Gordon Hirabayashi, American civil rights activist (Hirabayashi v. United States), died he was 93.

Gordon Kiyoshi Hirabayashi (Japanese: 平林潔, Hirabayashi Kiyoshi)  was an American sociologist, best known for his principled resistance to the Japanese American internment during World War II, and the court case which bears his name, Hirabayashi v. United States died he was 93..

(April 23, 1918 – January 2, 2012)

Biography

Early life

Hirabayashi was born in Seattle to a Christian family who were associated with the Mukyōkai Christian Movement. He graduated from Auburn Senior High School in Auburn, Washington, and in 1937 went to the University of Washington, where he received his degree. At the University he participated in the YMCA and became a religious pacifist.
Although he at first considered accepting internment, he ultimately became one of three to openly defy it. He joined the Quaker-run American Friends Service Committee. In 1942 he turned himself in to the FBI, and after being convicted for curfew violation was sentenced to 90 days in prison. He invited prosecution in part to appeal the verdict all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court with the backing of the ACLU. The Supreme Court, however, unanimously ruled against him in Hirabayashi v. United States (1943), albeit with three Justices filing separate opinions that concurred with the Court's decision only with certain reservations.
Given wartime exigencies, officials would not transport him to prison or even pay his train fare, so he hitchhiked to the Arizona prison where he was sentenced to reside. Once there, wardens stated they lacked the sufficient papers as he was two weeks late. They considered letting him just go home, but he feared this would look suspicious. After that they made the suggestion he could go out for dinner and a movie, which would give them time to find his papers. He agreed to this and, by the time he finished doing so, they had found the relevant paperwork.^[1]
Hirabayashi later spent a year in federal prison for refusing induction into the armed forces, contending that a questionnaire sent to Japanese-Americans demanding renunciation of allegiance to the emperor of Japan was racially discriminatory because other ethnic groups were not asked about adherence to foreign leaders.^[2]

Post-war career

After the war, he went on to earn B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in sociology from the University of Washington. He taught in Beirut, Lebanon and Cairo, Egypt, before settling at the University of Alberta in Canada in 1959, where he served as chair of the sociology department from 1970 until 1975 and continued to teach until his retirement in 1983.^[3] As a sociologist he did studies of Jordan and the Russian Doukhobors in British Columbia, Egyptian village political awareness, Jordanian social change, and Asian-Americans. He was an active member of Canadian Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). After retirement he was active on behalf of human rights.
Hirabayashi died on January 2, 2012, at age 93,^[4] in Edmonton, Alberta.^[5] He had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease 11 years earlier.^[6][7]

Conviction overturned

Soon after retiring, Hirabayashi received a call that would prove consequential. Peter Irons, a political science professor from the University of California, San Diego, had uncovered documents that clearly showed evidence of government misconduct in 1942—evidence that the government knew there was no military reason for the exclusion order but withheld that information from the United States Supreme Court. With this new information, Hirabayashi’s case was reheard by the federal courts, and in 1987 his conviction was overturned by the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.^[8]
“It was quite a strong victory—so strong that the other side did not appeal,” says Hirabayashi. “It was a vindication of all the effort people had put in for the rights of citizens during crisis periods.”
“There was a time when I felt that the Constitution failed me,” he explains. “But with the reversal in the courts and in public statements from the government, I feel that our country has proven that the Constitution is worth upholding. The U.S. government admitted it made a mistake. A country that can do that is a strong country. I have more faith and allegiance to the Constitution than I ever had before.” [A&S Perspectives, Winter 2000, University of Washington]
"I would also say that if you believe in something, if you think the Constitution is a good one, and if you think the Constitution protects you, you better make sure that the Constitution is actively operating... and uh, in other words "constant vigilance". Otherwise, it's a scrap of paper. We had the Constitution to protect us in 1942. It didn't because the will of the people weren't behind it."
(Gordon Hirabayashi Interview, Copyright 2001 Smithsonian Institution)
On May 24, 2011, the U.S. Acting Solicitor General, Neal Katyal delivered the keynote speech at the Department of Justice's Great Hall marking Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Developing comments he had posted officially on May 20,^[9] Katyal issued the Justice Department's first public confession of its 1942 ethics lapse. He cited the Hirabayashi and Korematsu cases as blots on the reputation of the Office of the Solicitor General - whom the Supreme Court explicitly considers as deserving of "special credence" when arguing cases - and as "an important reminder" of the need for absolute candor in arguing the United States government's position on every case.^[10]
In 1999, the Coronado National Forest in Arizona renamed the former Catalina Honor Camp in Hirabayashi's honor. The site, ten miles east of Tucson, where Hirabayashi had served out his sentence of hard labor in 1942, is now known as the Gordon Hirabayashi Recreation Site.^[11]

