In 2024, we've experienced the loss of several luminaries in the world of entertainment. These beloved figures—actors, comedians, musicians, singers, and coaches—have touched our lives with their talent, passion, and dedication. They've left an indelible mark on our hearts and shaped the world of entertainment in ways that will continue to inspire and influence generations to come.
Among the incredible actors who bid farewell this year, we mourn the loss of a true chameleon who effortlessly.
David Stahl was an American conductor who studied under Leonard Bernstein and was famous for his interpretation of the work of Mahler died from ymphoma he was , 60.[1] He was the Chefdirigent of the Staatstheater am Gaertnerplatz, Munich, Germany, and the conductor of the Charleston Symphony Orchestra. He died on October 24, 2010 after battling lymphoma for two months. [2] His wife, Karen, passed away in September 2010.
(1950 - October 24, 2010)
Biography
Early life and family background
Stahl was born in New York City, the son of Jewish emigre parents. David Stahl's father, Frank L. Stahl, is an engineer who took part in the restoration of the Golden Gate Bridge in the 1980s. He was born in Fuerth, Germany and attended the same elementary school as Henry Kissinger. Edith Stahl, David Stahl's mother, immigrated to New York in 1938 from Essen, Germany. David Stahl's grandfather, Dr. Leo Stahl (m. Anna Regensburger), was the Jewish Community Leader of Fuerth during the Nazi time. He was interned in Dachau from 11 November to 7 December, 1938, and emigrated to England in 1939. Arriving in New York in 1947, he was, according to Das Schicksal der jüdischen Rechtsanwälte in Bayern nach 1933, by Reinhard Weber, unsuccessful in business and died there in 1952, aged 67. Frank's sister Liselotte, after a time in Manchester, England, also came to New York, where she died in 2007.
Professional career
After making his Carnegie Hall debut at age 23, Stahl came under the tutelage of Leonard Bernstein, eventually taking over as music director of the Broadway production of West Side Story. In 1984, he became permanent conductor of the Charleston Symphony Orchestra, and in 1996 he was invited to be guest conductor at the Staatsteater am Gaertnerplatz. He assumed the title of music director there as of the 1999/2000 season.
As an enthusiast of Bernstein, he has been behind several revivals of Candide, including conducting an acclaimed 2003 German language production narrated by Loriot[3] and, recently, a 2008 production in Charleston, SC.[4] He has also been involved in the staging of a notable production of the Gershwin brothers' Porgy and Bess in Charleston, SC (the city where the opera is set) which went on to tour internationally in the early 1990s.[5] In 2009 he will celebrate 25 years at CSO and 10 years at the Gärtnerplatz. He is married and has three children.
The York Theatre featured Stein's Take Me Along, Carmelina, and Plain and Fancy as its 2006 "Musicals in Mufti" staged concert series. Stein revised Carmelina reducing it to a cast of seven from its original Broadway version for the York reading.[15] Its 2007 series featured four additional Stein musicals, Zorba, Enter Laughing: The Musical (renamed from So Long, 174th Street), The Body Beautiful, and The Baker's Wife. The readings are presented in concert format in mufti, in street clothes without scenery or props.[16]
The York Theatre, under Artistic Director James Morgan, went on to produce a critically acclaimed fully-staged off-Broadway production of Enter Laughing: The Musical from September 3, 2008 through October 12, starring Jill Eikenberry and Michael Tucker.[17] It was nominated for a 2009 Lucille Lortel Award for outstanding revival.[18] A Broadway transfer has been announced.[19]
Encores!
Victoria Clark starred the City CenterEncores! production of Marc Blitzstein and Joseph Stein’s Juno. Directed by Garry Hynes, with guest music direction by Eric Stern and musical staging by Warren Carlyle, Juno played for five performances, from March 27 – 30, 2008 at New York City Center and was the first presentation since the original Broadway staging in 1959 to use the original orchestration by Blitzstein, Hershey Kay and Robert Russell Bennett.[20] Juno, with music and lyrics by Marc Blitzstein and book by Joseph Stein is based on the 1924 play Juno and the Paycock by Sean O’Casey. It originally opened on Broadway at the Winter Garden Theater on March 9, 1959, starring Shirley Booth and Melvyn Douglas and played a total of sixteen performances. Songs include "I Wish It So", "We’re Alive", and "One Kind Word".[5]
Personal life
Stein lived in Manhattan with his wife Elisa, a psychotherapist. He was a member of the Dramatists Guild Council from 1975 until his death.[21] Joseph Stein died in 2010, aged 98, from complications of a fall. He had also been ill with prostate cancer.
