Obituaries in the News
The Kentucky Wizard
John P. Bourcier
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Supreme Court Justice John P. Bourcier, nicknamed
"Maximum John" by attorneys who knew him for his tough sentences, died
Thursday from complications from cancer. He was 75.
Bourcier was the first judge assigned to a first-in-the-nation gun court.
Named a Superior Court judge in 1974, he was appointed to the state's
highest court in 1995.
By doing his own research instead of relying on staff clerks, Bourcier
became known as one of the hardest-working judges in the state.
Bourcier was the last judge in the state to impose capital punishment, in a
1976 case involving a prisoner who murdered a fellow inmate at the state
prison.
Though he opposed the death penalty, Bourcier said the law was clear: death
was mandatory for anyone convicted of killing another inmate.
As a Superior Court judge, Bourcier's decisions were upheld by the Supreme
Court 93 percent of the time.
Jesse Brown
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Former Veterans Affairs Secretary Jesse Brown, the Marine
who rose from the trenches of Vietnam to lead the nation's second-largest
Cabinet agency, died Thursday after a long illness. He was 58.
Brown suffered from lower motor neuron syndrome, which attacks nerve cells
in the brain and the spinal cord.
Thomas H. Corey, president of the Vietnam Veterans of America, credited
Brown with improving the quality of veterans' health care, expanding
services for women and calling attention to the plight of homeless veterans.
In 1963, the Detroit-born Brown enlisted in the Marines and two years later
he was seriously wounded while on patrol in Danang. That injury left his
right arm partially paralyzed and became the motivating factor for his
life's work.
In 1967 Brown returned to Chicago to work for Disabled American Veterans, a
1.4 million-member advocacy group for vets with service-connected
disabilities. He became executive director in 1988.
He served as Veterans' Affairs secretary from January 1993 to July 1997.
Morgan Evans
SANTA MONICA, Calif. (AP) -- Morgan "Bill" Evans, who designed the landscape
at many of Disney's amusement park rides for half a century, died Aug. 10.
He was 92.
Evans imported vegetation from around the world to create fictional
landscapes that enhanced Disney attractions such as towering palms and giant
bamboo in the Jungle Cruise ride at Disneyland and African plants in
Disney's Animal Kingdom in Orlando, Fla.
He attended Stanford University but left before graduating to help his
father and brother start a nursery.
Evans was hired by Disney in the 1950s after designing the landscaping at
the entertainment mogul's home.
Among his other contributions: creating a lush forest on the Mark Twain
Riverboat Ride at Disneyland and sculpting plants of Dumbo and other Disney
characters.
He retired from Disney in 1975, but continued to work as a design and
landscaping consultant for his former employer. He was instrumental in the
planning for Hong Kong Disneyland, expected to open in 2005.
John Thomas Letts Sr.
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) -- John Thomas Letts Sr., one of Michigan's first
elected black judges, died Wednesday. He was 90.
Letts had a reputation as a consummate gentleman who treated others with
deference, whether they were fellow judges, attorneys or defendants.
Letts also was known for keeping race from becoming an issue in his
courtroom. He fought for stricter sentences for criminals who used guns to
commit felonies. He favored making it tougher to get a divorce and had harsh
words for citizens who made excuses to avoid jury duty.
The great-grandson of a slave who left the South in the 1880s, Letts served
as a captain in the Army and graduated from Suffolk University Law School.
In 1953, he took a job with the Michigan Department of Corrections, where he
became the state's first parole officer to supervise black and white
parolees.
He was elected municipal judge in Grand Rapids in 1959. In 1967, he became a
Kent County circuit judge. He retired in 1980.
Stephen P. Yokich
DETROIT (AP) -- Stephen P. Yokich, the former two-term president of the
United Auto Workers known for never shying away from a fight to improve the
lives of union members, died Friday. He was 66.
A spokesman at St. John Hospital said Yokich died one day after suffering a
stroke.
Yokich, born in Detroit six days before the founding of the UAW, served as
its president from 1995 until June, when he retired.
During his presidency, Yokich won lucrative contracts for a union that
steadily lost membership while failing to make inroads at U.S. factories
owned by foreign automakers.
The 1999 national contract raised members' pay to more than $24 an hour by
the end of its fourth year. It included a $1,350 lump-sum payment, an added
holiday for Election Day and a four-year freeze on closing U.S. Big Three
plants.
Yokich was vice president of the union's Ford Division from 1983-89 and
headed its GM Division from 1989 until his election as president.
He succeeded Owen Bieber as UAW president in 1995. He did not run again this
year.
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The Kentucky Wizard
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The Kentucky Wizard
SAN ANTONIO -- Jesse Martinez, drummer for the conjunto musical group
Hometown Boys, died Saturday after suffering a brain aneurysm a day earlier.
