John M. Lounge, American NASA astronaut (1981–1991), died from complications from liver cancer he was , 64

John Michael "Mike" Lounge  was an American engineer, a US Navy officer, a Vietnam war veteran, and a NASA astronaut died from complications from liver cancer he was , 64. A veteran of three space shuttle flights, Lounge logged over 482 hours in space. He was a mission specialist on STS-51-I (1985) and STS-26 (1988) and was the flight engineer on STS-35 (1990).

(June 28, 1946 – March 1, 2011)

Personal

John Michael Lounge was born June 28, 1946, in Denver, Colorado, but considered Burlington, Colorado to be his hometown. He graduated from Burlington High School in 1964, then received a Bachelor of Science degree from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1969 and a Master of Science degree in astrogeophysics from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1970. Lounge was an associate fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Military career

Lounge entered on active duty with the United States Navy following graduation from the U.S. Naval Academy and spent the next nine years in a variety of assignments. He completed Naval flight officer training at Pensacola, Florida, went on to advanced training as a radar intercept officer in the F-4J Phantom II, and subsequently reported to Fighter Squadron 142 based at Naval Air Station Miramar, California. While with VF-142, he completed a nine-month Southeast Asia cruise aboard USS Enterprise (participating in 99 combat missions) and a seven-month Mediterranean cruise aboard USS America. In 1974, he returned to the U.S. Naval Academy as an instructor in the Physics Department. Lounge transferred to the Navy Space Project Office in Washington, D.C., in 1976, for a two-year tour as a staff project office. He resigned his regular Navy commission in 1978.

NASA career

Lounge was employed at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center beginning in July 1978. During this time, he worked as lead engineer for Space Shuttle-launched satellites, and also served as a member of the Skylab Reentry Flight Control Team. He completed these assignments while with the Payload Operations Division.
Selected as an astronaut candidate by NASA in 1980, he completed a one-year training and evaluation period, and became an astronaut in August 1981. He served as a member of the launch support team at Kennedy Space Center for the STS-1, STS-2, and STS-3 missions. Following his first flight, he was assigned to the first mission to carry the Centaur (cryogenically fueled) upper stage (STS-61F). After the mission was canceled, he participated in Space Station design development. From 1989 through 1991, Lounge served as Chief of the Space Station Support Office, representing astronaut interests in Space Station design and operation planning.

Spaceflights

STS-51-I Discovery, launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on August 27, 1985. During that mission Lounge's duties included deployment of the Australian AUSSAT communications satellite and operation of the Remote Manipulator System (RMS). The crew deployed two other communications satellites, the Navy's SYNCOM IV-4, and American Satellite Company's ASC-1, and also performed a successful on-orbit rendezvous and repair of the ailing 15,400 lb (6,990 kg) SYNCOM IV-3 satellite. STS-51I completed 112 orbits of the Earth before landing at Edwards Air Force Base, California, on September 3, 1985. Mission duration was 171 hours, 17 minutes, 42 seconds.
STS-26 Discovery, the first flight to be flown after the Challenger accident, launched from the Kennedy Space Center on September 29, 1988. During the four-day mission, the crewmen successfully deployed the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS-C), which was subsequently carried to orbit by the Inertial Upper Stage (IUS) rocket. They also operated eleven mid-deck experiments. Discovery completed 64 orbits of the Earth before landing at Edwards Air Force Base, California, on October 3, 1988. Mission duration was 97 hours, 57 seconds.
STS-35 Columbia, launched from the Kennedy Space Center on December 2, 1990. Lounge served as flight engineer on this 9-day flight that was dedicated to astronomy. Observations of the Universe were collected by the ASTRO-1 ultraviolet telescope and by the Broad Band X-Ray Telescope. Columbia completed 142 orbits of the Earth before landing at Edwards Air Force Base, California, on December 10, 1990. Mission duration was 215 hours, 5 minutes, 8 seconds.

