/ Stars that died in 2023

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Ahmed Omed Khpulwak, Afghan journalist (BBC News), died from an explosion he was , 25.

Ahmad Omaid Khpalwak, also spelled as Ahmed Omed Khpulwak, was an Afghan journalist who worked for the Pajhwok Afghan News and as a freelance stringer for the BBC since 2008.[1] Khpalwak was the third journalist frm Pajhwok to be killed in three years. He was the third BBC reporter to be killed in Afghanistan and the second BBC reporter to be killed in the War in Afghanistan.[2]

  (1987? - 28 July 2011)

Biography

Career

Khpalwak began working for Pajhwok after completing his education in 2007, and he worked first as a freelancer and then later became staff.[3] Khpalwak joined the staff of the BBC World Service as a journalist on May 1, 2008.[2] He worked as a stringer for the BBC, based in Uruzgan Province, and was paid for each story which was published or broadcast by the BBC.[2] He often reported for BBC Pashto on events in southern Afghanistan.[2] Khpalwak simultaneously also worked for the Pajwak Afghan news agency.[2]
His last two stories for Pajhwok Afghan News, before he died on July 28 in a major attack in Tarin Kowt, capital of Uruzgan province, were about an attack on police checkpoints in which both Taliban and police were killed, and an interview with a would-be suicide bomber. Few of his 24 years of life saw any kind of peace in Afghanistan.[1]

Personal

Khpalwak, who was twenty-four years old, was survived by his parents, his elder brother, three sisters, and his wife and three month old daughter.
After Khpalwak's death, Khpalwak's father, Ghulam Nabi, did not accept offers by the United States to compensate the family Omaid's death and wanted the investigation to continue. The family members sought asylum in Australia for fear of retaliation. Abdul Mujeeb Khalvatgar, executive director of NAI SOMA, said the capital did not offer the Khpalwaks anonymity because it was small and he believed the Khpalwaks were in danger.[4]
Death of Ahmad Omaid Khpalwak
Tarin Kowt
Location
Tarin Kowt, Afghanistan
Date
28 July 2011 (UTC+04:30)
Attack type
Suicide bombing
Weapon(s)
7 bombs
Deaths
21
Injured
38
Assailants
Taliban insurgents

Background

Three suicide bombers and three accomplices bombed several government buildings as well as a broadcasting station in which a total of 21 civilians were killed and 38 more injured. The dead included 10 children, three police, and one Afghan reporter. Afghan and US-led NATO forces engaged responded and killed all insurgents. In the shooting, Pajhwok Journalist Ahmad Omaid Khpalwak was killed by a group of U.S. soldiers while they were clearing the broadcasting station. The incident occurred over a 5 hour period.[5][6][7]

Death

Khpalwak was killed by American ISAF troops[8] 28 July 2011 in Tarin Kowt, Afghanistan, after Taliban insurgents attacked government facilities, as well as the state broadcasting station Radio and Television of Afghanistan,[1] in Uruzgan's provincial capital.[2] The New York Times called the attack one of the "most audacious surprise attacks" ever undertaken by the Taliban.[9]
Reporters Without Borders and BBC News called for an investigation after Khpalwak was killed at the broadcasting station.[10][11] The journalist's brother Ahmad Jawid Khpalwak believed he was reaching for his press card when he was shot. The Los Angeles Times wrote about text messages that Khpalwak sent his brother in the minutes before he was killed. "Death is approaching," he messaged. "I am hiding;" and a short time later wrote, "If I die, pray for me."[1][12]
A NATO investigation revealed 8 Septemember that an American soldier had killed Khpalwak.[8] Kphalwak's death happened while he was reporting for BBC Pashto about the Taliban attack.[1][2] The ISAF arrived at an attacked building and was making sure that there were no Taliban still inside. An American soldier discovered Khpalwak hiding in a bathroom and saw Khpalwak reaching for something when it was mostly likely his press card. The soldier thought that Khpalwak could have been a suicide bomber and trying to reach for a device that would set off a bomb before he shot 20 rounds at Khpalwak with an M-4.[3][8] The investigation also said Khpalwak held a press identification card in his hand.[1]
The investigation concluded, "... the ISAF member involved in this incident complied with the laws of armed conflict and rules of engagement and acted reasonably under the circumstances."[10]

Context

While the intended targets of the Taliban attack were Uruzgan's Governor and a militia leader named Matiullah Khan, the Taliban also stormed the offices of local radio and television stations, leading to Khpalwak being killed while hiding in a bathroom by American troops that came to sweep out the Taliban.[2]
Local reporters are the ones who are in the most danger, according to press activist Abdul Mujeeb Khalvatgar, executive director the NAI Supporting Open Media in Afghanistan.[4]

