Venkatraman Radhakrishnan, Indian astrophysicist, died from cardiac complications he was , 81.

Venkatraman Radhakrishnan  was an internationally renowned space scientist and member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences died from cardiac complications he was , 81.. He was Professor Emeritus of the Raman Research Institute in Bangalore, India, where he had been Director from 1972 to 1994.

(18 May 1929 – 3 March 2011)

Professor Radhakrishnan was born in Tondaripet, a suburb of Madras. His earlier schooling was in Madras. He married Mrs. Francoise-Dominique Radhakrishnan.
Prof. Radhakrishnan served on various committees in various capacities. He was the Vice President of the International Astronomical Union during 1988-1994. He served as the Chairman of Commission J ( Radio Astronomy) of the International Union of Radio Sciences (1981-1984).
Radhakrishnan was one of the most respected Radio Astronomers in the world during his time, in that he was associated in one capacity or other with the world’s biggest radio telescopes. He was the member of the Foreign Advisory Committee for the Netherlands Foundation for Radio Astronomy, Steering Committee of the Australia Telescope National Facility, CSIRO, Australia, Advisory Committee for the Green Bank Radio Telescope, National Radio Astronomy Observatory, USA He was also the Member of the Governing Council of the Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad and the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics. During the period of 1973 – 1981 he was a member of the Indian National Committee for Astronomy.
Radhakrishnan was selected to various scientific bodies, both national and international. He was a Foreign Fellow of both the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and the U.S. National Science Academy. He was an Associate of the Royal Astronomical Society and a Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore
He was an internationally acclaimed Astrophysicist and also renowned for his design and fabrication of ultralight aircraft and sailboats. Prof. V. Radhakrishnan had received his B.Sc.(Hon) from Mysore University. He started his research career as a research scholar at the Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Science Bangalore and thereafter was in the research faculties of various world famous institutes. He worked in the Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden as a Research Assistant during 1955-58. He was a Senior Research fellow of the California Institute of Technology, USA before joining the Radiophysics Division of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Sydney, Australia initially as the Senior Research Scientist and later as the Principal Research Scientist. He returned to India in 1972 and took up the task of rebuilding the Raman Research Institute as it’s Director. During his tenure as the Director of the Raman Research Institute between 1972 –1994 he built up an international reputation for work in the areas of pulsar astronomy, liquid crystals and other areas of frontline research in Astronomy. The University of Amsterdam conferred the most prestigious Doctor Honoris Causa degree on Prof. Radhakrishnan in 1996.

Areas of Research

V. Radhakrishnan had been associated with the field of radio astronomy practically from the beginning of its phenomenal post- World War II growth in the 1950s. He was one of the persons who founded the science of observational astronomy in India. His career had been truly international, starting in Sweden in 1954 and proceeding via CalTech and CSIRO, Sydney to Bangalore where he spent the last thirty three years.
Starting with the electronics of receivers, he moved on to technically innovative and astronomically far-reaching studies of the polarization of the radio waves. These include the detection of radio waves from the Van Allen like belts surrounding Jupiter and the first determination of the true rotation of the core of Jupiter. He was also the first in systematic application of interferometry to polarized brightness brightness distributions and an early study of the Zeeman Effect in the 21cm line emitted by a hydrogen atom ^[1]. His measurements of polarization of Vela Pulsar were decisive in establishing the picture of a magnetized rotating neutron star and led him to propose the paradigm of curvature radiation from polar caps of neutron stars which has dominated the subject of pulsar emission mechanisms since that time.
The period of his stay in Australia also marked his leadership of an extensive survey of the absorption and emission of 21 cm line radiation by neutral hydrogen which later helped to develop the realistic model of the interstellar medium. He also carried out systematic interferometric study of 21 cm absorption towards a large number of galactic and extragalactic sources. His detailed observational and theoretical work on different aspects of pulsars is truly pioneering in the field of Pulsar Astronomy.
According to his colleagues in different international institutes, each world renowned for their contributions in the field of astronomy & astrophysics, although Prof. Radhakrishnan has a number of important discoveries to his credit, his main impact on astronomy had been in his effect in other people’s research through discussion of the astronomical and technical problems and practical assistance with the later. He was one of the most devoted and perceptive physicists only satisfied with deep understanding of any concept and his interest increases with the strangeness or significance of the phenomenon. He was uninterested in mundane repetitions of other people’s work and searches for new breakthroughs.
It was not only in the field of astronomy that Prof. Radhakrishnan kept his mark but also in the designing and fabricating hang-gliders, micro-light aircraft and sailboats. His original contributions in these fields were acknowledged by the Government of India by way of support from the Aeronautics Research Development Board, Ministry of Defence (for designing hang-gliders) and ISRO (for sailboats).

