Obituaries -- names from the old Forum

[pbrower2a]

Erich Boehme -- editor, Der Spiegel 
John Allen Mohammed, "Beltway sniper" -- executed
Lino Lacedelli, Italian mountaineer, first to fully scale K2
Albert Crewe, physicist
Liam Clancy, Irish folk musician
Kálmán Markovits --member of the 1956 Hungarian water polo team that overpowered its Soviet counterpart in the wake of the crushed Hungarian Revolution*

Paul Anthony Samuelson -- writer of the most heavily used economics textbook for the survey course in college, at one time.*

Quote:Paul Anthony Samuelson (May 15, 1915 – December 13, 2009) was an American economist known for his contributions to many fields of economics, beginning with his general statement of the comparative statics method in his 1947 book Foundations of Economic Analysis. Samuelson was awarded the John Bates Clark Medal in 1947 and was sole recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1970, the second year of the Prize.

Samuelson was born in Gary, Indiana on May 15, 1915. In 1923 Samuelson moved to Chicago; he studied at the University of Chicago and received his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1935. He then completed his Master of Arts degree in 1936, and his Doctor of Philosophy in 1941 from Harvard University. As a graduate student at Harvard, Samuelson studied economics under Joseph Schumpeter, Wassily Leontief, Gottfried Haberler, and the "American Keynes" Alvin Hansen. Samuelson comes from a family of well-known economists, including brother Robert Summers, sister-in-law Anita Summers, and nephew Larry Summers. He died on December 13, 2009, at the age of 94.

His professional positions include:

* Coming to M.I.T. in 1940 as an Assistant Professor of Economics and was appointed Associate Professor in 1944.
* Serving as a staff member of the Radiation Laboratory from 1944 to 1945
* Professor of International Economic Relations (part-time) at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in 1945.
* Professor at M.I.T. in 1947 and then an Institute Professor.
* Guggenheim Fellow from 1948 to 1949.

Samuelson's book Foundations of Economic Analysis (1947, Enlarged ed. 1983), is considered his magnum opus. It is derived from his doctoral dissertation at Harvard University, and makes use of the classical thermodynamic methods of American thermodynamicist Willard Gibbs.[2] The book proposes to:

* examine underlying analogies between central features in theoretical and applied economics and
* study how operationally meaningful theorems can be derived with a small number of analogous methods (p. 3),

in order to derive "a general theory of economic theories" (Samuelson, 1983, p. xxvi). The book showed how these goals could be parsimoniously and fruitfully achieved, using the language of the mathematics applied to diverse subfields of economics. The book proposes two general hypotheses as sufficient for its purposes:

* maximizing behavior of agents (including consumers as to utility and business firms as to profit) and
* economic systems (including a market and an economy) in stable equilibrium.

In the course of analysis, comparative statics, (the analysis of changes in equilibrium of the system that result from a parameter change of the system) is formalized and clearly stated.

The chapter on welfare economics "attempt(s) to give a brief but fairly complete survey of the whole field of welfare economics" (Samuelson, 1947, p. 252). It also exposits on and develops what became commonly called the Bergson–Samuelson social welfare function. It shows how to represent (in the maximization calculus) all real-valued economic measures of any belief system that is required to rank consistently different feasible social configurations in an ethical sense as "better than," "worse than," or "indifferent to" each other (p. 221).

There are 388 papers to date in Samuelson's Collected Scientific Papers. Stanley Fischer (1987, p. 234) writes that taken together they are unique in their verve, breadth of economic and general knowledge, mastery of setting, and generosity of allusions to predecessors.

Samuelson is also author (and since 1985 co-author) of an influential principles textbook, Economics, first published in 1948, now in its 19th edition. The book has been translated into forty-one languages and sold over four million copies. Written in the shadow of the Great Depression and World War II, it helped to popularize the insights of John Maynard Keynes. A main focus was how to avoid, or at least mitigate, the recurring slumps in economic activity. Samuelson wrote: “It is not too much to say that the widespread creation of dictatorships and the resulting World War II stemmed in no small measure from the world’s failure to meet this basic economic problem [the Great Depression] adequately.” This reflected the concern of Keynes himself with the economic causes of war and the importance of economic policy in promoting peace.

Samuelson is co-editor of Inside the Economist's Mind: Conversations with Eminent Economists (Blackwell Publishing, 2007), along with William A. Barnett, a collection of candid interviews with top economists of the 20th century.

Samuelson is considered one of the founders of neo-Keynesian economics and a seminal figure in the development of neoclassical economics. The following is an excerpt on the reasons for awarding him the Nobel Prize:

More than any other contemporary economist, Samuelson has helped to raise the general analytical and methodological level in economic science. He has simply rewritten considerable parts of economic theory. He has also shown the fundamental unity of both the problems and analytical techniques in economics, partly by a systematic application of the methodology of maximization for a broad set of problems. This means that Samuelson's contributions range over a large number of different fields.

