Bill Haast,, American snake expert, director of the Miami Serpentarium died he was 100.

 William E. "Bill" Haast was the director of the Miami Serpentarium Laboratories, a facility near Punta Gorda, Florida, which produces snake venom for medical and research use died he was  100. Haast extracted venom from venomous snakes from the time he was a boy. From 1947 until 1984, he operated the Miami Serpentarium, a tourist attraction south of Miami, Florida, where he extracted venom from snakes in front of paying customers.
Haast physically extracted venom from venomous snakes by holding them by the head and forcing them to strike a rubber membrane covering a vial. As a result of handling these snakes, Haast had been bitten 172 times as of mid 2008.


(December 30, 1910 – June 15, 2011)

Early years

Haast was born in Paterson, New Jersey in 1910. He became interested in snakes while at a Boy Scout summer camp when he was 11 years old. He was bitten for the first time at summer camp a year later, when he tried to capture a small Timber Rattlesnake. He applied the standard snake-bite treatment of the time (making crossed cuts over the fang marks) and then walked four miles to the camp's first aid tent, by which time his arm was swollen. He was rushed to see a doctor, but quickly recovered without further treatment. His next bite, later the same year, came from a four-foot Copperhead snake. He was carrying a snake-bite kit, and had a friend inject him with antivenom; the bite put him into a hospital for a week.
Haast started collecting snakes, and after initial opposition from his mother, was allowed to keep them at home. He soon learned how to handle the snakes, and found one timber rattler so easy to handle that he posed for a photograph with the snake lying across his lap. He started extracting venom from his snakes when he was 15 years old. He dropped out of school when he was 16 years old. When he was 19 he joined a man who had a roadside snake exhibit, and went with him to Florida. While there, he ended up rooming with a moonshiner on the edge of the Everglades, and became proficient at capturing all kinds of snakes.
Haast eventually returned home, where his mother had leased a concession stand at a lakeside resort. Haast added a snake exhibit to the business. There he met and eloped with his first wife, Ann. They moved to Florida so that Haast could pursue his dream of opening a "snake farm". After his wife became pregnant, Haast lost his job when the speakeasy he was working at was raided by revenue agents. The couple moved back to New Jersey, where Haast studied aviation mechanics, and was certified after four years.
With his certification, he moved to Miami to work for Pan American World Airways. After the United States entered World War II, Haast served as a flight engineer on Pan Am airliners flying under contract to the United States Army Air Corps. These flights took him to South America, Africa and India, where he bought snakes to bring back to America, including his first cobra.

The Serpentarium

In 1946 Haast decided he had enough money saved to start his snake farm. He bought a plot of land facing U.S. 1, south of Miami, then sold his house and started construction on the Serpentarium. His wife Ann did not approve, and they eventually divorced. Haast retained custody of their son, Bill Jr. and continued to work as a mechanic for Pan Am while he built the Serpentarium. During this time Haast met and married his second wife, Clarita Matthews. The Serpentarium opened at the end of 1947, still not completed. For the first five years Bill, Clarita, and their son were the only staff. Bill Jr. eventually left, having lost interest in snakes, but not before he had been bitten four times by venomous snakes.
By 1965 the Serpentarium housed more than 500 snakes in 400 cages and three pits in the courtyard. Haast extracted venom 70 to 100 times a day from some 60 species of venomous snakes, usually in front of an audience of paying customers. He would free the snakes on a table in front of him, then catch the snakes bare-handed, and force them to eject their venom into glass vials with a rubber membrane stretched across the top.
Soon after opening the Serpentarium Haast began experimenting with building up an acquired immunity to the venom of King, Indian and Cape cobras by injecting himself with gradually increasing quantities of venom he had extracted from his snakes, a practice called mithridatism. In 1954 Haast was bitten by a common, or blue, krait. At first he believed his immunization to cobra venom would protect him from the krait venom, and continued with his regular activities for several hours. However, the venom eventually did affect him, and he was taken to a hospital where it took him several days to recover. A krait anti-venom was shipped from India, but when it arrived after a 48-hour flight, he refused to accept it. He received his first cobra bite less than a year after he started his immunization program. During the 1950s he was bitten by cobras about twenty times. His first King cobra bite was in 1962. Haast was also been bitten by a green mamba. On several occasions Haast donated his blood to be used in treating snake-bite victims when a suitable anti-venom was not available.
In 1949, he began supplying venom to a medical researcher at the University of Miami for experiments in the treatment of polio. The experiments gave encouraging results, but were still in preliminary clinical trials when the Salk polio vaccine was released in 1955.

