Former White House spokesman Tony Snow developed colon cancer in February 2005 thanks to having suffered from ulcerative colitis for much of his life; he died today from that ailment. Snow was a "Fox News Sunday" anchor, a Fox News Channel political analyst, a guest host for Rush Limbaugh's radio program, the host of Fox News Radio's "The Tony Snow Show", and a NPR commentator. Chief of Staff Josh Bolten told staffers that unless they could commit to staying the full remainder of Bush's term, they should leave by Labor Day 2007, prompting Snow's resignation (due to what he said were financial reasons), where he was succeeded by Dana Perino. He played the guitar, saxophone and flute and was in a band called Beats Workin'. "Bush's wavering conservatism has become an active concern among Republicans, who wish he would stop cowering under the bed and start fighting back against the likes of Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and Joe Wilson," said Snow in a column. "The newly passive George Bush has become something of an embarrassment."
posted on Jul 12, 2008 - View this thread

The World's First Software Engineer David Caminer, the System designer behind LEO, the world's first business computer, has died, aged 92. He was a true pioneer, inventing many of the standards now called systems engineering.
posted on Jul 8, 2008 - View this thread

Eric Lieber, producer of the groundbreaking Dick Cavett and Mike Douglas talk shows as well as the creator of (my own beloved guilty pleasure) Love Connection, has passed away of leukemia at age 71.
posted on Jul 7, 2008 - View this thread

Fmr. US Senator Jesse Helms, 1921 - 2008.
posted on Jul 4, 2008 - View this thread

George Carlin Dead at 71 Not sure if I really want to make a joke out of this one, but why not post your favorite quotes and routines of his.
posted on Jun 22, 2008 - View this thread

Tony Schwartz passed away on June 15.
posted on Jun 17, 2008 - View this thread

Legendary special effects artist Stan Winston has passed away from cancer at the age of 62. From Mr. Roboto to the Terminator to Iron Man, he leaves an almost unparalleled body of work.
posted on Jun 16, 2008 - View this thread

Legendary artist Alton Kelley created a graphic style that rocked the world beginning in the psychedelic sixties. His concert posters, logo designs, LP album covers, and fine art have forevermore defined that time. Kelley passed away peacefully at home on Sunday, June 1, 2008 of complications from a long illness.
posted on Jun 2, 2008 - View this thread

RIP, Harvey Korman
posted on May 29, 2008 - View this thread

Steve Cisler - first Internet librarian died on May 15th. "Steve was a unique intellectual populist. I believe his driving force was to put the power of computing resources, and the ability to communicate with same, into the hands of all who could benefit" Librarians, techies, activists and the unconnected alike will miss him terribly. This tribute from Ted Byfield went out to the nettime mailing list. A more official obit from the Mercury News "Steve Knew A Lot About A Lot". If you knew Steve you can post memories of him here or here. [cite for thread title]
posted on May 29, 2008 - View this thread

Dianne Odell passed away today. After contracting polio at age 3, she spent 58 years in an iron lung. "It's the only thing I know," she said. "I'm comfortable with it. I've never had a bedsore, which is remarkable." In 1998 she got a computer and, using voice dictation software, wrote a childrens' book. She died after the power failed and family members were unable to start a backup generator. As late as 1988 polio was still present in 125 countries around the world. Today it has been eradicated in all but 7 countries.
posted on May 28, 2008 - View this thread

Before developing exotic space propulsion systems like the ion engines on deep space probes, he developed guidance systems for Nazi Germany's ballistic missile, the V2. As Dr. Werner von Braun's Chief Scientist, he was one of the brilliant minds that founded the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama and sent astronauts to the moon atop MSFC's Saturn V rocket. Dr. Ernst Stuhlinger, one of the last surviving rocket scientists extracted from Nazi Germany in Operation Paperclip, died today at 94.
posted on May 27, 2008 - View this thread

U. Utah Phillips, Wobbly folk singer, has died.
posted on May 24, 2008 - View this thread

Decrucify the Angel! John Phillip Law, star of Danger: Diabolik, Open Season, Death Rides a Horse, and The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, and, of course, Barbarella, has died at age 70.
posted on May 15, 2008 - View this thread

Vale Tokin Blackman
"He always had the licks, just never the poses. James Paull – Jock to nearly everyone – was one of very few who could say "I spent a year composing in Amsterdam" and not sound like he was on Radio National. Ron Hitler Barassi ..

Some background on TISM for the uninitiated | Progressive Rock Wankers Interview | Noise Interview | Ron Hitler on Marilyn Manson | Wanker Video.

