Alan Ogg, died he was 42, American basketball

Raymond Alan Ogg born in Lancaster, Ohio, was an American professional basketball player who spent three seasons in the NBA. He is the University of Alabama at Birmingham Blazers' career shot-blocking leader with 266 blocks over four college seasons.^[1]

(July 5, 1967 – November 1, 2009)

The 7'2" and 240-pound center Gardendale High School grad played collegiate basketball for the UAB Blazers and started his professional career when he signed with the Miami Heat as an undrafted rookie during the 1990–91 NBA season. He became a fan favorite during his two seasons in Miami and split his playing time in his third and final NBA season with the Milwaukee Bucks and the Washington Bullets. He averaged 2.2 points and 1.7 rebounds during his NBA career.^[1] Ogg played overseas in Ger­many, China, Colombia, the Philippines, Puerto Rico and Paraguay before retiring from professional basketball in 2001. He had heart surgery in 2003.^[2]

Ogg died aged 42 on November 1, 2009, due to complications from a staphylococcal infection.^[3]

Robert H. Rines died he was 87

Robert H. Rines died he was 87. Rines was an American lawyer, inventor, researcher, and composer. He was also well known for his efforts to find the legendary "Loch Ness Monster."

(August 30, 1922 – November 1, 2009)

Robert Harvey Rines was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He held a Bachelor in Sciences from M.I.T., received a Juris Doctor from Georgetown University in 1946 and did his Ph.D. thesis at National Chiao Tung University in 1972. During World War II, Rines served as a U.S. Army Signal Corps officer and helped develop the Microwave Early Warning System. He held more than 800 patents, and his inventions underlie high-resolution image-scanning radar that was used in the Gulf War, and ultrasound scanning used in the search for the wrecks of the Titanic and the Bismarck. The technology has also been used for ultrasound imaging in the body, and in a 1972 expedition to locate the Loch Ness Monster.

In March 2004, Rines received the Boston Patent Law Association "Lifetime Achievement Award" for his contributions to the field of Intellectual Property. Rines also was inducted as member of the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1994 and the U.S. Army Signal Corps Wall of Fame. He was also the founder of the Academy of Applied Science, a Massachusetts and New Hampshire based organization dedicated to the promotion of science, technology and inventions, particularly among high school students.

Rines founded the Franklin Pierce Law Center, a private law school located in Concord, New Hampshire. Robert Rines was a lecturer at Harvard University and M.I.T. and served on Technical Advisory Board of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Rines was also an accomplished musician and composer. His musical career started early. His musical ability was demonstrated when, at age eleven, he played a violin duet with Albert Einstein at summer camp in Maine. As a composer he wrote music for both Broadway and off-Broadway shows. Rines composed music for Blast and Bravos, a play on the life of H. L. Mencken. Also composed scores for O'Casey's Drums Under the Windows, O'Neill's Long Voyage Home, Strindberg's Creditors and shared an Emmy Award with playwright Paul Shyre in 1987 for the television and later Broadway play Hizzoner the Mayor.

His philanthropic activities included establishing the GREAT Fund, providing educational grants for a large extended family in perpetuity.

In May 2008, after 45 years of teaching and inspiring students about intellectual property and technology innovation, Rines retired from lecturing at MIT. He died on November 1, 2009.

Abe Pollin died he was 85

Abe Pollin ^[1] died he was 85. Pollin was the owner of a number of professional sports teams including the Washington Capitals in the National Hockey League (NHL), the Washington Mystics in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA), and the Washington Wizards in the National Basketball Association (NBA).^[1] Pollin was the longest-tenured owner of an NBA team, holding the Packers/Zephyrs/Bullets/Wizards franchise for 46 years.

