2016 Obituaries

[JustAnotherNut]

Here, this one's better anyway

 

[Alex.]

Here, this one's better anyway

nice talent, in the end just another sad story.

 

[JustAnotherNut]

George Gaynes Dies; ‘Police Academy’ & ‘Punky Brewster’ Regular Was 98

Is it really going to be like this throughout the year? Almost everyday another passes?

 

[Auld Phart]

Harper Lee, Writer

Harper Lee, author of "To Kill a Mockingbird,' dies - county official

 

[waltky]

Harper Lee, Author of To Kill a Mockingbird passes on at 89...

Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird author, dies aged 89
Friday 19 February 2016 - Writer whose 1961 novel became a defining text of 20th-century literature and of racial troubles in the American south has died in Monroeville, Alabama

Harper Lee, whose 1961 novel To Kill a Mockingbird became a national institution and the defining text on the racial troubles of the American deep south, has died at the age of 89. Lee, or Nelle as she was known to those close to her, had lived for several years in a nursing home less than a mile from the house in which she had grown up in Monroeville, Alabama – the setting for the fictional Maycomb of her famous book. The town’s mayor, Mike Kennedy, confirmed the author’s death. Until last year, Lee had been something of a one-book literary wonder. To Kill a Mockingbird, her 1961 epic narrative about small-town lawyer Atticus Finch’s battle to save the life of a black resident threatened by a racist mob, sold more than 40 million copies around the world and earned her a Pulitzer prize. George Bush awarded her the presidential medal of freedom in 2007.

But from the moment Mockingbird was published to almost instant success the author consistently avoided public attention and insisted that she had no intention of releasing further works. That self-imposed purdah ended abruptly when, amid considerable controversy, it was revealed a year ago that a second novel had been discovered which was published as Go Set a Watchman in July 2015. The house where Lee lived for years with her sister Alice sat quiet and empty on Friday. The inside of the house appeared unchanged from when she lived there – antique furniture was stacked with books, audio cassettes and gift baskets. Her neighbor for 40 years, Sue Sellers, said Lee would have appreciated the quiet. “She was such a private person,” she said. “All she wanted was privacy, but she didn’t get much. There always somebody following her around."

In recent years Lee’s health had declined. Seller said the last time she spent any real time with Lee they went to breakfast together. “The whole way home she drove her big car in the turn lane,” she said. “She couldn’t see. I was scared to death.” The last time she saw Lee was a few months ago at the Meadows nursing home. Sellers brought flowers. “She just hollered out: ‘I can’t see and I can’t hear!’” Sellers said. “So I just told her goodbye.” Lee was born in Monroeville in 1926 and grew up under the stresses of segregation. As a child she shared summers with another aspiring writer, Truman Capote, who annually came to stay in the house next door to hers and who later invited her to accompany him to Holcomb, Kansas, to help him research his groundbreaking 1966 crime book In Cold Blood.

Capote informed the figure of the young boy Dill in Mockingbird, with his friend the first-person narrator Scout clearly modelled on the childhood Lee herself. Lee was the youngest child of lawyer Amasa Coleman Lee and Frances Finch Lee. Her father acted as the template for Atticus Finch whose resolute courtroom dignity as he struggles to represent a black man, Tom Robinson, accused of raping a white woman provides the novel’s ethical backbone. Last year’s publication of Go Set a Watchman obliged bewildered fans of the novel to reappraise the character of Finch. In that novel, which was in fact the first draft of Mockingbird that had been rejected by her publisher, Finch was portrayed as having been a supporter of the South’s Jim Crow laws, saying at one point: “Do you want Negroes by the carload in our schools and churches and theaters?”

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[JustAnotherNut]

Country Singer Joey Feek Dies at 40

 

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Conrack passes on...

'Prince of Tides' author Pat Conroy dies at 70
5 Mar.`16 - Pat Conroy, the beloved author of "The Great Santini" and "The Prince of Tides" and other best-sellers who drew upon his bruising childhood and the vistas of South Carolina and became one of the country's most compelling and popular storytellers, died Friday evening. He was 70.

