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John Vernon (February 1, at 72, complications of heart surgery)

Perhaps best known for playing Dean Wormer in Animal House, the Canadian-born character actor appeared in scores of movies and TV shows, as well as lending his voice to dozens of animated characters and even video game villains.  The craggy, deep-voiced Vernon was born Adolphus Raymondus Vernon Agopsowicz.

Max Schmeling (February 2, age 99)

Renowned German heavyweight boxer of the 1920s and 1930s, Schmeling handed Joe Louis his first professional defeat in 1936, then lost a rematch two years later.  Though the Nazi propaganda machine tried to ride his success, Schmeling was actually strongly opposed to Hitler, even going so far as to hide Jewish children from Kristalnacht and assisted a number of escapees.  After serving as a paratrooper in WWII, he eventually made a fortune in post-war Germany.  In 1954 he and Louis established a bond that lasted for the rest of Louis’s life.  In fact, Schmeling helped pay for his old rival’s funeral.

Ernst Mayr (February 3, age 100)

A seminal figure in ornithology, zoology, and evolutional biology, the German-born Mayr taught for many years at Harvard.  A leading participant in the synthesis of observational biology with statistical and molecular genetics, Mayr is credited with developing the concept of biological species as a set of individuals capable of breeding only among themselves.  Renowned also as a philosopher and historian of science, Mayr influenced generations of biologists and scientists in many fields.

Ossie Davis (February 4, 87 years old, natural causes)

An actor on stage and screen for nearly seventy years, one of the first African-Americans to direct a commercial film (1970’s Cotton Comes to Harlem), playwright, screenwriter, 2004 recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors, Davis was perhaps better known for his civil rights and progressive political activism than his prodigious theatrical talent.  He will be forever paired with his equally-talented, equally-activist wife Ruby Dee, with whom he shared over 57 years of marriage.  Dee and Davis helped organize and also MCed the 1963 March on Washington, and Davis delivered eulogies for both Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr.

Merle Kilgore (February 6, at 70, lung cancer)

Closely linked to the legendary Hank Williams, songwriter Kilgore penned several of country music’s best-known songs.  Though his works included standouts like Wolverton Mountain (co-written with singer Claude King) and Johnny Horton’s Johnny Reb, his masterpiece was surely Ring of Fire, co-authored by June Carter and made forever famous by Johnny Cash, later to become Carter’s husband, of whose life I wrote in 2003.

Karl Haas (February 6, age 91)

Longtime classical music personality on the radio, Haas started his daily program Adventures in Good Music on Detroit’s WJR in 1959.  I, for one, preferred Morning Pro Musica, the NPR program hosted by the late Robert J. Lurtsema, but not everyone agrees with me.

Jimmy Smith (February 8, at 76, natural causes)

Universally acknowledged as the man who made the electric organ a jazz instrument, Smith switched from piano to the Hammond B3 organ in 1951 and formed his first trio in 1953.  Playing in groups large and small, with dozens of the top musicians of his era.  Smith was active right up to the end; his collaboration with fellow organist Joey DeFrancesco, Legacy, was released a week after his death.

Robert Kearns (February 9, age 77, cancer and Alzheimer’s disease)

The inventor of intermittent windshield wiper blades, Kearns fought court battles for decades against the corporate giant automakers who stole and profitted from his innovations.  The one-time Wayne State University professor received several patents for his designs in 1967, then sued Ford in 1978 and Chrysler in 1982 for infringing on his patents without licensing them.  In the end, and after the case got all the way to the Supreme Court, the corporations had to pay Kearns over $28 million in damages and penalties.  Interestingly, just two days later another automotive innovator also left us.  That was

Samuel W. Alderson (February 11, at 90, myelofibrosis)

Creator of crash-test dummies (not to be confused with the Canadian alt-rockers of the same name), Alderson had a long career in developing test equipment in a wide variety of engineering disciplines.  Among the types of equipment designed by Alderson were systems for radiation testing, missile guidance, and many others.  However, none of the other devices he built had anywhere near the public image of his crash-test dummies.

Arthur Miller (February 10, 89 years old, congestive heart failure)

Arguably the finest American playwright in history (I’ll entertain counterarguments from O’Neill fans, but no one else), Miller was in the literary spotlight for at least 60 years.  Even if we somehow ignore Death of a Salesman, his gut-wrenching and powerful magnum opus, a life’s work containing The Crucible, After The Fall, All My Sons, and A View From the Bridge speaks of a towering artistic talent.  The Marilyn Monroe thing strikes an odd note—geeky New York Jewish pinko genius marries bimbo blonde bombshell—so much so that Dan Bern wrote a song wondering what might have happened if she’d wed Henry, not Arthur, Miller.

