Ibrahim Aslan, Egyptian novelist and short story writer, died from heart failure he was 77.

Ibrahim Aslan  was an Egyptian novelist and short story writer died from heart failure he was 77..^[1]

^{(1935 – 7 January 2012)}

Life and work

Aslan was born in Tanta in the Nile delta in 1935, shortly before his family moved south to Cairo.^[2] His father was a Post Office employee, and Aslan too went on to work for the Cairo Post Office.^[3] The Cairene neighbourhoods of Imbaba and Kit Kat, where he lived and worked, are closely associated with his oeuvre.
Aslan emerged on the Arab literary scene in the mid-1960s, and is considered to be part of the movement known as the Sixties Generation which also included such authors as Gamal Ghitany, Sonallah Ibrahim, and Abdel Hakim Qasem.^[3] The avant-garde literary magazine Gallery 68 published eight of his stories during its short life.^[4]
Aslan published two volumes of short stories, three novels, and two volumes of non-fiction during a literary career spanning more than four decades.^[3] His first collection of short stories, called Buhayrat al-Masah (The Evening Lake), was released in 1971-72. A second collection called Youssef wal-Rida (Joseph and the Clothes) was published in 1987.
Aslan is best known for his first novel Malek al-Hazin (1983), translated by Elliott Colla under the English title The Heron; and its sequel 16 years later called As-safir al-Nil (1999), translated as Nile Sparrows by Mona El-Ghobashy. The Heron was selected as one of the top 100 Arabic novels by the Arab Writers Union and is his most famous work.^[3] The Heron was turned into an award-winning film (The Kit Kat, 1991) by leading Egyptian director Daoud Abdel Sayed. More recently, Magdi Ahmed Ali directed a film version under the title Birds of the Nile (2009).^[5]
Aslan won a number of literary prizes, including the Taha Hussein Award from the University of Minya in 1989 and the Egyptian State Incentive Prize in 2003-2004. Most recently, he won the 2006 Sawiris Prize for his book Hikayat min Fadlallah Uthman (Stories from Fadlallah Uthman).
Since 1992, Aslan had been culture editor at the Cairo bureau of the London-based al-Hayat newspaper.

Haydar Haydar controversy

In the summer of 2000, Aslan and fellow writer Hamdi Abu Golail were subjected to a lawsuit by a maverick Islamist lawyer following a campaign of agitation by the newspaper Al-Shaab.^[6] In their capacity as editors of Afaq al-Kitaba (Horizons of Literature),^[7] a series of modern Arabic classics published under the aegis of the Egyptian Ministry of Culture, Aslan and Abu Golail had decided to reprint A Banquet for Seaweed, a controversial novel by the Syrian writer Haydar Haydar.

Works

• Buhayrat al-Misa’ (Evening Lake) (short stories, 1971-2)
• Yusuf wa al-Rida’ (Yusuf and the Dress) (short stories, 1986-7)
• Malek al-Hazin (The Heron) (novel, 1983, English translation by Elliott Colla, AUC Press)
• Wardiyat Layl (Night Shift) (novella, 1991)
• As-safir al-Nil (Nile Sparrows) (novel, 1999, English translation by Mona El-Ghobashy, AUC Press)
• Hikayat min Fadlallah Uthman (Stories from Fadlallah Uthman) (short stories, 2003)
• Khulwat al-Ghalban (Poor Man's Hermitage) (non-fiction, 2003)
• Shay’un Min Hadha al-Qabil (Something Like That) (non-fiction, 2007)
• Hugratan wa Salah: Mutataliya Manziliyya (Two Rooms and a Hall: A Household Sequence) (2010)

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Clive Shell, Welsh international rugby player. [108] (death announced on this date), died he was 64.

Clive Shell was a Welsh international rugby union player died he was 64.. Shell made his debut for the Wales national rugby union team on 10 November 1973 against Australia where he kissed the ball on his first touch while putting the ball into a scrum. A scrum-half, he played club rugby for Aberavon RFC.^[2]

^{(9 September 1947 – 6 January 2012)}

Shell was one of several scrum halves of that era who were in competition with Gareth Edwards for a place in the Welsh side. Although the Australia encounter was his one and only cap, Shell played for Wales against Tonga (1974). In 1977, during a Welsh Cup semi-final, Shell received a broken jaw playing against Edwards and Cardiff RFC.
Shell formed a club half back partnership with John Bevan who was also capped by Wales. He captained Aberavon RFC in the seasons of 1977–78, 1978–79 and 1979–80 before retiring.
A school teacher by profession, Shell went on to coach Aberavon during the early 1980s. In 2007, he "narrowly avoided jail" on a drink-driving offence.^[3]
Shell's death was announced 6 January 2012.^[4]



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Spike Pola, Australian football player, died he was 97.

Jack Stephen "Spike" Pola was an Australian rules footballer who played for the West Perth Football Club in the Western Australian National Football League (WANFL) between 1935 and 1947 died he was 97..


