AP Obits--02/02/07
Obitsman
Obituaries in the news
By The Associated Press
Sat Feb 3, 1:25 AM ET
Ahmed Abu Laban
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) ‹ Ahmed Abu Laban, Denmark's most prominent
Muslim leader and a central figure in last year's uproar over the
Prophet Muhammad cartoons, has died. He was 60.
Abu Laban died late Thursday at the Hvidovre Hospital in Copenhagen
after battling lung cancer, said Kasem Ahmad, a spokesman for the
Islamic Faith Community.
A Palestinian immigrant who became Denmark's leading imam, Abu Laban was
thrust into the international spotlight during the firestorm over the
prophet cartoons, when he accused Denmark of being disrespectful of
Islam and Muslim immigrants.
He angered many Danes by seeking support from the Middle East in his
fight against the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, which first
published the controversial cartoons.
Many blamed him and other Islamic clerics in Denmark for stirring up
anger that triggered massive and sometimes violent anti-Danish protests
in Muslim countries in January and February last year.
The 12 drawings, one of which depicted Muhammad wearing a turban shaped
like a bomb, offended many Muslims because Islamic law is interpreted to
forbid any depiction of the prophet for fear it could lead to idolatry.
___
Whitney Balliett
NEW YORK (AP) ‹ Whitney Balliett, a jazz critic for The New Yorker for
four decades who believed a reviewer's job was to share his experience
and not criticize the performer, has died. He was 80.
Balliett, who also created the CBS-TV program "The Sound of Jazz" in the
late 1950s, died Thursday at his home in Manhattan, The New Yorker said.
The cause was not known.
Balliett considered himself an "impressionist" when he wrote about
musicians and their craft because he said music was so "transparent and
bodiless."
He wrote about the musicians' performance style as much as their music.
A graduate of Cornell University, Balliett joined The New Yorker in
1951, writing poetry and pieces for the "Talk of the Town" section. In
1957, he began writing a jazz column, which he continued until 1998. He
also contributed book, film and theater reviews, as well as art
criticism and book notes.
The same year he began working for the New Yorker, Balliett and jazz
critic Nat Hentoff started "The Sound of Jazz," an offshoot of the
series "The Seven Lively Arts." Hosted by New York Herald Tribune
columnist John Crosby, it featured performers including Billie Holiday,
Count Basie, Gerry Mulligan and Thelonious Monk.
Columbia Records produced an album of the show's performers and a video
in the mid-1980s.
Balliett wrote 15 books on jazz, The New Yorker said. Among them are
"American Singers" and "American Musicians." In 1996 he expanded his
collection with "American Musicians II," with portraits of 70 jazz
musicians.
Among his awards was an Academy Award in Literature from the American
Academy of Arts and Letters in 1996.
___
Ray Berres
CHICAGO (AP) ‹ Ray Berres, a former major league catcher and longtime
pitching coach for the Chicago White Sox, has died. He was 99.
Berres died Thursday of heart failure and pneumonia at his home in
Kenosha, Wis., the White Sox said.
Berres was the second-oldest living major leaguer; Rollie Stiles, who
pitched for the St. Louis Browns from 1930 to 1933, is 100.
In 11 seasons, Berres hit .216 with three home runs and 78 RBIs in 561
games. He played for the Brooklyn Dodgers (1934, 1936), Pittsburgh
Pirates (1937-40), Boston Braves (1940-41) and New York Giants (1942-45).
Berres served as the White Sox's pitching coach from 1949 to 1966 and in
1969. Among the pitchers he worked with were Hall of Famers Early Wynn
and Hoyt Wilhelm.
___
Douglas W. Hillman
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) ‹ Retired U.S. District Judge Douglas W.
Hillman has died. He was 84.
Hillman, who suffered a stroke in 2000 and whose health took a turn for
the worse within the past month, died Thursday at a Muskegon hospice,
according to the federal court.
He practiced law in Grand Rapids for 30 years before President Carter
appointed him to the federal court in 1979. He retired from the bench in
2002.
Hillman was an Army Air Forces pilot stationed in Italy during World War
II and graduated from the University of Michigan Law School in 1948.
A year later, he helped found the World Affairs Council of Western
Michigan to encourage people to think about events outside the United
States.
___
Henricus Vanderstappen
CHICAGO (AP) ‹ The Rev. Henricus "Harrie" Vanderstappen, a leading
scholar of Chinese art and professor emeritus at the University of
Chicago, has died. He was 86.
Vanderstappen, a faculty member at the school for more than 30 years,
died Jan. 25 of an apparent heart attack, university officials said in a
statement.
After World War II, Vanderstappen and other historians helped change how
Chinese art was studied in the West, said University of Chicago
professor Wu Hung. For example, Vanderstappen was one of the first
Western scholars to master Chinese.
The Netherlands-born scholar also compiled the first comprehensive
bibliography of Western writing on Chinese art, which became a leading
academic resource.
Vanderstappen, ordained in 1945, was assigned to do missionary work in
China before the communist takeover. He ended up teaching art at Fu Jen
Catholic University there.