Sunday, June 9, 2013

Ed Walker, American World War II veteran and writer, last surviving member of Castner's Cutthroats, died he was 94.

Ed Walker  was an American veteran of World War II, businessman, publisher and writer. Walker was the last surviving member of Castner's Cutthroats, a regiment consisting of just sixty-five men who performed reconnaissance missions in the Aleutian Islands during World War II.[1][2] Castner's Cutthroats was the unofficial name of the 1st Alaskan Combat Intelligence Platoon.

(August 28, 1917 – October 28, 2011)

Early life

Ed Walker was born on August 28, 1917, in San Juan Bautista, California to Brayden Richards and Helga Martha Smith.[1] He enlisted in the United States Army in 1937 and was stationed for three years in the Territory of Hawaii.[1] He soon became interested in Alaska through reading a library book about the territory and an article published in The Saturday Evening Post.[1] He reenlisted in the Army with the specific goal of being transferred to Alaska.[1]

Castner's Cutthroats


The last three surviving members of Castner's Cutthroats - Ed Walker (left), Earl Acuff (center), and Billy Buck at the Anchorage Museum in 2008.
Walker was stationed with the Army infantry at Chilkoot Barracks, also known as Fort William H. Seward, which was the only U.S. military base in the Territory of Alaska at the time he arrived.[1] Walker submitted several applications, before finally being transferred to Fort Richardson, now known as Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson.[1] There he joined a group of elite Alaskan Scouts called Castner's Cutthroats, named after Col. Lawrence Castner, an Army intelligence officer who formed the regiment.[1] Walker trained with Castner's Cutthroats, who carried their provisions and lived off what they could find in the Alaskan wilderness, such as seafood.[1] Walker was trained in surveying and Morse code.[3] The sixty-five men served in reconnaissance throughout the Aleutian Islands during World War II, including the Battle of the Aleutian Islands.
The Japanese forces occupied the islands of Attu and Kiska the day before Walker's 25th birthday in 1942, beginning the Aleutian Islands Campaign.[4] Walker and thirty-six of the scouts were stationed in Anchorage at the time, when they received erroneous reports of a Japanese attack on the city.[4] The next morning, the members of Castner's Cutthroats sailed on a yacht from Anchorage to the Aleutian Islands.[4] However, the United States Navy commandeered the yacht at Kodiak.[4] Walker and twenty-one other Alaskan Scouts then boarded a submarine, which they used to make their first landing at Adak Island.[4] Walker was armed with a Browning Automatic Rifle, which meant that he was among the first of the Cutthroats to make landfall at Adak and secure the surrounding beach.[4] However, a two-man American boat next to their submarine exploded just offshore from Adak. Walker recalled the accident in a 2008 interview, "We got about 200 yards from the submarine, and the boat blew up. It put both of us in the drink...The boat was about to go to the bottom, and we didn't want to go with it. We managed to stay afloat, and luckily the submarine, rather than turning to the left and going back into the Pacific, it turned inland," Walker continued, explaining a line was thrown to the scouts as it passed because the submarine was unable to stop. I hung on to that, and of course we were at the fantail of the sub, and there's a series of welded pipes that protect the propeller and we each got a hold of one of them, and every time we went through a wave, we just stopped breathing and closed our eyes and came back up...They sent a man out, and they had to crawl because everything on the submarine was slippery. They crawled out and helped us to get our gear, because we still had our packs and we went on in to the sub."[4]

