lice Arden, 97, American Olympic (1936) high jumper died on March 1, 2012 at the age of 97

Alice Jean Arden-Hodge  was an American athlete who competed in the women's high jump event at the Olympic games in Berlin in 1936. Raised in Long Island died on March 1, 2012 at the age of 97., New York, Arden won ten athletic letters during her high school career across several different sports. The only woman from the New York City area to have been selected for the 1936 Summer Olympics women's team, Arden placed ninth in the high jump event and never competed in the sport again. Soon after, she married basketball player Russell Hodge and together they had three children, one of whom was Russ Hodge, a decathlete at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. As of 2008, Arden and Hodge's participation make them the only mother-son Olympians in American history

(July 23, 1914 – March 1, 2012)

Arden was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,^[1] but grew up in Long Island, New York.^[3] Her father, Ray Arden, was an inventor who held over 400 patents. During her athletic career at Baldwin High School in New York, she won ten athletic letters in basketball, field hockey and athletics, and broke Babe Didrikson's high jump record.^[4][5] Arden had made what would become the best jump of her career in 1935, when she achieved a height of 1.613 m (5'3½").^[1]

Arden finished second in the Olympic trials in Providence, Rhode Island, behind only Annette Rogers. She was selected to participate at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, the only female team member from the New York City area to participate in those games.^[4] Although $700 were raised for her trip, she was forced to return $200 due to Amateur Athletic Unionregulations.^[3] She placed an equal ninth in the women's high jump event, with a height of 1.50 m., although this would have been eighth had it been discovered earlier that Dora Ratjen was actually a male.^[1] During the games, she forged strong friendships with many athletes and became lifelong friends with the head of the Turkish delegation.^[6] The Olympic Games, however, was her final competition.^[3]

Inspired by the associations that she made at the Olympic Games, Arden became involved in numerous Olympic committees, working towards increased female participation in the events.^[6] She played basketball for the Long Island Ducklings, where she met Russel "Rusty" Hodge, a semi-professional player.^[7] Hodge, a center for the Liberty Emeralds, and Arden, also a center, were married in 1937.^[4][8] They had a son, Russ Hodge, in 1939 and moved from Monticello, New York to Roscoe, New York that same year.^[7] There, the Hodges operated a dairy farm and, later, furniture and gravel stores.^[4] Arden had a total of three children.^[5]

The younger Hodge competed in the decathlon at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo,^[4] where he placed ninth.^[9] On his mother's 52nd birthday, he set a world record in a decathlon event in Los Angeles. Arden's husband died in 2001.^[4] In August 2003, both Arden and her son were honoured with the Sullivan County Historical Society "History Maker" award. They are the only mother-son Olympians in the history of the United States.^[8] Still active in swimming at the age of 90,^[5]Arden died on March 1, 2012 at the age of 97.^[10]

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Violet Wood, British supercentenarian, oldest person in the United Kingdom died she was 112

Violet Jane Wood was a British supercentenarian who was the oldest person in the United Kingdom for almost a year before her death at the age of 112 years, 180 days.

 (2 September 1899 – 29 February 2012)

Violet Jane Hodges was born in Faversham, Kent, England. She was married to Harry Wood for 62 years until his death at the age of 92.

She drove a car until she was 80 years old, and worked on a farm all of her life.^[1] She credited her longevity to eating toast and pickles.^[2]

Her sisters Bertha and Marjorie lived to the ages of 106 and 99 respectively.^{[1][2][2][3][4]} She was succeeded in this title by Grace Jones.

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P. K. Narayana Panicker, Indian welfare worker, President of the Nair Service Society died he was 81

P. K. Narayana Panicker (was the President and General Secretary of The Nair Service Society (NSS)  died he was 81. He is the second-longest-serving general secretary of the organization (after founder Mannath Padmanabhan), who has served 28 years in the post.^[2] He was an advocate by profession, who came to the front row of the organization in 1977 as its treasurer and later became General secretary in 1984.

(15 August 1930 – 29 February 2012^[1])  

 

Narayana Panicker was born on August 27, 1930 as the first son and third child of the seven kids of Changanassery Vazhappally Padinjarubhagam Pichamathil A.N. Veluppilla and Lakshmikutty Amma. He completed his education at Saint Theresas School, Perunna School, Changanassery S. B college and Ernakulam Govt. Law College.^[3] He has worked as a Teacher and Advocate during the course of his career.^[1][4]

He has also worked as the Chairman of Changanassery Municipality, member of Kerala University Senet, member of M.G. University Syndicate, member of Guruvayoor Devaswam and also as president of Changanassery Lions Club.^[3] In 1977, he was elected as the treasurer of Nair Service Society. On New Year's Day in 1984, he became the General Secretary of NSS, succeding Kidangoor Gopalakrishna Pillai.^[3][5] He continued in office until 2011, when he was succeeded by his assistant secretary G. Sukumaran Nair. He is the second-longest served General Secretary of N.S.S. He was elected as the President of N.S.S. in 2011.

Panicker achieved a rare feat by dying on Leap Year Day - February 29, 2012.^[6] He died of age-related complications at his home around 2 PM that day. He was aged 81 at the time of his death. His health has been deteriorating for a long time. He was also the serving President of Nair Service Society when he died, having elected less than a year ago. His dead body was kept for public view in the N.S.S. headquarters in Perunna and was cremated with full state honours at his home premises. He is survived by three sons - Satheesh Kumar, Jagadeesh Kumar and Ranjith Kumar. His wife Savithri Amma predeceased him in 2006.

