/ Stars that died in 2023

Sunday, November 23, 2014

Harry McPherson, American lawyer and lobbyist, advisor to Lyndon B. Johnson, died from cancer he was 82

Harry Cummings McPherson, Jr.  served as counsel and special counsel to President of the United States Lyndon B. Johnson from 1965 to 1969 and was Johnson’s chief speechwriter from 1966 to 1969. McPherson’s A Political Education, 1972, is a classic insider’s view of Washington and an essential source for Johnson’s presidency. A prominent Washington lawyer and lobbyist since 1969, McPherson was awarded American Lawyer magazine’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008. He died February 16, 2012, in Bethesda, Maryland.[1]

(August 22, 1929 – February 16, 2012)




Early life, education, military service

McPherson was born and raised in Tyler, Texas. He attended Southern Methodist University and received his B.A. in 1949 from the University of the South. Intending to be a poet and a writer, he enrolled at Columbia University for a master’s degree in English literature.[2] When the Korean War broke out in 1950, however, he enlisted in the Air Force. McPherson served in Germany as an intelligence officer, studying Russian troop deployments and plotting targets.[3]
As soon as the Korean War ended, McPherson enrolled at the University of Texas School of Law.
This was the era when McCarthyism was at its peak. I was very upset about Joe McCarthy and decided that I wanted to be a lawyer to defend people against the likes of McCarthy. I was worried that he was going to usher a period of totalitarianism in the United States. I wanted to fight that.[3]
He received his LL.B. in 1956. Shortly afterwards, he was invited to Washington by a cousin who worked for Lyndon Baines Johnson. Johnson, who was at the time the Senate majority leader, was seeking a young lawyer from Texas to work for the Democratic Policy Committee, which Johnson chaired.

Early public service in Washington

McPherson served as assistant general counsel (1956–1959), associate counsel (1959–1961) and general counsel (1961–1963) to the Democratic Policy Committee, the Democratic Party’s key legislative policy organ on the Senate side. His duties included summarizing bills coming before the Senate for members of the Calendar Committee. An outspoken advocate for civil rights, he helped draft legislation that became the Civil Rights Act of 1957, whose goal was to ensure that all African Americans could exercise their right to vote. After Kennedy was elected with Johnson as his vice president, McPherson continued to serve as counsel to the Democratic Policy Committee under Senator Mike Mansfield.
From 1963 to 1964, McPherson served as deputy under secretary of the Army for international affairs and special assistant to the secretary for civil functions. His responsibilities included settling civilian disputes in the Panama Canal Zone and Okinawa, and overseeing the Army Corps of Engineers.
The following year (August 1964-August 1965) he served as assistant secretary of state in the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, which arranged for thousands of foreigners to study at American universities, for foreign officials and cultural groups to visit the United States, and for American orchestras and dance companies to travel abroad.

Counsel to President Lyndon B. Johnson

McPherson with President Johnson. Photo courtesy Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum.

In 1966, McPherson and his colleague Berl Bernhard organized the White House Conference on Civil Rights, whose 2,400 participants included Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Thurgood Marshall, and representatives of almost every major civil rights group. According to Kevin L. Yuill, “This conference, promised in Johnson's famous Howard University speech in 1965, was to be the high point of Johnson's already considerable efforts on civil rights.”[6]
McPherson came to believe the Vietnam War was unwinnable, and along with Secretary of Defense Clark Clifford helped persuade Johnson to scale back the bombing of North Vietnam.[4] McPherson drafted Johnson’s landmark televised address of March 31, 1968, announcing the policy turnaround in Vietnam as well as the fact that he would not seek reelection.[4]
McPherson’s A Political Education, covering the years 1956 to 1969, is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand Johnson’s years as senator and president. The book’s thought-provoking conclusion:
Perhaps the most serious question of all was whether we could learn from our experience and shorten the lag between events and our response to them. Nearly twenty years passed from the time black Americans began leaving the South, until the national government began to respond to their unique problems in the Northern and Western cities. Our apprehension of the danger to us in the unification of Vietnam under Hanoi’s rule was the same in 1963 as it had been in 1954. Our political leaders, like the rest of us, dealt with new phenomena on the basis of prevailing assumptions. Usually the assumptions were changed only by bitter experience, not by analysis and foresight. The public’s reluctance to think new thoughts had much to do with that; so did their faith, which their leaders shared, that as a nation we were immune to history. We believed we could afford the lag, with our cushion of power, wealth, and resourcefulness. Detroit and Tet told us otherwise.
It was Lyndon Johnson’s fate to be President at a time when the cost of the lag came home. On the whole, he paid it bravely. … He finished the old agenda, and by painful example taught us something about the new.[7]
In a 1981 interview, McPherson called Johnson "a vehement, dominant, brilliant man – not intellectually brilliant in the sense of having a vast store of reading and knowledge about world history, certainly not the historian that Harry Truman was. But brilliant in sheer wit, in sheer intellectual mental horsepower. The smartest man I ever saw."[8] He reiterated this admiration in 1999: "To this day, Johnson is still the smartest man I’ve ever met, although maybe not the wisest.”[3]

Private law practice in Washington, D.C.