Post-war career

Walker settled permanently in southern Alaska following World War II. He and another man, Con Frank, co-founded the Arctic Block Construction Co. in 1947.[1] Together, Walker and Frank constructed most of the first permanent buildings at Eielson Air Force Base and Ladd Army Airfield during the bases' early years.[1] He also worked in Good News Bay at a mining facility.[1] Walker was a proponent of Alaskan statehood during the 1940s and 1950s.[1]
In 1960, Walker moved to Valdez, Alaska, where he worked as a home builder.[2] Once the 1964 Alaska earthquake struck the area, Walker switched his focus to the reconstruction of the city. He was elected to the Valdez city council during the rebuilding efforts and the construction of the Trans-Alaska pipeline through the region.[2] His last major Valdez construction project was the former Village Inn Motel, which is now the Mountain Sky Hotel and Suites.[2]
Walker published his own newspaper, called Walker's Weekly, while living in Delta Junction, Alaska.[1] He authored several books, including writings on his experiences with Castner's Cutthroats. He was interviewed by writer Jim Rearden, who included Walker in his book, Castner’s Cutthroats: Saga of the Alaska Scouts.[1] Walker also wrote an eclectic mix of books concentrating on his other life experiences. He wrote the nonfiction historical book, Twenty Women Who Made America Great, following the death of his longtime wife, Frances.[1] A hip replacement patient, Walker wrote Hip-Hip Hooray! on life before and after the procedure.[1]
In 2008 and 2009, photos and quotes from Walker and other members of the regiment appeared in an exhibit, Castner’s Cutthroats: Forgotten Warriors, which opened at the Anchorage Museum.[1][4] The last three surviving members of Castner’s Cutthroats - Walker, retired Brig. Gen. Earl Acuff, and William "Billy" Buck - gathered at the opening of the exhibition on September 28, 2008.[4][3] Walker was also interviewed for a documentary on the Alaskan Scouts, which aired on the History Channel.[1]

Personal life

Walker met his future wife, Frances P. Walker;, while she was employed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, who were constructing the Alaska Highway at the time.[2] The couple married at a ceremony in Fort Richardson on April 29, 1944.[2] They had four children - Bob, Suzy, Kathleen and Bill. The family moved to Fairbanks, Alaska, after World War II.[2] Frances Walker worked as a writer for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.[2] They moved to Valdez, Alaska, in 1960.[2]
Walker resided at the Alaska Veterans and Pioneers Home in Palmer, Alaska, for most of the last quarter century of his life.[1] He died at Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage, Alaska, on October 28, 2011, at the age of 94.[1] He was survived by three of his children, Bob Walker, Suzy Walker and Bill Walker.[2]

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Sri Lal Sukla, Indian writer, died from a long illness he was 85.

Shrilal Shukla  was a Hindi writer, notable for his satire. He worked as a Provincial Civil Services (PCS) officer for the state government of Uttar Pradesh, later inducted into the IAS. He has written over 25 books,[2] including Makaan, Sooni Ghaati Ka Sooraj, Pehla Padaav and Bisrampur Ka Sant.
Shukla has highlighted the falling moral values in the Indian society in the post independence era through his novels. His writings expose the negative aspects of life in rural and urban India in a satirical manner. His best known work Raag Darbari has been translated into English and 15 Indian languages. A television serial based on this continued for several months on the national network in the 1980s. It is a little known fact that he also wrote a detective novel entitled Aadmi Ka Zahar which was serialised in the weekly magazine 'Hindustan'.

(31 December 1925 – 28 October 2011[1])

Awards

Shukla received the Sahitya Akademi Award, the highest Indian literary award, for his novel Raag Darbari in 1969. He received the Vyas Samman award in 1999 for the novel Bisrampur ka Sant.[2][3] In 2008, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan [4] by the President of India for his contribution to Indian literature and culture. On his 80th birthday in December 2005, his friends, peers, family and fans organised a literary and cultural event in New Delhi. To mark the occasion, a volume titled Shrilal Shukla - Jeevan Hi Jeevan was issued about him which contains the writings of eminent literary personalities such as Dr. Naamvar Singh, Rajendra Yadav, Ashok Bajpai, Doodhnath Singh, Nirmala Jain, Leeladhar Jagudi, Gillian Wright, Kunwar Narayan and Raghuvir Sahay among others. His friends, family and fans also contributed to the book. He also received the Jnanpith Award for 2009[5]], which is one of India's highest literary awards.

