Donald Brenner, Canadian judge, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of British Columbia (2000–2009) died he was , 64.

Donald I. Brenner  was a Canadian judge who served as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of British Columbia from 2000 until he stepped down from the position in 2009 died he was , 64. In total Brenner spent more than 20 years as a member of the provincial Supreme Court.The Vancouver Sun called Brenner "the man who was most responsible for reforming the province's top trial bench."

(1945 – March 12, 2011)

Brenner was born in British Columbia to a World War II veteran and graduated from St. George's School in Vancouver in 1962.^[2] He obtained a commercial helicopter pilot's license when he was eighteen years old.^[2] He joined Canadian Pacific Airlines in 1966 as a pilot and finished his professional pilot career as a Boeing 737 captain.^[2]
Brenner obtained a bachelor's degree from the University of British Columbia and enrolled in law school in 1967.^[2] He received a law degree in 1970 and joined the bar in 1971.^[2]
In 1999, Brenner became chairman of the Supreme Court of British Columbia's litigation management committee.^[2] He also co-founded the B.C. Supreme Court's information technology committee.^[2] Under Brenner, who became Chief Justice in 2000, the British Columbia Supreme Court adopted a code of civil rules, the first major change in the court's procedures since the 19th Century.^[2] The B.C. Supreme Court is also one of the technological in Canada, as Brenner spearheaded to move to adopt video conferencing, electronic filing systems, and adopt new litigation management systems.^[2] Brenner stepped down as Chief Justice in 2009 and was succeeded by Chief Justice Robert Bauman.^[2]
Don Brenner died unexpectedly of natural causes on March 12, 2011, at the age of 64.^[2] He was survived by his wife, Robin, and two daughters.^[2]

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Olive Dickason, Canadian historian and author died he was , 91.

Olive Patricia Dickason  was a Canadian historian. She was a key figure in the study of Aboriginal History in Canada's academic world died he was , 91..

(March 6, 1920 – March 12, 2011)

Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, her family moved to the Interlake region after losing everything they owned during the Great Depression. Aged 12, she, her sister Alice, and her mother Phoebe went trapping and fishing to provide food for the family. “Living in the bush as I did during my adolescent years, I very soon learned that survival depended upon assessing each situation as it arose, which calls for common sense and realism,” said Olive. “You neither give up nor play games.” Encouraged by mentor, Father Athol Murray, she decided to finish high school in Saskatchewan, prior to pursuing post-secondary education. She completed a BA in French and Philosophy at Notre Dame College, an affiliate of the University of Ottawa.
She first became aware of her Métis ancestry as a young adult upon meeting some Métis relatives in Regina. She began a 24-year career in journalism at the Regina Leader-Post and subsequently, worked as a writer and editor at the Winnipeg Free Press, the Montreal Gazette, and the Globe and Mail. She promoted coverage of First Nations and women's issues.
In 1970, aged 50, she entered the graduate program at the University of Ottawa. She had to struggle with faculty preconceptions regarding Aboriginal History – including arguments that it did not exist – before finally finding a professor (Cornelius Jaenen) to act as her academic advisor. "I was lucky... [a] Belgian fellow, who didn't know much about Native people, but knew a lot about discrimination, took up my cause, and the university eventually admitted me." She completed her Master's degree at the University of Ottawa two years later, and her PhD in 1977. Her doctoral thesis, entitled The Myth of the Savage, was eventually published as were Canada’s First Nations: A History of Founding Peoples from the Earliest Times and The Native Imprint: The Contribution of First Peoples First Peoples to Canada's Character -- Volume 1: to 1815 (1995), which she edited. In addition she also wrote Indian Arts in Canada, which won three awards for conception and design and coauthored The Law of Nations and the New World.
Dickason taught at the University of Alberta from 1976 to 1992. She retired from this professorship when she was 72, after fighting the mandatory retirement at age 65. Dickason filed suit against the University of Alberta, claiming its mandatory retirement policy was a violation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.^[1] Dickason won her case in the lower courts, but lost in a 5-4 split at the Supreme Court of Canada.^[2] Her time as a professor and her significant contributions to the literature of history in Canada have influenced a whole generation of scholars, and will continue to be the basis for much historical work done in the future.
Olive was awarded the Order of Canada in 1996,^[3] and was the recipient of the Aboriginal Achievement Award in 1997. She has also been the recipient of numerous honorary doctorates throughout the years.

