/ Stars that died in 2023

Sunday, June 9, 2013

Jiří Gruša, Czech dissident, diplomat and writer, died he was 72.

Jiří Gruša  was a Czech poet, novelist, translator, diplomat and politician.[2]

(10 November 1938, Pardubice – 28 October 2011, Hannover[1] )

Biography

Gruša was born in Pardubice, Bohemia (Czech Republic), and later moved to Prague.[2] He graduated from the Philosophical Faculty of Charles University in Prague. He worked for periodicals Tvář, Sešity and Nové knihy.
He started coming under the scrutiny of the communist regime of then Czechoslovakia in 1969 because of his writings.[3] He was banned from publishing and had to work in a construction cooperative. He took part in distribution of samizdat literature. He was arrested in 1974 for "the crime of initiating disorder" after distributing nineteen copies of his first novel, Dotazník (The Questionnaire) and voicing his intention to have it published in Switzerland.[4] After world-wide protest, he was released after two months.[4] He later became a signer of the human rights document, Charter 77.[2] In 1981 his citizenship was revoked,[4] and between 1982 and 1990 he lived in the Federal Republic of Germany.[3]
In 1990 conditions in Czechoslovakia became more favorable and he returned to work for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. From 1991–1997, he served as an ambassador to Germany. Later, he joined the minority government of Václav Klaus as a Minister of Education. The government lost support of the opposition parties and President Václav Havel orchestrated establishment of a new caretaker government. Even though Gruša was a non-party minister, he was replaced by Jan Sokol. He served as an ambassador to Austria until 2004.[5] From 2005 to 2009 he was Director of the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna. From 2004 to 2009 he was the President of International PEN.[5]
Gruša participated in standardisation of the term "Tschechien" as the official name of the Czech Republic in German language. See Name of the Czech Republic for overview.
Gruša died at the age of 72 on 28 October 2011 during a heart operation in Germany. Václav Havel wrote (before his own death a month and a half later on December 18) that Gruša was "one of a few close people whom I deeply respected and who have left this world recently."[6]

Awards and honors

Works

English translated
  • Franz Kafka of Prague, Trans. Eric Mossbacker.
  • The Questionnaire, Trans. Peter Kussi.
Czech language
  • Umění stárnout [The Art of Aging]
  • Gebrauchsanweisung fur Tschechien und Prag [Instruction Manual for the Czech Republic and Prague]
  • Grusas Wacht am Rhein aneb Putovni ghetto [The Watch on the Rhein]


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Ricky Adams, American baseball player (California Angels), died from cancer he was 52.



Ricky Lee Adams  was a professional baseball player who played three seasons for the California Angels and San Francisco Giants of Major League Baseball.

(January 21, 1959 – October 28, 2011)

Career

On June 7, 1977 he was drafted by the Houston Astros in the first round, as the 14th pick, of the 1977 amateur draft. They released him April 4, 1980. On May 2, 1980 he signed as a free agent with the California Angels. On October 15, 1984 he was granted free agency, and on December 25, 1984 he signed with the San Francisco Giants.

Death

Adams died on October 28, 2011 in Rancho Cucamonga, California after a long battle with cancer.[1]

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Ron Holmes, American football player (Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Denver Broncos), died he was 48.

Ronald "Ron" Holmes  was a professional American football defensive end who played eight seasons for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Denver Broncos in the National Football League.

(August 26, 1963 – October 27, 2011)

A standout defensive end at the University of Washington, Holmes won the Pac-10 Morris Trophy and was named an All-America defensive end in 1984. Holmes was drafted in the first round by Tampa Bay and spent four years there before moving on to Denver in 1989 and playing four seasons for the Broncos.[1]
Holmes started in Super Bowl XXIV. He was considered to have Pro Bowl talent, but his development was slowed by injuries.[2] Holmes died on October 27, 2011.[3] He was 48.


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Jona Senilagakali, Fijian physician and diplomat, Prime Minister (2006–2007), died she was 81.