Personal account

  • 1925 - Born in village Atrauli in Aligarh district of Uttar Pradesh
  • 1947 - Graduated from Allahabad University
  • 1949 - Entry into the Civil Service
  • 1957 - First novel Sooni Ghaati Ka Sooraj published
  • 1958 - First collection of satire Angad Ka Paanv published
  • 1970 - Awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award for Raag Darbari (for 1969)
  • 1978 - Awarded the Madhya Pradesh Hindi Sahitya Parishad Award for Makaan
  • 1979-80 - Served as Director of the Bhartendu Natya Academy, Uttar Pradesh
  • 1981 - Represented India at the International Writers' Meet in Belgrade
  • 1982-86 - Member of the Advisory Board of the Sahitya Akademi
  • 1983 - Retirement from the Indian Administrative Service
  • 1987-90 - Awarded the Emeritus Fellowship by the ICCR, Government of India
  • 1988 - Given the Sahitya Bhushan Award by Uttar Pradesh Hindi Sansthaan
  • 1991 - Awarded the Goyal Sahitya Puraskaar by Kurukshetra University
  • 1994 - Awarded the Lohia Sammaan by Uttar Pradesh Hindi Sansthaan
  • 1996 - Awarded the Sharad Joshi Sammaan by the Madhya Pradesh Government
  • 1997 - Awarded the Maithili Sharan Gupta Sammaan by the Madhya Pradesh Government
  • 1999 - Awarded the Vyas Sammaan by the Birla Foundation
  • 2005 - Awarded the Yash Bharati Sammaan by the Uttar Pradesh Government
  • 2008 - Awarded the Padma Bhushan by the President of India
  • 2011 - Awarded the Jnanpith Award for year 2009.

Literary works

Novels
  • Sooni Ghaati Ka Sooraj - 1957
  • Agyaatvaas - 1962
  • Raag Darbari (novel) - 1968 - original is in Hindi; an English translation was published under the same title in 1993 by Penguin Books; also translated and published by National Book Trust, India in 15 Indian languages.
  • Aadmi Ka Zahar - 1972
  • Seemayein Tootati Hain - 1973
  • Makaan - 1976 - original is in Hindi; a Bengali translation was published in the late 1970s.
  • Pehla Padaav - 1987 - original is in Hindi; an English translation was published as Opening Moves by Penguin International in 1993.
  • Bisrampur Ka Sant - 1998
  • Babbar Singh Aur Uske Saathi - 1999 - original is in Hindi; an English translation was published as Babbar Singh And his Friends in 2000 by Scholastic Inc. New York.
  • Raag Viraag - 2001
Satires
  • Angad Ka Paanv - 1958
  • Yahaan Se Vahaan - 1970
  • Meri Shreshtha Vyangya Rachnayein - 1979
  • Umraaonagar Mein Kuchh Din - 1986
  • Kuchh Zameen Mein Kuchh Hava Mein - 1990
  • Aao Baith Lein Kuchh Der - 1995
  • Agli Shataabdi Ka Sheher - 1996
  • Jahaalat Ke Pachaas Saal - 2003
  • Khabron Ki Jugaali - 2005
Short Story Collections
  • Yeh Ghar Mera Nahin - 1979
  • Suraksha Tatha Anya Kahaaniyan - 1991
  • Iss Umra Mein - 2003
  • Dus Pratinidhi Kahaaniyan - 2003
Memoirs
  • Mere Saakshaatkaar - 2002
  • Kuchh Saahitya Charcha Bhi - 2008
Literary Critique
  • Bhagwati Charan Varma - 1989
  • Amritlal Naagar - 1994
  • Agyeya: Kuchh Rang Kuchh Raag - 1999
Edited Works
  • Hindi Haasya Vyangya Sankalan - 2000

Literary travels

He has visited Yugoslavia, Germany, UK, Poland, Surinam for various literary seminars, conferences and to receive awards. He has also headed a delegation of writers sent by the Government of India to China.

