Obituaries

[Eric the Green]

Lawrence Ferlinghetti (March 24, 1919 – February 22, 2021)

He spoke for me.

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Vernon Eulion Jordan Jr. (August 15, 1935 – March 1, 2021) was an American business executive and civil rights activist in the United States. After working for several Civil Rights Movement organizations, he was chosen by President Bill Clinton as a close adviser. Jordan was an influential figure in American politics.

Vernon Jordan was born in Atlanta, Georgia, to Mary Jordan and Vernon E. Jordan Sr.; he has a brother, Windsor. He was a cousin of James Shaw, a musician who is professionally billed as The Mighty Hannibal.[1]

Jordan grew up with his family in the segregated societal cosmos of Atlanta during the 1950s. He was an honors graduate of David T. Howard High School. Rejected for a summer internship with an insurance company after his sophomore year in college because of his race, he earned money for college for a few summers for college by working as a chauffeur to former city mayor Robert Maddox, then a banker. Jordan graduated from DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, in 1957.[2] In an interview with Robert Penn Warren for the book Who Speaks for the Negro?, Jordan described his difficulties at DePauw as the only black student in a class of 400.[3] He earned a J.D. degree at Howard University School of Law in 1960. He is a member of the Omega Psi Phi and Sigma Pi Phi fraternities.

Jordan returned to Atlanta to join the law office of Donald L. Hollowell, a civil rights activist. The firm, including Constance Motley, sued the University of Georgia for racial discrimination in its admission policies. The suit ended in 1961 with a Federal Court order demanding the admission of two African Americans, Charlayne Hunter and Hamilton E. Holmes. Jordan personally escorted Hunter past a group of angry white protesters to the university admissions office.

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Jordan working on a voter education project in 1967.

After leaving private law practice in the early 1960s, Jordan became directly involved in activism in the field, serving as the Georgia field director for the [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Association_for_the_Advancement_of_Colored_People]National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. From the NAACP, he moved to the Southern Regional Council and then to the Voter Education Project.

In 1970, Jordan became executive director of the United Negro College Fund.[4] He was president of the National Urban League from 1971 to 1981.

While still with the National Urban League, Jordan in 1981 said of the Ronald Reagan administration:

Quote:I do not challenge the conservatism of this administration. I do challenge its failure to exhibit a compassionate conservatism that adapts itself to the realities of a society ridden by class and race distinction.[5]

That year he resigned from the National Urban League to take a position as legal counsel with the Washington, D.C., office of the Dallas law firm of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld.



On May 29, 1980, Jordan was shot and seriously wounded outside the Marriott Inn in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He was accompanied by Martha Coleman at the time. Police thought initially that it might have been a domestic incident related to Coleman's life.[6] Then-president Jimmy Carter visited Jordan while he was recovering, an event that became the first story covered by the new network CNN.[7] Joseph Paul Franklin was acquitted in 1982 of charges of attempted murder. However, in 1996, after having been convicted of murder in another case, Franklin admitted to having committed the shooting.[8]

Jordan, a friend and political adviser to Bill Clinton, served as part of Clinton's transition team in 1992–93, shortly after Clinton was elected president. In the words of The New York Times:

Quote:For Mr. Clinton, Mr. Jordan's roles have been manifold: Golfing companion. Smoother of ruffled feathers (he put the president back in touch with Zoë Baird after the withdrawal of her nomination to be attorney general). Consoler in chief (after Mr. Clinton was defeated for re-election as governor in 1980, after the suicide of Vincent W. Foster Jr. in 1993). Conduit to the high and mighty (he took Mr. Clinton in 1991 to the Bilderberg conference in Germany, an exclusive annual retreat for politicians and businessmen). Go-between (he told Mike Espy he had to go as secretary of agriculture, helped win Warren Christopher a larger role as secretary of state and sounded out Gen. Colin L. Powell for a Cabinet job).[9]

In 1998 Jordan helped Monica Lewinsky, a former White House intern, after she left the White House. His role was considered controversial given the scandal that the Clinton administration had suffered because of the president's involvement with the intern.[10] On October 1, 2003, a United States court of appeals rejected Jordan's claim for reimbursement for legal services related to assisting Clinton in scandals regarding Lewinsky and Paula Jones. 

More at Wikipedia.

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German oboist and conductor Helmut Winschermann



Winschermann was born in Mülheim an der Ruhr in 1920.[1] He first studied violin at the Folkwangschule where he was pointed at the oboe which he studied with Johann Baptist  Schlee [de].[2] He studied also at the Conservatoire de Paris.[1] After only one year of oboe studies, he was engaged at the Witten municipal orchestra, followed by Bad Homburg and Oberhausen.[2] He served in the military in World War II.[2] After the war, he was principal oboe with the Rundfunkorchester Frankfurt.[2][3]


With the flautist Kurt Redel and harpsichordist Irmgard Lechner, he was a co-founder of the chamber music ensemble Collegium Pro Arte, later called the Collegium Instrumentale Detmold.[4][1]

In 1956 he was appointed principal chair of the oboe department at the Hochschule für Musik Detmold, having taught there since 1948[3][5] when the institution was founded.[2] His students include Hansjörg Schellenberger, Fumiaki Miyamoto, Ingo Goritzki, Günther Passin and Gernot Schmalfuß.[6] He held the professorship until his retirement in 1985.[2]

He recorded Mozart's Oboe Quartet in F major (K.370) with the Kehr Trio, issued in 1957 on Telefunken LGX 66065 in the UK.[7] He maintained a touring schedule as a soloist, and frequently collaborated with the Cappella Coloniensis, the Chamber Orchestra of the Saar [de] conducted by Karl Ristenpart, and Karl Münchinger's Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra.[8]

Winschermann founded the instrumental ensemble Deutsche Bachsolisten in 1960,[9] in order to provide historically informed performances of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach and his baroque contemporaries. He initially divided his time between playing the oboe and conducting the group, but later focussed on conducting solely.[3] Under his direction they have made a multitude of recordings and toured widely internationally. They are particularly popular in Japan, having visited there at least 14 times.[3]

In 2010 the group celebrated its 50th anniversary in a concert at the Beethovenhalle in Bonn, with the 90-year-old Winschermann conducting his own orchestration of Bach's Goldberg Variations. He turned 100 in March 2020,[10] and was found dead at his home in Bonn on 4 March 2021.[11]

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Former head of recording-music giant EMI


Menon started his career with the British music record and publishing company, EMI, in 1956 after graduating from university. He moved over to EMI's Indian subsidiary Gramophone Company of India in 1957 and went on to become its chairman in 1969.[6] He would work with the group for 34 years in various positions.[6]
As its first chairman and CEO, Menon formed EMI Music Worldwide in 1978, which brought together under his unified global management all of EMI Group's records and music publishing interests throughout the world. Among the world's foremost companies in the entertainment business, the multibillion-dollar EMI Music Group headquartered in London has operations in over 46 countries.

When Thorn Electrical Industries and EMI joined together to form Thorn EMI, one of the world's largest companies in their respective businesses, Menon was appointed Director of the parent Board of the merged company at its inception in December 1979. He remained Chairman of EMI Music Worldwide and a Director of the Thorn EMI plc Board until he retired from the Group in 1990.

