Obituaries

Vladka Meed, Who Infiltrated Warsaw Ghetto, Dies at 90

Vladka Meed, who with her flawless Polish and Aryan good looks was able to smuggle pistols, gasoline for firebombs and even dynamite to the Jewish fighters inside the Warsaw Ghetto, and who after the war became an impassioned leader in the national effort to educate children about the Holocaust, died Wednesday in Phoenix. She was 90.She died after a steady decline from Alzheimer’s disease, said her son, Dr. Steven Meed.With her husband, Benjamin, and a handful of other survivors, Mrs. Meed took a leading role in efforts to get the world to acknowledge what the Nazis had done to the Jews of Europe. It was a difficult proposition, given the impulse of so many people after World War II to put the slaughter behind them....

Vladka Meed, Who Infiltrated Warsaw Ghetto, Dies at 90

Vladka Meed, who with her flawless Polish and Aryan good looks was able to smuggle pistols, gasoline for firebombs and even dynamite to the Jewish fighters inside the Warsaw Ghetto, and who after the war became an impassioned leader in the national effort to educate children about the Holocaust, died Wednesday in Phoenix. She was 90.She died after a steady decline from Alzheimer’s disease, said her son, Dr. Steven Meed.With her husband, Benjamin, and a handful of other survivors, Mrs. Meed took a leading role in efforts to get the world to acknowledge what the Nazis had done to the Jews of Europe. It was a difficult proposition, given the impulse of so many people after World War II to put the slaughter behind them.

Seth P. Tillman, influential adviser to Sen. Fulbright, dies at 82

Seth P. Tillman, a key aide to the late Sen. J. William Fulbright who wrote many of the lawmaker’s most noted speeches and helped shape his powerfully influential opposition to the Vietnam War, died Nov. 16 at the Washington Home hospice in the District.He was 82 and had Parkinson’s disease, said his son Andrew Tillman.As the longtime chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Fulbright became known for his role in turning the United States against its involvement in Southeast Asia. But few know of the extent to which Dr. Tillman helped alter history by working in private on the stands Fulbright took in public.Dr. Tillman was a Capitol Hill intern fresh from a doctoral program in foreign affairs when he went to work in 1961 for Fulbright’s committee. He quickly became a principal aide in the Arkansas Democrat’s Senate office as well as on the committee....

Sir Rex Hunt, Symbol of British Defiance in the Windswept Falklands, Dies at 86

It was supposed to have been a nice soft landing: a colonial assignment that married the twilight of a capable if unremarkable diplomatic career to the governorship of an obscure British outpost at the twilight of empire.“A tranquil but absorbing posting” was the way the British Foreign Office described the job, Sir Rex Hunt later recalled.And thus he was dispatched in 1980 to take charge of the Falkland Islands, a windblown archipelago in the South Atlantic, nearly 8,000 miles from England, where sheep outnumbered people by more than 300 to 1.As Sir Rex, who died on Nov. 11 at 86, could scarcely have imagined, his colonial idyll would end abruptly in 1982, when he found himself, literally overnight, directing a tiny band of British military men against an amphibious Argentine invasion....

James L. Stone, Officer Decorated in Korean War, Dies at 89

Col. James L. Stone, who as an Army platoon leader on a desolate hilltop facing overwhelming Chinese forces during the Korean War rallied his men, then stayed behind to cover their retreat despite being wounded three times, actions for which he earned the Medal of Honor, died on Friday at his home in Arlington, Tex. He was 89.The cause was prostate cancer, his wife, Mary Lou, said.At sundown on Nov. 21, 1951, Colonel Stone, then a first lieutenant, was leading about 50 men from the First Cavalry Division of the Eighth Cavalry Regiment when Chinese forces began firing white phosphorous shells to mark the American position above the Imjin River, near Sakogae, North Korea. About 9 p.m., after an artillery barrage, Chinese troops swept up the hill....

Chester Hansen, a Rare Diarist of World War II, Dies at 95

Before dawn on June 6, 1944, as the cruiser Augusta headed toward the coast of Normandy, Chester Hansen was up and, as always, at the side of Gen. Omar N. Bradley. And as always, Mr. Hansen, a journalist by training and a top aide to Bradley, made notes in his diary:“Like others in the Army party, Bradley was up at 3:30. He is on the bridge, a familiar figure in his ODs with Moberly infantry boots and OD shirt, combat jacket, steel helmet. He smiles lightly as though it is good to be nearer the coast of France and get the invasion under way.”Mr. Hansen, who died on Oct. 17 at 95, had been assigned to Bradley when he was conducting training in Louisiana and followed him as he rose through the ranks, accompanying him in the North Africa campaign and the invasion of Sicily and as he led American ground forces on D-Day as commander of the First Army....