Demise

He died in Lucknow on 28 October 2011 at around 11.45 am after prolonged illness.
The legendary author of Hindi literature was intending to pen a novel on legal system in India for which he had done immense research, as confirmed by his historian nephew, Rajan Shukla to Times of India. However, his deteriorating health could not allow him to finish his work. The Hindi Literature lovers and Shukla's fans remain deprived of yet another piece of art. Nonetheless, Shukla's great body of work shall outlive the lives and times of the future proponents of Hindi Literature.


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Alvin Schwartz, American comic book writer, died from heart-related complications he was 94.

Alvin Schwartz was an American comic-book writer best known for his Batman and Superman stories. He was also a novelist, poet, and essayist.

(November 17, 1916 – October 28, 2011)

Early life and career

Alvin Schwartz debuted in comics with an issue of Fairy Tale Parade in 1939. He then wrote extensively for Sheldon Mayer at All-American Publications and then for National Comics, two of the three companies which merged to form DC Comics.

Golden Age of comics books

Schwartz wrote his first Batman story in 1942, expanding into the Batman newspaper comic strip in August 1944 and the Superman strip two months later. Through 1952, he scripted for most of the company's newspaper strips. For rival Fawcett Comics, he wrote stories for Superman's chief competitor Captain Marvel.

1950s

Until ending his association with DC in 1958, Schwartz contributed comic-book scripts for such superheroes as Aquaman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, Green Lantern, the Newsboy Legion, Vigilante, Slam Bradley, and Tomahawk. He also wrote comic books such as A Date With Judy, Buzzy, and House of Mystery. Among Schwartz's contributions to Superman was writing the first tale of Bizarro, denizen of an opposite, interdimensional world where "hello" means "goodbye", and citizens do good by doing bad. He wrote World's Finest Comics #71 (July 1954), the issue which began featuring Superman and Batman in the same story together.[1][2]

Corporate work

After leaving DC, Schwartz went into corporate market research and helped develop such techniques as psychographics and typological identification. As research director for Dr. Ernst Dichter's Institute for Motivational Research, he provided structural and marketing advice to corporations such as General Motors and General Foods. He later joined the advisory committee of the American Association of Advertising Agencies.

Other writing

Schwartz wrote three novels for Arco Press, one of which, the detective story Sword of Desire, won praise for its takeoff on Wilhelm Reich's orgone therapy, a popular psychotherapeutic technique used during the 1940s and 1950s. His novel The Blowtop was published by Dial Press in 1948. Under the title Le Cinglé, it became a best-seller in France.
In 1968, Schwartz moved to Canada, where he wrote documentaries and docudramas for the National Film Board of Canada for nearly 20 years, and created several economic and social studies for the Canadian government. Additionally, Schwartz wrote and lectured on superheroes, and received a Canada Council Grant for a study on religious symbolism in popular culture, using Superman as a springboard.

Later life and career

In 1997, Schwartz published an autobiography titled An Unlikely Prophet. In it, he wrote that Superman had attained the status of a tulpa, an entity that according to Buddhist beliefs attains reality solely by the act of imagination. Schwartz claimed he had actually met the superhero in a New York cab. In the mid-2000s, Schwartz wrote a weekly web column.
Schwartz and his wife lived in the rural village of Chesterville near Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. He died in 2011 of heart-related complications.[3][4]

Awards

Schwartz and writer-editor Harvey Kurtzman were awarded the 2006 Bill Finger Award for Excellence in Comic Book Writing.

Bibliography



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Roger Kerr, New Zealand public policy and business leader, executive director of the New Zealand Business Roundtable, died from metastatic melanoma he was 66.

Roger Lawrence Kerr, CNZM , a public policy and business leader, was the executive director of the New Zealand Business Roundtable,[1][2] a free-market think-tank based in Wellington, New Zealand. He is not related to fellow New Zealander Roger J. Kerr, the founder of Asia Pacific Risk Management.

