more than 500 recordings, and played with jazz greats like Duke Ellington, Miles Davis and Charlie Parker. He always jammed with smile, loudly banging on the drums in a unique, improvised style that gave his music a dense texture.

As the band leader of the constantly evolving Elvin Jones Jazz Machine, Jones played in venues all over the world. He was viewed by many music critics as one of the best drummers in jazz, and continued working until the very end of his life.

"Playing is not something I do at night," he once said. "It's my function in life." Last month, Jones performed his final show at Yoshi's jazz club in Oakland, Calif.

• Listen to a Tribute From NPR

Samuel Iwry

Samuel Iwry, one of the leading authorities on the Dead Sea Scrolls, died on May 8 of a stroke. He was 93.

Born and raised in Poland, Iwry was a direct descendant of Rebbe Israel Shem Tov, the founder of Judaism's Hasidic Movement. He graduated from Warsaw University, the Higher Institute for Judaic Studies and the Teachers College of Wilno, then left the country in 1939 to escape the Nazis.

In 1941, Iwry was recruited by future Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion to serve in Shanghai as the Far East representative for the Jewish Agency for Palestine. While helping refugees escape and return to Palestine, Iwry was imprisoned and tortured by the Japanese occupying forces. He was rescued by Nina Rochman, a hospital administrator who persuaded local authorities to release Iwry for medical treatment.

Samuel and Nina married in 1946 and immigrated to America. Once settled in Baltimore, Iwry worked on his doctoral studies at Johns Hopkins University under archaeologist William Foxwell Albright. His traditional Jewish education and knowledge of Semitic languages proved useful when the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered. After intense study, he and Albright became the first scholars to identify and authenticate the ancient religious texts. They also wrote the first doctoral dissertation on the scrolls.

Iwry instructed literature students at Baltimore Hebrew College from 1947 to 1985, and spent four decades teaching Near Eastern studies at Johns Hopkins until his retirement in 1991. Iwry's autobiography, "To Wear the Dust of War: From Warsaw to Shanghai to the Promised Land," will be published in August.

Robert E. Fulton Jr.

Robert Edison Fulton Jr. once wrote: "One measure of a man is what he does when he has nothing to do." During his 95 years on the planet, Fulton avoided boredom by filling his days with travel, architecture, writing, film and science.

Fulton first experienced wanderlust and adventure at 12 when he rode the first commercial air flight from Miami to Havana. Two years later, he was present at the opening of King Tutankhamun's tomb in Egypt. After studying architecture at Harvard University and earning a master's degree from the University of Vienna, Fulton decided to take a motorcycle trip around the world.

Over the next 17 months, he trekked 25,000 miles through 32 countries. His customized bike contained an extra large fuel tank, a secret hiding place for his .32-caliber Smith & Wesson revolver and enough room to carry his motion picture camera and 40,000 feet of film. Fulton's journey was rife with excitement. He was robbed in Waziristan and jailed for smuggling in Indonesia. He was offered a tiger cub for $2 in Malaysia, and was slightly injured when he accidentally rode off a bridge in Turkey. Fulton chronicled his amazing adventures in the book, "One Man Caravan." His film reels landed him a job as a promotional filmmaker for Pan American Airways.

The New York City native was also an accomplished inventor who accumulated 70 patents in his lifetime. Following the outbreak of World War II, Fulton taught himself to fly then designed the Gunairstructor, a combat gunnery simulator that was used to train Navy pilots. In 1946, he invented the flying car. Known as the Airphibian, the vehicle flew over 100,000 miles and received an endorsement from Charles Lindbergh, but it never got off the ground commercially. A model of the Airphibian can be viewed at the National Aviation Museum in Ottawa. Fulton also designed the Skyhook aerial rescue system, an inflatable balloon with an attached hook that the CIA used in the 1950s to pull agents out of enemy territory. The Skyhook was featured in the 1965 James Bond film "Thunderball."

Fulton died on May 7 of congestive heart failure.

Rudy Maugeri

Rudolph V. "Rudy" Maugeri, the co-founder of the 1950s doo-wop group the Crewcuts, died on May 7 of pancreatic cancer. He was 73.

Maugeri was still in high school in Toronto when he and classmate John Perkins formed the Canadaires in 1952. After recruiting their friend Pat Barrett and Perkins's brother Ray into the group, Cleveland disc jockey Bill Randle renamed them the Crewcuts.

The group signed with Mercury Records and recorded a series of rock 'n roll covers of black R&B songs, including chart-topping versions of the Chords' "Sh-Boom" and the Penguins' "Earth Angel." The Crewcuts appeared on "The Ed Sullivan Show" and sold millions of records, but was best known for the 1954 hit, "Crazy 'Bout Ya Baby," which became a part of the Broadway show "Forever Plaid."

When the band broke up in 1964, Maugeri became a DJ and music director for radio stations in New York and Los Angeles. In the early 1980s, he and his wife Marilyn moved to Las Vegas and formed the Fully Alive Charity, an organization that helps people deal with addictions and anger management problems.

The Crewcuts were inducted into the Juno Hall of Fame by the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences in 1984.

Robert Mokros

Robert Mokros was a shoemaker who dedicated his life to helping people with disfigured feet.

Mokros was only 13 when doctors amputated his foot following a farming accident. The German teen learned how to make shoes at a religious school for children with disabilities, and created footwear for Adolf Hitler's army during World War II. When the Soviets advanced on his home, he and his wife Marta, and their two sons, fled to the refugee camps in the British-controlled zone of Germany. To survive, Robert traded his cobbling skills for food.

In 1956, the Mokros family immigrated to the United States and settled in Minnesota. Robert eventually opened his own store in downtown Minneapolis, where people from all over America came to request his shoemaking skills. Mokros would look at a handicapped person's feet and cut a likeness from a block of wood. Then, using sketches and casts of disfigured feet, he'd create leather shoes and boots for his customers.

"In my father, I met a man who made others walk," his son, retired Rev. Norbert Mokros, told the Star Tribune.

After more than three decades in the footwear business, Mokros was forced to retire in 1998, due to ill health. He died in his sleep on May 1 at the age of 90.

Tony Randall

Tony Randall, the Emmy Award-winning actor best known for playing one-half of TV's "The Odd Couple," died on May 17 of complications from a long illness. He was 84.

Born Leonard Rosenberg in Tulsa, Okla., Randall attended Northwestern University in Chicago then moved to New York City to study drama at Columbia University and the Neighborhood Playhouse School of Theatre. At 19, he made his stage debut in "The Circle of Chalk." It would mark the beginning of a successful six-decade career on stage and screen.

After serving in the U.S. Army Signal Corps during World War II, Randall returned to New York to perform in bit parts on radio soap operas and early television shows. He launched his movie career in the late 1950s, playing "best friend" parts in several Rock Hudson-Doris Day movies.

Randall became a household name in 1970, playing the fastidious Felix Unger opposite slob roommate Oscar Madison (played by Jack Klugman) on "The Odd Couple." Based on the Neil Simon play and movie of the same name, the ABC sitcom aired for five seasons in primetime and more than two decades in syndication. Randall received five Emmy nominations, and won the award for Lead Actor in a Comedy Series in 1975 -- just after the show's original run was canceled.

Randall next played the lead in two short-lived sitcoms, "The Tony Randall Show'' and "Love, Sidney." He hosted the PBS opera series, "Live From the Met," and took supporting roles in more than a dozen movies, including "It Had to Be You," "Fatal Instinct" and "Down With Love." Randall was a fixture on David Letterman's talk shows, appearing more than 70 times. When Letterman vacated his NBC timeslot in 1993, Randall was a guest on the debut of its replacement, "Late Night With Conan O'Brien." For his many contributions to the entertainment industry, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1998.

