AP Obits--8/31
ObitsMan
Obituaries in the News
Sun Aug 31, 7:20 PM ET
HARTFORD, Conn. - Herbert E. Abrams, the painter of presidents and dignitaries
whose work included White House portraits of former Presidents Bush and Carter,
died Friday. He was 82.
In a career that spanned more than four decades, the artist completed more than
400 portraits that also included Gen. William Westmoreland and astronaut Edwin
"Buzz" Aldrin.
He also painted playwright Arthur Miller, several university presidents and
three of Connecticut's former governors.
Born in Greenfield, Mass., Abrams was the ninth of 10 children born to German
immigrants.
Abrams studied at the Norwich Art School and became a pilot in World War II.
While he was serving as a camouflage technician, he redesigned the Army Air
Forces aircraft insignia. Later, he taught art classes to officers at the U.S.
Military Academy at West Point, where he was the subject of the documentary "A
Different Light."
After the war, he studied in New York City at the Pratt Institute and the Art
Students' League. During the 1950s, he considered himself fortunate when he
made $35 selling a portrait from a bench in Greenwich Village.
An artist who said he believed in painting people's personalities, not their
politics, Abrams frequently spent time with his subjects before the portraits
were composed. For Carter's portrait, he spent time observing him in Sunday
school classes; for the Bush portrait, they met at a country club.
___
Frank MacDonald
HOBART, Australia (AP) — Frank MacDonald, Australia's oldest World War I
veteran at 107 and a decorated war hero, died last week.
One of 11 children, MacDonald served with the all-Tasmanian 40th Battalion
Australian Infantry Force on the Western Front in 1917 and 1918.
He was awarded a medal for "conspicuous gallantry" in Belgium in 1917, and
received the Legion of Honor from the French government in 1998.
MacDonald enlisted again in World War II, but was confined to a desk job in
Sydney because authorities considered him too old for active duty.
In March, MacDonald said he believed war was stupid — but that Australia
should support the United States in the conflict with Iraq.
MacDonald's death leaves just six known Australian World War I veterans, all of
them over 100 years old.
He was given a state funeral in his hometown in Tasmania state.
___
Charles Scaife
SCHENECTADY, N.Y. (AP) — Charles Scaife, a chemistry professor whose
experiments promoted science as fun for students nationwide, died at his home
of liver cancer. He was 65.
Scaife, an instructor at Union College, helped a student develop an experiment
for growing crystals in space that was to be performed aboard the space shuttle
Challenger in 1986. After the shuttle exploded, he was invited at speak to
elementary and middle schools about the experiment and the shuttle.
He concluded, however, that teachers were not doing a good job of teaching
science, and embarked on a campaign to show science's lighter side.
He eventually visited 30 states and 40,000 students and performed such
experiments as dragging a magnet through some breakfast cereal to prove that it
did contain iron.
Born in Williamsport, Pa., Scaife was the son of a math teacher. He earned his
undergraduate and doctorates from Cornell. He served in the Navy, and was a
National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of York in
England in 1967.
___
Larry Shippey
ATLANTA (AP) — Tennis player and coach Larry Shippey died Tuesday of cancer.
He was 87.
Shippey won six national senior doubles championships in the 1960s, partnering
with Bitsy Grant, winner of more than 50 national titles.
Shippey, who was inducted into the Georgia Tennis Hall of Fame in 1984, also
won doubles tournaments with former Georgia Tech football coach Bobby Dodd and
Tom Bird, a member of the Georgia Tennis Hall of Fame.
He served as a flight instructor in the Naval Air Corps starting in 1940, and
later he founded Georgia Builders, a construction company.