Dick Weber (February 14, age 75)

Along with his longtime friend and teammate Don Carter, Weber dominated professional bowling in the 1950s and 1960s.  A skinny St. Louisan with a strong right arm, the PBA Hall of Famer was also the father of a bowling HOFer; his son Pete was one of the best-known and most successful keglers of the 1990s and still throws well.

Rafik Hariri (February 14, age 60, assassinated by bomb)

Self-made billionaire Hariri was Prime Minister of Lebanon twice, 1992-1998 and 2000-2004.  Four months after leaving office for the second time, he was killed when his motorcade was attacked in Beirut.  An investigation by the United Nations appears to implicate Syrian officials in Hariri’s murder.

John Raitt (February 20, at 88, pneumonia)

These days, he’s most often thought of as Bonnie‘s father, but John Raitt was a formidable star of musicals on Broadway and in Hollywood.  The handsome baritone was the original Billy Bigelow in Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Carousel (1945), and later starred in both the play and movie versions of The Pajama Game.  Yes, father and daughter did cut an album together.

Sandra Dee (February 20, age 62, renal failure)

She was, perhaps, the ultimate blonde ingenue, playing the title role in Gidget, co-starring in A Summer Place and Come September.  She married Bobby Darin when she was just 18, but her movie career was pretty much over by the time of their divorce in 1967 ... not too long before her 25th birthday.

Hunter S. Thompson (February 20, age 67, suicide by gunshot)

What can be said about Dr. Thompson that hasn’t already been said?  Gonzo journalism ... drug-addled truth-telling ... gun-toting lefty freak ... politics as sport, sports as politics.  Did he report or opine?  Was he writing fiction that was more true than fact?  Strange as it may seem today, HST and Tom Wolfe were once thought of as part of the same counterculture “New Journalism” movement; how utterly different and incompatible were their worldviews by the time we reached the 21st century.  Thompson fought and denied conventional respectability all the way, eventually choosing to end his life in the face of America’s acquiescence to the depredations of the Bush-Cheney right.

Peter Benenson (February 25, 83 years old, natural causes)

Fighting his whole life for human rights worldwide, this esteemed British lawyer founded Amnesty International in 1961.  Beginning with a campaign on behalf of Portuguese prisoners of conscience, Benenson campaigned tirelessly for over four decades in support of the vision of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  Privately tutored in his youth by W.H. Auden, Benenson studied history at Eton and Oxford before taking up the practice of law.  Modest and passionate to a fault, Benenson repeatedly refused knighthoods proferred by nearly every Prime Minister, each time hand-writing his demurral while also reminding the PM of then-current human rights violations confronting the United Kingdom.  Though he refused personal honors, Amnesty International won the 1977 Nobel Peace Prize.  It was not a good year for founders of international organizations devoted to good works; also passing on in 2005 was

Bob Hunter (May 2, at 63, prostate cancer)

Co-founder of Greenpeace International, Hunter grew up in Winnipeg and moved to Vancouver BC.  The “hippy treehugger” achieved credibility as an environment reporter for the Winnipeg Tribune and columnist for the Vancouver Sun.  In 1971, he and about a dozen other activists sailed the aging fishing boat Phyllis Cormack from Vancouver toward the Alaskan island of Amchitka, intending to bear witness to American underground nuclear weapons testing.  From that small beginning, Greenpeace has become an international NGO devoted to nonviolent demonstrations of opposition to, and support of innovative solutions to, global environmental problems.  After leaving Greenpeace, Hunter wrote and lectured on environmental issues, then moved on to a career in television in Toronto.

Jef Raskin (February 26, 61 years old, pancreatic cancer)

Though Apple Computer was the brainchild of the two Steves (Jobs and Wozniak), the primary mind behind its flagship Macintosh computer was Jef Raskin.  Also an accomplished musician, conductor, artist, airplane designer, and more, Raskin led the effort to create an inexpensive, integrated, powerful machine that was “intuitive” for the user.  His major concern was to create a usable, adaptable interface between user and computer.  He devised the “click and drag” method, among other such features.  Though he left Apple in the early 1980s, similar efforts dominated his life’s work right up until the end.

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