Publications

Professor Radhakrishnan published more than 80 papers in research journals ^[2] and also proceedings of different various International Conferences. He also co-edited a book of conference-proceedings, “Supernovae : their Progenitors and Remnants” (1985)^[3] . He had been the Chairman of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Astrophysics and Astronomy.
It is to be noted that Prof. Radhakrishnan’s style of doing science won him a valued place in the astronomical community. It started by raising a few penetrating questions, which were analysed in informal but deep discussion, short of formalism but full of physical insights. By his choice, his name rarely appeared in the final publication. His often unconventional views on other matters relating to the pursuit of science, especially radioastronomy, were expressed to his colleagues but rarely published.

Important Contributions

Prof. Radhakrishnan’s contribution to science in general and astronomy in particular was exceptional. His observations and theoretical insights helped the community in unraveling many mysteries surrounding pulsars, interstellar clouds, galaxy structures and various other celestial bodies.
He worked tirelessly in making the Raman Research Institute a world renowned center of excellence in astronomy research. The institute became well known due to his efforts to sustain a unique free and open working atmosphere with emphasis on fostering young talents in an informal and friendly setting and giving it all facilities and encouragement. He sought to lower barriers between theory and experiment, scientific and technical staff, between physicists and astronomers or staff members and students. This approach, unprecedented not only in the country but perhaps in the rest of the world as well, required his personal attention to every detail in the running of the institute. He was instrumental and closely involved with the construction of the 10.4 metre millimeter wave radio antenna in the Institutes which has been used to study various astrophysical phenomena producing original contributions in pulsar astronomy as well as recombination line studies of the interstellar medium.
He made important contributions in various other areas and was deep and profound in the human aspects of his personality. Deuterium abundance in the galaxy, Astrophysical Raman Masers, OH emission from clouds and later on building of the low frequency telescopes at Gauribidanur and Mauritius were some of the hallmarks of his career.
He was invited to deliver the prestigious Milne Lecture in Oxford in 1987, and also gave the extremely prestigious Jansky Lecture in 2000 ^[4].
He was the member of International Astronomical Union (IAU) and served on many of its committees, including Division VI Commission 34 on Interstellar Matter, Division X Commission 40 on Radio Astronomy, Division XI Commission 44 Space & High Energy Astrophysics, Division VI Interstellar Matter, Division X Radio Astronomy, and Division IX Space & High Energy Astrophysics ^[5].

The famous scientist J.B.S. Haldane remarked upon him : “ Given good conditions anybody could turn out acceptable work; but the mark of a true scientist is that he can create the requisite conditions and make great discoveries. The scientific career of Prof. Radhakrishnan exemplifies the spirit of this statement.”
Radhakrishnan was unassuming, highly reticent about his own achievements, but with a quick and generous appreciation of good work in others. He was a source of inspiration to not merely the members of his institute but motivated his colleagues everywhere towards higher human values More than anything else Rad was an inspirational man who never gave up even toward the end of his life he would never complain. Anyone who knows Rad in person will never forget him. Hopefully he'd be sailing in the heavens on his famous boat. We all miss you Rad , may you rest in peace.

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Anthony Walter Dayrell Brooke, British heir to the Sarawakan throne, died he was , 98.