He was also essential to creating the Neoclassical synthesis, which incorporates Keynesian principles with neoclassical principles and dominates current mainstream economics. In 2003, Samuelson was one of the 10 Nobel Prize winning economists signing the Economists' statement opposing the Bush tax cuts.

Samuelson was one of the first economists to generalize and apply mathematical methods developed for the study of thermodynamics to economics. As a graduate student at Harvard, he was the sole protegé of the polymath Edwin Bidwell Wilson, who had himself been the sole protegé of Yale's great physicist Willard Gibbs. Gibbs, the founder of chemical thermodynamics, was also mentor to American economist Irving Fisher and he influenced them both in their ideas on the equilibrium of economic systems.

Samuelson’s 1947 magnum opus Foundations of Economic Analysis, from his doctoral dissertation, is based on the classical thermodynamic methods of American thermodynamicist Willard Gibbs, specifically Gibbs' 1876 paper On the Equilibrium of Heterogeneous Substances.

In 1947, based on the Le Chatelier principle of thermodynamics, a principle taught to Samuelson by Wilson in lecture, he established the method of comparative statics in economics. This method explains the changes in the equilibrium solution of a constrained maximization problem (economic or thermodynamic) when one of the constraints is marginally tightened or relaxed. The Le Chatelier principle was developed by French chemist Henri Louis le Chatelier, who is notable for being one of the first to translate Gibbs’ equilibrium papers (in French, 1899). Samuelson’s use of the Le Chatelier principle has proven to be a very powerful tool and found widespread use in modern economics. Attempts at neo-classical equilibrium economics analogies with thermodynamics generally, go back to Guillaume and Samuelson.

Stanislaw Ulam once challenged Samuelson to name one theory in all of the social sciences which is both true and nontrivial. Several years later, Samuelson responded with David Ricardo's theory of comparative advantage: That it is logically true need not be argued before a mathematician; that is not trivial is attested by the thousands of important and intelligent men who have never been able to grasp the doctrine for themselves or to believe it after it was explained to them.

For many years, Samuelson wrote a column for Newsweek. One article included Samuelson's most quoted remark, and a favorite economics joke:

To prove that Wall Street is an early omen of movements still to come in GNP, commentators quote economic studies alleging that market downturns predicted four out of the last five recessions. That is an understatement. Wall Street indexes predicted nine out of the last five recessions! And its mistakes were beauties.

Source: Wikipedia

Yes, he was the author of my Economics 1 textbook in college. It read much like a chemistry text, which is a compliment.

Oral Roberts, televangelist
Fred Honsman, right-wing radio (KDKA) commentator

Jennifer Jones, actress*
Roy Disney, intellectual property magnate (nephew of Walt, and the last family member in the corporate operation*
Brittany Murphy, actress
Grand Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazer -- Iranian clergy and critic of the clerical dictatorship*
Abdurrahman Wahid, former Indonesian President*


-- begin 2010 --

Tiger expert, Billy Arjan Singh

Began as a hunter of the ultimate macho prize (the Indian tiger, the most fearsome land predator that a man could face before World War II ) to its protector toward the end of his life.  Oh, how times change!

Jean Carroll, stand-up comedian of the 1940s and 1950s
James von Brunn, who shot up the Holocaust Museum

Quote:One of the lowest bolgie of Dante's Inferno, almost certainly, if not in the recent annex established for Nazis and Stalinists, the bolgia that Dante never visited because he was born too soon to do so.

What a shock it would be if he found upon his death that God is... Jewish! And, of course, that He hates Nazis as the most egregious and damnable of blasphemers as well as murderers, torturers, and thieves.

He was a piece of work before he reached advanced age, so I don't have any sympathy for him.

Oh, in case you think it is a religious statement on my part -- I suggested that Serb butchers of Muslims would find it quite unpleasant to discover after death that God is Allah and that Muhammad is His Greatest Prophet.

Miep Gies, who harbored Anne Frank's family and discovered the diary
Teddy Pendergrass, musician
Glenn Bell, founder of Taco Bell
Robert Parker, police fiction writer (Spenser)
Ali Hassan al-Majid, a/k/a "Chemical Ali", Iraqi war criminal

Comment on him:

Quote:He was one of the worst persons to have ever lived, one of the few who could be compared to the worst Nazi war criminals, Japanese war criminals of World War II, Stalinist henchmen, or Khmer Rouge without being a Nazi, Japanese military figure of World War II, Stalinist, or Khmer Rouge.

Hanging is gentle in contrast to what his eternally-damned soul now experiences. Even being mauled to death by a tiger is gentler.

... As I have said of Dante's Inferno, Dante wrote his Inferno a few centuries too early; he didn't have a bolgia nasty enough for Nazis, Stalinists, Japanese political and military leaders of World War II, Khmer Rouge, and leading Ba'athists of Iraq. Maybe it is simply so disgusting that it defies description even by the Great Poet.