Impact

Khpalwak is the third Pajhwok reporter and the third BBC reporter to be killed in Afghanistan. Working for the BBC, Mirwais Jalil died in Kabul in the civil war of the 1990s. During the War in Afghanistan, Abdul Samad Rohani was killed by an unknown gunman in Lashkargah, Helmand Province June 2008.[13] Like Khpalwak, Rohani worked for both Pajhwok and the BBC Word News. Pajhwok reporter Janullah Hashimzada was killed in the remote Khyber area August 2009.[14]

Reactions

The incident raised continuing concers about the civilian casualties in the War in Afghanistan.
The Los Angeles Times said, "The incident points up the daily dangers faced by Afghans who work for foreign organizations, as well as Afghan civilians in general, particularly those living in a broad swath of Afghanistan's restive south."[12]
Peter Horrocks, director of BBC Global News, said: "Ahmed Omed's death further highlights the great dangers facing journalists who put their lives on the line to provide vital news from around the world. It is essential that journalists are given the best possible protection whilst reporting in dangerous situations so that the world can hear their stories."
Reporters Without Borders said, "This mishap has highlighted the constant danger for civilians and journalists, who are often at the center of the fighting." The press fredom and safety organization held NATO and the Taliban responsible for Khpalwak's death.[10]

 

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Agnes Varis, American philanthropist, died from cancer he was , 81.

Agnes Varis (born Agnes Koulouvaris;) was founder and president of Agvar Chemicals Inc. and Aegis Pharmaceuticals.

(January 11, 1930 – July 29, 2011)

Born in Lowell, Massachusetts, Varis was the only child of eight to attend college. She earned her degree in Chemistry and English from Brooklyn College. She attended New York University's Stern School of Business.
In 1970, aged 40, she started Agvar Chemicals and co-founded Marsam Pharmaceuticals in 1985. She became the founder and President of Aegis Pharmaceuticals in 1992. Ms. Varis was appointed by President Barack Obama to the PCAH committee, which encompassed 26 leading citizens from the private sector with an interest in and commitment to the humanities and the arts.
Its members also included twelve federal members whose agencies had cultural programs, such as the National Endowments for the Arts and the Humanities, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the U. S. Department of Education, the Smithsonian Institution, the Library of Congress, the National Gallery of Art and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.[1]

Humanitarian causes

In 2004 Dr. Varis became involved with The Jazz Foundation of America. Her work with the Jazz Foundation includes providing funding and creating employment opportunities for America's elderly jazz and blues musicians.[2]
Through her work in response to Hurricane Katrina, in 2006 the Jazz Foundation of America established the Agnes Varis/Musicians in the Schools Program, first reaching out to displaced New Orleans musicians and subsequently employing more than 1000 musicians in eight states, including some 120 elderly jazz and blues musicians performing free concerts in New York City public schools, hospitals and nursing homes.[3] In 2009, then Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana, Mitch Landrieu, presented Varis with the coveted "Saint of the Century" Award at the Jazz Foundation of America's annual benefit concert, A Great Night in Harlem, at the Apollo Theater.[citation needed]
She was a resident of New York City, and active in Democratic political campaigns. In 2004, she was the 24th largest individual contributor to 527 groups, donating over USD $2,000,000 to pro-Democrat groups. Ted Leonsis, owner of the Washington Capitals NHL franchise and Washington Wizards NBA franchise was her cousin.[4]

Death

Agnes Varis died at her home in New York City on July 29, 2011, aged 81.[4] The cause of death was cancer.[5]
Matthew James Perry Jr. (August 4, 1921 – July 29, 2011) was a United States federal judge.
Born in Columbia, South Carolina, Perry was in the United States Army from 1943 to 1946, and then received a Bachelor of Science degree from South Carolina State College in 1948 and an LL.B. from South Carolina State College in 1951. He was in private practice in Spartanburg, South Carolina from 1951 to 1961, and in Columbia from 1961 to 1976. He defended Gloria Blackwell[1] and her daughter Lurma Rackley.[2] He led the successful court case to integrate Clemson University in 1963 and led a major South Carolina reapportionment case in 1972. He ran for the U.S. House of Representatives as a Democrat in 1974, but lost to Republican incumbent Floyd Spence.
Perry was the first African American lawyer from the Deep South to be appointed to the federal judiciary. In 1976, President Gerald Ford appointed Perry to the United States Military Court of Appeals (now the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces) in Washington, D.C.
On July 5, 1979, Perry was nominated by President Jimmy Carter to a new seat on the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina created by 92 Stat. 1629. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on September 19, 1979, and received his commission the following day, thereby becoming South Carolina's first African American federal judge. He assumed senior status on October 1, 1995.
The courthouse in Columbia, South Carolina, is named after him, although Senator Strom Thurmond wanted it named after himself.[3]
Perry was found dead, aged 89, at his home on Sunday July 31, 2011 by a family member where his wife, Hallie, was reportedly in poor health. He was reported to have died on Friday after attending court that day.[4]

 

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Takeshi Miyaji, Japanese video game designer and business executive (GunGriffon, Grandia) died he was , 45.