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Menon (right) with [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_McCartney]Paul (center) and Linda McCartney in 1976

During his many years in the international music business, Menon was closely associated with the careers of a number of outstanding popular artists such as the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Queen, Jack Jersey, Glen Campbell, Kenny Rogers, Tina Turner, Anne Murray, Peggy Lee, Paul McCartney & Wings, Duran Duran, Nancy Wilson, Iron Maiden, Diana Ross, Bob Seger, Carole King, and Steve Miller. He also worked with classical performers like Yehudi Menuhin, Herbert von Karajan, Maria Callas, Ricardo Muti, Itzhak Perlman, and Daniel Barenboim. In his recent memoirs, Duran Duran's Andy Taylor noted, "We decided to go with EMI, because we knew they had a global network and could launch bands across America. The company was headed by the legendary music industry figure, Bhaskar Menon, who'd presided over EMI during the rise of the Beatles." (Andy Taylor, quoted in Wild Boy: My Life in Duran Duran)

As Chairman of EMI India, Menon was involved in the careers of that country's leading film, popular and classical singers and musicians. During his Chairmanship of EMI Films Inc, the company produced such masterpieces as the multi-Oscar-winning Deer Hunter, Murder on the Orient Express, and Passage to India.

In 1973, Menon played the central role in leading the promotion and marketing of Pink Floyd's album The Dark Side of the Moon. He put the power of Capitol/EMI behind the band with a tremendous marketing, PR and advertising effort led by Capitol's vice president Al Coury. The album which has been called "the most technically advanced recording of its time" was hailed as a unique blend of studio wizardry and outstanding musical innovation. As such it might have achieved some success without Menon's support, but Pink Floyd's sales in the US had been modest up to that point, and the promotion efforts of Al Coury certainly encouraged success internationally. In the UK, Pink Floyd had blocked the release of singles. Menon pushed for the songs, "Us and Them" and "Time" to be edited and released as singles for American radio. The Dark Side of the Moon spent 950 weeks on the USA-based Billboard 200 album chart, the longest duration of any album in history. It is also the fourth highest selling album globally of all time, selling more than forty million units. Menon was featured in the documentary "The Making of The Dark Side of the Moon."

Menon’s contributions to the Dark Side of the Moon album’s success were recognized and when asked in an interview whether he was surprised at the results of his efforts he was quoted as saying, "I always believed that the record would be very, very successful. It was gratifying, but not surprising."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhaskar_Menon

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Roger Harrison Mudd[1] (February 9, 1928 – March 9, 2021) was an American broadcast journalist who was a correspondent and anchor for CBS News and NBC News. He also worked as the primary anchor for The History Channel. Previously, Mudd was weekend and weekday substitute anchor for the CBS Evening News, the co-anchor of the weekday NBC Nightly News, and the host of the NBC-TV Meet the Press and American Almanac TV programs. Mudd was the recipient of the Peabody Award, the Joan Shorenstein Award for Distinguished Washington Reporting,[2] and five Emmy Awards.[3]


Mudd earned a Bachelor of Arts in History from Washington and Lee University, where one of his classmates was author Tom Wolfe, in 1950, and a Master of Arts in History from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1953.[6][7] Mudd was a member of Delta Tau Delta international fraternity.[8] He was initiated as an alumnus member of Omicron Delta Kappa at Washington and Lee in 1966.[9]
Mudd began his journalism career in Richmond, Virginia as a reporter for The Richmond News Leader and for radio station WRNL.[2] At the News Leader, he worked at the rewrite desk during spring 1953 and became a summer replacement on June 15 that year.[10] The News Leader ran its first story with a Mudd byline on June 19, 1953.[11]
At WRNL radio, Mudd presented the daily noon newscast. In his memoir The Place to Be, Mudd describes an incident from his first day at WRNL in which he laughed hysterically on-air after mangling a news item about the declining health of Pope Pius XII, mispronouncing his name as "Pipe Poeus". Because Mudd failed to silence his microphone properly, an engineer intervened.[12] WRNL later gave Mudd his own daily broadcast, Virginia Headlines.[13] In the fall of 1954, Mudd enrolled in the University of Richmond School of Law, but dropped out after one semester.[14]

In the late 1950s, Mudd moved to Washington, D.C., to become a reporter with WTOP News,[2] the news division of the radio and television stations owned by Washington Post-Newsweek. Although WTOP News was a local news department, it also covered national stories. At first Mudd did the 6:00 a.m. newscast for WTOP and he did local news segments on the local TV program Potomac Panorama.
During the fall of 1956, Mudd hosted the first newscast he wrote, WTOP's 6:00 p.m. newscast, that included a weekly commentary piece, all without "the constraints of the wire service vocabulary".[15] Mudd produced a half-hour TV documentary in summer 1957 advocating the need for a third airport in the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area.
In September that year, Mudd conducted his first live TV studio interview. The interview was with Dorothy Counts, a black teenage girl who suffered racial harassment at her otherwise all-white high school in Charlotte, North Carolina.[16] Then in March 1959 WTOP replaced Don Richards with Mudd for its 11 p.m. newscast.[17]
CBS News[edit]
CBS News was located on the third floor of WTOP's studios at 40th and Brandywine in northwest Washington, D.C. Mudd quickly came to the attention of CBS News and moved "downstairs" to join the Washington bureau on May 31, 1961.[18][3] For most of his career at CBS, Mudd was a Congressional correspondent. Mudd was also the anchor of the Saturday edition of CBS Evening News and frequently substituted on the weeknight broadcasts when the anchorman Walter Cronkite was on vacation or working on special assignments.[3] During the Civil Rights Movement, Mudd anchored the August 28, 1963 coverage of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom for CBS.[19]
On November 13, 1963, CBS-TV broadcast the documentary Case History of a Rumor, in which Mudd interviewed Rep. James Utt, a Republican of Santa Ana, California, about a rumor that Utt spread about Africans who were supposedly working with the United Nations to take over the United States.[20] Utt sued CBS-TV in U.S. Federal Court for libel, but the court dismissed the case.[21]
In 1964, Mudd became nationally known for covering the two-month filibuster of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, starting in late-March.[3]

Mudd also covered numerous political campaigns. He was paired with CBS journalist Robert Trout for the August 1964 Democratic National Convention anchor booth, temporarily displacing Walter Cronkite, in an unsuccessful attempt to match the popular NBC Chet Huntley–David Brinkley anchor team.[2] Mudd covered the 1968 Presidential campaign of United States Senator Robert F. Kennedy and interviewed him at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles only minutes before Kennedy was assassinated on June 5, 1968.[3]
Mudd hosted the seminal documentary The Selling of the Pentagon in 1971.[22] He was a candidate to succeed Walter Cronkite as anchor of the CBS Evening News.[23] Despite substantial support for Mudd within the ranks of CBS News and an offer to co-host with Dan Rather, network management gave the position to Rather after the longtime White House and 60 Minutes correspondent threatened to leave the network for ABC News.[24]

Mudd is often remembered for an interview he conducted with Senator Ted Kennedy for a CBS Reports special on November 4, 1979, Teddy, telecast three days before Kennedy announced his challenge to President Jimmy Carter for the 1980 Democratic Presidential nomination. In addition to questioning Kennedy about the Chappaquiddick incident, Mudd asked, "Senator, why do you want to be President?" Kennedy's stammering answer, which has been described as "incoherent and repetitive",[25] as well as "vague, unprepared"[26], raised serious questions about his motivation in seeking the office, and marked the beginning of the sharp decline in Kennedy's poll numbers.[25] Carter defeated Kennedy for the nomination for a second presidential term.[2] Although the Kennedy family refused to permit any further interviews by Mudd, the interview helped strengthen Mudd's reputation as a leading political reporter.[27]
Broadcaster and blogger Hugh Hewitt and Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson have used the term "Roger Mudd moment" to describe a self-inflicted disastrous encounter with the press by a presidential candidate.[26]