In recent years, Randall returned to his theatre roots. He put up $1 million of his own money to found the National Actors Theatre in 1991. The company's first production was a revival of Arthur Miller's "The Crucible," starring Martin Sheen and Michael York. Randall reunited with Klugman in the NAT production of "Three Men on a Horse" and in an eight-week national tour of "The Odd Couple." He also starred in the company's Tony Award-winning staging of "M. Butterfly."

Randall was married to his college sweetheart, Florence Gibbs, for 54 years until she died of cancer in 1992. Three years later, he married actress Heather Harlan, who was 50 years his junior. Former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani performed the ceremony. At the age of 77, Randall became a father for the first time. Julia Laurette Randall was born in 1997 and Jefferson Salvini Randall arrived in 1998.

Last year, while speaking before the National Funeral Directors Association, Randall said his fantasy send-off would involve President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney showing up to pay their respects and getting turned away because he didn't like them. Funerals, Randall said, should be a celebration of life and "a touch of humor doesn't hurt a bit."

Eugene Mallove

Eugene F. Mallove, a leading advocate of cold fusion research, was murdered on May 14 at his family's home in Norwich, Conn. Mallove died of blunt force injuries to his head and neck. He was 56.

The case is still under investigation, but police suspect robbery was the motive. Mallove's minivan and several other items were removed from the home; the van was later found at the Foxwoods Resort Casino in Mashantucket, Conn.

Mallove earned a bachelor's and master's degree in aeronautical and astronautical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and received his doctorate in environmental health sciences from Harvard University. After teaching science journalism at MIT and Boston University, Mallove became the chief science writer at the MIT news office. In 1989, he resigned in protest, claiming the school manipulated its cold fusion test data to show a negative result.

A resident of Pembroke, N.H., and the president of the nonprofit New Energy Foundation, Mallove has served as the editor-in-chief of Infinite Energy magazine since 1995. He also wrote several books, and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 1991 for "Fire and Ice: Searching for the Truth Behind the Cold Fusion Furor."

Mallove worked as a technical adviser on the 1997 Val Kilmer movie, "The Saint." Two years later, he wrote the documentary, "Cold Fusion: Fire From Water," which was narrated by James Doohan of "Star Trek" fame.

Frederick Karl

Frederick Robert Karl, an educator and scholar known for writing weighty biographies of literary icons, died on April 30 of kidney disease. He was 77.

Karl was studying for his doctorate in English at Columbia University when he published his first book, "A Reader's Guide to Great 20th-Century Novels," in 1959. A love of Joseph Conrad's writing inspired Karl to correspond with 2,000 people who knew the author and negotiate publication rights with the Conrad estate. He co-edited a multi-volume collection of Conrad's letters with Laurence Davies, and published the 1,008-page biography, "Joseph Conrad: The Three Lives," in 1979.

Karl also wrote or edited more than a dozen weighty biographies, chronicling the lives of William Faulkner (1,131 pages), George Eliot (708 pages) and Franz Kafka (810 pages). He penned reference volumes on modern English and American fiction, and a novel set during World War II.

A dedicated English professor, Karl spent 25 years teaching at City College of New York, and 18 at New York University. He was buried at Cedar Lawn Cemetery in East Hampton, N.Y., beside his close friend, author Joseph Heller.

Anna Lee

Anna Lee, a British actress who was best known as the matriarch on the American soap opera "General Hospital," died on May 14 of pneumonia. She was 91.

Born Joan Boniface Winnifrith, Lee was only 17 when she began studying acting at the prestigious Royal Albert Hall in London. The petite, beautiful blonde soon joined the London Repertory Theatre and earned the nickname "the British bombshell" for her work in the plays "The Constant Nymph" and "Jane Eyre."

After taking small parts in a dozen British films, Lee moved to Hollywood to become a star. Within a year, she appeared in the 1941 Academy Award-winning film, "How Green Was My Valley," starring Walter Pidgeon and Maureen O'Hara. The breakout role launched a 25-year association with director John Ford. During World War II, Lee entertained the troops with the U.S.O., and spent several months visiting field hospitals throughout the Mediterranean area.

In 1950, the siren song of television called Lee to New York City, where she landed roles in numerous TV shows. She continued working in feature films as well, playing parts in "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?" "In Like Flint" and "The Sound of Music."

Although she was nearing retirement age in 1978, Lee won the role of Lila Quartermaine in the ABC daytime drama, "General Hospital." Even after she was paralyzed from the waist down in a car accident, Lee continued to play the matriarch of the show from her wheelchair until 2003 when her contract was not renewed.

For her work on "General Hospital," Lee earned three Soap Opera Awards, and will be honored with a posthumous lifetime achievement award during "The 2004 Daytime Emmy Awards." To honor her seven-decade career in show business, she also received a Member of the Order of the British Empire award in 1982, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1993.

Lee was married three times, first to director Robert Stevenson, then to Capt. George Stafford and finally to best-selling author Robert Nathan. She had four children: a daughter, Caroline; actress Venetia Stevenson; a son, Stephen; and soap star Jeffrey Byron.

Syd Hoff

Syd Hoff, a prolific children's author and cartoonist, died on May 12 of pneumonia. He was 91.

Hoff was only 16 years old when he began studying at the National Academy of Design in New York City. Although he was a talented painter, many of Hoff's instructors encouraged him to use his humor and artistic abilities in another venue. Two years later, he sold his first cartoon to The New Yorker, and decided to become a professional cartoonist. From 1931 to 1975, the magazine published 571 of his drawings.

Hoff drew the daily comic strip, "Tuffy," which appeared for a decade in more than 800 newspapers worldwide, and the long-running syndicated "Laugh It Off" cartoon for 18 years. He freelanced for Esquire, Look and the Saturday Evening Post, and shared his artistic inspirations on the 1950s TV show, "Tales of Hoff."

During his seven-decade career, Hoff wrote and illustrated 200 children's books, including "Danny and the Dinosaur," the story of a dinosaur who comes to life to share adventures with a boy. Part of the "I Can Read" series for young readers, this story became a children's classic. Hoff also penned the "Sammy the Seal" series and illustrated dozens of books for authors like Louise Armstrong, Joan Lowery Nixon and Alvin Schwartz.

John Barbour

For 43 years, John Andrews Barbour wrote news stories for The Associated Press.

A friendly and knowledgeable journalist, Barbour specialized in science and environmental issues. He covered the first U.S. manned space expeditions: Alan Shepard's first space launch in 1961, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin's first moonwalk and the near-disastrous Apollo 13 mission in 1970. His obituary for Laika, the dog that died on Russia's Sputnik II satellite in 1957, was both informative and eloquent.

Born in Ann Arbor, Barbour worked in the Michigan and New York offices of the AP before retiring in 1996. He also authored two books: "Footprints on the Moon" and "In the Wake of the Whale."

Barbour died on May 8 of complications from a stroke. He was 75.

Raymond Ferritto

Mob hit man Raymond Ferritto died on May 10 of congestive heart failure. He was 75.

A native of Erie, Pa., Ferritto was hired by the Cleveland Mob in 1977 to kill Danny Greene, a member of the Irish Mob. Godfather James "Jack White" Licavoli and Underboss Angelo "Big Ange" Lonardo were in a turf war with Greene. When they learned he planned to visit his dentist, Licavoli and Lonardo contracted Ferritto to assassinate him.

While Greene was getting his teeth examined, Ferritto and Ronald "The Crab" Carabbia planted a bomb in the passenger side door of his car. As the Irish mobster opened the door to his car, Carabbia triggered the bomb and blew up the vehicle, killing Greene.