Post-NASA career

Lounge resigned from NASA in June 1991 to join SPACEHAB (now Astrotech Corporation). At the time, Lounge explained his resignation from the NASA Astronaut Corps by saying "This is a very tough job to leave, but I feel that three flights is my fair share, and I'm ready for a new challenge."^[1]
In 2002, Lounge became Director of Space Shuttle and Space Station Program Development for Boeing. Two years later he became Director for Business Development for integrated defense systems and space exploration.

Death

Lounge died on March 1, 2011, of complications from liver cancer.^[1]

Awards and honors

• Navy Air Medals (6)
• Navy Commendation Medals (with Combat "V") (3)
• Johnson Space Center Superior Achievement Award (for service as a member of the Skylab Reentry Team)
• NASA Exceptional Service Medals (3)
• NASA Space Flight Medals (3)
• Part of 18th Street in his hometown of Burlington, Colorado was renamed Mike Lounge Drive in his honor.

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Fateh Singh Rathore, Indian wildlife conservationist. died he was , 72

Fateh Singh Rathore  was recognized as India's greatest Tiger expert to date died he was , 72. Having spent 50 years in wildlife conservation Fateh will be remembered for his historic relocation of villages from inside the Ranthambhore National Park in 1977 which was how the tigers started to be visible in day light.

(10 August 1938 - 1 March 2011)

Biography

Fateh Singh Rathore (FSR) was the eldest son in a family of 6 boys and 5 girls. His grandfather Laxman Singh Rathore was a Subedar in the army. FSR’s father Sagat Singh was the eldest son of Laxman Singh, and managed the family’s land and property in a village near Jodhpur. The village was in the desert, and servants used to be sent on camelback for miles to fetch water in buffalo skins for all their needs. FSR’s uncles, one in the army, and the other a lawyer, brought him up. His mother loved him very dearly, and was a very bold lady, protecting him from his grandfather’s anger when he was mischievous. She passed away in February 2010. He was sent away to a boarding school, and later stayed with his uncle while a college student. He was not interested in his studies, preferring to take part in dramas etc. and have fun. His uncle wanted him to be a lawyer, but his heart was not in it. He tried several different occupations, until by chance he was sent to Sariska to take up a post as a forest ranger.

Conservation work

This position changed the course of his life. He loved the forest, and grew very interested in conservation. This was in the late 1950s or early 1960s. Ironically, the first task he was given in the area which later became Ranthambhore National Park (RNP) was to organize a tiger shoot for the visit of Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain in January 1961. The area of RNP still existed as a forest, although degraded, because it was the hunting ground of the royal family of Jaipur.
After Sariska FSR was posted for some years in Mt. Abu. In those days there were tigers around there. He was sent to the Wildlife Institute of India for training, in the first batch of forest officers to be trained there. Even there, he showed a greater aptitude for field work, not too interested in theory. He fared well there, and his guru, S. R. Choudhury, recognized his potential.

"Project Tiger"

Project Tiger (PT) was started in 1973 at the instance of Indira Gandhi, who was very concerned about the fact that the number of wild tigers was reducing because of hunting. Hunting was banned from then on, and 9 reserves were selected under PT. Ranthambhore was one of them. FSR was sent there as the Assistant Field Director, but was given a free hand by his senior. At that time, the area looked very different. There were wheat fields where Padam Talao now stands – there had been an artificially created lake there, which the villagers had drained for their agriculture, and he restored the lake along with Raj Bagh and Malik Talao. 16 villages dotted the whole area, with no roads connecting them with each other. The villagers lived in extreme poverty and deprivation, with no health care or educational facilities. The vegetation had all been eaten by domestic cattle. There were wild animals around, but they emerged mostly at night and were rarely seen. FSR went about carving roads through the area, patrolling it regularly, and realized that the villages needed to be moved out if the tigers were to have any chance of flourishing. It required a huge amount of tact and patience to convince people to leave their homes, and FSR frequently found himself crying along with the villagers. He managed to convince a young schoolteacher about the benefits of moving to another location, making him his wife’s rakhi brother. The villagers were given a good compensation package, and finally moved to a newly established village called Kailashpuri which had a health centre and a school, and better agricultural land outside the park.
Once the villages were moved out, (1973-5), the park’s vegetation started regenerating on its own. Soon FSR began to see the pugmarks of tigers, but they were still nocturnal. A lame buffalo had been left behind by the villagers, and when he saw the pugmarks of a tigress and cubs in that area, he knew that she would kill the animal sooner or later. One day he found that the buffalo had been killed, so he climbed a tree and waited there. The tigress soon appeared with her cubs and started feeding. She was aware of FSR up in the tree and snarled at him a couple of times. He was so excited that his hands shook as he took photos. Later, he had many opportunities to study this tigress whom he named Padmini after his elder daughter, and she tolerated his presence benignly.
In August 1981 FSR was nearly killed by a group of villagers who resented being sent away from the park area because they used to collect fees from others for allowing their cattle to graze there. He was beaten up and left for dead with several fractures and a head injury, and it took several months for him to recover. Later he was given a bravery award for this. When he recovered he went back and confronted the villagers. Nothing was going to stop him from trying to save his tigers.