Posthumous Honors

In 2008, the University of Washington awarded Hirabayashi and four hundred former students of Japanese ancestry who were evacuated from the school honorary degrees "nunc pro tunc" (retroactively). Although Hirabayashi did not attend the ceremony, when his name was called he received the loudest and longest ovation from the audience.^{[citation needed]}

Presidential Medal of Freedom

On April 27, 2012, President Barack Obama announced that Hirabayashi would receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his principled stand against Japanese-American internment. The President presented the award posthumously on May 29. It was accepted by his family who traveled to Washington from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.^[12]

California State Legislature

On January 5, 2012, Assemblymembers Yamada and Furutani were granted unanimous consent in the California State Assembly to adjourn in memory of Gordon Hirabayashi.^[13]

Stage play

In 2007, the Asian American theatre company East West Players gave the world premiere of a stage play based on Hirabayashi's true life story. The play was a one-man show and was titled Dawn's Light: The Journey of Gordon Hirabayashi. East West Players described the play as follows: "During WWII in Seattle, University of Washington student Gordon Hirabayashi agonizes over U.S. government orders to forcibly remove and imprison all people of Japanese ancestry on the West Coast. As he fights to reconcile his country's betrayal with his Constitutional beliefs, Gordon journeys toward a greater understanding of America's triumphs and failures."^[14]
Dawn's Light: The Journey of Gordon Hirabayashi was written by Jeanne Sakata, directed by Jessica Kubzansky, and starred actor Ryun Yu as Gordon Hirabayashi and multiple other roles. Performances were held at the East West Player's David Henry Hwang Theatre in Little Tokyo in Los Angeles, California. Previews were November 1–4, 2007.^[14] Opening night was on November 7, 2007 and the play closed on December 2, 2007.^[15] The Los Angeles Times gave it a mixed review: "Ryun Yu plays Hirabayashi... but even his fine-grained tour de force doesn't negate the suspicion that another structure, another style might make this material more exciting."^[16]
In 2008, playwright Jeanne Sakata adapted her full-length stage play into a shorter theatre-for-youth production, which would tour the schools. Whereas the original one-man show ran approximately 90 minutes, this new abridged version, aimed at students, was about half as long, coming in at about 45 minutes. The tour was produced by East West Players' Theatre For Youth program, directed again by Jessica Kubzansky, and starred actor Martin Yu,^[17] who had been the understudy in the original 2007 full-length production.^[14]
In 2010, East West Players' Theatre For Youth program produced another tour of Dawn's Light: The Journey of Gordon Hirabayashi. There were a few revisions to the script, but the play remained approximately 45 minutes. However there was a new director and cast, not connected to previous productions. It was directed by Leslie Ishii and starred actor Blake Kushi.^[18] This marked the first time a Japanese-American director as well as a Japanese-American actor were used. The show was well-received as indicated by the following review: "Kushi gave a one-man, tour-de-force performance that floored the audience..."^[19]
Southern California Edison was the major sponsor of this tour of Dawn's Light: The Journey of Gordon Hirabayashi. The tour ran from February 12 to March 31, 2010. Shows were performed at elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools (and one city college^[20]) and also at community centers, churches, and public libraries. There were 35 performances in total. The tour visited the following California cities: Alhambra, Baldwin Park, East Rancho Dominguez, Fullerton, Gardena, Huntington Beach, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Monterey Park, North Hollywood, Norwalk, Pasadena, Redlands, Reseda, San Bernardino, San Fernando, Van Nuys, and West Covina.
In 2011, Ryun Yu reprised his performance of Dawn's Light: The Journey of Gordon Hirabayashi, but this time in Chicago, Illinois.^[21] Silk Road Theatre Project, in association with the Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Chicago and Millennium Park, presented the one-man show at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park.^[22] There were three performances total on January 13–15, 2011. The production was directed by Jessica Kubzansky and produced by Jerry O'Boyle.^[22]
In 2012, the play was renamed by its author Hold These Truths, and prepared by the Epic Theatre Ensemble of New York City for presentation off-Broadway in prototype productions in March. Starring Joel de la Fuente, it is on the Fall schedule to run from October 21 to November 18, 2012.^[23]



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William P. Carey, American businessman (W. P. Carey & Co.) and philanthropist, died he was 81.

William Polk Carey was an American philanthropist and businessman  died he was 81.. A charismatic figure, he was the founder of W. P. Carey & Co., the corporate real estate financing firm headquartered in New York City and donated the funds to establish the Carey Business School at Johns Hopkins University, the Carey School of Law, and the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University.

