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+--- Thread: Obituaries (/thread-59.html)
RE: Obituaries - pbrower2a - 11-27-2019
Deutsche Bank Exec Thomas Bowers, Who Approved Donald Trump Loans, Dies By Suicide, ‘Forensic News’ Reports
The 55-year-old banker who okayed $100 million loan that helped Trump buy his Doral golf resort, hanged himself, a medical examiner's report says.
Starting in the late 1990s, at a time when most other banks would not lead him money, Donald Trump found a financial lifeline in the German-based Deutsche Bank, which loaned him approximately $1 billion. Now, the Deutsche Bank executive who would have signed off on many of the loans to Trump has died, reportedly taking his own life.
According to a report by the independent journalism site Forensic News, Thomas Bowers died on November 19 at his home in Malibu, California. Citing a Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s report, Forensic News founder Scott Stedman reported that Bowers committed suicide by hanging. The former Deutsche Bank exec was 55 years old.
More here.
RE: Obituaries - David Horn - 11-28-2019
(11-27-2019, 08:42 PM)pbrower2a Wrote: Deutsche Bank Exec Thomas Bowers, Who Approved Donald Trump Loans, Dies By Suicide, ‘Forensic News’ Reports
The 55-year-old banker who okayed $100 million loan that helped Trump buy his Doral golf resort, hanged himself, a medical examiner's report says.
Starting in the late 1990s, at a time when most other banks would not lead him money, Donald Trump found a financial lifeline in the German-based Deutsche Bank, which loaned him approximately $1 billion. Now, the Deutsche Bank executive who would have signed off on many of the loans to Trump has died, reportedly taking his own life.
According to a report by the independent journalism site Forensic News, Thomas Bowers died on November 19 at his home in Malibu, California. Citing a Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s report, Forensic News founder Scott Stedman reported that Bowers committed suicide by hanging. The former Deutsche Bank exec was 55 years old.
More here.
More in general! There is a story under this tragedy, and some enterprising journalist will dig it out, I'm sure. It may be nothing … or everything.
RE: Obituaries - pbrower2a - 11-28-2019
(11-28-2019, 11:27 AM)David Horn Wrote:(11-27-2019, 08:42 PM)pbrower2a Wrote: Deutsche Bank Exec Thomas Bowers, Who Approved Donald Trump Loans, Dies By Suicide, ‘Forensic News’ Reports
The 55-year-old banker who okayed $100 million loan that helped Trump buy his Doral golf resort, hanged himself, a medical examiner's report says.
Starting in the late 1990s, at a time when most other banks would not lead him money, Donald Trump found a financial lifeline in the German-based Deutsche Bank, which loaned him approximately $1 billion. Now, the Deutsche Bank executive who would have signed off on many of the loans to Trump has died, reportedly taking his own life.
According to a report by the independent journalism site Forensic News, Thomas Bowers died on November 19 at his home in Malibu, California. Citing a Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s report, Forensic News founder Scott Stedman reported that Bowers committed suicide by hanging. The former Deutsche Bank exec was 55 years old.
More here.
More in general! There is a story under this tragedy, and some enterprising journalist will dig it out, I'm sure. It may be nothing … or everything.
If his body is riddled with terminal cancer, then it probably is no story. In such a case I blame the cancer and not the noose (or gun, poison, sharp objects, fall... whatever).
We do not have the full story... I would be ahead of myself to figure that President Trump's business dealings would be subject to an impeachment inquiry of any kind.
I am unfamiliar with this news source. Sometimes the non-mainstream media find something out first. This man would not merit inclusion were it not for potential scandal. This fellow at worst would be fired with a golden parachute, and he could live very well with a trophy wife, a mansion, sports cars, fine wines, etc. On the other hand, if he was involved in corrupt dealings, a federal prosecution might loom.
As a general rule, the countries that are desirable places in which to live extradite people for financial malfeasance.
RE: Obituaries - pbrower2a - 11-29-2019
Yasuhiro Nakasone, former Prime Minister of Japan:
Yasuhiro Nakasone (中曽根 康弘 Nakasone Yasuhiro, 27 May 1918 – 29 November 2019)[2] was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party from 1982 to 1987. He was a member of the House of Representatives for more than 50 years. He was best known for pushing through the privatization of state-owned companies, and for helping to revitalize Japanese nationalism during and after his term as prime minister. He was the oldest living former state leader at the time of his death in 2019, aged 101.[3]
Much more at Wikipedia.
RE: Obituaries - pbrower2a - 12-01-2019
Mariss Jansons, conductor:
Mariss Ivars Georgs Jansons (14 January 1943 – 30 November 2019) was a Latvian conductor. He was music director of the Oslo Philharmonic from 1973 to 2000, and of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra from 1997 to 2004. He made notable recordings, especially of Gustav Mahler's symphonies. Among his awards are the 2008 Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art and the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize of 2013.
Iraida Jansone, who was Jewish, gave birth to her son in hiding in Riga, Latvia, after being smuggled out of the Riga Ghetto, where Iraida's father and brother were murdered by the Nazis. As a child, Jansons first studied violin with his father.[1]
In 1946, Mariss' father, Arvīds Jansons, won second prize in a national competition and was chosen by Yevgeny Mravinsky to be his assistant at the Leningrad Philharmonic. When his family joined him in 1956, young Mariss entered the Leningrad Conservatory, where he studied piano and conducting, although his father urged him to continue playing violin. In 1969, he continued his training in Vienna with Hans Swarowsky and in Salzburg with Herbert von Karajan. Karajan wanted to invite Jansons to be his assistant with the Berlin Philharmonic, but the Soviet authorities blocked Jansons from ever hearing about the offer.[2]
In 1971, Jansons won the second prize at the "Herbert von Karajan" International Conducting Competition.
In 1973, Jansons was appointed Associate Conductor of the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra (now the Saint Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra). In 1979, he was appointed Music Director of the Oslo Philharmonic, with which he performed, recorded and toured extensively. Jansons resigned his Oslo position in 2000 after disputes with the city over the acoustics of the Oslo Concert Hall.[3]
In 1992, Jansons was named Principal Guest Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. He has worked as a guest conductor with the London Symphony Orchestra and has recorded Mahler's Symphony No. 6 with them for the LSO Live label.[4][5]
In 1997, Jansons became the Music Director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. His initial contract was for three years, but his subsequent contract renewals were evergreen contracts that required yearly renewal. In June 2002, he announced his departure from the orchestra in 2004.[6]
In April 1996 in Oslo, Jansons nearly died while conducting the final pages of La bohème, after a heart attack.[7] He recuperated in Switzerland. Later, surgeons in Pittsburgh fitted a defibrillator in his chest to give his heart an electric jolt if it fails. (Jansons's father died at a 1984 concert, conducting the Hallé Orchestra).[8] Jansons has stated that he suffers from jet lag, and this was one reason that he left his American position.[9]
At the start of the 2003/2004 season, Jansons began his tenure as Chief Conductor of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (BRSO),[10] for an initial contract of three years.[11] His commitment with the BRSO is for ten weeks per season.[12] In September 2006, Jansons extended his initial BRSO contract to August 2009.[13] In July 2007, he further extended his contract with the BRSO to August 2012.[14] In April 2011, he extended his BRSO contract to August 2015 in Munich.[15] In June 2013, the BRSO further extended Jansons's contract through August 2018.[16] In May 2015, the BRSO announced another extension of Jansons's contract through 2021.[17] In July 2018, the orchestra announced a further extension of the maestro's contract through 2024.[18] He has regularly campaigned for the construction of a new concert hall for the orchestra.[19]
In October 2002, Jansons was named the sixth Chief Conductor of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (RCO) of Amsterdam, effective 1 September 2004, succeeding Riccardo Chailly.[20] His initial Amsterdam contract was for three years,[21] and his commitment in Amsterdam was for twelve weeks per season. In April 2014, the orchestra announced the scheduled conclusion of Jansons's tenure as Chief Conductor after the 2014–2015 season.[22][23] He conducted his final concert as chief conductor of the RCO on 20 March 2015, in the presence of Queen Maxima.[24]
In 2006, Jansons conducted the Vienna Philharmonic New Year's Concert for the first time. Also in January 2006, he was awarded MIDEM's Artist of the Year Award in Cannes. In October 2007, Jansons (who is Lutheran)[25] conducted Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra for Pope Benedict XVI and 7,000 other listeners in the papal audience hall (Auditorio Paul VI). Jansons conducted the Vienna New Year's Concert for the second time in 2012. The concert was televised worldwide in seventy-three countries. He conducted the Vienna Philharmonic New Year's Concert for a third time in 2016. The New Year's Concert 2016 was broadcast in over 90 countries around the world and was seen by 50 million television viewers.