Soon after Johnson left office, McPherson joined the Washington-based law firm Verner, Liipfert, and Bernhard, which he helped turn into one of the capital’s best-known lobbying firms. (In 2002 the firm merged with DLA Piper.) McPherson has counseled businesses, nonprofit organizations, foreign governments, and individuals on a range of matters involving Congress, the executive branch, and regulatory agencies. Notable cases include:
  • Represented a major television network in the successful struggle to repeal the Financial Interest and Syndication Rules (the “fin-syn” rule), imposed by the FCC in 1970 and abolished in 1993, which prevented major television networks from owning any of the programming aired in primetime.[9]
  • Brokered the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement in 1998 between Big Tobacco and 46 states, which gave tobacco companies some immunity from class action suits in exchange for limiting nicotine levels and paying antismoking groups about $250 billion.[4]
  • Represented more than 2,500 Czech-Americans in obtaining compensation for assets seized by the Communist government of Czechoslovakia.[9]
McPherson has served on several presidential commissions. President Jimmy Carter appointed him to the President’s Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island (1979). President Ronald Reagan appointed him vice chairman of the United States Cultural and Trade Center Commission, which planned a 600,000-square-foot (56,000 m2) facility in the Federal Triangle. Presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton appointed him a member of the 1993 U.S. Base Realignment and Closure Commission.
He has also been active in cultural, civic, and political organizations. From 1969 to 1974 he was a member of the board of trustees of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Smithsonian Institution. He was on the Board of Directors of the Council on Foreign Relations from 1974 to 1977, and was chairman of the Democratic Advisory Council of Elected Officials Task Force on Democratic Policy (1974–76). After serving as vice-chairman of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, he served from 1976 to 1991 as its general counsel.[9] From 1983 to 1988 he was president of the Federal City Council, a civic organization of business, professional and cultural leaders in Washington.[9] From 1992 to 1999, he served as president of the Economic Club of Washington.[9]
Recently McPherson helped the board of DLA Piper’s international pro bono division institute a program that sends Northwestern University Law School professors to teach at Ethiopia’s underfunded Addis Ababa University School of Law.[4]
McPherson married Clayton Reid in 1952; the couple had two children, Coco and Peter. He was divorced in 1981 and married in 1981 to Mary Patricia DeGroot,[10] with whom he has a son, Samuel.

Publications and awards

A Political Education (originally published 1972) is McPherson’s insider view of the nation’s capital from 1956 to 1969. Anatole Broyard of The New York Times described the book as “fascinating to read” and McPherson as “refreshingly candid in both his praises and his criticisms.”[11] A Political Education has become a political classic and is considered essential reading for understanding of LBJ and the Johnson administration.[12] It is frequently cited in two definitive biographies of Johnson, Caro’s Master of the Senate and Dallek’s Flawed Giant.
McPherson is the author of numerous articles on foreign policy and political issues published in The New York Times, the Washington Post, and elsewhere. He served on the Editorial Advisory Board of Foreign Affairs and the Publications Committee of The Public Interest.
In 1994, McPherson was recipient of the Judge Learned Hand Human Relations Award. In 2008, he was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award by American Lawyer magazine.[4]

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Gary Carter, American Hall of Fame baseball player (Montreal Expos, New York Mets), died from a brain tumor he was 57

Gary Edmund Carter  was an American professional baseball catcher whose 21-year career was spent primarily with the Montreal Expos and New York Mets. Nicknamed "Kid" for his youthful exuberance, Carter was named an All-Star 11 times, and was a member of the 1986 World Champion Mets died from a brain tumor he was 57. Known throughout his career for his hitting and his excellent defense behind the plate, Carter made a major contribution to the Mets' World Series championship in 1986, including a 12th-inning single against the Houston Astros that won Game 5 of the NLCS and a 10th-inning single against the Boston Red Sox to start the fabled comeback rally in Game 6 of the World Series. He is one of only four people ever to be named captain of the Mets, and he had his number retired by the Expos.[2]
After retiring from baseball, Carter coached baseball at the college and minor-league level. In 2003, he was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. Carter was the first Hall of Famer whose plaque depicts him as a member of the Montreal Expos.

(April 8, 1954 – February 16, 2012)

Early life

Carter was born in Culver City, California in 1954 to Jim Carter, an aircraft worker, and his wife, Inge. Gary was athletic at a young age, winning (along with four other boys) the 7-year old category of the first national Punt, Pass, and Kick skills competition in 1961.[3] When Gary was 12, his mother died of leukemia.[4] He attended high school at Sunny Hills High School, in Fullerton, California, where he played football as a quarterback and baseball as an infielder. After receiving more than 100 scholarships for athletics,[5] Carter signed a letter of intent to play football for the UCLA Bruins as a quarterback, but instead signed with the Montreal Expos after they drafted him in the 1972 Major League Baseball Draft.[5][6]

Montreal Expos

Carter was drafted by the Montreal Expos as a shortstop in the third round of the 1972 Major League Baseball Draft. Carter got his nickname "Kid"[7] during his first spring training camp with the Expos in 1974.