Takeshi Miyaji was a Japanese video game developer who founded the developent companies Game Arts (with his brother Yoichi Miyaji) and G-Mode died he was , 45.. He was best known as the creator of the Silpheed, GunGriffon and Grandia video game series.[1] His work on the Lunar and Grandia series in particular had a major influence on the development of role-playing video games.[2] He was the younger brother of Game Arts' CEO Yoichi Miyaji.


( December 22, 1965 – July 29, 2011)  

Biography

Takeshi began working programming for ASCII at the age of 15. He wrote a book on how to program while working for ASCII. At the age of 19, he co-founded Game Arts with his brother Yoichi. He was in charge of the Development Department of Game Arts for over the next 16 years. During that time, he acted as producer and director of various Games Arts titles, including Silpheed, GunGriffon and Grandia.[3]
Silpheed (1986) was a shooter game notable its early use of real-time 3D polygonal graphics and a tilted third-person perspective.[4] He also worked on Lunar: The Silver Star (1992), which was among the earliest role-playing video games to tell an engaging story through its audio and video presentation. After working on its sequel Lunar: Eternal Blue (1994), his most successful and memorable video game would be Grandia (1997), which featured an innovative battle system and a strong story. Grandia is considered one of the strongest role-playing games during the 32-bit era and had two sequels produced.[2] His company Game Arts was also known for producing the early run and gun shooter Thexder (1985).[5]
In 2000, Miyaji left Game Arts and founded G-Mode, a game developing company specializing in the emerging mobile phone market and served as the company's Executive Director. Takeshi died in 2011 at the age of 45 from an unspecified cause.[3]

Works

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Ivan Milas, Croatian politician died he was , 72.

Ivan Milas  was a Croatian lawyer and politician.
·         Milas was born in the village of Zmijavci near Imotski in Zagora, and graduated from the Faculty of Law at the University of Zagreb.

(October 18, 1939 – July 29, 2011)
·         Milas was close to Marko Veselica and was active in the Croatian Spring in the early 1970s. In 1972, the authorities of communist Yugoslavia charged Milas with "actions against the state", arrested and spent six months in jail awaiting trial.[1] He was released to prepare his defense, and subsequently fled to Austria where he received the status of a refugee. Yugoslavia sought his apprehension, which Austrian courts denied. He was tried in absentia in Yugoslavia and received a two-and-a-half-year prison sentence.[1]
·         In 1988 Milas met the Croatian historian and politician Franjo Tuđman and in August 1989 joined his newly formed Croatian Democratic Union. Milas received a passport to return to Croatia in February 1990[1] and was elected to the Croatian Parliament in its first democratic elections.
·         During the first phase of the Croatian War of Independence between the summer of 1991 and the spring of 1992, Milas served as the Deputy Minister of Defence and Deputy Minister of Justice.[1]
·         Milas was reelected in the 1992 election, and served as the Minister of Justice from June 6 to August 12, 1992 and was later vice-president in the Croatian Government, under Hrvoje Šarinić.[2]
·         On May 28, 1995, President Tuđman awarded him with the Grand Order of King Dmitar Zvonimir. Also in May 1995, the function of the Keeper of the State Seal (Croatian: Čuvar državnog pečata) was created,[3] and President Tuđman named Milas to the position[1][2] on May 6, 1995, where he remained until February 1, 2000. As of 2011 no other person was named to the position after Milas. Milas was elected to Sabor again in the October 1995 election.
·         Between 1996 and 2000 Milas was a member of the Council of the Croatian National Bank.[1]
·         He was last elected to the Croatian Parliament in the Croatian parliamentary election, 2000, where he served until late 2003, when he retired from politics.[1][2]
·         Milas gained considerable notoriety in the Croatian public after he publicly expressed his opinion that in the West, brain is valued in kilograms.[4][5]
·         Ivan Milas died in Zmijavci at the age of 72.[2]

 

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John Milton Yinger, American sociologist died he was , 95

John Milton Yinger  was an American sociologist who was president of the American Sociological Association 1976-1977 died he was , 95. Yinger received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in 1942, and was Emeritus Professor of Sociology at Oberlin College.