Jansons was awarded various Austrian and international honours for his achievements, including Commander of the Royal Norwegian Order of Merit from King Harald of Norway and memberships in the Royal Academy of Music in London and the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde (Society of Music Friends) in Vienna. He was awarded the St. Hallvard Medal in 1986.[30] In May 2006, he was awarded the Order of the Three Stars (2nd class or Grand Commander), Latvia's highest state honour. He was awarded the Bavarian Order of Merit in 2007 and in 2010, the Bavarian Maximilian Order for Science and Art. In 2008, Jansons received the Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art.[31]
Jansons' recording of Shostakovich's Symphony No. 13 with Sergey Aleksashkin (bass) and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Chorus won the Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance at the 2006 Grammy Awards.
In January 2006 he was awarded a Midem, a Cannes Classical Award as Artist of the Year. In 2007 he was honoured by the German Phono Academy with the Echo Klassik as Conductor of the Year. In 2011, he was awarded the same title by the German journal Opernwelt.[32]
Jansons won the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize in 2013.[33] On 31 March 2013 Jansons was awarded a medal of honour "For the Merits before St. Petersburg". On 4 October 2013, Jansons received the Grand Merit Cross with Star of the Federal Republic of Germany.[34]
On 1 November 2013, Jansons was awarded Knight of the Order of the Netherlands Lion and received it from Dutch Minister of Education, Culture and Science Jet Bussemaker.[35]
In a press release, dated from 23 November 2017[36] – the Royal Philharmonic Society announced, that Mariss Jansons has been awarded with the RPS Gold Medal – one of the highest honors in the world of classical music. The Medal itself was awarded to Jansons by the world-renowned pianist Mitsuko Uchida during a concert with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks) on the eve of 24 November 2017 in London's Barbican Hall.[37] Mariss Jansons is the 104th recipient of the RPS Gold Medal.
In 2018 he was awarded an Honorary Membership of the Berliner Philharmoniker.[38]
On 14 April 2019, he received the Herbert von Karajan Prize at the Salzburg Easter Festival.[39] In 2019, he received the Opus Klassik [de] in the category "Lifetime Achievement”.[40]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariss_Jansons
RE: Obituaries - pbrower2a - 12-03-2019
A reminder: other countries had their Greatest Generation, too.
Ragnar Leif Ulstein MM (19 April 1920 – 3 December 2019)[1] was a Norwegian journalist, writer and resistance member. He wrote several documentary books from the Second World War, including surveys of the SOE group Norwegian Independent Company 1, volunteers sailing from Norway to Scotland, refugee traffic from Norway to Sweden, and military intelligence in Norway.
Ulstein was born in Ulstein, Sunnmøre, as the son of Johannes Olsson Ulstein (1879–1969) and Borghild Strand (1885–1964). He finished his secondary education at Volda in June 1940. Later that year he fled to the United Kingdom due to World War II and the German occupation of Norway. Here, Ulstein became a member of the Norwegian Independent Company 1 (NOR.I.C.1) (Norwegian: Kompani Linge), led by Martin Linge. He participated in Operation Anklet, a raid at Reine in December 1941. After the raid he returned to the United Kingdom.[2] In 1943 he was a part of the failed operation Vestige I, which involved placing limpet mines on ships in Svelgen harbor. The actual mine placing was performed by Harald Svindseth, but the explosives went off too early, and the ship was docked instead of sinking. Participants in Vestige I fled to England.[3] In 1944 Ulstein was tasked with returning to work as an instructor for Milorg in Sogn og Fjordane. He came via Shetland and landed near Florø together with Harald Svindseth.[4][5] Svindseth built up a Milorg subgroup near Svelgen with the codename Snowflake, whereas Ulstein led the group Siskin.[5] Siskin's basecamp was at Fosskamben in Sogndalsdalen. Important local contacts were Olav Rise in Leikanger as well as Nils Knagenhjelm and Hans H. H. Heiberg in Kaupanger. Norwegian Independent Company 1 men Nils Fjeld and Nils Thorsvik also participated, sharing the military command with Ulstein. Various incidents in February 1945 spelled the end of Siskin. Some, including Olav Rise, were arrested, whereas Ulstein managed to flee from Sogndalsdalen. German forces approached Fosskamben, but local residents secretly slowed down their travel, giving Siskin members time to hide a large weapons cache and to escape. Ulstein, Heiberg and Knagenhjelm met in Fjærland.[6] A new base was started in Frønningen. At most, 480 people had some connection to it. It did not remain operative for long, as it was disbanded at the liberation of Norway on 8 May 1945. Then, Ulstein and 72 others travelled to Gaular to assist in the decommissioning of German forces in the area.[7] For his war contributions Ulstein was decorated with the St. Olav's Medal with two oak branches, the British Military Medal, the Defence Medal 1940 – 1945, and the Haakon VII 70th Anniversary Medal.
After the war Ulstein participated in the Independent Norwegian Brigade Group in Germany.[2] When returning to Norway he was editor-in-chief of the newspaper Fjordabladet from 1948 to 1949.[5] He was an active writer. He co-edited the official two-volume work on the NOR.I.C.1 company, Kompani Linge, issued in 1948, together with Erling Jensen and Per Ratvik.[2] The books had introductions by both King Haakon and Milorg leader Jens Christian Hauge.[8][9] Ulstein worked as an editor for Filmavisen, and from 1954 as a journalist for various newspapers, including Bergens Tidende and Sunnmørsposten. He was later granted a government scholarship.[2]
He made his fiction debut in 1961 with the novel Harpegjengen.[10] He later wrote several documentary books on Norwegian resistance during World War II. The two-volume book Englandsfarten (Volume I, 1965 and Volume II, 1967) covered the traffic between Norway and United Kingdom during the early part of the war,[11][12] while Svensketrafikken (three volumes, 1974, 1975 and 1977) covered traffic of refugees from Norway to Sweden during the occupation.[10] He wrote a three volume book set on military intelligence in Norway between 1940 and 1945, Etterretningstjenesten i Norge 1940-45 (1989, 1990, 1992),[2] including activities from Special Intelligence Service agents covering German naval operations, as well as activities from XU and other organizations.[13][14][15] For his post-war work, Ulstein has been awarded the King's Medal of Merit in gold.[2]
Ulstein was also involved in the Liberal Party in Ålesund.[2] In 1972 he chaired the county chapter of Ja til EF.[16] He married Jenny Hermine Akselsen in 1951.[2]
In his later years Ulstein contributed to the website document.no, and stated in an interview for the 70-year anniversary of the war's end that freedom had become more limited and less open than after the liberation in 1945, and that freedom had come under a pressure "we could never dream about".[17]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ragnar_Ulstein
RE: Obituaries - pbrower2a - 12-04-2019
Japanese physician and aid worker shot and killed in Afghanistan:
Tetsu Nakamura (中村 哲 Nakamura Tetsu, 15 September 1946 – 4 December 2019) was a Japanese medical doctor. He was awarded the 2003 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Peace and International Understanding.[1] He devoted his work among refugees in the Afghanistan/Pakistan borderlands.