Conroy, who announced last month that he had pancreatic cancer, died at home among family and loved ones in Beaufort, South Carolina, according to his publisher. The heavy-set author had battled other health problems in recent years, including diabetes, high blood pressure and a failing liver. "The water is wide and he has now passed over," his wife, novelist Cassandra Conroy, said in a statement from publisher Doubleday. South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley tweeted: "We can find comfort knowing his words and love for SC will live on." Funeral arrangements were still being made.

In this Oct. 20, 2000 file photo, author Pat Conroy receives an honorary doctor of letters degree during a ceremony on the parade grounds of The Citadel, in Charleston, S.C. Presenting the honorary degree is Leonard Fulghum, chairman of the college's governing board, left. Conroy, whose best-selling novels drew from his own sometimes painful experiences and evoked vistas of the South Carolina coast and its people, has died at age 70. Todd Doughty, executive director of publicity at publisher Doubleday, says Conroy died Friday evening, March 4, 2016, at his home in Beaufort surrounded by family and loved ones.​

Few contemporary authors seemed more knowable to their readers over than Conroy. An openly personal writer, he candidly and expansively shared details of growing up as a "military brat" and his anguished relationship with his abusive father, Marine aviator and military hero Donald Conroy. He also wrote of his time in military school and his struggles with his health and depression. "The reason I write is to explain my life to myself," Conroy said in a 1986 interview. "I've also discovered that when I do, I'm explaining other people's lives to them."

His books sold more than 20 million copies worldwide, but for much of his youth he crouched in the shadow of Donald Conroy, who "thundered out of the sky in black-winged fighter planes, every inch of him a god of war," as Pat Conroy would remember. The author was the eldest of seven children in a family constantly moving from base to base, a life readers and moviegoers would learn well from "The Great Santini" as a novel and film, which starred Robert Duvall as the relentless and violent patriarch.

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Nancy Reagan passes on...

Former first lady Nancy Reagan dies at 94 in California
Mar 6,`16 -- Nancy Reagan, the helpmate, backstage adviser and fierce protector of Ronald Reagan in his journey from actor to president - and finally during his 10-year battle with Alzheimer's disease - has died. She was 94. The former first lady died Sunday at her home in the Bel-Air section of Los Angeles of congestive heart failure, assistant Allison Borio told The Associated Press.

Her best-known project as first lady was the "Just Say No" campaign to help kids and teens stay off drugs. When she swept into the White House in 1981, the former Hollywood actress partial to designer gowns and pricey china was widely dismissed as a pre-feminist throwback, concerned only with fashion, decorating and entertaining. By the time she moved out eight years later, Mrs. Reagan was fending off accusations that she was a behind-the-scenes "dragon lady" wielding unchecked power over the Reagan administration - and doing it based on astrology to boot. All along she maintained that her only mission was to back her "Ronnie" and strengthen his presidency.

Mrs. Reagan carried that charge through the rest of her days. She served as a full-time caretaker as Alzheimer's melted away her husband's memory. After his death in June 2004 she dedicated herself to tending his legacy, especially at his presidential library in California, where he had served as governor. She also championed Alzheimer's patients, raising millions of dollars for research and breaking with fellow conservative Republicans to advocate for stem cell studies. Her dignity and perseverance in these post-White House roles helped smooth over the public's fickle perceptions of the former first lady.

President Ronald Reagan and first lady Nancy Reagan wave to onlookers at the Capitol building as they stand at the podium in Washington following the swearing in ceremony. The former first lady has died at 94​

The Reagans' mutual devotion over 52 years of marriage was legendary. They were forever holding hands. She watched his political speeches with a look of such steady adoration it was dubbed "the gaze." He called her "Mommy," and penned a lifetime of gushing love notes. She saved these letters, published them as a book, and found them a comfort when he could no longer remember her. After Reagan was shot by John Hinckley just three months into his presidency, he was said to have famously wisecracked to her, "Honey, I forgot to duck."