In 1980, Mudd and Dan Rather were in contention to succeed Walter Cronkite as the weeknight anchor of the CBS Evening News. After CBS awarded the job to Rather, Mudd chose to leave CBS News and he accepted an offer to join NBC News.[28] He co-anchored the NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw from April 1982 until September 1983, when Brokaw took over as sole anchor.[29]
From 1984 to 1985, Mudd was the co-moderator of the NBC Meet the Press program with Marvin Kalb, and later served as the co-anchor with Connie Chung on two NBC news magazines, American Almanac and 1986.[30]
PBS and The History Channel[edit]

From 1987 to 1992, Mudd was an essayist and political correspondent with the MacNeil–Lehrer Newshour on PBS. He was a visiting professor at Princeton University and Washington and Lee University from 1992 to 1996. Mudd was also a primary anchor for over ten years with The History Channel, where many of his programs are still repeated in reruns. Mudd retired from full-time broadcasting in 2004, and remained involved, until his death, with documentaries for The History Channel. 
.[31][22]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Mudd

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Marvelous Marvin Hagler stopped Thomas Hearns in a fight that lasted less than eight minutes yet was so epic that it still lives in boxing lore.

Two years later, Hagler was so disgusted after losing a decision to Sugar Ray Leonard -- stolen, he claimed, by the judges -- that he never fought again.

One of the great middleweights in boxing history, Hagler died Saturday at the age of 66. His wife, Kay, announced his death on the Facebook page for Hagler's fans.

"I am sorry to make a very sad announcement,'' she wrote. "Today unfortunately my beloved husband Marvelous Marvin passed away unexpectedly at his home here in New Hampshire. Our family requests that you respect our privacy during this difficult time.''

EDITOR'S PICKS

Marvelous Marvin Hagler won boxing's greatest prize by walking away

The boxing world reacts to the death of Marvelous Marvin Hagler
Hagler fought on boxing's biggest stages against its biggest names, as he, Leonard, Hearns and Roberto Duran dominated the middleweight classes during a golden time for boxing in the 1980s. Quiet with a brooding public persona, Hagler fought 67 times over 14 years as a pro out of Brockton, Massachusetts, finishing 62-3-2 with 52 knockouts.

"If they cut my bald head open, they will find one big boxing glove,'' Hagler once said. "That's all I am. I live it.''

Hagler was unmistakable in the ring, fighting out of a southpaw stance with his bald head glistening in the lights. He was relentless and he was vicious, stopping opponent after opponent during an eight-year run that began with a disputed draw against Vito Antuofermo in 1979 that he later avenged.

Hagler fought with a proverbial chip on his shoulder, convinced that boxing fans and promoters alike didn't give him his proper due. He was so upset that he wasn't introduced before a 1982 fight by his nickname of Marvelous that he went to court to legally change his name.

"He was certainly one of the greatest middleweights ever but one of the greatest people that I've ever been around and promoted,'' promoter Bob Arum said. "He was a real man, loyal and just fantastic person.''


Marvin Hagler was 62-3-2 with 52 knockouts from 1973 to 1987, and he was the undisputed middleweight champion from 1980 to 1987. Manny Millan /Sports Illustrated via Getty Images
Any doubts Hagler wasn't indeed Marvelous were erased on a spring night in 1985. He and Hearns met in one of the era's big middleweight clashes outdoors at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, and when the opening bell rang, they traded punches for three minutes in an opening round many consider the best in boxing history.

Hagler would go on to stop Hearns in the third round, crumpling him to the canvas with a barrage of punches even as blood poured out of a large gash on his forehead that nearly caused the referee to stop the fight earlier in the round.

"When they stopped the fight to look at the cut, I realized they might be playing games and I wasn't going to let them take the title away," Hagler said later. "It was a scary feeling. I thought, 'Why are they stopping this fight?' I didn't realize I was bleeding. It wasn't in my eyes. Then I knew I had to destroy this guy.''

Arum said Hagler simply willed himself to victory over Hearns, whose big right hand was feared in the division but couldn't keep Hagler at bay.

"That was an unbelievable fight,'' Arum said. "Probably the greatest fight ever.''

Hearns said Saturday he was thinking about Hagler and their historic fight. Hagler wore a baseball cap with the word "War'' while promoting it on a 23-city tour with Hearns that Arum said made the fighters despise each other before they even entered the ring.

"I can't take anything away from him,'' Hearns told The Associated Press. "His awkwardness messed me up, but I can't take anything away from him. He fought his heart out, and we put on a great show for all time.''

Hagler would fight only two more times, stopping John Mugabi a year later and then meeting Leonard, who was coming off a three-year layoff from a detached retina, in his final fight in 1987. Hagler was favored going into the fight, and many thought he would destroy Leonard -- but Leonard had other plans.

While Hagler pursued him around the ring, Leonard fought backing up, flicking out his left jab and throwing combinations that didn't hurt Hagler but won him points on the ringside scorecards. Still, when the bell rang at the end of the 12th round, many thought Hagler had pulled out the fight -- only to lose a controversial split decision.

Hagler, who was paid $19 million, left the ring in disgust and never fought again. He moved to Italy to act and never really looked back.

"I feel fortunate to get out of the ring with my faculties and my health,'' he said a year later.

Hagler took the long route to greatness, fighting mostly in the Boston area before finally getting his chance at the 160-pound title in 1979 against Antuofermo as a co-main event, with Leonard fighting Wilfred Benitez on the same card. Hagler bloodied Antuofermo and seemed to win the fight, but when the scorecards were tallied, he was denied the belt with a draw.



Hagler would travel to London the next year to stop Alan Minter to win the title, and he held it for the next seven years before his disputed loss to Leonard.

Arum remembered being at a black-tie event honoring top fighters a year later that was attended by Hagler and Leonard, among others. He said Leonard came up to him and pointed to Hagler across the room and suggested he go talk to him about a rematch that would have earned both fighters unbelievable purses.

"I went over to Marvin and said Ray is talking about a rematch,'' Arum said. "He glared at me as only Marvin could and said, 'Tell Ray to get a life.'''



Hagler was born in Newark, New Jersey, and moved with his family to Brockton in the late 1960s. He was discovered as an amateur by the Petronelli brothers, Goody and Pat, who ran a gym in Brockton and would go on to train Hagler for his entire pro career.

Hagler was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame and World Boxing Hall of Fame in 1983.

e at the 160-pound title in 1979 against Antuofermo as a co-main event, with Leonard fighting Wilfred Benitez on the same card. Hagler bloodied Antuofermo and seemed to win the fight, but when the scorecards were tallied, he was denied the belt with a draw.

Hagler would travel to London the next year to stop Alan Minter to win the title, and he held it for the next seven years before his disputed loss to Leonard.

Arum remembered being at a black-tie event honoring top fighters a year later that was attended by Hagler and Leonard, among others. He said Leonard came up to him and pointed to Hagler across the room and suggested he go talk to him about a rematch that would have earned both fighters unbelievable purses.

"I went over to Marvin and said Ray is talking about a rematch,'' Arum said. "He glared at me as only Marvin could and said, 'Tell Ray to get a life.'''