Artist Debbie Spotz saw Ferritto at the scene of the bombing and drew a detailed sketch of his face. She gave the rendition and Ferritto's license plate number to her father, a local police officer. The state of Ohio used the sketch and other evidence to indict Licavoli, Lonardo, Ferritto, Carabbia and 15 other members of the Cleveland Family.

After his arrest, Ferritto heard that the Mob had taken a contract out on him. So he cut a deal, turned state's witness and testified in the 1978 trial. On the stand, Ferritto admitted to being hired by the Cleveland Mob family and participating in Greene's murder. Carabbia and his associate, Pasquale "Butchie" Cisternino, were convicted and sentenced to life in prison. Everyone else walked. Cisternino died behind bars in 1990 and Carabbia was paroled in 2002.

Ferritto, who also claimed responsibility for the 1969 slaying of Cleveland gangster Julius Anthony Petro, served less than four years in prison for both killings. He retired from the "business" in 2000, and moved to Florida.

Fred Karlin

Frederick James Karlin, an Academy Award-winning film composer, died on March 26 of cancer. He was 67.

The Chicago native was only a teenager when he learned the trumpet and began studying jazz. After graduating from Amherst College, he moved to New York City to work as a composer and arranger for Benny Goodman. In 1962, he met Meg Welles, and became music director of her chamber jazz quintet, the Meg Welles Quintet. They married and recorded three albums together with Columbia Records.

Skilled in blues, classical, rock, folk and medieval music, Karlin launched his Hollywood career in 1969. Over the next three decades, he created scores and soundtracks for 30 films and more than 100 TV productions. He was best known for his work on the 1973 science fiction thriller, "Westworld," and its sequel, "Futureworld."

Karlin received four Oscar nominations for songs he composed for "The Sterile Cuckoo," "The Baby Maker" and "The Little Ark." His song, "For All We Know," won the 1971 Academy Award after it was featured in the film "Lovers and Other Strangers." The song also became a top 10 hit for the Carpenters. Three years later, Karlin won an Emmy Award for his score of the TV movie "The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman."

In recent years, Karlin co-authored "On the Track: A Guide to Contemporary Film Scoring," with Rayburn Wright, and penned "Listening to Movies: The Film Lover's Guide to Film Music." His final book, "Great Film Scores," is scheduled for publication later this year.

• Listen to Excerpts From Film Soundtracks Created by Karlin

Floyd Kalber

Floyd Kalber, an Emmy Award-winning news anchor, died on May 13 of emphysema. He was 79.

Kalber enlisted in the Army and served two years in the South Pacific during World War II. He studied journalism at Creighton University in Omaha, Neb., for one semester, but dropped out to launch a career in radio.

Kalber was covering sports for a station in Peoria, Ill., in 1949, when he saw television for the very first time. The visual medium greatly appealed to him, and he returned to Omaha to learn the ropes at KMTV-TV. By the time Kalber left in 1962, he was mentoring new hires, including a 20-year-old Tom Brokaw.

Nicknamed "The Big Tuna" -- because his power in the newsroom was perceived by colleagues to be as great as the power of the late Chicago mob boss Tony "Big Tuna" Acardo -- Kalber was then hired by NBC News and transferred to WMAQ-TV in Chicago. He originally worked as the Midwest correspondent for "NBC Nightly News," but within three months became the station's principal newscaster. Kalber anchored the 10 p.m. news for the next 16 years.

Kalber left WMAQ in 1976, and traveled to New York City to write and deliver the news on the "Today" show. He continued in this position for three years, worked in NBC's Special Projects division and retired from the network in 1981.

Kalber was living in Connecticut when he was coaxed out of retirement three years later. Chicago's WLS-TV needed a ratings spike and he wanted to be closer to his children and grandchildren. So Kalber returned to the anchor desk, this time on the 6 p.m. slot, and propelled the ABC affiliate to the top of the ratings for 14 years. He retired for the second time in 1998.

During his 50 years in the business, Kalber won five Emmy Awards for excellence in broadcast journalism. He was inducted into the Chicago Journalism Hall of Fame and the Silver Circle of the Chicago Television Academy.

• Watch a 1967 News Broadcast

Charles Lang

Charles J. Lang, a California educator who helped minorities achieve new heights, died on April 30 of complications from pneumonia. He was 81.

Lang earned his bachelor's degree at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, and his master's and doctoral degrees in education from UCLA. During the Korean War, he commanded integrated infantry troops and became one of the Army's first black combat photojournalists. The Tuskegee Institute later honored Lang with its Distinguished Alumni Merit Award.

After the war, Lang taught in Los Angeles elementary schools. Combining his skills in education, photography and flight, he created the filmstrip, "Equal Opportunity in Space Science." The National Aeronautics and Space Administration distributed the 1963 filmstrip in schools across the United States.

As co-founder and associate director of the Watts Skills Center, Lang guided black youths toward careers in science. For three decades, he taught English at West Los Angeles College, and encouraged students to "use their education and minds to achieve success."

In the late 1970s, NASA asked Lang to help recruit minorities and women astronauts. Three candidates -- Dr. Ronald McNair, Maj. Guion Bluford Jr. and Maj. Frederick Gregory -- became the first blacks named to the space shuttle team. The Los Angeles Community College District nominated Lang for NASA's Teacher in Space program. On Jan. 28, 1986, the chosen teacher, Christa McAuliffe, McNair and five other astronauts died in the Challenger explosion.

Clifford Holliday

Clifford Holliday, one of the last surviving Canadian veterans of World War I, died on May 4. Cause of death was not released. He was 105.

Holliday was only 16 when he enlisted in the Canadian Army. Serving as a private with the 43rd Battalion, Camrom Highlanders, he spent more than two years on the front lines, fighting in some of the fiercest battles of World War I. At Belgium's Hill 60, only 127 men from his 1,100-member battalion survived. Holliday suffered two injuries during the war; he was shot through the calves in Belgium and suffered a shrapnel wound to his face in France.

Holliday studied as an electrician's apprentice when he returned to Manitoba. He moved to California in 1922, became a U.S. citizen and pursued a career as an electrician in Hollywood. There he wired silent movie theaters for sound when the "talkies" arrived, and installed the first sound system at Columbia Studios.

After his retirement in 1970, Holliday developed an active interest in senior citizen causes. He served as state president of the Congress of California Seniors and was a board member of the National Council of Senior Citizens.

For his service in the military, Holliday received the Legion of Honor, France's highest medal, and the Canadian McCrae Medallion. Only eight of the 650,000 Canadians who served in World War I remain.

Georgiana McMenamin

Georgiana Lair McMenamin, the last New York Fire Department matron, died on May 9. Cause of death was not released. She was 102.

The NYFD created the fire matron position in the 1860s. These women, who were often firefighters' widows in need of income, were paid by a "house tax" collected from the firefighters' salaries.

McMenamin's husband, Engine Co. 75 firefighter James Joseph McMenamin, collapsed of a heart attack after fighting a blaze in 1930. To support her family, she became a firehouse matron on the Upper West Side of Manhattan two years later, and earned her keep by sewing, ironing, making beds and washing linens.

The New York native served in this position for 60 years, and was the last matron in the city. Although McMenamin retired in 1991, the firefighters from Engine Co. 40/Ladder Co. 35 continued to pay her $100 monthly stipend from their house taxes.

Brenda Fassie

Brenda Fassie, South Africa's first black pop star, died on May 9. According to the post-mortem report, Fassie's heart stopped after using cocaine. She was 39.

