Roger Boisjoly, American aerospace engineer, anticipated the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, died from cancer he was 73.

Roger Mark Boisjoly was an American mechanical engineer, fluid dynamicist, and an aerodynamicist who worked for Morton Thiokol, the manufacturer of the solid rocket boosters (SRBs) for the Space Shuttle program died from cancer he was 73.. Prior to his employment at Thiokol, Boisjoly worked for companies in California on lunar module life-support systems and the moon vehicle.^[2] He is best known for having raised objections to the launch of the Space Shuttle Challenger the day before the loss of the spacecraft and its crew.

(April 25, 1938 – January 6, 2012) 

O-ring safety concerns

Boisjoly wrote a memo in July 1985 to his superiors concerning the faulty design of the solid rocket boosters that, if left unaddressed, could lead to a catastrophic event during launch of a Space Shuttle. Such a catastrophic event did occur less than a year later resulting in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.
This memo followed his investigation of a solid rocket booster (SRB) from a shuttle flight in January 1985. During his investigation, he discovered that the first of a system of two O-rings had failed completely, and that some damage had been caused to the second O-ring.
The O-rings were two rubber rings that formed a seal between two sections of the SRBs. The sections of the boosters were joined using tang and clevis joints and the rings were intended to seal the joint, while allowing for the inevitable movement between the sections under flight conditions. By design, pressure from within the booster was to push a fillet of putty into the joint, forcing the O-ring into its seat. The system never functioned as designed. The rings were supposed to sit in a groove and seal the joint between the sections of the booster. It was found, however, that flight dynamics caused the joints in the SRB's to flex during launch, opening a gap through which rocket exhaust could escape. As the joints flexed, the rings would come out of their grooves and move to a new position in the joint, a process called extrusion. The extruded ring would form a seal in this new position, but during the time it took for the ring to shift, the joint was unsealed and hot gasses could escape, a process called blow-by. These hot gasses would cause damage to the rings until the seal was achieved.
Boisjoly's investigation showed that the amount of damage to the O-ring depended on the length of time it took for the ring to move out of its groove and make the seal, and that the amount of time depended on the temperature of the rings. Cold weather made the rubber hard and less flexible, meaning that extrusion took more time and more blow-by took place. He determined that if the O-rings were damaged enough they could fail.
If the second O-ring had failed, Boisjoly realized, the results would almost certainly have been catastrophic with the complete loss of the shuttle and crew seemingly the only outcome. His investigation found that the first O-ring failed because of the low temperatures on the night before the flight had compromised the flexibility of the O-ring, reducing its ability to form a seal. The temperature at launch had been only 10 °C (50 °F), the coldest on record (until January 28, 1986). The first rubber O-ring had formed a partial seal, but not a complete one, but the second O-ring had held.
Boisjoly sent a memo describing the problem to his managers, but was apparently ignored.^[3] Following several further memos, a task force was set up – including Boisjoly – to investigate the matter, but after a month Boisjoly realized that the task force had no power, no resources and no management support. In late 1985 Boisjoly advised his managers that if the problem was not fixed, there was a distinct chance that a shuttle mission would end in disaster. No action was taken.

Challenger disaster

Following the announcement that the Challenger mission was confirmed for January 28, 1986, Boisjoly and his colleagues tried to stop the flight. Temperatures were due to be down to −1 °C (30 °F) overnight. Boisjoly felt that this would severely compromise the safety of the O-ring, and potentially lose the flight.
The matter was discussed with Morton Thiokol managers, who agreed that the issue was serious enough to recommend delaying the flight. They arranged a telephone conference with NASA management and gave their findings. However, after a while, the Morton Thiokol managers asked for a few minutes off the phone to discuss their final position again. Despite the efforts of Boisjoly and others in this off-line briefing, the Morton Thiokol managers decided to advise NASA that their data was inconclusive. NASA asked if there were objections. Hearing none, the decision to fly the ill-fated STS-51L Challenger mission was made.
Boisjoly's concerns proved correct. In the first moments after ignition, the O-rings failed completely and were burned away, resulting in the black puff of smoke visible on films of the launch. This left only a layer of insulating putty to seal the joint^{[citation needed]}. At 59 seconds after launch, buffeted by high-altitude winds, the putty gave way. Hot gases streamed out of the joint in a visible torch-like plume that burned into the external hydrogen tank. At about 73 seconds, the adjacent SRB strut gave way and the vehicle quickly disintegrated.
Boisjoly was relieved when the flight lifted off, as his investigations had predicted that the SRB would explode during the initial take-off. However, seventy-three seconds later, he witnessed the shuttle disaster on television.

