Valeri Polyakov, who spent over a year in space at once and almost two years total, died at age 80.
Dodgers’ great Maury Wills has died at 89.
Nick Holonyak, creator of the first LED that had a visible color–red.
(Clock radios would never be the same.)
Hearing this got me thinking. My father was a huge Dodger fan and talked about his favorite players from the past. He never mentioned Wills. Then I noticed his rookie year was the year after the Dodgers broke my father’s heart and crushed his love for baseball.
Drummer John Hartman of The Doobie Brothers has died at 72.
An unlikely celebrity, Ben Stern, dead at 99. I haven’t been a listener for many years so I don’t know how often he was on the air during that time but in the early years of the Howard Stern radio show his father had a starring role on many occasions. He seemed totally unfazed and unimpressed by his sons notoriety. Apparently he died back in July but Stern was off the air for the summer and just announced it a couple weeks ago.
Also Kai Winn on Deep Space Nine
Brian
Looks like we may have missed actress/singer Marva Hicks. She charted in the 90s, with a song called Never Been In Love Before. On Broadway, she starred in The Lion King and Motown: The Musical. She was 66.
Former NJ Gov Florio passes at 85.
That was one that should surprise me, but doesn’t.
Clarence Smoyer passed away at the age of 99. He gained some fame as the subject of the book “Spearhead.” He’s also in some of the most dramatic combat footage from WWII, the tank duel in front of Koln Cathedral. (Which happened to be witnessed and wrtten about by a war correspondent named Andy Rooney) I met Clarence at a book signing a couple of years ago with the author.
I have Sacheen on my list and she was 75, just for the record.