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Sheldon Moldoff, American comic book artist (Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman), died from kidney failure he was 91

Sheldon "Shelly" Moldoff ^[1] was an American comics artist best known for his early work on the DC Comicscharacters Hawkman and Hawkgirl, and as one of Bob Kane's primary "ghost artists" (uncredited collaborators) on the superhero Batman died from kidney failure he was 91. He co-created the Batman supervillains Poison Ivy, Mr. Freeze, the second Clayface, and Bat-Mite, as well as the original heroes Bat-Girl, Batwoman, and Ace the Bat-Hound. Moldoff is the sole creator of the Black Pirate. Moldoff is not to be confused with fellow Golden Age comics professional Sheldon Mayer.

(April 14, 1920 – February 29, 2012)

Born in Manhattan, New York City^[2] but mostly raised in The Bronx, he was introduced to cartooning by future comics artist Bernard Baily, who lived in the same apartment house as Moldoff. "I was drawing in chalk on the sidewalkPopeye and Betty Boop and other popular cartoons of the day—and he came by and looked at it and said, 'Hey, do you want to learn how to draw cartoons?' I said, 'Yes!' He said, 'Come on, I'll show you how to draw.'"^[3]

—

Moldoff sold his first cartoon drawing at age 17. "My first work in comic books was doing filler pages for Vincent Sullivan, who was the editor at National Periodicals",^[4] one of the three companies, with Detective Comics Inc. and All-American Publications, that eventually merged to form the modern-day DC Comics. Moldoff's debut was a sports filler that appeared on the inside back cover of the landmark Action Comics #1 (June 1938), the comic book that introduced Superman.^[5]

During the late-1930s and 1940s Golden Age of comic books, Moldoff became a prolific cover artist for the future DC Comics. His work includes the first cover of the Golden Age Green Lantern, on issue #16 (July 1940) of All-American's flagship title All-American Comics, featuring the debut of that character created by artist Martin Nodell.^[5] Moldoff created the character Black Pirate (Jon Valor) in Action Comics#23 (April 1940),^[5] and became one of the earliest artists for the character Hawkman (created by Gardner Fox and Dennis Neville,^[5] though sometimes misattributed to Moldoff). Moldoff drew the first image of the formerly civilian character Shiera Sanders in costume as Hawkgirl in All Star Comics #5,^[6] based on Neville's Hawkman costume design.

Beginning with Flash Comics #4 (April 1940), Moldoff became the regular Hawkman artist, following Neville's departure from the feature the issue before.^[5]He drew the Hawkman portions of the Justice Society of America stories published in All Star Comics as well.^[7][8] Moldoff recalled in 2000 that All-American publisher Max Gaines

Drafter into World War II military service in 1944, Moldoff returned to civilian life in 1946, drawing for Standard, Fawcett, Marvel and Max Gaines' EC Comics. For EC he drew Moon Girl, continuing with that character for Bill Gaines.^[9]

When superhero comics went out of fashion in the postwar era, Moldoff became an early pioneer in horror comics, packaging two such ready-to-prints titles in 1948. He recalled in 2000 that, "I had shown This Magazine Is Haunted and Tales of the Supernatural to [Fawcett Comics'] Will Lieberson before I showed them to [EC Comics'] Bill Gaines, because I trusted Will Lieberson much more. He showed it to the big guys at Fawcett, and he said, 'Shelly, Fawcett doesn't want to get into horror now; they don't want to touch that'".^[3]

Moldoff then did approach Gaines with the package, signing a contract stipulating that he would be paid a royalty percentage if the books were successful. Several months later, when EC's Tales From the Crypt hit the newsstands, Gaines reneged on the deal, Moldoff recalled in 2000, with EC attorney Dave Alterbaum threatening to blacklist Moldoff if he took legal action.^[3] Afterward, said Moldoff, "Will Lieberson said, 'Let me bring it back to Fawcett again, and see if they'll take the title'. And so they did; they took This Magazine Is Haunted and Worlds of Fear and then Strange Suspense Stories. What they did was pay me $100 for the title, and give me as much work as I wanted, and I also did the covers. So that went on that way".^[3]

Moldoff, who received no royalty there, either, created the cadaverous host Doctor Death.

In 1953, Moldoff became one of the primary Batman ghost artists who, along with Win Mortimer and Dick Sprang, drew stories credited to Bob Kane, following Kane's style and under Kane's supervision. While Sprang ghosted as a DC employee, Moldoff, in a 1994 interview given while Kane was alive, described his own clandestine arrangement:

Moldoff and various writers created several new characters for the Batman franchise including the Batmen of All Nations,^[10]Ace the Bat-Hound,^[11] the original Batwoman,^[12] the Calendar Man,^[13] Mr. Freeze,^[14] Bat-Mite,^[15] the original Bat-Girl,^[16]and the second Clayface.^[17] Most of these characters were phased-out in 1964 after a change in editors. Gardner Fox and Moldoff revived the Riddler in Batman #171 (May 1965).^[18] Other Batman foes introduced by Moldoff include Poison Ivy^[19]and the Spellbinder.^[20]

Moldoff was let go by DC in 1967, along with Golden Age artists George Papp and Wayne Boring.^[21] His final Batman stories were published in Batman #199 and Detective Comics #372 (both cover dated February 1968).^[5] He turned to animation, doing storyboards for such animated TV series as Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse, and wrote and drew promotional comic books given away to children at the Burger King, Big Boy, and Red Lobster restaurant and fast-food chains, as well as through the Atlanta Braves Major League Baseball team.^[21] When Moldoff illustrated a chapter of the Evan Dorkin project Superman and Batman: World's Funnest in 2000, it was his first work for DC Comics in over 30 years.^[5]

^{Moldoff retired to Florida with his wife Shirley.[21] His family included sons Richard Moldoff and Kenneth Moldoff and daughter Ellen Moldoff Stein.[1]}

^{Sheldon Moldoff received an Inkpot Award in 1991.[22]}

 

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