Rookie season

The Expos converted Carter to a catcher in the minor leagues.[8] In 1974, he hit 23 home runs and drove in 83 runs for the Expos' triple-A affiliate, the Memphis Blues. Following a September call-up, Carter made his major league debut in Jarry Park in Montreal in the second game of a double header against the New York Mets on September 16. Despite going 0–4 in that game, he finished the season batting .407 (11-27). He hit his first major league home run on September 28 against Steve Carlton in a 3–1 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies.[9]
Carter split time between right field and catching during his rookie season (1975), and was selected for the National League All-Star team as a right fielder. He did not get an at bat, but appeared as a defensive replacement for Pete Rose in the ninth inning, and caught Rod Carew's fly ball for the final out of the NL's 6–3 victory.[10] In that rookie season, Carter hit .270 with 17 home runs and 68 runs batted in, receiving The Sporting News Rookie of the Year Award and finishing second to San Francisco Giants pitcher John Montefusco for the National League Rookie of the Year award. That year, he was voted the Expos Player of the Year for the first of four times (he also won in 1977, 1980 and 1984).

Expos catcher

Carter again split time in the outfield and behind the plate in 1976 while a broken finger limited him to 91 games. He batted .219 with six home runs and 38 RBIs. In 1977, young stars Warren Cromartie, Ellis Valentine and Andre Dawson became full-time outfielders. By June, starting catcher Barry Foote was traded, opening up a regular starting position for Carter behind the plate. He responded with 31 home runs and 84 RBIs. In 1980, Carter clubbed 29 home runs, drove in 101 runs, and earned the first of his three consecutive Gold Glove Awards. He finished second to third baseman Mike Schmidt in NL MVP balloting, whose Phillies took the National League East by one game over the Expos.
Carter caught Charlie Lea's no-hitter on May 10, 1981,[11] during the first half of the strike shortened season. The season resumed on Sunday, August 9, 1981 with the All-Star Game. Carter was elected to start his first All Star Game over perennial NL starting catcher Johnny Bench who had moved to play first base that year, and responded with two home runs and being named the game's MVP. Carter was the fifth and most recent player to hit two home runs in an All-Star Game.
MLB split the 1981 season into two-halves, with the first-place teams from each half in each division meeting in a best-of-five divisional playoff series. The four survivors moved on to two best-of-five League Championship Series. The Expos won the NL East's second half with a 30–23 record. In his first post season, Carter batted .421, hit two home runs and drove in six in the Expos' three games to two victory over the Phillies in the division series. Carter's average improved to .438 in the 1981 National League Championship Series, with no home runs or RBIs, and his Expos lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers in five games.
Pierre Elliott Trudeau, then prime minister of Canada, once remarked of Carter's popularity saying “I am certainly happy that I don’t have to run for election against Gary Carter.” However some Expos were put off by Carter’s unabashed enthusiasm, feeling that he was too taken with his image and basked in his press coverage too eagerly, derisively naming him "Camera Carter". Andre Dawson “felt [Carter] was more a glory hound than a team player”.[12]

1984 season

Carter hit a home run in the 1984 Major League Baseball All-Star Game to give the NL a 2–1 lead that they would not relinquish, earning him his second All-Star game MVP award. Carter's league leading 106 RBIs, 159 games played, .294 batting average, 175 hits and 290 total bases were personal highs.
The 1984 Expos finished fifth in the NL East. At the end of the season, the rebuilding Expos chafed at Carter's salary demands and traded him to the Mets for Hubie Brooks, Mike Fitzgerald, Herm Winningham and Floyd Youmans.[12]

New York Mets

In his first game as a Met on April 9, 1985, he hit a tenth-inning home run off Neil Allen to give the Mets a 6–5 Opening Day victory over the St. Louis Cardinals. The Mets and Cardinals rivaled for the National League East championship, with Carter and first baseman Keith Hernandez leading the Mets. The season came down to the wire as the Mets won 98 games that season; however, they lost the division to a Cardinals team that won 101 games. Carter hit a career high 32 home runs and drove in 100 runs his first season in New York. The Mets had three players finish in the top ten in NL MVP balloting that season (Dwight Gooden 4th, Carter 6th and Hernandez 8th).
A rivalry also developed between the Mets and Carter's former team, the Expos. On July 30 while facing the Expos at Shea, Montreal pitcher Bill Gullickson threw a pitch over Carter's head. Gooden did the same to Gullickson in the bottom of the inning. The Los Angeles Times speculated that Carter caught the ball as if he knew where the pitch was going to end up.[13]