(December 3, 1923 – November 24, 2009)

Pollin was born on 3 December 1923 to Mr. and Mrs. Morris Pollin.^[2] When he was 8, Pollin's family moved to the Washington area from Philadelphia.^[1] Pollin graduated from The George Washington University in 1945 and took a job with his family’s construction company for 12 years.^[1] The Pollins launched their own construction company in 1957.^[1][3]

Pollin graduated from George Washington University in Washington, D.C. in 1945.^[1] Abe Pollin is a member of the Levy family as well. A successful construction contractor in the Washington area, he headed an investment group that bought the then Baltimore Bullets in 1964.^[1] He moved the team to the Washington area in 1973 after building the Capital Centre.^[1] In 1996, Pollin announced that he was changing the team's name because he felt the name "Bullets" had too many negative connotations.^[1] "Our slogan used to be 'Faster than a speeding bullet,' but that is no longer appropriate," Pollin told the press. A "name-the-team" contest yielded the name "Wizards."

Beginning in 2002, an award called "The Pollin Award" has been awarded annually in his honor. People are chosen for the Pollin Award based on their dedication to the Washington DC community and the impact they have on it. Winners of the award have included Harvey C. Barnum, Jr., 2005 Teacher of the Year, Jason Kamras and 2006 Miss District of Columbia, Kate Michael.

On December 3, 2003, a party was held in honor of Abe Pollin's 80th birthday at the Verizon Center. A slideshow was presented about the history of Abe's career as owner of the Bullets/Wizards. Tony Bennett also performed there as the guest entertainer.

Pollin died on November 24, 2009, just nine days shy of his 86th birthday.^[1]

Jeanne-Claude died she was 74

Artist Jeanne-Claude, who created the 2005 Central Park installation "The Gates" and other large scale "wrapping" projects around the globe with her husband Christo, has died. She was 74.


Jeanne-Claude died Wednesday night at a New York hospital from complications of a brain aneurysm, her family said in an e-mail statement.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he spoke with Christo on Thursday morning and offered condolences on behalf of all New Yorkers.

"The Gates" festooned 23 miles of Central Park's footpaths with thousands of saffron drapes hung from specially designed frames.

More than 5 million people saw "The Gates," and it was credited with injecting about $254 million into the local economy.

Christo — the more famous of the duo — was saddened, the family statement said, but remains "committed to honor the promise they made to each other many years ago: that the art of Christo and Jeanne-Claude would continue." That includes completing their current installation, "Over The River, Project for the Arkansas River, State of Colorado" and "The Mastaba" a project in the United Arab Emirates.

The Colorado project — which they had done parts of on and off for decades — involves spanning miles of the river with woven fabric. They chose the location near Canon City because of its river rapids and access to roads and footpaths. It is expected to be realized by summer 2013 at the earliest, according to the couple's office.

Their other projects include wrapping the Reichstag in Germany, the Pont Neuf in Paris, the Kunsthalle in Bern, Switzerland and a Roman wall in Italy.

A 1991 project involved thousands of bright yellow and blue umbrellas positioned across miles of inland valleys in Japan and California.

Their projects required mammoth manpower and miles of fabric and other materials. For the umbrella project, a total of 1,880 workers were used. They recycled all materials following each project.

The couple said they never accepted any sponsorship and financed all their temporary installations through the projects, including the sale of their preparatory drawings, collages, scale models and original lithographs.

The Mastaba (the Arabic word for bench) envisions a pyramid-like structure made of 410,000 brightly colored oil barrels stacked horizontally and rising 492 feet high and 984 feet wide.

"Hundreds of bright colors, as enchanting as Islamic mosaics, will give a constantly changing visual experience according to the time of the day and the quality of the light," the artists' Web site says of the project.

The couple was looking at five possible sites for the project at the time of Jeanne-Claude's death, their office said.

The two artists met in Paris in 1958 and had been collaborating for 51 years on temporary public arts projects. They made their home in Manhattan, where they had lived for 45 years.

Jeanne-Claude, who sported signature orange-dyed hair, once said that the couple, like parents who wouldn't favor one child over another, felt that, "each project is a child of ours."

But she added that their favorite project was, "the next one."

Plans for a memorial will be announced at a later date, but the family said they will donate her body to science, as was her wish. more

Samak Sundaravej died he was 74

Samak Sundaravej died he was 74. Sundaravej was a Thai politician who briefly served as the Prime Minister of Thailand and Minister of Defense in 2008, as well as the leader of the People's Power Party in 2008.