(17 January 1945 – 28 October 2011)

Career

Kerr attended Appleby Primary and Waimea College in Nelson. He held an MA (Honours, First Class) from the University of Canterbury and a BCA from Victoria University of Wellington. He served as a director of the Electricity Corporation of New Zealand from 1986 to 1994,[3] as a member of the Council of Victoria University of Wellington from 1995 to 1999, and as a member of the Group Board of Colonial Limited in Melbourne from 1996 to 2000.[4]
Kerr spent much of his career in the economic policy debate in New Zealand, mainly through written commentary. Kerr was a vocal proponent of Rogernomics and of policies that can be broadly characterised as free market. Before joining the New Zealand Business Roundtable, he worked as an assistant secretary at the New Zealand Treasury and as a senior figure in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs including as a diplomat in Brussels.[5]

Personal life

Kerr was married to Margaret Northcroft for over 30 years with whom he had three sons, Bernard, Nicholas and Richard, two of whom live in the United States and one of whom lives in New Zealand. The marriage to Northcroft ended in divorce. He married Catherine Isaac in January 2010. Kerr died on 28 October 2011, after battling metastatic melanoma for a year.[6][7][8][9]

Awards



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Yoko Matsuoka McClain, Japanese-born American professor (University of Oregon), granddaughter of Natsume Sōseki, died from a stroke she was 87.

Yoko Matsuoka McClain was a Japanese-born American professor of Japanese language and literature at the University of Oregon.[1] She was the granddaughter of Japanese novelist, Natsume Sōseki, from her maternal lineage.[1][2]

(January 1, 1924[1] – November 2, 2011)

 
McClain was born Yoko Matsuoka in Tokyo. She graduated from Tsuda College in 1945 and found work as a translator during the Occupation of Japan by the Americans following World War II.[1] She obtained a scholarship, the forebearer of the Fulbright Program, to study at the University of Oregon. As a student, Matsuoka worked as a receptionist for the University of Oregon's art museum, now called the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art.[1] She received a bachelor's degree in French from the University of Oregon in 1956 and a master's degree in comparative literature in 1967.[1]
McClain taught Japanese literature at the University of Oregon from 1964 to 1994, when she became a professor emeritus.[1] She authored more than a dozen books and scholarly works on Japanese studies. Her husband, George Robert McClain, collected Japanese prints and art, which she donated to Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art following his death.[1]
The Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs honored McClain for her contributions to Japanese-U.S. cultural relations in 2003.[1] The University of Oregon College of Arts and Sciences also awarded her the Alumni Fellows Award in 2003.[1] In August 2011, McClain received the Gertrude Bass Warner Award from the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art.[1]
Yoko McClain died from a stroke on November 2, 2011, at the age of 87. She was survived by her son, Ken McClain; one grandchild; and her sister, Mariko Hando.[1]


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Beryl Davis, British big band singer and actress, died she was 87.


Beryl Davis  was a British big band singer. Her sister is Lisa Davis Waltz, a teen actress in the 1950s and 1960s.

(March 16, 1924 – October 28, 2011)

Born in Plymouth, England, she began to sing for her father's band,[1] and became popular singing for British and Allied troops during World War II. Glenn Miller discovered her in London, and she sang for the Army Air Force Orchestra.[2][3] She moved to Los Angeles after the war with her father's big band, and with Frank Sinatra for one year on Your Hit Parade.[4]
She was part of The Four Girls singing group, with Jane Russell, Rhonda Fleming, and Connie Haines. They recorded sixteen singles, and albums which became best sellers.[5] She appeared both in variety shows and films.[6][7]

Contents

Death

On October 28, 2011, Davis died in Los Angeles from complications of Alzheimer's disease, at age 87. [8] [9]

Discography

  • "I'll Be Seeing You", December 1999, Hindsight, Catalog No: HIN 278
  • "Alone Together", October 2000
  • "I Hear a Dream", June 2001[10]
  • "Feel The Spirit", JASCD 479, May 16, 2008, Bar Code: 604988 04792 9[11]


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R. Sheldon Duecker, American prelate, bishop of the United Methodist Church, died he was 85.