He was 34.
Martinez, the third brother in the group to die, was stricken just minutes
before the band was to go on stage, Tejas Records executive vice president
John Whipple told the San Antonio Express-News.
Tragedy has struck the band before.
In January 1998, accordionist Joe Martinez, an older brother of Jesse
Martinez, died of a heart attack while jamming with his former bandmates at
a Houston Tejano club.
Joe Martinez, who had left the Hometown Boys in late 1997 to form Joe
Martinez and Dream, also was 34 when he died.
In October 1997, another older brother, percussionist Roman Martinez Jr.,
Jesse's older brother, died of cerebral palsy. He was 45.
The band was founded in 1970 in Lubbock as El Conjunto Internacional, and
its members have changed over the years. The band became known for
foot-stomping Tejano/conjunto polkas.
The band renamed itself the Hometown Boys in 1990, developed a loyal
following and became affectionally known as the Homies.
The group was later inducted into the West Texas Walk of Fame alongside
Buddy Holly and the Crickets, Butch Hancock and Joe Ely.
At the 1997 Tejano Music Awards, the band's song "Joe's Special No. 10" was
named best instrumental.
Calvin Thielman
MONTREAT, N.C. (AP) -- The Rev. Calvin Thielman, a Presbyterian pastor and
close friend of the Rev. Billy Graham, died Saturday after a prolonged
illness. He was 72.
Thielman was pastor-emeritus of Montreat Presbyterian Church. He was named
pastor there in 1962, and was a close friend to the Graham family for many
years, Graham said in a statement.
Graham said Thielman "was personally loved by more people than almost anyone
Ruth and I have known. His loss will be felt deeply by our family and
community."
Thielman, a native of Paris, Texas, served as President Lyndon Johnson's
campaign manager in Lamar County, Texas, in 1948, when Johnson was running
for U.S. Senate.
The Kentucky Wizard
LANCASTER, Pa. -- D. Richard Eckman, who served as a judge in the Lancaster
Court of Common Pleas for 21 years and also taught law at Franklin &
Marshall College, died Friday. He was 73.
Eckman had been an attorney since 1958, and eventually worked his way up to
judge on the court of common pleas, serving 13 years as its president.
He was a member of the adjunct faculty of Franklin & Marshall from 1965 to
1967, teaching business law.
Dick O'Connell
LEXINGTON, Mass. (AP) -- Dick O'Connell, the former Boston Red Sox general
manager who helped build the teams that played in the 1967 and 1975 World
Series, died Sunday. He was 87.
O'Connell joined the Red Sox in 1949 and became executive vice president and
general manager in 1965.
Under his guidance from 1965-77, the Red Sox were perennial winners, winning
at least 83 games each season, including 90 or more three times. The team
also led the American League in attendance for five of those years.
He was inducted into the Red Sox Hall of Fame in 1997.
Josephine Laimbeer Schiff
GLEN COVE, N.Y. (AP) -- Josephine Laimbeer Schiff, former president of the
Society of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and former board
member of the Long Island Alzheimer's Foundation, died Wednesday. She was
89.
Schiff also volunteered for the Wildlife Conservation Society.
Born in Manhattan as Josephine Louise Laimbeer, as a young woman she was an
actress and appeared in the 1929 Broadway production of Cole Porter's
musical "Fifty Million Frenchmen."
She quit the stage in 1931 after marrying. After her first husband died, she
remarried John M. Schiff, a partner in Kuhn Loeb & Company, who died in
1987.
The Kentucky Wizard
August 19, 2002, 11:29 PM EDT
Paul J. Aicher Jr
POMFRET, Conn. -- Businessman and philanthropist Paul J. Aicher Jr., who
pushed for a civic dialogue on issues ranging from the Cold War to race
relations, died Monday after a brief illness. He was 76.
Aicher established the Topsfield Foundation Inc. in 1982 to enhance civic
engagement and improve public life in the United States. The foundation
published a series of grass-roots peace directories and developed a news
service that reported on international security issues.
Aicher was also involved in founding OPTIONS, a disarmament-oriented
speakers bureau based at Brown University, and ACCESS, a Washington,
D.C.-based information service on international affairs.
He founded the Study Circles Resource Center in 1989, which produced guides
to dialogue and problem solving. In 1995, the Los Angeles City Council
turned to SCRC for assistance after O.J. Simpson's murder trial.
In 1996, the National Association of Human Rights Workers awarded Aicher its
advocacy award. Aicher received the Pew Partnerships Civic Change Award in
1997, and received the John H. Filer Award, sponsored by the Connecticut
Council for Philanthropy, in 2000.
Elias Bredsdorff
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) -- Elias Bredsdorff, a biographer who sought to
bring fairy tale writer Hans Christian Andersen out of the nursery and
present him as a serious adult writer, has died. He was 90.