Beginning in 1991, Nakamura opened 3 clinics to provide medical service in the mountainous eastern region of the country.[2]
Starting from 2000, a drought hit the region. A consequence of this drought was the multiplications of diseases due to malnutrition and lack of water. Nakamura stated about this situation: "One irrigation canal will do more good than 100 doctors!".[2] Starting from 2003, Nakamura started building an irrigation canal in Khiwa district of Nangarhar Province, the Marwarid Canal. The canal gets water from Kuner River, and has a length of 25.5 km.[3]
As of 2016, Nakamura has built or restored 8 additional canals, irrigating 16.000 hectares and supporting the livelihood of 600.000 people in the Gamberi Desert region.[2]
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Nakamura declared, "Weapons and tanks don't solve problems. The revival of farming is the cornerstone of [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afghanistan]Afghanistan's recovery".[2]
Nakamura died of his wounds after an attack Wednesday 4 December 2019 that also killed five Afghans, including the doctor's bodyguards, the driver and a passenger[4].
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetsu_Nakamura_(physician)
What could be more abominable than killing people involved in humanitarian relief?
RE: Obituaries - pbrower2a - 12-10-2019
Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker:
Paul Adolph Volcker Jr.[3] (/ˈvoʊlkər/; September 5, 1927 – December 8, 2019) was an American economist. He was Chairman of the Federal Reserve under U.S. presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan from August 1979 to August 1987. He is widely credited with having ended the high levels of inflation seen in the United States during the 1970s and early 1980s. He was the chairman of the Economic Recovery Advisory Board under President Barack Obama from February 2009[4] until January 2011.[5]
In 1952 he joined the staff of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York as a full-time economist. He left that position in 1957 to become a financial economist with the Chase Manhattan Bank. In 1962, Robert Roosa, who had been his mentor at the Federal Reserve, hired him at the Treasury Department as director of financial analysis.[11] In 1963, he became deputy under secretary for monetary affairs. He returned to Chase Manhattan Bank as vice president and director of planning in 1965.
Appointed by the Nixon Administration, Volcker served as under secretary of the Treasury for international monetary affairs from 1969 to 1974. He played an important role in President Nixon's decision to suspend gold convertibility of the dollar on August 15, 1971, which resulted in the collapse of the Bretton Woods system. Volcker considered the suspension of gold convertibility "the single most important event of his career."[12] Because of his position as under secretary, Volcker served as a board member for OPIC and Fannie Mae.[13] Across the policies he worked on, he acted as a moderating influence on policy, advocating the pursuit of an international solution to monetary problems and acting as a negotiator with other nations' policymakers.[14] After leaving the U.S. Treasury, he spent a year as a senior fellow at Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School (his alma mater). In 1975, he became president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and he retained that role until he became Federal Reserve Chair in August 1979.
President Jimmy Carter nominated Paul Volcker to serve as chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System on July 25, 1979.[15] He was confirmed by the Senate on August 2, 1979, and took office on August 6, 1979.[16] President Ronald Reagan renominated Volcker to a second term in 1983.[17][18]
Inflation emerged as an economic and political challenge in the United States during the 1970s. The monetary policies of the Federal Reserve board, led by Volcker, were widely credited with curbing the rate of inflation and expectations that inflation would continue. US inflation, which peaked at 14.8 percent in March 1980, fell below 3 percent by 1983.[19][20] The Federal Reserve board led by Volcker raised the federal funds rate, which had averaged 11.2% in 1979, to a peak of 20% in June 1981. The prime rate rose to 21.5% in 1981 as well, which helped lead to the 1980–1982 recession,[21] in which the national unemployment rate rose to over 10%. Volcker's Federal Reserve board elicited the strongest political attacks and most widespread protests in the history of the Federal Reserve (unlike any protests experienced since 1922), due to the effects of high interest rates on the construction, farming, and industrial sectors, culminating in indebted farmers driving their tractors onto C Street NW in Washington, D.C. and blockading the Eccles Building.[22] US monetary policy eased in 1982, helping lead to a resumption of economic growth.
The US current account was in permanent deficit by the nineties. Volcker himself tried to remedy the situation by the Plaza Accord in 1986, which called for Germany and Japan to revalue relative to the US dollar.[23]
The combination of the Fed's tight money policies and the expansive fiscal policy of the Reagan Administration (large tax cuts and a major increase in military spending) produced large federal budget deficits and significant macroeconomic imbalances in the U.S. economy. The combination of growing federal debt and high interest rates led to a substantial rise in federal net interest costs. The sharp rise of interest costs and large deficits led Congress to take some steps towards fiscal constraint.[24]
Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz said about him in an interview:
Quote:Paul Volcker, the previous Fed Chairman known for keeping inflation under control, was fired because the Reagan administration didn't believe he was an adequate de-regulator.[25]
Congressman Ron Paul, well known as a harsh critic of the Federal Reserve, offered qualified praise of Volcker:
Quote:Being in Congress in the late 1970s and early 1980s and serving on the House Banking Committee, I met and got to question several Federal Reserve chairmen: Arthur Burns, G. William Miller, and Paul Volcker. Of the three, I had the most interaction with Volcker. He was more personable and smarter than the others, including the more recent board chairmen Alan Greenspan and Ben Bernanke.[26]
In 1983, Volcker received the U.S. Senator John Heinz Award for Greatest Public Service by an Elected or Appointed Official, an award given out annually by Jefferson Awards.[27]
In 2015, Volcker donated his public service papers to Princeton University's Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library.[28]
After leaving the Federal Reserve in 1987, he became chairman of the prominent New York investment banking firm, Wolfensohn & Co., a corporate advisory and investment firm run by James D. Wolfensohn (who later became president of the World Bank).