Gentlemen, start your periods.
posted on May 10, 2008 - View this thread

Michael Bhatia, Army social scientist, was killed in Afghanistan on May 8, 2008.
posted on May 10, 2008 - View this thread

R.I.P. John Wheeler , theoretical physicist. Famous for the Wheeler-Feynman equations and the term "black hole," which he coined to describe a singular point mass, he has died at age 96. The NYT usually gives pretty good obituary but they outdid themselves this time.
posted on Apr 13, 2008 - View this thread

Charlton Heston has died at age 84.
posted on Apr 5, 2008 - View this thread

ObitFilter: Robert Fagles. One of the few men to tackle translating The Iliad, The Odyssey, and The Aeneid, Robert Fagles has died. All of his translations were fast-paced, vibrant renderings that turned the classics once again into best-sellers.
posted on Mar 30, 2008 - View this thread

Richard Widmark, who created a villain in his first movie role who was so repellent and frightening that the actor became a star overnight, died Monday at his home in Roxbury, Conn. He was 93. Rest in peace, Richard. Fans of his work, here is the entirety of one of the many terrific thrillers he starred in, Panic in the Streets.
posted on Mar 26, 2008 - View this thread

Former Beatles roadie Neil Aspinall has died of lung cancer. He was the head of the Beatles’ Apple Corporation until about a year ago, when he resigned after the settlement of a long running dispute with Apple Computer.
posted on Mar 26, 2008 - View this thread

Hal Riney, a legendary ad man, has died at age 75. Hal Riney has died of cancer. You may have heard his voiceovers for First Union's PBS sponsorship ads, chuckled at his ingenious fictional 'every person' wine producers Bartles and Jaymes or been blown away or utterly disgusted by his Reagan presidential campaign ad series Morning In America (rumor has it that Riney was a Democrat), worked with him or for him at Hal Riney & Partners or Publicis & Hal Riney in San Francisco, or marveled at how his agency made Saturn a major player in the auto industry (while obscuring it was just another GM product!). So long, Hal!
posted on Mar 25, 2008 - View this thread

Bassist, bandleader and mambo pioneer Israel 'Cachao' Lopez has died.
posted on Mar 23, 2008 - View this thread

Arthur C. Clarke, author of 2001, inventor of the telecommunications satellite and the only reason most geeks can find Sri Lanka on a map, has died shortly after celebrating his 90th birthday.
posted on Mar 18, 2008 - View this thread

Gus Giordano, founder of the renowned dance company and school, died on Sunday.
posted on Mar 12, 2008 - View this thread

Gary Gygax has failed his saving throw.
posted on Mar 4, 2008 - View this thread

Jeff Healey, the blues and rock 'n roll singer best known for his 80s hit Angel Eyes (YT) has died of cancer at the age of 41.
posted on Mar 3, 2008 - View this thread

Master of the 'didge' - after veins burst in his throat some years ago while he was playing the didgeridoo, doctors warned that continued playing would threaten his life. Admitted to hospital last week with bleeding on the brain, he died on Sunday from a brain haemorrhage. He was 40.
posted on Feb 28, 2008 - View this thread

Ben Chapman, who played the Gill Man in The Creature From the Black Lagoon, has passed on. Interviews with the actor/stuntman discussing his iconic role are here and here.
posted on Feb 22, 2008 - View this thread

Pere Ubu guitarist Jim Jones dead. Jones also played in The electric eels.
posted on Feb 20, 2008 - View this thread

Alain Robbe-Grillet, French author, member of the Académie française and subject of this recent Mefi post, has passed away at age 85.
posted on Feb 18, 2008 - View this thread

Charles Fawcett. Film maker, adventurer and activist. In his 92 years, Mr. Fawcett rescued English POWs, starred in 100+ movies, and helped show Charlie Wilson why he should fund an army.
posted on Feb 13, 2008 - View this thread

It's a year since the untimely death of Chris Lightfoot. He had a remarkable combination of political commitment and technical expertise that led him to develop sites such as WriteToThem and Pledgebank for the splendid political and social software group, MySociety. His political writing brings a sharp and sarcastic wit to bear on such subjects as the Iraq war, and ID cards. There are also some good rants. A sad loss to British society.
posted on Feb 11, 2008 - View this thread

Roy Scheider, rest in peace.
posted on Feb 10, 2008 - View this thread

Mahrishi Mahesh Yogi: 1917-2008
posted on Feb 5, 2008 - View this thread

Barry Morse - an actor with an extremely rich and varied career, popular in many roles but iconic as the (original) pursuer of Dr Richard Kimble in the (original) tv series The Fugitive, and memorable to Sci Fi fans as Professor Victor Bergman in Space: 1999, has passed on. He was 89.
posted on Feb 5, 2008 - View this thread

