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Jack Dymond

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Categories: Education, Scientists

jdymond.jpgJack R. Dymond, an oceanographer who discovered exotic life forms at the bottom of the sea, drowned on Sept. 19. He was 64.
Born in Ohio, Dymond earned a bachelor’s degree in geology from Miami University, and a doctorate from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California at San Diego. He worked as a researcher at Columbia University before transferring to Oregon State University, where he taught until his retirement in 1997.
During his career, Dymond wrote nearly 100 scientific papers and traveled the world to explore underwater ecosystems. In 1977, he and a group of scientists found hot water vents spewing from the sea floor in the Galapagos Islands. Using the Alvin submersible to examine the vents, Dymond and his crew found an entire community of tube worms, clams and other previously unknown organisms living in the dark waters. It was the first ecosystem discovered on Earth that did not rely on the sun for energy.
“He was very inspiring in a way — he knew how to excite the people around him with new ideas, and also sort of show them how those new ideas could be approached in a reasonable way. He was one of those people for whom the strength of his personal relationships are as memorable as the specific scientific nuts and bolts that he contributed,” said friend and colleague Bob Collier.
Dymond, who was also the first person to explore the bottom of Crater Lake in Oregon, was fly-fishing on the Rogue River when he fell into the water and was pulled under by the current.

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Lord Blake

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Categories: Education, Military, Politicians, Writers/Editors

Lord Robert Norman William Blake, an historian, educator and biographer, died on Sept. 20. Cause of death was not released. He was 86.
Blake graduated from Magdalen College in Oxford. He intended to become a lawyer when World War II began. Instead, Blake served with the 124th Field Regiment, Royal Artillery, for two years before he was captured in north Africa. After spending 15 months as a prisoner of war, Blake escaped and joined the British intelligence service, MI6.
Once the war ended, Blake moved back to England to teach. He spent 21 years at Oxford University’s Christ Church College, working as a politics professor, dean and pro-vice-chancellor. His Ford Lectures were collected into the textbook, “The Conservative Party, From Peel to John Major,” which was taught to a generation of students.
Blake also took on various editorial projects. He edited the manuscripts, “The Private Papers of Douglas Haig” and “The Unknown Prime Minister,” and spent a decade as the joint editor of Oxford University Press’ Dictionary of National Biography. His greatest achievement, however, was in writing “Disraeli,” one of the definitive biographies of Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, a Conservative leader and unprincipled rake.
In 1971, Robert was appointed to the House of Lords and became Lord Blake of Braydeston. He was also an unofficial constitutional adviser to the Queen.

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Mirta Pla

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Categories: Artists

Mirta Pla, a Cuban ballerina, died on Sept. 21 from cancer. She was 63.
Born in Havana, Pla studied dance under Cuba’s grand dame of ballet, Alicia Alonso. She joined several dance companies in the 1950s and toured the world as a professional performer. When she retired, Pla moved to Barcelona, Spain, to become a dance instructor.
Pla was awarded Cuba’s National Dance Prize in 2003. She shared the honor with three other ballerinas — Loipa Arajo, Aurora Bosh and Josefina Mendez; collectively, they were once known as “las cuatro joyas del Ballet Nacional de Cuba” (the four jewels of the National Ballet of Cuba).

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Franco Modigliani

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Categories: Business, Education

Franco Modigliani, a Nobel Prize-winning economist, died on Sept. 25. Cause of death was not released. He was 85.
Modigliani was born in Italy. He studied economics and law at the University of Rome, but was forced to immigrate to the United States at the beginning of World War II to avoid religious and political persecution.
He received a doctorate in social science at the New School for Social Research in New York, joined the Cowles Commission for Research in Economics, then taught at the Carnegie Institute of Technology. There he developed his best-known work, the life-cycle hypothesis.
He joined the faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1961. During his three decades at the university, Modigliani developed a reputation as a world-class economist for his writings on inflation and public deficits.
In 1985, Modigliani won the Nobel Prize in economics for researching how people save for retirement and how the market value of businesses is determined. He was also the former president of the American Economic Association, and the author of the autobiography, “The Adventures of an Economist.”