Later career

After President Ronald Reagan ordered a presidential commission to review the disaster, Boisjoly was one of the witnesses called. He gave accounts of how and why he felt the O-rings had failed. After the commission gave its findings, Boisjoly found himself shunned by colleagues and managers and he resigned from the company.
Boisjoly became a speaker on workplace ethics.^[4] He argued that the caucus called by Morton Thiokol managers, which resulted in a recommendation to launch, "constituted the unethical decision-making forum resulting from intense customer intimidation."^[5]
For his honesty and integrity leading up to and directly following the shuttle disaster, Boisjoly was awarded the Award for Scientific Freedom and Responsibility by the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1988.^[1][4]
When Boisjoly left Morton Thiokol, he took 14 boxes containing every note and paper he received or sent in seven years. On May 13, 2010, he donated his personal memoranda — six boxes of personal papers, including memos and notes from congressional testimony — to Chapman University in Orange, California. Rand Boyd, the special-collections and archival librarian at Chapman's Leatherby Libraries, said the materials will be catalogued and archived. It was to be about six months to a year before library visitors would be able to view the materials.^[6]
Boisjoly died on January 6, 2012, of cancer of the colon, kidneys, and liver.^[2]


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Tom Ardolino, American drummer (NRBQ), died he was 56.

Thomas Robert "Tom" Ardolino was a rock drummer best known as a member of NRBQ (New Rhythm and Blues Quartet) died he was 56.. Ardolino was initially a fan of the band, and began corresponding and trading tapes with keyboardist and co-founder Terry Adams.


(January 12, 1955 – January 6, 2012)

On one occasion, original NRBQ drummer Tom Staley did not return for an encore, and Adams invited Ardolino to fill in. Ardolino performed well enough that when Staley left the band in 1974, his bandmates agreed that Ardolino was the natural choice as successor.^[1] Ardolino remained in the lineup until the band went on hiatus in 2004, returning for occasional reunion performances, and lending his support when Adams decided to reclaim the NRBQ name for a new band in 2011. While lead vocals were generally performed by other members of NRBQ, live shows often included a moment where Ardolino would take the spotlight and sing, either with a karaoke backing track or with one of the other band members drumming.
Ardolino was a resident of Springfield, Massachusetts, and he appeared in a promotional video to campaign for the world premiere of The Simpsons Movie in Springfield.
Ardolino's solo album "Unknown Brain" was released in 2004 on CD by Bumble Bee Records, Japan and on vinyl LP in the USA on Mystra Records. The album consists mostly of basement recordings made in 1971-72. The cover states "WARNING: If out-of-tuneness bothers you, do not listen."^[2]
Ardolino was also an avid collector of song poems, having contributed to the "MSR Madness" series of compilations.
In December 2011 nrbq.com posted the following news "Tom Ardolino is presently dealing with a number of health issues and is expected to be in the hospital for some time." He died on January 6, 2012 at a Springfield, Massachusetts hospital. Later that day, a post on the NRBQ Headquarters page on Facebook read, "We regret to inform you that Tom Ardolino passed away today. Tom will be missed but his spirit lives on through those who were touched by him." ^[3][4] An article from the Washington Post later specified the cause as diabetes.^[5]


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Alexander Sizonenko, Russian basketball player, world's tallest person (1991), died he was 52.

Alexander Alekseyevich Sizonenko was a Soviet basketball player died he was 52..