Hagler was born in Newark, New Jersey, and moved with his family to Brockton in the late 1960s. He was discovered as an amateur by the Petronelli brothers, Goody and Pat, who ran a gym in Brockton and would go on to train Hagler for his entire pro career.

Hagler was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame and World Boxing Hall of Fame in 1983.

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Billionaire magnate of construction, Stephen Davison Bechtel

Stephen Davison Bechtel Jr. (May 10, 1925 – March 15, 2021) was an American billionaire, businessman, civil engineer, and co-owner of the Bechtel Corporation. He is the son of Stephen Davison Bechtel Sr. and grandson of Warren A. Bechtel, who founded the Bechtel Corporation. He was known for expanding the global footprint of the corporation through several of its international projects. He had a bachelors' degree from the Purdue University and a masters' degree from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Bechtel joined the family business in 1948. While he initially wanted to enter into home building, he was convinced by his father by showcasing Bechtel Corporation's global projects in a three week trip.[2] He succeeded his father, Stephen Bechtel Sr., as president of Bechtel Corporation in 1960 and chairman in 1969.[2] His career with the company spanned 30 years until his retirement in 1990. During his time, the company which was earlier known for its work on the Hoover Dam and the Bay Area Rapid Transit, expanded its global footprint by working on the Channel Tunnel between France and the United Kingdom, King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh as well as Jubail Industrial City in Saudi Arabia. The latter is considered one of the largest civil engineering projects of the time.[2] The company's role in Boston's infrastructure projects, titled Big Dig, in the 1990s came into scruitiny, with the company having to pay to settle litigation over a ceiling collapse and leaky tunnels.[2]


During his time the company pivoted from majority ownership residing within the family to a model that had majority ownership by managers outside of the family.[2] He held 20 percent of the company shares and his net worth in 2021 was estimated by Forbes to be $2.9 billion.[2] After his retirement from Bechtel Corporation, he headed the real estate company Fremont Group, which was also an early investor in Starbucks Corporation.[2]

Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Bechtel to the President’s Committee on Urban Housing.[6] Richard Nixon named him to membership on the National Industrial Pollution Control Council, the National Commission on Productivity, the Labor Management Advisory Committee, and the National Commission for Industrial Peace.[7] Gerald Ford asked Bechtel to serve on the President’s Labor-Management Committee.[8]

Bechtel became an Eagle Scout in 1940 and has been recognized by the Boy Scouts of America with both the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award and the Silver Buffalo Award. Stephen's uncle Kenneth K. Bechtel was awarded the Silver Buffalo in 1950 and served as national president of the Boy Scouts of America from 1956 to 1959.[9]

The BSA acquired new property near Beckley, West Virginia, for a new high adventure base in 2009. Bechtel donated $50 million towards the new base, which has been named The Summit Bechtel Family National Scout Reserve.[10]

Bechtel was a contributor to many environmental causes. He created a foundation in 1957 to support these cases. The foundation contributed $50 million to create a National Scout Reserve in south West Virginia, which is now the home of the national boy scout jamboree.[2] The foundation contributed $25 million to renovate the Presidio of San Francisco.[2] The S. D. Bechtel Jr. Foundation and the Stephen Bechtel Fund support many non-profit groups, especially in the San Francisco Bay area.[11][12]

Bechtel was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1990.[13] He is the 1980 recipient of the Hoover Medal, which commemorates the civic and humanitarian achievements of engineers.[14] In 1990, he was elevated to National Honor Member by Chi Epsilon, the national civil engineering honor society. In 1998, he and his son Riley were presented with the Honor Award from the National Building Museum for their company's contributions to the built environment.[15] Bechtel received the Award of Excellence from Engineering News-Record for his leadership of Bechtel Corporation.[16]

He received the National Medal of Technology and Innovation in 1991, from the then US President, George H. W. Bush.[2]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Bechtel_Jr.

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Born November 15, 1939 in New York City, New York, USA
Died March 14, 2021 in Phillipines
Birth Name Yaphet Frederick Kotto
Height 6' 4" (1.93 m)

Physically imposing, intense Yaphet Kotto was one of the few actors of his generation to succeed in breaking racial stereotypes in Hollywood. He was born in Harlem, New York, of Cameroonian royal ancestry (his great -grandfather had been a king in pre-colonial days) and raised in both the Jewish and the Catholic faith at the behest of his parents (his father was a former businessman-turned construction worker who emigrated to America in the 1920's; his mother was a nurse and army officer). After his parents divorced, he was brought up by his grandparents in the tough Bronx district of New York. He also had an aunt in showbiz who ran a dance academy. Among her alumni were Marlon Brando and James Dean. In fact, it was Brando's performance in On the Waterfront (1954) which inspired Kotto to go into acting.

He began acting on stage in 1958 with little theatrical experience, making his debut in the title role of Othello, a role he eventually reprised on screen in 1980. He also appeared on Broadway as understudy to James Earl Jones in The Great White Hope. After joining the Actor's Studio, Kotto commenced his screen career and soon gathered critical recognition with several edgy performances across diverse genres. From playing a barkeeper in 5 Card Stud (1968) and a thief in The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), he moved on to juicier supporting roles as the evil Kananga/Mr. Big in the James Bond thriller Live and Let Die (1973), Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in the telemovie Raid on Entebbe (1976) and the ill-fated Nostromo engineer Parker in Alien (1979). Kotto also starred as a street-smart Detroit car worker in Blue Collar (1978) and had a recurring role as a senior detective on television's long-running crime series Homicide: Life on the Street (1993) (in addition to penning several scripts for the show). He was even on a Paramount shortlist for the coveted role of Jean Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987), alongside Mitchell Ryan and Roy Thinnes). He apparently spurned the role for fear of being typecast, but came to rueing that decision in later years. For the same reason Kotto had also turned down the part of Lando Calrissian in the Star Wars franchise (which, of course, went to Billy Dee Williams).

Kotto died on March 15 2021 in the Phillipines at the age of 81.
- IMDb Mini Biography By: I.S.Mowis

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001433/bio?..._ov_bio_sm

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COLUMBUS, Ohio -- A powerful Ohio lobbyist who spent decades at the center of many of the state's significant policy battles was found dead in Florida as he faced charges in a sweeping federal bribery investigation, authorities said Tuesday.

Neil Clark, 67, was found dead Monday by a bicyclist in an isolated area of Collier County, Florida, where he had been living, authorities said.

The local sheriff's office provided a report describing the body being found, and the county medical examiner confirmed the body was Clark's. The cause of death wasn't determined, but a medical investigation and an autopsy were being performed.

When officials reached out to the man’s wife, she said that the couple was having financial issues and that she had not heard from her husband for a couple of hours, according to the sheriff’s report.

“It’s just a tragic loss of a good friend,” Clark’s attorney Will Ireland told WBNS-TV. He declined to provide any additional information on Clark’s death.

Clark had pleaded not guilty to the role federal prosecutors allege he played in an elaborate $60 million scheme led by then-Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder to pass legislation containing a $1 billion bailout for two Ohio nuclear power plants. Clark had denied all wrongdoing.

Former U.S. Attorney David DeVillers mentioned Clark's death during a presentation on the government's bribery probe Tuesday to the board of the Office of Ohio Consumer's Counsel, which represents Ohio's residential utility customers.

Clark was a larger-than-life figure at the Ohio Statehouse, where he often represented clients during their toughest legislative and public relations battles.

He fielded media calls for the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow, for example, as the now-shuttered online charter school wrestled with allegations of attendance tracking errors. Clark also lobbied for some payday lending interests before that industry became the center of a previous House speaker's downfall.