Bredsdorff died Aug. 8 at his home.
Bredsdorff was the author of what is considered a landmark biography of
Andersen, his 1975 "Hans Christian Andersen: The Story of His Life and
Work," which sought to establish the 19th century writer as a serious
literary figure.
Andersen, the son of a poor shoemaker's apprentice, wrote dozens of fairy
tale classics before his death in Copenhagen in 1875, including "The Ugly
Duckling," "The Emperor's New Clothes" and "The Little Mermaid."
Bredsdorff also published biographies on Charles Dickens and Oscar Wilde and
several Danish authors, and was a prominent figure in public debate through
his articles in the newspaper Politiken.
Eduardo Chillida
SAN SEBASTIAN, Spain (AP) -- Eduardo Chillida, renowned Basque sculptor who
created monumental works out of basic materials and promoted the search for
peace in the Basque region, died Monday. He was 78.
Chillida died at his home near the seaside city of San Sebastian after a
long illness, his son Luis said.
He had suffered from Alzheimer's disease for the past three years, appearing
in public far less frequently.
Chillida, whose distinguished career spanned more than 50 years, has
produced works for public spaces in Barcelona, Paris, Frankfurt, Berlin and
Dallas.
One of his most famous sculptures in Spain is "The Comb of the Winds," an
iron tangle on a ridge overlooking the ocean at San Sebastian. The artwork
has come to symbolize the yearning for peace in the violence-ridden Basque
region and frequently serves as a backdrop for peace rallies.
Dick O'Connell
LEXINGTON, Mass. (AP) -- Dick O'Connell, the former Boston Red Sox general
manager who helped build the teams that played in the 1967 and 1975 World
Series, died Sunday. He was 87.
O'Connell joined the Red Sox in 1949 and became executive vice president and
general manager in 1965.
Under his guidance from 1965-77, the Red Sox were perennial winners, winning
at least 83 games each season, including 90 or more three times. The team
also led the American League in attendance for five of those years.
He was inducted into the Red Sox Hall of Fame in 1997.
John Roseboro
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- John Roseboro, the former Los Angeles Dodgers catcher
forever remembered as the player Juan Marichal clubbed over the head with a
bat during a game in 1965, died on Friday. He was 69.
The cause of death was not specified. Publicist Carole Wade said that
Roseboro recently reported medical problems including heart trouble and
prostate cancer.
Roseboro, who succeeded Roy Campanella as the Dodgers' full-time catcher,
played for Los Angeles from 1957-67 and was a four-time All-Star. He was the
starting catcher in the 1959, 1963, 1965 and 1966 World Series, with the
Dodgers winning the championship the first three times.
Still, Roseboro will always be known for the attack on Aug. 22, 1965, at
Candlestick Park. The future Hall of Fame pitcher, Marichal, hit Roseboro
over the head twice, opening a 2-inch gash that sent blood flowing down the
catcher's face.
A left-handed hitter, Roseboro had a lifetime batting average of .249 and
was a member of the National League All-Star team in 1958, 1961 and 1962.
Sri Swami Satchidananda
BUCKINGHAM, Va. (AP) -- Sri Swami Satchidananda, who advocated respect for
all faiths and founded Yogaville in rural Virginia, died Monday in India
from heart disease. He was 87.
Satchidananda was ordained as a monk in 1949 by his master, Sri Swami
Sivananda Maharaj, founder of the Divine Life Society in Rishikesh, India.
Satchidananda's motto "Truth is One, Paths are Many" was an integral part of
his teachings. For more than 40 years, he sponsored interfaith worship
services and conferences and advocated respecting and honoring all faiths.
Satchidananda, who came to the United States in 1966, was founder of the
worldwide Integral Yoga Institutes. Integral Yoga, as taught by
Satchidananda, combines various methods of Yoga, including Hatha Yoga,
service, meditation and prayer.
In 1979, Satchidananda established Satchidananda Ashram-Yogaville based on
his teachings, including the principle of nonviolence.
Benjamin C. Thompson
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) -- Benjamin C. Thompson, the architect of Boston's
Faneuil Hall Marketplace, Baltimore's Harborplace and New York's South
Street Seaport, died of heart failure at his home Saturday. He was 85.
Thompson said he designed "people places," according to an interview
published in The Boston Globe on Dec. 18, 1985.
Other Thompson works include the Ordway Music Theater in St. Paul, Minn.;
buildings at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Amherst College,
Brandeis University and Colby College, and the renovation of the Old Post
Office on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C.
In 1991, he was awarded the highest honor in American architecture, the Gold
Medal of the American Institute of Architects.
Thompson was director of Harvard's School of Architecture for four years and
a founding partner of the Architects Collaborative prior to founding his own
firm, Benjamin Thompson and Associates, in Cambridge in 1966.