Tiger Watch

In the 1990s a group of friends got together to form an NGO called Tiger Watch (TW), of which FSR was made the Vice-Chairman. At first the Forest Department allowed TW to carry out research in the park. In 2003 a young wildlife biologist called Dharmendra Khandal (DK) was selected by TW to carry out research. In 2004 DK produced a report which contradicted the Forest Department’s claim that the census showed 45 tigers in the park. According to DK’s report there were just 26. He substantiated his claim with photographs taken by camera traps, a more foolproof method of tiger population estimation than the old method of taking plaster casts of pugmarks. Typically, in a scenario that has repeated itself in many parks throughout the country, the forest department not only denied this, but banned TW henceforth from carrying out any research within the park. TW set up an anti-poaching project, and with the help of the police, succeeded in arresting several poachers and confiscating their weapons, sometimes pre-empting their raids. Poachers’ confessions were recorded on video, and a DVD was produced called “Curbing the Crisis”. The Forest Department continued to be in a state of denial and resentment.
Realising that the poachers are mainly from the Mogya tribe of nomadic hunter-gatherers with no other means of livelihood, TW has started a rehabilitation programme for them, involving the women in handicraft production, and setting up a hostel where their children can be clothed, fed and educated, to give them some dignity and better prospects in future. This is strictly on condition that the men give up poaching. As this exercise depends solely on donations from well-wishers, funds are always a problem to collect, but the efforts go on.
TW has a sister organisation called the Prakrtik Society, set up by FSR’s son Goverdhan. This organisation has set up a hospital (Ranthambhore Sevika) and the Fateh Public School for local community as part of efforts towards community conservation.
FSR always believed to work with the people to save the tiger and in a country with billion population only this people centric approach worked.

Honours and awards

FSR received several awards some of them were the 1982 Fred M. Packard International Parks Merit Award by the Commission on National Parks and Protected Areas in recognition of outstanding service in furthering the conservation objective of protect areas to society given by the Duke of Edinburgh.
The WWF lifetime achievement award and ESSO Award by Shri I.K. Gujral, Former Prime Minister of India for life time achievement in Tiger Conservation.

Publications

Picture and Articles of wild tigers taken in Ranthambhore have been published in many books and periodicals all over the world.
Some of the important books written & photographed : With Tigers in the Wild (Vikash Publications) Tiger – Portrait of a predator (Collines Publications) Tiger – Secret Life (Alm Tree) Tiger’s Destiny Wild Tigers of Ranthambhore

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Hazel Rowley, British-born Australian writer , died from a cerebral hemorrhage she was , 59.

Hazel Joan Rowley was a British-born Australian author and biographer died from a cerebral hemorrhage she was , 59..