In announcing his Alzheimer's diagnosis in 1994, Reagan wrote, "I only wish there was some way I could spare Nancy from this painful experience." Ten years later, as his body lay in state in the U.S. Capitol, Mrs. Reagan caressed and gently kissed the flag-draped casket. In a statement Sunday, U.S. President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama spoke of the Reagan's journey with Alzheimer's disease. "Later, in her long goodbye with President Reagan, she became a voice on behalf of millions of families going through the depleting, aching reality of Alzheimer's, and took on a new role, as advocate, on behalf of treatments that hold the potential and the promise to improve and save lives," the Obama's said.

As the newly arrived first lady, Mrs. Reagan raised more than $800,000 from private donors to redo the White House family quarters and to buy a $200,000 set of china bordered in red, her signature color. She was criticized for financing these pet projects with donations from millionaires who might seek influence with the government, and for accepting gifts and loans of dresses worth thousands of dollars from top designers. Her lavish lifestyle - in the midst of a recession and with her husband's administration cutting spending on the needy - inspired the mocking moniker "Queen Nancy."

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Email inventor Ray Tomlinson dies at 74
Sun, 06 Mar 2016 - Internet pioneer Ray Tomlinson, who is credited with the invention of email, dies at the age of 74.

The US computer programmer came up with the idea of electronic messages that could be sent from one network to another in 1971. His invention included the ground-breaking use of the @ symbol in email addresses, which is now standard. Tomlinson died of an apparent heart attack on Saturday, according to reports.

He sent what is now regarded as the first email while working in Boston as an engineer for research company Bolt, Beranek and Newman. The firm played a big role in developing an early version of the internet, known as Arpanet.

However, Tomlinson later said he could not remember what was in that first test message, describing it as "completely forgettable". His work was recognised by his peers in 2012, when he was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame.

Email inventor Ray Tomlinson dies at 74 - BBC News

 

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Sir George Martin, original producer of the Beatles passes on at 90...

George Martin, guided the Beatles to global fame, dies at 90
Mar 9,`16 -- George Martin, the Beatles' urbane producer who quietly guided the band's swift, historic transformation from rowdy club act to musical and cultural revolutionaries, has died, his management said Wednesday. He was 90.

Too modest to claim the title of the fifth Beatle, the tall, elegant Londoner produced some of the most popular and influential albums of modern times - "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," ''Revolver," ''Rubber Soul," ''Abbey Road" - elevating rock LPs to art forms: "concepts." Martin won six Grammys and was inducted in 1999 into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Three years earlier, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.

Former Beatle Paul McCartney said Martin had been "a true gentleman and like a second father to me." "If anyone earned the title of the fifth Beatle it was George," McCartney said. "From the day that he gave the Beatles our first recording contract, to the last time I saw him, he was the most generous, intelligent and musical person I've ever had the pleasure to know." Beatles drummer Ringo Starr tweeted earlier: "God bless George Martin peace and love to Judy and his family love Ringo and Barbara. George will be missed."

Sir George Martin, the Beatles producer, makes an appearance during "An All-Star Tribute to Brian Wilson" concert at New York's Radio City Music Hall. George Martin, the Beatles' urbane producer who guided, assisted and stood aside through the band's swift, historic transformation from rowdy club act to musical and cultural revolutionaries, has died, his management said Wednesday, March 9, 2016. He was 90.​

Martin both witnessed and enabled the extraordinary metamorphosis of the Beatles and of the 1960s. From a raw first album in 1962 that took just a day to make, to the months-long production of "Sgt. Pepper," the Beatles advanced rapidly as songwriters and sonic explorers. They composed dozens of classics, from "She Loves You" to "Hey Jude," and turned the studio into a wonderland of tape loops, multi-tracking, unpredictable tempos, unfathomable segues and kaleidoscopic montages.

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George Martin, the perfect catalyst for the Beatles' success
Mar 9,`16 - The Beatles were a miracle not only of talent, but of chemistry. No producer was better suited for them than the resourceful and open-minded Sir George Martin, who dedicated himself to serving their vision instead of imposing his own. And no act Martin worked with before or after approached the Beatles' historic power.

Martin, the elegant Londoner behind the band's swift transformation from rowdy club act to musical and cultural revolutionaries, was remembered Wednesday with tributes to his rarely erring taste, his musicianship and his contribution to developing the technology of pop music. "If anyone earned the title of the fifth Beatle it was George," Paul McCartney said Wednesday following the announcement of Martin's death at age 90.

