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Carolyn Heilbrun

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Categories: Education, Writers/Editors

cheilbrun.jpgCarolyn Gold Heilbrun, a feminist scholar and mystery novelist, took her own life on Oct. 7. Cause of death was asphyxiation. She was 77.
As a child, Heilbrun was a voracious reader. She loved Nancy Drew and British mysteries, but also reveled in the more literary works of Virginia Woolf and Willa Cather. She graduated from Wellesley College in 1947 then earned a masters degree and a doctorate in English at Columbia University.
Two years later, she joined the faculty of Columbia as an English and comparative literature professor. She remained with the school for more than three decades and became the first director of its Institute for Research on Women and Gender. Her scholarly articles and nonfiction books mainly focused on interpreting women’s literature from a feminist perspective.
When she was away from the ivory tower world of academia, Heilbrun wrote best-selling mystery novels. Her most famous heroine, Kate Fansler, was a feminist professor of literature who solved crimes. Writing under the pseudonym Amanda Cross, Heilbrun penned 12 Fansler books, including “Death in a Tenured Position,” “Sweet Death, Kind Death” and “The James Joyce Murder.”
In 1981, she won the prestigious Nero Wolfe Award for literary excellence in the mystery genre. Her autobiography, “Writing a Woman’s Life,” was published in 1988.
“The journey’s over. Love to all. Carolyn,” Heilbrun wrote in her suicide note.

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Jackie Flosso

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Categories: Business

Jackie Flosso, the magician who owned the Flosso-Hornmann Magic Company in New York City, died on Sept. 28 of kidney and heart ailments. He was 77.
Flosso’s grandfather was the famous magician, Louis “Pops” Kreiger, and his father was Al Flosso, a.k.a. the Coney Island Fakir. Al bought the magic shop from magician Frank Ducrot in 1939, and when he died in 1976, Jackie inherited the store. He ran the business until 2000.
The cluttered shop was opened in 1872 by Francis and Antonio Martinka. It was so popular with the illusionist community that the Society of American Magicians was founded there. Harry Houdini, the first president of the SAM, was once a part-owner of the store.

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Charles Byrd

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Categories: Law

Charles Edward Byrd, the first elected black sheriff in California, died on Sept. 23. Cause of death was not released. He was 56.
Byrd was born and raised in Weed, Calif. He attended the College of the Siskiyous with hopes of becoming a civil engineer, but his plans changed when the chief of the Weed Police Department asked him to become a reserve officer. Byrd switched his major to criminal justice and joined the force two years later. In 1975, he became the town’s police chief.
At 39, Byrd defeated Kenneth Jourdan in the sheriff’s race, and became the first African American ever elected sheriff in California. He served four terms as the sheriff-coroner of Siskiyou County, which at the time of his election was only 1.5 percent black.
During his tenure, Byrd helped create the Siskiyou County Inter-Agency Narcotic Task Force, the Detective Unit and the department’s K-9 program. He also served as the president of the California State Sheriff’s Association.

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Don Sider

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Categories: Media, Writers/Editors

Don Sider, a veteran journalist, died on Oct. 8 from heart disease. He was 70.
Sider began his journalism career at the St. Petersburg Times. After covering the Vietnam War, he helped found Money and People magazines.
Sider was named deputy bureau chief of Time’s Washington bureau in 1975. He remained with the magazine for 12 years, then moved to West Palm Beach where he worked as a correspondent for People. Last month, he was arrested on suspicion of criminal trespassing for snooping on actors Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez at their Georgia estate.
Sider’s will calls for a sky diving party to mark his death. His estate plans to pay for his ashes to be dumped out of a plane at 12,500 feet. The sky divers who conduct the service will then be treated to four cases of beer.

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Viola Burnham

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Categories: Politicians

Viola Burnham, former vice president and first lady of Guyana, died on Oct. 10 from cancer. She was 72.
A teacher by trade, Burnham was married to Forbes Burnham, the first executive president of Guyana. She served as the country’s vice president and deputy prime minister from 1985 to 1991, and was the acting president when both the head of state and prime minister were out of the country.

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Neil Postman

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Categories: Education, Media, Writers/Editors

npostman.jpgNeil Postman, a professor, media critic and author who spent a lifetime criticizing television, died on Oct. 5 of lung cancer. He was 72.
Postman graduated from the State University of New York at Fredonia in 1953. He received a master’s degree and a doctorate in education from the Teachers College, Columbia, then joined the faculty at New York University. During his 40-year tenure, Postman founded the Steinhardt School of Education’s program in media ecology and chaired the Department of Culture and Communication.
A contributing editor of The Nation and the author of 20 books, Postman was best known for writing “Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business,” a book that claimed America’s ability to think seriously had been diminished by TV. The book was translated into eight languages, sold 200,000 copies worldwide and became required reading in many communication schools. He also penned several hundred articles for The New York Times Magazine, Time Magazine, The Washington Post and Le Monde.
In 1986, Postman received the George Orwell Award for clarity in language from the National Council of Teachers of English. Two years later, NYU gave him the Distinguished Teacher Award.

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John Orrell

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Categories: Education

John Overton Orrell, a historian who helped rebuild William Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre on the South Bank of the Thames in London, died on Sept. 16 from melanoma. He was 68.
Born in Maidstone, England, Orrell graduated with an English degree from Oxford University. He immigrated to Canada, earned his doctorate from the University of Toronto and spent most of his career teaching Shakespeare at the University of Alberta. When American actor Sam Wanamaker decided to rebuild The Globe, Orrell became the project’s chief historical advisor.
The Globe was built in 1599 and destroyed in a fire in 1613. Almost 30 years later, it was rebuilt on the same foundation, only to be shut down by Oliver Cromwell’s Puritans and destroyed.
In 1987, the theatre’s reconstruction began. Orrell lent his expertise to the project by using the 17th-century etching, “The Long View of London” by Wenceslaus Hollar, as a template for the theatre’s blueprints. He then did a mathematic analysis to determine the building’s proportions. Construction was completed in 1997 and the 400th anniversary of the old Globe’s opening was celebrated in 1999.
Orrell also published several books, including “The Quest for Shakespeare’s Globe,” “The Theatres of Inigo Jones and John Webb” and “The Human Stage: English Theatre Design 1567-1640.”

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J.D. Kimball

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Categories: Musicians

J.D. Kimball, the former lead singer of the 1980s heavy metal band, Omen, died on Oct. 3 from cancer. His age was not released.
Omen was formed in 1983 by guitarist Kenny Powell. Kimball signed on as Omen’s lead singer, recorded four albums, then left the band in 1987. He was replaced by Coburn Pharr.
“He was a great writer, one of the true innovators in the early years of power metal. I am extremely proud of the records that we did together, ‘Battle Cry,’ ‘Warning of Danger,’ ‘Nightmares’ and ‘The Curse.’ I hope everyone will remember J.D. for all of his truly great contributions to the world of heavy metal,” Powell said.

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