In 1993 he chaired the Group of 30 Report on the Derivatives market entitled "Derivatives: Practices and Principles" [29] with several appendices and a survey on how practices may have changed since the original 1993 report.[30] The Group of 30 is a "consultative group on international economic and monetary affairs." Volcker was their Chairman emeritus.[31]
In 1996, he took up the chair of the Independent Committee of Eminent Persons (Volcker Commission) to look into the dormant accounts of Jewish victims of the Holocaust lying in Swiss banks. This included a "massive accounting of Swiss bank records." In the midst of a contentious process (the committee was formed by three Jewish representatives and three representatives of Swiss banks), he was able to bring about an agreement among the parties for a settlement of $1.25 billion.[32]
In 2000 he accepted the Chairmanship of the IFRS Trustees, the not-for-profit funding arm of the International Accounting Standards Board (later the IFRS Foundation). The IFRS Foundation is a private sector enterprise based in London which seeks to develop a single global accounting model, subject to adoption country by country under their rules of law.[33]
In April 2004, the United Nations assigned Volcker to research possible corruption in the Iraqi Oil for Food program. In the report summarizing its research, Volcker criticized Kojo Annan, son of then-UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, and the Swiss company Cotecna Inspection SA, Kojo's employer, for trying to conceal their relationship. He concluded in his March 2005, report that "there is no evidence that the selection of Cotecna, in 1998, was subject to improper influence of the Secretary General in the bidding or selection process."[34] While Volcker did not implicate the Secretary General in the selection process, however, he did cast serious doubt on Kofi Annan, whose "management performance ... fell short of the standards that the United Nations Organization should strive to maintain."[35] Volcker was a director of the United Nations Association of the United States of America between 2000 and 2004, prior to his being appointed to the Independent Inquiry by Kofi Annan.
As of October 2006, he was the chairman of the board of trustees of the influential Washington-based financial advisory body, the Group of Thirty, and a member of the Trilateral Commission. He had a long association with the Rockefeller family, not only with his positions at Chase Bank and the Trilateral Commission, but also through membership of the trust committee of Rockefeller Group, Inc., which he joined in 1987. That entity managed, at one time, the Rockefeller Center on behalf of the numerous members of the Rockefeller family. He was a chairman and an honorary trustee of International House, the cultural exchange residence and program center in New York City. He was a founding member of the Trilateral Commission and a long-time member of the Bilderberg Group.
In January 2008, he endorsed Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.[36]
On April 8, 2008, he was the featured speaker at The Economic Club of New York. Volcker discussed "what appears to be in substance a direct transfer of mortgage and mortgage-backed securities of questionable pedigree from an investment bank to the Federal Reserve," and offered his detailed analysis and evaluation of interrelationships among the U.S. capital markets, Federal Reserve policies, and the economy as whole.[37]
Paul Volcker appeared in the Charles Ferguson's movie Inside Job. He was interviewed about current Wall Street CEO pay, claiming it is "excessive."[38]
Volcker was an economic advisor to President Barack Obama, heading the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board.[39][40][41] During the financial crisis, Volcker was extremely critical of banks, saying that their response to the financial crisis was inadequate, and that more regulation of banks is called for.[42][43][44] Specifically, Volcker called for a break-up of the nation's largest banks, prohibiting deposit-taking institutions from engaging in riskier activities such as proprietary trading, private equity, and hedge fund investments.[45][46] Volcker left the board when its charter expired on February 6, 2011, without being included in discussions on how the board would be reconstituted.[47]
On January 21, 2010, President Barack Obama proposed bank regulations which he dubbed "The Volcker Rule," in reference to Volcker's aggressive pursuit of these regulations.[48] Volcker appeared with the president at the announcement. The proposed rules would prevent commercial banks from owning and investing in hedge funds and private equity, and limit the trading they do for their own accounts.[49] According to SEC Commissioner Luis A. Aguilar, "[t]he success or failure of the Volcker Rule will depend on the manner in which banking entities comply with the letter and spirit of the rule, and on the willingness of regulators to enforce it." [50]
Volcker was known to defy the stereotype of a Wall Street insider. A profile in The Week for February 5, 2010, claimed that Volcker doesn't even buy the conventional wisdom that "financial innovation" is necessary for a healthy economy. In fact, he likes to say, "the only useful banking innovation was the invention of the ATM."[51]
On April 6, 2010, at the New-York Historical Society's Global Economic Panel, Volcker commented that the United States should consider adding a national sales tax similar to the Value Added Tax (VAT) imposed in European countries, stating "If, at the end of the day, we need to raise taxes, we should raise taxes." [52]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Volcker
RE: Obituaries - pbrower2a - 12-11-2019
Philip Anthony McKeon (November 11, 1964 – December 10, 2019) was an American child actor, known for playing the role of Tommy Hyatt, the son of the title character, on the sitcom Alice from 1976 to 1985.[1]
McKeon was born in Westbury, New York, the son of Barbara and Donald McKeon, a travel agent.[2] His younger sister is actress Nancy McKeon;[1] they are not related to actor Doug McKeon. McKeon's professional career began when he was 4. His parents took him and Nancy, then age 2, to a nearby modeling audition, and he began his career as a child model, appearing in magazines, newspapers, and television commercials. Over the next several years, he landed numerous modeling stints, followed by several parts on stage and in films. Linda Lavin, who played Alice, first saw Philip at a Broadway performance, thought he was bright and talented, and recommended him for the part of Tommy.
After Alice ended in 1985, McKeon continued to make periodic acting appearances, including Sandman (1993) and Ghoulies IV (1994). He also produced or directed a few films, such as Teresa's Tattoo (1994), which starred his sister Nancy McKeon, Murder in the First (1995), and The Young Unknowns (2000).
After 2000, McKeon worked on radio, first in the news department at KFWB AM 980 in Los Angeles and then as co-host of morning radio show The Breakfast Taco on KWVH-LP 94.1FM in Wimberley, Texas.[3]
McKeon died in Texas on December 10, 2019, following a long illness.[4] He was 55 years old.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_McKeon
RE: Obituaries - pbrower2a - 12-13-2019
actor Danny Aiello
NEW YORK (AP) — Danny Aiello, the blue-collar character actor whose long career playing tough guys included roles in “Fort Apache, the Bronx,” “Moonstruck” and “Once Upon a Time in America” and his Oscar-nominated performance as a pizza man in Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing,” has died. He was 86.
Aiello (pronounced eye-YEL-o) died Thursday night after a brief illness, said his publicist, Tracey Miller, who runs Tracey Miller & Associates. “The family asks for privacy at this time,” she said in a statement.
In a tweet, Cher mourned the man she called “a genius comedic actor.” The two had starred in “Moonstruck” and she called it “one of the happiest times in my life.” Actor Michael Rapaport tweeted that Aiello was a “huge inspiration” and actor Kirk Acevedo mourned: “We lost a great actor today.”
Recognizable, if not famous, for his burly build and husky voice, he was an ex-union president who broke into acting in his 30s and remained a dependable player for decades, whether vicious or cuddly or some of each.
His breakthrough, ironically, was as the hapless lover dumped by Cher in Norman Jewison’s hit comedy “Moonstruck.” His disillusion contributed to the laughter, and although he wasn’t nominated for a supporting-role Oscar (Cher and Olympia Dukakis won in their categories), Aiello was inundated with movie offers.
“Living in New York City gave me training for any role,” he said in a 1997 interview. “I’ve seen people killed, knifed. I’ve got scars on my face. I have emotional recall when I work; the idea is simply to recreate it. I’ve seen it and experienced it. I’ve played gangsters, teachers but most of my work has been in the police area. And for that I’m adored by the police in New York City.”
The ebullient Aiello became a favorite of several directors, among them Woody Allen, who used him in the Broadway play “The Floating Light Globe” and the movies “Broadway Danny Rose,” “The Purple Rose of Cairo” and “Radio Days.”