Dr Jona Baravilala Senilagakali [2] was a medical doctor and diplomat who was seventh Prime Minister of Fiji.[3] He resigned as Prime Minister on 5 January 2007, but on 8 January he was appointed interim Minister for Health. He lost that position during a Cabinet reshuffle on 4 January 2008.[4]

(8 November 1929 – 26 October 2011)

Education

Senilagakali was educated at Lau Provincial School and subsequently at Queen Victoria School on the main island of Viti Levu, where he studied from 1945 to 1950, when he enrolled in the Fiji School of Medicine. After graduating in 1954, he was employed in the health service from 1954 to 1963, serving such diverse locations as Lautoka and Levuka. In 1964, he took time out to study orthopedic surgery in Melbourne, Australia, and at the Vellore Christian Medical College Hospital in India.[5]
On his return to Fiji in 1968, he was employed as a consultant surgeon at Labasa hospital, before becoming a lecturer at his alma mater in 1970, a position he held for three years. From 1974 to 1978 he served as Director of Medical Services, and from 1978 to 1981 as Permanent Secretary for Health. He was President of the Fiji Medical Association from 1970 to 1974 and from 2005 to the present. He was also the "public member" of the disciplinary committee of the Fiji Law Society from 1998 to 2006.[6]
Senilagakali is considered by some to be the best known and respected medical practitioner in the nation, having previously been the president of the Fiji Medical Association, before becoming the medical doctor to the Republic of Fiji Military Forces.

Diplomatic career and public service

From 1981 to 1983, Senilagakali served as a counsellor for the Fijian Embassy to Tokyo before becoming Consul General to Los Angeles, a position he held until 1985.[7] After a brief stint as a roving ambassador to Pacific Islands Forum countries, he became Permanent Secretary in the Prime Minister's Office in 1986. His last office in the public service was as Permanent Secretary for Foreign Affairs, to which he was appointed in 1987.[8]

As Prime Minister

After becoming prime minister, Senilagakali acknowledged that the coup was illegal but justified it by claiming that the "illegal activity" of the government of Laisenia Qarase, who Bainimarama had ousted, was worse. He said that he had been ordered by Bainimarama to take the position of prime minister and that his appointment had surprised him. He also said new elections could be as long as two years away.[9]
The Great Council of Chiefs does not recognise his position, and instead still recognises Laisenia Qarase.
On his first full day as Prime Minister, Senilagakali received a hostile reception at the graduation ceremony of the Fiji School of Medicine. The Fiji Times reported that an unnamed faculty member, who is also a chief, had told him that his agreeing to head a military puppet government was disgraceful and unworthy of the school. He left before the ceremony began.[10]
Bainimarama announced Senilagakali's resignation on 4 January 2007;[11] President Josefa Iloilo, whose powers were restored by Bainimarama on the same day, appointed Bainimarama as prime minister the next day.[12] Senilagakali was then sworn in as health minister on 8 January.[13]

Religious beliefs and activities

A lay preacher in the Methodist Church of Fiji and Rotuma, Fiji's largest Christian denomination, he brushed aside reported opposition from the church to the Military takeover, saying that he was very active in the church both as a lay-preacher and as the translator of the church's constitution. He told the Fiji Live news service that he had translated the church constitution from English to Fijian all by himself, between 1987 and 1989.[14] He is also the chief steward of the Yarawa Methodist Church, and served on the standing committee of the Methodist conference from 1989 to 2002.[15]

Personal life

Senilagakali is survived by his wife and their five children.


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Tom Brown, American tennis player, died he was 89.


Thomas P. "Tom" Brown, Jr., was one of the top amateur tennis players in the world in the 1940s and a consistent winner in veterans’ and seniors’ competitions. He was the son of Thomas P. Brown, a newspaper correspondent, later public relations director for a railroad, and Hilda Jane Fisher, who became a schoolteacher when Tom was a boy. Though born in Washington, D.C.,Tom was considered a San Franciscan all his life, having been brought west by his parents (both native Californians) at the age of two.