(May 11, 1930 – January 2, 2012)

Early life, career, and family

Carey had deep familial roots in the city of his birth, Baltimore, Maryland. His great-great-great-grandfather James Carey was an 18th- and 19th-century Baltimore shipper, chairman of the Bank of Maryland, a member of Baltimore's first City Council and a distant relative of Johns Hopkins. His grandmother, Anne Galbraith Carey, conceived of the Gilman School for boys in Roland Park.^[1] As a young man Carey attended elementary school at Calvert School and left Roland Park's Gilman School to go to the Pomfret School in Connecticut, then attended Princeton University. Shortly after his father's death, he left Princeton for supposedly missing chapel. He went on to attend the University of Pennsylvania, before establishing himself in New Jersey working in his step-father's car dealership. Carey resided in New York City and Rensselaerville, New York. Carey was a notable alumnus of The Delta Phi Fraternity and was an active member in the University of Pennsylvania chapter. Mr Carey was an active member of the University Club in NYC. He was also Governor General of the Society of Mayflower Descendants in New York State. Mr. Carey also claimed to be a relative of President James Polk, the 11th President of the United States from 1845 to 1849.

The Johns Hopkins University Carey Business School

Carey announced December 5, 2006 his donation of $50 million to The Johns Hopkins University.^[2] He was a trustee emeritus at Hopkins and donated the money through his W.P. Carey Foundation.^[3] The gift is the largest to Hopkins in support of business education and is now called the Carey Business School. The Hopkins business school will be named after William Carey's great-great-great-grandfather, James Carey.^[4] The school offers a Master of Science in Real Estate program, one of the first in the Baltimore/Washington, D.C. corridor.

University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law

On April 25, 2011 Carey announced his donation of $30 million to The University of Maryland School of Law.^[5] The emphasis of the gift was to increase the school's endowment. The school is being named after Carey's grandfather, Francis King Carey, who was a graduate of the Law School (Class of 1880).

Arizona State University W. P. Carey School of Business

Carey was benefactor to the Arizona State University College of Business. In 2002, Carey donated $50 million to the College of Business. In recognition of his gift, the University renamed its business school the W. P. Carey School of Business.

Contribution to The Gilman School

In the mid-1990s, the Gilman School started discussing the much needed renovations of Carey Hall, the school's main building which houses the Upper School students. Carey Hall, named after Carey's grandmother, was constructed in 1910 and remained the same until late 2006. Carey donated 10 million dollars to the school's capital campaign fund, a sum that was one fifth of the total amount of money raised for the renovation of Carey Hall. On December 10, 2007 Carey Hall was officially re-opened as Carey cut the ribbon signalling the start of a new generation in a new, updated Carey Hall.


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Yoshiro Hayashi, Japanese golfer, died he was 89.

Yoshiro Hayashi  was a Japanese golfer died he was 89.. He turned pro at the age of 16 and continued with 12 post-war wins. Hayashi was considered one of the big top four Japanese golfers along with Isao Aoki, Masashi Ozaki and Akiko Fukushima.

(林由郎 Hayashi Yoshirō^?, 27 January 1922 – 2 January 2012)

He died at the age of 89 on 2 January 2012.^[1]

Professional wins

this list is probably incomplete

• 1948 Kanto Pro Championship
• 1949 Japan PGA Championship, Yomiuri Pro
• 1950 Japan Open, Japan PGA Championship, Yomiuri Pro
• 1953 Kanto Pro Championship
• 1954 Japan Open
• 1955 Kanto Open
• 1956 Japan PGA Championship
• 1960 Kanto Open
• 1961 Japan PGA Championship

Team appearances

• Canada Cup (representing Japan): 1956

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Silvana Gallardo, American actress (MacGuyver, Starsky and Hutch, Babylon 5), died she was 58.

Silvana Gallardo was an American film and television actress died she was 58..^[1]

^{(January 13, 1953 – January 2, 2012)} 

Born as Sandra Silvana Gallardo in New York City, her television credits include episodes of Starsky and Hutch, Lou Grant, Quincy, Hill Street Blues, Cagney and Lacey, Kojak, Falcon Crest, Trapper John M.D., The Golden Girls, Knots Landing, MacGyver, LA Law, Babylon 5, ER and NYPD Blue. She also appeared in films including Windwalker, Death Wish II, and Silence of the Heart. She was also an acting coach and writer.