1986 World Series Champions

In 1986, the Mets won 108 games and took the National League East by 2112 games over the Phillies. Carter suffered a postseason slump in the NLCS, batting .148. However, he hit a walk-off RBI single to win Game 5. Carter also had two hits in Game 6 which the Mets won in 16 innings.[14]
The Mets won the 1986 World Series in seven games over the Boston Red Sox. Carter batted .276 with nine RBIs in his first World Series, and hit two home runs over Fenway Park's Green Monster in Game Four. He is the only player to hit two home runs in both an All-Star Game (1981) and a World Series game. Carter started a two-out rally in the tenth inning of Game 6, scoring the first of three Mets runs that inning on a single by Ray Knight. He also hit an eighth-inning sacrifice fly that tied the game.[15] Carter finished third on the NL MVP ballot in 1986.[14]

300 career home runs

Carter batted .235 in 1987, and ended the season with 291 career home runs. He had 299 home runs by May 16 1988 after a fast start, then slumped until August 11 against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field when he hit his 300th. During his home run drought, Carter was named co-captain of the team with Hernandez, who had been named captain the previous season.
Carter ended 1988 with 11 home runs and 46 RBIs—his lowest totals since 1976. He ended the season with 10,360 career putouts as a catcher, breaking Detroit Tigers catcher Bill Freehan's career mark (9941). The Mets won 100 games that season, taking the NL East by fifteen games. However, the heavily favored Mets lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 1988 National League Championship Series. Carter batted .183 in fifty games for the Mets in 1989. In November the Mets released Carter after five seasons, hitting 89 home runs and driving in 349 runs.

Return to Montreal

After leaving the Mets, Carter platooned with catcher Terry Kennedy on the San Francisco Giants in 1990, batting .254 with nine home runs. He found himself again in a pennant race in 1991 with the Los Angeles Dodgers, who finished one game behind the Atlanta Braves in the National League West.
At the end of the season, Carter returned to Montreal for his final season off waivers from the Dodgers. Carter was still nicknamed "Kid" by teammates despite his age. In his last at-bat, he hit a double over the head of Chicago Cub right-fielder Andre Dawson, the only other player to go into the Hall of Fame as an Expo.[16] The Expos went 87-75 and finished second behind the Pittsburgh Pirates in the National League East.
Seasons Games Games caught AB Runs Hits 2B 3B HR RBI SB BB SO HBP Avg. Slg.
19 2295 2056 7971 1025 2092 371 31 324 1225 39 848 997 68 .262 .439
Carter had a .991 fielding percentage as a catcher and 11,785 career putouts. He ranks sixth all-time in career home runs by a catcher with 298.

Post-playing career

After his retirement as a player, Carter served as an analyst for Florida Marlins television broadcasts from 1993 to 1996. He also appeared in the movie The Last Home Run (1998) which was filmed in 1996.[17]

Hall of Fame

Carter 8.png
Gary Carter's number 8 was retired by the Montreal Expos in 2003.
Carter was inducted into the New York Mets Hall of Fame in 2001.[18] In 2003, Carter was elected into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame along with Kirk McCaskill, and his number eight was retired by the Expos and is tacitly recognized on the facade of Nationals Park in Washington, D.C..
In his sixth year on the ballot, Gary Carter was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame along with Eddie Murray on January 7, 2003. Carter had originally expressed a preference during his final season to be inducted as an Expo. Given the uncertainty of the Expo franchise, Carter's employment by the Mets organization since retiring as a player, his World Series title with the Mets, and his media celebrity during his stint in New York, following his election Carter shifted his preference to be enshrined with a Mets cap. The New York City media strongly supported Carter's preference to go into the Hall as a Met. Carter "joked that he wanted his Cooperstown cap to be a half-and-halfer, split between the Expos and Mets".[19] The final decision rested with the Hall of Fame, and Hall president Dale Petroskey declared that Carter's achievements with the Expos over twelve season had earned his induction, whereas his five seasons with the Mets by itself would not have, saying "we want to have represented on the plaque the team that best represents where a player made the biggest impact in his career. When you look at it, it's very clear. Gary Carter is an important part of the history of the Expos".[20] Carter was the first Hall of Famer whose plaque depicts him with an Expos logo.[20] At the induction ceremony, Carter spoke a few words of French, thanking fans in Montreal for the great honor and pleasure of playing in that city, while also taking great care to note the Mets' 1986 championship as the highlight of his career.[19]
After the Expos moved to Washington, D.C. to become the Washington Nationals following the 2004 season, a banner displaying Carter's number along with those of Andre Dawson, Tim Raines and Rusty Staub was hung from the rafters at the Bell Centre, home of the NHL's Montreal Canadiens. While the Mets have not retired number eight, it has remained unused since Carter's election to the Hall of Fame.

Coaching

Carter was named Gulf Coast League Manager of the Year his first season managing the Gulf Coast Mets in 2005. A year later, he was promoted to the A-level St. Lucie Mets, and guided his team to the 2006 Florida State League championship, again earning Manager of the Year honors. In recent years, Carter has been criticized, most notably by former co-captain Keith Hernandez, for twice openly campaigning for the Mets' managerial position while it was still occupied by incumbents Art Howe in 2004, and in 2008 Willie Randolph.
In 2008, he managed the Orange County Flyers of the Golden Baseball League, and again guided his team to the GBL Championship and was named Manager of the Year. For the following season Carter was named manager of the Long Island Ducks of the independent Atlantic League of Professional Baseball.[21] The Ducks won the 2009 second half Liberty Division title, but they were defeated by the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs in the Liberty Division playoffs.[22] The next season Carter was named head baseball coach for the NCAA Division II Palm Beach Atlantic University Sailfish.