(September 26, 1922, Washington, D.C. – October 27, 2011, Castro Valley, California)

Biography

Tom Brown, Jr. got his start playing tennis at San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park where on weekends his parents would play and Tom would tag along. He quickly became intrigued with the sport, was soon beating his parents and winning citywide children’s championships. Growing up, he was captain of the tennis teams at both Lowell High School and the University of California-Berkeley.
For one for whom tennis was never the main event in life, he had a successful record in the sport, before devoting himself to a law practice and raising a family. At his best he had wins over top players of his era. As Private First Class Tom Brown he won the October 1945 singles title of the prestigious Pacific Coast Championships, the second oldest tennis tournament in the U.S., now known as the SAP Open. Brown won it four times, twice in singles, twice in doubles. Then, fresh out of an Army uniform after WWII, he waltzed easily into the 1946 Wimbledon semi-finals, in which he led that year’s eventual champion, France’s Yvon Petra, by two sets before losing. Brown had his revenge the following year when he unseated reigning champion Petra in straight sets to reach the 1947 Wimbledon singles semi-finals, in which he defeated Budge Patty (who would win the French and Wimbledon singles titles in 1950) in straight sets to reach the final. In the final he lost in straight sets to Jack Kramer. [1]
In demand as a doubles partner amongst the world’s best, both men and women, Brown, with Jack Kramer, won the 1946 Wimbledon doubles against Australia's Geoff Brown and Dinny Pails. Tom also won its mixed doubles, teamed with Louise Brough, against Dorothy (Dodo) Bundy and Geoff Brown. That same year, at the French, he played the mixed finals with "Dodo". And at the U.S. Nationals he reached the Mens' Singles finals by eliminating Fred Kovaleski, Tom Falkenburg, Bitsy Grant, Herbie Flam, Frank Parker and Gardnar Mulloy, before finally being defeated by Kramer. [1]
In 1947 at Wimbledon,he played the singles finals against Kramer, and at the French was in the mens' doubles finals with Billy Sidwell of Australia. [1]
In 1948 at Wimbledon, he teamed with Gardnar Mulloy, losing the mens' finals to the Australian duo, John Bromwich and Frank Sedgman. Brown also took the U.S. mixed doubles title with his favorite partner, Louise Brough.[1]
It would be 16 years before Tom gave Wimbledon another shot. In both 1964 and '65 he was put out in the second round of the mens' singles; in '65 by John Newcombe who, several years later, would become a 3-time Wimbledon champion. He played men's doubles those years, also, with (respectively) Hugh Stewart and Gene Scott. Both were first round losses, the '64 event lost to Arthur Ashe and partner.
Kramer wrote in his 1979 autobiography "The Game, My 40 Years in Tennis", that Brown "was known as 'The Frisco Flailer' (we had nicknames like that in those days), and he was strong off the ground with an excellent running forehand, but he was always my pigeon." Kramer was the only player who "owned" Brown, beating him nine straight matches without the loss of a set. But every other top man Brown faced was unable to escape without a knock-down, drag-out dogfight no matter who won it.
Brown was also on three U.S. Davis Cup teams, and in 1950, against Australia, playing his second Challenge Round singles, he won the U.S.’s only point in five hard-fought sets, defeating Ken McGregor, who would become the 1951 Wimbledon singles finalist and the 1952 Australian singles champion.
Brown had a lifelong passion for travel, a wanderlust he said he acquired as a two-year-old when he and his mother took a train ride out west from Washington, D.C. to Merced, California to join his father. The family then settled in San Francisco. During his law-practice years, whenever he got the chance to travel to a tennis tournament he took it, and well into his 30s he was still beating the world’s top amateur competition. During and well beyond his active playing career, Brown was ranked in the U.S. top 10 eight times between 1946 and ’58. His highest ranking was No. 4 in 1946.
At ages 47 and 48, Brown won the National Men’s 45-and-over Hard Court singles. He also took the U.S.National Doubles 45-and-over three times, once with Art Larsen, twice with Tony Trabert. Upon retirement from his law practice, he fully embraced senior tennis, and at the age of 65 in 1987, won the USTA National Grand Slam in the 65-and-over singles, triumphing on hard, clay, grass and indoor surfaces, an almost unique accomplishment in the annals of U.S. veterans’ tennis. In 1988, the International Tennis Federation named him Outstanding Veterans Player in the world.
Brown won numerous national titles as a senior player; 24 singles and 11 doubles, pairing with Bobby Riggs 3 times, Fred Kovaleski 8 times. Brown’s last national title was in 1998. In 2007 he published his memoirs titled "As Tom Goes By".
Tom Brown died died in Castro Valley on October 27, 2011, aged 89.