Family

Dickason had three daughters: Anne, Clare and Roberta.

Death

Olive Dickason died on March 12, 2011, one week after her 91st birthday

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Margaret Fish, British supercentenarian, oldest person in the United Kingdom died she was , 112

Margaret Ethel Fish of Wilstead, Bedfordshire was the oldest person in the United Kingdom following the death of 111-year-old Elsie Steele on 18 October 2010 until her own death on 12 March 2011, aged 112 years 5 days.

( 7 March 1899 – 12 March 2011)

She was born at Tower Hamlets and married Frank Fish, a World War I veteran, in 1928. Frank died in 1987 at the age of 89 of a heart and lung condition.^[4] Margaret is a former dressmaker and lived independently at Cople until the age of 104.^[5] Later, she moved to live with her 71-year-old daughter Barbara for two years, and then she moved into Danecroft Nursing Home in Wilstead.^[4]
Fish enjoyed television and having a good meal. When asked about her recipe to a long life she said to "not worry about it"; that there is no secret.^[5]
She died in her nursing home on 12 March 2011, five days after her 112th birthday, since which time her health had declined.^[6]
Fish had two daughters, Barbara and Elsie; several grandchildren, and a great-grandchild.^[5]

Records

• On 18 October 2010 Elsie Steele died, Margaret Fish age 111 years 225 days became the oldest living person in the United Kingdom.
• On 12 March 2011 Margaret Fish died age 112 years 5 days.

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Shifra Lerer, Argentinian-born American Yiddish theatre actress, died from a stroke she was , 95.

Shifra Lerer  was an Argentine-born American Yiddish theater actress based in New York City died from a stroke she was , 95. Lerer appeared opposite every major Yiddish theater actor during her career, which lasted 90 years.^[1][2] She was also cast in film roles, including the 1997 Woody Allen film, Deconstructing Harry.^[1]
  
(August 30, 1915 – March 12, 2011)


Her father, a manager at a soap factory, had immigrated to Argentina from the Russian Empire to escape anti-Semetism and poverty through the sponsorship of philanthropist and banker, Maurice de Hirsch.^[2] Lerer was born in the Santa Catalina colony^[3] in Argentina on August 30, 1915.^[2] Lerer was discovered in Buenos Aires by Yiddish theater legend, producer and actor Boris Thomashefsky, who was starring in the area, when she was just five^[1] or eight^[3] years old, at the recommendation of her sister (the actress Miryam Lerer). At ten she was participating in Yakov Botashanski's productions in a theater circle. When she was older, she studied at a Spanish-language drama school and performed for three years on the Argentinian stage. She then passed the examinations for the actors' union and became a member, playing with the star Miryam Karalova-Kambarov, then Moyshe Oysher and Florence Weiss, finally playing in serious drama roles with Zygmunt Turkov in Urteyl, Hirsh Lekert, Ivan Kruger and Di glokn-tsier fun Notr-dam (The Bell-ringer (Hunchback) of Notre Dame).^[3]
She played with Yakov Ben-Ami and Bertha Kalich in Wolf's Profesor Malok, Strindberg's Der Foter, and Leyvick's Der poet is blind gevorn (The poet became blind), with Samuel (Hymie) Goldenberg in Kalmanovich's Hayntike kinder (Kids these days) and with Maurice Schwartz in Singer's Moyshe Kalb.
In 1943 she was invited by Samuel Goldberg to perform at the Parkway Theater in Brooklyn (owned by Hymie Jacobson and his brother Irving). Her first performance was in Fun Niu York keyn Berlin; she then toured concertizing at places like the Arbeter Ring, the National Yiddish Workers Union, and Camp Boyberik. In 1946 she went back to Argentina where she worked with Ben-Zion Witler at the Mitre theater and thereafter toured and performed with him (she married Witler in 1957 - he died from a brain tumor in 1961.^[2]). She joined the actors' union in 1949 and played in Got, mentsh un tayvl with Mikhal Mikhalesko and Gustav Berger. In 1952 she participated in Herman Yablokoff's production of Benyomin Ressler's Onkl Sem in yisroel (Uncle Sam in Israel) in the Public Theater in New York.^[3]
She ultimately decided to settle permanently in New York City.^[2] Lerer worked actively in the Yiddish theater cicuit until she was 90 years old.^[1]
Her second husband, Yiddish actor Michael Michalovic, died in 1987.^[2] She was best friends with the late Yiddish theater actress, Mina Bern, who died in 2010.^[4]
Shifra Lerer died of a stroke in Manhattan on March 12, 2011, at the age of 95.^[2] She was buried in Block 67 of Mount Hebron Cemetery in Flushing, Queens, next to her second husband, Michael Michalovic.^[1][5] The cemetery's Block 67 is reserved for who worked in New York City's Yiddish theater industry.^[4] Lerer was buried just rows from Boris Thomashefsky, who discovered Lerer at the age of 5 in Argentina.^[4] She had no immediate survivors.^[2]