Erstwhile British TV star Jeremy Beadle died yesterday from pneumonia, aged 59, having just recently fought off kidney cancer then leukaemia. While most famous for hidden camera pranks, stunts and general cruelty, and subject of undoubtedly the funniest joke in the world (due to a birth defect), his lesser known activities included knowing just about everything, euthanasia and raising millions for charity. Love him or hate him, RIP.
posted on Jan 31, 2008 - View this thread

Saddam's Confessions - Given Saddam Hussein's central place in the American Consciousness over the last couple decades and particularly in recent years, I found 60 minutes' interview with FBI interrogator George Piro pretty fascinating.
posted on Jan 27, 2008 - View this thread

Indonesia's former President Mohammed Suharto, who towered over Indonesian politics for 32 years, has died in hospital aged 86. Accused of amassing billions of dollars in ill-gotten wealth for himself, his family and friends, Indonesian officials were never able to find any evidence of this ill-gotten wealth. The BBC remembers him in pictures.
posted on Jan 27, 2008 - View this thread

George Habash aka the Doctor, founder of the PFLP has died. The group, still extant, were notorious for various attacks in the 60s and 70s, most notably the Dawson's Field Hijackings in the early days of Black September when four planes bound for NYC were hijacked. Three were evacuated and detonated on live TV at a remote airstrip in Jordon. Leila Khaled (Mefites might better know her the inspiration for another Doctor's accomplice, Leela) and her Sandinista accomplice Patrick Argüello boarded a Swissair flight from Amsterdam posed as married Hondurans. Argüello was assaulted with a whiskey bottle and finally shot, while Leila was arrested and released as part of an exchange deal. Though the group gave up hijacking, the Japanese Red Army, armed with Czech rifles concealed in violin cases, orchestrated the Lod Airport massacre on their behalf, killing mostly mostly Puerto Rican pilgrims. The only surviving culprit, Kozo Okamoto is eventually granted refuge in Lebanon.
posted on Jan 26, 2008 - View this thread

Heath Ledger found dead in Manhattan apartment.
posted on Jan 22, 2008 - View this thread

"Hugh Massingberd, a celebrated former obituaries editor of The Telegraph of London who made a once-dreary page required reading by speaking frankly, wittily and often gleefully ill of the dead, became the recipient of his own services after dying in West London on Christmas Day." The linked NY Times obit (by Margalit Fox; print version) contains many good quotes, like "The Telegraph’s send-off of one Lt. Col. Geoffrey Knowles, 'who as a subaltern was bitten in the buttocks by a bear — he survived but the bear expired'"; The Telegraph's own obit is much longer (and, of course, unsigned) and contains, along with more good zingers, a well-written account of his life ("The inevitable consequence of his bingeing proved another triumph of style, as Massingberd, a tall, slim and notably handsome youth with hollowed-out cheeks, transmogrified into an impressively corpulent presence whose moon face lit up with Pickwickian benevolence").
posted on Dec 30, 2007 - View this thread

Oscar Peterson passed away last night.
posted on Dec 24, 2007 - View this thread

The Leader of the Band is tired and his eyes are growing old. But his blood runs through instrument and his song is in my soul.
posted on Dec 16, 2007 - View this thread

Brenda is broken hearted, but not everyone thought he was a saint. Some of his closest colleagues barely knew him. Farewell, Bruce Evanick, whatever kind of person you were.
posted on Dec 12, 2007 - View this thread

RIP Karlheinz Stockhausen, 1928-2007.
posted on Dec 7, 2007 - View this thread

Though best known for his role as hunky Lance Rocke in Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, the actor/author was also distinguished by a career as a beefcake pin-up boy. Sadly, he has passed away at the age of 67.
posted on Dec 6, 2007 - View this thread

Verity Lambert dies. Verity was amongst other things the first producer of Doctor Who and essentially co-created the series along with writer Sydney Newman and the pilot director Waris Hussein. She would later have a hand in bringing everything from Minder to Jonathan Creek to the screen.
posted on Nov 23, 2007 - View this thread

Mr. Whipple is dead. Long live Mr. Whipple. Oh how we loved you.
posted on Nov 19, 2007 - View this thread

Robin Prosser was a former concert pianist and systems analyst who suffered from an autoimmune disease similar to lupus for over 20 years. The disease left her in constant pain and made her allergic to most pharmaceutical painkillers. Only medical marijuana brought her relief, but last spring the DEA seized her medicine. Unable to cope with the chronic pain any longer, she committed suicide on October 18th. [Via Andrew Sullivan.]
posted on Oct 29, 2007 - View this thread