Federal prosecutors investigating what they dub “Team Householder” described Clark as the former speaker's enforcer, strong-arming supporters and providing fundraising expertise.

He had said he was writing a tell-all book about his time at the Statehouse.

Before becoming a lobbyist, Clark was an aide and finance director for the Ohio Senate Republicans, gaining inside experience in state budget-making with which he was able to help his many lobbying clients.

Clark parlayed his Senate work into an advertising and communications business and eventually a powerhouse bipartisan lobbying partnership with Paul Tipps, a former Ohio Democratic Party chairman who died in 2015.

The pair formed State Street Consultants in 1999, which grew into the largest government affairs consulting firm in Ohio, with clients including BP, Limited Brands, AK Steel, the American Cancer Society and the Cincinnati schools. The two ultimately had a nasty falling-out, their firm dissolved, and Clark founded his own firm, Grant Street Consultants.

“In matters in which a defendant has passed away, the process is that a ‘Suggestion of Death’ is typically filed upon receipt of a death certificate, resulting in dismissal of the decedent from the case but not impacting the rest of the case,” Acting U.S. Attorney Vipal J. Patel said in a statement. “All that will be addressed in due course. For now, we extend our condolences to Mr. Clark’s family and friends.”

.....

Farnoush Amiri is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStor...e-76489314

Comment: for now I am going to assume "natural causes" before drawing any conclusions. His life was falling apart in many ways. .

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Two baseball players involved in two ot the most lopsided trades in history.

Eulogio "Frankie" De La Cruz Martínez (Spanish pronunciation: [ewˈloxjo ˈfɾaŋki ðe la ˈkɾuz maɾˈtines];[1] (March 12, 1984 – March 14, 2021) was a Dominican baseball pitcher who played four seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB), as well as one season each in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) and the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL). He played for the Detroit Tigers, Florida Marlins, San Diego Padres, Milwaukee Brewers, Tokyo Yakult Swallows, and Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions from 2007 to 2012. He went on to play baseball in Italy and Mexico, as well as several winter leagues.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankie_de_la_Cruz

He was an active player at the time of his death. Most notably the Detroit Tigers  dealt him off in a transaction that got them Miguel Cabrera, the Giancarlo Stanton of his day (both superstars got their starts with the Florida/Miami Marlins who couldn't afford to keep the budding star.   

 
Edison Rosanda Armbrister (July 4, 1948 – March 17, 2021) was a Bahamian professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as an outfielder from 1973 to 1977 for the Cincinnati Reds.[1] Armbrister was a utility player for the Reds team known as the Big Red Machine that won three National League pennants and two World Series championships between 1972 and 1976.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Armbrister

He will best be known for one controversial non-call in the 1975 World Series:

Quote:In the tenth inning of game three of the 1975 World Series, with César Gerónimo on base and nobody out, Armbrister collided with Boston Red Sox catcher Carlton Fisk at home plate while starting to run out a sacrifice bunt, leading to a wild throw by Fisk to second base that allowed Gerónimo to reach third base and eventually score the winning run; home plate umpire Larry Barnett did not make an interference call on Armbrister, a decision which was a source of heated debate after the Reds won the game 6–5.

By the rules of baseball, any base-runner is obliged to get out of the way of any fielder trying to field or throw the baseball.
The play:


 
Ed Armbrister was part of the deal in which the Cincinnati Reds picked the pockets of the Houston Astros, getting what may have been the greatest second basemen of all time, Joe Morgan (who died last year), Ed Armbrister is known almost exclusively for one play in the 1975 World Series.

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Yevgeny Yevgenievich Nesterenko (Евгений Евгеньевич Нестеренко, 8 January 1938 – 20 March 2021) was a Soviet and Russian operatic bass.

Nesterenko's first profession was architecture, and in fact he graduated from the Saint-Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering in Leningrad. But he was called to music, and he studied under Vasily Lukanin[1] at the Leningrad Conservatory.[2] At his last year at the conservatory (1965) Nesterenko was invited to sing at Leningrad's Maly Opera (now Mikhailovsky) Theatre and after graduation joined the famous Mariinsky Opera and Ballet Theatre. He won the gold medal at the 4th Moscow International Tchaikovsky Competition, which gave him entrée to Moscow's Bolshoi Theatre.[2]

Altogether Nesterenko has sung over 50 leading bass parts and performed 21 operas in their original languages. He performed the main parts in operas by Glinka, Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky and Borodin, and was the first to perform many works by Shostakovich, Sviridov and Taktakishvili.[2]
Nesterenko's enormous repertoire ranges from deep bass to baritone parts in operas by classical Russian and West-European composers. His finest role is frequently considered to be Tsar Boris in Mussorgsky's opera Boris Godunov, which won him the "Golden Viotti" medal in Italy in 1981.
The stages on which Nesterenko has performed include many of the world's best and most prestigious ones, such as Covent Garden, the Vienna State Opera and La Scala. He has been awarded the highest Austrian, Italian, German and Russian awards for his singing.[2] He is the winner of the Giovanni Zenatello Prize "For an outstanding embodiment of the central character in the opera Attila by Verdi". He is the recepient of the Chaliapin Prize of the Creativity Academy, and of many other titles and awards.[2]'

Nesterenko has made around 70 recordings, including 20 complete operas. He was also an outstanding chamber singer with a subtle taste, expressiveness and sense of style.

Latterly he has also become known as an outstanding teacher. He taught at the Moscow Conservatory and the Music and Arts University of the City of Vienna.[2] Nesterenko is the author of two books - My Way of Working with Singers and Reflections on My Profession - and is the author of over 200 printed articles.[2] In addition, he was one of the most experienced music competition jurors.
Nesterenko died on 20 March 2021 of COVID-19 in Vienna, Austria.[3]


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yevgeny_Nesterenko

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Father of the Chinese nuclear submarine program?


Peng Shilu (Chinese: 彭士禄; born November 18, 1925[1]) is a Chinese nuclear engineer. Known as "the father of China's nuclear submarines"[2][3][4] and the "father of China's naval nuclear propulsion",[5] he was the first chief designer of the country's nuclear submarine project, directing his team to build China's first generation of nuclear submarines (Type 091 and Type 092).[2][1][3][5][4] He was also the main designer for China's first nuclear power plants, and is an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering. He served as vice minister for China's Sixth Ministry of Machine Building (Ministry of Shipbuilding Industry) and Ministry of Hydropower.[2][1][3][6][7]

Peng Shilu was born on November 18, 1925 in Haifeng County, Guangdong province, the son of Peng Pai, a top Chinese Communist revolutionary in the 1920s.[9] His parents were killed by the Kuomintang government when he was less than 4 years old, and he was jailed at the age of 8 for being the son of Peng Pai.[3][8] He was later rescued by his grandmother and sent to Yan'an by Zhou Enlai.[10] In the 1940s he received his early training in Yan'an Institute of Natural Sciences[4] (now Beijing Institute of Technology).