He had three sons, Daniel, Harry and Josh, from his first marriage to Sadie Singer Stein, who died in 1974. He also had a stepdaughter, Jenny Lyn Bader, and a stepson, John M. Bader, from his marriage to Elisa Loti.
Honors
In January 2008, Joseph Stein was inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame.[22] He was honored by The Dramatists Guild of America with a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008[23] and by the York Theatre with the Oscar Hammerstein Award for Lifetime Achievement in Musical Theatre in 2007.[24] Joseph Stein was awarded the prestigious York Theatre Company's Oscar Hammerstein Award for Lifetime Achievement in Theatre in 2007
Other organizations to honor Mr. Stein include Writers and Artists for Peace in the Middle East, which gave him a Distinguished Achievement Award; the Walnut Street Theatre, which gave him the Edwin Forrest Award for outstanding contributions to the theatre in 2001; the Alumni Association of City College, which awarded him the Townshend Harris Medal in 2004; and Encompass New Opera Theatre, which honored him with a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009.
Ior Bock [i:or bok] adopted Bror Holger Svedlin; was a Swedish-speaking Finnish tour guide, actor, mythologist and eccentric died from being stabbed he was 68. Ior Bock was a colourful media personality and became a very popular tour guide at the island fortress of Suomenlinna, where he worked from 1973 to 1998.[1]
( 17 January 1942 – 23 October 2010) In 1984 Bock raised public interest and discussion when he claimed that his family line (Boxström) had been keepers of an ancient folklore tradition that provides insight into the pagan culture of Finland, including hitherto unknown autofellatio exercises connected to old fertility rites. These stories are often known as the Bock saga. His eccentric philosophical and mythological theories gained a small international cult following.[2] Until his death, Ior Bock still maintained a number of friends that kept analyzing his stories [3][not in citation given][unreliable source?] and who kept working to complete the excavations made to verify the Bock saga.[4]Biography
Birth
According to Bock's autobiographical The Bock Saga, he was born as the result of an incestuous relationship between sea-captain Knut Victor Boxström (1860–1942), who would have been 81 years old at the time, and his daughter Rhea, 42.[5] Knut's only son had been killed in the Finnish Civil War in 1918,[5] and this was a desperate measure to continue the male line and bring the extensive family-saga about heathen times to the public eye. Knut Victor Boxström died shortly after Ior's baptism, one month after his birth. Consequently he was adopted by Rhea's husband, Bror Gustaf Bertil Svedlin.[5] In 2004 the freelance journalist Magnus Londen published an article [6] where he claimed that Ior Bock was actually an adopted son of Rhea Böxström-Svedlin and Bror Svedlin.[5] According to Londen, official adoption documents in the National Archive in Helsinki prove that Ior's biological mother was a 23 years old gardening instructor in Porvoo.[5] His father was said to be a Spanish sailor. After Bock's death a family friend from Sibbo, quoting her mother, supported the adoption claims.[7] In 2003, Ior Bock had answered Londen's queries by explaining that the adoption-theme was a necessary precaution from his mother to hide the incestuous act that lead to his birth.[5]
Adolescence
According to Magnus Londen's article, young Holger Svedlin was sent off to to an orphanage for one year at age nine. Londen, citing unnamed acquaintances of the Svedlin family, states that Holger (who had adopted the name Ior, meaning Eeyore in Swedish) had displayed irrational behaviour and that his mother had been unable to cope with him since his adopted father had died the previous year.[5] It was during this period that, according to the stories he later told, his twenty years of daily training into the sound system and secret saga of his family began. It was his biological mother as well as his aunt/sister Rachel who taught him for two hours every day, and only when they were away was he in the orphanage.[5]
