AP Obits--8/16
ObitsMan
ths_14
Obituaries in the News
Fri Aug 16, 8:08 PM ET
By The Associated Press
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.
Matthew Hubbard
>
> Obituaries in the News
> Fri Aug 16, 8:08 PM ET
> By The Associated Press
> 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.
Let's bring him back to sentence the writer from the AP who
wrote this and the editor who let it see the light of day! Obviously,
this guy was a STATE Supreme Court Justice, but without a dateline, this
story doesn't tell us what state, and neither does the rest of the
friggin' obit!
MattH
p.s. Bill Schenley also posted this one from the AP earlier, and his
post had the dateline PROVIDENCE, R.I.