Doris Wishman
MIAMI (AP) -- Doris Wishman, who made cult classic nudist films in the
1960s, has died of cancer.
Family members said she was 90, though her passport listed her age as 82.
Whatever her age, she was still working on films when she died.
She made more than 30 small budget "B" movies, her first being "Hideout in
the Sun," which was shot in 1960. Her films are known for sexual exploits of
their female characters, taking advantage of court rulings in the 1960s that
removed nudist camps from censorship.
Her films were also known for showing men violently exploiting women.
Her cult classic films include "Bad Girls Go to Hell," "Another Day, Another
Man" and "Nude on the Moon," which featured astronauts visiting a female
alien nudist camp on the moon.
Wishman's career dried up in the 1980s, but "Satan Was a Lady," her first
release in 15 years, made a splash at the Miami Film Festival earlier this
year.
Bill Feather
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) -- Former Associated Press newsman Bill Feather, who
covered nine governors in a career that spanned three decades, has died
Sunday. He was 74.
Feather died at his home in Santa Fe, according to Berardinelli funeral
home.
Feather covered the statehouse for the AP between 1958 and 1990, except for
two years when he was editor of The Santa Fe New Mexican.
An Artesia native, Feather entered the Navy in 1945 after high school. He
worked at the Las Cruces Citizen while attending New Mexico State
University, where he graduated in 1951. After graduation, he worked for the
El Paso Times, the Amarillo Daily News and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram
before joining the AP in Albuquerque in 1956. He began working in the AP's
Santa Fe bureau in 1958.
His survivors include his wife, Pat; three sons, Joseph of Albuquerque,
Robert of Berkeley, Calif., and Frank of Englishtown, N.J.; four
granddaughters; a brother and a sister.
Harvey Kapnick
CHICAGO (AP) -- Harvey Kapnick, chairman and chief executive of Arthur
Andersen in the 1970s and an early advocate of separating consulting and
auditing because of potential conflicts of interest, died Friday. He was 77.
Kapnick suffered a heart attack at his home on Keewaydin Island, south of
Naples, Fla., Andersen spokesman Patrick Dorton said.
Kapnick joined the accounting firm in Chicago in 1948 at the age of 23, and
became a partner eight years later. He was elected to the board of directors
in 1966.
His tenure at the top from 1970 to 1979 was marked by his disputed proposal
that the accounting and fast-growing consulting businesses be separated --
an issue that ultimately led him to step down after Andersen partners
rejected it.
Andersen's accounting and consulting practices were separated in 1989, but
the conflict-of-interest issue came back to haunt the firm after one of its
clients, Enron Corp., filed for bankruptcy last year.
Kapnick went on to hold executive posts with General Dynamics and Chicago
Pacific in the 1980s. During the Reagan administration he served on the
president's transition team.
Charles Smithgall
GAINESVILLE, Ga. (AP) -- Charles Smithgall Jr., who founded the Gainesville
Sun and owned radio and television stations in north Georgia and Alabama,
died Monday at his residence after an extended illness. He was 91.
Smithgall founded WGGA in Gainesville with friends in 1941, then became an
executive with Storer Broadcasting with stations in Atlanta and Miami. He
moved back to Gainesville in 1946 to convert the weekly Eagle into a daily
newspaper called the Gainesville Daily Times.
Smithgall acquired radio stations in Rome and Gadsden, Ala., in the 1950s
and in 1966 started the Rome Cable TV Co. He also founded WRNG in Atlanta,
which became WCNN.
In 1963, Smithgall formed Georgia Community Newspapers Inc. with Gwinnett
Publishing Co. to publish the Gwinnett Daily News and a number of weeklies.
He sold his interest to the New York Times Co. in 1987. At one time, he also
owned an interest in the Selma, Ala., Times.
Smithgall owned cable TV franchises in Chattanooga, Tenn., parts of DeKalb
County and Walker County, Ga., in the 1970s and 1980s. He sold all his cable
television interests to the E.W. Scripps Co. in 1983.
His survivors include his wife, Celestia Bailey Smithgall, three sons and
six grandchildren.
ObitsMan
>
>August 19, 2002, 11:29 PM EDT
KW--If you're gonna keep posting these, I'll stop. No need for a duplication of
effort, which is what's going on now. Let me know. No skin off my nose either
way. I just started posting them because nobody else was. If you want to take
it over, fine by me.
The Kentucky Wizard
"ObitsMan" <obit...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20020820071535...@mb-fp.aol.com...
No problem OBM, , go ahead and continue and I'll stop posting them. You've
been doing it a whole lot longer than me and I wouldn't be able keep up with
it everyday like you have. I also noticed there was quite a bit of
overlapping myself, so I'll try to not post anything unless I see it hasn't
been posted on here before.