(Ukrainian: Олександр Олексійович Сизоненко; Russian: Александр Алексеевич Сизоненко; 27 July 1959 – 5 January 2012)

Sizonenko was born in the village of Zaporizhia, Ukrainian SSR. Possibly the tallest person to have ever played professional basketball, he was measured by Guinness World Records at 2.39 m (7 ft 10 in) and named the world's tallest man in 1991. Sizonenko was said to have grown since this measurement was taken, although age reduced his standing height considerably. Because of his enormous growth, his mobility was increasingly impaired.
Sizonenko played professionally for Spartak Leningrad (1976–1978) and for Stroitel Kuybyshev (1979–1986). Sizonenko was also a member of the Soviet national team and appeared on its behalf for 12 games.
He lived in Saint Petersburg, was divorced and had a son Alexander born in 1994. In 2011 he was moved to a hospital in St. Petersburg, where he died on 5 January 2012. He was 52.


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Amit Saigal, Indian rock magazine publisher, concert promoter and musician, drowned he was 46.

Amit Saigal was an Indian rock musician, promoter of rock music, publisher and impresario drowned he was 46.. Saigal founded the music magazine Rock Street Journal and promoted rock music in India. Amit was also termed as "Papa Rock" by the rock music community of India.^[1]

^{(6 July 1965 – 5 January 2012)} 

Career

Amit Saigal's Rock Street Journal (RSJ) was the first rock magazine in India. He started RSJ in 1993. Saigal printed 2,500 copies of RSJ from his hometown, Allahabad.^[3]
Saigal used RSJ to promote rock concerts, such as the Great Indian Rock festival (GIR) that toured metros to Pub Rock fest and introduced rock/indie music to various clubs around the country.
He had over 25 years of experience in the music business in India, and was closely involved in the club as well as the concert market in India, and had been an encouragement to many emerging rock bands and musicians.
Saigal was also part of a band called Impact that played classic rock songs.^[2]

Death

On 5 January 2012, while on vacation, Saigal and his friends had gone for a swim after anchoring his sailboat off Bogmalo beach in Goa. Saigal reportedly drowned due to unknown reasons. By the time lifeguards could reach him, he was already dead.^[2]


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Isaac Díaz Pardo, Spanish artist, died he was 91.

Isaac Díaz Pardo  was a Galician intellectual strongly attached to both Sargadelos and Cerámica do Castro  died he was 91.. He was an intelectual galicianist, painter, ceramist, designer, editor and businessman.

(August 22, 1920 - January 5, 2012)

He was born in Santiago de Compostela and died in A Coruña.^[1]
In 2009, he received the Medalla de Oro al Mérito en las Bellas Artes (Gold Medal of Merit in Fine Arts) of Spain.
Isaac Díaz Pardo was the son of the painter and scenographer Camilo Díaz Baliño. Several reunions related to the League of Friends of the Galician Language took place in their house as Díaz Baliño was an active member. Other members who took part in these meetings include Castelao, Vicente Risco, Otero Pedrayo, Ramón Cabanillas, Antón Villar Ponte, Eduardo Blanco Amor and Asorey.
Sr. Díaz Pardo's father was shot by rebels soon after the beginning of the Spanish Civil War, forcing him into hiding in La Coruña where he stayed with his uncle Indalecio and found work as a letterer. After the war he received a bursary from the Provincial Government of La Coruña, thanks to which he was able to study at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in Madrid, between 1939 and 1942.
He went on to take a professorship at The Catalan Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Saint George in Barcelona, and began to exhibit in Spain (La Coruña, Madrid and Vigo) and abroad (Europe and The Americas). He then left the plastic arts for ceramics, founding the Cerámicas do Castro factory with several partners. At this point he experimented with the raw materials used in original 19th Century works by Antonio Raimundo Ibáñez Llano y Valdés (notably from Sargadelos and Cervo). This resulted in ceramics of high quality.
In 1963 Isaac Díaz Pardo, alongside other prominent Galeguistas such as Luis Seoane, helped establish el Laboratorio de Formas in Argentina. This venture was a precursor in several industrial and cultural activities, including the production and restoration of Sargadelos ceramics. Among their collaborators were Cerámicas do Castro (1963), el Museo Carlos Maside (1970), la editorial Ediciós do Castro (1963), el restaurado Seminario de Estudos Galegos (1970) and el Instituto Galego de Información. Sr. Díaz Pardo, formerly a prominent figure at Grupo Sargadelos, failed increasingly to see eye to eye with the directors and company administration at the moment of his retirement.
As an essay writer and critic, Sr. Díaz Pardo made notable contributions to Xente do meu Rueiro, O ángulo de pedra, Galicia Hoy (with Luis Seoane), Paco Pixiñas (with Celso Emilio Ferreiro), El Marqués de Sargadelos, and Castelao. Many more articles were published, for example in La Voz de Galicia.