Personal life

He and his wife, Sandy, were married in 1975. They had three children.[4]
His daughter Kimmy is the head softball coach at Palm Beach Atlantic[23] and was a softball catcher for Florida State from 1999-2002.[24]
Carter was an active philanthropist. Through The Gary Carter Foundation, of which Carter was the president, Carter and his staff support 8 Title I schools in Palm Beach County whose students live in poverty. Typically, these schools have 90% or more students eligible for free or reduced lunches. The Foundation seeks to "better the physical, mental and spiritual well being of children." To accomplish this, they advocate "school literacy by encouraging use of the Reading Counts Program, a program that exists in the Palm Beach County School District". Since its inception, The Gary Carter Foundation has placed over $622,000 toward charitable purposes, including $366,000 to local elementary schools for their reading programs.[citation needed]

Illness and death

In May 2011, Carter was diagnosed with four malignant tumors in his brain after complaining of headaches and forgetfulness. Doctors confirmed that he had a grade IV primary brain tumor known as glioblastoma multiforme. Doctors said that the extremely aggressive cancer was inoperable and Carter would undergo other treatment methods to shrink his tumor.[25][26] On January 20, 2012, daughter Kimmy posted on her blog that an MRI had revealed additional tumors on her father's brain. Even as he battled an aggressive form of brain cancer, Carter did not miss Opening Day for the college baseball team he coached.[27]
Carter died of brain cancer on February 16, 2012. He was 57 years old.[28] On February 25, 2012, the Mets announced that they were adding a memorial patch to their uniforms in Carter's honor for the entire 2012 season. The patch features a black home plate with the number 8 and "KID" inscribed on it.[29] On the Mets' 2012 opening day, the Carter family unveiled a banner with a similar design on the center field wall of Citi Field.
The NHL's Montreal Canadiens, who had purchased the mascot and hung retired numbers in its arena after the Expos relocation to Washington, paid tribute to Gary Carter by presenting a video montage and observing a moment of silence before a game against the New Jersey Devils on February 20, 2012. All Canadiens players took to the ice during pre-game warm-ups wearing number 8 Carter jerseys, and Youppi! appeared wearing an Expos uniform. In addition, Youppi! wore a patch on his Canadiens jersey featuring a white circle with a blue number 8 inside it for the remainder of the season. [30]
Tom Verducci, longtime Sports Illustrated baseball writer, reminisced about Carter following his death, "I cannot conjure a single image of Gary Carter with anything but a smile on his face. I have no recollection of a gloomy Carter, not even as his knees began to announce a slow surrender ... Carter played every day with the joy as if it were the opening day of Little League."[4] "Gary actually took a lot of grief from his teammates for being a straight arrow. It wasn't the cool thing to do but on the same token, I think he actually served as a role model for a lot of these guys as they aged. He was the ballast of that team. They did have a lot of fun, there's no question about that, but they were also one of the fiercest, most competitive teams I've ever seen and obviously their comebacks from the '86 postseason defines that team. Carter was a huge part of that."[31]
Faillon Street W. in Montreal, near the former Jarry Park stadium, has been renamed Gary-Carter Street in his honour.[32]
On March 28, 2014, during an exhibition game between the Toronto Blue Jays and the New York Mets at Olympic Stadium in Montreal, QC, a banner was unveiled in honour of Gary Carter in a special ceremony before the first pitch. Carter's widow Sandy and daughter Kimmy were present on field for an emotional video tribute and the unveiling of the banner on the outfield wall, which reads "Merci! Thank You!" and contains an image of a baseball overlaid with Carter's retired number 8.[33]

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Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Kushimaumi Keita, Japanese sumo wrestler and coach (Tagonoura), died from a ischaemic heart disease he was 46

Kushimaumi Keita ,[1] born as Keita Kushima was a sumo wrestler from Shingū, Wakayama Prefecture, Japan died from a ischaemic heart disease he was , 46. A successful amateur, his highest rank in professional sumo was maegashira 1. After his retirement he became an elder of the Japan Sumo Association and established Tagonoura stable.