(born Giovanni Stefano Pola; 16 November 1914 – 6 January 2012)

Career

Born in Fremantle in 1914 as Giovanni Stefano Pola, he anglicised his name to Jack Stephen Pola before a state schoolboys' football carnival in 1928 on the advice of his mother.^[2] Originally playing for Mount Hawthorn in the Metropolitan Junior Football Association, Pola progressed to West Perth's affiliated team in the Western Australian National Football Association (WANFA), which acted as a sort of reserves team for the club. In July 1935, he was selected in a WANFA representative side which toured the Goldfields.^[1] He made his senior debut for West Perth later that year. In 1941, he was named captain of West Perth, having served as vice-captain the previous year, and also played in West Perth's premiership side. He also shared the 1941 Breckler Medal, awarded to the club's best and fairest player, with Ted O'Keefe.^[3] Pola joined the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) in January 1943 as a leading aircraftman, and was discharged in February 1945.^[4] He returned to West Perth in 1945, and was named captain for the season. He retired two years later, having played 152 games and kicked 203 goals. Pola died in January 2012 at his home in Mount Lawley, and was buried at Karrakatta Cemetery. He was the last surviving member of the 1941 premiership team.^[5]


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Sybil Plumlee, American teacher and police officer, died she was 100.

Sybil Virginia Plumlee  was an American teacher, caseworker and pioneering Portland, Oregon police officer who became the oldest living former member of the city's police force before her death died she was 100..

(née Burgess; April 29, 1911 – January 6, 2012)

Born in Seattle in 1911, Plumlee attended high school in Portland and graduated from Oregon Normal School, now known as Western Oregon University. She became a school teacher in Clarno, Oregon, but later returned to Portland, married and had a son. Following a divorce in 1943, she worked as an educator with the Ellis Mining Company in Bourne, Oregon. In 1945 she married Virgil "Paul" Plumlee, who died in 2010.
From 1947 to 1967 Plumlee served in the Portland Police Bureau unit then known as the Women's Protective Division. She is recognized as a pioneer in the law enforcement field, which was dominated by men. Plumlee wrote an unpublished memoir of her time on the police force called "Badge 357" and at age 96 published the book Stories of Hester Ann Bolin Harvey and Her Family, a collection of family stories and history. Plumlee died in 2012.

Early life, education and career

Sybil Burgess was born April 29, 1911 in Seattle, Washington, the daughter of Charles and Stella Burgess. The family moved to Portland, where she attended both Lincoln High School and Jefferson High School, graduating from Jefferson in 1930.^[1] After graduating from Oregon Normal School (now Western Oregon University) she worked for a time as a teacher in a one-room school in Clarno, Oregon. She returned to Portland, married Lloyd Barker (also a teacher) and had a son named Louis Barker. The couple divorced in 1943. Sybil remained a single mother during World War II, working as a teacher with the Ellis Mining Company in Bourne, Oregon and buying a house in nearby Sumpter for $150. In 1945, she married Virgil P. "Paul" Plumlee.^[1] She survived the 1948 flooding of Vanport City, Oregon.^[2] Plumlee also worked at various times as a soda fountain clerk at a drugstore in northeast Portland and as a cab driver.^[2][3]
Plumlee became a caseworker for the Clackamas County Welfare Department after a female police officer encouraged her to take a civil servant test. She passed the test and was selected to join the force's single open position from a pool of 300 applicants.^[1][2] Plumlee served from 1947 to 1967 in the unit then known as the Women's Protective Division.^[1][3] Policewomen in that division did not work with male officers and did not wear uniforms. Their work focused on crimes such as child abuse, domestic violence and rape that generally were investigated in privacy.^[3] Records also show that Plumlee participated in undercover investigations, including one anti-homosexual campaign led by Mayor of Portland Dorothy McCullough Lee. In 1949 the Women's Protective Division sent Plumlee and Edna Trout to Music Hall, known in the 1940s for catering to gay men and lesbians, with the intent to "apprehend lesbians who might approach them and solicit attentions".^[4]
According to Louis Barker, his mother became a police officer "for the money" rather than to "make the world safe"; the household needed her income and she was also contributing to the support of her mother.^[3] Plumlee later said of the unit: "In some ways, the old Women's Protective Division was archaic, but on balance we did a lot of good."^[5] Plumlee is recognized as a pioneer in the law enforcement field,^[1][2][6] which was largely dominated by men.^[3]
Plumlee purchased her first computer when she was in her eighties and continued driving until age 98.^[3] Her husband died in 2010.^[1] She celebrated her centennial birthday at her residence in Lake Oswego, Oregon. Guests included Multnomah County Sheriff Daniel Staton, Lt. Mary Lindstrand and Frank Springer, the oldest living male retiree of the Portland Police Bureau. Birthday wishes and certificates of appreciation were also offered by President Barack Obama and Mayor of Portland Sam Adams.^[2] Plumlee died in 2012 and was survived by her son, three grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.^[1] Before her death, Plumlee was the oldest surviving former member of the Portland Police Bureau.^[1][3]

Writing and other interests

Plumlee wrote an unpublished memoir of her time on the police force called "Badge 357".^[1][2] At age 96, she published the book Stories of Hester Ann Bolin Harvey and Her Family. The collection of stories, such as her grandmother's journey across the Oregon Trail in 1850, included photographs and more than a century of family history.^[6] Plumlee also enjoyed camping, fishing and traveling.^[1]


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Thomas Virgil Pittman, American federal judge, died he was 95.