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Frederica Sagor Maas, American silent film screenwriter (The Plastic Age), playwright, memoirist and author, died she was 111.

Frederica Alexandrina Sagor Maas was an American playwright, screenwriter, memoirist, and author,^[1] the youngest daughter of Russian immigrants died she was 111.. Maas was best known for a detailed, tell-all memoir of her time spent in early Hollywood.^[2] She was one of the rare supercentenarians known for reasons other than longevity.^[3]

^{(July 6, 1900 – January 5, 2012)}

Biography

Maas's parents, Arnold and Agnessa Zagosky, emigrated from Moscow, Russian Empire, and anglicized their surname to Sagor. Her mother supported the family as a very successful midwife. One of four daughters, Frederica Alexandrina Sagor was born on July 6, 1900 in a cold-water, railroad flat on 101st Street near Madison Avenue in Manhattan.^[4]
She studied journalism at Columbia University and held a summer job as a copy- or errand-girl at the New York Globe. She dropped out before graduation in 1918 and took a job as an assistant story editor at Universal Pictures' New York office at $100 a week. By 1923 Maas was story editor for Universal and head of the department. A year later in 1924, Maas had become dissatisfied with her position and left Universal to move to Hollywood.^[4]

Hollywood years

Once in Hollywood, Maas negotiated a contract with Preferred Pictures to adapt Percy Marks's novel The Plastic Age for film. Based on this, she was signed to a three-year contract with MGM for $350 per week, though in her words: "I had the peculiar feeling that wily Louis B. [Mayer] was less interested in my writing ability than in signing someone who had worked for Ben Schulberg and Al Lichtman."^[4] It was in this period that she wrote Dance Madness and The Waning Sex.
Her recollections of that period:

I wrote a movie called The Waning Sex. It was a title I was given and we wrote the title around it. I got into a lot of fights with the co-writer on the film, F. Hugh Herbert. It was rough. I would work so hard on some of the scripts and the minute I'd turn it in, someone else would take credit for it. You'd be ticketed as a troublemaker. Unless you wanted to quit the business, you just kept your mouth shut."^[5]

Thus Maas' introduction to studio politics did not go well and her MGM contract was not renewed. During 1925–1926 she wrote treatments and screenplays for Tiffany Productions, including the well-received flapper comedies That Model from Paris and The First Night.^[4]
Already before she married Ernest Maas, a producer at Fox Studios, on August 5, 1927, they sold story ideas such as Silk Legs to studios. Many of these would never get produced; "swell fish" was their term for scripts that never saw the light of day. During 1927, Schulberg, this time with Paramount Pictures, contracted Sagor for a year and she says she worked uncredited on scripts such as Clara Bow's It, Red Hair and Hula; and credited for writing the story for Louise Brooks' lost film Rolled Stockings.^[4] Regarding It, which was produced between October 7 and November 6, 1926,^[6] i.e. before Sagor signed up for Paramount, her claim is conflicting.
An unusually long European vacation in the summer of 1928 made finding steady studio work difficult upon her return. Ernest remained with Paramount Short Subjects division in New York. When a story by the Maas couple was misappropriated and filmed as The Way of All Flesh he left the studio; their original script had been called Beefsteak Joe. The couple returned to unsteady work on the west coast in October 1929.^[4] According to her memoirs, "[b]y the fall of 1934, it was plain that we were not a success in Hollywood. In these five years we only found work doing short studio assignments – cleaning up other people's scripts – and had failed to sell our own stories."^[4]
The couple had lost $10,000 in the stock market crash and moved back to New York.^[5] From 1934 to 1937, they reviewed plays for the Hollywood Reporter. Another relocation back to Hollywood had Maas representing writers and selling story material for the Edward Small Agency; Maas plied every studio every day with her wares. After a year as an agent, the Maas couple secured writing contracts at Paramount to cull previously purchased material.^[4]