( 6 August 1965 – 13 February 2012)

Career

He began doing sumo from the age of four, due to his father's love of the sport. He was the first person to earn the Amateur Yokozuna title whilst still in high school (at which time he already weighed 160 kg), and he continued amateur sumo at Nihon University. In total he captured 28 collegiate sumo titles, a record at the time.[2] He joined the prestigious Dewanoumi stable and made his professional debut in January 1988, beginning in the third highest makushita division. He fought under his own name until he reached the second highest jūryō division, whereupon his shikona was modified slightly from Kushima to Kushimaumi. Although it took him seven tournaments to progress from makushita to jūryō, he won two consecutive yūshō or tournament championships from his jūryō debut to reach the top makuuchi division in July 1989, the first wrestler to do so since 15 day tournaments were established in 1949. He won his first Fighting Spirit prize in March 1990, and earned two kinboshi for defeating yokozuna Asahifuji in September 1991 and Hokutoumi in March 1992 (this was Hokutoumi's final match before retirement). In March 1993 he was famously knocked out by a harite (slap to the face) from Kyokudōzan and had to withdraw from the tournament with his score at seven wins and six losses. His best result in a top division tournament was his runner-up performance in September 1993, where he finished behind Akebono on twelve wins. This however, was achieved from the low position of maegashira 13, and despite his great potential he never managed to reach the san'yaku ranks. In his later career he suffered increasingly from shoulder and hip injuries, and was demoted to the jūryō division on several occasions. He announced his retirement in November 1998 at the age of 33, after falling into the makushita division.

Fighting style

Kushimaumi was one of the heaviest wrestlers ever, weighing over 200 kg at his peak, and his great physical strength was demonstrated by his frequent use of the kimedashi (arm barring force out) technique.[2] He also regularly employed yorikiri (the force out) and kotenage (the arm lock throw).

Retirement from sumo

Kushimaumi remained with Dewanoumi stable as an elder of the Japan Sumo Association, under the name Tagonoura. In February 2000 he branched out and opened up his own Tagonoura stable. In 2011 he produced his first sekitori ranked wrestler, the Bulgarian Aoiyama. Another former rikishi was the Tongan born Aotsurugi (who took Japanese citizenship to allow Aoiyama to join the stable).
In 2003 he suffered an acute myocardial infarction, but it proved not to be life-threatening and he made an immediate recovery.
He died on 13 February 2012 at the age of 46,[3] of ischaemic heart disease.

Career record

Kushimaumi Keita[4]
Year in sumo January
Hatsu basho, Tokyo
March
Haru basho, Osaka
May
Natsu basho, Tokyo
July
Nagoya basho, Nagoya
September
Aki basho, Tokyo
November
Kyūshū basho, Fukuoka
1988 Makushita tsukedashi #60
5–2
 
East Makushita #38
5–2
 
East Makushita #24
6–1
 
East Makushita #9
5–2
 
East Makushita #4
4–3
 
West Makushita #2
4–3
 
1989 East Makushita #1
4–3
 
West Jūryō #12
11–4–P
Champion

 
East Jūryō #3
10–5–PPP
Champion

 
West Maegashira #13
8–7
 
West Maegashira #11
9–6
 
East Maegashira #5
6–9
 
1990 East Maegashira #9
6–9
 
East Maegashira #14
10–5
F
East Maegashira #4
6–9
 
West Maegashira #8
5–8–2
 
East Jūryō #1
10–5
 
East Maegashira #12
9–6
 
1991 East Maegashira #6
8–7
 
East Maegashira #1
5–10
 
East Maegashira #6
6–9
 
East Maegashira #10
10–5
 
East Maegashira #3
8–7
East Maegashira #3
6–9
 
1992 West Maegashira #6
8–7
 
West Maegashira #3
7–8
West Maegashira #4
8–7
 
East Maegashira #3
6–9
 
West Maegashira #6
8–7
 
West Maegashira #2
8–7
 
1993 West Maegashira #1
7–8
 
West Maegashira #2
7–7–1
 
East Maegashira #4
6–9
 
West Maegashira #7
5–10
 
East Maegashira #13
12–3
F
West Maegashira #1
5–10
 
1994 West Maegashira #7
1–2–12
 
East Jūryō #4
9–6
 
East Jūryō #2
8–7
 
West Maegashira #15
8–7
 
East Maegashira #15
8–7
 
East Maegashira #9
8–7
 
1995 West Maegashira #4
3–12
 
East Maegashira #12
4–11
 
East Jūryō #5
7–8
 
West Jūryō #6
9–6
 
West Jūryō #2
9–6
 
East Jūryō #1
8–7
 
1996 East Jūryō #1
7–8
 
East Jūryō #2
10–5
 
East Jūryō #1
8–7
 
West Maegashira #15
6–9
 
West Jūryō #2
6–9
 
East Jūryō #7
6–9
 
1997 West Jūryō #9
11–4
 
East Jūryō #4
8–7
 
West Jūryō #2
9–6
 
West Jūryō #1
9–6
 
West Maegashira #13
7–8
 
West Maegashira #15
3–12
 
1998 West Jūryō #6
7–8
 
East Jūryō #9
12–3–P
Champion

 
West Jūryō #2
7–8
 
East Jūryō #4
7–8
 
West Jūryō #5
4–11
 
East Makushita #1
Retired
0–0–7
Record given as win-loss-absent    Top Division Champion Retired Lower Divisions
Sanshō key: F=Fighting spirit; O=Outstanding performance; T=Technique     Also shown: =Kinboshi(s); P=Playoff(s)
Divisions: MakuuchiJūryōMakushitaSandanmeJonidanJonokuchi
Makuuchi ranks: YokozunaŌzekiSekiwakeKomusubiMaegashira

See also

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Daniel C. Gerould, American playwright and academic died he was 84