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Joe Morello, American drummer (The Dave Brubeck Quartet) died he was , 82.

Joseph Albert Morello  was a jazz drummer best known for his 12½-year stint with The Dave Brubeck Quartet. He was frequently noted for playing in the unusual time signatures employed by that group in such pieces as "Take Five" and "Blue Rondo à la Turk". Popular for its work on college campuses during the 1950s, Brubeck’s group reached new heights with Morello. In June 1959, Morello participated in a recording session with the quartet — completed by the alto saxophonist Paul Desmond and the bassist Eugene Wright — that yielded “Kathy’s Waltz” and “Three to Get Ready,” both of which intermingled 3/4 and 4/4 time signatures.

(July 17, 1928 – March 12, 2011)

Biography

Morello suffered from partial vision from birth,^[4] and devoted himself to indoor activities. At six years old he began studying the violin, going on to feature three years later as soloist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, playing Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto, and again three years later.
At the age of 15 Morello met the violinist Jascha Heifetz and decided that he would never be able to equal Heifetz's "sound", so switched to drumming, first studying with a show drummer named Joe Sefcik and then George Lawrence Stone, author of the noted drum textbook Stick Control for the Snare Drummer. Stone was so impressed with Morello's ideas that he incorporated them into his next book, Accents & Rebounds, which is dedicated to Morello. Later, Morello studied with Radio City Music Hall percussionist Billy Gladstone.

After moving to New York City, Morello worked with numerous notable jazz musicians including Johnny Smith, Tal Farlow, Stan Kenton, Phil Woods, Sal Salvador, Marian McPartland, Jay McShann, Art Pepper, Howard McGhee, and others. After a period playing in McPartland's trio, Morello declined invitations to join both Benny Goodman and Tommy Dorsey's bands, favoring a temporary two-month tour with the Dave Brubeck Quartet in 1955; Morello remained with Brubeck for well over a decade, only departing in 1968. Morello later became an in-demand clinician, teacher and bandleader whose former students include Danny Gottlieb, Max Weinberg, Phish drummer Jon Fishman, Gary Feldman, Patrick Wante, Jerry Granelli, Glenn Johnson and Rich Galichon.