Born in the Cape Town township of Langa, Fassie always loved performing. As a child, she sang and danced for her family and entertained the neighbors in talent shows. Fassie was in her teens when legendary South African producer Koloi Lebona heard her sing. He brought her back to Johannesburg and paired her with the band, The Big Dudes. In 1986, she recorded the single, "Weekend Special," a bubble gum pop tune that quickly topped the charts. After joining forces with producer Sello "Chicco" Twala in the late 1980s, she released the album, "Too Late for Mama," which went platinum in South Africa.

Then in 1989, Fassie's life became tabloid fodder. She married former convict Nhlanhla Mbambo and divorced him three years later with claims of domestic abuse. She blew off concert dates, went into debt and struggled with alcohol and cocaine abuse. When Fassie found her lesbian lover, Poppie Sihlahla, dead of a drug overdose in 1995, she entered rehab and decided to turn her life around.

Fassie made her comeback in 1998 with the LP, "Memeza" (Shout), which was South Africa's best-selling album. Her 1999 follow-up, "Nomakanjani," sold 500,000 copies and earned Fassie her first Kora Award for best female artist. She also won the South African Music Award four years in a row.

Dubbed the "Madonna of the Townships" and South Africa's "Queen of the Vocals," Fassie's husky voice and inspirational songs about love and ghetto life connected with audiences all over the continent. Her bisexuality and famous temper tantrums earned her pop diva status.

A month ago, Fassie shot video footage about her daily life for a reality TV show. "That's How It Is - Filmed by Brenda Fassie," aired Tuesday night on SABC2, and included a segment where she predicted her own death.

• Watch Fassie's Video for "Too Late For Mama"

Elizabeth Cronin

Elizabeth Ann Swift Cronin was a 40-year-old political officer at the United States Embassy in Tehran in 1979 when a mob of students commandeered the compound and took 66 Americans hostage.

For 444 days, she and Kathryn Koob, the director of the Iran-American Society, were mostly kept separated from the dozens of men also taken captive. The followers of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who opposed American foreign policies, blindfolded Cronin and tied her to a chair for long periods of time. Eventually, she and Koob were forced to cook and clean for the male hostages.

In 1980, President Jimmy Carter halted oil imports from Iran and froze Iranian assets in the United States. He launched several diplomatic initiatives to free the hostages, and even attempted a rescue mission, but all his efforts proved fruitless. Carter's failure to resolve the hostage crisis cost him the election. President-elect Ronald Reagan immediately initiated diplomatic negotiations with the Iranian militants, and on Jan. 20, 1981, the hostages were freed.

Upon her release from captivity, Cronin spent a year at Harvard's Center for International Affairs. She remained with the State Department, and became a consular officer serving in Greece, Jamaica and England. From 1989 to 1992, Cronin served as the deputy assistant secretary of state for overseas citizens services. She retired in 1995.

Cronin graduated from Radcliffe College in 1962 and joined the State Department a year later. She had served in the Philippines, Indonesia and Washington before being assigned to the embassy in Tehran.

Cronin died on May 7 in a horseback riding accident. She was 63.

John Whitehead

John Whitehead, an R&B artist and songwriter, was murdered on May 11. He was 55.

Whitehead and his friend Oemidd Johnson were working on a vehicle behind his Philadelphia house when two men approached and opened fire. Johnson survived with a bullet wound to the buttocks, but Whitehead was shot in the neck and killed.

Whitehead and singer Gene McFadden were just kids when they formed The Epsilons. The group was discovered by Otis Redding and invited to tour with him. The Epsilons later signed with Stax records and enjoyed moderate success with the song, "The Echo."

In the 1970s, the duo became a successful songwriting team for Philly International Records. They wrote and produced numerous hits performed by other artists, including "Back Stabbers," "For the Love of Money," "I'll Always Love My Mama," "Wake Up Everybody" and "Where Are All My Friends."

As singers, McFadden & Whitehead were best known for the 1979 song, "Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now," which they wrote and performed. The tune hit No. 1 on the R&B chart, sold more than 8 million records and was nominated for a Grammy Award. It also became the unofficial anthem for the Phillies and the Eagles. The duo's later releases failed to top the charts.

Whitehead served time in prison in the 1980s for tax evasion, then launched a solo career. In recent years, McFadden & Whitehead occasionally performed together.

David Reimer

David Reimer, the unwitting subject of a controversial gender experiment, committed suicide on May 4. He was 38.

Reimer was born a boy named Bruce. When he was eight months old, a botched circumcision operation severely injured his genitals. Psychologist Dr. John Money of Johns Hopkins Medical Center in Baltimore persuaded Reimer's parents to turn him into a girl. They agreed to submit their son to a radical sex-change procedure, give him female hormones and psychologically condition him into believing he was their daughter.

In 1967, Bruce became Brenda.

Known as the John/Joan case, Reimer's sexual reassignment was carefully watched by those in medical circles. The experiment was widely considered a success, and served as proof to the theory that children were not by nature feminine or masculine, but socialized into their genders.

Reimer's life in Winnipeg, Canada, however, did not reflect this theory. Classmates taunted him for how he walked, and refused to allow him access to school bathrooms. He didn't like dresses and had no sexual interest in boys. Inside, he felt conflicted about his gender identity. Then, when he was 14, Reimer learned the truth about his past. After undergoing surgery and testosterone therapy, he changed his name to David and returned to a male identity.

Reimer later married and became the stepfather of three children. He shared his story with journalist John Colapinto in the 2000 book, "As Nature Made Him: The Boy Who Was Raised as a Girl," and appeared on the "Oprah Winfrey Show," in order to save other children from a similar fate. His story was also the subject of the 2001 PBS documentary, "Sex: Unknown."

In recent years, Reimer suffered from depression following a series of personal and professional setbacks. His twin brother died. He lost his job, and he separated from his wife. But Reimer told his parents that things would get better soon.

• Listen to a Tribute From NPR

Nick Gordon

Nicholas Cranber Gordon, a prominent British wildlife filmmaker, died on April 25 of a heart attack. He was 51.

Born in Twickenham, England, Gordon attended Lindisfarne College in north Wales. Originally trained as a chartered surveyor, he was sidetracked when he joined a sub-aqua club. His first diving experience off the Isle of Man sparked a desire to become a wildlife photographer.

Gordon was 26 when he landed a job as a news cameraman for the BBC. After filming a documentary about alligators and dolphins in China, the ITV wildlife show "Survival" hired him to shoot the giant anaconda in South America.

For the next two decades, Gordon traveled all over the world filming exotic animals and writing about environmental and travel issues. More of a "mover" than a tourist, he would physically transplant himself to places like Guyana, Brazil, Madagascar, Alaska, South Africa, India and the Caribbean for months or years at a time.

Gordon's expeditions were often dangerous, which earned him the nickname the "real life Indiana Jones." He endured malaria, dengue fever and hepatitis. He was once imprisoned by the Yananamo people and bitten by an alligator. He even ate roasted tarantulas inside an Indian crypt.

Gordon shot and produced numerous documentaries, but he was best known for the 2001 film, "Jaguar - Eater of Souls." He also wrote articles for BBC Wildlife Magazine, and the books "Tarantulas, Marmosets and Other Stories" and "In the Heart of the Amazon."

His production company, Wild at Heart, is currently producing "Secrets of the Amazon," a new seven-part series. Gordon was shooting tarantula footage for the series in Amazonas, Venezuela, when he died. His final book, "Wild Amazon," will be published later this year.

• Watch Video From "Wild Shots" (Windows Media)

Barney Kessel

Barney Kessel, a legendary jazz guitarist, died on May 6 of brain cancer. He was 80.