At the age of 15, under the name of Ior Bockström-Svedlin,[citation needed] he got into training practice as a lighting technician at Svenska Teatern (The Swedish Theatre) in Helsinki. Here he completed his basic education to become a professional actor at age 21. According to Magnus Londen, the time in theatre training was both a joyous time when Holger was able to exert his gregarious side—he loved being the centrepiece of all social activity—but it was also darkened by his sense of lacking a real, and significantly credible, identity. Due to his alledgedly dark, southern European features, rumours abounded concerning his ancestry. According to Magnus Londen's article he would even play into these rumours himself at times stating that he had arrived in Finland along with a band of Spanish soldiers, being their mascot, and that his actual name was "La Plata". On other days he attempted to bleach his hair and eyebrows "desperately wanting to be accepted as Finnish."[5]
The shooting death of his brother
In 1962 Ior Svedlin's adopted brother, Erik Svedlin, died by a gunshot at the age of 23. Due to his participation in the situation that led to the tragic death, Ior got a probation of four months, on the grounds of "participation in acts that led to involuntary manslaughter".[5] After his parents' death, Ior Bock (as he was known by then) stated that Erik Svedlin actually committed suicide due to a tragic family drama - as his planned marriage was disapproved of by his family. Erik's fiancé as well as friends and members of the Svedlin family have disputed this claim in interviews with Londen. According to Ior Bock's version, to avoid a social scandal, the incident was termed an "accidental death" and explained to be a result of the two brothers "playing around".[5] According to Magnus Londen, the investigation report archived in the police archive in Helsinki states that the brothers had been listening to music while Ior was dancing and playing with a gun. Ior stated to the police the gun went accidentally off when he threw it to his brother.[5] Everyone involved considered the incident to be a tragic accident.[5] Ior Bock and others have viewed the article of Magnus Londen as "defamatory".[citation needed]
Professional life and publicity
In the following years Ior Svedlin became a renown actor, due to engagements at the Swedish theatres in Vaasa, Turku and Helsinki.[citation needed] Apart from guest-plays in Stockholm he also got to direct some smaller productions.[citation needed] Most famous[citation needed] is the TV commercial "The Coral Man", where Ior Svedlin showed his skills both as a director[citation needed] and a dancer.
Due to[says who?] his family's specific interest and knowledge of Finnish history Ior Bockström-Svedlin became privately engaged with the history of the 18th century sea fortress Sveaborg (Finnish: Suomenlinna) in Helsinki. From 1969 until 1984, when his contract with the Society was terminated, he was employed daily as a tourist guide at the service of the Ehrensvärd Society.[citation needed] According to Magnus Londen, the stories told by Ior Svedlin during his guided tours gradually evolved in a bizarre direction, resulting into a conflict with his employer.[5] From 1984 to 1998 he continued his studies of Sveaborg while guiding on a free-lance basis, using his new name Ior Bock.
Starting in the mid-1970s, a new chapter in Ior Bockstrom-Svedlin's life began to develop when he began paying regular visits to the well-known hippie paradise Goa on the Arabian Sea coast of India. Every year from October to April he would spend in the small village Chapora, developing a significant crowd of supporters, or apprentices as some back in Finland would call them.[5] Magnus Londen speculates that it was here that his fanciful tales about Sveaborg were developed, to be retold to the tourists during his guiding employment the following summer. At this time hashish became a staple ingredient of Ior Bock's life.[5] According to Ior, he had been occasionally smoking with the consent of his parent from the age of 14 since hemp-growing and smoking had been a tradition in the Bockström-family—until 1965 when the use of cannabis was prohibitted.[citation needed] According to Londen, Ior Svedlin was interviewed by the Finnish newspaper Hufvudstadsbladet in 1982[5] and he was quoted there giving a statement that Londen has found most poignant in yielding a critical perspective on Ior Bock's own biography which he began to present to the public two years thereafter.
People have attempted to understand why the Indian philosophy has reached highest in the world, despite the people having neither reading nor writing skills. But it has been built up through an oral tradition. The eldest was taught by his father, and it was his duty to again teach his siblings.