(July 6, 1916 – July 28, 2011)

Biography

Yinger was born in Quincy, Michigan, in 1916.[3] His parents, George and Emma Bancroft Yinger, were both Methodist ministers. He grew up with five brothers and two sisters. Under the direction of his father, he and various combinations of his siblings sang in hundreds of concerts as the Yinger Singers.
Yinger studied sociology at DePauw University, and continued to sing with his siblings. At university, was part of the athletics track team, running flat races and hurdles, at one point racing against Jesse Owens. After graduating from DePauw, Yinger received a master's degree from Louisiana State University and a doctorate from the University of Wisconsin. While he was a student at Wisconsin, he met his future bride, Winnie McHenry. There were married in 1941 and remained so for 61 years, until she died in 2002.

Career

Yinger began his professional career at Ohio Wesleyan University. He moved to Oberlin College in 1947 and remained there until he retired in 1987. In addition to being a professor of sociology and anthropology, Yinger was an author, writing 13 books and a number of journal articles. His textbook co-authored with George E. Simpson, Racial and Cultural Minorities, went through five editions and won the 1959 Anisfield-Wolf award for the best scholarly work on race relations. The award was shared with Martin Luther King, Jr..
Yinger's writing appeared in the 1960 American Sociological Review, in which he originated the concept of a "contraculture". He defined this as a group whose values contain "as a primary element, a theme of conflict with the values of the total society." Yinger's work on this topic culminated with the 1982 publication of his book, Countercultures: The Promise and Peril of a World Turned Upside Down.
Yinger was elected president of the American Sociological Association for 1976-77. He received honorary degrees from DePauw and Syracuse University and was a Guggenheim Fellow, a Fellow of the National Endowment for the Humanities, and a Fellow of Clare Hall at Cambridge University.

Personal life

Yinger had three children; Susan, John, and Nancy. He had five grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. He died in Oberlin, Ohio on July 28, 2011, with his son, John, at his side.

 

 

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Frank Bender, American forensic artist, died from pleural mesothelioma 70.

Francis Augustus "Frank" Bender was a world-renowned autodidact forensic artist and fine artist. His job was to make facial reconstructions of the dead and of fugitives, many of whom had, or still have, been on the run for a long time.[1] He primarily worked in clay and then cast his pieces into plaster and painted them, but he has also aged fugitives using pastels. His most famous facial reconstruction case led to the arrest of John Emil List, whose case was shown on America's Most Wanted.


(June 16, 1941 – July 28, 2011)

Bender's artistry stemmed from his forensic work and was a blend of art and science. He created life-sized monuments in bronze for the African Burial Grounds in New York (using three of the actual skulls found on the site),[4] a monument for slain police officers in New Jersey, a Holocaust obelisk.[5]
Bender was one of the founding members of the Vidocq Society along with William Fleisher and Richard Walter.[6] The Vidocq Society, named after Eugène François Vidocq, meets in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and focuses on solving cold cases.[7]
On May 13, 2008 Random House released The Girl With the Crooked Nose by Ted Botha, a book on Bender's life story intertwined with his most challenging case: the female homicides in Ciudad Juárez.[8][9][10][11]
In August 2010 Penguin Books released The Murder Room by Michael Capuzzo in which Frank Bender was a central character.[12] It is based on the Vidocq Society of which Bender is a founder.
In 2009,[13] Bender was diagnosed with pleural mesothelioma, a disease caused by prolonged exposure to asbestos from his time in the Navy, putting an end to a distinguished career.[14]
Bender died on July 28, 2011 at his home in his native Philadelphia, aged 70, from pleural mesothelioma, a rare cancer that attacks the outer lining of the lungs.[15]

 

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Gene McDaniels, American singer-songwriter died he was , 76.

Gene McDaniels  was an American singer and songwriter, who had his greatest recording success in the early 1960s.