Many felt he deserved the title, but he was too modest to claim it while producing some of the most beloved songs and most popular and influential albums of modern times - "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," ''Revolver," ''Rubber Soul," ''Abbey Road" - elevating rock LPs from ways to cash in on hit singles to art forms, "concepts." From a raw first album in 1962 that took a day to make, to the months-long production of "Sgt. Pepper" just five years later, Martin would preside, assist and sometimes stand aside as the Beatles advanced by giant steps as songwriters and sonic explorers.

Musician Ringo Starr, center, and Beatles producer Sir George Martin accept the best compilation soundtrack album award for "Love" during the 50th annual Grammy awards held at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. George Martin, the producer who guided the Beatles to astounding heights, has died, his manager said on March 9, 2016. He was 90.​

They composed dozens of classics, from "She Loves You" to "Hey Jude," and turned the studio into a wonderland of backward tape loops, multi-tracking, unpredictable tempos, unfathomable segues and kaleidoscopic montages. Never again would rock music be defined by two-minute love songs or guitar-bass-drums arrangements. "Once we got beyond the bubblegum stage, the early recordings, and they wanted to do something more adventurous, they were saying, 'What can you give us?'" Martin told The Associated Press in 2002. "And I said, 'I can give you anything you like.'"

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Keith Emerson, keyboardist for Emerson, Lake and Palmer dies of suicide...

Progressive rock legend Emerson dies
Sat, 12 Mar 2016 - Progressive rock legend Keith Emerson of Emerson, Lake and Palmer dies of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, aged 71, police tell the BBC.

Keith Emerson, the co-founder and keyboardist of progressive rock group Emerson, Lake and Palmer, has died aged 71, according to his former bandmates. "We regret to announce that Keith Emerson died last night at his home in Santa Monica, Los Angeles," read a statement on the band's Facebook page. Emerson was considered one of the top keyboard players of the prog rock era. He died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, Santa Monica police confirmed to the BBC. His death was being investigated as a suicide, police added. A police spokesman said Emerson's body was found in the early hours of Friday morning by his girlfriend Mari Kawaguchi at their flat in the Californian city.

Former bandmate Carl Palmer said: "I am deeply saddened to learn of the passing of my good friend and brother-in-music, Keith Emerson. "Keith was a gentle soul whose love for music and passion for his performance as a keyboard player will remain unmatched for many years to come." Inspired by Jimi Hendrix's theatrics with the electric guitar, Emerson was famous for his showmanship and outlandish on-stage performance style. "That part of the act was something that just felt natural to do; something that allowed me be more expressive," he told Counterculture magazine. ELP achieved an international following and were particularly popular in Britain and Japan. Several of the group's albums, including Tarkus, Trilogy, and Brain Salad Surgery entered the top five on the British chart.

Tarkus, released in 1971, featured an opening track lasting more than 20 minutes, inspired by the fictional Tarkus character - a half-tank, half-armadillo creature that would appear on stage at gigs. Before ELP, Emerson was a member of The Nice, which formed in 1967 but disbanded three years later. In later life he pursued a solo career and remained active in the music business. He was forced to call off a tour in 2010 due to abnormal growth in his colon, but had a tour of Japan scheduled for next month. His last concert took place in July 2015 at the Barbican in London, where he performed alongside the BBC Concert Orchestra in a tribute to Robert Moog, the inventor of the Moog synthesizer. He was born in Yorkshire in 1944.

Progressive rock legend Emerson dies - BBC News

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Keith Emerson of Emerson, Lake and Palmer Dies at 71
Mar 11 2016 — Keith Emerson, founder and keyboardist of the progressive-rock band Emerson, Lake and Palmer, has died, his longtime partner announced Friday. He was 71.