After 1949, he went to the Soviet Union to complete advanced studies in nuclear science at Moscow Power Engineering Institute. When he returned to China, he was appointed to a senior post conducting research on the submarine nuclear reactor.[9] In 1959, the Soviet Union refused to provide assistance for China's planned project of building nuclear-powered submarines, and Mao Zedong proclaimed that China would build its own nuclear submarines "even if it takes 10,000 years". Peng oversaw the entire nuclear submarine project and set about developing a workable nuclear power plant.[4]

In 1968, Peng proposed and led the building of a land-based prototype nuclear power reactor in Sichuan province for China's first nuclear submarine. This reactor was completed on April 1970 and successfully passed a test in July after Peng reported to the Central Special Commission led by Premier Zhou Enlai.[9][11][10] In 1973, Peng was appointed vice president of China Ship Research and Design Institute (Wuhan-based 719 Research Institute, the Nuclear Submarine Institute), and afterwards became vice minister of the Sixth Ministry of Machine Building.[2][4]
China's first nuclear submarine (SSN), the Long March I of class 091, was commissioned in 1974,[12] making China the fifth country to own a nuclear submarine after the United States, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and France.[13] The first nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine (SSBN) of class 092 was completed and commissioned in 1981.[14] Both type 091 and 092 submarines were equipped with the nuclear reactors and propulsion systems created by Peng and his team.[5] In 1979, Peng was appointed the first chief designer of China's nuclear submarine project, while Huang Xuhua, Zhao Renkai (赵仁恺), and Huang Weilu (黄纬禄) were appointed as deputies.[15]

In 1983, Peng shifted from military to civilian application of nuclear power plants when he was appointed as vice minister for the Ministry of Hydropower, and was also appointed general engineer in the Ministry of Nuclear Industry.[4][10] He led his team to build the Daya Bay and Qinshan Nuclear Power Plants.[10]

Peng received the National Science Conference Award in 1978, the top prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Awards in 1985, the Science and Technology Progress Award from Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation in 1996, and the Top Scientific Achievement Award from Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation in 2017.
In 1988 he received the honorary title of "Outstanding Contribution to National Defense Science and Technology" from the Commission for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense.

In 2020, he won the 13th Guanghua Engineering Scientific and Technological Achievement Award for "his outstanding contributions to China's nuclear submarine to achieve a historic breakthrough from nothing, and the determination of technical route of the first nuclear power plant." Guanghua Engineering Science and Technology Award is the highest award in China's engineering field, and initiated and managed by the Chinese Academy of Engineering.[1][6][7][16][17]


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peng_Shilu

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Elgin Gay Baylor (September 16, 1934 – March 22, 2021) was an American professional basketball player, coach, and executive. He played 14 seasons as a forward in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Minneapolis/Los Angeles Lakers, appearing in eight NBA Finals.
Baylor was a gifted shooter, a strong rebounder, and an accomplished passer. Renowned for his acrobatic maneuvers on the court, Baylor regularly dazzled Lakers fans with his trademark hanging jump shots.

The No. 1 draft pick in 1958, NBA Rookie of the Year in 1959, 11-time NBA All-Star, and a 10-time member of the All-NBA first team, he is regarded as one of the game's all-time greatest players.[1] In 1977, Baylor was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.[2]
Baylor spent 22 years as general manager of the Los Angeles Clippers. He won the NBA Executive of the Year Award in 2006. Two years later he was relieved of his executive duties by the Clippers shortly before the 2008–09 season began.[3]

His popularity led to appearances on the television series Rowan and Martin's Laugh In in 1968; the Jackson Five's first TV special in 1971; a Buck Rogers in the 25th Century episode "Olympiad"; and an episode of The White Shadow titled "If Your Number's Up, Get Down".

Much more at Wikipedia.

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One of the few living survivors of the Lidice massacre:


Marie Šupíková née Doležalová (22 August 1932 – 22 March 2021) was a Czechoslovak survivor of Lidice massacre.[1] After World War II, she testified, together with another Lidice child Maria Hafnová, during court proceedings in the RuSHA trial, one of the subsequent Nuremberg trials.[2] Šupíková died on 22 March 2021, aged 88.[2][3]

Never forget, and never forgive, the Nazis for their horrific crimes.

[Eric the Green]

from her facebook account: Constance Demby (May 9, 1939 - March 20, 2021) multi-instrumentalist and composer.

Constance Demby, pioneering composer and musician, died peacefully on March 20 at the age of 81. Her 1986 album Novus Magnificat: Through the Stargate, is regularly listed among the most influential New Age and ambient albums of all time. Blending classical, New Age and electronic music, Demby’s compositions have influenced many generations of composers. She performed at events with the Dalai Lama, Deepak Chopra, and Todd Rundgren, often in dramatic settings, such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, the Great Pyramid of Giza, and Stonehenge.

Demby performed on instruments of her own creation. Stemming from her early training as a sculptor, Demby’s most prominent innovation was the Sonic Steel Space Bass, made of sheet metal with tuned steel rods, played with mallets and a bow. The Space Bass emits a wide variety of sounds that resemble wind chimes, thunder, whale cries, and human voices.

Constance Demby was also proficient on the hammered dulcimer, tamboura, and keyboards. Her travels to India, Spain, and Portugal, experiences with sound healing, and a love of Gregorian chants influenced her unique musical style.

Stephen Hill, founder of Hearts of Space, said, “Constance Demby was gifted with an intuitive musical sense of sound and melody that moved people deeply. Beginning in experimental improvisation and contemplative acoustic music, she incorporated classical orchestration, symphonic composition, and the expanded sonic dimensions of electronic space into her music. Her 1986 "cosmic choral symphony" Novus Magnificat elevated the standards of scope and production in the early New Age genre and has become a timeless classic.

She recorded over a dozen albums, including the landmark Constance Demby at Alaron, Sacred Space Music, Set Free, Light of This World, Skies Above Skies, Aeterna, Faces of the Christ, Attunement, Spirit Trance, Sonic Immersion, Ambrosial Waves, Live in Tokyo (also on DVD) and Sanctum Sanctorum.

Constance is survived by her son Joshua Demby, grandson Jonah Demby, and nephews Bill, Dave and Christopher Eggers.

My comment: Eric A. Meece

She helped light up the first New Age Renaissance Fairs that I produced in the 1980s, in San Jose and San Francisco. She performed and exhibited at art fairs for a while back then, where I met her and loved her music immediately, and she gave me a pre-release of Novus Magnificat, which I was probably the first to play on radio, on Mystic Music. Those were the days. Sorry to see her go. I hope she is sailing well in sacred space.

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Bobby Brown, MLB baseball player and cardiologist

Robert William Brown (October 25, 1924 – March 25, 2021) was an American professional baseball third baseman and executive who was the president of the American League (AL) from 1984 to 1994 . He also was a physician who studied for his medical degree during his eight-year playing career with the New York Yankees (1946–1952, 1954)

Brown was born in Seattle, Washington, on October 25, 1924.[1][2] He attended Galileo High School in San Francisco, where he attained straight-As and served as president of the student body.[1] He studied at Stanford University starting in 1942,[1] where he and another student were involved in the rescue of a Coast Guardsman from a plane crash. Brown consequently received a Silver Lifesaving Medal for his effort.[3] He was chosen in the Selective Service draft one year later and was initially stationed at the naval unit in UCLA. There, he played baseball for the UCLA Bruins, before being temporarily assigned to the Naval Medical Center San Diego. He was subsequently transferred to the Tulane University School of Medicine in December 1944 and discharged from the navy in January 1946.[1] He was signed as an amateur free agent by the New York Yankees before the 1946 season.[2]

Brown played one season in the minor leagues in 1946.[4] He made his MLB debut on September 22, 1946, one month short of his 22nd birthday,[2] recording his first hit and scoring his first run in a 4–3 win over the Philadelphia Athletics.[5] He was employed as a pinch hitter on four occasions during the 1947 World Series and went a perfect 3-for-3, collecting a single, two doubles, and a walk.[1]