Magnus Londen writes that on the 24th of February 1984, in Goa, Ior Svedlin had a profound inner experience—for the first time seeing himself as only Ior Bock, no longer Ior Svedlin. And he also sees that he has been chosen".[5] His mother died a little over a month later[5] Londen further writes that when he returned to Finland that year people noticed his change, that he was perceived as being aloof and incoherent. Londen again cites unnamed acquaintances of Ior Bock.[5] Londen claims that this was when his employers at Sveaborg no longer would have him.[5]
After the funeral of his mother Rhea on 23 June 1984,[8] Ior claimed that she had left him a will containing a very specific duty, which was to bring their family-saga to the attention of professional historians as well as the public. The first recordings were done in Swedish in 1984 and 1985 at The Archive of Folklore in Helsinki. Later he gave further outlines and specifics in numerous tapes, and in 1996 the Finnish writer Juha Javanainen collected some basic extracts in the book Bockin Perheen Saga (Helsinki, 1996).
Excavation of the Temple of Lemminkäinen
In 1987, Ior Bock and his supporters began fund-raising in order to finance excavation of a sediment-filled cave that is situated under the hill 'Sibbosberg', situated north of Gumbostrand in Sipoo, 30 km east of Helsinki - at the estate Bock had inherited from his parents. The cave was supposed to lead to a furnished temple-chamber inside the Sibbosberg, known as the Temple of Lemminkäinen Inside of the temple-chamber a spiraling hallway is described, with small hall-rooms were created to hold the collected treasures from each generation from the heathen culture of ancient Finland. The time of ongoing storage are counted in millenniums, accumulating a large treasure chamber. The last storage was done in 987 when the entrance-hall was filled and the entrance-door closed and hidden, as foreign warlords would enter the Baltic area and threaten Finland.
A number of digs in the cave were made on various occasions during 1987–1998.[9] After two summers of excavations on the entrance and in the cavern beyond it, the diggers reached about 50 meters into the hill.[citation needed] No archeological remains have been found but the so-far explored sub-terranean space is by far the largest cave ever found in Finland.[citation needed] The cave was filled with a mass of sediments, such as clay, sand, silt and rapakivi. Digging out the sediments the excavators have explored straigth walls, a ceiling and a floor consisting of weather-eroded bedrock (granite). The surfaces have been made by natural processes.
The National Board of Antiquities in Finland has never considered the Sibbosberg as an archaeological site. The participation of professional archaeologists in the Sibbosberg excavations has been restricted into a couple of official visits, during which nothing archaeologically significant was observed. In a recent archaeological survey, the Sibbosberg cave was defined as a natural formation of geological interest. According to the surveying archaeologist, the only man-made feature there is a recent rock carving[10]
In 1990 the police arrested Bock and 33 other participants in the dig on suspicion of use and distribution of hashish. When the court sentenced three of Bock's foreign companions the results were a public scandal and the withdrawal of the sponsor of the excavation, the big building company Lemminkäinen Group. Since then smaller digs were made. In 1999 a stabbing attacker left Bock quadroplegic. When Bock was still in hospital his debts to the Lemminkäinen Group and to a geo-technical contractor (from 1992) were used to instigate a process against him for debts and credits. During Bock's stay in Goa the following winter his assets were confiscated and his properties sold.[5]
Hoard of the Kajaani castle
Another location of the Bock's stories was the early 17th century stone fort in Kajaani. According to Bock, a castle was situated in the place already in the 13th century, when a royal treasure of Kings of Finland, including a golden buck statue, was hidden in a well in the courtyard of the castle. Some excitiment arose when ground-penetrating radar investigations made in 1996 and 2000 suggested that a sizable metal item was located at 4 meters depth of the courtyard of the fort.[citation needed] According to the state archaeologist Henrik Lilius the item was probably an old cannon that could have fallen into the well during the destruction of the fort in 1716. A new investigation made in 2006 was not able to verify the earlier observations.[11] During an archaeological excavation made later in 2006, it was noticed that an electric ground cable had been dug in the courtyard at 40 cm depth. According to the project manager Selja Flink of the National Board of Antiquities, it was most probably the object noticed in the ground-penetrating radar investigations. According to Flink, there is no archaeological or documentary evidence of the well mentioned by Bock.[12]
Later phases
On 3 June 1999, Ior Bock was attacked in his home in Helsinki and stabbed several times. The attack left him a quadriplegic.
Until his death at the age of 68, Bock maintained a circle of friends and followers, who were still impressed by his stories and hoped to start again the excavations at the Sibbosberg.