Lee was another admirer and for “Do the Right Thing” cast Aiello as a pizzeria operator in a black neighborhood of Brooklyn, the movie climaxing with a riot that destroys his eatery. “This is my pizzeria!” he cried. Lee had first offered the role to Robert De Niro, but Aiello’s performance brought him an Oscar nomination for supporting actor.
Among his other movies: “Fort Apache, the Bronx” (as a cop who threw a boy from a building), “Once Upon a Time in America,” “Harlem Nights,” “Jack Ruby” (as Ruby) and”City Hall.” He also appeared in TV miniseries, including “The Last Don,” “A Woman Named Jackie” and in the 1985-86 police series “Lady Blue.” It was Aiello who played Madonna’s father in the pop icon’s “Papa Don’t Preach” video.
A child of New York’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood, Aiello retained the pugnacity he learned on city streets.
“During the early times in my acting career, I would fight at the drop of a hat,” he said in 1985. “I was very hungry. If there were obstacles, I tried to remove them.” He added that sometimes he engaged in fistfights with actors after work because of incidents during filming or rehearsals.
Daniel Louis Aiello Jr. was born June 20, 1933, to Italian parents. His father, a laborer, left the family of seven children, and Daniel started working at age 9 selling newspapers, working in a grocery store and bowling alley, shining shoes and loading trucks. In his teenage years, he joined a street gang and, he claimed, engaged in burglary and safe-cracking. He dropped out of high school before graduating, got married in 1955 and joined the Army.
After three years in the service, he worked at several factory jobs, landing as a baggage man at Greyhound. The ambitious Aiello rose to become president of the transit union.
“I wanted to become a politician,” he told a reporter in 1995. “I always thought that I could talk, that people liked me, that I can represent them.” But when Greyhound accused him of starting a wildcat strike and the union leaders agreed, Aiello quit his job.
He worked at one job after another, and in 1970 was hired as a bouncer at the New York comedy club, Improvisation. One night, he was asked to act as an assistant emcee. “It was no big deal; it was just ‘Danny, go up and announce the acts,’” he recalled in 1997. “There was a little bantering between acts, and I kept that short. I was terrified.”
Yet Aiello soon branched out, playing small roles in the movies “Bang the Drum Slowly” and “The Godfather, Part II,” and as the bartender lead in a musical play “Lamppost Reunion.” Starting in 1980 he averaged three films a year, plus appearances in theater and television. Off-Broadway, he appeared in “The Shoemaker” in 2011.
Aiello and his wife of more than 60 years, Sandy, lived in Ramsey, New Jersey. He also is survived by three children and 10 grandchildren: Rick, Jamie and Stacy. A fourth son, stuntman and stunt coordinator Danny Aiello III, died in May 2010 of pancreatic cancer.
___
Mark Kennedy is at twitter.com/KennedyTwits
RE: Obituaries - pbrower2a - 12-24-2019
I missed Rene Auberjonois, a highly-literate actor and writer.
RE: Obituaries - pbrower2a - 12-24-2019
Ram Dass (born Richard Alpert; April 6, 1931 – December 22, 2019)[1], also known as Baba Ram Dass, was an American spiritual teacher, academic and clinical psychologist, and author of many books, including the seminal[2][3] 1971 book Be Here Now. He was known for his personal and professional associations with Timothy Leary at Harvard University in the early 1960s, for his travels to India and his relationship with Hindu guru Neem Karoli Baba, and for founding the charitable organizations Seva Foundation and Hanuman Foundation. He continued to teach, via his website; produced a podcast, with support from 1440 Multiversity; and pursued mobile app development through the Be Here Now network and the Love, Serve, Remember Foundation.
Much more at Wikipedia[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ram_Dass][/url]
RE: Obituaries - pbrower2a - 12-26-2019
Peter Schreier (29 July 1935 – 25 December 2019)[1] was a German tenor and conductor.
Schreier was born in Meissen, Saxony, Germany, and spent his first years in the small village of Gauernitz, near Meissen, where his father was a teacher, cantor and organist. In June 1945, when Schreier was almost ten years old, and just a few months after the destruction of Dresden, he entered the boarding school of the famous Dresden boys' choir, the Dresdner Kreuzchor (Choir of the Kreuzkirche or Church of the Cross). The choir had just been re-established. The young Peter and the few other choir members and teachers lived in a cellar in the outskirts of Dresden.
The conductor of the Kreuzchor, Rudolf Mauersberger, soon recognized Peter Schreier's great talent. He let him sing many solo alto parts and also created compositions that perfectly fitted Peter's boy voice. Solo recordings of Peter Schreier were made at the time (1948-1951) and are obtainable on compact disc even today.
Schreier was 16 years old when his voice broke, and he became a tenor, as he had passionately wished, because of the several Evangelists - all tenors - in J.S. Bach's Passions and in his Christmas Oratorio. After he had decided to become a professional singer he took lessons, at first privately, then later on at the Dresden Academy of Music. He had enough time to also study choral and orchestral conducting.
Peter Schreier made his professional debut in August 1959, playing the role of the First Prisoner in Fidelio by Beethoven. In the years that followed he was successful as Belmonte in Die Entführung aus dem Serail (Abduction from the Seraglio) and somewhat later as Tamino in The Magic Flute, both operas by Mozart.
In 1963, he was employed by the Berlin State Opera at Unter den Linden. Starting in 1966, he was for many years an annual guest of the Vienna State Opera. That same year he made his debut in Bayreuth as the young seaman in Tristan und Isolde with Karl Böhm as conductor. For 25 years, beginning in 1967, he took part in the program of the annual Salzburg Festival. In 1969, he starred as The Witch in Engelbert Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel, in a CD recording that featured the Staatskapelle Dresden.
He also sang Loge in Das Rheingold and Mime in Siegfried by Wagner. It was important to him to sing the title role of Palestrina, the opera by Hans Pfitzner, not only in Munich but also in East Berlin — a controversial issue at the time in East Germany.
He recorded Bach cantatas with Adele Stolte, Annelies Burmeister, Theo Adam, the Thomanerchor and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra conducted by Erhard Mauersberger, such as the cantata for Pentecost Erschallet, ihr Lieder, erklinget, ihr Saiten! BWV 172 in 1970.[2] Recordings of the Bach's St Matthew Passion have included the version conducted by both Rudolf and Erhard Mauersberger, Karl Richter, Claudio Abbado and Herbert von Karajan. He recorded Bach's St John Passion with Helmuth Rilling.
In June 2000, Schreier left the opera stage. His last role was Prince Tamino in The Magic Flute; he argued that he could no longer act as if he were still a young prince. He ended his singing career on 22 December 2005, combining the roles of evangelist and conductor in a performance of Bach's Christmas Oratorio in Prague.
Throughout his career Schreier was famous as a singer of German Lieder, including the songs of Schubert and Schumann.
From 1970, Schreier was also a conductor with a special interest in the works of Mozart, J.S. Bach, and Haydn. During his singing career, in the performances of Bach's oratorios, he would often combine the roles of Evangelist and conductor.
Peter Schreier was married and lived in Dresden from 1945, in the district of Loschwitz. He died in Dresden on Christmas Day 2019, after a long illness.[3]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Schreier
RE: Obituaries - pbrower2a - 12-27-2019
Don Imus, controversial radio host:
John Donald Imus Jr. (July 23, 1940 – December 27, 2019) was an American radio personality, television show host, recording artist, and author. He was known for his radio show Imus in the Morning which aired on various stations and digital platforms nationwide until 2018. He attended broadcasting school in the 1960s and secured his first radio job in 1968 at KUTY in Palmdale, California. Three years later, he landed the morning spot at WNBC in New York City; he was fired in 1977.