Later life

Haast closed the Serpentarium in 1984, and moved to Utah for a few years. In 1990 he moved to Punta Gorda, Florida with his snakes, where he established the Miami Serpentarium Laboratories. Haast's hands suffered venom-caused tissue damage, culminating in the loss of a finger following a bite from a Malayan pit viper in 2003. As a result of the damage, Haast gave up handling venomous snakes, and no longer kept any at his facility.^[4] As of 2008 he continued to have his wife inject him with small amounts of snake venom.^[6] He turned 100 in December 2010^[7] and died on June 15, 2011.

 

To see more of who died in 2010 click here

Linda Scheid American politician, Minnesota state senator (since 1997), died from ovarian cancer she was , 68,

Linda J. Scheid was a Minnesota politician and a member of the Minnesota Senate who represented District 46, which includes portions of the northwestern suburbs of Hennepin County in the Twin Cities metro area died from ovarian cancer she was , 68,. A Democrat, she was first elected to the Senate in 1996, and was re-elected in 2000, 2002, 2006 and 2010. Prior to the 2002 redistricting, the area was known as District 47. She died on June 15, 2011, after a lengthy battle with cancer.


(June 16, 1942 – June 15, 2011)

Leadership in the Minnesota House and Senate

Before being elected to the Senate, Scheid served in the Minnesota House of Representatives, representing District 45A from 1977 to 1979, and, after the 1982 redistricting, District 47A from 1983 to 1991. While in the House, she was chair of the General Legislation, Veterans Affairs and Gaming Subcommittee on Elections from 1987 to 1991. She resigned her House seat on November 1, 1991, to become Vice President for Community Affairs with Burnet Realty.^[1]
Scheid was a member of the Senate's Commerce and Consumer Protection, Education, and Judiciary and Public Safety committees. She also served on the Rules and Administration Subcommittee for Ethical Conduct. She was chair of the Senate Commerce and Consumer Protection Committee from 2003 to 2011. She was also chair of the Jobs, Energy and Community Development Committee from 2003 to 2005 (called the Jobs, Housing and Community Development Committee during the 2003 session).^[4] Her special legislative concerns included public school funding, property tax reform, parent involvement in student learning, crime prevention, health care, election and ethics issues, jobs and economic development, E-16 education, funding for roads and transit, and business.^[1]

Health

Scheid's battles with "the uncertainties of cancer" began in 1999 when doctors at the Mayo Clinic discovered a growth on her left kidney. Doctors removed the growth, along with 20 percent of her kidney. During a checkup in 2005, doctors found another growth in her ovaries and diagnosed her with ovarian cancer. After surgery and chemotherapy, the cancer entered remission, but returned in 2010. In early May 2011, treatments became ineffective, and she decided to stop chemotherapy. She spent her last weeks at home with her family and friends, where she was in hospice care until her death on June 15, 2011, only one day before what would have been her 69th birthday.^[5]

Education and community service

Scheid attended St. Louis Park High School in St. Louis Park, then went on to Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where she received her B.A. in German and English. She later attended William Mitchell College of Law in Saint Paul, where she earned her J.D.^[6]
After college, Scheid served in the United States Peace Corps, teaching English in Asmara, Ethiopia. She was a member of Brooklyn Park's Minnesota Bicentennial Task Force from 1975 to 1976. She was also a member of the League of Women Voters, the Minneapolis Girls' Club, and the Mrs. Jaycees, of which she was a former state vice president.^[7]

 

To see more of who died in 2010 click here

Tom Addison, American football player (New England Patriots) died he was , 75.