(16 November 1951 – 1 March 2011) 

Born in London, Rowley emigrated with her parents to Adelaide at the age of eight. She studied at the University of Adelaide, graduating with Honours in French and German. Later she acquired a PhD in French. She taught literary studies at Deakin University in Melbourne, before moving to the United States.^[1]
Rowley's first published biography, of Australian novelist Christina Stead, was critically acclaimed and won the National Book Council's "Banjo" Award for non-fiction in 1994.^[2] Her next biographical work was about the African American writer Richard Wright. Her best known book, Tête-à-tête (2005), covers the lives of Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre (de Beauvoir had been the subject of Rowley's PhD thesis). Her last published book is Franklin & Eleanor: An Extraordinary Marriage, about Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt (2011).^[3]
Rowley suffered a cerebral hemorrhage in New York in February 2011^[3] and died there on 1 March.^[4]

Bibliography

• Christina Stead: A Biography (1994)
• Richard Wright: The Life and Times (2001)
• Tête-à-tête: The Lives and Loves of Simone de Beauvoir & Jean-Paul Sartre (2005)
• Franklin & Eleanor: An Extraordinary Marriage (2011)

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Netiva Ben-Yehuda, Israeli author and radio personality died she was , 82.

Netiva Ben Yehuda was an Israeli author, editor and media personality. She was a commander in the pre-state Jewish underground, Palmach  died she was , 82..

(July 1928  – 28 February 2011)

Biography

Netiva ("Tiva") Ben Yehuda was born in Tel Aviv, in Mandate Palestine, on 26 July 1928. Her father was Baruch Ben-Yehuda, director general of the first Israeli ministry of education.^[1] She joined the Palmach at the age of 19 and was trained in demolition, bomb disposal, topography, and scouting. Her duties included transferring ammunition, escorting convoys, and training recruits. She commanded a sapper unit,^[2] and fought in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.^[3]She left the army in 1949.
Ben-Yehuda considered competing in discus throwing at the Olympics, but a bullet injury to her arm kept her from pursuing an athletic career.^[1] She studied at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem and Jewish philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Ben Yehuda was a freelance editor, and in 1972 published The World Dictionary of Hebrew Slang. Between 1981 and 1991 she published her Palmah trilogy, of her own memoirs of the War of Independence^[4]. She was a resident of Palmach Street in the capital, and the local cafe she patronized on that street became known as "Cafe Netiva." ^[5]
Ben Yehuda died on February 28, 2011 at the age of 82.

Literary and media career

Ben Yehuda wrote over 30 books, including a Hebrew slang dictionary, coauthored with Dahn Ben-Amotz. Ben-Yehuda was the host of a late-night Israel Radio show for 14 years. She played old-time Israeli songs and talked with callers. ^[6]

Awards and honours

• In 2004, Ben Yehuda received the Yakir Yerushalayim (Worthy Citizen of Jerusalem) award from the city of Jerusalem.^[7]

Quotes

On the subject of the Palmach: "I don't think that there has ever been any other underground movement in the world in which 'male chauvinism' triumphed so powerfully and so proudly".^[8]

Published works

• The World Dictionary of Hebrew Slang (with Dahn Ben Amotz), Zmora Bitan, 1972 [Ha-Milon Le-Ivrit Meduberet]
• 1948 - Between Calendars (novel), Keter, 1981 [Ben Ha-Sefirot]
• The World Dictionary of Hebrew Slang, Part 2 (with Dahn Ben Amotz), Zmora Bitan, 1982 [Ha-Milon Le-Ivrit Meduberet II]
• Blessings and Curses (writings), Keter, 1984 [Brachot U-Klalot]
• Through the Binding Ropes (novel), Domino, 1985 [Mi-Bead L'Avotot]
• Jerusalem from the Inside (novel), Edanim, 1988 [Yerushalayim Mi-Bifnocho]
• Autobiography in Poem and Song (folk songs), Keter, 1991 [Otobiografia Be-Shir U-Zemer]
• When the State of Israel Broke Out (novel), Keter, 1991 [Ke-She Partzah Ha-Medinah]

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Annie Girardot, French actress, died from Alzheimer's disease she was , 79..

Annie Girardot was a French actress  died from Alzheimer's disease she was , 79.
She began performing in 1955, making her film debut in Treize à table. Girardot won the Prix Suzanne Bianchetti in 1956, and in 1977 won the César Award for Best Actress portraying the title character in Docteur Françoise Gailland. At the Venice Film Festival she won the Volpi Cup (Best Actress), in 1965 for Trois chambres a Manhattan.