Brown had fifth-most errors as a third baseman in the American League in 1949 with 13.[2] In the World Series that year, he hit a bases-loaded triple in Game 4,[6] and a two-run triple in the championship-clinching Game 5.[7] He tripled again in the final game of the 1950 World Series.[8]

Nicknamed as "Golden Boy" and "Blond Phenom" during his baseball career,[9] Brown played 548 regular-season games for the Yankees, with a lifetime batting average of .279 and 22 home runs. In addition, he appeared in four World Series (1947, 1949, 1950, 1951) for New York, batting .439 (18-for-41) in 17 games. Brown batted left-handed and threw right-handed. He missed 1 1⁄2 seasons due to military service during the Korean War. He played his final major league game on June 30, 1954, at the age of 29.[2]

A famous story that has made the rounds for years in baseball circles, and was told by Brown himself,[10] concerns the time when Brown's road roommate in Triple-A was future star Yankee catcher Yogi Berra, who had little formal education. The two were reading in their hotel room one night – Berra a comic book and Brown his copy of Boyd's Pathology. Berra came to the end of his comic, tossed it aside, and asked Brown, "So, how is yours turning out?"[11]

Brown practiced cardiology in the Dallas–Fort Worth area until May 1974, when he took a leave of absence to serve as an interim president of the AL Texas Rangers – then returned to medicine following the season.[1] In 1984, he succeeded Lee MacPhail as AL president and held the post for a decade. Gene Budig succeeded him. In 1992 and 1993, Brown presented the World Series Trophy (on both occasions to the Toronto Blue Jays), as at the time the office of Commissioner of Baseball was officially vacant, with Bud Selig exercising the powers of the Commissioner as Chairman of the Executive Council. The presidencies of both the American League and the National League were eliminated in 2000, and their duties were absorbed by the office of the Commissioner.[12]

A decorated veteran of two wars, a noted baseball player who served on five championship teams, an accomplished physician, and president of the American League, Brown is considered to have few equals in the history of major league baseball.[13] He was a regular at the Yankees' annual Old-Timers' Day celebrations.[14]

Brown was a contestant on the game show To Tell The Truth on March 26, 1957.[15]



Brown's wife of more than 60 years, Sara, died on March 26, 2012. They were married in October 1951, shortly after the 1951 World Series.[16]



Brown died on March 25, 2021, at his home in Fort Worth, Texas.[17] He was 96, and was the last living member of the Yankees team that won the 1947 World Series.[9][12]

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William Emerson Brock III (November 23, 1930 – March 25, 2021) was an American Republican politician who served in both chambers of the United States Congress from 1963 to 1977 and later in the United States Cabinet from 1981 to 1987. He was the grandson of William Emerson Brock Sr., a Democratic U.S. senator who represented Tennessee from 1929 to 1931.

Brock was a native of Chattanooga, where his family owned a well-known candy company.[1] He was a 1949 graduate of McCallie School and a 1953 graduate of Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia, in 1953 and subsequently served in the U.S. Navy until 1956. He then worked in his family's candy business. Brock had been reared as a Democrat, but became a Republican in the 1950s. In 1962, he was elected to Congress from Tennessee's 3rd congressional district, based in Chattanooga. The 3rd had long been the only Democratic outpost in traditionally heavily Republican East Tennessee; indeed, Brock's victory ended 40 years of Democratic control in the district.


Underlining this district's conservative bent, Brock was reelected in 1964 by over nine points amid Lyndon Johnson's 44-state landslide. He was again re-elected in 1966 and 1968. During Brock's tenure in the House, he voted in favor of the Civil Rights Act of 1968,[2] but voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.[3][4]


Brock served four terms in the House and then won the Republican nomination to face three term incumbent U.S. Sen. Albert Gore Sr. in 1970, defeating country singer Tex Ritter in the primary. Brock's campaign was successfully able to make an issue of Gore's friendship with the Kennedy family and Gore's voting record, which was somewhat liberal by Southern standards, and defeated him.[citation needed]


While in the Senate, Brock was a darling of the conservative movement but was less popular at home; his personality was somewhat distant by the standards of most politicians. As a freshman U.S. senator he accomplished a great deal even as a minority Republican. He was the original author of the Congressional Budget Act (S. 3984, 92nd Congress and S. 40, 93rd Congress) and as ranking minority of Committee on Government Operations, Subcommittee on Budgeting, Management, and Expenditures led the crafting of the Congressional Budget Bill. He sponsored credit legislation (Title V - Equal Credit Opportunity, H.R. 11211, 93rd Congress), memorialized by a U.S. National Archives exhibit, that provides woman's access to credit, including credit cards, by requiring financial institutions and other firms engaged in the extension of credit to make credit equally available to all and not to discriminate on the "basis of sex or marital status". He was co-chair of the Stevenson/Brock Committee (S. Res. 109, Temporary Select Committee to Study the Senate Committee System) with Senator Adlai Stevenson III, which sponsored establishment of the U.S. Senate Energy Committee as well as workload, scheduling, and staffing reforms and importantly reorganization of committee jurisdictions. As a member of Senate Finance Committee he promoted upgrading unemployment benefits, review of cash and non-cash benefits for low income, analysis of negative income tax experiments, transparency of markups, amendments to tax code, and introduced the first Senate tax indexing bill. Brock was a member of Paperwork Commission which according to Science's "Commission on Paperwork" editorial (September 23, 1977) issued 25 reports and 750 recommendations for cutting paperwork saving $3.5 million annually. And he drafted a 1995 resolution providing personal committee staffing for junior members (S. Res 60). In all these, he worked closely with a broad coalition of Democrats and Republicans to bring those with widely ranging views together. This was appreciated by professional committee staff and members. His efforts contributed greatly to Congress' "Era of Cooperation" between 1971 and 1977, during which major reforms were accomplished including the Clean Water Act of 1972, Endangered Species Act of 1973, Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974, and Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974, all of which passed without opposition votes in the Senate.



He was considered vulnerable in the 1976 election cycle and several prominent Democrats ran in the 1976 Democratic Senate primary for the right to challenge him. The most prominent and best-known name, at least initially, was probably 1970 gubernatorial nominee John Jay Hooker; somewhat surprisingly to most observers, the winner of the primary was Jim Sasser, who had managed Albert Gore Sr's 1970 reelection campaign.[citation needed]

Sasser was able to exploit lingering resentment of the Watergate scandal, which had concluded only about two years earlier. However his most effective campaign strategy was to emphasize how the affluent Brock, through skillful use of the tax code by his accountants, had been able to pay less than $2,000 in income taxes the previous year; an amount considerably less than that paid by many Tennesseans of far more modest means. Sasser was also aided by the popularity of Democratic Presidential candidate Jimmy Carter in Tennessee as the former Georgia Governor would win the state by a double-digit margin. Although he started with a 30-point lead in polls over Sasser, Brock would lose his re-election bid by a 47%–52% margin.[5]



Prior to his Senate re-election run, Brock was among those considered to replace Nelson Rockefeller as President Gerald Ford's running mate in the 1976 election.[6][7]


After leaving the Senate, Brock became the new chairman of the Republican National Committee, a position he held from 1977 to 1981. Upon the election of Ronald Reagan as U.S. president, Brock was appointed U.S. Trade Representative, a position he maintained until 1985, when he was made Secretary of Labor.