Death
On 23 October 2010, Bock was stabbed to death in his apartment in Helsinki. Police arrested two male suspects of Indian origin, (aged 19 and 28), who had shared his apartment and had worked as his personal assistants.[13][14] The case is now investigated as a suspected murder. According to the police, a quarrel had preceded the act of homicide. On 9 November, the police reported that the younger suspect, born 1991, has been set free and is not suspected anymore.
Outline of the Bock Saga
At her funeral on 23 June 1984, Ior claimed that his mother Rhea (Boxstrom-Svedlin) had left him a very specific duty, confirmed in her will, to bring their ancient and unknown family-saga to the attention of professional historians as well as the public. The first recordings were done in Swedish in 1984 and 1985 at The Archive of Folklore in Helsinki. Later he gave further outlines and specifics in numerous tapes and in 1996 the Finnish writer Juha Javanainen collected some basic extracts in the book Bockin Perheen Saga (Helsinki, 1996).
In his saga Ior Bock employs a distinct etymology, based on the letters of the Scandinavian alphabets (Swedish and Finnish language). To support his (allegedly) historical saga he related it to old Scandinavian folklore, describing a nucleus that is supposed to be the origin of both the Scandinavian and the Finnish cultures. The saga describes a detailed sound-system, built on the sounds of the Scandinavian alphabet. Based on this phonology the saga explains an extensive mythology and a chronological, stringent history. The "historical outline" covers a number of topics; from the origin of man before Ice Age and a global caste-system, to the break up of this global population due to the appearance of the Ice Age, climatic fluctuations and continental drift. The saga explains how this first, tropical culture was divided into ten different kingdoms as life on each continents developed into parallel but different biotops. During the eons of time when ice-time proceeded a small group of people, the Aser, where caught inside the ice of northern Europe - inside the Baltic Ocean. The end of Ice Age broke this isolation and became a "new start" of humanity - since all the various populations could now be reached - and reach each other. Regaining contact with the various tropical kingdoms the Aser were instrumental in spreading a "root-system" of words, to develop a common ground for communication and exchange between the various cultures. Since the legendary "deluge" (Younger Dryas) 10.000 years ago the connections rapidly established and similar cultures started on all the different continents, leading to parallel cultures on the respective continents, leading to the ethnicities, constitutions and civilizations we know as Stone Age and Classical Antiquity.[15]
During these millennium, the Asers were drafting and cultivating their inter-continental connections, enhancing the exchange of knowledge, skills and produce world-wide. The purpose was to produce common features and grounds for language and culture, through the exchange of procreators, skills, crafts, arts and architecture. Their method was co-operation between parallel constitutions of royals, nobilities and laymen. According to the saga the Eurasian monarchies were established shortly after the Ice Age. From the one arctic group of people that survived Ice Age, called "Aser", only three families were first made to explore the Eurasian north - and leave offspring i their respective regions; east, west and south of the Baltic Ocean. These off-springs became the core-families of three major kingdoms, who managed to grow into the societies that managed to populate western, central and eastern Europe. Within the open lands of northern Eurasia, the royals were producing 'houses' of nobility to inhabit and populate the various regions and there found a third cast of offspring, called Earls, to produce structured societies within their respective shires and villages.
The Bock saga explains that the historical kingdoms of Eurasia descended from the three kingdoms found by the Aser already during early Stone Age. Similar constitutions is claimed to have existed already in the southern hemisphere, on all other continents. Since the ancestry of all these tropical and arctic royals would lead back to a common source, the word "All-father" was recognized by them all as a common origin of all human beings. Thus the renewed contact and resurrection of common roots and goals resulted in a positive contact and exchange, producing a world-wide net of genetic and academic exchange - leading to the innovations, produce and trade of agriculture, metals and alloys that led to advanced arts, tools, craft and technology.
A major theme in the poetry and prose of the Bock saga is the exposure of the ancient fertility-cultures of antiquity, whose legal traditions - based on inheritance - where contradictory to the interest of foreign invaders and illegal regimes. Consequently, to handle an occupied population, the religions of the Middle Ages exercised an absolute repression of all the old fertility rituals, since they required and recreated the memory of the old codexes. Consequently the heathen traditions of sexual visibility and identification was massively condemned and sanctioned with the most severe of punishments. One such heathen tradition was that of drinking the "divine vine" or the "water of wisdom", which literally refers to the female sap (ejaculate) and the male sperm.