Tom Addison was a professional American football linebacker (1960–1967) and sports labor leader, and is a member of the South Carolina Athletic Hall of Fame died he was , 75..

(April 12, 1936 – June 14, 2011)Edit HTML

Playing career

Addison attended the University of South Carolina and was drafted by the NFL Baltimore Colts and the Canadian Football League Ottawa Rough Riders, but chose to sign in 1960 with the Boston Patriots of the newly-formed American Football League, playing his entire pro career with the Patriots.
Considered a leader of the newly-formed team, Addison was selected as team captain, and was named to the AFL All-Star team for five straight years (1960–1964), as well as being one of the first players ever selected to be a Patriot All-League player (in 1960). He was also a Sporting News' All-League player in 1963 and 1964, and an AFL Eastern Division All-Star in 1961 and 1962. With 16 career interceptions (returning one for a touchdown), he was considered by many^[who?] to be the best AFL linebacker against the run in the mid 1960s.
He played in every Patriots' game from 1961 to 1966 (84 games), and was adding to this total when he sustained what proved to be a career-ending knee injury. On June 18, 1968, he was released by the Patriots after team doctors stated that he would risk further damage by playing after having undergone two knee operations. Addison was selected by a Patriot fan vote in 1971 as a member of the Patriots' All-1960s (AFL) Team.

Labor leadership

On January 14, 1964, players in the American Football League formed the AFL Players Association, and Addison was elected the union's first president.^[1]
In search of protection for the players, Addison put together a request package of benefits that included insurance and a player pension plan. As president, Addison had the intimidating task of meeting with the team owners to communicate the request. Upon entering the meeting room, Addison approached the long oval table, where the stern-faced owners were awaiting. With Southern charm, he looked up at the owners, smiled, and said "Well, I'm not trying to be the next Jimmy Hoffa!" This broke the tension, and started a period of perhaps the most positive relationship between owners and players in team sports history.^{[citation needed]}
With a players association in place, players newly drafted by American Football League teams in the "war between the leagues" could be assured that they would have representation and protection in the AFL that was the equal of that in the older league. Addison's work was an important element in the survival of the league, and helped the AFL to be able compete for top talent, and to establish itself as the future of professional football.^{[citation needed]}

 

To see more of who died in 2010 click here

Milivoj Ašner, Croatian-born Austrian Nazi war criminal died he was , 98.

Milivoj Ašner was a police chief in the Independent State of Croatia who was accused for enforcing racist laws under Croatia's Nazi-allied Ustaše regime, which murdered around three thousand Serbs, Jews and Roma l died he was , 98. He was born in Daruvar, Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia and resided in Austria at the time of his death in 2011.

(21 April 1913 – 14 June 2011)

Post war flight

Ašner fled to Austria at the end of the war in 1945 and adopted the name George Aschner.

Efforts to prosecute

In 2005, Croatia indicted Ašner for crimes against humanity^[1] and war crimes in the city of Požega in 1941-42. In February 2006, Austrian judicial officials said they were close to deciding on whether to arrest Ašner. Austrian officials initially ruled he could not be handed over to Croatian authorities as he held Austrian citizenship.^[1] However, subsequent investigations by the state attorney's office in the province of Carinthia revealed that he no longer held citizenship in Austria.^{[citation needed]}
He remained on Interpol's most wanted list,^[2] and was considered by the Simon Wiesenthal Center as the fourth most wanted Nazi at large.^[3][4]
In June 2008, journalists reported that, despite the Austrian government's claims that he was in poor health, he appeared to be physically fit based on his presence at a European Championship football match involving Croatia in Klagenfurt, where he lived.^[5] This prompted renewed calls for his extradition to Croatia.^[6]
The controversial then Governor of Carinthia, Jörg Haider, praised Ašner's family as friendly and said of Ašner that "he's lived peacefully among us for years, and he should be able to live out the twilight of his life with us". This provoked further criticism, with Efraim Zuroff of the Simon Wiesenthal Center saying that Haider's views reflected "the political atmosphere which exists in Austria and which in certain circles is extremely sympathetic to suspected Nazi war criminals".^[1]