Robert Sheldon Duecker was an American Bishop of the United Methodist Church, elected in 1988.[1]

(4 September 1926 – 28 October 2011)

Birth and Family

He was born in Westfield Township, Medina County, Ohio, a son of Howard LaVerne and Sarah Faye Simpson Duecker. He grew up in the villages of LeRoy and Chippewa Lake, Ohio. He was confirmed in the Christian Faith in the LeRoy Methodist Episcopal Church.

Education

He earned an A.B. degree in Religion from the Indiana Wesleyan University, Marion, Indiana in 1948. He earned a Bachelor of Divinity and an M.S. from the Christian Theological Seminary (C.T.S.), Indianapolis, Indiana in 1952. He did further graduate work at Garrett Theological Seminary, Evanston, Illinois in 1952–53. He received an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree in 1969 from C.T.S.[2]

Ordained ministry

He was ordained into the ministry of the Methodist Church, North Indiana Annual Conference, (Deacon in 1952, Elder in 1953) by Bishop Richard Campbell Raines. Prior to his election to the Episcopacy, Duecker had served the following pastorates in the North Indiana Conference: Kokomo: Grace (Associate Pastor); Dyer Muncie: Gethsemane; Hartford City: Grace; Warsaw: First; Fort Wayne: Simpson; and Muncie: High Street. He also served as the Director of the Conference Council on Ministries, and as the Superintendent of the Fort Wayne District.

Episcopal ministry

In 1988 while serving as senior pastor of the High Street U.M. Church in Muncie, Indiana, Duecker was elected a Bishop by the North Central Jurisdictional Conference of the U.M. Church, and assigned to the Northern Illinois (Chicago) Episcopal Area.[3]
Bishop Duecker served (1980–84) on the General Council on Ministries of the U.M. Church, the General Advance Committee, and as a liaison from the Advance Committee to the Committee on African Church Growth and Development. He was also a member of the Commission to Study the Mission of The United Methodist Church (1984–88). He served on the General Board of Publication (1988–92). During 1992–96 he was a member of the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry, as well as of the University Senate of the U.M. Church. He served in several responsibilities related to ministry with Korean people, including (1988–96) the Committee on Korean-American Ministries and the Committee on Joint Mission Strategy for the U.M. Church and the Korean Methodist Church. He was the Chairperson of the North Central Jurisdiction Korean Mission Ministry, 1992–96.
Duecker retired in 1996 and lives in Indiana.


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Willy De Clercq, Belgian politician, died he was 84.


Willy Clarisse Elvire Hector, Viscount De Clercq  was a Belgian liberal politician.

(8 July 1927 – 28 October 2011)

De Clercq was born in Ghent. After his law and notariat studies at the University of Ghent and a scholarship at Syracuse University (Syracuse, United States), De Clerq became a lawyer at the Court of appeal in Ghent and a professor at Ghent University and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. Although he could have had a successful career in law, he got into politics. He was member of the Liberal youth and was elected municipal councillor and member of parliament.
De Clercq served in various coalition governments. He was secretary of state for the budget (1960–1961), deputy prime minister and minister of the budget from 1966 to 1968, deputy prime minister and minister of Finances in 1973–1974, minister of Finances in 1974–1977 and deputy prime minister in 1980.
De Clercq served as president of various international monetary instances and as president of the then liberal party PVV. He served for a term as a member of the European Commission (1985–1989). Moreover he became Minister of State in 1985. From 1989 to 2004 he was a member of the European Parliament.
In 2003, he created together with other prominent European personalities the Medbridge Strategy Center, whose goal is to promote dialogue and mutual understanding between Europe and the Middle-East.[1]
In the 21 July 2006 honours, Willy De Clercq and his wife, Fernande Fazzi, were both separately ennobled in the rank of viscount.