Daniel+C
Daniel Charles Gerould  was the Lucille Lortel Distinguished Professor of Theatre and Comparative Literature at the CUNY Graduate Center and Director of Publications of the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center. A scholar, teacher, translator, editor, and playwright, Gerould was a specialist in US melodrama, Central and Eastern European theatre of the twentieth century, and fin-de-siècle European avant-garde performance. Gerould was one of the world’s most recognized “Witkacologists,” a leading scholar and translator of the work of Polish playwright, novelist, painter, and philosopher Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz ("Witkacy").[1] Gerould was best known for introducing English-language audiences to the writings of Witkiewicz through such work as Stanisław I. Witkiewicz, The Beelzebub Sonata: Plays, Essays, Documents (PAJ Publications 1980), Witkacy: Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz as an Imaginative Writer (University of Washington Press, 1981), The Witkiewicz Reader (Northwestern University Press, 1992), and his original translations of most of Witkiewicz’s plays.

(March 28, 1928 – February 13, 2012)

Career

Gerould began his teaching career at the University of Arkansas (1949–1951) and earned a Diplôme in French Literature from the Sorbonne in 1955 and a PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of Chicago in 1959. Gerould taught at San Francisco State University from 1959 to 1968, where he founded the Department of World and Comparative Literature. In 1968, Gerould’s play Candaules Commissioner, an anti-war comedy informed by US military action in Vietnam and the Classical Greek allegory of King Candaules, premiered at the Stanford Repertory Theatre.[2][3] He began teaching at the Graduate Center, CUNY in 1970.
In 1981, Gerould founded the Institute for Contemporary East European Drama and Theatre with Alma Law as part of the Center for Advanced Study in Theatre Arts at the City University of New York Graduate Center. Gerould and Law co-edited the Institute’s tri-annual publication, originally titled Newsnotes on Soviet and East European Drama and Theatre, later changed to Soviet and East European Performance, and finally Slavic and East European Performance.
Gerould was a highly visible presence and driving force at the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, The Graduate Center CUNY, serving as executive director from 2004 to 2008, and thereafter as director of academic affairs and publications.

Work

Gerould's writings often include thick personal description of historical figures to frame important theoretical texts, as seen in his collection Theatre/Theory/Theory.
Known for his "sometimes oddball attraction to little-known works by obscure artists," Gerould described being more interested in the “underrated than the overexposed and universally celebrated," noting Witkacy as "a case in point, having gone from controversial outsider to classic of the avant-garde in three decades.”[4]
His translations in Polish received numerous awards, including prizes from the Polish Centre of the International Theatre Institute, Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle, Polish Authors Agency, Jurzykowski Foundation, American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages, American Council of Polish Cultural Clubs, and Marian Kister.
Gerould was also responsible for bringing new productions of many previously-forgotten or under-produced plays to New York and other U.S. stages. Gerould brought plays by Witkiewicz, including his translation of The Crazy Locomotive directed by Des McAnuff and featuring Glenn Close.[5]
Gerould was a beloved educator and mentored generations of doctoral students during his long career at the Graduate Center. He was the recipient of the City University of New York Award for Excellence in Teaching (Graduate Center) and was honored by TWB, Theater Without Borders, as a Groundbreaker in international theatre exchanges.[6]

Personal life

Gerould was born in Cambridge in 1928. His father, a journalist from a New England whaling family, was of French Huguenot descent. In the 2010 introduction to his compendium of essays, QuickChange, Gerould described trips to the “legitimate stage” with his mother in the 1930s and early 40s as planting the seeds for his long career as an “intensive spectator”:
“At that time many Broadway-bound productions tried out first in Boston, and I remember Ethel Barrymore in The Corn Is Green by Emlyn Williams and Arsenic and Old Lace with Boris Karloff. I felt myself a seasoned spectator, was at home among audiences, and was always ready to applaud bravura displays of virtuoso acting.”
Gerould graduated from Boston Latin High School and entered the University of Chicago at the age of 16. He later traveled to Paris as an exchange student in the 1954-55 season, further shaping his passion for the theatre and impassioned spectatorship.[7]
A thin, reed-like man, Gerould was spry and energetic, frequently found chopping wood and climbing fruit trees at his Woodstock, New York home on weekends away from New York City. He was an avid jazz collector, and was married to the Polish scholar and translator Jadwiga Kosicka, with whom he frequently collaborated.[5] His older sister, Joanne Simpson, was the first woman to ever receive a Ph.D. in meteorology. She eventually became NASA's lead weather researcher. Daniel Gerould's son Alexander L. Gerould is a professor at the Department of Criminal Justice Studies at San Francisco State University.

