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June Bronhill - (75) Australian-born opera star who was one of the best loved sopranos with Sadler’s Wells Opera during the 1950s and 1960s, where she sang many of the heroines in a number of German and French operetta, including “The Magic Flute”, “Rigoletto” and “Don Pasquale”, and who was a vibrant personality on stage and huge voice despite her small stature but ultimately retired from singing after suffering from deafness brought on by tinnitus, died in Sydney, Australia on Januuary 25, 2005.
Robert Dwan - (89) Radio and TV director who directed Groucho Marx throughout the entire 14-year run of his popular “You Bet Your Life” quiz show on both radio and TV and wrote “As Long as They’re Laughing” in 2000, a memoir chronicling his years with Marx, who was also a writer on the Red Skelton radio show and Art Linkletter’s “People Are Funny” and later taught comedy classes at the University of Southern California, died of pneumonia in Santa Monica, California on January 21, 2005.
Malcolm Hardee - (55) Legendary British comic who was considered the most colorful figure of the alternative comedy scene and best known for running some of the toughest clubs in London, who became a comedian after being jailed a number of times for crimes such as check fraud and burglary and became South London’s king of comedy, known for his outrageous shows and for founding the Greatest Show On Legs balloon dance troupe, drowned in the Thames River in London after leaving the Wibbley Wobbley , a local pub that he ran, and possibly falling off a dinghy that he used to travel to his houseboat. He was reported missing on January 31, 2005 and was found two days later.
David Lerchey - (67) Singer and founding member of ‘50s doo-wop group the Del Vikings, the first racially mixed vocal harmony group to score a national hit during the rock'n'roll era (their two number one records were "Whispering Bells" and "Come Go With Me"), who was inducted with the group into the Doo-Wop Hall of Fame in 2003 and last performed at the Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut last summer, died after suffering from cancer and pulmonary problems in Miami, Florida on January 29, 2005.
Ray Pollard - (74) Singer-dancer and a founding member of R&B group the Wanderers, whose songs included “Waiting In Green Pastures" and "I'll Never Smile Again,” who also recorded as a solo artist, appeared in the musical “Purlie” on Broadway, and later sang with the Joe Cuba sextet and Paul Kalet's Ink Spots, died of cancer in Las Vegas, Nevada on January 26, 2005.
Ray Peterson - (69) Singer dubbed the “Golden Voice of Rock & Roll” whose 1960 hit "Tell Laura I Love Her" exemplified the teen tragedy song popular in early rock 'n' roll, whose song “The Wonder of You” was later recorded by Elvis Presley, and who toured as an opening act for the Beach Boys in several foreign countries and as a supporting act on their "Summer Safari" tour of 1964, died of cancer in Smyrna, TN on January 25, 2005.
Gordon L. Hough - (85) Former board chairman and CEO of Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Co. during the1970s, a company where he was employed for more than 30 years in various management positions, who also was president of the Bay Area Crusade (now called United Way) and a longtime trustee at USC and at Pomona and Harvey Mudd Colleges, died of a stroke in Palm Desert, California on December 20, 2004.
Philip Johnson - (98) Trend-setting U.S. architect considered one of the major American architectural minds of the twentieth century, whose glass skyscrapers helped define America’s urban landscape and whose creations include the so-called Glass House, a transparent box, in Connecticut, the New York State Theater, New York’s Asia House and the American Telephone & Telegraph Building in Manhattan, which is known as the “Chippendale Building” and is now owned by Sony, died in New Canaan, Connecticut on January 25, 2005.
Dame Miriam Rothschild - (96) British heiress and one of the world’ most distinguished naturalists, who discovered how fleas jump and brought Chaucerian wildflowers back to modern England, who spent 20 years compiling a 6-volume catalog of her father’s catalogue of his collection of 30,000 flea specimens, thus establishing established her as highly regarded flea authority and whose highly original observations helped to confirm 19th-century theories of evolution that had awaited 20th-century chemistry, who received the title of dame by Queen Elizabeth II in 1999 for her scientific achievements, died in Northamptonshire, England January 20, 2005.
Cordelia Scaife May - (70s) Publicity-shy sister of billionaire Richard Scaife and one of the country’s richest people (as listed by Forbes’ magazine) with a net worth of $825 million, who established the Laurel Foundation, a Pittsburgh-based foundation that awards cultural and other grants, and who was known for her philanthropic work and her work to support the world’s ecosystems, died in Ligonier, Pennsylvania on January 26, 2005.
George F. Moody - (74) Former president and COO of Security Pacific National Bank, responsible for the oversight of a $1 billion annual budget, who was also appointed chairman of the board of governors of the American Red Cross by President Reagan, died of leukemia in Whittier, California on January 23, 2005.
Henry Latimer - (67) Former circuit judge and prominent member of South Florida’s legal community who was one of the first black judges appointed to Broward Circuit Court, who later went into private practice and was most recently a trial attorney and shareholder in the law firm of Greenberg Traurig, was killed in a single-car accident in Fort Lauderdale, Florida on January 24, 2005.
Sir Peter Large - (73) Brit who was confined to a wheelchair since contracting polio in 1962 and devoted most of his life to improving the lot of the disabled, who was the inspiration behind the Mobility Allowance (which is now claimed by millions of disabled people), and influenced many developments in public transport during his 26 years as chairman of the Joint Committee on Mobility for Disabled People, and who was knighted in 1993, died in Warlingham, Surrey, England January 23, 2005.
David Nuuhiwa Sr. - (82) Hawaiian whose expertise on his native culture won him celebrity in California surfing circles, who was a familiar figure for more than 20 years in California surf contests where he conducted opening-day blessings and provided security which led to his induction into the Surfers’ Hall of Fame in December 2004, and who was a martial arts instructor who gave martial arts demonstrations on The Ed Sullivan Show and The Steve Allen Show, died in Hawaii after a two-year battle with stomach cancer on January 21, 2005.
Vivian Green - (89) Religious historian at Oxford University who was an inspiration for John le Carre’s fictional spymaster George Smiley, who published “A New History of Christianity,” a survey of 2,000 years of the Christian religion in which he predicted that in the 21st century, beliefs in such concepts as heaven and hell would no longer be relevant to many people and churches would become more secular, and who went on to write several novels and enjoy a long academic career at Lincoln College, Oxford, died in Shipton under Wychwood, England on January 18, 2005.