(February 12, 1935 – July 29, 2011)

Biography

Born Eugene Booker McDaniels in Kansas City, Missouri, United States,[1] McDaniels grew up in Omaha, Nebraska. As well as singing gospel music in church, he developed a love of jazz, and learned to play the saxophone and trumpet. After forming a singing group, the Echoes of Joy, later known as the Sultans, in his teens, he studied at the University of Omaha Conservatory of Music before joining the Mississippi Piney Woods Singers, with whom he toured in California. There, he began singing in jazz clubs, and came to the attention of Sy Waronker of Liberty Records.[2][3]
After recording two unsuccessful singles and an album, he was teamed with producer Snuff Garrett, with whom he recorded his first hit, "A Hundred Pounds of Clay," which reached no. 3 in the Billboard Hot 100 chart in early 1961 and sold over one million copies, earning gold disc status.[1] Its follow-up, "A Tear", was less successful but his third single with Garrett, "Tower of Strength," co-written by Burt Bacharach, reached no. 5 and won McDaniels his second gold record.[2] "Tower of Strength" reached #49 in the UK Singles Chart, losing out to Frankie Vaughan's chart-topping version.[4]
In 1962 he appeared performing in the movie, It's Trad, Dad!, directed by Richard Lester. He continued to have minor hit records, including "Chip Chip", "Point Of No Return" and "Spanish Lace" each in 1962, but his suave style of singing gradually became less fashionable. In 1965 he moved to Columbia Records, with little success, and in 1968, after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, he left the US to live in Denmark and Sweden, where he concentrated on songwriting. He returned to the US in 1971, and recorded thereafter as Eugene McDaniels.[2]
After the late 1960s, McDaniels turned his attention to a more black consciousness form, and his best-known song in this genre was "Compared to What," a jazz-soul protest song made famous (and into a hit) by Les McCann and Eddie Harris on their album, Swiss Movement, and also covered by Roberta Flack, Ray Charles, Della Reese, John Legend, The Roots and others.[3] McDaniels also attained the top spot on the chart as a songwriter. In 1974, Roberta Flack reached #1 with McDaniels' "Feel Like Makin' Love" (not to be confused with the Bad Company song of the same name), which won a Grammy Award. McDaniels also received a BMI award for outstanding radio airplay; at the time of the award, the song had already had over five million plays.
In the early 1970s, McDaniels recorded on the Atlantic label, which released the McDaniels albums, Headless Heroes of the Apocalypse and Outlaw.
In the 1980s, McDaniels recorded an album with the percussionist Terry Silverlight, which has not yet been released. In 2005, McDaniels released Screams & Whispers on his own record label. In 2009, it was announced that he is to release a new album, Evolution's Child, which featured his lyrics, and a number of songs composed or arranged with pianist Ted Brancato. Some of the songs featured jazz musician Ron Carter on concert bass.
McDaniel's "Jagger the Dagger" was featured on the Tribe Vibes breakbeat compilation album, after it had been sampled by A Tribe Called Quest.
McDaniels also appeared in films. They included the 1962 film, It's Trad, Dad!, (released in the United States as Ring-A-Ding Rhythm), which was directed by Richard Lester. He also appeared in 1963's The Young Swingers. McDaniels is briefly seen singing in the choir in the 1974 film, Uptown Saturday Night.
McDaniels lived as a self-described "hermit" in the state of Maine. In 2010, he launched series of YouTube videos on his website, featuring his music and thoughts on some of his creations.
McDaniels died on July 29, 2011 at his home.[5]

Discography

Studio albums

  • In Times Like These - Liberty (1960)
  • Sometimes I'm Happy, Sometimes I'm Blue - Liberty (1960)
  • A Hundred Pounds Of Clay - Liberty (1961)
  • Gene McDaniels Sings Movie Memories - Liberty (1962)
  • Hit After Hit - Liberty (1962)
  • Tower Of Strength - Liberty (1962)
  • Spanish Lace - Liberty (1963)
  • The Wonderful Word Of Gene McDaniels - Liberty (1963)
  • Outlaw - Atlantic (1970)
  • Headless Heroes of the Apocalypse - Atlantic (1971)
  • Natural Juices - Ode (1975)
  • Screams & Whispers - Sky Forest Music (2005)

Produced by Eugene McDaniels

  • The First Time - Carri Coltrane, 1999
  • Flamenco Sketches - Carri Coltrane, 1998

Chart singles

Year
Single
Chart Positions
1961
"A Hundred Pounds of Clay"
3
11
-
"A Tear"
31
-
-
"Tower of Strength"
5
5
49
1962
"Chip Chip"
10
-
-
"Funny"
99
-
-
"Point of No Return"
21
23
-
"Spanish Lace"
31
-
-
1963
"It's A Lonely Town"
64
-
-
1972
"River"
as Universal Jones
115
-
-

Filmography

  • It's Trad, Dad! (a.k.a. Ring-A-Ding Rhythm, 1962)
  • The Young Swingers (1963)

 

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Dickey Betts died he was 80

Early Career Forrest Richard Betts was also known as Dickey Betts Betts collaborated with  Duane Allman , introducing melodic twin guitar ha...