Anthony Walter Dayrell Brooke, was appointed His Highness the Rajah Muda of Sarawak (heir apparent; Malay: Yang Amat Mulia Tuan Rajah Muda Sarawak) on 25 August 1937, and succeeded to the title of Rajah in 1963 on the death of his uncle, Rajah Vyner of Sarawak the third and last of the ruling White Rajahs , died he was , 98.
Brooke was the son of Bertram, Tuan Muda of Sarawak and Gladys Palmer, daughter of Sir Walter Palmer, and heiress to part of the Huntley & Palmers biscuit fortune.^[1]

(10 December 1912 – 2 March 2011)

Background

Brooke grew up in England and was educated at Eton College, Trinity College, Cambridge and the School of African and Oriental Studies, University of London.^[2] Throughout the 1930s he served the Sarawak civil service in various sectors, including the Land and Registry Department, and as a magistrate.^[2]
He enlisted in the British Army as a private soldier in November 1941 and served during World War II; between 1941 and 1944 as a Lieutenant in the Intelligence Corps on the staff of the SAC SEAC at Kandy, Ceylon. He was Special Commissioner for Sarawak in the UK from 1944-1945.
Appointed Heir Apparent with the title of Rajah Muda of Sarawak on 25 August 1937, Brooke was granted the personal style of His Highness. Having been responsible for administering Sarawak between 1939 and 1940 in the absence of the Rajah, he was deprived of his styles and titles on 17 January 1940, then dismissed and expelled from the state in September 1941, following a dispute with his uncle, Rajah Vyner, over his marriage to a commoner, Kathleen Hudden, sister of a Sarawak government official.^[3][1]
Brooke was restored as Rajah Muda after consultations between his uncle and father in 1944. He was, however, deprived of his titles again on 12 October 1945.^[2]
Rajah Vyner ceded Sarawak to the British Colonial Office, in 1946 in exchange for a sizeable pension for him and his three daughters. Anthony Brooke, the designated heir, initially opposed cession to the Crown along with a majority of the native members of the Council Negri (Parliament). A five-year campaign in Sarawak followed, aimed at revoking the country's new colonial status, in part directed by Brooke from his house in Singapore.^[1] In 1948, after the second British Governor of Sarawak, Duncan Stewart was assassinated by the Malay Sarawakian nationalist Rosli Dhobie, Brooke came under scrunity by MI5, the British intelligence agency, who wanted to "get wind of any other plots he and his associates might be hatching". No evidence was found that he had known of the assassination plot.^[1]
In 1951, Brooke renounced any claim to the title, although he remained, according to some^[who?], the pretender to the throne.

Personal life

Brooke was married firstly, in Rangoon, Burma to Kathleen Mary Hudden (1907–1981),^[2] who became the Ranee Muda of Sarawak. They had three children:

• James Bertram Lionel Brooke (born 1940), married firstly Victoria Holdsworth (b. 1949), she would later marry Sir Paul Getty, married second Karen Mary Lappin (b. 1955). He has two sons by his second wife and currently lives in Edinburgh:
  • Laurence Nicholas Brooke (born 1983), at London, UK, Educated Bruntsfield School, and The Erasmus Smith School Dublin.
  • Jason Desmond Anthony Brooke (born 1985), at London, UK, Educated Bruntsfield School, and The Erasmus Smith School, Dublin. Received a BA (English Literature) from University College Dublin, and an MPhil (International Conflict Studies) from Trinity College Dublin. Elected Captain of the Boats, University College Dublin Boat Club 2007/2008. Brooke is a Life Member of the Sarawak Association, Chairman of the Brooke Heritage Trust, and a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society.