Personal life

Sandra Silvana Gallardo was the creator of the "Gallardo Method," a method of acting where "there are no boundaries, there are no limits, there simply is The Art of the Infinite Possibility." Gallardo was told at an early age, "You can't change the world". 'Perhaps not," She said. "But I sure can try." This message was carried throughout her life in her teachings.
Silvana began her teaching career in NYC - working with kids whom life had given up on. She saw the impact that her work had on these teens - how they had begun to believe in themselves - believe that they too could have a real future. They were no longer destined to believe in failure. They worked hard and explored all of the possibilities that life could offer. Today many of these teens are now leading productive lives, giving back, becoming teachers, poets, artists- role models for those less fortunate.
Silvana grew up on Fox Street in the South Bronx - a street where 90% of the residents there died of other than natural causes(from New York Times article). She attended Morris High School and is forever grateful to the late Herbert Fein, then Chairman of the Music Department. He took a chance on her, even though she didn't feel that she could really sing or dance. His belief in her made Silvana believe that she could have a career in the arts. She received Best Actress award at her Graduation and was awarded a four year scholarship to a major University in NY which was (even before she got started) taken away. Their excuse was the roles she could play would be limited. Today she would own the school... and all was good. Silvana entered a drama school, the H.B. Studio in the Village. There she studied with the late great James Patterson, a Tony Award winning Actor. Her life and work were forever changed. She was also aware of Walter Lott, another student of the Stanislavski's Method. Although she had never studied with the late Walter Lott, she was inspired by his teachings.
Silvana was also a track star - running and winning NYC Championship for the relay. She was coached by Sunny Pomales, a wonderful man who demanded the best from her. As life would have it, everything came together. In Silvana's first film, THE WINDWALKER, She had to do a scene where she had to run full out. After several takes she was told to SLOW DOWN. The camera was having a hard time recording her speed.^[2]
While residing in Paris, Kentucky, Gallardo died on January 2, 2012, eleven days before her 59th birthday, at Jewish Hospital, Louisville, from cancer.^[3]


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George Esper, American journalist and foreign correspondent (Associated Press), died he was 79.

George Esper was an American journalist died he was 79.. Esper was a noted foreign correspondent for the Associated Press during the Vietnam war, working at the AP's Saigon Bureau under bureau chief Edwin Q. White.^[1][2] Esper refused to leave the city, now known as Ho Chi Minh City, during the Fall of Saigon, choosing to cover the aftermath of the end of the war.^[1] He spent forty-two years reporting for the Associated Press.^[1] He worked as a journalism professor at West Virginia University following his retirement from the AP in 2000.^[3]

^{(1932 – February 2, 2012)} 

 
Esper was born in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, in 1932, the son of Lebanese immigrants.^[3] He graduated from West Virginia University, becoming the first member of his family to attend college.^[1] Esper worked as a sports writer for the Uniontown Morning Herald and the Pittsburgh Press before being hired by the Associated Press in 1958.^[1]
Esper died in his sleep on February 2, 2012, at the age of 79.^[1] He was buried at St. George Maronite Catholic Church in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, on February 9.^[3]


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Vivi Friedman, Finnish film director, died from cancer she was 44.

Vivi Friedman was a Finnish film director died from cancer she was 44.. She produced the majority of her work in the United States. During her career she worked on advertisements and short films and directed a feature length film, The Family Tree in 2011.

(May 20, 1967 – January 2, 2012)

Early life and career

Born in Helsinki, Finland Friedman spent her childhood years growing up in Nummela in southern Finland before moving to the United States to study at the University of Rochester in New York. She remained in the United States.
Before becoming a director she worked in several roles for television films and documentaries including roles as script supervision and location manager. She directed her first production, a television series called Team Suomi in 1994.
Friedman directed the short film Certainly Not a Fairytale in 2003 for the Fox Searchlight Searchlab development program. It starred Linda Cardellini and Jason Segel.^[1][2]
Her sole feature length film was the 2011 black comedy The Family Tree starring Hope Davis, Keith Carradine, Dermot Mulroney and Selma Blair.^[3]

Personal life and death

Friedman was in a long-term relationship with Steven Kaminsky, a post production supervisor.
She died on January 2, 2012 after a long battle with cancer aged 44.^[4]

Filmography

Feature films

• The Family Tree (2011)

Short Films

• Certainly Not a Fairytale (2003)

Television Series

• Team Suomi (1994)

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Ivan Călin, Moldovan politician, Acting President of the Moldovan Parliament (2009), died he was 76.

Ivan Petrovici Călin  was a Moldovan politician died he was 76..

(Moldovan: Иван Петрович Калин; 10 March 1935 – 2 January 2012)

Biography

Călin was born in the small village of Plopi in the north of Transnistria, in Rîbniţa sub-district, then in Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.
Călin was President of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Moldavian SSR from 10 April 1980 to 24 December 1985. Following this he became prime minister of the Moldavian SSR until 10 January 1990.
He was elected as member of the Parliament of Moldova in the 1998 election, 2005 election, April 2009 election and July 2009 election.
Until the speaker was elected, the plenary meetings of the Moldovan Parliament were chaired by the oldest MP, making Călin the acting speaker from 5 through 12 May 2009.