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Campbell Christie, Scottish trade unionist, died he was 74.


Campbell Christie CBE [1] was the General Secretary of the Scottish Trades Union Congress from 1986 to 1998.[2][3]

(23 August 1937 – 28 October 2011)

The son of a Galloway quarryman, he joined the civil service at the age of 17, rising through the ranks of the Civil Service Clerical Association. He became a leader of the "Sauchiehall Street Mafia", a left-wing association credited with helping radicalise the civil service unions in the 1960s.[4]
Away from politics, Christie was chairman of Falkirk F.C. during the 2000s.[5] During his tenure, Falkirk were promoted to the Scottish Premier League and developed the Falkirk Stadium.[6] He stepped down in 2009, making the announcement after Falkirk played in the 2009 Scottish Cup Final.[2]
Christie died at Strathcarron Hospice, Denny, Falkirk, aged 74, on 28 October 2011, after a short illness.


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Robert Pritzker, American billionaire industrialist, Parkinson's disease he was 85.




Robert Alan Pritzker  was a member of the wealthy Pritzker family.

(June 30, 1926 – October 27, 2011)

Biography

His parents were Fanny (née Doppelt) and A. N. Pritzker, and his brothers were Jay and Donald. Robert Pritzker received a bachelor's degree in industrial engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology in 1946 and an honorary doctorate in 1984. He taught night courses at IIT and began serving on the Board of Trustees in 1962, and served as a University Regent until the time of his death. Pritzker started The Marmon Group, an international association of autonomous manufacturing and service companies. Marmon's assets constitute half of the Pritzker family fortune.[citation needed] Robert's success can be partially attributed to his unique business structure, in which employees are trusted to make more key decisions, independent of the central office, than in other typical manufacturing settings. This independence allows for more creativity, and increases speed and productivity.[citation needed]
In 2002, Robert Pritzker retired from his position of President of The Marmon Group and assumed the role of President of Colson Associates, Inc., a holding company of caster, plastics moldling, hardware and medical companies, including Acumed, OsteoMed, and Precision Edge Surgical Products Company, among others.[1]
One of his 5 children is former child actress Liesel Pritzker.


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Allen Mandelbaum, American professor of Italian literature, poet and translator, died he was 85.

Allen Mandelbaum  was an American professor of Italian literature, poet, and translator. He was the W. R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Humanities at Wake Forest University. He was born in Albany, New York in 1926.[1] His translation of the Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri appeared between 1980 and 1984; they were published by the University of California Press and supported by the notable Dante scholar Irma Brandeis. He subsequently acted as general editor of the California Lectura Dantis, a collection of essays on the Comedy; two volumes, on the Inferno and Purgatorio, have been published.

(May 4, 1926 – October 27, 2011)

Mandelbaum received the 1973 National Book Award in category Translation for Virgil's Aeneid.[2] He is also the recipient of the Order of Merit from the Republic of Italy, the Premio Mondello, the Premio Leonardo, the Premio Biella, the Premio Lerici-Pea, the Premio Montale at the Montale Centenary in Rome, and the Circe-Sabaudia Award.
In 2000, Mandelbaum traveled to Florence, Italy, for the 735th anniversary of Dante's birth, and was awarded the Gold Medal of Honor of the City of Florence, in honor of his translation of the Divine Comedy. In 2003, he was awarded The Presidential Prize for Translation from the President of Italy, and received Italy's highest award, the Presidential Cross of the Order of the Star of Italian Solidarity. He died in Winston-Salem, North Carolina in 2011.[3]