• Angela Carole Brooke (1942-c.1983),
• Celia Margaret Brooke (born 1944), married first to Pirzada Murshidzada David Ray Harper Inayat Khan (son of Inayat Khan), married secondly Marcel Captier of Rennes le Chateau. She had a daughter by her first husband:
  • Sura-un-Nissa Dorée des Anges Brooke Harper (b. 1971), she has one son;
    • Leandro Brooke Harper (b. 1992).^[2]

They divorced in 1965. Anthony Brooke lived for various periods in London, Sussex and at Findhorn community in Scotland. In 1982 he married a fellow peace activist; Brigitte (Gita) Keller (born in 1931 in Copenhagen to the Reverend Paul H. Lange) founded Operation Peace Through Unity (OPTU) in Sweden in 1975.^[2] From 1987 until Brooke's death in 2011 they lived together in Wanganui, New Zealand. Brooke was a traveller and lecturer, supporting various movements for peace and universal understanding.
Brooke died at his home in Wanganui, New Zealand on 2 March 2011 at the age of 98. Coincidentally, his death coincided with the anniversary of the deaths of 4 members of the Sarawak Anti-Cession Movement (Rosli Dhoby, Awang Ramli Amit, Bujang Suntong and Awang Ramli Amit) who were hanged at Kuching Central Prison on the same date in 1950.

Titles from birth

• Anthony Brooke, Esq. (10 December 1912 - 24 August 1937)
• H.H. The Rajah Muda of Sarawak (25 August 1937 - 16 January 1940)
• Anthony Brooke, Esq. (17 January 1940 - November 1941)
• Private Anthony Brooke (November 1941 - 16 January 1944)
• H.H. The Rajah Muda of Sarawak (17 January 1944 - 1944)
• Lieutenant H.H. The Rajah Muda of Sarawak (1944 - 12 October 1945)
• Lieutenant Anthony Brooke, titular Rajah Muda of Sarawak (12 October 1945 - February 1951)Renounced claim as heir apparent, 1951
• Titular H.H. The Rajah of Sarawak (9 May 1963–2 March 2011) He does not exercise any claim, although he succeeded to the right in 1963, upon Vyner's death

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Bernard Cywinski, American architect (Apple Store), partner and founder of Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, died from cancer he was , 70.

Bernard J. Cywinski, FAIA,  was an American architect, whose works included the Liberty Bell Pavilion, built in 2003, which houses the Liberty Bell on Independence Mall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania died from cancer he was , 70.. Cywinski was a founding partner and principal of the architectural firm, Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, one of Philadelphia's highest profile firms.^[1]

(March 29, 1940 – March 2, 2011)

Cywinski was raised in Trenton, New Jersey.^[1] Cywinski graduated from Columbia College at Columbia University and the Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation.
In 1979, Cywinski merged his own architectural firm with another operated by architect Peter Bohlin, who was based in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, at the time.^[1] The merger created a new company, which would be called, Bohlin Cywinski Jackson.^[1] According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, Cywinski and Bohlin had a mutual interest in sketching, though Cywinski used a mechanical pencil while Bohlin used a traditional pencil.^[1] Within the firm, Cywinski concentrated largely on projects and affairs at the firm's Philadelphia headquarters, while Bohlin designed projects farther from the city.^[1] In 1994, the American Institute of Architects awarded both Cywinski and Bohlin the Firm Award for their work.^[1] The firm grew to include five offices located in Wilkes-Barre, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Seattle, and San Francisco.
Cywinski was best known for redesigning Independence Mall in Philadelphia, as well as the chief architect and designer of the Liberty Bell Pavilion, which opened in 2003.^[1] Cywinski began work on sketches for a redesigned Independence Mall during the 1990s.^[1]
Bernard Cywinski suffered from cancer for more than ten years.^[1] His last sketches were of a series new, proposed light poles, which he hoped would help to brand parts of the Avenue of the Arts on Broad Street in Phildelphia.^[1] The sculptural lighting prototypes were first tested on March 2, 2011.^[1] Cywinski died the same day, March 2nd, at the age of 70.^[1] He was survived by his wife, Nancy Oklesson Cywinski.

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Barklie Lakin, British industrialist (Chairman of Vickers Armstrong) and naval officer, died from natural causes he was , 96.

Richard Barklie Lakin, DSO, DSC & Bar was a British industrialist, chairman of Vickers Armstrong and an officer in the Royal Navy during the Second World War, died from natural causes he was , 96..