Denial of involvement

In an interview that aired in Croatia on 19 June 2008, Ašner acknowledged that he was involved in deportations, but maintained that those who were deported were taken not to death camps, as is generally believed, but to their homelands instead. He claimed his conscience was clear and that he was willing to go on trial in Croatia, but also asserted that his health was a problem. In an examination in the same week, it was again decided he was mentally unfit. Zuroff expressed the suspicion that Ašner was pretending or exaggerating regarding his conditio

 

To see more of who died in 2010 click here

Asad Ali Khan, Indian musician, recipient of the Padma Bhushan died he was , 74

Asad Ali Khan was an Indian musician who played the plucked string instrument rudra veena died he was , 74. Khan performed in the style dhrupad and was described as the best living rudra veena player in India by The Hindu. He was awarded the Indian civilian honor Padma Bhushan in 2008.

 (1937 – 14 June 2011)

Life and career

Khan was born 1937 in Alwar in the seventh generation of rudra veena players in his family.^[1][2] His ancestors were royal musicians in the courts of Rampur, Uttar Pradesh, and Jaipur, Rajasthan in the 18th century.^[3][4] His great-grandfather Rajab Ali Khan was head of the court musicians in Jaipur and owned a village land holding.^[4][5] His grandfather Musharraf Khan (died 1909) was court musician in Alwar, and performed in London in 1886.^[4][6] Khan's father Sadiq Ali Khan worked as a musician for the Alwar court and for the Nawab of Rampur for 35 years.^[6][7] Khan grew up in a musical surrounding and was taught the Beenkar gharana (stylistic school of rudra veena playing) of Jaipur and vocals for fifteen years.^[2][4][6]
Khan was one of a few active musicians who played the rudra veena and the last surviving master of one of the four schools of dhrupad, the Khandar school.^[3][4][8] He performed in many countries, including Australia, the United States, Afghanistan, and Italy and several other European countries, and conducted music courses in the United States.^[8][9] Khan worked at All India Radio, taught the sitar in the Faculty of Music and Fine Arts at the University of Delhi for 17 years, and continued to train students privately after his retirement.^[7][8][10] Students of Khan who perform include his son Zaki Haidar and Bikramjeet Das of Kolkata.^[11][12] Khan criticized the lack of willingness among Indians to study the rudra veena and has more foreign than Indian students.^[9] He was involved in preserving the playing of the instrument, which he believed to be created by the deity Shiva, and performed for SPIC MACAY, promoting Indian classical music to young Indians.^[2][4][8] Khan was a Shi'a Muslim.^[13]
Khan received several national awards, including the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1977 and the civilian honor Padma Bhushan in 2008, which was awarded by Indian President Pratibha Patil.^[3][14][15] He was described as the best living rudra veena player in India by The Hindu and lived in Delhi.^[6][16]

Death

Khan died on 14 June 2011 in the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi. Khan never married and is survived by his nephew and adopted son Zaki Haidar.^[11]

 

To see more of who died in 2010 click here

Oscar Sambrano Urdaneta, Venezuelan writer died he was , 82.

Oscar Sambrano Urdaneta was a Venezuelan writer, essayist and literary critic, specialized in the life and work of Andrés Bello died he was , 82..

(February 6, 1929 - June 14, 2011)

Sambrano Urdaneta was born at the town of Boconó, Trujillo state. Arrives to Caracas during his youth, studying at the National Pedagogical Institute and the Central University of Venezuela, graduating as Doctor of Literature.