(25 October 1931 – 28 February 2011)

In 1992, she was the Head of the Jury at the 42nd Berlin International Film Festival.^[1]
In 2002, she was awarded the César Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in The Piano Teacher. She collaborated with director Michael Haneke again, in the 2005 film Caché.
Another of her best known roles was as Nadia the prostitute in Luchino Visconti's epic Rocco e i suoi fratelli (Rocco and His Brothers, 1960). Nadia's beauty drives a wedge between Rocco and his brother Simone (Renato Salvatori), who eventually rapes her. In contrast to their violent on-camera relationship, Girardot and Salvatori married in 1962. They had a daughter, Giulia, and later separated but never divorced.

Later life and death

The 21 September 2006 issue of Paris Match magazine revealed that Girardot was suffering from Alzheimer's disease. On 28 February 2011, Girardot died in a hospital in Paris, aged 79. She was interred Pere-Lachaise cemetery.^[2]

Filmography

Treize à table (1955) L'Homme aux clés d'or (1956) Reproduction interdite (1956) Le Rouge est mis (1957) L'Amour est en jeu (1957) Maigret tend un piège (1957) Le Désert de Pigalle (1958) La Corde raide (1959) Recours en grâce (1959) La Française et l'amour (1960) Rocco e i suoi fratelli (1960) La Proie pour l'ombre (1960) Les Amours célèbres (1961) Le Rendez-vous (1961) Smog (1961) Le Bateau d'Émile (1961) Le Crime ne paie pas (1961) Le Vice et la vertu (1962) Pourquoi Paris ? (1962) Il giorno più corto (1962) Les Camarades (1963) La Bonne Soupe (1963) I Fuorilegge del matrimonio (1963) Le Mari de la femme à barbe (1963) L'Autre Femme (1963) The Ape Woman (1964) La Ragazza in prestito (1964) Un monsieur de compagnie (1964) Ah ! Les belles familles (1964) Una voglia da morire (1964) Déclic et des claques (1964) Guerre secrète (1965) Trois chambres à Manhattan (1965) Le streghe (1966) Vivre pour vivre (1967) Les Gauloises bleues (1968) Story of a woman (1968) La bande à Bonnot (1968) It Rains in My Village (1968) Dillinger Is Dead (Dillinger è morto, 1968) Erotissimo (1968) Metti una sera a cena (1969) Il seme dell'uomo (1969) Un homme qui me plaît (1969) Clair de terre (1969) Elle boit pas, elle fume pas, elle drague pas mais elle cause (1970) Les Novices (1970) Mourir d'aimer (1971) La Mandarine (1971) La Vieille Fille (1972) Les Feux de la Chandeleur (1972) Traitement de choc (1972) Il n'y a pas de fumée sans feu (1972) Elle cause plus, elle flingue (1972) Juliette et Juliette (1973) Ursule et Grelu (1974)

Le Soupçon (1974) La Gifle (1974) Il faut vivre dangereusement (1975) Il pleut sur Santiago (1975) Le Gitan (1975) Docteur Françoise Gailland (1975) D'amour et d'eau fraîche (1975) Cours après moi que je t'attrape (1976) A chacun son enfer (1976) Jambon d'Ardenne (1976) Le Dernier Baiser (1977) Le Point de mire (1977) Tendre Poulet (1977) La zizanie (1978) Vas-y maman (1978) L'Amour en question (1978) La Clé sur la porte (1978) L'ingorgo – Una storia impossibile (1978) Le Cavaleur (1978) Cause toujours, tu m'intéresses (1978) Bobo Jacco (1979) On a volé la cuisse de Jupiter (1980) Le Cœur à l'envers (1980) Une robe noire pour un tueur (1981) La vie en mauve / All night long (1981) La vie continue (1981) La Revanche (1981) Liste Noire (1984) Souvenirs, souvenirs (1984) Partir, revenir (1985) Adieu Blaireau (1985) Prisonnières (1988) Cinq jours en Juin (1989) Comédie d'amour (1989) Il y a des jours... et des lunes (1990) Faccia di lepre (1990) Toujours seuls (1991) Merci la vie (1991) Les Braqueuses (1994) Les Misérables (1995) Les Bidochon (1995) Portagli I Miei Saluti aka Tentazioni Metropolitane (1997) Préférence (1998) L'Âge de braise (1998) Ainsi soit nous (short, 2000) T'aime (2000) Des fleurs pour Irma (2001) Ceci est mon corps (2001) The Piano Teacher (La Pianiste, 2001) Epsteins Nacht (2002) La Prophétie des grenouilles (2004, voice of the elephant) Je préfère qu'on reste amis... (2005) Caché (2005) Le Temps des porte-plumes (2006) Christian (2006) C'est beau une ville la nuit (2006)