Thomas Virgil Pittman was a United States federal judge died he was 95..

(March 28, 1916 - January 6, 2012)

Born in Enterprise, Alabama, Pittman was in the United States Army Reserve during World War II, from 1938 to 1942. During this time, he received a B.S. from the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa in 1939 and an LL.B. from the University of Alabama School of Law in 1940. He was a special agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation from 1940 to 1944, and was a U.S. Naval Reserve officer towards the end of World War II, from 1944 to 1946. He entered private practice in Gadsden, Alabama from 1946 to 1951, becoming a Circuit judge, 16th Judicial Circuit Court of Alabama from 1951 to 1953, and a Presiding judge of that circuit from 1953 to 1966. He was also a lecturer at the University of Alabama Center at Gadsden from 1948 to 1966.
On June 13, 1966, Pittman was nominated by President Lyndon B. Johnson to a joint appointment to new seats on the United States District Court for the Southern District of Alabama and the United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama created by 80 Stat. 75. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on June 29, 1966, and received his commission the same day. On June 2, 1970, he was reassigned by operation of law to serve only on the Southern District. He served as chief judge of that District from 1971 to 1981, assuming senior status on July 15, 1981, and serving in that capacity until his death.
Judge Pittman died January 6, 2012, in Mobile, Alabama, at the age of 95.^[1]



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Ellen Pence, American sociologist and social activist, creator of the Duluth Domestic Abuse Intervention Project, breast cancer she was 63.

Ellen Pence was a scholar and a social activist breast cancer she was 63.. She co-founded the Duluth Domestic Abuse Intervention Project,^[1] an inter-agency collaboration model used in all 50 states in the U.S. and over 17 countries.^[2] A leader in both the battered women's movement and the emerging field of institutional ethnography, she was the recipient of numerous awards including the Society for the Study of Social Problems Dorothy E. Smith Scholar Activist Award (2008) for significant contributions in a career of activist research.

(1948 – January 6, 2012) 

Background

Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Pence graduated from St. Scholastica in Duluth with a B.A. She was active in institutional change work for battered women since 1975, and helped found the Domestic Abuse Intervention Project in 1980.
She is credited with creating the Duluth Model of intervention in domestic violence cases, Coordinated Community Response (CCR), which uses an interagency collaborative approach involving police, probation, courts and human services in response to domestic abuse. The primary goal of CCR is to protect victims from ongoing abuse.^{[citation needed]}
She earned her Ph.D in Sociology from the University of Toronto in 1996. She used institutional ethnography as a method of organizing community groups to analyze problems created by institutional intervention in families. She founded Praxis International in 1998 and was the chief author and architect of the Praxis Institutional Audit, a method of identifying, analyzing and correcting institutional failures to protect people drawn into legal and human service systems because of violence and poverty.^{[citation needed]} Ellen pence died at the age of 63, from breast cancer .

Activism and Research

Pence's focus was on legislative efforts, legal reform projects, shelter and advocacy program development, and training programs for judges, probation officers, law enforcement officers, and human service providers. Pence was the author of several educational manuals and curricula for classes for battered women, men who batter, and law enforcement officers. She co-authored two books: Educational Groups for Men Who Batter: The Duluth Model and Coordinated Community Response to Domestic Violence: Lessons from the Duluth Model.^[3]
Until late 2011 she was the executive director of Praxis International.^[4] and worked with a national team of experts to run an advocacy learning center ^[5] to strengthen advocacy programs' skills and capacities in their work toward ending violence against women.

Death

Pence died of breast cancer on January 6, 2012, aged 63, in St. Paul, Minnesota.^[6]


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Basil Payne, Irish poet, died he was 88.

Basil Payne Irish poet died he was 88..^[1]

^{(23 June 1923 – 6 January 2012)}

Life and work

Payne was educated at Synge Street CBS and University College Dublin. In the 1960s he held many poetry readings in Dublin, and in 1964 he won a Guinness International poetry prize, followed by another Guinness International prize in 1966. From 1972 to 1978 he lectured in literature at several universities in the USA, and in 1975 he received the Governor's Special Citation for unique contribution to the Arts in New Jersey. His published work amounts to three slim volumes, and numerous inclusions in anthologies of Irish poetry. According to his website, a more voluminous later work, Dark and Light Fantastic, remains unpublished. His first book "Sunlight on a Square" has now been re-published on Amazon kindle.

Published works

• Sunlight on a Square (Dublin, John Augustin, 1961, republished on Amazon Kindle, 2012);
• Love in the Afternoon (Dublin, Gill and MacMillan, 1971);
• Another Kind of Optimism (Dublin, Gill and MacMillan, 1974)

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