(8 October 1914 – 1 March 2011) 

Lakin survived a car accident which claimed his father at the age of eight. He graduated from Britannia Royal Naval College in Dartmouth in 1932 and joined the cruiser HMS Sussex. He transferred to submarines, initially joining HMS Narwhal and in 1938 HMS Ursula as navigating officer. He was due to transfer to the new submarine HMS Thetis but this appointment was cancelled before her loss in an accident on 1 June 1939.
On the outbreak of was Lakin transferred to HMS H32 and then to HMS Utmost in November 1940 serving in the Mediterranean. A successful series of patrols which sank Italian supply ships and landed or recovered agents on three occasions resulted in the award of Lakin’s first Distinguished Service Cross. Returning to Britain, Lakin was given command of HMS H43 in December 1941 and was then given command of the Ursula in March 1942. HMS Ursula was based in Malta as part of the 10th submarine squadron which was charged with interdicting Axis supply convoys to North Africa. Lakin took part in several patrols including support for Operation Torch for which he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order and landing agents in Italy.
Lakin was given command of the S-class submarine HMS Safari in April 1943 and undertook four war patrols. His boat acted as a navigation beacon for US forces during the Invasion of Sicily and sunk several vessels. Lakin was appointed as a liaison officer with the US Navy in 1943 and undertook several patrols on American submarines in the Pacific. Lakin's final naval mission was to look after surrendered U-Boats in Londonderry, Northern Ireland at the end of the war.
Lakin joined Vickers-Armstrongs in 1946 as an engineer, eventually becoming Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. In 1956 he was based in Egypt and was interned by the Egyptian authorities during the Suez Crisis.
Lakin married twice; his first wife Pamela Jackson-Taylor died in 1981. His second wife Pansy Philips also pre-deceased him. He is survived by his long term companion, Joy Almond and his three sons and three daughters from his first marriage.

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Leonard Lomell, American World War II veteran, recipient of the Silver Star and Purple Heart, died from natural causes he was , 91.

Leonard G. “Bud” Lomell  was a highly decorated former United States Army Ranger who served in World War II died from natural causes he was , 91. He is best known for his actions in the first hours of D-Day at Pointe du Hoc on the coast of Normandy, France. Pointe du Hoc was the site of the German Army’s largest coastal weapons, five 155-millimeter German guns with a 25-kilometer range that endangered the tens of thousands of troops landing on Omaha Beach and Utah Beach, and thousands of watercraft in the English Channel supporting the Normandy invasion.^[1] Unbeknownst to the Allied intelligence, the Germans had concealed the guns in an orchard, but left them operational and ready to fire.^[1] Through skill, courage and “pure luck,” Lomell found and quickly disabled all five guns.^[2] Lomell was recognized by historian Stephen Ambrose as the single individual — other than Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower — most responsible for the success of D-Day.^[3] Six months later, in the Battle of Hürtgen Forest, he would again distinguish himself, earning a Silver Star for his heroism and leadership as the 2nd Ranger Battalion captured and held Hill 400. After the war he returned to Ocean County, New Jersey, becoming a well-known attorney in Toms River.

(January 22, 1920 – March 1, 2011)

 Life before Normandy

According to journalist Tom Brokaw, who devoted a chapter to Lomell in the “Heroes” section of his bestseller “The Greatest Generation,” Lomell “was the adopted son of Scandinavian immigrant parents who took him into their family as an infant in Brooklyn.”^[2] A few years later his parents, George G. Lomell and Pauline Peterson Lomell, moved to Point Pleasant, New Jersey, where he graduated from Point Pleasant Beach High School.^[3]
Lomell attended Tennessee Wesleyan College, on an athletic scholarship and work program, where he was editor of the school newspaper and president of his fraternity.^[2] He graduated in 1941, then returned to New Jersey to work as a brakeman on a freight train before enlisting in the Army.^[2] While working in New Jersey he met his future wife, Charlotte Ewart, then training as a nurse.^[2] Lomell entered the Army in 1942 and initially served with the 76th Infantry Division, before volunteering for the Rangers.^[3]