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Peter J. Gomes, American preacher, theologian and author, professor at Harvard Divinity School, died from a brain aneurysm and heart attack he was , 69.

Rev. Peter John Gomes  was an American preacher and theologian, and a professor at Harvard University's Divinity School died from a brain aneurysm and heart attack he was , 69..

(May 22, 1942 – February 28, 2011)

Biography

Born May 22, 1942 in Plymouth, Massachusetts from a Cape Verdean father and a native Bostonian mother, the Reverend Professor Peter John Gomes, despite his upbringing in a Baptist tradition, was, according to his own testimony on the Colbert Report, baptized a Catholic.^[1]
Gomes graduated from Bates College in 1965 and from Harvard Divinity School in 1968. After a short tenure at Tuskeegee, he returned to Harvard and to the Memorial Church where he served until his death in 2011.
Widely regarded as one of America’s most distinguished preachers, Professor Gomes fulfilled preaching and lecturing engagements throughout America and the British Isles. In 2009 he represented Harvard University as lecturer to The University of Cambridge, England, on the occasion of its 800th anniversary; in 2007 he was appointed by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II to membership in The Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem; in 2000 he delivered The University Sermon before The University of Cambridge, England, and The Millennial Sermon in Canterbury Cathedral, England; and he presented The Beecher Lectures on Preaching, in Yale Divinity School.
Named Clergy of the Year in 1998 by Religion in American Life, Professor Gomes participated in the presidential inaugurations of [[Ronald Reagan[[ and of George Herbert Walker Bush. His New York Times and national best-selling books, The Good Book: Reading the Bible with Mind and Heart, (1996); and Sermons: Biblical Wisdom for Daily Living (1998), were published by William Morrow and Company, Inc. The Good Life: Truths That Last in Times of Need was published in 2002 by HarperOne, which published Strength for the Journey: Biblical Wisdom for Daily Living in 2003, and in 2007, The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus: What’s So Good About the Good News? His most recent book, in 2008, is A Word to the Wise, and Other Sermons Preached at Harvard; and he published ten other volumes of sermons as well as numerous articles and papers.^[2]
Gomes's great strength was his preaching style; his accent--combining British RP (Received Pronunciation), family intonations, the tradition of Southern Baptist preaching, and the educated diction of Harvard--his wit, and his mastery of alliteration and parallelism were noteable characteristics of his hermeneutic style, ^[3]
Gomes was ordained as an American Baptist minister by the First Baptist Church of Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1968. Gomes remained a member of First Baptist and occasionally preached there until his death.^[4]
Gomes served as trustee of The National Cathedral School, Washington, DC, as Harvard University trustee of The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and trustee of The Roxbury Latin School and of Bates College; and he was a member of The Massachusetts Historical Society, The Colonial Society of Massachusetts, and a sometime Fellow of The Royal Society of Arts, London, England. Former acting director of The W.E.B. DuBois Institute for Afro-American Research, Harvard University, he was past president of The Signet Society, Harvard’s oldest literary society; and former trustee of Bates College, Wellesley College and of The Public Broadcasting Service; and he was past president and trustee of The Pilgrim Society, Plymouth, Massachusetts.^[5]
A DNA test showed that Gomes is related to the Fulani, Tikar, and Hausa peoples of West Africa. Gomes is also descended from Portuguese Jews through his paternal grandfather who was born in the Cape Verde Islands.^[6]