Grand Slam finals

Singles

Runner-ups (2)

Year Tournament Opponent Score
1946 US National Championships United States Jack Kramer 7–9, 3–6, 0–6
1947 Wimbledon United States Jack Kramer 1–6, 3–6, 2–6

Doubles

Titles (1)

Year Tournament Partner Opponents Score
1946 Wimbledon United States Jack Kramer Australia Geoff Brown
Australia Dinny Pails
6–4, 6–4, 6–2

Runner-ups (2)

Year Tournament Partner Opponents Score
1947 French Championships United States Billy Sidwell South Africa Eustace Fannin
South Africa Eric Sturgess
4–6, 6–4, 4–6, 3–6
1948 Wimbledon United States Gardnar Mulloy Australia John Bromwich
Australia Frank Sedgman
7–5, 5–7, 5–7, 7–9

Mixed doubles

Titles (2)

Year Tournament Partner Opponents Score
1946 Wimbledon United States Louise Brough Australia Dorothy Bundy
Australia Geoff Brown
6–4, 6–4
1948 US National Championships United States Louise Brough United States Margaret Osborne duPont
United States Bill Talbert
6–4, 6–4

Runner-ups (1)

Year Tournament Partner Opponents Score
1946 French Championships United States Dorothy Bundy United States Pauline Betz
United States Budge Patty
5–7, 7–9

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Wednesday, May 29, 2013

William A. Niskanen, American economist, member of the Council of Economic Advisors (1981–1985), chairman of the Cato Institute (1985–2008), died from a stroke he was 78.

William Arthur Niskanen was an American economist noted as one of the architects of President Ronald Reagan's economic programme and for his contributions to public choice theory. He was also a long-time chairman of the libertarian Cato Institute.

(March 13, 1933, Bend, Oregon – October 26, 2011, Washington, D.C.)

Education

Niskanen received his B.A. from Harvard University in 1954. He pursued graduate study of economics at the University of Chicago, where his teachers included Milton Friedman and other prominent economists who were then revolutionizing economics, public policy, and law with ideas that would come to be known as the Chicago school of economics. Niskanen received his M.A. in 1955 and his doctorate in 1962, writing his dissertation on the economics of alcoholic beverage sales.[1]

To Washington

After Chicago, Niskanen joined the RAND Corporation as a defense policy analyst in 1957, using his economic and mathematical modeling skills to analyze and improve military efficiency. Among his accomplishments was developing a 400-line linear programming model of the Air Force transport system. His programmer for the model was a young William Sharpe, who would later win the Nobel economics prize.[2]
Because of his work at RAND, the incoming Kennedy administration appointed Niskanen director of special studies in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. There, he became one of Defense Secretary Robert McNamara's original Pentagon "whiz kids" who used statistical analysis to examine Defense Department operations.[1]
During his time at the Pentagon, Niskanen became disillusioned with the nation's political leadership, later claiming that the president and other executive branch officials "lied with ... regularity" to the public. He frequently quipped that this disillusionment sometimes caused him to question whether the United States truly landed on the moon in 1969.[3]
Niskanen left DOD in 1964 to become director of the Program Analysis Division at the Institute of Defense Analysis. In 1972, he returned to public service as assistant director of the Office of Management and Budget, though his internal criticisms of Nixon administration policy would make his tenure at OMB short.[4][5]