Kessel was working his childhood paper route when he saw a guitar in the window of a music store. It came with the booklet, "How to Play the Guitar in Five Minutes," a concept he found appealing, so he purchased the instrument and taught himself how to play it. The Oklahoma native dropped out of high school at 14, and began touring with Ellis Ezell's all-black dance band.

At 20, Kessel moved to Los Angeles and found work touring with Chico Marx, Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw. He gained a reputation for versatility and was the only white artist to appear in the acclaimed 1944 jazz film, "Jammin' the Blues."

Over the next two decades, Kessel became a sought-after studio musician. He accompanied singers like Billie Holiday and Julie London, and played alongside rock 'n roll greats like Elvis Presley and the Righteous Brothers. He wrote guitar manuals, released numerous albums and developed a lengthy resume of contributions to film and television soundtracks, including "I Spy" and "Cool Hand Luke."

Frequently voted the most popular jazz guitarist in various magazine polls, Kessel also earned rave reviews from both critics and colleagues. In the 1960s, George Harrison noted: "Barney Kessel is definitely the best guitar player in this world, or any other world." Harry Sumrall, a critic for the Washington Post, once described Kessel as "witty, urbane, utterly musical and, yes, dazzling."

In 1973, Kessel joined forces with fellow jazz guitarists Herb Ellis and Charlie Byrd to form the Great Guitars. The trio spent 10 years wowing audiences in the world's finest jazz clubs. Kessel's performing career ended in 1992 when he was incapacitated by a stroke. He was inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame in 1999.

Phil Gersh

During his 60 years in show business, Hollywood agent Phil Gersh represented dozens of actors and directors. Humphrey Bogart, Lloyd Bridges, Harrison Ford, Karl Malden and Robert Wise all depended on his ability to find the perfect role or movie project and seal the deal with the studios.

"He was a terrific negotiator. He was a good friend, very loyal. You could depend on him ... He was part of Hollywood when Hollywood was romantic; it's not romantic today, it's all business," said William A. Fraker, a six-time Oscar-nominated cinematographer.

Born in New York City to Russian immigrants, Gersh moved to California after his sister married Paramount executive and agent Sam Jaffe. He attended UCLA and worked in the Paramount prop department before joining Jaffe's agency as an errand boy. There Gersh worked his way up the ranks, and soon became an agent representing up-and-coming directors.

Gersh served in the U.S. Army, fighting in Italy and North Africa during World War II. When he returned to the states, he spent four years as an agent with the Famous Artists Agency, then went into the business for himself. Over the next five decades, The Phil Gersh Agency became a driving force in Hollywood.

Gersh's son Bob joined the Beverly Hills talent agency in the late 1970s, and represented actors like Michael J. Fox, Dennis Quaid and Cindy Williams. His son David opened the firm's New York office in 1992 and expanded its literary department. The family business was renamed in the early 1990s to The Gersh Agency.

Gersh died on May 10 of natural causes. He was 92.

Akhmad Kadyrov

Chechen President Akhmad Kadyrov was assassinated on May 9 during a Victory Day celebration in Grozny. He was 52.

Kadyrov was killed while attending a parade commemorating the 59th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany during World War II. A bomb planted inside a concrete pillar underneath the V.I.P. section of the stadium exploded, killing Kadyrov and at least five other people. On Sunday, the Kremlin appointed Chechen Prime Minister Sergei B. Abramov as acting president.

Kadyrov was studying at a Muslim university in Oman when a rebellion in Chechnya forced him to return home. During the first Chechen war (1994-1995), he rose to the position of chief mufti, or Islamic religious leader. Kadyrov then proclaimed a jihad (holy war) against Russia and commanded a rebel force fighting for Chechen independence.

When the Russians withdrew and Chechnya gained autonomy, Kadyrov broke away from the rebel factions because he felt the resistance leaders were fostering Islamic radicalism. Aslan Maskhadov, the elected president of the republic, branded him "enemy number one" and took away his mufti ranking.

In 1999, Russian troops again invaded Chechnya, and ousted Maskhadov. Russian President Vladimir V. Putin then appointed Kadyrov the administrative head of the new pro-Moscow government in Chechnya. Last October, the former rebel leader was elected the republic's president.

Kadyrov made many enemies for siding with the Russians during the 1999 invasion, and Sunday's bomb blast was not the first attempt on his life. In 2002, two car bombs destroyed his headquarters in Grozny. He was not there at the time, but the failed assassination attempt killed 72 people. Last May, a suicide bomber tried to murder Kadyrov at a religious festival in the village of Iliskhan-Yurt. That attack also missed its mark, but killed 17.

Alan King

Alan King, a comedian, author and actor who made more than 50 appearances on "The Ed Sullivan Show," died on May 9 of lung cancer. He was 76.

Born to Russian immigrants, Irwin Alan Kniberg grew up in Brooklyn and on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. He trained under Milton Berle and honed his angry, comedic style by performing in New York City nightclubs and resorts in the Catskill Mountains.

In the 1950s, his wife Jeanette persuaded King to give up city life and move to Queens. She thought its quiet, middle-class neighborhoods would provide a better environment for raising their three children, but suburbia gave King plenty of fodder for his act. His cutting remarks about marriage and his conversational comments on modern suburban life landed him numerous bookings on television shows like "What's My Line?" and "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson."

King's 56 stand-up appearances on "The Ed Sullivan Show" led to tours with Tommy Dorsey's orchestra and one-man shows at the top nightclubs in the United States. He was elected Abbot of the New York Friars Club, served as an emcee for part of President John F. Kennedy's inaugural party and hosted the 1972 Academy Awards. The National Foundation for Jewish Culture even named its annual American Jewish Humor Award in his honor.

During his five-decade career, King wrote humor books with titles like "Anyone Who Owns His Own Home Deserves It," and "Help! I'm a Prisoner in a Chinese Bakery." He penned two memoirs: "Name-Dropping: The Life and Lies of Alan King" and the upcoming collection, "Matzo Balls for Breakfast and Other Memories of Growing Up Jewish." He landed roles in the Broadway productions of "Guys and Dolls" and "The Impossible Years," and acted in more than 25 films, including "Just Tell Me What You Want," "Bonfire of the Vanities" and "Casino." King also produced several movies, and was the executive producer of the 1997 interview series, "The College of Comedy With Alan King."

A generous philanthropist, King founded the pro tennis tournament, the Alan King Tennis Classic in Las Vegas, and established a chair in dramatic arts at Brandeis University. In medical circles, he was known for raising funds for the Nassau Center for Emotionally Disturbed Children on Long Island and for founding the Alan King Diagnostic Medical Center in Jerusalem.

Pete Knight

William J. "Pete" Knight, a California state senator who authored a controversial gay marriage ban, died on May 7 of leukemia. He was 74.

Born in Noblesville, Ind., Knight attended Butler and Purdue Universities. He enlisted in the United States Air Force, earned a degree in aeronautical engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology and graduated from the Air Force's Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base.

During his 32-year tenure in the military, Knight flew and tested more than 100 types of planes. He made history in 1967 by flying an experimental X-15 aircraft at 6.7 times the speed of sound. After achieving the fastest manned airplane voyage in history, Knight earned his astronaut wings for another X-15 flight that reached 280,000 feet in altitude. By the time he retired as a colonel in 1982, he had flown 253 combat missions in Southeast Asia and received numerous commendations, including the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Legion of Merit.

In 1984, Knight was elected to the city council in Palmdale, Calif. He became Palmdale's mayor in 1988 and was elected to the California Assembly four years later. The Republican then set his sights on the state Senate. He was elected in 1996, and represented the 17th Senate District until April, when he was forced to take a medical leave of absence.