According to the saga the pagan traditions were based on a naturalistic philosophy, where it was regarded a virtue to "save and not spill ones semen or female ejaculate". This could be done by sharing the liquids in a "69" or by practicing autofellatio – which the family-saga names sauna-solmu. The Finnish expression for this "sacred vines" would be Viisauden Vesi—the water of wisdom, which in other traditions are known under cryptic terms such as "The Water of Life", "The Seeds of Life", "The Nectar of The Gods" or "The Elixir of the Blessed". In the early Christian context these classical issues were mis-translated, to "blood" and "flesh", to stigmatize the pagan peoples as wild beasts, vampires and cannibals. Paradoxically the liturgy is still defining "the flesh and blood of Jesus" as our most sacred rite, the communion. Even if the tools of the communion today are explained to be "purely allegorical" their origin are still to be explained.[15]
While the men would learn how to "curl up" in a "sauna-knot" and drink directly from their "clubs", the women would normally ingest their mahla, female ejaculation, with a straw. According to the Bock Saga this used to be a collective tradition amongst men and women, where "heart-friends" (of the same sex) would share each others liquids as a special favor and sacrament, to enhance their respective fertility and vitalize their neurological energy. The saga claims that within the heathen cultures this recycling of sperm and sap was obligatory at the age of 7, when it was combined with yoga exercises.[16]
In popular culture
In 1994, Kingston Wall, a Finnish progressive rock group included the core of Bock's mythic symbolism on their last album, Tri-Logy. The saga was described in the CD booklet and some of the song lyrics featured themes from it.
George Cain was an African American author who is renowned for writing Blueschild Baby, a semi-autobiographical novel published in 1970 who died from kidney failure.he was , 66. The basis of the book is about the life of a drug user who finally overcomes his addiction. Cain was a drug user too, but unlike the character in his novel, he never overcame his addiction nor went on to write another book.
(October 27, 1943 – October 23, 2010)
Born on October 27, 1943, as George Maurice Hopkins, he would adopt the pen nameAfrica Cain, later choosing to use his original first name. He grew up in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan and moved with his family to Teaneck, New Jersey after graduating from the McBurney School, which he attended on scholarship. His basketball skills earned him a scholarship at Iona College, but he dropped out as a junior and headed to the American Southwest. While in Mexico he was charged and sentenced to six months in jail for possession marijuana.[1] After completing his sentence he moved to Brooklyn and started writing Blueschild Baby. George Cain's representative character in the book starts using drugs in high school, which starts his descent into the drug world, following the death of a favorite grandmother in a fire. The George Cain in the book finally finds his way and stops using drugs, but Cain himself had his life destroyed by drugs.[1] The book describes how Cain's middle-class parents moving to the suburbs only to find themselves "surrounded, hounded and harassed by the white mob". Reviewer Addison Gayle, Jr., of The New York Times called the book "the most important work of fiction by an Afro-American since Native Son", describing "a world that only black people can fully comprehend", written in "a language that abounds in colorful in-group symbols and metaphors".[2]
Despite favorable responses to the book, he never completed a planned sequel to his debut book and as described by his ex-wife Jo Lynne Pool he "had a lot of friends from the street, and they were going down", and he went down along with them, his life and family falling apart.[1]
Cain died at the age of 66 on October 23, 2010, in Manhattan due to complications of kidney disease. He was survived by two daughters, a son and five grandchildren.[1]
Francis "Fran" Crippen was an Americanlong-distanceswimmer. After being a pool swimmer for most of his career, Crippen made the transition to open water swimming in 2006 where he had tremendous success died from heat exhaustion he was , 26. In international competitions, Crippen won seven medals, five of which were in the open water and two in the pool. Crippen died during an open water swimming race in the United Arab Emirates.[1]
(April 17, 1984 – October 23, 2010)
Career
Crippen swam for the University of Virginia, where he was an 11-time All-American and two-time Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) swimmer of the year. He earned a bronze medal as a member of team USA at the 2001 Goodwill Games in Brisbane, Australia. At the 2003 Pan American Games, in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, he won two individual silver medals in the 400 and 1500 m freestyle. Crippen represented the United States at the Pan Pacific Championships in 2006, where he earned a silver medal in the 10 km open water swim. From 2006 to 2008 Crippen represented the Mission Viejo Nadadores in California and swam for coach Bill Rose. In 2007, he earned a gold medal in the 10 km distance event at the Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Two years later, Crippen won a bronze medal in the 10 km open water race at the 2009 World Aquatics Championships.[2] A year later, Crippen again won silver in the 10 km at the 2010 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships in Irvine, California. Crippen was a six-time US National Champion. He won two national titles in the 800 m freestyle, two in the 5 km open water, and two in the 10 km open water event. He represented Germantown Academy Aquatic Club in Fort Washington, PA. He also represented TYR Sport, Inc.