Mari Kawaguchi said she found Emerson dead at around 1:30 a.m. at their condominium in the coastal suburb of Santa Monica, California but he could have died Thursday evening or night. She declined to disclose the cause of his death. "Keith was a gentle soul whose love for music and passion for his performance as a keyboard player will remain unmatched for many years to come," his former bandmate, drummer Carl Palmer, said in a statement. "He was a pioneer and an innovator whose musical genius touched all of us in the worlds of rock, classical and jazz. I will always remember his warm smile, good sense of humor, compelling showmanship and dedication to his musical craft. I am very lucky to have known him and to have made the music we did together."

Kawaguchi said Emerson was able to compose without any instrument. "He was just natural. The music was always in his head, always," she said. "Even when he was sleeping, you know, I could tell he was always thinking about music. Sometimes he would wake up and compose music. And it was all so, so beautiful."

Keith Emerson, Greg Lake and Carl Palmer of "Emerson, Lake and Palmer" in 1973.​

Emerson, Palmer and vocalist/guitarist Greg Lake were giants of progressive rock in the 1970s, recording six platinum-selling albums. They and other hit groups such as Pink Floyd, the Moody Blues and Genesis stepped away from rock's emphasis on short songs with dance beats, instead creating albums with ornate pieces full of complicated rhythms, intricate chords and time signature changes. The orchestrations drew on classical and jazz styles and sometimes wedded traditional rock instruments with full orchestras. Emerson, Lake and Palmer's 1973 album "Brain Salad Surgery" included a nearly 30-minute composition called "Karn Evil 9" that featured a Moog synthesizer and the eerie, carnival-like lyric: "Welcome back my friends, to the show that never ends."

A musical prodigy, Emerson was born in Todmorden, Yorkshire in England. By his late teens, he was playing in blues and jazz clubs in London. He helped form one of the first progressive rock groups, the Nice, before hooking up with Lake and Palmer in 1970 and debuting with them at the Isle of Wight Festival, shows that also featured Jimi Hendrix and the Who. Although it filled stadiums, ELP also was ridiculed as the embodiment of the pomposity and self-indulgence that rock supposedly stood against. When the punk movement took off in the mid-'70s, the band was a special target, openly loathed by the Sex Pistols' Johnny Rotten among others.

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[JustAnotherNut]

Jazz great Ernestine Anderson dies

 

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More tribute to Keith Emerson...

Keith Emerson of Emerson, Lake and Palmer dies at 71
March 11, 2016 — Keith Emerson, founder and keyboardist of the progressive-rock band Emerson, Lake and Palmer, has died. He was 71.

Emerson's longtime partner, Mari Kawaguchi, called police to his condominium in Santa Monica, California, at about 1:30 a.m. on Friday. Emerson had an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, and authorities are investigating his death as a possible suicide. Kawaguchi told police that Emerson could have died anywhere between Thursday evening and Friday morning. Emerson, Palmer and vocalist/guitarist Greg Lake were giants of progressive rock in the 1970s, recording six platinum-selling albums. They and other hit groups such as Pink Floyd, the Moody Blues and Genesis stepped away from rock's emphasis on short songs with dance beats, instead creating albums with ornate pieces full of complicated rhythms, intricate chords and time signature changes. The orchestrations drew on classical and jazz styles and sometimes wedded traditional rock instruments with full orchestras.

Emerson, Lake and Palmer's 1973 album "Brain Salad Surgery" included a nearly 30-minute composition called "Karn Evil 9" that featured a Moog synthesizer and the eerie, carnival-like lyric: "Welcome back my friends, to the show that never ends." A musical prodigy, Emerson was born in Todmorden, Yorkshire in England. By his late teens, he was playing in blues and jazz clubs in London. He helped form one of the first progressive rock groups, the Nice, before hooking up with Lake and Palmer in 1970 and debuting with them at the Isle of Wight Festival, shows that also featured Jimi Hendrix and the Who. Although it filled stadiums, ELP also was ridiculed as the embodiment of the pomposity and self-indulgence that rock supposedly stood against. When the punk movement took off in the mid-'70s, the band was a special target, openly loathed by the Sex Pistols' Johnny Rotten among others.