Academia

Niskanen left Washington and returned to academia, becoming professor of economics at the University of California at Berkeley in 1972, where he would remain until he became chief economist of Ford Motor Company in 1975. While at Berkeley, Niskanen would help establish the school's graduate school of public policy. During this time in California, he became acquainted with then-governor Ronald Reagan, who appointed him to a task force on the state's economy.[1]
Following his dismissal from Ford in 1980 (see below), Niskanen returned to academia, this time to UCLA.[6]

Ford Motor Company

In 1975, Niskanen was appointed chief economist at the Ford Motor Company under chairman Henry Ford II and president Lee Iacocca.[1] He quickly became critical of Ford's corporate culture and its failure to follow consumer trends, such as the 1970s desire for more fuel-efficient cars because of rising gas prices resulting from OPEC constraints on oil supply.
Foreign automakers, especially the Japanese, were quick to exploit American consumers' demand for more fuel-efficient cars, gaining a growing share of the U.S. market in the 1970s. Ford responded by asking the U.S. government to place import quotas on Japanese cars. Niskanen, a free-trade advocate, argued internally against this policy, saying that Ford needed to improve its products in light of consumer demand. In response to this criticism, Ford fired Niskanen in 1980.[1]

Reagan administration

However, Niskanen would not be out of work for long. Incoming president Ronald Reagan appointed Niskanen to his Council of Economic Advisers, which was responsible for conducting and analyzing economic research to inform executive branch policies. The appointment was surprising given Niskanen's hawkishness on deficits and concern about military spending—views that conflicted with Reagan policies.
Niskanen's blunt-spokenness both inside and outside the CEA sometimes caused problems. In a speech before a women's group in 1984, he commented that women's leaving the workforce to raise children contributed to a disparity in pay between the genders. Though broadly accepted and empirically supported today, Niskanen's comment was condemned in 1984, including criticism from Democratic presidential nominee Walter Mondale, who claimed it exemplified a lack of respect toward women by the Reagan administration.[7]
The following year, another of Niskanen's blunt comments would ultimately lead to his departure from the Reagan administration. During the negotiations over legislation that would ultimately become the Tax Reform Act of 1986, Niskanen internally criticized the administration proposal that was drawn up by the Treasury Department under Secretary Donald Regan, telling President Reagan in front of Regan that the proposal was "something Walter Mondale would love." Regan took offense at the comment and, after becoming Reagan's chief of staff, blocked Niskanen's ascendancy to chair the CEA after Martin Feldstein left to return to Harvard. Niskanen served as acting chair for a brief period, but then resigned from the CEA. Niskanen later chastised Regan as "a tower of jelly" in his book Reaganomics.[8]

Cato Institute

After leaving the Reagan administration, Niskanen joined the libertarian Cato Institute, where he served as chairman of the board of directors from 1985 to 2008 and was an active policy scholar. He was chairman emeritus of Cato from 2008 until his death in 2011.[9]
In March 2012, a dispute broke out between Charles and David Koch and Niskanen's widow, Kathryn Washburn, over the ownership of Niskanen's ownership share in Cato.[10][11]

Scholarly contributions

Niskanen was a prominent contributor to public choice theory, a field of both economics and political science that examines the behavior of politicians and other government officials. Public choice eschewed the traditional notion that these agents are motivated by selfless interest in the public good, and instead considered them as typically self-interested, like other agents. His chief contribution to public choice theory was the budget-maximizing model -- the notion that bureaucrats will attempt to maximize their agency's budget and authority. He presented this theory in 1971 book Bureaucracy and Representative Government.[9]

