Rangerland Forum Information

[Giac]

Once again, I'm going to try to keep these together in one thread so I don't clutter up the boards.

Former Baseball Commissioner Kuhn Dies

Kuhn, who oversaw the sport's transformation to a business of free agents with multimillion-dollar contracts, died Thursday at St. Luke's Hospital in Jacksonville, Fla., following a short bout with pneumonia that led to respiratory failure, spokesman Bob Wirz said. Kuhn, who was 80, had been hospitalized for several weeks.

[Giac]

`Amityville' Director Rosenberg Dies

Stuart Rosenberg, a prolific director of series television and theatrical films who partnered with Paul Newman on the widely popular prison drama "Cool Hand Luke" and several other movies, has died at 79.

[Lester Patrick]

Woody Harrelson's Dad dies in prison.

[Lester Patrick]

Fans of the David Letterman show are in morning:

The balding, bespectacled nebbish who gained cult status as the oddball Larry "Bud" Melman on David Letterman's late night television shows has died after a long illness. The Brooklyn-born Calvert DeForest, who was 85, died Monday at a hospital on Long Island, the Letterman show announced Wednesday. He made dozens of appearances on Letterman's shows from 1982 through 2002, handling a variety of twisted duties: dueting with Sonny Bono on "I Got You, Babe," doing a Mary Tyler Moore impression during a visit to Minneapolis, handing out hot towels to arrivals at the Port Authority Bus Terminal.

"Everyone always wondered if Calvert was an actor playing a character, but in reality he was just himself — a genuine, modest and nice man," Letterman said in a statement. "To our staff and to our viewers, he was a beloved and valued part of our show, and we will miss him."

http://tv.msn.com/tv/article.aspx?news=255...=7703&mpc=1

[Lester Patrick]

For all of you computer geeks: one of the inventors of FORTRAN has passed:

Fortran, released in 1957, was "the turning point" in computer software, much as the microprocessor was a giant step forward in hardware, according to J.A.N. Lee, a leading computer historian.

Fortran changed the terms of communication between humans and computers, moving up a level to a language that is more comprehensible by humans. Fortran, in computing vernacular, is considered the first successful higher-level language.

Backus and his youthful team, then all in their 20s and 30s, devised a programming language that resembled a combination of English shorthand and algebra. Fortran, short for the IBM Mathematical Formula Translating System, was very similar to the algebraic formulas that scientists and engineers used in their daily work. With some training, they were no longer dependent on a programming priesthood to translate their science and engineering problems into a language a computer would understand.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/03/20/news/obits.php

[Lester Patrick]

One of the pioneers of the MRI, Paul Lauterbur (Nobel Prize 2003)

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/03/28/news/obits.php

How many lives have been saved because of his work!

[Lester Patrick]

The last known surviving American female World War I veteran, a refined Civil War buff who in 1916 met with the secretary of the Navy to promote women in the military, has died. She was 109.

Charlotte Winters died Tuesday at a nursing home near Boonsboro in northwest Maryland, the U.S. Naval District in Washington announced. Her death leaves just five known surviving American World War I veterans.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/03/28/wwi.veteran.ap/index.html

The website has a photo of her from last year. And she did not look 109!

[Giac]

'A Christmas Story' director, son killed in crash

Film director Bob Clark, best known for the holiday classic "A Christmas Story," was killed with his son Wednesday in a head-on crash with a vehicle that a drunken driver steered into the wrong lane, police and the filmmaker's assistant said.

Clark, 67, and son Ariel Hanrath-Clark, 22, were killed in the accident in Pacific Palisades, said Lyne Leavy, Clark's personal assistant.

[Giac]

I missed this one the other day....

Legendary Grambling Coach Robinson Dies

To his very last day, Eddie Robinson was always battling something. There was the institutional racism that surrounded him, the piddling football budget he and his coaching staff subsisted on at predominantly black Grambling State and, ultimately, the Alzheimer's disease that took his life at age 88.

"Today we mourn the loss of a great Louisianan and a true American hero," Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco said. "Coach Eddie Robinson became the most successful college coach of all time and one of the greatest civil rights pioneers in our history. ... Coach Robinson elevated a small town program to national prominence and tore down barriers to achieve an equal playing field for athletes of all races."