In 1979, Imus returned to WNBC and stayed at the station until 1988 when the show moved to WFAN. He gained widespread popularity when the show entered national syndication in 1993. He was labelled a "shock jock" radio host throughout his later career.[1] He retired from broadcasting in March 2018 after nearly 50 years on the air,[2] and died the following year.
In 1966, Imus enrolled at the Don Martin School of Radio and Television Arts and Sciences in Hollywood after seeing a newspaper advert; he was thrown out for being "uncooperative", but studied enough to obtain a broadcasting license as required by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).[5][9] Upon winning a talent contest at Johnny Otis's night club, he worked as a singer-songwriter with Otis serving as his manager.[11] After hearing a morning radio DJ at KUTY in Palmdale, California, Imus went to the station and successfully persuaded the owner to hire him. He signed on the air on June 2, 1968.[10][12] It was at KUTY where Imus began his on-air character Billy Sol Hargus,[5] a radio evangelist named and inspired by preacher Billy James Hargis and businessman Billie Sol Estes. Imus was an instant success at the station; in two months, he had become number one in the ratings for his time slot and earned a Billboard Award for Air Personality of the Year in a medium-sized market.[5][9]
Imus then had a short stint at KJOY in Stockton, California, from which he was fired.[10] The incident that caused his exit is disputed; some sources reasoned it down to his Eldridge Cleaver look-a-like contest;[5][7] another put it down to him saying "hell" on the air.[13] Imus moved to KXOA in Sacramento, California, which became known for his prank call to a local McDonald's restaurant as a National Guard official to order 1,200 burgers for troops.[14] The segment influenced a later FCC ruling that required all radio DJs to identify themselves when they make phone calls on the air.[9] In 1970, Imus left KXOA for WGAR in Cleveland, Ohio, for a $50,000 salary.[14] In 1971, he won his second Billboard Award, this time in the major radio market category.[9]
On December 2, 1971, less than three years into his radio career, Imus started his morning show at WNBC in New York City,[7] with a $100,000 per year salary.[8][14] On his second day, he overslept and missed the show.[5][7] Imus was involved in various projects during his time at WNBC. In March 1973, he began stand-up comedy and stage act named Imus in the Evening; his first shows were held at The Bitter End in New York City.[15] By the early 1980s, he was earning as much as $10,000 a performance.[16] Imus retired his stand-up in December 1985.[17] He released three albums containing radio segments and songs: 1200 Hamburgers to Go (1972), One Sacred Chicken to Go (1973), and This Honky's Nuts (1974). The latter features material from his stand-up comedy at Jimmy's club in Manhattan.
Imus started to drink heavily during this period which soon affected his working life. He started to miss work and became increasingly unmanageable. He missed 100 days of work in 1973.[5] In August 1977, WNBC decided to reformat the station and let go of their on-air staff.[5] Imus described himself as "awful" and "a jerk" during this time, and struggled to find a suitable job in New York City that satisfied his salary demands.[16] He returned to Cleveland and began an afternoon drive show on WHK in 1978. He found the experience humiliating, but took the job in order to earn money and "get my act together".[5] During this time, Imus recorded episodes of IMUS, plus..., a late night talk show on WNEW-TV.
On September 2, 1979, Imus returned to the air in mornings at WNBC from 5:30 am.[18] By this time, Imus had started to use cocaine until he quit in 1983. He continued to drink, and his on- and off-air behaviour became erratic; he turned up for work without shoes and slept on park benches with large amounts of money in his pocket.[9] By 1981, Imus and Charles McCord secured a deal with Paramount Pictures that involved the development of three screenplays, including work on Joy of Sex.[16][19] In April 1981, Imus renewed his contract with WNBC with a five-year deal worth $500,000 a year with bonuses if he surpasses ratings targets.[20] Following the addition of Howard Stern in afternoons in 1982, he and Imus began a longtime feud though both were paired on WNBC print and television advertisements.[21]
In July 1981, Imus released his first book, God's Other Son, a novel about the life of his on-air character Billy Sol Hargus that he wrote with McCord.[16] It was republished in 1994 and spent seven weeks on The New York Times best seller list.[22] By October 1981, Imus was the most popular radio DJ in the US, reaching 220,000 regular listeners and number one in 12 of 13 demographic categories.[23] Other regular Imus characters included the supposed general manager "Geraldo Santana Banana" (played by doo-wop singer Larry Chance), and "Moby Worm", a monstrous creature who devoured local schools (which was reported on the show's "breaking news updates").
Imus was also the utility announcer for Geraldo Rivera's monthly TV series Good Night America, which aired as a recurring segment of ABC's Wide World of Entertainment program (1973-1976), and he was one of the inaugural video jockeys for the launch of the VH-1 cable network in 1985.
On October 7, 1988, after WNBC was sold to Emmis Broadcasting, the station permanently signed off the air to have WFAN, an all-sports station, move to the station's signal. All the station's staff was let go apart from Imus and his radio show team, who stayed to become WFAN's morning show.
In 1989, Imus signed a five-year deal to continue his show on WFAN.[24] In April 1989, Imus was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame.[25] Later in 1989, Imus accepted an invitation to become an honorary assistant coach for a basketball game between the Fordham Rams and La Salle Explorers the following January.[26]
The show became nationally syndicated in June 1993 when it was simulcast on WEEI in Boston,[27] followed by four other stations nationwide.[28] The began simulcasting on MSNBC in 1996.
Imus was instrumental in raising over $60 million for the Center for the Intrepid, a Texas rehabilitation facility for soldiers wounded in the Iraq War. The largest technological center of its kind in the country, it is designed to help treat disabled veterans and help them with their transition back into the community. Imus has also taken on the cause of the living conditions at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, visiting wounded veterans at the hospital to boost morale. Imus' reporting preceded Army resignations, including that of Lieutenant General Kevin Kiley, then Army Surgeon General. Imus had earlier criticized Kiley's personal fitness for military duty and dedication to wounded soldiers.
On January 22, 2018, Imus announced that the show would air its final episode on March 29, 2018. While his contract with Cumulus Media was set to end in December, the company requested that he retire sooner as a cost-savings measure due to the company's bankruptcy.[29][30]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Imus
RE: Obituaries - pbrower2a - 12-30-2019
One wonders what she could have done. At her age she could have had a long career as a mainstream artist in pop music or could have done much for Inuit culture. Nobody knows what we are missing. Such is the tragedy of death of young, talented people with crossover abilities.
Kelly Fraser (August 8, 1993 – December 24, 2019[1]) was a Canadian Inuk pop singer and songwriter, whose second album, Sedna, received a Juno Award nomination for Indigenous Music Album of the Year at the Juno Awards of 2018.
Born in Igloolik she moved with her family at a young age to Sanikiluaq, Nunavut,[1] in Canada, she was educated at Nunavut Sivuniksavut in Ottawa before completing an indigenous studies program at Nicola Valley Institute of Technology in British Columbia.[3] She first attracted widespread attention in 2013 with a series of Inuktitut-language covers of pop songs, most notably Rihanna's "Diamonds", on YouTube.[4]
She released her debut album, Isuma, in 2014.[4] Her songs included Inuktitut and English language, and musically, combined contemporary pop with traditional Inuit sounds.[4] Her producer reported that she was working on another album, to be called Decolonize, when she died.[4][5]
She died at her home in Winnipeg, Manitoba on December 24, 2019 by suicide. According to her family she had suffered through "...childhood traumas, racism and persistent cyberbullying."