(June 13, 1935 – November 24, 2009)

Samak was born in Bangkok, Thailand to Sewok Eak Phraya Bumrungrajabhariphan (Samien Sundaravej) and his wife Khunying Umphan Bumrungrajabhariphan (Umphan Sundaravej). He is of Chinese descent (ancestral surname Lee (李)).^[1] He has five siblings. Samak studied at Saint Gabriel's College, Assumption Commercial College and Thammasat University. He also received diplomas from Chulalongkorn University and Bryant & Stratton College.^[2]

Beside from being a politician, Samak was a well-known television chef. For seven years until the military coup of September 2006, he hosted a cooking show called Tasting, Ranting on the Thailand ITV television network and Royal Thai Army Radio and Television. He said that once he became prime minister, he would also resume his career as a TV chef and has done so. On September 9, 2008, the full bench of the Constitutional Court ruled that it was unconstitutional for Samak to maintain his television career, to work in a private company while holding the office of prime minister, and disqualified him from office. .^[3][4]

Samak was married to Khunying Surat Sundaravej, a financial adviser to the Charoen Pokphand Group. They have two children with her.

At age 74 Samak admitted he had liver cancer and underwent laser surgery to remove a tumour and was treated at Bumrungrad Hospital on October 2, 2008. He was discharged on October 25.^[51][52]

On the morning of November 24, 2009, it was reported that at 8:48a.m. Samak had died at Bumrungrad International Hospital after fighting liver cancer, at the age of 74.^[53] Thaksin Shinawatra, the former Thai prime minister said, "My family and I express profound sorrow for the passing away of HE [His Excellency] Samak but I will not be able to attend his funeral."^[54] Samak's funeral will be held at the Wat Benchamabophit temple.^[55]

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Ken Ober died he was 52

Ken Ober
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Ken Ober, who hosted the 1980s MTV game show "Remote Control" and helped produce the shows "Mind of Mencia" and "The New Adventures of Old Christine," has died. (July 3, 1957 – November 15, 2009) His agent, Lee Kernis, says Ober was found dead Sunday in his Santa Monica home. Kernis says Ober complained of headaches and flu-like symptoms on Saturday night but the cause of his death wasn't clear. Ober hosted five seasons of "Remote Control" beginning in 1987. Contestants in lounge chairs were asked pop-culture questions from categories such as "Dead or Canadian?" The show featured early appearances by comedians Adam Sandler, Denis Leary and Colin Quinn. Ober, who was born Ken Oberding in Massachusetts, is survived by his parents and a brother.

John Muhammad was excuted he was 48

Washington-area sniper John Allen Muhammad was executed Tuesday by lethal injection, a Virginia prisons spokesman said.

The mastermind behind the Washington-area sniper attacks of 2002 that terrorized the nation's capital was declared dead at 9:11 p.m. ET, said Larry Traylor, director of communications for the Virginia Department of Corrections.

"There were no complications; Mr. Mohammad was asked if he wished to make a last statement," Traylor told reporters outside the the Greenville Correctional Center. "He did not acknowledge this or make a last statement whatsoever."

In fact, Mohammad, 48, said nothing from the time he entered the death chamber accompanied by guards at 8:58 p.m., Traylor said.

"After he was placed on the gurney and strapped down, he was very emotionless," Traylor said.

A curtain was drawn and a volunteer team of executioners inserted two catheters -- one in each arm -- through which the drugs that caused his death were to flow, Traylor said.

At 9:06 p.m., when the curtain was drawn back, "They asked him right after that, 'Mr. Muhammad, do you have any last words?' " recalled Jon Burkett, a reporter for WTVR who witnessed the execution from the second row of the gallery.

"He didn't say anything. At 9:07 you could see him twitch a lot. You could see him blinking a lot. You could see his breathing increase." After about seven deep breaths, at 9:08 p.m., he lay motionless, Burkett said.

Three minutes later, a physician working for the Department of Corrections pronounced him dead.

In a statement read on behalf of the lawyers for and family of Muhammad, defense lawyer Jon Sheldon said, "We deeply sympathize with the families and loved ones who have to relive the pain and loss of those terrible days; our sympathies also extend to the children of John Muhammad who, with humility and self-consciousness, today lost a father and a member of their family.