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Peg Belson, British health activist, died she was 90.

Doctor Margaret ("Peg") Belson MBE, BA Syd PhD (Hon)  was a British health care campaigner who made voluntary contributions over 60 years, in the UK and abroad, in the field of children’s welfare in hospitals, including the establishment of the Action for Sick Children Association died she was 90..^[1]

^(1921-2012)

Early Life and family

Margaret Belson (née Harris) was born in England in 1921 before emigrating to Australia at an early age, where she qualified as a teacher. She met her husband, William Belson, during the Second World War and they moved to London in 1951. Their first child, Jane, was born that year, followed by Louise, Ross and Bruce.

Inspiration

In 1959 the UK's Ministry of Health published the Platt Report requiring hospitals to implement major changes in the non-medical care of children in hospital. It made 54 recommendations, the most significant being that visiting to all children should be unrestricted, that mothers should be able to stay with young children and that the training of medical and nursing staff should include the emotional and social needs of children and families. Since 1952, through his contrasting documentary films, A Two Year Old Goes to Hospital and Going to Hospital With Mother James Robertson, a psychiatric social worker from the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations, had been promoting such a pattern of care to doctors and nurses with only limited success. Nor was the Ministry any more successful in gaining a more humane pattern of care for sick children. At that time children faced long, lonely stays in hospital. Visiting hours were very short, sometimes as little as an hour twice a week and for some conditions non-existent. Parents were discouraged from visiting. It was thought they might bring infection into the ward and “their visits evidently upset the children who, if left to themselves, would quickly settle down and soon forget about home”. At that time a health correspondent could confidently state that “the vast majority of hospitals seemed oblivious to the enormous amount of suffering they put upon children and their parents by rules which break important relationships necessary for the maintenance of good mental health”. In 1961 James Robertson brought the Platt recommendations to public notice with a series of articles in the Observer and a forthright programme on BBC TV based on his films. Contrary to instructions he asked viewers to write to him about what happened when their children were in hospital and urged community action to improve conditions for sick children.

Early work

Peg Belson was one of the Battersea mothers who heeded his call and under his guidance set up a group, initially called Mother Care for Children in Hospital, which in 1965 changed to NAWCH – the National Association for the Welfare of Children in Hospital. Within a few short years NAWCH was a UK-wide organisation with over fifty branches, a Central Office and a Government grant. During the past 50 years going into hospital for children has changed beyond recognition. In the main children are cared for by qualified staff on children’s wards where parents are welcome at any time, sleep near their child and take part in their care, hospital play specialists help to make the experience more meaningful and endurable and wards are bright and suitably decorated. With her colleagues Peg Belson played a significant role in helping to bring about these changes. She was a committee member and office-bearer in NAWCH (now Action for Sick Children), a member of official enquiries and represented Action for Sick Children on other national organisations. As a lecturer and writer and as a health authority member she was able to persuade others to take up the cause. She carried out many national surveys of hospital facilities for children, which gained wide press coverage and formed part of official reports. These surveys included facilities for parents, numbers of children’s trained doctors, nurses and hospital play specialists and numbers of children being nursed in adult wards as well as the availability of children’s emergency services, dedicated adolescent care and of education for sick children. In addition to helping to improve care in the UK she helped to introduce similar programmes for family involvement and play to other countries by visiting and teaching in hospitals overseas and by arranging teaching visits to UK hospitals for enthusiastic groups of overseas staff. These contacts included Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Malta, Finland, West Germany, Denmark, Japan, China, Kuwait, the Czech Republic, Poland and Bosnia. She was associated with the setting up of EACH, the European Association for Children in Hospital in 1992, the development of the EACH Charter for Children in Hospital. She represented Action for Sick Children on EACH and was currently its secretary. From 1964 she was associated with the development of play in hospital. With Dr Charlotte Williamson she established the Play in Hospital Liaison Committee and taught on three of the training programmes for Hospital Play Specialists. She was a Vice-President of the National Association for Hospital Play Staff and Advisor to Action for Sick Children. She assisted in the programme of family-centred care and hospital play in the Czech Republic since 1992.

Work with children with HIV/AIDS

Her early interest, gained in the USA, in children with HIV led her to join CWAC – the Children With AIDS Charity – at its foundation in 1992, chairing it from 2000 to 2010, steering it to become a very effective source of help for the many UK children infected and affected with HIV/AIDS. Medical advances have seen HIV become more a chronic than a terminal illness but social care is far behind. These children may, from an early age, experience extreme poverty, stigma, bereavement, adoption and fostering, while maintaining a strict medication regime with long or short-term side effects and enduring hospital stays while the need to maintain complete confidentiality regarding their health status can bring social isolation. CWAC offers these children and their families financial help, respite breaks, work experience and transport to hospital, provides sexual health programmes in schools and clubs, publishes a journal and runs a resource and campaign centre. Other interests include child accident prevention, facilities for under-fives and programmes for disabled children. She served on health authorities and community health councils and undertook other patient-representational roles during nearly sixty years of fulfilling voluntary endeavour for children and young people.