A Prairie Liberal, Trounced but Never Silenced

George McGovern, the United States senator who won the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination in 1972 as an opponent of the war in Vietnam and a champion of liberal causes, and who was then trounced by President Richard M. Nixon in the general election, died early Sunday in Sioux Falls, S.D. He was 90.His death was announced in a statement by his family. He had been moved to hospice care in recent days after being treated for several health problems in the last year. He had a home in Mitchell, S.D., where he had spent his formative years.In a statement, President Obama called Mr. McGovern “a champion for peace” who was a “statesman of great conscience and conviction.”To the liberal Democratic faithful, Mr. McGovern remained a standard-bearer well into his old age, writing and lecturing even as his name was routinely invoked by conservatives as synonymous with what they considered the failures of liberal politics....Related Links

SAfrican photographer who depicted apartheid dies

Alfred Kumalo, a South African photographer whose work chronicled the brutalities of apartheid and the rise of Nelson Mandela, died of renal failure in a Johannesburg hospital on Sunday night, the ruling party said Monday.The African National Congress described Kumalo as a "rare and significant talent that was pivotal in raising social consciousness and exposing the brutality of the apartheid administration."He was 82......The opposition Democratic Alliance similarly praised Kumalo, saying his work inspired South Africans with a message of hard work and integrity. "Mr. Kumalo was a photographer who had the courage to honestly reflect the reality of South African life," the DA said. "His photos provide a visual history of South Africa's struggle against the brutal apartheid regime and remind us of the importance of an independent media in exposing the excesses of the state."...

Russell Means, Indian activist, actor, dies at 72

Russell Means never shunned attention. Whether leading Native Americans in railing against broken federal treaties, appearing in a Hollywood blockbuster or advocating a sovereign American Indian nation within U.S. borders, the activist who helped lead the 1973 uprising at Wounded Knee reveled in the spotlight......Means and AIM co-founder Dennis Banks were charged in 1974 for their role in the Wounded Knee uprising, but after a trial that lasted several months, a judge threw the charges out on grounds of government misconduct...

Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania Senator, Is Dead at 82

WASHINGTON — Arlen Specter, the irascible senator from Pennsylvania who was at the center of many of the Senate’s most divisive legal battles — from the Supreme Court nominations of Robert H. Bork and Clarence Thomas to the impeachment of President Bill Clinton — only to lose his seat in 2010 after quitting the Republican Party to become a Democrat, died Sunday morning at his home in Philadelphia. He was 82.The cause was complications of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, his son Shanin said. Mr. Specter had previously fought Hodgkin’s disease and survived a brain tumor and heart bypass surgery.

Norodom Sihanouk, Cambodian Leader Through Shifting Allegiances, Dies at 89

Norodom Sihanouk, the charismatic Cambodian leader whose remarkable skills of political adaptation personified for the world the tiny, troubled kingdom where he was a towering figure through six decades, died early Monday in Beijing. He was 89.The death was announced by Deputy Prime Minister Nhiek Bunchhay, quoted by news services. The former king had been dogged by ill health for years and regularly traveled to China for treatment.King Sihanouk was crowned in 1941, when Franklin D. Roosevelt was president, and held on to some form of power for the next 60-plus years. He served as monarch, prime minister, figurehead of the Communist revolution, leader in exile, and once again as monarch until he abdicated in 2004. He handed the crown to one of his sons, Norodom Sihamoni, after which he was known as the retired king, or the king-father....

Eric Lomax, River Kwai Prisoner Who Forgave, Dies at 93

Eric Lomax, a former British soldier who was tortured by the Japanese while he was a prisoner during World War II and half a century later forgave one of his tormentors — an experience he recounted in a memoir, “The Railway Man” — died on Monday in Berwick-upon-Tweed, England. He was 93.His death was confirmed by his publisher, Vintage Books.Mr. Lomax, who was born in Scotland, was 19 when he joined the Royal Corps of Signals in 1939. He was one of thousands of British soldiers who surrendered to the Japanese in Singapore in 1942. Many were relocated to Thailand and forced to build the Burma Railway, also known as the Death Railway.The building of the railroad and the brutality involved was portrayed in “The Bridge on the River Kwai,” the 1957 film directed by David Lean....

Santiago Carrillo, a Spanish Communist Leader, Dies at 97

Santiago Carrillo, who evolved from a bomb-throwing opponent of Gen. Francisco Franco and his fascist forces into a Spanish Communist leader who promoted a more moderate, democratic European Communist Party independent of the Soviet Union, died on Tuesday at his home in Madrid. He was 97.The cause was heart failure, his son Santiago said.Born into a socialist family in dynastic Spain, Mr. Carrillo converted to Communism and fought Franco’s fascist forces during the Spanish Civil War, leaving him haunted by a massacre on his watch. When Franco came to power, Mr. Carrillo was forced to retreat to Paris, but he continued to manage the Spanish Communist Party from there, becoming its secretary general in 1960....

Dr. Thomas Szasz, Psychiatrist Who Led Movement Against His Field, Dies at 92

Thomas Szasz, a psychiatrist whose 1961 book “The Myth of Mental Illness” questioned the legitimacy of his field and provided the intellectual grounding for generations of critics, patient advocates and antipsychiatry activists, making enemies of many fellow doctors, died Saturday at his home in Manlius, N.Y. He was 92.He died after a fall, his daughter Dr. Margot Szasz Peters said.Dr. Szasz (pronounced sahz) published his critique at a particularly vulnerable moment for psychiatry. With Freudian theorizing just beginning to fall out of favor, the field was trying to become more medically oriented and empirically based. Fresh from Freudian training himself, Dr. Szasz saw psychiatry’s medical foundation as shaky at best, and his book hammered away, placing the discipline “in the company of alchemy and astrology.”

