Obituaries

Jefferson Thomas, Who Helped Integrate Little Rock School, Dies at 67

Jefferson Thomas, one of the nine black students who integrated an all-white high school in Little Rock, Ark., in 1957 in a landmark confrontation of the civil rights movement, died Sunday in Columbus, Ohio. He was 67. The cause was pancreatic cancer, according to a statement from Carlotta Walls LaNier, another of the students — known as the Little Rock Nine — who desegregated Central High School and the current president of the Little Rock Nine Foundation. The Little

Gheorghe Apostol, Romanian Communist Who Criticized Ceausescu, Dies at 97

Gheorghe Apostol, a veteran Communist politician who gained international attention in 1989 by publicly criticizing the Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, died Saturday in Bucharest. He was 97. His death was reported by the Romanian news media, which did not give the cause. Mr. Apostol became a Communist in the 1930s, when the party was still illegal in Romania, and served as a close ally of the Communist leader at the time, Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej. After World War II

Marcel Albert, Air Ace of France in World War II, Dies at 92

Marcel Albert, who became one of the leading French fighter pilots of World War II, flying Soviet-built planes in duels with German aircraft on the Eastern front, died Monday in Harlingen, Tex. He was 92. His death, at a nursing home, was announced by France’s Order of the Liberation, founded by Gen. Charles de Gaulle during the war. The cause was complications of cancer, his nephew Jean Mavinger told The Associated Press in Paris. Mr. Albert was among four pilots of th

William Saxbe, Attorney General During Watergate Inquiry, Dies at 94

William B. Saxbe, a former United States senator from Ohio who was appointed as President Richard M. Nixon’s fourth attorney general after the infamous “Saturday Night Massacre,” died Tuesday at his home in Mechanicsburg, Ohio. He was 94 and had been in failing health for some time, said his son Charles R. Saxbe. Mr. Saxbe was an unlikely pick for attorney general, a one-term Republican senator who had frequently criticized President Nixon, at one time saying that the president had

Benjamin Kaplan, 99, esteemed jurist, law professor

Few justices were as revered for their writing and thinking as Benjamin Kaplan, yet each ruling he penned for the Supreme Judicial Court or the state Appeals Court renewed his sense that this time he might not be up to the challenge. “I don’t come to decisions easily,’’ he told the Globe in 1981, restless physically and intellectually as he sat in a swivel chair in his book-lined study. “I really have been in pain most of the time.’’ That discomfort seemed reserved only

Celebrated critic Frank Kermode dies aged 90

Widely acclaimed as Britain's foremost literary critic, Sir Frank Kermode died yesterday in Cambridge at the age of 90. The London Review of Books, for which the critic and scholar wrote more than 200 pieces, announced his death this morning. Kermode inspired the founding of the magazine in 1979, after writing an article in the Observer calling for a new literary magazine. Prominent in literary criticism since the 1950s, Kermode held "virtually every endowed chair

Bill Millin, Scottish D-Day Piper, Dies at 88

LONDON — Bill Millin, a Scottish bagpiper who played highland tunes as his fellow commandos landed on a Normandy beach on D-Day and lived to see his bravado immortalized in the 1962 film “The Longest Day,” died on Wednesday in a hospital in the western England county of Devon. He was 88. The cause was complications from a stroke, his family said. Mr. Millin was a 21-year-old private in Britain’s First Special Service Brigade when his unit landed on the strip of coast t

James Kilpatrick, conservative commentator, dies at 89

James J. Kilpatrick, the conservative commentator and former editor of The Richmond News Leader, has died after a long illness, his family said today. He was 89. Mr. Kilpatrick died last night at George Washington University Hospital in Washington, said one of his sons, Sean Kilpatrick. Kilpatrick, known to television viewers as a commentator on “Point-Counterpoint” segment of “60 Minutes,” and as a columnist who eloquently wrote about the use of the language, was a s

Ted Stevens, Longtime Alaska Senator, Dies at 86

Ted Stevens, the former United States senator who was killed Monday night in a plane crash at the age of 86, helped shape modern Alaska with federal laws and billions in federal dollars. Serving in the Senate for 40 years, longer than any other Republican, he was known as a fierce and often hot-tempered advocate for his state. But that long and productive Senate career ended ignominiously. In October 2008, a federal jury in the District of Columbia found that Mr. Steven

Lolita Lebrón, Puerto Rican Nationalist, Dies at 90

Lolita Lebrón, who blazed her way to notoriety with a Luger pistol and patriotic shouts as she led three other Puerto Rican nationalists in an attack on the United States House of Representatives on March 1, 1954, died Sunday in San Juan, P.R. She was 90. Members of the Capitol Police held three Puerto Rican nationalists, including Lolita Lebrón, taken into custody on March 1, 1954, after a shooting from a House gallery. The cause was heart and lung failure, said Linda