While serving in public office, the staunch conservative authored legislation that ordered welfare recipients to undergo abstinence-only sex education, required children in every California elementary and secondary school to recite the Pledge of Allegiance on a daily basis and commanded handgun owners seeking concealed firearm permits to obtain a handgun safety certificate. He gained notoriety in 1993 for distributing a poem to legislative colleagues that characterized illegal immigrants from Mexico as lazy and greedy. But Knight was best known as the author of the state's Defense of Marriage Act, which said that only marriages between a man and a woman should be recognized as valid in California.

After failing to get this piece of legislation through the Democrat-controlled Legislature, Knight took the issue to the voters in 2000. Proposition 22 passed by 61.4 percent, and is currently being tested in several courts. Although he was a vocal opponent of nontraditional marriages, Knight's son David married his long-time partner, Joseph Lazzaro, when San Francisco began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples earlier this year.

Knight was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame and the International Space Hall of Fame. A new high school in Palmdale, Calif., is named in his honor.

Abe Caylor

With only an eighth grade education, Abe Caylor had few professional prospects. But the Indiana native loved being around horses and was eager for action so he lied about his age and enlisted in the Army when he was only 17. During World War I, Caylor was assigned to Troop D, 12th Horse Cavalry. He was given a saber, a rifle and a horse named "Old Dusty," and ordered to guard the Panama Canal.

After the war ended, Caylor was stationed in St Louis, where he faced a new challenge: the global disaster known as the great influenza pandemic. Between 1918 and 1919, approximately 40 million people died of the contagious viral infection. Caylor also caught the flu, but he medicated himself with whiskey and managed to survive.

Caylor left the service and worked as a truck driver and dispatcher, then attended business school. Just before World War II started, he moved to Washington and landed a job as a machinist with Boeing. He spent 38 years working on the B-17 bomber, KC-135 military refueling planes and the first commercial 707s before retiring from the company in 1968.

Described by family as a "straight shooter," Caylor eventually became one the nation's oldest military veterans. On his 100th birthday, he received a congratulatory telephone call from the White House. The following spring, he was honored at a concert on the Capitol lawn in Washington, D.C.

Caylor died on May 5. Cause of death was not released. He was 104.

Coxsone Dodd

Clement Seymour "Sir Coxsone" Dodd, a legendary Jamaican music producer, died on May 4 of a heart attack. He was 72.

Dodd left Jamaica as a young man to cut sugar cane in Florida. Exposed to the sounds of American jazz and R&B, he immediately started collecting records from a wide variety of artists. When he returned to Kingston, Dodd decided to enter the music business as a sound system operator and producer. He founded his own record company, World Disc, and began distributing singles on a variety of labels. In 1963, he opened Studio One, the first black-owned recording studio in Jamaica.

One of the first acts Dodd signed was The Skatalites, a band that fused the blues, R&B, jazz, mento, calypso and African rhythms to create the unique sound known as ska. He also launched numerous reggae artists, such Freddie McGregor, Lee "Scratch" Perry and Burning Spear.

Dodd was best known for signing The Juveniles to a five-year contract and hiring professional musicians to help them improve their skills. Under his guidance, the band -- which was fronted by a young singer named Bob Marley -- changed its name to The Wailers and released several albums featuring songs that became reggae classics ("Simmer Down," "One Love"). Dodd also served as a father figure to Marley, offering him a job in the studio and a place to sleep when he couldn't afford to pay his rent.

During the 1970s and '80s, Dodd released instrumental reggae albums and recorded hit tracks with artists like Willie Williams and Michigan & Smiley. When violence erupted during the 1980 Jamaican election campaign, the neighborhood where Dodd recorded turned into a war zone. Unable to function in such an environment, he relocated to Brooklyn, N.Y., and opened the record store, Coxsone's Music City.

Dodd released over 10,000 singles, and is considered by many in the business to be the founding father of popular Jamaican music. He received the Order of Distinction, Jamaica's third highest honor, in 1991 for his contribution to the island's musical heritage.

Elvis A. Presley

Elvis A. Presley, a Wisconsin resident with a passion for the king of rock 'n roll, died on April 26. Cause of death was not released. He was 67.

Born Herbert A. Baer, Presley legally changed his name in 1978 to honor his idol, Elvis. He spent 27 years working at the Neenah Foundry Co., a supplier of gray and ductile iron castings, until his retirement in 1998. In his spare time, Presley was an Elvis impersonator.

Zulu

Gilbert Francis Lani Damian Kauhi, an original cast member of the "Hawaii Five-O" television series, died on May 3 of complications from diabetes. He was 66.

Nicknamed Zulu in high school, he was a popular beachboy who gave surf lessons on Waikiki and played with the band Zulu and the Polynesians. At 17, he enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard and served four years in Atlantic and Pacific ports.

When he returned to Hawaii, Zulu became a popular disc jockey. He was performing in a musical comedy act with Don Ho and fronting the group Zulu and the Sons of Hawaii when he auditioned for a new show called "Hawaii Five-O."

Zulu was tapped to join the CBS police drama in 1968. Cast as Detective Kono Kalakaua, the Hawaiian sidekick to the series' star Jack Lord, Zulu remained with the show for four seasons. Over the next decade, he made guest appearances on "The Brian Keith Show," "Charlie's Angels" and "Magnum P.I." Zulu also performed to packed houses in Waikiki and hosted the "Big Z Movietime" TV show.

In 1986, Zulu was involved in an automobile accident in Kona that killed Ronny Lee Fennell, a bicyclist training for the Ironman Triathlon. Convicted of second-degree negligent homicide, he was fined $500 and placed on probation for one year.

Marvin Runyon

As the U.S. postmaster general from 1992 to 1998, Marvin Runyon worked diligently to make the nation's mail system profitable.

Runyon's first goal was to treat the United States Postal Service as a business geared toward making money and pleasing customers. With this in mind, he eliminated 23,000 management jobs, hired more letter carriers and counter employees and stressed the use of computer automation in order to speed mail delivery. Runyon also responded to past incidents of workplace violence by creating a training program to help employees deal with stress.

To get the postal service out of the red, Runyon restructured the organization's debt and boosted sales by featuring pop culture icons like Marilyn Monroe, Elvis and James Dean on stamps. He pushed for a postage price increase that raised the cost of first class stamps from $.29 to $.32. By the time he stepped down in 1998, the government agency was making $1 billion in profit.

Born in Fort Worth, Texas, Runyon served in the Army Air Corps during World War II. He graduated from Texas A&M University and took a job as an assembly worker at the Ford Motor plant in Dallas. Working his way up the corporate ladder, Runyon eventually became the company's vice president of assembly and operations.

After 37 years with Ford, Runyon retired in 1980 and became the chief executive of Nissan's North American operations in Smyrna, Tenn. In 1988, President Ronald Reagan named him chairman of the Tennessee Valley Authority. There Runyan earned the nickname "Carvin' Marvin" for cutting the payroll by 30 percent.

The Justice Department briefly investigated Runyon in 1997 for conflict-of-interest allegations. He proposed a plan to install Coca-Cola vending machines in all 40,000 post offices, but failed to disclose his ownership of Coke stock. Although Runyon did not face criminal charges, he ended up paying $27,550 to settle the matter. For the past few years, he taught business classes at Middle Tennessee State University and ran the Runyon Group, a business consulting firm.

Runyon died on May 3 of lung disease. He was 79.

Mitsunari Kanai

Mitsunari Kanai, a revered martial arts instructor who helped found the United States Aikido Federation, died on March 28 from a heart attack. He was 64.