Career affiliations

Peter Gomes served from 1970 to 2011 as Pusey Minister in the nondenominational Memorial Church of Harvard University and as one of Harvard's official interfaith chaplains at the University.^[7] He taught diverse courses throughout his Harvard career in both the undergraduate College and at the Harvard Divinity School.
From 1974 Gomes held the chair of Plummer Professor of Christian Morals. At Harvard, Gomes served as faculty adviser of the Harvard Ichthus and taught the popular course Religion 1513: "History of Harvard and Its Presidents".^[8]
Gomes was also a visiting professor at Duke University and UNC-Chapel Hill. Profiled by Robert Boynton in The New Yorker, and interviewed by Morley Safer on 60 Minutes, The Reverend Professor Peter J. Gomes was included in the premiere issue of Talk magazine as part of its feature article, ‘The Best Talkers in America: Fifty Big Mouths We Hope Will Never Shut Up.’^[9]

Theology, theography, social advocacy and politics

Gomes was a leading expert on early American (US) religion. Regarding ancient texts, Gomes frequently maintained that "one can read into the Bible almost any interpretation of morality...for its passages had been used to defend slavery and the liberation of slaves, to support racism, anti-Semitism and patriotism, to enshrine a dominance of men over women, and to condemn homosexuality as immoral," as paraphrased by the New York Times.^[10]
Widely regarded as one of America’s most distinguished preachers,^[who?] Professor Gomes fulfilled preaching and lecturing engagements throughout the United States and Great Britain. His New York Times and national best-selling books, The Good Book: Reading the Bible with Mind and Heart and Sermons, the Book of Wisdom for Daily Living, were published by William Morrow & Company. The Right Reverend Lord Robert Runcie, 102nd Archbishop of Canterbury, England, ecclesiastical head of the Anglican Communion said of Gomes's The Good Book it "offers a crash course in biblical literacy in a nuanced but easy-to-understand style" which is also "lively"; Henry Louis Gates, Jr. called it "Easily the best contemporary book on the Bible for thoughtful people".^[11]
Gomes published in total ten volumes of sermons, as well as numerous articles and papers. He was well-known for his sermons, particularly for one he delivered in the immediate wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, a sermon poignantly referenced by Governor Deval Patrick at Gomes's memorial service on April 6, 2011. .^[12]
His most recent work, The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus, included extensive commentary and observation on the interrelations of Church and State throughout history and particularly in recent US history. On September 15, 2008 he appeared on The Colbert Report to promote his book. During this interview, he also stated that he was baptized a Catholic.
In 1991, Gomes publicly revealed that he was gay,^[13] and from that time became an advocate for wider acceptance of homosexuality in American society. In the case of his own sexual practices, he stated that he remained celibate. "I now have an unambiguous vocation — a mission — to address the religious causes and roots of homophobia,” he declared. “I will devote the rest of my life to addressing the ‘religious case’ against gays."^[14] Same-sex marriage advocate Evan Wolfson described Gomes as an integral contributor to the cause of marriage equality.^[15]
An almost lifelong Republican, Gomes offered prayers at the inaugurals of Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush. However, in August 2006 he moved his registration to the Democratic Party (United States), supporting the gubernatorial candidacy of Deval Patrick, a student Gomes had interviewed during his time at Harvard and later the first African-American elected governor of Massachusetts.

Late career and death

In January 2010, Rev. Gomes announced he was planning to retire from Harvard in 2012.^[16] He suffered a stroke on December 10, 2010 and was hospitalized.^[17][18] He hoped to return to the pulpit of Harvard's Memorial Church, possibly even in time to give the Easter 2011 sermon.^[19] He died from a brain aneurysm and heart attack on February 28, 2011 at the age of 68.^[20][21] Speakers at his memorial service, at the Memorial Church on April 6, 2011, included Derek C. Bok, a former president of Harvard University, Drew Gilpin Faust, president of the University, and Deval Patrick, Governor of Massachusetts. ^[22]
Harvard University announced on its website that it had named Wendel W. Meyer, who had originally served as associate minister for administration in December 2010, as the acting Pusey Minister in the Memorial Church, while the University searches for a qualified minister and academic to succeed Reverend Gomes.