D-Day morning

The initial mission of companies D, E and F of the 2nd Ranger Battalion was one of the most difficult of the entire invasion – scaling sheer cliffs at Pointe du Hoc, seizing control of its massively reinforced fortifications, and disabling five 155-millimeter cannons that allied intelligence reported had been emplaced there. Their landing was scheduled to coincide with the first landings on Omaha Beach.
At 24, First Sergeant Lomell was the acting commander for the Battalion’s D Company.^[4] Due to heavy seas and the fog of battle, Lomell’s landing craft arrived thirty-five minutes late, away from its mark, and lost any element of surprise.^[1] Those who made it down the ramp or over the side had to swim inland about 20 feet.^[5] As Lomell was bringing in a box of rope and a hand-projector rocket, he was wounded in the side by a machine-gun bullet, but reached shore without pausing.^[5] First Sergeant Lomell reached the top of the cliff through the use of two ladders, and along with eleven other men from his landing craft, moved off of the edge of the cliff.^[5]
D Company’s specific objectives were to take the three western gun emplacements, and to then assemble to the south edge of the fortified area to control the coastal road (so as to prevent German reinforcements from reaching the Omaha Beach area from the west).^[5] Aerial and naval bombardment of the Pointe du Hoc area, designed to destroy the guns, and their defenses and defenders, had turned the landscape into a moonscape of craters.^[1]
However, as the Army’s official account of the battle later stated, “one party after another reached its allotted emplacement, to make the same discovery … there was no sign of the guns or of artillery equipment. Evidently, the 155's had been removed from the Point before the period of major bombardments.”^[5]
The Hollywood account of the conquest of Pointe du Hoc, as presented in Darryl F. Zanuck's movie "The Longest Day," ends there,^[6] overlooking the successes that were soon to come.
After 1st Sgt Lomell’s company took up positions along both edges of the coastal highway to prepare for the expected German reinforcements, Lomell and Staff Sergeant Jack K. Kuhn formed a patrol to head south down a double-hedgerowed lane.^[5] Lomell saw markings in this sunken road that looked like something heavy had been over it.^[7]
Lomell and Kuhn found five of the missing 155’s, concealed under camouflage in an orchard.^[8] In Lomell’s words, “it was pure luck.”^[7] The guns had been placed in a position to fire toward Utah Beach and were capable of being switched for use against Omaha Beach.^[5] With S/Sgt Kuhn covering him against possible defenders, First Sergeant Lomell went into the battery and set off silent thermite grenades in the mechanisms of two guns.^[8] Because the thermite grenades melted their gears in a moment, they effectively disabled them.^[7] After bashing in a third gun’s gunsights, Lomell went back for more grenades.^[5]
The official U.S. Army account of the episode reported that members of E Company “finished off the job” while Lomell was retrieving more thermite grenades from other members of his own company.^[5] Although E Company indisputably destroyed the ammunition cache set aside for the 155’s, more recent accounts of the episode give Lomell, and not E Company, the credit for disabling the rest of the guns.^[1][2][7] When the Pointe was taken, guns were disabled and coastal road was taken, the Second Battalion became the first unit to accomplish its D-Day mission, and did so before 9:00 a.m.^[1]
The Battalion would successfully defend its victories for the next few days before it was finally relieved. Of the 225 Rangers who disembarked with 1st Sgt Lomell, only 90 were left standing at the end of the battle.^[4]