Post-Hollywood

The war years found the couple back seeking unsteady work and writing for political campaigns. It was in 1941 that they wrote Miss Pilgrim's Progress, the story that would become The Shocking Miss Pilgrim. Bad representation caused the story to sell for a pittance, and it would not be produced until 1947 when it was rendered almost unrecognizable in an adaptation by Darryl F. Zanuck's 20th Century Fox for Betty Grable.^[4]
The Maas couple continued to live a hand-to-mouth existence struggling in Hollywood. During this time they were even interrogated by the FBI for having subscribed to two allegedly Communist publications. "I'm something of a Bolshevik. I'm always for the underdog … I remember when I was 17 or 18, marching in a New York parade, right before women got the vote. I marched in the schoolteacher segment, because my sister was a schoolteacher. I remember we held hands, and I remember how I felt. My God, I thought I was revolutionizing the world."^[2]
Having had enough "swell fish", Frederica Sagor Maas took a job as a policy typist with an insurance agency in 1950, quickly working her way up to insurance broker. Ernest took up ghost writing professional business articles and freelance story editing. Ernest succumbed to Parkinson's disease in 1986 at 94.^[4]

Autobiography

Her autobiography

In 1999, at age 99, and at the urging of film historian Kevin Brownlow, Maas published her autobiography, The Shocking Miss Pilgrim: A Writer in Early Hollywood. The book was well received and is still a standard reference for early Hollywood history. From the Library Journal:

Maas's chronicle of her writing career, which spanned over a quarter of a century, is a valuable contribution to the literature on women in Hollywood ... Rejecting studio politics, Maas ultimately paid the price for playing maverick. Peppered with fascinating anecdotes from yesteryear, this account of the author's life bespeaks frustration with the vapidity of Hollywood: a fickle business world that relied on formula for its success.^[7]

From Kevin Brownlow:

(she) proved so "ignorant of studio politics" that she was labeled a "troublemaker" by producer Harry Rapf. After her 1927 marriage to script writer and producer Ernest Maas, the couple survived the coming of sound films, the Depression and various earthquakes, but dry scripting spells and the constant theft of their ideas, stories and credits led them to quit the business. In 1950 she "bid farewell, without tears, to the Hollywood screen industry that had so entangled and entrapped me in its web of promises." Maas trashes Hollywood legends, recalling Louis B. Mayer as "a very fearful, insecure man"; Clara Bow dancing nude on a tabletop; Jeanne Eagels squatting to urinate in the midst of a film set ...^[8]

There are also her detractors:

Her story has to be taken with a grain of salt. By the time she wrote her memoirs at 99 her bitterness with Hollywood was deep and she particularly relished describing the bosses with whom she so frequently battled as amoral debauchers.^[9]

In her own defense:

I know I've been hard on the motion picture industry [in the book] ... [T]he facts and the stories I tell – about the plagiarism and the way I was handled and the way other writers were handled – are true. If anybody wants to take offense at the fact that I tell the truth and I'm writing this book ... [I] can get my payback now. I'm alive and thriving and, well, you SOBs are all below, because I've lived to 99. And I quit the business at 50.^[2]

Longevity

On October 1, 2009,^[10] Maas, aged 109, became the fourth oldest living person in California. In July 2010 there were inaccurate reports of her death. On February 18, 2011, Mollye Marcus died, and Maas—aged 110 years, 229 days—became the third oldest living person in California.^[11] On November 29, 2011, she was the third oldest person in California after Soledad Mexia and Avice Clarke.
Sagor Maas died on January 5, 2012, at the Country Villa nursing facility in La Mesa, California.^[12] At the time of her death, she was the 44th oldest verified person in the world.

Filmography

• The Shocking Miss Pilgrim (1947) (story)
• Piernas de Seda (1935) (story 'Silk Legs')
• The Farmer's Daughter (1928)
• Red Hair (1928) (uncredited)
• Hula (1927) (uncredited)
• Silk Legs (1927)
• The Way of All Flesh (1927)
• Rolled Stockings (1927)
• The First Night (1927)
• Flesh and the Devil (1926)
• That Model from Paris (1926)
• The Waning Sex (1926)
• Dance Madness (1926)
• The Plastic Age (1925)
• His Secretary (1925)
• The Goose Woman (1925)

Bibliography

Maas, Frederica Sagor (1999). The Shocking Miss Pilgrim: A Writer in Early Hollywood. Lexington, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 0-8131-2122-1.