Honours

At her death she was vice-chair of USUKAA and was closely involved in the moves to change the NHS. She was awarded an MBE In 1973, elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health in 1993 and was awarded an honorary PhD in 2003 by Wheelock College in Boston with whom she ran a summer school in London from 1978 to 2005. In 2011 ahe was presented with the inaugural USUKAA Lifetime Achievement Award. In October 2012, she was posthumously bestowed with the Silver Jan Masaryk Honorary Medal by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic, Mr. Karel Schwarzenberg, for her exceptional contribution to the advancement of care for hospitalized children in the Czech Republic. The medal was presented to Ms Louise Belson, her daughter, by His Excellency Michael Žantovský, the Czech Ambassador, at a ceremony that took place at the Embassy of the Czech Republic in London. The initiative for the award came from the Klicek Foundation [1], of which Peg Belson was a friend and advocate.



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Ian Bargh, British-born Canadian jazz pianist, died form lung cancer he was 76.

Ian Martin Bargh  was a Scottish born Canadian jazz pianist and composer died form lung cancer he was 76..

(8 January 1935 – 2 January 2012)

Early life

Born in Prestwick, Scotland, Bargh established himself by the age of 17 as a classical pianist that played with jazz ensembles in the U.K.. He emigrated to Toronto in 1957 and continued a musical career that spanned six decades.^[1]

Career

Bargh quickly established himself as a featured pianist and sideman for touring musicians stopping to perform in Toronto, playing in such legendary establishments as George's Spaghetti House. Through the 1960s and 1970s, some of the many jazz greats he played with were, Buddy Tate, Buck Clayton, Bobby Hackett, Vic Dickenson, Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson, Ernestine Anderson, Harry "Sweets" Edison, Edmond Hall, Doc Cheatham, and Tyree Glenn.
In the 1980s, he began an eight-year association with Jim Galloway's “Toronto Alive” project at the Sheraton Centre. Live collaborations at the centre included those with, Zoot Sims, Al Cohn, Lee Konitz, Peter Appleyard, Frank Wright, Scott Hamilton, Rob McConnell, Guido Basso, Ed Bickert, Dizzy Reece, and Warren Vache, among others.
During this period, he also toured in jazz festivals across the world in an all-star group again led by Galloway. He was also featured at the Bern International Jazz Festival as part of an impressive roster that included fellow pianists Chick Corea, Count Basie and Dave Brubeck.
Towards the end of this period, he began a fifteen-year association with the Toronto Jazz Festival, leading the rhythm section of the host hotel's house band. It was at this venue that he performed with scores of musicians, including, Plas Johnson, Spanky Davis, Harold Ashby, both Warren and Allan Vache, Fraser MacPherson, Joe Temperley, Randy Sandke, Jake Hanna, and George Masso.

Recordings

Bargh performed as a sideman for many Toronto-based recordings, many of them on the Sackville Records label, which also released his solo album “Only Trust Your Heart”, which received an enthusiastic review by AllMusic jazz critic Dave Nathan.^[2]

Discography

• Only Trust Your Heart (Sackville, 2000)

As sideman

• At the Bern Jazz Festival – Doc Cheatham (Sackville, 1994)
• Echoes of Swing – Jim Galloway (Cornerstone, 2003)
• Diano Who? - Diana Drew (Jocosity Inc., 2003)

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Yafa Yarkoni, Israeli singer, died he was 86.

Yafa Yarkoni  was an Israeli singer, winner of the Israel Prize in 1998 for Hebrew song  died he was 86.. She was dubbed Israel's “songstress of the wars” due to her frequent performances for Israel Defense Forces soldiers, especially in wartime.^[1] She was from a Kavkazi Jewish family.^[2]

^{(Hebrew: יפה ירקוני‎, also Yaffa Yarqoni, (24 December 1925 – 1 January 2012)}

Biography

Yafa Abramov (later Yafa Gustin and Yafa Yarkoni) was born in Giv'at Rambam (today a neighbourhood of Giv'atayim) to a Jewish family that immigrated from the Caucasus. At the age of ten, she studied ballet dancing under Gertrude Kraus, one of Israel's dance pioneers.
In the 1940s, her mother ran a café in Givat Rambam, where Yafa performed with her sister Tikva and her brother Binyamin. On 21 September 1944, she married Joseph Gustin, who fought in World War II with the Jewish Brigade and was killed in battle in Italy in 1945.^[3]
Yarkoni married Shaike Yarkoni in 1948.^[4] They had three daughters.^[5]
In 2000, Yarkoni was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.^[6][7] According to her daughter, Haaretz journalist Orit Shochat, her condition worsened in 2007. That year she appeared for the last time on a television show produced in her honor by the Israel Broadcasting Authority.