Born in Manchuria, Kanai and his family settled in Tokyo after World War II ended. He developed an interest in judo in his teens, and took night courses in German and older forms of Japanese in order to read historical documents about the martial arts.

Aikido, which means "the way of spiritual harmony" in Japanese, is a martial art developed by Morihei Ueshiba (O Sensei) in the 1930s. Based on aikijutsu, aikido is considered a disciplined and non-aggressive art that uses an opponents' energy against them. Kanai apprenticed with Ueshiba for a decade.

In 1965, Kanai moved to Boston and started teaching aikido classes. He eventually opened his own dojo -- the New England Aikikai in Cambridge, Mass. Over the next 38 years, Kanai Sensei would teach 6,000 students from all over the world.

An eighth degree black belt, Kanai also taught classes in the use of the staff and the katana, a Japanese long-sword. He became such an expert in the weapon's history and usage that the Boston Museum of Fine Arts consulted him on the display of its sword collection. Most recently, he served as the director of the technical committee of the United States Aikido Federation.

Homer Avila

Homer Avila, a world renowned dancer and choreographer who continued performing even after doctors amputated his cancerous right leg and hip, died on April 27. He was 48.

Born in New Orleans, Avila graduated from the University of Knoxville, moved to New York City and launched a dance career that lasted for more than 25 years. A professional choreographer since 1982, he was best known for his work with Avila/Weeks Dance, a modern-dance company he directed with Edisa Weeks. His pieces involved strong imagery, and his teaching inspired hundreds of dancers studying at Wesleyan College, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center, Spelman College and Oberlin College.

In 2001, Avila was diagnosed with chondro sarcoma, a rare form of cancer. Although he had basic health coverage through COBRA, expensive premiums and living expenses still had to be paid during his recovery. In response, the New York Foundation for the Arts launched the One Step Forward fund to help dancers faced with sudden catastrophic health emergencies. Proceeds from a benefit helped pay for Avila's care.

Undaunted by his disability, Avila returned to dance class six weeks later, and was performing less than a year after his surgery. His first New York program featured a solo he created for himself called "Not/Without Words." Although his cancer later metastasized and reached his lungs, Avila danced last Friday night. He checked himself into Sloan Kettering on Saturday and died the following day.

• Watch Avila Dance a Duet With Andrea Flores

Ian Groom

Ian Groom, a top-ranked U.S. aerobatic pilot, was killed in a plane crash on his 58th birthday.

On April 30, Groom was practicing a stunt known as the flat spin for the McDonald's Air & Sea Show. A flat spin is a maneuver during which a plane spins seemingly out of control, then levels off at the last moment. Fifteen minutes into his routine, his Russian-made single-seat plane plunged into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Fort Lauderdale. Coast Guard rescuers pulled Groom from the aircraft, placed him on a speedboat and transported him to shore. He was taken to Broward General Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

Born in South Africa, Groom flew his first plane when he was only seven years old. He grew up to become a professional pilot, and performed in air shows around the world for more than 20 years. In 1995, Groom became an American citizen and a featured performer in the Air & Sea Show. After the Sept. 11th terrorist attacks, the Naples, Fla., resident trained pilots from several government agencies in advanced maneuvers -- at no charge. He also set a world record for doing 57 corkscrew maneuvers in 26 seconds.

His accident took place in front of a few hundred people watching the preparations for the annual Air & Sea Show. It was the first fatal accident associated with the event. On Sunday, the Canadian Air Force Snowbirds aerobatic flying team performed a missing man formation in honor of Groom.

Thom Gunn

Thom William Gunn, an award-winning British poet, died on April 25. Cause of death was not released. He was 74.

Born in Gravesend, England, Gunn published his first book, "Fighting Terms," at 25. He was a member of "The Movement," a group of promising, young British poets, and eventually produced eight more poetry collections.

Gunn was attending Trinity College, Cambridge, in the early 1950s when he met Mike Kitay, an American. They fell in love and remained partners for 52 years, and Kitay inspired many of Gunn's more romantic poems. In 1954, they moved to California and adopted San Francisco as their new hometown.

From 1958 to 1966, and from 1973 to 1990, Gunn taught English at the University of California, Berkeley. Outside of academia, he delved into California's counterculture scene -- exploring the biker culture, experimenting with drugs and writing poems about mythology and hedonism.

His book, "The Man With Night Sweats," described how the AIDS epidemic affected the gay population in San Francisco. It won the 1992 Forward Prize and the Lenore Marshall/Nation Poetry Prize. A Guggenheim and MacArthur fellow, Gunn also received the Somerset Maugham Award, the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Men's Poetry and the prestigious David Cohen British Literature Prize in 2003.

Richard Wilson

Richard Wilson was Oscar's keeper.

As the elegantly attired Hollywood elite strutted their stuff on stage during the televised Academy Awards ceremony, Wilson was behind the scenes, managing the distribution of the highly prized, gold Oscars. It was also his job to know the whereabouts of previously awarded statuettes.

The Chicago native graduated with a bachelor's degree in chemistry and a master's degree in radio, television and film from Northwestern University. In 1988, he landed a job at the Beverly Hills office of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Over the next 16 years, he opened the organization's first New York office and served as executive assistant to four Academy presidents.

Wilson died on April 23 of an apparent heart attack. He was 46.

Bonnie Jo Halpin

Bonnie Jo Halpin, the original Playboy "bunny," died on March 31 from an accidental drug overdose. She was 65.

Described by Hugh Hefner as a "very special lady," Halpin was the first "door bunny" to welcome key-holders into the Playboy Club in Chicago when it opened in 1960. The petite brunette wore the trademark bunny outfit (a strapless satin leotard, cottontail, white cuffs and collar with a black bow tie and rabbit ears) at the openings of Playboy establishments in Miami, New Orleans and New York. She also appeared on the cover of the October 1962 issue of Playboy magazine.

Halpin later worked as a personal trainer and hospital volunteer. Prior to her bunny years, she was a junior fashion model and a runner-up in the Miss Chicago pageant.

John Hess

John D. Hess, a prolific television writer, died on April 15 of lung cancer. He was 85.

Hess attended the University of Chicago and Dartmouth University. He spent a year at Yale Drama School before landing a job as a writer for WGN radio in Chicago. During World War II, Hess served in the Army as a tank officer. He later chronicled his experiences in the book, "Move Out, Verify -- The Combat Story of the 743rd Tank Battalion."

After the war, Hess returned to writing for WGN. He segued to scriptwriting in the 1950s, and helped to create "Love of Life," one of the earliest TV soap operas. The CBS daytime drama aired until 1980.

Over the next three decades, Hess wrote episodes of "General Hospital," "M*A*S*H," "Alice," "One Day at a Time" and "The Rockford Files." He based the TV comedy, "The Wicked Scheme of Jebel Deeks," on an article he wrote for Esquire; it starred Alec Guinness in his American TV debut.

Hess was also an accomplished playwright. His play, "The Grey-Eyed People," opened on Broadway in 1952, but closed after five shows. In 1954, he was named the playwright in residence at the Bucks County Playhouse in New Hope, Pa. The theatre produced several of his plays, including "The Facts of Life," "The Better Mousetrap" and "A Perfect Frenzy."

Gaetano Badalamenti

Gaetano Badalamenti, who was described by federal authorities as the "boss of all bosses'' of the Sicilian Mafia, died on April 29 from cardiac arrest. He was 80.

Born in Cinisi, Italy, Badalamenti served in the Italian Armed Forces Infantry Division during World War II. Once Sicily was liberated, he joined the Sicilian Cosa Nostra. Badalamenti eventually became known as Don Tano, a member of the "triumvirate" that ran the Sicilian Mafia; Luciano Liggio and Stefano Bontade were the other two bosses.