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Samson H. Chowdhury, Bangladeshi businessman, died he was 86.

Samson H. Chowdhury was an entrepreneur.^[2] He was a Chairman of Astras Ltd. and Square (Bangladesh)  died he was 86.^[3]

^{(Bengali: স্যামসন চৌধুরী; 25 February 1926 – 5 January 2012)} 

Recognitions

Chowdhury was recognized as a Global Business Leader in his country.^[4] He had been awarded with various national and international recognitions from various business association. He was considered as a Commercially Important Person (CIP) in Bangladesh. Chowdhury ventured into a partnership pharmaceutical company with three of his friends in 1958. When asked why the name SQUARE was chosen he recalled: “We named it SQUARE because it was started by four friends and also because it signifies accuracy and perfection meaning quality”^{[citation needed]} as they committed in manufacturing quality products. That company is, as of 2012, a publicly listed diversified group of companies employing more than 28,000 people. The current yearly group turnover is 616 million USD.

Personal life

Chowdhury was born on 25 February 1926 at Ataikula in Pabna. After completing education in India he returned to the then East Pakistan and settled at Ataikula village in Pabna district, where his father was working as a medical officer in an outdoor dispensary. In 1952, he started a small pharmacy in Ataikula village, which is about 160 km off capital Dhaka in the north-west part of Bangladesh. Chowdhury then ventured into a partnership pharmaceutical company with three of his friends in 1958. When asked why the name SQUARE was chosen he remembers - “We named it SQUARE because it was started by four friends and also because it signifies accuracy and perfection meaning quality” as they committed in manufacturing quality products.
He served as a vice president of the Baptist World Alliance from 1985 to 1990. In addition to being a BWA vice president, Chowdhury served in other areas of the global Baptist organization, including on the BWA General Council, the Executive Committee, the Baptist World Aid Committee, the Promotion and Development Committee, and the Memorial Committee. Chowdhury was elected president of the Bangladesh Baptist Church Fellowship (BBCF) a dozen times, and was honorary general secretary for 14 years, between 1956 and 1969. He was a president of both the National Church Council of Bangladesh and the National Evangelical Alliance.^[5]

Positions

• Chairman, Square Group
• Chairman, Mutual Trust Bank board of directors ^[6]
• Chairman, Astras Ltd.
• Honorary Member, Kurmitola Golf Club
• Former Vice President, Baptist World Alliance, 1985-1990 ^[7]
• Former Chairman, Micro Industries Development & Services (MIDAS)
• Chairman, Transparency International, Bangladesh Chapter, 2004–2007
• President, Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce & Industries, Dhaka in 1996 and 1997
• Vice-President: International Chamber of Commerce, Bangladesh
• Former Director, The Federation of Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce & Industries (FBCCI)
• Member, Executive Committee of Bangladesh French Chamber of Commerce and Industry
• Director, Credit Rating Agency of Bangladesh^[8]
• Chairman, Central Depository Bangladesh Ltd
• Member, Advisory Committee of the Bangladesh Association of Pharmaceutical Industries
• Founder President, Bangladesh Association of Publicly Listed Companies

Accolades : “Business Executive of the Year” by American Chamber in Bangladesh in 1998. “Best Entrepreneur of the Country for the year 2000–2001” by the Daily Star and DHL Worldwide Express. "Special contribution in country's industrial and commercial sectors for the year 2003" by "Mercantile Bank Award 2003" For Uncompromising Business Ethics, Honesty & Transparency of the year 2005 by "Banker's Forum Award - 2005". Recipient of ICAB National Award “Best Published Accounts and Reports 2006 in the Manufacturing Sector”. Recipient of NBR Award one of the Highest Tax-Payers in 2007-2008. Recognized by the National Board of Revenue (NBR) as one of the top ten tax payers of the country since 2005. Recipient of CIP (Industry) 2009-2010 status by the Government of The Peoples Republic of Bangladesh.

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