Morello appeared in many Brubeck performances and contributed to over 60 albums with Brubeck. On "Take Five", he plays an imaginative drum solo maintaining the 5/4 time signature throughout. Another example of soloing in odd time signatures can be heard on "Unsquare Dance", in which he solos using only sticks without drums in 7/4 time. At the end of the track, he can be heard laughing about the "trick" ending. He also features on "Blue Rondo à la Turk", "Strange Meadow Lark", and "Pick-Up Sticks".
During his career, Morello appeared on over 120 albums, 60 of which were with the Dave Brubeck Quartet. He authored several drum books, including Master Studies, published by Modern Drummer Publications, and also made instructional videos. Morello was the recipient of many awards, including Playboy magazine's best drummer award for seven years in a row, and Down Beat magazine's best drummer award five years in a row. He was elected to the Modern Drummer magazine Hall of Fame in 1988, the Percussive Arts Society Hall of Fame in 1993, and was the recipient of Hudson Music's first TIP (Teacher Integration Program) Lifetime Achievement award in June, 2010. ^[5]
Joe Morello died on March 12, 2011, at his home in Irvington, New Jersey. He was 82 years old. His death was announced on his website, although no cause of death was given.^[6][7]

Drum method books

• New Directions In Rhythm: Studies In 3/4 And 5/4 Time 1963
• Off the Record: A Collection of Famous Drum Solos 1966
• Rudimental Jazz: A Modern Application of Rudiments to the Drum Outfit 1967
• Master Studies: Exercises For The Development Of Control And Technique Modern Drummer Publications, Inc. 1983
• Master Studies II: More Exercises For The Development Of Control And Technique Modern Drummer Publications, Inc. 2006
• Rudimental Jazz: A Musical Application of Rudiments to the Drumset including CD, Modern Drummer Publications’; Classics Series 2010

Videography, instructional

• Joe Morello – Drum Method 1: The Natural approach to Technique (DVD) Hot Licks 2006
• Joe Morello – Drum Method 2: Around the Kit (DVD) Hot Licks 2006
• Joe Morello, Danny Gottlieb: Natural Drumming Lessons 1&2 (DVD) Mel Bay Publications, Inc. 2005
• Joe Morello, Danny Gottlieb: Natural Drumming Lessons 3&4 (DVD) Mel Bay Publications, Inc. 2006
• Joe Morello, Danny Gottlieb: Natural Drumming Lessons 5&6 (DVD) Mel Bay Publications, Inc. 2006
• The Art of Playing with Brushes (DVD) Hudson Music LLC 2007

Discography

As leader

• Joe Morello
• Its About Time
• Another Step Forward
• Going Places
• Morello Standard Time

As sideman

With Dave Brubeck

• Time Out
• Time Further Out
• Time in Outer Space
• At Carnegie Hall

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John Nettleship, British teacher, inspiration for character of Severus Snape , died from cancer.he was 71,

John Lawrence Nettleship  was a British schoolteacher who taught chemistry at Wyedean School, Gloucestershire  died from cancer.he was  71, . His pupils there included Joanne Rowling, whose mother worked for some time as an assistant in his department. He has been claimed as a major inspiration for the character of Severus Snape in Rowling's Harry Potter series of fantasy books.

(1 August 1939 – 12 March 2011)

Life

Nettleship was born in Nottingham, and studied Chemistry at the University of Leeds in the late 1950s. He joined the Labour Party at that time, and remained an active member for the rest of his life. After leaving university, he taught in Birmingham, where he married and had three children; the marriage later ended in divorce and he remarried in the 1980s.^[1]
In 1970 he began teaching at Caldicot School in Monmouthshire, Wales, moving to become Head of Science at Wyedean School in Sedbury, Gloucestershire, a few miles away, in 1974.^[1] Joanne Rowling began studying at the school in September 1976, and her mother Anne worked as a technician in the Science department from 1978. Nettleship described himself in hindsight as "a short-tempered chemistry teacher with long hair...[and a] gloomy, malodorous laboratory..".^[2] He was first questioned about his links to Rowling's character of Snape by journalists, saying: "I was horrified when I first found out. I knew I was a strict teacher but I didn't think I was that bad."^[3] Rowling herself stated that Snape was "loosely based on a teacher I myself had".^[4] After being initially unhappy about the comparison, Nettleship came to terms with the connection, and wrote a short book, Harry Potter's Chepstow, about Rowling's connections with Chepstow.^[5] He also gave talks on the connections that the Chepstow, Wye Valley and Forest of Dean areas had with the Harry Potter books.^[6][7]
Nettleship retired in 1997. As well as being an active member of the Labour Party, he was a member of Caerwent community council, serving as its chairman in 1991. He was instrumental in setting up Caerwent Historic Trust, becoming its secretary and researching the history of the area.^[6]
He died of cancer in 2011, aged 71, after having being diagnosed in 2006. A spokeswoman for J. K. Rowling said that the author was sorry to hear of his death.^[1]