Gabriel Vahanian, Professor, Dies at 85; Was Linked to ‘Death of God’ Movement

Gabriel Vahanian, a theologian whose 1961 social critique, “The Death of God: The Culture of Our Post-Christian Era,” gave a name to a seemingly atheistic but widely misunderstood theological movement, died on Aug. 30 at his home in Strasbourg, France. He was 85.His daughter, Noelle Vahanian, confirmed his death.Mr. Vahanian, a churchgoing Presbyterian throughout his life, was a professor at Syracuse University when a small literary publisher released “The Death of God,” a scholarly work that took church leaders to task for what he considered the trivialization of Christian teaching in the secular age. It was not an endorsement of Friedrich Nietzsche’s 1880s-era announcement of God’s death. And it received little attention outside university religion departments and periodicals like The Journal of Bible and Religion. (The Journal’s review called it a dense read, but worthwhile. “Books like this must be written and read if Christian solutions are to be found,” it said.)...

Gen. William W. Momyer, Celebrated Pilot, Dies at 95

Gen. William W. Momyer, a celebrated World War II fighter pilot who helped plot postwar tactics for the Air Force and commanded aerial combat and bombing operations during the early years of the Vietnam War, died Aug. 10 at an assisted-living center in Merritt Island, Fla. He was 95.The general, a resident of Rockledge, Fla., in recent years, apparently died of heart failure at Selah Seniorcare-Cedar Creek. Chloe Drobniewski, a spokeswoman for the center, confirmed his death on Sunday.In a 35-year career that spanned a revolutionary era of aerial warfare, from dogfights in P-40s against whining Messerschmitts over North Africa to the rolling thunder of supersonic fighter-bombers over the cities and jungles of Southeast Asia, General Momyer (pronounced MOE-meyer) was known as a daring pilot, an aggressive wing commander and one of the best air tacticians of his time....

Rev. Sun Myung Moon, Self-Proclaimed Messiah Who Built Religious Movement, Dies at 92

The Rev. Sun Myung Moon, the Korean evangelist, businessman and self-proclaimed messiah who built a religious movement notable for its mass weddings, fresh-faced proselytizers and links to vast commercial interests, died on Monday in Gapyeong, South Korea. He was 92.His death was announced on his church’s Web site, which said he had been battling complications from pneumonia, including kidney failure.Mr. Moon courted world leaders, financed newspapers and founded numerous innocuously named civic organizations. To his critics, he pursued those activities mainly to lend legitimacy to his movement, known as the Unification Church, although his methods were sometimes questionable. In 2004, for example, he had himself crowned “humanity’s savior” in front of astonished members of Congress at a Capitol Hill luncheon....

David Lederman, Pioneer of Artificial Heart, Dies at 68

David M. Lederman, who led the team of scientists that developed the first fully implantable artificial heart — which, although it had limited success, prompted further advances in the treatment of late-stage heart disease — died on Aug. 15 at his home in Marblehead, Mass. He was 68.The cause was pancreatic cancer, his son, Jonathan, said.Dr. Lederman, an aerospace engineer, founded a small company called Abiomed in 1981, with the hopes of extending lives while providing a greater degree of independence for gravely debilitated heart patients awaiting a transplant. Working with Dr. Robert Kung, the company’s chief scientific officer, he brought together a research team (including other aerospace engineers) that designed the AbioCor....

Malcolm W. Browne, Pulitzer-Prize Winning Reporter, Dies at 81

Malcolm W. Browne, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter whose four-decade career included covering the Vietnam War — and taking one of the most memorable photos of the conflict — and a lively second act as a science writer who explained chemical weapons and described the rise of synthetic body parts, died on Monday in Hanover, N.H. He was 81.The cause was complications of Parkinson’s disease, said his wife, Le Lieu Browne.Mr. Browne, who lived in Thetford Center, Vt., and Manhattan, spent most of his career writing for The New York Times, which sent him to Argentina, Vietnam, Bosnia, Pakistan and wherever else his curiosity called him after he became a science writer in the late 1970s.“My life is terrific,” Mr. Browne said in a 1993 interview. “It affords the greatest possible variety of experience. That, after all, is why I became a journalist.”...

Neil Armstrong, 1930-2012, Made ‘Giant Leap’ as First Man to Step on Moon

Neil Armstrong, who made the “giant leap for mankind” as the first human to set foot on the moon, died on Saturday. He was 82.His family said in a statement that the cause was “complications resulting from cardiovascular procedures.” He had undergone heart bypass surgery this month in Cincinnati, near where he lived. His recovery had been going well, according to those who spoke with him after the surgery, and his death came as a surprise to many close to him, including his fellow Apollo astronauts. The family did not say where he died.