Sedna[edit]
Sedna was released on February 25, 2017, by Nunavut's Hitmakerz record label.[6][3] The title of the album, known as ᓄᓕᐊᔪᒃ (Nuliaju) in Inuktitut, refers to the story of Sedna, the Inuit goddess of the sea, which Fraser decided to modernize in this album.[5] She said, "The goal of the album is to help heal those suffering from the effects of colonization, including the damaging effects of residential school and forced relocation. There is a great need for Inuit artists to directly speak to those affected from the past."[6]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelly_Fraser
RE: Obituaries - pbrower2a - 01-01-2020
First of 2020:
David Joel Stern (September 22, 1942 – January 1, 2020)[1] was an American lawyer and businessman who served as the commissioner of the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1984 to 2014. He started with the NBA in 1966 as an outside counsel, joined the NBA in 1978 as general counsel, and became the league's executive vice president in 1980.[2] He became commissioner in 1984, succeeding Larry O'Brien. He was credited with increasing the popularity of the NBA in the 1990s and 2000s.[3]
Stern served on the Rutgers University Board of Overseers and was a Chair Emeritus of the Board of Trustees of Columbia University. He was also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.[4]
On October 25, 2012, Stern announced that he would step down as NBA commissioner on February 1, 2014, 30 years to the day after beginning his tenure as commissioner. His deputy, Adam Silver, was his successor. At the time of his departure, he was the NBA's longest-serving commissioner.[5] Stern received the Olympic Order in 2012. On February 14, 2014, the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame announced that Stern would be a member of its 2014 induction class.[6] In 2016, he became a member of the FIBA Hall of Fame.
Stern's first affiliation with the NBA came in 1966 when he was hired at Proskauer, Rose, Goetz & Mendelsohn, LLP, the law firm that represents the league. He was the lead attorney representing the firm in the case of Robertson vs National Basketball Association, the landmark lawsuit brought against the NBA by star player Oscar Robertson. Stern helped the league negotiate a settlement that allowed the NBA/ABA merger to proceed in return for the NBA abolishing the "option" clause in its uniform player contract and allowing players to become free agents for the first time.[8][9][10]
In 1978, Stern left Proskauer Rose to become the NBA's General Counsel under Commissioner Larry O'Brien. By 1980, he was Executive Vice President of the NBA. During this time, two landmark decisions were reached with the NBA Players' Association: drug testing and team salary cap.[11] The drug testing dealt with the perception that most basketball players used drugs, that the NBA admitted it had a problem, and it was cleaning it up. The salary cap created a revenue-sharing system where owner and player were effectively partners. Both of these agreements solidified Stern's standing inside NBA circles.
On February 1, 1984, Stern became the Commissioner of the NBA, succeeding Larry O'Brien. It was during that same year (1984–85) that four of the league's marquee players during the 1980s and 1990s—Michael Jordan, Hakeem Olajuwon, Charles Barkley, and John Stockton—entered the NBA.
The arrival of Michael Jordan, in particular, ushered in a new era of commercial bounty for the NBA. With him came his flair and talent for the game, and that brought in shoe contracts from Nike which helped to give the league even more national attention.[12] Jordan and the two other premier basketball legends of the 1980s, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, took the game to new heights of popularity and profit. By 2004, Stern oversaw the NBA expand from 10 to 30 franchises (since 1966), expand into Canada, and televise games in countries around the world.
Stern has been credited with developing and broadening the NBA's audience, especially internationally setting up training camps, playing exhibition games, and recruiting more international players.[13] In addition, with Stern's guidance the NBA opened 12 offices in cities outside the United States, and broadcasted to over 200 territories in over 40 languages.[14]
Stern also helped found Women's National Basketball Association and the National Basketball Development League .[15][16]
Stern anticipated the growth of the digital age, launching NBA.com, NBA TV, and NBA League Pass—the first global streaming service. Under Stern, the NBA moved to the top of the world’s major sports leagues’ social media presence. Stern's strong commitment to social responsibility led to the creation of NBA Cares, a global social responsibility program that builds on the league’s mission to address important social issues in the U.S. and around the world.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Stern
RE: Obituaries - pbrower2a - 01-02-2020
The only man to pitch a no-hitter. let alone a perfect game, in the World Series:
Don James Larsen (August 7, 1929 – January 1, 2020) was an American professional baseball pitcher. During a 15-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career, he pitched from 1953 to 1967 for seven different teams: the St. Louis Browns / Baltimore Orioles (1953–54; 1965), New York Yankees (1955–59), Kansas City Athletics (1960–1961), Chicago White Sox (1961), San Francisco Giants (1962–64), Houston Colt .45's / Houston Astros (1964–65), and Chicago Cubs (1967).
Larsen pitched the sixth perfect game in MLB history, doing so in Game 5 of the 1956 World Series. It is the only no-hitter and perfect game in World Series history and is one of only two no hitters in MLB postseason history (the other being Roy Halladay's in 2010). He won the World Series Most Valuable Player Award and Babe Ruth Award in recognition of his 1956 postseason.
Larsen's most notable accomplishment was pitching the only perfect game in World Series history; it is one of only 23 perfect games in MLB history. He was pitching for the New York Yankees in Game 5 of the 1956 World Series against the Brooklyn Dodgers on October 8, 1956. His perfect game remained the only no-hitter of any type pitched in postseason play until Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Roy Halladay threw a no-hitter against the Cincinnati Reds on October 6, 2010, in Game 1 of the National League Division Series.[18]
Stengel selected Larsen to start Game 2 of the Series. Despite being given a 6–0 lead by the Yankee batters, he lasted only 1.2 innings in a 13–8 loss. He gave up only one hit, a single by Gil Hodges. He walked four batters and allowed 4 runs in the process but, because of an error by first baseman Joe Collins, none of the runs were earned.[19]
Larsen started Game 5 for the Yankees. Larsen's opponent in the game was Brooklyn's Sal Maglie. Larsen needed just 97 pitches to complete the perfect game, and only one Dodger batter (Pee Wee Reese in the first inning) was able to get a 3-ball count. In 1998, Larsen recalled, "I had great control. I never had that kind of control in my life." Brooklyn's Maglie gave up only two runs on five hits. Mickey Mantle's fourth-inning home run broke the scoreless tie. The Yankees added an insurance run in the sixth. After Roy Campanella grounded out to Billy Martin for the second out of the 9th inning, Larsen faced pinch hitter Dale Mitchell, a .311 career hitter. Throwing fastballs, Larsen got ahead in the count at 1–2. On his 97th pitch, a called third strike by home plate umpire Babe Pinelli, Larsen caught Mitchell looking for the 27th and last out.[20] After the pitch, catcher Yogi Berra leaped into Larsen's arms in celebration, setting up the "everlasting image". Larsen's unparalleled game earned him the World Series Most Valuable Player Award and Babe Ruth Award.