Hürtgen Forest: the capture of Hill 400

In the Battle of Hürtgen Forest (near the Roer River in Northwestern Germany), Lomell's actions in the capture of "Castle Hill," otherwise known as Hill 400, earned him a Silver Star.^[9]
On December 7, 1944, companies of the Second Ranger Battalion were ordered to attack Hill 400, a commanding battlefield position that four divisions of the First Army had tried and failed to take.^[10] The Rangers caught the Germans by surprise,^[10] but early in the battle the commanding officers of each company were wounded or captured, and the Rangers were soon outnumbered ten to one.^[9][10] Lomell — now a second lieutenant following a battlefield commission^[2] — then took charge, representing the entire command structure on the crest of the hill.^[9] Lomell personally attacked a German weapons shelter on the newly conquered hilltop, driving the surviving enemy to surrender.^[9] As military historian Charles B. MacDonald would later write, “so swiftly did the Rangers move that the Germans were thoroughly cowed,” so that “by 0835 the two companies had taken twenty-eight prisoners and held the crest.”.^[11] Before the day was over the Germans would counterattack five times.^[10] Lomell was awarded the Silver Star at a ceremony in Toms River NJ on November 9, 2007 for his heroism at Hill 400. As Lomell's Silver Star citation would later state, “conspicuously leading from the front, Lomell directed the successful defense of the hilltop in the face of a nearly overwhelming German counterattack at midday. During the German bombardment that preceded the attack, Lomell suffered a head concussion and shrapnel wound in his left arm rendering it useless. Refusing shelter and, at risk of his life with blood oozing from his ears, nose and mouth, firing his machine gun cradled in his bandaged left arm with his right hand, he continued to lead his men against another ruthless German assault throughout the entire afternoon.”^[9] According to MacDonald, “by 1600 the Rangers had only twenty-five men left,″ but with precision artillery support, Lomell and the other twenty-four held out long enough to be relieved.^[11]
Military historians praised not only Lomell's courage on Hill 400, but also his judgment under fire. In a comprehensive history of the U.S. Rangers, Thomas Taylor lauded Lomell's "brilliant defense of the hill top," especially his decision to send out patrols immediately after taking the crest of the hill.^[12]"Too weak to hold everywhere, Lomell had to learn where the Germans were building to attack. . . . He boldly sent out two-man recon patrols to check out likely enemy assembly areas down hill. These crafty patrols were eminently successful, so Lomell was able to meet each thrust with what little strength he had." As a result, Taylor wrote, "Hill 400 was saved by brains and bravery at the junior level."^[12]
Lomell would soon be wounded a third time, in the Battle of the Bulge.^[3] He was honorably discharged in December 1945, four months after VJ Day and eight months after VE Day.^[3]

After the war

Lomell returned to New Jersey in 1945, and married Charlotte on the second anniversary of D-Day.^[2] He enrolled in law school at LaSalle University and Rutgers University, passing the bar in 1951.^[2] He was the founder and senior member of the law firm of Lomell, Muccifori, Adler, Ravaschiere & Amabile, subsequently known as the Lomell Law Firm.^[3] He retired from the practice of law in the mid-1980s but, as of 1998, continued to go to the law offices several times a week.^[2]
In business, Lomell was a director of The First National Bank of Toms River and a director and vice-president of Statewide Bancorp. He was a director of the South Jersey Title Insurance Co., Atlantic City. Among his civic activities, he was a member of the Dover Township Board of Education; president of the Garden State Philharmonic Symphony Society; chairman of the Dover Township Juvenile Conference Committee; a member of the Community Memorial Hospital building committee; and a director of the Ocean County Historical Society. Lomell was a member of Christ Church, Episcopal, and served on its board, and as president of its Men's Club and legal counsel.^[3] He served as an Ocean County College Foundation trustee.^[13]
Leonard and Charlotte were the parents of three adult daughters.^[3]
Interviews with Lomell are a common element of television and radio programs about D-Day.^[14]
He died of natural causes on March 1, 2011 at 91 years old.^[15]

Honors

For his actions in disabling the Pointe du Hoc guns, Lomell received the U.S. Army's Distinguished Service Cross^[16] the British Military Medal,^[17] and the French Légion d'honneur.^[3] In addition to his Silver Star, Lomell also received a Bronze Star. In 1994 he was inducted into the Ranger Hall of Fame.^[18]
On December 4, 1999, the Borough of Point Pleasant Beach dedicated a monument to Len Lomell at the Veterans Park on Arnold Avenue.^[19] The Monument has a replica of the grapnal hook used by the Rangers at Pointe Du Hoc, which was given by the residents of Grandcamp-Maisy, France, along with a plaque detailing the contribution that Lomell made during the war effort.
In 2007, Lomell received an honorary Doctor of Humanities degree from Monmouth University.^[3]

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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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