Honors and tributes

• 2008 Gomes and his family were featured by Henry Louis Gates on the PBS documentary African American Lives 2.
• Academic tenures and honorary degrees: member of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and of the Faculty of Divinity of Harvard University, Professor Gomes held degrees from Bates College (A.B., 1965), and from the Harvard Divinity School (S.T.B., 1968); and thirty-nine honorary degrees: New England College, Waynesburg College, Gordon College, Knox College, The University of the South, Duke University, The University of Nebraska, Wooster College, Bates College, Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion, Trinity College, Bowdoin College, Berkeley Divinity School at Yale, Colby College, Olivet College, Mount Holyoke College, Furman University, Baker University, Mount Ida College, Willamette University, The State University of New York at Geneseo, Westminster Choir College of Rider University, Ursinus College, Wagner College, Lesley University, Williams College, Virginia Theological Seminary, Morris College, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Hamilton College, Union College, Tuskegee University, Lasell College, The General Seminary of the Episcopal Church in New York, Lafayette College, Augustana College, Westfield College, Washington and Jefferson College, and St. Lawrence University. In 2010, he gave The Princeton Lectures on Youth, Church, and Culture; Harvard University in 2010 elected him Honorary President of the Alpha-Iota Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa; and in 2009, he gave The Lowell Lectures of Massachusetts. He was an Honorary Fellow of Emmanuel College, The University of Cambridge, England, where The Gomes Lectureship is established in his name.^[23]

• 2000 W. E. B. Du Bois Medal recipient from the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute at Harvard University^[24]
• 1998 Clergy of the Year as named by Religion and American Life

Publications

• The Good Book: Reading the Bible with mind and heart HarperOne (2002)
• Sermons: Biblical Wisdom for Daily Living HarperOne (2002)
• The Good Life: Truths that Last in Times of Need HarperOne (2003)
• Strength for the Journey: Biblical wisdom for Daily Living HarperOne (2004)
• The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus: What's so good about the Good News? HarperOne (200

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Aracy de Carvalho Guimarães Rosa, Brazilian diplomatic clerk, died from natural causes she was 102,

Aracy de Carvalho Guimarães Rosa, née Aracy Moebius de Carvalho, was a Brazilian diplomatic clerk who has been recognized with the title of Righteous Among the Nations died from natural causes she was 102,.


(December 5, 1908 – February 28, 2011) 

Early life

Born to a German mother in Rio Negro, Paraná, Aracy de Carvalho was able to speak German, English, and French. She moved to São Paulo. She lived there with her German first husband Johannes Edward Ludwig Tess and their child until 1935, when they separated.^[1]

Humanitarian Work

In 1936, she was appointed to the Brazilian Consulate in Hamburg, Germany, where she was made the Chief of the Passport Section. She started to help Jewish people during Kristallnacht, on November 9, 1938.^[2] She handed out visas to Jews without the red "J" that identified them as such, since Brazilian Dictator Getúlio Vargas non-officially denied visas to Jews. She was in very close relations with underground activists in Germany and would even grant visas to Jews she knew that had forged passports. In 1938 she met fellow diplomat and assistant-Consul João Guimarães Rosa, who would later become her second husband, and one of the most important Brazilian writers. With his help, she intensified her humanitarian activity, saving a great number of Jews from imprisonment and death. She remained in Germany until 1942, when Brazil broke relations with Germany and joined the Allied Forces.^[3]

Recognition

On July 8, 1982, Aracy de Carvalho became one of the two Brazilians honoured by the Yad Vashem with the Righteous Among the Nations award, together with Ambassador Luiz Martins de Souza Dantas.

Death

Aracy de Carvalho suffered from Alzheimer's disease. She died at the age 102, in São Paulo, on February 28, 2011, due to natural causes.^[4]

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