Quote:Last edited by pbrower2a; 01-27-2010 at 01:21 AM.

former US Senator Charles Mathias, one of the last real liberal Republicans in the Senate
Pernell Roberts, American actor
J.D. Salinger, writer of The Catcher in the Rye, the book that we were absolutely not supposed to read but dideven if we were good kids
Howard Zinn, writer
Jean Simmons, actress
Kate McGarrigle, folk singer
Peter Calvocoressi, head of the cryptographic unit that did incalculable damage to the Nazi war machine*
Dick McGuire, Basketball Hall of Famer*
former US Representative John Murtha
Walter Morrison, inventor of the Frisbee
Phil Harris, a star of Deadliest Catch
former US Congressman Charlie Wilson, early supporter of anti-Soviet resistance in Afghanistan
Irina Arkhipova, Russian opera singer*
Al Haig, soldier and political operative
Orlando Zapato Tamayo, Cuban dissident (hunger strike)*
David Soyer, American cellist*
Sylvia Pressler, judge who opened Little League baseball to girls
Merlin Olsen, football star and actor
Dorothy Janis, one of the last silent film actors. Not Silent generation -- silent movies!*
Doris "Granny D" Haddock, American politician
Cory Haim, actor
Fess Parker, actor "Daniel Boone"
Pak Nam-Gi, North Korean purge victim*
Stewart Udall, Secretary of the Interior under JFK and LBJ*
Wolfgang Wagner, German musical figure*

Quote:Wolfgang Wagner (30 August 1919 – 21 March 2010) was best known as the director (Festspielleiter) of the Bayreuth Festival, a position he initially assumed alongside his brother Wieland in 1951 until the latter's death in 1966. From then on, he assumed total control until he retired in 2008, although many of the productions which he commissioned were severely criticized in their day. He had been plagued by family conflicts and criticism for many years. He was the son of Siegfried Wagner, the grandson of Richard Wagner, and the great-grandson of Franz Liszt.

His mother, Winifred Wagner (née Williams-Klindworth), was English. He was born at Wahnfried, the Wagner family home in Bayreuth in Bavaria. In addition to his elder brother Wieland (1917-66), he had an elder sister Friedelind Wagner (1918-1991), and a younger sister Verena Wagner (Verena Lafferenz, born 1920).

During the 1920s Winifred Wagner was an admirer, supporter and friend of the Nazi leader, Adolf Hitler, who became a regular visitor to Bayreuth. Wolfgang Wagner first met Hitler in 1923, when he was four years old, and the Wagner children were encouraged to call him "Uncle Adolf" or "Uncle Wolf" (his nickname). When Hitler became Chancellor in 1933, he showered favours on the Wagner family. Wolfgang was a member of the Hitler Youth but never joined the Nazi Party. He joined the German Army in 1939. During the Polish campaign he was severely wounded in the arm, and he was discharged as medically unfit in June 1940 (Hitler visited him in the hospital).

Wolfgang worked with his older brother Wieland Wagner in 1951 on the resurrection of the Bayreuth Festival following Germany's collapse after the Second World War. Since that time, the festival has run on an annual basis. On Wieland's death in 1966, Wolfgang became the sole director of the festival and, under his directorship, the famous Bayreuth Festspielhaus underwent extensive renovations. He stepped down on 31 August 2008 when the year's festival had finished.

Both brothers contributed productions to the Bayreuth Festival, but Wolfgang did not enjoy the same critical reception as Wieland did. Like his brother, Wolfgang favoured modern, minimalist stagings of his grandfather's works in his productions. As director of the festival, Wolfgang commissioned work from many guest producers, including innovative and controversial stagings such as the 1976 production of the Ring Cycle by Patrice Chéreau. However, he confined the stagings at the festival to the last ten operas by his grandfather that make up the Bayreuth canon established under the direction of his grandmother Cosima Wagner.

Wolfgang attracted some criticism for what was seen as his autocratic sway over the Festival, much of which comes from within the Wagner family itself. Wieland's daughters, Daphne and Nike Wagner, have accused their uncle of ill-treating their branch of the family, saying that he drove them and their mother out of the family home following their father's death and destroyed the scenery, models and correspondence with artists relating to their father's work. Wagner writer Barry Millington notes two rather inconsistent threads of criticism about Wolfgang's role in managing the presentation of the family's connection with the Nazis. Daphne accuses him of blackening her father's name by releasing information on Wieland's connection with the Bayreuth satellite of the Flossenbürg concentration camp, while Wolfgang's own son, Gottfried, accuses him of having tried to suppress all information about the Wagner grandchildren's connection with the Nazis.

Nonetheless, he helped make the Bayreuth one of the most popular destinations in the world of opera. There was a ten-year waiting list for tickets. In 1994, he invited Werner Herzog (who had staged Lohengrin at Bayreuth in 1987) to make a documentary about the festival, which was released under the title Die Verwandlung der Welt in Musik (The Transformation of the World into Music).

Source: Wikipedia

[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfgang_Wagner][/url]