Brock resigned his cabinet post in late 1987 to serve as the campaign manager for Senator Bob Dole's presidential campaign. Dole, the runner up to Vice President George Bush, was seen as a micro-manager who needed a strong personality like Brock to guide his campaign. Brock's late start in the Fall of 1987 left little time to help find an avenue to cut into Bush's substantial lead in national polls. Additionally, many viewed Brock as an imperious and inadequate manager who badly misspent campaign funds- largely on national headquarters staff- leaving Dole without adequate money for a Super Tuesday media buy. Dole and Brock had a public falling out, and Brock publicly fired two of Dole's favored consultants, ordering them off of the campaign plane. Dole dropped out of the race in late March 1988 after losing key primaries in New Hampshire, the South, and Illinois. Brock became a consultant in the Washington, D.C., area. By this point, he had become a legal resident of Maryland. In 1994 he won the Republican U.S. Senate primary in Maryland over future convict Ruthann Aron, but was soundly defeated (41%–59%) in the general election by Democratic incumbent Paul Sarbanes.



In 1990, Brock was awarded the New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal.[8] Brock was a member of the ReFormers Caucus of Issue One.[9]


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Brock

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EW YORK (AP) — Beverly Cleary, the celebrated children’s author whose memories of her Oregon childhood were shared with millions through the likes of Ramona and Beezus Quimby and Henry Huggins, has died. She was 104.

Cleary’s publisher HarperCollins announced Friday that the author died Thursday in Northern California, where she had lived since the 1960s. No cause of death was given.

Trained as a librarian, Cleary didn’t start writing books until her early 30s when she wrote “Henry Huggins,” published in 1950. Children worldwide came to love the adventures of Huggins and neighbors Ellen Tebbits, Otis Spofford, Beatrice “Beezus” Quimby and her younger sister, Ramona. They inhabit a down-home, wholesome setting on Klickitat Street — a real street in Portland, Oregon, the city where Cleary spent much of her youth.

Among the “Henry” titles were “Henry and Ribsy,” “Henry and the Paper Route” and “Henry and Beezus.”

Ramona, perhaps her best-known character, made her debut in “Henry Huggins” with only a brief mention.

“All the children appeared to be only children so I tossed in a little sister and she didn’t go away. She kept appearing in every book,” she said in a March 2016 telephone interview from her California home.

Cleary herself was an only child and said the character wasn’t a mirror.

“I was a well-behaved little girl, not that I wanted to be,” she said. “At the age of Ramona, in those days, children played outside. We played hopscotch and jump rope and I loved them and always had scraped knees.”

In all, there were eight books on Ramona between “Beezus and Ramona” in 1955 and “Ramona’s World” in 1999. Others included “Ramona the Pest” and “Ramona and Her Father.” In 1981, “Ramona and Her Mother” won the National Book Award.

Cleary wasn’t writing recently because she said she felt “it’s important for writers to know when to quit.”

“I even got rid of my typewriter. It was a nice one but I hate to type. When I started writing I found that I was thinking more about my typing than what I was going to say, so I wrote it long hand,” she said in March 2016.

Although she put away her pen, Cleary re-released three of her most cherished books with three famous fans writing forewords for the new editions.

Actress Amy Poehler penned the front section of “Ramona Quimby, Age 8;” author Kate DiCamillo wrote the opening for “The Mouse and the Motorcycle;” and author Judy Blume wrote the foreword for “Henry Huggins.”

Cleary, a self-described “fuddy-duddy,” said there was a simple reason she began writing children’s books.

As a librarian, children were always asking for books about `kids like us.′ Well, there weren’t any books about kids like them. So when I sat down to write, I found myself writing about the sort of children I had grown up with,” Cleary said in a 1993 Associated Press interview.

“Dear Mr. Henshaw,” the touching story of a lonely boy who corresponds with a children’s book author, won the 1984 John Newbery Medal for the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children. It “came about because two different boys from different parts of the country asked me to write a book about a boy whose parents were divorced,” she told National Public Radio as she neared her 90th birthday.

“Ramona and Her Father” in 1978 and “Ramona Quimby, Age 8” in 1982 were named Newbery Honor Books.

Cleary ventured into fantasy with “The Mouse and the Motorcycle,” and the sequels “Runaway Ralph” and “Ralph S. Mouse.” “Socks,” about a cat’s struggle for acceptance when his owners have a baby, is told from the point of view of the pet himself.

She was named a Living Legend in 2000 by the Library of Congress. In 2003, she was chosen as one of the winners of the National Medal of Arts and met President George W. Bush. She is lauded in literary circles far and wide.

She produced two volumes of autobiography for young readers, “A Girl from Yamhill,” on her childhood, and “My Own Two Feet,” which tells the story of her college and young adult years up to the time of her first book.

“I seem to have grown up with an unusual memory. People are astonished at the things I remember. I think it comes from living in isolation on a farm the first six years of my life where my main activity was observing,” Cleary said.

Cleary was born Beverly Bunn on April 12, 1916, in McMinnville, Oregon, and lived on a farm in Yamhill until her family moved to Portland when she was school-age. She was a slow reader, which she blamed on illness and a mean-spirited first-grade teacher who disciplined her by snapping a steel-tipped pointer across the back of her hands.

“I had chicken pox, smallpox and tonsillitis in the first grade and nobody seemed to think that had anything to do with my reading trouble,” Cleary told the AP. “I just got mad and rebellious.”

By sixth or seventh grade, “I decided that I was going to write children’s stories,” she said.

Cleary graduated from junior college in Ontario, California, and the University of California at Berkeley, where she met her husband, Clarence. They married in 1940; Clarence Cleary died in 2004. They were the parents of twins, a boy and a girl born in 1955 who inspired her book “Mitch and Amy.”

Cleary studied library science at the University of Washington and worked as the children’s librarian at Yakima, Wash., and post librarian at the Oakland Army Hospital during World War II.

Her books have been translated into more than a dozen languages, and inspired Japanese, Danish and Swedish television programs based on the Henry Huggins series. A 10-part PBS series, “Ramona,” starred Canadian actress Sarah Polley. The 2010 film “Ramona and Beezus” featured actresses Joey King and Selena Gomez.

Cleary was asked once what her favorite character was.

“Does your mother have a favorite child?” she responded.

___

Biographical material compiled by former AP staffer Polly Anderson and AP Staffer Kristin J. Bender.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/beverly-c...1c281589de

Children's books can have subtle influences among those who read them or have them read to them and then grow up.

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G. Gordon Liddy, Watergate offender. Does anyone care anymore?

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writer Larry McMurtry, from Wikipedia.


Larry Jeff McMurtry (June 3, 1936 – March 25, 2021) was an American novelist, essayist, bookseller, and screenwriter whose work was predominantly set in either the Old West or contemporary Texas.[1] His novels included Horseman, Pass By (1962), The Last Picture Show (1966), and Terms of Endearment (1975), which were adapted into films. Movies adapted from McMurtry's works earned 34 Oscar nominations (13 wins).

His 1985 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Lonesome Dove, was adapted into a television miniseries that earned 18 Emmy Award nominations (seven wins). The subsequent three novels in his Lonesome Dove series were adapted as three more miniseries, earning eight more Emmy nominations. McMurtry and cowriter Diana Ossana adapted the screenplay for Brokeback Mountain (2005), which earned eight Academy Award nominations with three wins, including McMurtry and Ossana for Best Adapted Screenplay. In 2014, McMurtry received the National Humanities Medal.[2]