"To all those families and the countless citizens across the country who bore witness and continue to do so to those tragic events, we renew our condolences and we offer our prayers for a better future."

Among the witnesses were about a dozen members of the prosecution task force.

"He died very peacefully, much more than most of his victims," said Paul Ebert, the Virginia prosecutor who won the death penalty conviction. "I felt a sense of closure, and I hope that they did, too."

Bob Meyers, whose 53-year-old brother Dean was shot dead while pumping gas in Virginia, called Tuesday's spectacle "surreal."

"Watching the life be sapped out of somebody intentionally was very different and an experience I'd never had," he told CNN's "Larry King Live."

"I'd watched my mother die of natural causes, but that was very different."

He said he may have attained some closure, "but I would say that pretty much was overcome just by the sadness that the whole situation generates in my heart. That he would get to the place where he did what he did, and that it had to come to this."

Meyers said he has forgiven Muhammad for two reasons: "One is that God calls for me to do that in the Bible, and the second thing is related to that. If I don't, it rots me from the inside out. It doesn't really hurt John Muhammad or anybody that I have bitterness against."

The execution came hours after Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine denied a last-minute clemency request Tuesday for Muhammad.

Kaine's announcement came a day after the Supreme Court declined to intervene in the case.

During three weeks in October 2002, Muhammad and accomplice Lee Boyd Malvo, then 17, killed 10 people and wounded three, while taunting police with written messages and phoned-in threats and demands.

During two trials and in years of appeals, Muhammad had professed his innocence. One of his trials included testimony from Malvo, whose youth excluded him from consideration for the death penalty

Muhammad's attorney had argued his client was not given sufficient time to file his final appeal, but said Tuesday -- after the high court and the governor declined his request for a stay -- that he would make no further efforts to delay the matter.

In a written statement issued earlier Tuesday, lawyer Sheldon accused Virginia of racing to "execute a severely mentally ill man who also suffered from Gulf War Syndrome the day before Veterans Day."

Muhammad met Tuesday with J. Wyndal Gordon, his former stand-by attorney in his Maryland trial, in which he represented himself.

"His attitude was strong, it was sturdy," Gordon told reporters. "Mr. Mohammad maintains his innocence in this case, and he always has. He is not remorseful, although he does extend his condolences to the families. What these families went through is tragic in every level. Given the injustices in this case, what Mr. Mohammad went through is equally as tragic."

Gordon said he does not consider Mohammad to be insane. "However," he added, "I am not a psychiatrist or a psychologist."

The lawyer said Muhammad's last meal was "chicken and red sauce, and he had some cakes."

Muhammad, who opted not to select a spiritual adviser, met during the afternoon with his immediate family and lawyers, said Traylor.

Muhammad leaves four children and two ex-wives, both of whom appeared Monday on CNN's "Larry King Live."

Muhammad's first wife, Carol Williams, showed a letter in which he asked her to visit him on his execution day. "Carol, I miss my family for the past eight years," he wrote, referring to the time he has been incarcerated. "I don't want to be missed the day that these devils murder my innocent black ass."

Asked about his father, Lindbergh Williams said his feelings about the death penalty had not softened with the approach of the execution. "If you commit a crime, you can pay the time," he said.

Asked whether he believes his father regrets what he did, the younger Williams said, "Yes, I really do."

Mildred Muhammad, the sniper's second ex-wife and the mother of three of his children, told CNN on Monday that she last saw him in 2001 at a custody hearing and had not sought to visit him in prison.

"I had emotionally detached from John when I asked him for a divorce," she told CNN. "And my emotions were severed when he said that you have become my enemy and as my enemy, I will kill you."

She has asserted that she was her ex-husband's target, and she blamed the first Gulf War for changing his personality.

"He went from someone who was always happy, that knew what direction he was going in, and was focused, to a person that was totally confused, depressed all the time, and didn't know how to do or get to where he wanted to be."

She said he never received counseling after his return to the United States.

But lawyer Gordon disputed her account, saying that Muhammad "was absolutely not affected by his time in the Gulf War. We did discuss that."