Selected Publications

American Melodrama. Editor. (1982)
Avant Garde Drama: A Casebook. Edited by Bernard F. Dukore and Daniel C. Gerould. (1976)
Avant-Garde Drama: Major Plays and Documents, Post World War I. Edited and with an introduction by Bernard F. Dukore and Daniel C. Gerould. (1969)
Comedy: a Bibliography of Critical Studies in English on the Theory and Practice of Comedy in Drama, Theatre, and Performance. Editor, Meghan Duffy; Senior Editor, Daniel Gerould; initiated by Stuart Baker, Michael Earley & David Nicholson. (2006)
Country House. Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz. Translated and with an introduction by Daniel Gerould. (1997)
Critical Reception of Shawʾs Plays in France: 1908-1950. Dissertation by Daniel Gerould. 1959.
Doubles, Demons, and Dreamers: An International Collection of Symbolist Drama. Editor. (1983)
Gallant and Libertine: Divertissements & Parades of 18th-Century France. Editor Daniel Gerould. (1983)
Life of Solitude: Stanisława Przybyszewska : a Biographical Study with Selected Letters. Jadwiga Kosicka and Daniel Gerould. (1989)
Maciej Korbowa and Bellatrix. Stanisław Witkiewicz. Translated and introduced by Daniel Gerould. (2009)
Maeterlinck Reader: Plays, Poems, Short Fiction, Aphorisms, and Essays. Maurice Maeterlinck. Edited & translated by David Willinger and Daniel Gerould.(2011)
Melodrama. Daniel Gerould, Guest Editor; Jeanine Parisier Plottel, General Editor. (1980)
Mother & Other Unsavory Plays: Including the Shoemakers and They. Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz. Edited and translated by Daniel Gerould and C.S. Durer; foreword by Jan Kott. (1993)
Mrożek Reader. Sławomir Mrożek. Editor Daniel Gerould. (2004)
Playwrights Before the Fall: Eastern European Drama in Times of Revolution. Editor Daniel Gerould. (2010)
Quick Change: 28 Theatre Essays, 4 Plays in Translations. Daniel Gerould. (2010)
Romania After 2000: Five New Romanian Plays. Gianina Carbunariu ... [et al.]. Edited by Saviana Stanescu and Daniel Gerould. (2007)
Theatre/Theory/Theatre: The Major Critical Texts from Aristotle and Zeami to Soyinka and Havel. Edited with introductions by Daniel Gerould. (2000)
Stanisław I. Witkiewicz, The Beelzebub Sonata: Plays, Essays, Documents. Edited by Daniel Gerould and Jadwiga Kosicka. (1980)
Twentieth-Century Polish Avant-Garde Drama: Plays, Scenarios, Critical Documents. Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz ... [et al.]. Edited, translated, and with an introduction by Daniel Gerould, in collaboration with Eleanor Gerould. (1977)
Witkacy: Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz As an Imaginative Writer. Daniel Gerould. (1981)
Witkiewicz Reader. Edited, translated, and with an introduction by Daniel Gerould. (1992)

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Eamonn Deacy, 53, Irish footballer, member of Aston Villa championship-winning team (1981), died from a heart attack he was 53

Eamonn "Chick"[1] Deacy  was a professional footballer from Galway, Ireland.

After a trial at Clyde Deacy made an impressive League of Ireland debut for Sligo away to Shelbourne at Harold's Cross Stadium on 14 December 1975.[2]

(1 October 1958 – 13 February 2012)
 
His only win in Sligo's colours came at Glenmalure Park on 4 January 1976. The next month he faced Geoff Hurst at Turners Cross.
His debut game for his home town club was in the FAI League Cup on 5 September 1976.[3] In his third League Cup game against Sligo he was sent off.
Deacy made his debut for Limerick on 28 November 1976 at Flower Lodge. At the end of the season he was on the losing side in the FAI Cup Final. However in his last game for the Shannonsiders he won the Munster Senior Cup.
Deacy scored Galway Rovers first goal in the League of Ireland on 2 October 1977.
The 21-year-old full back left Galway Rovers for Aston Villa in February 1979, after writing 12 letters to the club requesting a trial. He went on to have an unforgettable five years at the club, during which time they won the League Championship, European Cup and European Super Cup.
He was one of only 14 players used by Ron Saunders in the 1980–81 league-winning season, making enough appearances (11 in all, including six starts) to win a medal (he was Villa's number 12 on 19 occasions that season).[4] He made one appearance for Villa in European competition against Juventus in the 1982–83 European Cup.[5] He had a brief loan spell at Derby, where he played five games, before rejecting an offer of a new two-year deal from Villa to return home to Galway.
Deacy's first game back in the Maroon was in a League of Ireland Cup tie against Finn Harps on 2 September 1984.
Ironically his last League of Ireland game was also in Harold's Cross on St Patrick's Day 1991 away to St Patrick's Athletic.
He won 4 caps for the Republic of Ireland national football team.[6][7] He also played for the Republic of Ireland national football team amateur team that qualified for the 1978 UEFA Amateur Cup.
He died following a heart attack on 13 February 2012.[8] Terryland Park was renamed Deacy Park in honour of Chick[9] A testimonial was held on 18 August at Deacy Park.[10]

Honours

Galway United
Limerick
Aston Villa
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Dickey Betts died he was 80

Early Career Forrest Richard Betts was also known as Dickey Betts Betts collaborated with  Duane Allman , introducing melodic twin guitar ha...