Personal
Crippen was born in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, in 1984, the son of Pete and Pat Crippen. He is a 2002 graduate of Germantown Academy in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania. Crippen graduated from the University of Virginia in 2006 where he majored in sociology.
Crippen started swimming at the age of six because of his sister, Maddy. He had three sisters who are competitive swimmers. His sister Maddy was a 2000 Olympian in the 400 individual medley and swam for Villanova University. His sister Claire is a national finalist, an NCAA All-America and currently swims for the University of Virginia. His third sister Teresa is a Pan American Games Champion in the 200 meter backstroke and U.S. national team member.
Death
Crippen died while swimming the last race of FINA's 2010 10K series in Fujairah, UAE; after having won the penultimate race in Cancun, Mexico the weekend before. Crippen's absence at the finish was reportedly first noticed by fellow USA swimmer Alex Meyer. Presumably after searching for Crippen and not finding him, Meyer and other swimmers returned to the water to try to locate Crippen. Two hours after the finish of the men's race, and after 90 minutes of searching by other swimmers, Crippen's body was found underwater by deep-sea divers near the race course's final buoy about 500 yards from shore. Crippen was rushed to the local hospital, where he was pronounced dead, though it was suspected he died at the scene. Winner Thomas Lurz and other swimmers cited the water as being overly warm--above 30 °C (86 °F) during the race--and several other swimmers experienced heat-related symptoms upon completing the race, including 2 Americans and 1 Brazilian who were briefly hospitalized.[3] FINA president Dr. Julio Maglione said it was the first death in any FINA event and an investigation was opened.[4] Crippen had told his coach after 8 kilometers that he was feeling thirsty, yet continued with the race.
Cullum was born on January 11, 1942, in Newark, New Jersey. He was raised in North Bergen, New Jerseyand earned his undergraduate degree in 1963 from the College of the Holy Cross, where he majored in English. He joined the United States Marine Corps after graduating from college, earning a commission as a second Lieutenant. Upon completion of his flight training in Pensacola, Florida Cullum deployed to Vietnam, where he flew more than 200 missions, mostly ground attacks in support of the infantry in addition to attacks on the Viet Cong supply lines on the Ho Chi Minh trail in Laos. Though the missions over Laos were not officially acknowledged, Cullum was baffled by the need for secrecy, saying "the North Vietnamese certainly knew it wasn't the Swiss bombing them".[1]
Early cartoons
After completing his military service, Cullum became a pilot for TWA, which was later taken over by American Airlines where he worked until his retirement in 2001. In between flights, he started doodling and built on an early interest he had in drawing cartoons. He said "I bought some instructional books which explained the format, and I began studying the work of various cartoonists". He had always hoped to be published in The New Yorker, which turned down a series of his early entries. The magazine liked some of Cullum's concepts for cartoons, which were turned over to Charles Addams for illustration, with the first of Cullum's ideas appearing in print in 1975 showing a couple paddling in a canoe with their reflection in the water showing a vision of the man attacking the woman. Addams convinced Cullum to pursue his craft and his first sale was to Air Line Pilot Magazine. He had later cartoons printed in Argosy, Saturday Review and Sports Afield.[1]
The New Yorker
Over his career with The New Yorker the magazine published 819 of his cartoons, many of which involved animals. His first successful entry was published on January 3, 1977, and featured a man wearing a robe at an office desk in a room filled with chickens.[1] A cartoon with the caption "This island isn't big enough for two cliches" showed a school of fish attempting to crawl onto the shore of a desert island populated by a man and a lone palm tree.[2][3] Cartoon editor Robert Mankoff called him "one of the most popular" cartoonists at The New Yorker during the 1980s and 1990s and "one of the most consistently funny cartoonists we ever had". Cullum's was the first cartoon included in the first illustrated issue printed after the September 11 attacks, with the caption "I thought I'd never laugh again. Then I saw your jacket."[4][5] One of his most requested cartoons features a man lecturing a cat with the caption "Never, ever, think outside the box".[6][7] His most recent cartoon appeared in the issue dated October 25, 2010.