Music career

In 1948, during Israel's War of Independence, Yarkoni joined an IDF song troupe affiliated with the Givati Brigade. Bab el-Wad, a song she performed at the time, became a classic, sung every year on Israel's Memorial Day. After the war, she performed songs for a program on the Kol Yisrael radio station.^[8]
Most of Yarkoni's songs were written by Tuli Reviv and Haim Hefer.^[9] Yarkoni also performed some of Naomi Shemer's early children's songs.
Among her most well-known songs are "Don't Say Goodbye, Say I Will See You," about a soldier parting from his girlfriend before battle, and "Road to Jerusalem," about soldiers transporting food to Jerusalem when the city was under siege in 1948.^[5]

Awards

In 1998, Yarkoni was awarded the Israel Prize, for Hebrew song.^[10] In 2005, she was voted the 153rd-greatest Israeli of all time, in a poll by the Israeli news website Ynet to determine whom the general public considered the 200 Greatest Israelis.^[11]

Death

On 1 January 2012, Yarkoni died at Reut Medical Center in Tel Aviv. She is buried in the Kiryat Shaul cemetery in Tel Aviv, beside her husband.^[12]


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Carlos Soria, Argentine politician, Secretary of Intelligence (2002), Governor of Río Negro (since 2011), died from gunshot he was 63.

Carlos Ernesto Soria was an Argentine lawyer and Justicialist Party politician died from gunshot he was 63.. He died in the early hours of January 1, 2012, from a gunshot wound, at his farm, after the New Year celebrations. Soria was the governor of Rio Negro Province at the time. His widow was charged with first-degree murder on January 19, 2012.

(March 1, 1949 – January 1, 2012)

Life and times

Early life and career

Soria was born in Bahía Blanca in 1949, and was raised in a nearby rural town, General Daniel Cerri. His father, Ernesto Soria, was an outspoken Peronist, and was arrested shortly after the 1955 coup against President Juan Perón. Following his release several months later, the Sorias relocated to Bariloche. The elder Soria was again arrested amid a crackdown on Peronist protests during a state visit to Bariloche by U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower in March 1959, and was imprisoned in Bahía Blanca. He was released in April 1962 and the family settled in General Roca, Río Negro, where they opened a neighborhood store.^[2]
Carlos Soria enrolled at the University of Buenos Aires, earning a Law degree in 1973. Elections that March returned Peronists to power, and Soria was elected to the local Justicialist Party (JP) chapter. He was later elected to the Provincial Council of the JP, and upon the return of democracy in 1983, won a seat in the Argentine Chamber of Deputies.^[2]

Tenure in Congress

Soria would be elected to Congress for four consecutive terms, becoming Chairman of the Constitutional Affairs Committee. He also served in the Justice, Impeachments, and Money Laundering committees; chaired the joint committee investigating the 1992 Israeli Embassy attack in Buenos Aires and the 1994 AMIA bombing (the two most significant acts of Islamic terrorism in Argentine history);^[3] and served in the Council of Magistrates of the Nation.^[4]
Soria shared President Carlos Menem's opposition to trials opened in 1996 in Spanish courts against Dirty War perpetrators by Judge Baltasar Garzón, and personally led a delegation to protest these trials; when Judge Garzón turned the tables on the delegation by calling them to testify, they returned, however, creating an embarrassing diplomatic incident.^[5] He later presented a bill to restrict rights and toughen sentences for those accused of violent crime, as well as another which would have granted congressional immunity to all members in perpetuity; both bills were defeated.^[5]
Soria would later be indicted for obstruction of justice in his capacity as Chair of the Joint Committee on the AMIA bombing, and though he was cleared of all charges, the Río Negro PJ dropped him from their party list ahead of the 1999 elections.^[5] Soria was then offered a place in the Buenos Aires Province PJ list for Congress by Governor Eduardo Duhalde. Shortly before the October 1999 elections, moreover, Duhalde appointed Soria as Provincial Minister of Justice. His appointment took place on the heels of the September 16 Ramallo massacre, a botched Provincial Police intervention during an armed bank robbery that resulted in the deaths of two hostages.^[6] Soria promptly released hitherto sequestered police files relating to the case which confirmed that the robbery, as well as the deaths of all robbers and hostages alike, had been orchestrated by Provincial Police officers.^[7]
Remaining on the electoral list for National Deputies, Soria took his seat in Congress in December representing the Province of Buenos Aires. He became among the leading congressional opponents of President Fernando de la Rúa's austerity package, scuttling a 2000 decree which would have cut public sector salaries (this ultimately took place the following year).^[8] President de la Rúa's resignation in December 2001, and the subsequent Congressional designation of Duhalde as provisional president resulted in Soria's appointment as Secretary of State Intelligence (SIDE) in January 2002.^[3]