[Giac]

They're dropping like flies....

Ex-ABC Chief Tom Moore Dies at Age 88

Tom Moore, who in the 1960s helped the fledgling ABC Television Network become a competitive rival of CBS and NBC, has died. He was 88.

Moore was also instrumental in developing the ABC Sports division, which won several Emmys for "ABC's Wide World of Sports" and Olympics coverage.

He hired sports producer Roone Arledge, who would become a legend, and helped create "Monday Night Football."

[Lester Patrick]

Darryl Stingley:

Stingley's neck was broken by a hard but legal hit by the Oakland Raiders' Jack Tatum and was made a quadriplegic.

There was no penalty called on Tatum's hit on August 12, 1978 and the two never reconciled.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070405/sp_nm/nfl_stingley_dc_1

[Lester Patrick]

Johnny Hart, creator of "B.C." and "Wizard of Id" comic strips:

"B.C.," populated by prehistoric cavemen and dinosaurs, was launched in 1958 and eventually appeared in more than 1,300 newspapers with an audience of 100 million, according to Creators Syndicate, Inc., which distributes it.

After he graduated from Union-Endicott High School, Hart met Brant Parker, a young cartoonist who became a prime influence and co-creator with Hart of the "Wizard of Id" comic strip.

http://home.peoplepc.com/psp/newsstory.asp...704081390344191

[Giac]

Emmy-winning actor Roscoe Lee Browne dies at 81

Actor Roscoe Lee Browne, whose rich voice and dignified bearing brought him an Emmy Award and a Tony nomination, has died. He was 81.

Browne died early Wednesday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center after a long battle with cancer, said Alan Nierob, a spokesman for the family.

Browne's career ranged from classic theater to TV cartoons. He also was a poet and a former world-class athlete.

He was great as Mr. Nightlinger in the John Wayne classic The Cowboys.

[Giac]

Zenji Abe, the enemy who became a friend

It was a memorable moment when three Pearl Harbor survivors accepted an offer from a former enemy fighter pilot who participated in the Dec. 7, 1941 attack to shake hands on a live national TV show in 1991.

The pilot was Zenji Abe, a frequent visitor to Hawai'i who dedicated his life to reconciliation and peace between American and Japanese veterans in the years following the 50-year commemoration of the attack that drew the United States into World War II.

Abe died April 6 in Ibaraki Prefecture, north of Tokyo, from a heart condition, according to an Asahi Shimbun newspaper report. He was 90. His funeral was held Monday in Ibaraki.

I met Abe-san in 1991, covering the 50th Anniversary of Pearl Harbor Commemorations here for the local CBS station. He was a gentleman warrior who wanted nothing more than to heal the wounds that World War II caused, and his passing saddens me.

[Giac]

Former Russian Leader Boris Yeltsin Dies

Former President Boris Yeltsin, who engineered the final collapse of the Soviet Union and pushed Russia to embrace democracy and a market economy, died Monday. He was 76. Kremlin spokesman Alexander Smirnov confirmed Yeltsin's death, and Russian news agencies cited Sergei Mironov, head of the presidential administration's medical center, as saying the former president died Monday of heart failure at the Central Clinical Hospital.

[Giac]

Author David Halberstam Dies in Crash

David Halberstam, a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer who chronicled the Vietnam War generation, civil rights and the world of sports, was killed in a car crash Monday, his wife and local authorities said. He was 73.

Halberstam, of New York, was a passenger in a car that was broadsided by another vehicle in Menlo Park, south of San Francisco, San Mateo County Coroner Robert Foucrault said. The cause of death appeared to be internal injuries, he said.....

.....Halberstam was working on a book, "The Game," about the 1958 NFL championship between the Baltimore Colts and the New York Giants, often called the greatest game ever played, said his wife, Jean Halberstam.

[Nilan 666]

Former Russian Leader Boris Yeltsin Dies

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story...th_of_a_drunk/1

A horribly vicious obituary of the man.

[Giac]

Film industry chief Jack Valenti dies

Jack Valenti, the former White House aide and film industry lobbyist who instituted the modern movie ratings system and guided Hollywood from the censorship era to the digital age, died Thursday. He was 85.