Publications

Niskanen authored several books, academic articles, and essays on government and politics. His most noted work, Bureaucracy and Representative Government, published in 1971, made a great impact on the field of public management and strongly challenged the field of public administration in the spirit of Ludwig von Mises's Bureaucracy. The book was for a long time out of print, but was reissued with several additional essays as, William Niskanen, Bureaucracy and Public Economics (Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 1994). Niskanen's work was an early text in rational choice models of bureaucracy. In his work he proposed the budget-maximizing model.[citation needed]
Another of his noted works was his 1988 book Reaganomics, which describes both the policies and inside-the-White House politics of Reagan's economic programme. Washington Post columnist Lou Cannon, author of the biography President Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime, described the book as "a definitive and notably objective account of administration economic policies."[12]
Niskanen's final book was Reflections of a Political Economist (2008). The book is a collection of essays and book reviews on public policy and economic topics, and serves as an intellectual biography.


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Mickey Kelly, Irish hurler (Kilkenny GAA), died he was 82.

Michael "Mickey" Kelly  was an Irish hurler who played as a left wing-forward for the Kilkenny senior team from 1952 until 1960.[1]

(24 September 1929 – 26 October 2011)

Kelly made his first appearance for the team during the 1952 championship and became a regular player over the next decade. During that time he won one All-Ireland winner's medal and three Leinster winner's medals. He captained Kilkenny to the All-Ireland title in 1957.[2]
At club level Kelly enjoyed a successful career with Bennettsbridge, winning seven county club championship winners' medals.[3]

Playing career

Club

Kelly played his club hurling with his local Bennettsbridge club and enjoyed much success. He helped 'the bridge' to the county junior championship in 1948 and 1951 before the club moved up to the senior grade. Kelly later added seven county senior championship titles to his collection in 1952, 1953, 1955, 1956, 1959, 1960, 1962.

Inter-county

Kelly first came to prominence on the inter-county scene with Kilkenny in 1953. That year he won his first Leinster title following a victory over Wexford. The subsequent All-Ireland semi-final pitted Kilkenny against Galway. In a close and exciting game the men from the West secured a one point victory by 3–5 to 1–10.
Four years later in 1957 Kelly was appointed captain of the Kilkenny senior team.[4] That year he collected his second Leinster title following a victory over All-Ireland champions Wexford. This allowed Kelly's side to advance directly to the championship decider where Waterford provided the opposition. In a high-scoring game between these two neighbours, Waterford took a six point lead with fifteen minutes left in the game. Then Kilkenny fought back with goals by Mick Kenny and Billy Dwyer. Kelly played a captain's role by scoring the winning point for Kilkenny. A 4–10 to 3–12 victory gave Kelly a coveted All-Ireland medal and the honour of collecting the Liam McCarthy Cup.
Two years later in 1959 Kelly came on as a substitute to collect his third Leinster winners' medal. The subsequent ALl-Ireland final saw Kilkenny and Waterford do battle once again. The game ended in a draw, forcing both sides to return to Croke Park four weeks later for a replay. Kelly, who played no part in the drawn game, came on as a substitute once again. On that occasion Waterford secured their second All-Ireland title.
In 1960 Kelly was appointed Kilkenny captain once again. That year, however, his side were defeated by arch-rivals Wexford in the Leinster final. Kelly retired from inter-county hurling shortly afterwards.

Provincial

Kelly also lined out with Leinster in the inter-provincial hurling competition. He first played for his province in 1953 and collected his only Railway Cup medal in 1954.

Personal life

One of eleven children, Michael Kelly was born in the townland of Killarney, Thomastown, County Kilkenny. After attending the local national school he was sent, as a boarder, to St. Francis' College, run by the Capuchin Friars at Rochestown in Cork. He left at the age of sixteen and returned to live near the village of Bennettsbridge where he combined farming with a job in Mosse's flour milling company.
Kelly died on 26 October 2011 following a short battle with cancer.[5]


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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...