Tenure at State Intelligence

Taking office, as President Duhalde did, amid widespread protest, Soria's tenure at SIDE would eventually be marred by a June 26 incident in which two piqueteros, Maximiliano Kosteki and Darío Santillán, were shot in the back in Avellaneda by Provincial Police officers. SIDE had produced intelligence reports stating that the overthrow of the national government had been openly advocated in piqueteros' assemblies, and that these were attended by the extremist group Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).^[5] Phone conversations between minutes before the assassinations between a policeman implicated in the incident and the Undersecretary of Intelligence at the time, Oscar Rodríguez, proved SIDE involvement in the tragedy in subsequent trials.^[9]
Fallout from this incident was compounded by allegations made by Senator Cristina Fernández de Kirchner that SIDE personnel were spying on her husband, Santa Cruz Governor Néstor Kirchner, who had recently declared his intention to run for President the following year.^[5] These controversies, and Soria's own plans to run for Governor of the Province of Río Negro, prompted his resignation from SIDE in July. He was narrowly defeated in provincial elections in August 2003 by UCR candidate Miguel Saiz,^[10] though in elections held later in 2003, Soria narrowly won the election for mayor of the city of General Roca (the largest in the province).^[2] Duhalde and Soria continued to face charges in court related to the 2002 deaths. Soria declared at trial in 2005 that "democracy works with order, and we needed to establish order";^[11] both men were cleared of all charges.^[5]

Return to Río Negro

Soria was overwhelmingly reelected as mayor of General Roca in 2007, garnering 73% of the vote.^[2] He clinched the Justicialist Party nomination for Governor of Río Negro in 2011, and ran with the support of the Front for Victory (FpV) faction of the party despite his long-standing alliance with the FpV's main rival, Duhalde. Soria's principal opponent in the race, UCR nominee César Barbeito, also professed his support of the FpV's standard-bearer, President Cristina Kirchner. The president formally endorsed Soria despite their past differences, however, while maintaining her distance from both candidates.^[5] Soria was elected governor in September with 51% of the vote, besting Barbeito by nearly 14%.^[12]

Death

Soria died on January 1, 2012, during the new year celebrations with his family at his farm near General Roca. He was shot in the face with a .38 caliber weapon at around 5 am, and was moved immediately to a nearby hospital, where he died minutes later.^[13] The police didn't determine initially whether the death was caused by an accident or foul play; his wife was held for further questioning.^[13][14] He received a private funeral.^[13] His widow was charged with first-degree murder on January 19, 2012.^[15]
Vice-governor Alberto Weretilneck succeeded Soria as governor. Weretilneck considered calling new elections, despite provisions in the Constitution of Río Negro Province that would allow him to complete the remainder of Soria's term.^[13]


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Marcelle Narbonne, French supercentenarian, oldest person in Europe, died she was 113.

Marcelle Narbonne was, at the time of her death, the oldest living person in France and Europe oldest person in Europe, died she was 113.. She was also the 8th-oldest validated living person in the world.^[1][2]

^{(25 March 1898 – 1 January 2012)}

Biography

Narbonne was born in Isserville in French Algeria. She worked as a shorthand typist for much of her life. In 1962 she moved to mainland France when Algeria gained its independence from the French. Shortly after in 1963, Narbonne retired. Narbonne lived with her younger sister until her death at the age of 95 in 1999. From there, Narbonne moved to Capucines a retirement home in Argelès-Sur-Mer. On her 112th birthday in 2010, Narbonne was reported to be physically weak and walked short distances. She enjoyed poetry, a glass of champagne, and ate on her own. She was on no medications and spoke very little by the time of her death.

Longevity records

• On 14 July 2010, Marcelle Narbonne aged 112 years 111 days moved into Gerontology Research Group list for Guinness World Records.
• On 23 July 2011, Mathilde Aussant died, Marcelle Narbonne aged 113 years 120 days became the oldest person in France and one of the ten oldest people in the world.
• On 2 August 2011, Venere Pizzinato died, Marcelle Narbonne aged 113 years 130 days became the oldest living person in Europe.
• On 1 October 2011, Marcelle Narbonne aged 113 years 190 days became one of the 10 oldest French people ever.
• On 1 January 2012, Marcelle Narbonne aged 113 years 282 days died as the 8th oldest person in the world as well as 8th oldest French person ever.

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