In the 1940s, thanks to writer Pedro Grases, Urdaneta was designated as member of the group in charge of the selection of the complete works of Andrés Bello, presided by Rafael Caldera.^[3] Since that, Urdaneta was involved in the literary world, admiring and approaching the work of Andrés Bello. Between 1959 and 1978, he was professor at the National Pedagogical Institute and between 1965 until 1990 at the Central University of Venezuela. He was director of the La Casa de Bello Foundation (Andrés Bello Institute), from 1977 for more than 20 years, was chief editor of the National Magazine of Culture (1959–1963) and director of collections like Biblioteca Popular Venezolana and Tricolor, also was a member of the consultative council for Biblioteca Ayacucho and the publishing Monte Ávila Editores.^[4]
In 1978, he won the Municipal Prize of Literature for the work Poesía contemporánea de Venezuela. In 1984 he got an individual number at the Venezuelan Academy of Language, being its president until 2009. He is also an honorary member of the Caro y Cuervo Institute of Bogotá. During the second government of Rafael Caldera (1994–1999), he was president of the National Council of Culture (CONAC), and in 2003 was a member of the committee in tribute to Andrés Eloy Blanco.
From 2006 was the conductor of the cultural TV program Valores (Values), transmitted by Vale TV; the main theme of this space is the learning of Venezuelan culture in all its dimensions, ans was named in memory of Venezuelan writer Arturo Uslar Pietri and his TV program Valores Humanos (Human Values).^[3] In June, 2008, he proposed to the Venezuelan academy of language the creation of a linguistic and literary research center.^[5]

Partial bibliography

• Cecilio Acosta, vida y obra
• Apreciación literaria
• “El Llanero”, un problema de crítica literaria
• Cronología de Andrés Bello
• El epistolario de Andrés Bello
• El Andrés Bello Universal
• Verdades y mentiras sobre Andrés Bello
• Aproximaciones a Bello
• Poesía contemporánea de Venezuela
• Literatura hispanoamericana (in collaboration with Domingo Miliani)
• Del ser y del quehacer de Julio Garmendia

 

To see more of who died in 2010 click here

Mack Self, American rockabilly musician died he was , 81.

Wiley Laverne "Mack" Self was an American rockabilly singer, songwriter and musician, who recorded for Sun Records in the 1950s and was a member of the Rockabilly Hall of Fame died he was , 81.

(22 May 1930 – 14 June 2011)


Self was born in Calico Bottoms, Phillips County, Arkansas, one of four children, and started playing guitar as a child, often performing with his friend C.W. Gatlin. In 1955, after playing on radio station KXJK in Forrest City, Arkansas, disc jockey Hal Webber encouraged him to make a recording of his song "Easy to Love". The demo recording then found its way to Sam Phillips of Sun Records, who invited him to audition.^[2] Self's first recordings were not released, but Phillips encouraged him to write more songs. He returned to the recording studio in March 1957 to work with producer Jack Clement, and re-recorded "Easy to Love" along with several new songs on which he was backed by guitarist Therlow Brown and bass player Jimmy Evans. "Easy to Love" was then released in 1957 as Sun 273, but by that time its style was regarded as somewhat old-fashioned and it was not a hit. However, Self returned to the recording studio in 1959, and released a second single, "Mad At You" / "Willie Brown". He continued to perform despite his lack of recording success, and in the early 1960s recorded several country singles for the Zone label in Memphis with producer Chips Moman.^[3] He also continued to write songs, setting up his own publishing company.^[2]
Self gave up the music business in 1963, and established a heating, air and sheet metal business in Helena, Arkansas. He returned to undertake occasional performances after 1992, with his Silver Dollar Band, and was inducted into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame in 1993.^[2][3]
His recordings for the Sun label were reissued on CD by Bear Family Records in the early 1990s, and - with a number of unreleased recordings - by DeeGee Records in Germany in 1997.

 

To see more of who died in 2010 click here