[Giac]

'Monster Mash' singer dead at 69

He does the "Monster Mash" no more.

Bobby "Boris" Pickett, whose dead-on Boris Karloff impression propelled the Halloween anthem to the top of the charts in 1962, making him one of pop music's most enduring one-hit wonders, has died of leukemia. He was 69.

Pickett, dubbed "The Guy Lombardo of Halloween," died Wednesday night at the West Los Angeles Veterans Hospital, said his longtime manager, Stuart Hersh. His daughter, Nancy, and his sister, Lynda, were at Pickett's bedside.

"Monster Mash" hit the Billboard chart three times: when it debuted in 1962, reaching No. 1 the week before Halloween; again in August 1970, and for a third time in May 1973. The resurrections were appropriate for a song where Pickett gravely intoned the forever-stuck-in-your-head chorus: "He did the monster mash. ... It was a graveyard smash."

[Giac]

Crash Kills Cardinals Reliever Hancock

Josh Hancock, a key member of the bullpen that helped the St. Louis Cardinals win the World Series last season, was killed in a car crash early Sunday.

The Cardinals postponed their home game Sunday night against the Chicago Cubs.

Police said the 29-year-old Hancock was alone in his 2007 Ford Explorer when he struck the rear of a tow truck at 12:35 a.m. The truck was in the left lane assisting another vehicle that was involved in a prior accident, officer Pete Mutter said.

Hancock was pronounced dead at the scene. The driver of the tow truck, whose name was not released by police, was in the truck at the time of the crash but was not injured.

[Giac]

Carson's 'Mr. Excitement' dies at 78

Tommy Newsom, the former backup bandleader on "The Tonight Show" whose "Mr. Excitement" nickname was a running joke for Johnny Carson, has died. He was 78.

Newsom died of cancer Saturday at his home in Portsmouth, the city of his birth, according to his nephew, Jim Newsom.

Newsom, who played saxophone, joined "The Tonight Show" in 1962 and rose from band member to assistant music director. He retired along with Carson in 1992.

[Giac]

Character Actor Dabbs Greer Dies at 90

Dabbs Greer, a veteran character actor who played the Rev. Robert Alden in the TV show "Little House on the Prairie," has died. He was 90.

Greer, a Missouri native, died Saturday at Huntington Hospital after a battle with kidney and heart disease, his neighbor, Bill Klukken, told the Los Angeles Times.

[Lester Patrick]

Tom Poston:

On "Mork and Mindy," which starred Robin Williams as a space alien, Poston was Franklin Delano Bickley, the mindless boozer with the annoying dog. On "Newhart," he was George Utley, the handyman who couldn't fix anything at the New England inn run by Newhart's character. And on Newhart's show "Bob," he was the star's dim-bulb former college roommate

http://tv.msn.com/tv/article.aspx?news=260819&GT1=7703


George Utley was one of my favorite tv characters.

[Giac]

Astronaut Walter Schirra Dies at 84

Astronaut Walter M. "Wally" Schirra Jr., one of the original Mercury Seven astronauts and the only man to fly on all three of NASA's early space missions, has died at the age of 84, NASA officials confirmed Thursday.

Schirra, who commanded the first rendezvous of two spacecraft in orbit, died late Wednesday, said David Mould, NASA press secretary in Washington. Mould said Schirra had cancer, but he didn't know if that contributed to his death.

In 1962, Schirra became the third American to orbit the Earth, encircling the globe six times in a flight that lasted more than nine hours.

He was out here in Hawaii Dec 7, 2006, for the opening of the Pacific Aviation Museum on Ford Island, Pearl Harbor. I heard him on the radio (on the station where my wife works), and he sounded great -- wonderful sense of humor, and the DJ's commented this morning that he seemed to be very healthy when he was here. Guess you just never know.....

[Tex]

Astronaut Walter Schirra Dies at 84

reminds me, I need to get my From the Earth to the Moon DVDs back from my brother.

Hit 84 and had space travel to boot? That's good run, Wally. Glad you had the right stuff!