Keith Emerson attends the 2015 National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) show in Anaheim, Calif. Emerson, the keyboardist and founding member of the 1970s progressive rock group Emerson, Lake and Palmer, died Thursday, March 10, 2016, at home in Santa Monica, Calif. He was 71.​

Years later, Rotten (then calling himself John Lydon) and Emerson became friends, Lydon told News of the World in 2007. "He's a great bloke," Lydon said. "I've told Keith in no uncertain terms that what put me off his band were those 20-minute organ solos and that film of their convoy of trucks crossing America." ELP broke up in 1979, reunited in 1991, later disbanded again and reunited one last time for a 2010 tour. Throughout, Emerson continued to compose and perform, sometimes solo and other times with various musicians, including Lake. Emerson's former bandmate, drummer Carl Palmer, said in a statement that Emerson "was a pioneer and an innovator whose musical genius touched all of us in the worlds of rock, classical and jazz."

Despite his influence, Emerson never considered himself a rock or pop icon and his true musical devotion lay elsewhere. "At home, he either listened to either classical or jazz. We never listened to rock," Kawaguchi said. "He hated being called rock star or prog-rock star...he wanted to be known as composer," she said. "He never succumbed to being commercially successful. He had no interest. He always said: 'I'm not a rock star. I've never been a rock star. All I want is to play music.'" Kawaguchi said Emerson was able to compose without any instrument. "He was just natural. The music was always in his head, always," she said. "Even when he was sleeping, you know, I could tell he was always thinking about music. Sometimes he would wake up and compose music. And it was all so, so beautiful."

Emerson had been composing and working with internationally known symphonies, including two in Germany and Japan, and was about to embark on a short tour in Japan starting on April 14 with his band, Kawaguchi said. His work included a classical piano concerto. "All these people from the classical world were playing his music," she said. "When he was young, he was using classical music for rock and now the wheel has turned and now the classical world is using his compositions."

Keith Emerson of Emerson, Lake and Palmer dies at 71

 

[waltky]

Jazz singer Ernestine Anderson dies at 87...

Jazz singer and Grammy nominee Ernestine Anderson dies at 87
14 Mar.`16 — Ernestine Anderson, the internationally celebrated jazz vocalist who earned four Grammy nominations during a six-decade career, has died. She was 87.

The King County Medical Examiner's Office said Sunday that it received a report that Anderson died of natural causes Thursday at a nursing home in Shoreline. The jazz and blues singer performed all over the world, from the Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall to festivals in South America, Japan and Europe, The Seattle Times reported (Jazz great Ernestine Anderson dies ). She toured widely and sang with bands led by Los Angeles R&B singer Johnny Otis and swing-band leader Lionel Hampton. She performed at the presidential inauguration of Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Childhood friend and producer Quincy Jones once described her voice as the sound of "honey at dusk." Anderson, who was born in Houston to a construction worker and homemaker, began singing in church when she was 3 years old. She won a talent contest when she was 12 and sang at Houston's Eldorado Ballroom once a week for about four months. Her family moved to Seattle in 1944 where she attended Garfield High School and began singing with the Bumps Blackwell Junior Band, featuring Jones, saxophonist Buddy Catlett and others. She left home at 18 to hit the road with Otis' band. She recorded her first single "K.C. Lover/Good Lovin' Babe" in 1948 and also married for the first time.

Over the decades, she moved between Los Angeles, New York and Europe but often returned to Seattle. While in New York, Anderson recorded with Jones, Russell Jacquet, tenor saxophonist Clifford "King" Solomon and others, the newspaper reported. Frustrated with her slow career growth in New York, Anderson joined Swedish bandleader Rolf Ericson to tour Europe. While there, she recorded an album, "Hot Cargo," that was later released by Mercury Records in 1958 to rave reviews.

Time Magazine at the time called her "the best-kept jazz secret in the land" and critics of the country's leading jazz magazine, Down Beat, celebrated her as a "new star" of the year, The Seattle Times reported. Anderson released six albums on Mercury Records, including the much-praised "Moanin,'" but her career subsided in the 1960s. In 1966, she returned to Seattle from London and quit singing. She re-emerged, however, in the 1970s and signed with the Concord Jazz label. Anderson released "Hello, Like Before" in 1977. More than a dozen albums followed over the next 15 years.