When the World Series ended, Larsen did a round of endorsements and promotional work around the United States, but he stopped soon after because it was "disrupting his routine".[21]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Larsen
RE: Obituaries - pbrower2a - 01-03-2020
Ramifications yet to be known:
Qasem Soleimani (Persian: قاسم سلیمانی; 11 March 1957 – 3 January 2020) was an Iranian major general in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and from 1998 until his death, commander of its Quds Force, a division primarily responsible for extraterritorial military and clandestine operations.[19]
Soleimani began his military career in the beginning of the Iran–Iraq War of the 1980s, during which he commanded the 41st Division. He was later involved in extraterritorial operations, providing military assistance to anti-Saddam Shia and Kurdish groups in Iraq, and later Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Palestinian territories. In 2012, Soleimani helped bolster the Syrian government, a key Iranian ally, during the Syrian Civil War, particularly in its operations against ISIS and its offshoots. Soleimani also assisted in the command of combined Iraqi government and Shia militia forces that advanced against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in 2014–2015.[20]
Soleimani was killed in a targeted U.S. airstrike on 3 January 2020 in Baghdad, Iraq. Also killed were Popular Mobilization Forces members. Soleimani was posthumously promoted to lieutenant general.[21][22] Soleimani was suceeded by Esmail Ghaani as commander of the Quds force.[23]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qasem_Soleimani
RE: Obituaries - pbrower2a - 01-03-2020
Jaap Schröder (Conductor, Violin)
Born: December 31, 1925 - Amsterdam, Holland
The distinguished Dutch violinist (regular and Baroque), conductor, and pedagogue, Jaap Schröder, studied violin at the Amsterdam Conservatory and in Paris. He also attended classes in musicology at the Sorbonne.
Jaap Schröder then served as concert-master of the Hilversum Radio Chamber Orchestra, and was a member of the Netherlands String Quartet. In 1975 he founded the Quartetto Esterhazy, which gave performances of music from the Classical era on period instruments. It was dissolved in 1981. He subsequently served as music director and concertmaster of the Academy of Ancient Music in London. Since 1981 he has toured extensively worldwide. In 1982 he was appointed visiting music director of the Smithsonian Chamber Players in Washington, D.C. He also oraganized there the Smith son Quartet. Now he is a faculty member of the School of Music at Yale University. He also teaches at the Universities of Virginia and Maryland, Peabody Conservatory, Case Western Reserve University, and the Banff School of the Arts.
Jaap Schröder has recorded for the Smithsonian label, Harmonia mundi (Haydn quartets and L.v. Beethoven's Op. 18), and Virgin Classics (Mozart quartets and quintets). He has long been engaged in research on unknown violin literature of the 17th and 18th centuries, and asa result has recorded many compositions by such virtuosi as Uccellini, Leclair, and Biber. He has released the six J.S. Bach solo sonatas (Smithsonian), a complete L.v. Beethoven cycle with Jos van Immerseel (Harmonia mundi), Mozart sonatas with Lambert Orkis (Virgin Classics), Schubert and Mendelssohn sonatas with Christopher Hogwood (Decca), and the Schubert Octet with the Atlantis Ensemble (Virgin Classics). As an orchestra leader and soloist he has recorded with the Concerto Amsterdam (Teldec) and performed with the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra, the Drottningholm Court Baroque Orchestra, and the Smithsonian Chamber Orchestra, with which he has recorded works by Mozart and several L.v. Beethoven symphonies (Smithsonian). With Christopher Hogwood, he directed the first complete recording of the Mozart symphonies on Classical instruments with the Academy of Ancient Music (Decca) and recorded Bach’s violin concertos and the Fourth Brandenburg Concerto.
http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Schroder-Jaap.htm
Jaap Schröder or Jaap Schroeder (31 December 1925 – 1 January 2020) was a Dutch violinist, conductor, and pedagogue.[1]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaap_Schr%C3%B6der[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaap_Schr%C3%B6der#cite_note-4][/url]
The pioneers of early-instrument performance of baroque and early classical music have been dying off.
RE: Obituaries - sbarrera - 01-07-2020
Elizabeth Wurtzel (July 31, 1967 – January 7, 2020) Good-bye to a Gen-X icon. Many others of her generation followed in her footsteps and published memoirs of their difficult time - or just interesting time - growing up in America.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Wurtzel
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/elizabeth-wurtzel-prozac-nation-author-dies-52-n1111796
Elizabeth Wurtzel, 'Prozac Nation' author, dies at 52
Wurtzel rose to fame with the publication of "Prozac Nation," which documented her struggles with depression and substance abuse.
Jan. 7, 2020, 12:18 PM EST / Updated Jan. 7, 2020, 4:17 PM EST
By Janelle Griffith
Elizabeth Wurtzel, author of "Prozac Nation: Young and Depressed in America," died Tuesday at a hospital in Manhattan, a family spokeswoman said.
She was 52.
![[Image: 200107-elizabeth-wurtzel-se-1123a_12806d...t-360w.jpg]](https://media3.s-nbcnews.com/j/newscms/2020_02/3174711/200107-elizabeth-wurtzel-se-1123a_12806dafe235ae76c64b886e7776880b.fit-360w.jpg)
The author Elizabeth Wurtzel in a publicity photo in 2000.Neville Elder / Corbis via Getty Images
Wurtzel announced in 2015 that she had breast cancer and underwent a double mastectomy.
Her husband, Jim Freed, said the breast cancer had metastasized to her brain, according to The Washington Post.
"She put up a valiant fight, and we admire her for that," the spokeswoman told NBC News. "We deeply loved her and hope she rests in peace."
Wurtzel rose to fame with "Prozac Nation," published in 1994. The memoir documented her struggles with depression and substance abuse. The book garnered wide acclaim for sparking a dialogue about clinical depression.
Wurtzel also wrote the essay collection "Bitch: In Praise of Difficult Women" and the memoir "More, Now, Again: A Memoir of Addiction," which were met with less acclaim.
The writer David Samuels, a friend since childhood, told The New York Times, "Lizzie's literary genius rests not just in her acres of quotable one-liners but in her invention of what was really a new form, which has more or less replaced literary fiction — the memoir by a young person no one has ever heard of before. It was a form that Lizzie fashioned in her own image, because she always needed to be both the character and the author."
The journalist Ronan Farrow remembered Wurtzel on Monday as "kind and generous."
"I met Lizzie in law school. She started mid-career as I was starting young," Farrow tweeted. "We were both misfits and she was kind and generous and filled spaces that might have otherwise been lonely with her warmth and humor and idiosyncratic voice. She gave a lot to a lot of us. I miss her."
His mother, actress Mia Farrow, said Wurtzel was "brilliant, complex, fascinating, fun and kind."
Others on Twitter praised Wurtzel for her confessional style of writing.
"Elizabeth Wurtzel was a major factor in making personal essay the currency of women writers in the 90s," one Twitter user wrote. "This was a blessing and a curse, both for her and for the rest of us. We all deserved better and to be better, and I'm sad she's gone."
Lindsey Adler, a writer at The Athletic, said: "Elizabeth Wurtzel didn't just change the memoir game. She helped brush back the stigma of psychiatric treatment for mental health issues. Her work did important things and yet, she wasn't always taken seriously because of those issues. She suffered for her candor. RIP"
Journalist Erin Blakemore said it is impossible to convey the impact Wurtzel had in the '90s.
"She was unapologetic, raw, honest. She stood for a very specific form of GenX femininity, confession, rage," Blakemore tweeted. "We learned from her — and from how intensely she was mocked for writing about her own life."