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Sonora Webster Carver

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Categories: Artists

Sonora Webster Carver, the famous horse diver of Atlantic City, died on Sept. 21. Cause of death was not released. She was 99.
Carver was born and raised in Georgia. At 20, she answered a want ad for a female rider to perform in Buffalo Bill’s “Wild West” show. Intrigued by the possibility of fame and travel, Carver applied for the job.
In 1924, she became the first woman to fall 40 feet on horseback into a tank of water at Steel Pier in Atlantic City, and inspired the 1991 Disney movie, “Wild Hearts Can’t Be Broken,” starring Gabrielle Anwar.
Seven years after her first jump, Carver and her horse, Red Lips, had an accident that left her blinded. When they hit the water off-balance, Carver suffered from detached retinas. Undaunted by her impaired vision, she continued to ride the high-diving horses until World War II. Then she moved to New Orleans and became a transcriptionist.
The diving horses attraction was discontinued in 1978 after animal-rights activists complained. In her autobiography, “A Girl and Five Brave Horses,” Carver insisted the animals loved the dives and were not forced to jump.

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John R. Feegel

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Categories: Law, Medicine, Writers/Editors

John R. Feegel, a Florida medical examiner who became an award-winning novelist, died on Sept. 16. Cause of death was not released. He was 70.

The son of a police officer, Feegel grew up to become a forensic pathologist, a trial attorney and the chief medical examiner in Tampa. He performed thousands of autopsies; the death of Elvis Presley and Atlanta serial killer Wayne B. Williams were two of his most famous cases.

Feegel also wrote seven mystery novels. In 1976, he won the Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for his first book, “Autopsy.”

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Robert Kardashian

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Categories: Business, Law

Robert Kardashian, an attorney who represented O.J. Simpson during his infamous murder trial, died on Sept. 30 from cancer of the esophagus. He was 59.
On June 16, 1994, Simpson spent the night at Kardashian’s home. In the morning, he was supposed to turn himself in to authorities and face charges of stabbing his wife, Nicole Brown, and waiter Ron Goldman, to death. Instead, Simpson and his friend Al Cowlings led police on a slow-speed chase that ended at Simpson’s Brentwood home. He was eventually arrested and charged with the killings.
Kardashian served as one of the attorneys on Simpson’s defense team, which won a “not guilty” verdict on Oct. 3, 1995. Simpson was found liable for the killings in a civil trial, and was ordered to pay $33.5 million in damages.
Kardashian later shared his doubts of Simpson’s innocence on the ABCNews show “20/20,” and in the book, “American Tragedy: The Uncensored Story of the Simpson Defense” by Lawrence Schiller and James Willwerth. The book was also adapted into a TV mini-series.
Kardashian graduated from the University of Southern California in 1962. He earned a law degree from the University of San Diego and practiced law for about a decade before leaving the field to work in business. He and Simpson were friends for over 25 years. They lived together in the 1970s and started Juice Inc., a corporation that owned and operated several frozen yogurt shops.

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Matthew Jay

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Categories: Musicians

mjay.jpgMatthew Jay, a rising British singer/songwriter, died on Sept. 24 after falling out of a seventh-story window in London. He was 24.
“His act would appear to have been an impulsive gesture following a professionally difficult year and perhaps, a difficult day,” said a statement from his record company, EMI.
Raised by folk musicians, Jay joined the family band when he was a child and started writing his own songs at 15. He released the demo, “Four Songs,” in January 2000 and another CD titled, “Friendly Fire,” six months later. Both were supported by local appearances.
Jay was signed by EMI, and released his debut album, “Draw,” in 2001. It was a critical success and lead to tours with Dido, Starsailor and Stereophonics.
Jay had recently enrolled for college. He left no suicide note.

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