Jazz singer and Grammy nominee Ernestine Anderson dies at 87

 

[Auld Phart]

Frank Sinatra Jr

Frank Sinatra, Jr. dies of heart attack at 72

 

[Howey]

Frank Sinatra Jr

Frank Sinatra, Jr. dies of heart attack at 72

He was here in town for a show. Guess he didn't make it.

 

[Auld Phart]

Paul Daniels, Magician

Obituary: Paul Daniels - BBC News

 

[Auld Phart]

Joe Santos

'The Rockford Files' Actor Joe Santos Dead at 84

 

[Auld Phart]

Robert Horton, of Wagon Train, and A Man called Shenandoah, passed away at the age of 91 on 9 March, 2016.

Robert Horton (I) - News

 

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Andy Grove passes on...

Intel mastermind, Silicon Valley statesman Andy Grove dead at 79
Mon Mar 21, 2016 - Andy Grove, the Silicon Valley elder statesman who made Intel into the world's top chipmaker and helped usher in the personal computer age, died on Tuesday at age 79, Intel said.

The company did not describe the circumstances of his death but Grove, who endured the Nazi occupation of Hungary during World War Two, living under a fake name, and came to the United States to escape the chaos of Soviet rule, had suffered from Parkinson's. Grove was Intel’s first hire after it was founded in 1968 and became the practical-minded member of a triumvirate that eventually led “Intel Inside” processors to be used in more than 80 percent of the world’s personal computers.

With his motto "only the paranoid survive," which became the title of his best-selling management book, Grove championed an innovative environment within Intel that became a blueprint for successful California startups. Grove, who was named man of the year by Time magazine in 1997, encouraged disagreement and insisted employees be vigilant of disruptions in industry and technology that could be major dangers - or opportunities - for Intel. In doing so, he could be mercurial and demanding with employees who he thought were not doing enough and in 1981 required the staff to work two extra hours a day with no extra pay.

Silicon Valley elder statesman Andy Grove.​

Grove's overhaul of Intel’s business - switching from digital memory to processors - was an early example of his obsession with detecting major shifts in business and technology and staying flexible enough to move quickly and make the most of them. "It's not that you shouldn't plan but you should not regard your plans to be anything more than a baseline model of what might happen,” Grove said.

While Intel founders Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore proposed much of the chip technology that helped created the semiconductor industry, Grove was the stickler for detail who turned their ideas into actual products. He was responsible for driving growth in Intel’s profits and stock price through the 1980s and 1990s.

NAZIS, COMMUNISTS

 

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Ex Toronto mayor Rob Ford dies at age 46...

Rob Ford, Toronto ex-mayor, dies aged 46 from cancer
22 March 2016 - Former Toronto Mayor Rob Ford has died at the age of 46 after fighting cancer, his family has said.

Mr Ford, who battled drug and alcohol addiction, was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer in 2014. He gained international notoriety after admitting smoking crack cocaine in 2013, but he was loved by supporters. "A dedicated man of the people, Councillor Ford spent his life serving the citizens of Toronto," his family said in a statement. He could not run for re-election as mayor in 2014 due to his cancer diagnosis, but won a city council seat in a landslide result. His image contrasted sharply with Canada's usual calm, buttoned-up politics.

Reacting to his death, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted: "Rob Ford fought cancer with courage and determination. My condolences and best wishes to the Ford family today." The current mayor of Toronto, John Tory, said in a statement that "the city is reeling with this news". "He was a man who spoke his mind and who ran for office because of the deeply felt convictions that he had. "I know there are many who were affected by his gregarious nature and approach to public service.''

Scandal

While serving as Toronto mayor, Mr Ford was videotaped and photographed intoxicated in public areas. "Yes, I have smoked crack cocaine," Mr Ford told reporters. "But... do I? Am I addict? No. Have I tried it? Probably in one of my drunken stupors, probably approximately about a year ago." Despite the crack-smoking scandal, his popularity remained high with fans lining up to take photo with him.

He appealed to conservative, working-class people with his populist message. Many of his supporters in the 2010 Toronto mayoral election came from the outer suburbs of the city. One of his key campaign promises was to "stop the gravy train" of government spending and he pledged to end "the war on the car".

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