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Mitchell Page, American baseball player (Oakland Athletics), and coach (St. Louis Cardinals, Washington Nationals) died he was , 59

Mitchell Otis Page  is a former Major League Baseball player died he was , 59. He finished second to Hall of Famer Eddie Murray in American League Rookie of the Year balloting when he came up with the Oakland Athletics in 1977.

(October 15, 1951 – March 12, 2011)

Early years

Page was originally drafted out of Centennial High School in Compton, California by the A's in the fourth round of the 1970 Major League Baseball Draft, but chose instead to attend Compton Community College. After transferring to California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, he was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the third round of the 1973 Major League Baseball Draft.
After clubbing 43 home runs and driving in 173 runs with a .292 batting average over two seasons in the Pirates' farm system, the A's finally acquired Page on March 15, 1977, along with Tony Armas, Doc Medich, Doug Bair, Dave Giusti and Rick Langford for Phil Garner, Chris Batton and Tommy Helms.

Oakland A's

Immediately upon joining his new club, Page assumed the job of everyday left fielder, and showed poise with a promising career ahead of him when he batted .307 with 21 home runs and 75 runs batted in for the Oakland Athletics his rookie year. He collected nine first place votes to Murray's twelve to finish second in voting for the AL Rookie of the Year Award.
Page had a respectable 1978 season, batting .285 with seventeen home runs and 70 RBIs. He got into a contract dispute with A's owner Charlie Finley during Spring training 1979, and wound up getting suspended by the owner for refusing to play in exhibition games.^[1] He was used as the designated hitter during the regular season as injuries had limited his range in the outfield. He produced just a .247 batting average with nine home runs and 42 RBIs in his new role.
Page batted just .146 with four home runs and thirteen RBIs in the first half of the strike shortened 1981 season. When play resumed in August, Page saw just three more at-bats for the rest of the season, spending most of his time with the triple A Tacoma Tigers. The A's won the first half of the season; Page was kept off the roster for 1981 American League Division Series against the Kansas City Royals and the 1981 American League Championship Series against the New York Yankees.^[2] Page spent most of 1982 with Tacoma and 1983 on the disabled list.

Pittsburgh Pirates

Page was released by the A's during Spring training 1984. He signed a minor league deal with the Pittsburgh Pirates shortly afterwards, and in twelve at bats, hit .333, with three walks as a pinch hitter in August. After spending all of 1985 with Pittsburgh's Triple-A affiliate in Hawaii, he was released.

Coaching career

Page returned to Tacoma as their hitting coach from 1992 through 1994, and served as first base coach for the Kansas City Royals from 1995 to 1997.
He accepted a job with the St. Louis Cardinals as hitting coach for the Memphis Redbirds in 1998. From there, he moved to minor league hitting coordinator in 1999. Midway through the 2001 season, he was promoted to the St. Louis Cardinals as hitting coach. He remained with the club through the 2004 World Series, but left the post immediately afterwards to enter an alcohol treatment facility near his Oakland, California home.^[3] The Cards batted just .190 in the World Series against the Boston Red Sox.
Page returned to baseball as minor league hitting instructor for the Washington Nationals in 2005, and became the major league hitting coach in 2006.^[4] He rejoined the Cardinals' organization, and began 2010 as a coach with the Quad Cities River Bandits, but left in May due to "personal reasons."^[5]

Angels in the Outfield

Page played the role of the California Angels player, "Abascal," in the 1994 Disney movie Angels in the Outfield.^[6]

Death

Page died in his sleep on March 12, 2011, at the age of 59. The cause of death was not immediately disclosed.^[7]

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