Daniel Schorr dies at 93

Daniel Schorr, the NPR analyst who was the last active member of Edward R. Murrow’s team at CBS, died Friday morning, NPR announced. He was 93. He had been a senior news analyst for NPR since 1985, offering commentary on “Weekend Edition” and “All Things Considered.” “What other person was personally acquainted with both Richard Nixon and Frank Zappa?” asked Scott Simon, the host of Weekend Edition. “Dan was around for both the Russian Revolution and the Digital Revolut

Peter Walls, General in Zimbabwe, Dies at 83

Lt. Gen. Peter Walls, the last commander of white Rhodesian forces in what is now Zimbabwe, who played a central and sometimes ambiguous role in the first days of his country’s transition to majority rule only to fall out bitterly with its first black leader, died on Tuesday in South Africa, where he lived in exile. He was 83. Lt. Gen. Peter Walls in 1977. He fought the guerrillas and then oversaw the military during the transition to Robert Mugabe. A son-in-law, Patri

David H. Blackwell dies at 91; pioneering statistician at Howard and Berkeley

David H. Blackwell, 91, who rose from poverty in Southern Illinois to become one of the country's most prominent statisticians and the first African American to be elected to the National Academy of Sciences, died July 8 at a hospital in Berkeley, Calif., of complications from a stroke. Dr. Blackwell was also the first black tenured professor at the University of California at Berkeley, where he became chairman of the statistics department. A wide-ranging scholar, he was known as an

Professor Robin Matthews, Oxford Master and Economist, 83

Professor Robin Matthews, who died on June 19 aged 83, held the two most senior chairs of economics in Britain – the Drummond Chair at Oxford and the Chair of Political Economy at Cambridge, where he was also a popular and long-serving Master of Clare College; outside his discipline he was a leading exponent of directmate three-movers in chess. Matthews described himself as writing economic history in the style of an economist. Sceptical of conventional economic models of "rati

George Steinbrenner, Who Built Yankees Into Powerhouse, Dies at 80

George Steinbrenner, who bought a declining Yankees team in 1973, promised to stay out of its daily affairs and then, in an often tumultuous reign, placed his formidable stamp on 7 World Series championship teams, 11 pennant winners and a sporting world powerhouse valued at perhaps $1.6 billion, died Tuesday morning at a hospital in Tampa, Fla., where he lived. He was 80. The cause was a heart attack, the Yankees said. Mr. Steinbrenner had been in failing health for several years.

Juanita M. Kreps, Commerce Secretary, Dies at 89

Juanita M. Kreps, who was President Jimmy Carter’s secretary of commerce from 1977 to 1979, the first woman and the first economist to hold a post traditionally occupied by men with business interests, died Monday in Durham, N.C. She was 89. The cause was complications of Alzheimer’s disease, her daughter, Laura Anne Kreps, said. Dr. Kreps, who lived in Durham, wrote books and taught economics much of her life. But economics was no abstract subject to this daughte

Jim Bohlen, Who Led in Creation of Greenpeace, Dies at 84

Jim Bohlen, whose snap decision to sail to Amchitka Island, Alaska, to protest an underground nuclear test led to the creation of the environmental organization Greenpeace, died Monday in Comox, British Columbia. He was 84 and lived in Courtenay, British Columbia. The cause was complications of Parkinson’s disease, his daughter, Margot Bradley, said. Mr. Bohlen was a founder of the Don’t Make a Wave Committee, a group of Sierra Club members determined to oppose nuclear

Joya Sherrill, Who Sang With Ellington and Goodman, Is Dead at 85

Joya Sherrill, who sang with Duke Ellington as a teenager, toured the Soviet Union with Benny Goodman and was one of the first African-American performers to host a children’s television show, died on June 28 at her home in Great Neck, N.Y. She was 85. Her death was confirmed by her son, Richard Guilmenot III, who said she had been suffering from leukemia. Born in Bayonne, N.J., on Aug. 20, 1924, Joya Sherrill originally aspired to be a writer. While she was still in hi

Henryk Jankowski, Pro-Solidarity Priest, Dies at 73

The Rev. Henryk Jankowski, a Polish priest who gained prominence in the 1980s by supporting Lech Walesa’s Solidarity movement but later saw his reputation marred by anti-Semitic remarks and an investigation into allegations of sexual abuse of a minor, died on Monday in Gdansk. He was 73. His death was announced by Pawel Adamowicz, the mayor of Gdansk. Mr. Adamowicz did not give a cause of death, but Polish news reports noted that Father Jankowski had battled diabetes for years.

Nasr Abu Zayd, Who Stirred Debate on Koran, Dies at 66

Nasr Abu Zayd, an Egyptian scholar who was declared an apostate for challenging mainstream Muslim views on the Koran, died here on Monday. He was 66. The official Egyptian news agency, MENA, said he died at a hospital where he was being treated for an unidentified illness. Dr. Abu Zayd’s liberal, critical approach to Islamic teachings angered some Muslim conservatives in Egypt in the 1990s, when President Hosni Mubarak’s government was combating an uprising by armed Isl