When Salvatore "Toto" Riina rose to power, Badalamenti fled to Brazil, then Spain. In the mid-1970s, he joined forces with organized crime figures in New York who were using pizza parlors to smuggle $1.65 billion worth of heroin and cocaine from the Middle East and South America.

In 1987, the smuggling ring's members were charged with conspiracy to import and distribute narcotics, conspiracy to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), participation in a money laundering conspiracy and various substantive money laundering offenses. Prosecutors also claimed ring members were responsible for dozens of murders in Sicily and the United States.

The trial of Badalamenti and his 21 co-conspirators took 17 months and included testimony from more than 400 witnesses. Louis Freeh, who went on to became director of the FBI, was one of the lead prosecutors in the "Pizza Connection" case. Badalamenti was acquitted on the narcotics and RICO conspiracy counts, and convicted for money laundering. He was sentenced to 45 years in federal prison.

As Badalamenti was serving time, an Italian court convicted and sentenced him to life in prison in absentia for the 1978 murder of a disc jockey. Then in 2002, he and former prime minister Giulio Andreotti were acquitted of involvement in the 1979 murder of journalist Mino Pecorelli.

Philip Hamburger

For more than six decades, Philip Hamburger covered historical events and chronicled the lives of intriguing people for The New Yorker.

Hamburger received a bachelor's degree from Johns Hopkins University and a master's in journalism from Columbia University before joining The New Yorker in 1939. Although he took three years off during World War II to work for the Office of Facts and Figures (which later became the Office of War Information), Hamburger spent most of his career contributing to the magazine.

The veteran journalist attended 14 presidential inaugurations, penned movie and music criticism and occasionally wrote tongue-in-cheek pieces under the name "Our Man Stanley" for the Talk of the Town section. He toured Adolf Hitler's lair and profiled Louis G. Schwartz, a Manhattan waiter who sold $4 million worth of war bonds to customers at the Sixth Avenue Delicatessen.

Hamburger never penned a memoir, but his personal recollections appeared within the pages of six New Yorker compilations, including "The Oblong Blue and Other Odysseys" and "Friends Talking in the Night: 60 Years of Writing for The New Yorker." He won the George Polk Career Award in 1994 and the 1997 Columbia Journalism Alumni Award for journalistic excellence.

Hamburger died on April 23 from cardiac arrest. He was 89.

Sylvan Stool

Dr. Sylvan E. Stool, one of the first pediatric ear, nose and throat doctors, died on April 11. Cause of death was not released. He was 78.

Stool attended medical school in Texas then joined the Air Force and spent two years stationed in the Far East and South Pacific. When he returned to the states, he launched an illustrious medical career that involved running a private practice in Denver, spending two decades at Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh, teaching pediatric medicine at the University of Colorado and working in otolaryngology at Children's Hospital in Denver.

In 1968, Stool earned an international reputation for his breakthrough discovery of a procedure that made performing tracheotomies on children safer. This procedure saved countless lives and remains the standard of care today.

Stool traveled all over the world to teach doctors how to protect a child's airway and how to use a pneumatic scope to diagnose middle-ear infections. The author of more than 150 articles and a past president of the Society for Ear, Nose and Throat Advances in Children (SENTAC), Stool received the award of merit and the humanitarian award from the American Academy of Otolaryngology. SENTAC also named its annual award for outstanding lifetime contributions for the care of children in his honor.

Carl Samuelson

To thousands of budding thespians, Carl Samuelson was a kind and caring father figure.

Samuelson and his late wife Elsie partnered with drama coach Jack Romano to found Stagedoor Manor, a performing arts camp in Loch Sheldrake, N.Y. Performers who trained at the camp include Josh Charles, Jon Cryer, Robert Downey Jr., Jennifer Jason Leigh, Mary Stuart Masterson, Mandy Moore and Natalie Portman.

The 2003 film, "Camp," was loosely based on director Todd Graff's experiences at Stagedoor Manor. It was filmed on location and featured a cameo of Samuelson.

Prior to launching the camp in 1975, the Bronx native worked in advertising, real estate and Hollywood marketing and promotion. In the 1990s, he produced several South Florida theater productions, such as "Annie Warbucks" and "Me and My Girl."

Samuelson died on April 20 of natural causes. He was 77.

John Parsons

John Anthony Parsons, a British tennis writer who covered 44 Wimbledon tournaments, died on April 27 of kidney failure. He was 66.

Parsons was born into a family that was passionate about tennis. His father, a former president of the Lawn Tennis Association in Oxford, encouraged John to pick up a racket and try out for the school tennis team. As a teenager, Parsons became a cub reporter for the Oxford Mail. He spent 17 years covering sports for the Daily Mail in London then joined The Daily Telegraph in 1981 as its tennis correspondent.

During his 23 years reporting for The Daily Telegraph, Parsons was a fixture at tennis tournaments around the world. He tended to shy away from criticizing players, a practice that earned the respect of athletes like Andre Agassi, Boris Becker, Chris Evert, Steffi Graf, Tim Henman and Martina Navratilova.

Parsons wrote "The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Tennis -- The Definitive Guide to World Tennis," and published "The Official Wimbledon Annual" every year for two decades. He received the Ron Bookman Media Excellence trophy twice, and was the WTA Tour's media person of the year in 1990.

Born with only one functioning kidney, Parsons received a kidney transplant in 1982. He was covering the Nasdaq-100 Open in Key Biscayne, Fla., last month when he was hospitalized for kidney failure.

Bette Hughes

Elizabeth "Bette" Schoenmakers Hughes, the first Michigan woman to command an American Legion Post, died on March 19 of a heart attack. She was 82.

Born in Ghent, Minn., and raised in Grosse Pointe, Mich., Hughes graduated from high school and signed up for the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES). She trained at Hunter College in New York, and became a photographer stationed in Grosse Ile, Mich., and Jacksonville, Fla.

After the war, Hughes studied photography and interior design at Oklahoma State University. She married, moved to New York and worked at the New York Public Library before returning to Grosse Pointe, Mich., to raise a family. Hughes also worked in interior design for the J.L. Hudson Co., and the Maurice Woods firm. One of her favorite projects involved redecorating an admiral's quarters on a submarine.

Hughes devoted her spare time to representing area veterans. As head of American Legion Post (No. 303), she attended memorial ceremonies and laid wreaths on the tombs of military personnel. Her ashes will be buried in Byron Cemetery; she'll be the first female veteran interred there.

Mary Selway

Mary Selway, a British casting director who worked on dozens of box office hits, died on April 21 of cancer. She was 68.

Born in Norwich, England, Selway studied acting at the Italia Conti theater school in London. After realizing her shyness would be an impediment to a successful dramatic career, she found work in her 20s as a casting director for television and theatre.

In 1969, Selway began casting actors into films. She became known as the "grand dame of British casting agents" for working with many top American and European directors, including Robert Altman, James Cameron, Clint Eastwood, Neil LaBute, Roman Polanski, Sydney Pollack, Ridley Scott and Steven Spielberg.

Selway cast almost 100 movies during her three-decade career. She chose the residents of "Notting Hill" and the servants working in "Gosford Park." She cast the crew of the Napoleonic-era warship for "Master and Commander'' and the occupants of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,'' which is scheduled for release in 2005.

Selway also produced "A Dry White Season" and the 1992 adaptation of "Wuthering Heights." For her outstanding contribution to British film, she received the Michael Balcon Award from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts in 1999.

Selway was previously married to actor Norman Rodway, who died in 2001. For the past 14 years, her partner was film producer Ileen Maizel.