Books
His published books include collections about doctors and birds, with the respective punny titles of Suture Self and Tequila Mockingbird.[6] Other books featured his cartoons about cats, dogs and business people.[1]
A resident of Malibu, California, Cullum died of cancer at the age of 68 on October 23, 2010, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.[8] He was survived by his wife, Kathy, a former flight attendant who he had met on a flight to Boston, as well as by his daughters Kaitlin Cullum and Kimberly Cullum, both of whom had been child actors.[1][8]
Sadamitsu "S. Neil" Fujita was an American graphic designer known for his innovative book cover and record album designs died from complications of a stroke he was , 89.[1]
(May 16, 1921 – October 23, 2010)
Background
Born in Waimea, Hawaii to Japanese immigrants, he attended boarding school in Honolulu, where he adopted the name Neil. He enrolled in Chouinard Art Institute, but his studies were interrupted by World War II and his forced relocation to the Heart Mountain Relocation Center in Wyoming in 1942.[2] He enlisted in the United States Army on January 1, 1943, and served in an anti-tank unit with the 442nd Infantry Regiment, a regiment consisting primarily of Japanese American volunteers that became the most decorated unit in the war. He was assigned to combat duty in Europe—seeing action in Italy and France—but eventually worked as a translator in the Pacific theater in Okinawa. He completed his studies at Chouinard after the war.[1]
Death
A resident of Southold, New York, Fujita died at age 89 due to complications of a stroke on October 23, 2010, in Greenport, New York. He was survived by three sons and six grandchildren. His wife, Aiko Tamaki, whom he met while she was also a student at Chouinard, died in 2006.[1]
Career
Fujita joined a prominent Philadelphia ad agency—N. W. Ayer & Son—after completing his studies. He employed an avant-garde style and was noticed by Columbia Records. Columbia hired him in 1954 to build a design department to build on the work of Alex Steinweiss. Columbia felt a particular need to keep up with the cover art of Blue Note Records. Fujita created numerous iconic covers of the period, including that of Time Out, 'Round About Midnight, and Mingus Ah Um.[1]
In 1957, Fujita left Columbia in order to broaden his portfolio. He started his own firm, but rejoined the company soon after. In 1963 he joined the public relations firm Ruder & Finn, creating a design division called Ruder, Finn & Fujita (later Fujita Design) where he embarked on a long career of book cover design. He designed the covers for In Cold Blood, The Godfather, and Pigeon Feathers.[1] He taught design at the Philadelphia Museum College of Art, the Pratt Institute, and Parsons School of Design.[1]
Stahl was born in New York City, the son of Jewish emigre parents. David Stahl's father, Frank L. Stahl, is an engineer who took part in the restoration of the Golden Gate Bridge in the 1980s. He was born in Fuerth, Germany and attended the same elementary school as Henry Kissinger. Edith Stahl, David Stahl's mother, immigrated to New York in 1938 from Essen, Germany. David Stahl's grandfather, Dr. Leo Stahl (m. Anna Regensburger), was the Jewish Community Leader of Fuerth during the Nazi time. He was interned in Dachau from 11 November to 7 December, 1938, and emigrated to England in 1939. Arriving in New York in 1947, he was, according to Das Schicksal der jüdischen Rechtsanwälte in Bayern nach 1933, by Reinhard Weber, unsuccessful in business and died there in 1952, aged 67. Frank's sister Liselotte, after a time in Manchester, England, also came to New York, where she died in 2007.