[Giac]

1950s 'Tarzan' Gordon Scott Dies at 80

Gordon Scott, a handsome, muscular actor who portrayed an "intelligent and nice" Tarzan in 1950s movies, has died. He was 80. Scott, who had been living in a working class section of south Baltimore, died Monday at Johns Hopkins Hospital of post-heart surgery complications, a hospital spokesman said.

Scott made 24 movies including "Tarzan and the Lost Safari" (1957), "Tarzan's Fight for Life" (1958), "Tarzan and the Trappers" (1958), "Tarzan's Greatest Adventure" (1959) and "Tarzan the Magnificent" (1960).

The cast in the 1959 movie included Sean Connery and Anthony Quayle.

[leedsy99]

Clicking into this thread is like negative gambling. There's a 90% that whoever died is either someone I don't know or don't care about, but always lingering is the idea that I'll hit someone that will actually bum me out. "Oh no, the guy that played Rerun on 'What's Happening?' is dead -- my day is ruined."

[Giac]

"Oh no, the guy that played Rerun on 'What's Happening?' is dead -- my day is ruined."

Actually, he died almost four years ago.

Fred Berry

[ThunderDawg]

O NOOOOOES!!!

[Giac]

Musician dies hours before performance

Clarinetist Alvin Batiste, who toured with Ray Charles, recorded with Branford Marsalis and taught pianist Henry Butler, died Sunday of an apparent heart attack. He was in his 70s.

Batiste died only hours before he was to perform with Harry Connick Jr. and Marsalis at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, festival officials said.

[Giac]

This one may be a bit more obscure to many of you, but the Platters were an influential group in their day.

Platters Singer Zola Taylor Dies at 69

Zola Taylor, who broke gender barriers in the 1950s as a member of The Platters, harmonizing with her male colleagues on hits like "The Great Pretender," has died, her nephew said Tuesday. She was 69.

Taylor, who later gained attention of a different sort as one of three women who claimed to be pop idol Frankie Lymon's widow, died Monday, said her nephew Alfie Robinson. She had been bedridden following several strokes and died at Parkview Community Hospital in Riverside County from complications of pneumonia, he said.

[Giac]

Televangelist Jerry Falwell dies at age 73

The Rev. Jerry Falwell has died, a Liberty University executive said Tuesday. He was 73.

Earlier, the executive said Falwell was hospitalized in "gravely serious" condition after being found unconscious in his office.

Ron Godwin, the executive vice president of Falwell's Liberty University, said Falwell was found unresponsive around 10:45 a.m. and taken to Lynchburg General Hospital. Godwin said he was not sure what caused the collapse, but "he has a history of heart challenges."

"I had breakfast with him, and he was fine at breakfast," Godwin said. "He went to his office, I went to mine and they found him unresponsive."

[Denis Lemieux]

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story...th_of_a_drunk/1

A horribly vicious obituary of the man.

He sold out as soon as he could and was his whole life a human appendage of a rotting, corrupt state, a crook who would emerge even from the hottest bath still stinking of booze, concrete and sausage.

[Giac]

Yolanda King, daughter of MLK, dies at 51

Yolanda King, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s eldest child who pursued her father's dream of racial harmony through drama and motivational speaking, collapsed and died. She was 51.

King died late Tuesday in Santa Monica, California, said Steve Klein, a spokesman for the King Center. The family did not know the cause of death, but relatives think it might have been a heart problem, he said.

[Lester Patrick]

The main designer of the undersea explorer 'Alvin' has passed:

Harold E. "Bud" Froehlich, 84, the designer and chief engineer of the Alvin deep-sea research vessel, which has located sunken bombs, underwater life forms and the Titanic, died May 19 at St. John's Hospital in Maplewood, Minn. He had multiple myeloma.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...7052201504.html

[Kusand]

I stole this from Fark, but it seemed appropriate.

Dumb Dora Was SO DUMB that when she heard Charles Nelson Reilly had died, instead of praying that he would Rest In Peace she prayed that he would Rest In _______

[Sed]

Dumb Dora Was SO DUMB that when she heard Charles Nelson Reilly had died, instead of praying that he would Rest In Peace she prayed that he would Rest In _______

Gene Rayburn's hairpiece.

RIP, Hoodoo.