Work

Verse

  • Journeyman
  • Leaves of Absence
  • Chelmaxioms
  • A Lied of Letterpress
  • The Savantasse of Montparnasse
  • The Aeneid of Virgil (rev. 1971). New York: Bantam. 1981. ISBN 0-553-21041-6.
  • Homer's Odyssey. New York: Bantam. 1991. ISBN 978-0-553-21399-7.
  • Ovid's Metamorphoses
  • The Selected Writings of Salvatore Quasimodo
  • The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri: Inferno (1980). New York: Bantam. 1982. ISBN 0-553-21339-3.
  • The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri: Purgatorio (1982). New York: Bantam. 1984. ISBN 0-553-21344-X.
  • The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri: Paradiso (1984). New York: Bantam. 1986. ISBN 0-553-21204-4.
  • Selected poems of Giuseppe Ungaretti. Ithaca: Cornell UP. 1975. ISBN 0-8014-0850-4.

Edited work



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Emmanuel de Bethune, Belgian politician, Mayor of Kortrijk (1987–1989, 1995–2000), died after a long illness he was 82.

Baron Emmanuel Pierre Marie Ghislain de Bethune was a Belgian politician. He was the Mayor of Kortrijk from 1987 to 1989 and again from 1995 to 2000.[1]

(18 July 1930 – 4 November 2011) 

 He went onto found the Bethune Foundation, a foundation used to preserve the library collections of the Bethune family.
Bethune died on 4 November 2011, aged 81.[2] He is survived by his four children including his daughter, the current Belgian Senate President, Sabine de Bethune.

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Jiří Gruša, Czech dissident, diplomat and writer, died he was 72.

Jiří Gruša  was a Czech poet, novelist, translator, diplomat and politician.[2]

(10 November 1938, Pardubice – 28 October 2011, Hannover[1] )

Biography

Gruša was born in Pardubice, Bohemia (Czech Republic), and later moved to Prague.[2] He graduated from the Philosophical Faculty of Charles University in Prague. He worked for periodicals Tvář, Sešity and Nové knihy.
He started coming under the scrutiny of the communist regime of then Czechoslovakia in 1969 because of his writings.[3] He was banned from publishing and had to work in a construction cooperative. He took part in distribution of samizdat literature. He was arrested in 1974 for "the crime of initiating disorder" after distributing nineteen copies of his first novel, Dotazník (The Questionnaire) and voicing his intention to have it published in Switzerland.[4] After world-wide protest, he was released after two months.[4] He later became a signer of the human rights document, Charter 77.[2] In 1981 his citizenship was revoked,[4] and between 1982 and 1990 he lived in the Federal Republic of Germany.[3]
In 1990 conditions in Czechoslovakia became more favorable and he returned to work for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. From 1991–1997, he served as an ambassador to Germany. Later, he joined the minority government of Václav Klaus as a Minister of Education. The government lost support of the opposition parties and President Václav Havel orchestrated establishment of a new caretaker government. Even though Gruša was a non-party minister, he was replaced by Jan Sokol. He served as an ambassador to Austria until 2004.[5] From 2005 to 2009 he was Director of the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna. From 2004 to 2009 he was the President of International PEN.[5]
Gruša participated in standardisation of the term "Tschechien" as the official name of the Czech Republic in German language. See Name of the Czech Republic for overview.
Gruša died at the age of 72 on 28 October 2011 during a heart operation in Germany. Václav Havel wrote (before his own death a month and a half later on December 18) that Gruša was "one of a few close people whom I deeply respected and who have left this world recently."[6]

Awards and honors

Works

English translated
  • Franz Kafka of Prague, Trans. Eric Mossbacker.
  • The Questionnaire, Trans. Peter Kussi.
Czech language
  • Umění stárnout [The Art of Aging]
  • Gebrauchsanweisung fur Tschechien und Prag [Instruction Manual for the Czech Republic and Prague]
  • Grusas Wacht am Rhein aneb Putovni ghetto [The Watch on the Rhein]


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Colin Burgess, the original drummer of AC/DC, passed away on Dec. 16, 2023, at the age of 77

Colin Burgess Colin Burgess, original drummer for AC/DC.   PETER CARRETTE ARCHIVE/GETTY ...