[Lester Patrick]

Former Ranger Dave Balon:

http://rangerland.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=1214

[Giac]

'Bang the Drum' Novelist Harris Dies

Mark Harris, best known for baseball novels that included "Bang the Drum Slowly," narrated by the fictional Henry Wiggen, has died. He was 84.

Harris died Wednesday at Cottage Hospital, a month after he broke his hip in a fall and got pneumonia, his wife, Josephine, said Friday from their home in Goleta.

Harris had Alzheimer's disease, she said.

Harris wrote five nonfiction books and 13 novels, including the baseball books "The Southpaw" (1953), "Bang the Drum Slowly" (1956), "A Ticket for a Seamstitch" (1957) and "It Looked Like Forever" (1979).

[Lester Patrick]

Bill France, Jr.

http://msn.foxsports.com/nascar/story/6885574?MSNHPHMA

Bill France Jr., who transformed NASCAR from a small Southern sport into a billion-dollar conglomerate during his 31 years as chairman, died Monday at his Daytona Beach, Fla., home. He was 74.

France, who was diagnosed with cancer in 1999, had been in poor health for much of the last decade. Although he was in remission, the extensive treatments took a toll. He never regained his full strength, often had difficulty breathing and had taken to using a motorized scooter to get around.

This post has been edited by Lester Patrick: Jun 4 2007, 03:31 PM

[Lester Patrick]

Former Yankee Clete Boyer:

Clete Boyer, the third baseman for the champion New York Yankees teams of the 1960s who made an art form of diving stops and throws from his knees, died Monday. He was 70.

Boyer died in an Atlanta hospital from complications of a brain hemorrhage, son-in-law Todd Gladden said.

"He wanted to be cremated and he wanted his ashes to go in a Yankee urn," Gladden said.

Boyer played from 1955-71 with the Yankees, Kansas City Athletics and Atlanta. He helped the Yankees reach the World Series in five straight years from 1960-64, when they won two titles.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ap-o...p&type=lgns

[Sed]

Mr. Wizard Don Herbert.

[Giac]

Mr. Wizard Don Herbert.

Aw, man......bummer!

[xcheck24]

awww, not mr. wizard!

[Giac]

Wife of evangelist Billy Graham dies

Ruth Graham, who surrendered dreams of missionary work in Tibet to marry a suitor who became the world's most renowned evangelist, died Thursday. She was 87.

[ThunderDawg]

Kurt Waldheim, a former United Nations chief and Austrian president whose reputation was tarnished by disclosures he hid his past in Nazi Germany's officer corps, died on Thursday aged 88.

[Giac]

Ind. Football Coach Terry Hoeppner Dies

Indiana football coach Terry Hoeppner died Tuesday of complications from a brain tumor. He was 59.

Hoeppner, who had two brain surgeries in the past 18 months, spent the last four months on medical leave. He died at 6:50 a.m. at Bloomington Hospital with his family at his side, school spokesman J.D. Campbell said.

"Terry's fight was courageous and will serve as an inspiration to those who have known him," Indiana athletic director Rick Greenspan said in a statement. "This is a truly sad day for our community and all of our thoughts and prayers are with the Hoeppner family and to those whose lives he has touched."

[Lester Patrick]

Hank Medress, whose vocals with the doo wop group the Tokens helped propel their irrepressible single "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" to the top of the charts and who produced hits with other groups, has died of lung cancer. He was 68.

Link

This post has been edited by Lester Patrick: Jun 23 2007, 11:16 PM

[Giac]

Link

"A-wim-a-way-a-wim-a-away-a-wim-a-away-a-wim-a-way.......In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight....."

Sleep well, Hank.......

[Giac]

Iwo Jima Flag Raiser Lindberg Dies at 86

Charles W. Lindberg, one of the U.S. Marines who raised the first American flag over Iwo Jima during World War II, has died. He was 86.

Lindberg died Sunday at Fairview Southdale hospital in the Minneapolis suburb of Edina, said John Pose, director of the Morris Nilsen Funeral Home in Richfield, which is handling Lindberg's funeral.

Lindberg spent decades explaining that it was his patrol, not the one captured in the famous Associated Press photograph by Joe Rosenthal, that raised the first flag as U.S. forces fought to take the Japanese island.