In Memory, 2019 – Tony Filipovitch
Prelude: Aretha Franklin, “Nessun Dorma” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kF4tWLAW3lY) 0:37-4:25)
At the 1998 Grammys, Luciano Pavarotti was scheduled to sing the aria “Nessun Dorma” from the opera Turandot. As the show was on the air, his doctors cancelled his performance.
A quick note on the song. The performance you are about to hear mixes some English into the Italian. But the opening words, nessun dorma, mean “No one sleeps,” and is the climax of the opera. The story is a bit complicated (it’s opera!), but the Princess has declared that no one sleeps this night until the Stranger’s name is revealed. Although everyone else calls him Ignoto (“unknown, unnamed”), she always refers to him as Straniero (Stranger). It’s the same in all the Romance languages, straniero in Italian, etranger in French, extranos in Spanish—it also means “foreigner,” and if the straniero is in front of you, it also implies “migrant.” Anyhow, if she can discover his name he is condemned to die; if not, she has to marry him (remember, this is opera!). The aria concludes with the Stranger singing al alba vincero! (al alba, “Come dawn”, vincero! “I will conquer!”)
Aretha Franklin happened to be backstage when word came that Pavarotti could not perform. She thought about it a minute, and decided “I can do this.” So, with only 20 minutes to wrap her head around it, she gave the performance you about to hear. She is a legend in Soul and Gospel and Rock music—but Classical? She puts a soul spin on this performance, but the orchestra had no time to rehearse with her so they were playing it straight. Let’s listen.
Welcome & Announcements (Penny)
Congregational Greeting (Penny)
Call to Worship (#447, Albert Schweitzer)
Chalice Lighting (Penny)
Opening Hymn (#123, Spirit of Life)
Joys & Concerns (Penny)
Singing Meditation
Story for All Ages: Today we celebrate the memories of people who have died in this last year. One of them was the poet, Donald Hall. Among other things, he wrote a children’s book, Ox-Cart Man, which is about the cycle of life and remembering. Let me share it with you.
In Memory, 2019
Our time together today is too brief. Even with drastic culling, I fear I will go on too long (if you stand up and walk out, I’ll understand).
We are picking up a tradition that goes back to 1999. Our part-time minister then, Rev. Sarah Oehlberg, had a practice of celebrating Memorial Day by remembering those who had died in the last year, and while she would deliver her sermon at Nora Church in Hanska, I would read it to us on Pohl road. After she retired, I continued the practice on my own.
Living the year through clipping obituaries is an interesting practice, especially as one approaches closer to one’s own death, marked by the increasing number of people younger than you who have died in the year. I realize that when I die, a world will die with me—I hold so many mementoes on my desk and books in my library and arcane lore and skills that will mean nothing to my children and that they will pitch when the time comes. And you, as young as some of you might be, are building your own memories that you will carry to your grave with you. So, today is a time to hold in memory, if only briefly, a few (only a few, although it might not seem so) of the people who, for better or ill, have brought us to where we are today as we, all, no matter how aged, build the memories that will carry forward those who are coming behind us.
International Affairs
Lest we forget, this was, yet again, a year marked by violence—
- 17 US soldiers died from combat-related injuries in 2018, 3 more this year.
- 149 people died in the Pakistan suicide bombing in 2018
- 49 people were killed in mosque attacks in ChristChurch, NZ
- 253 died in Easter bombing in Sri Lanka
- 387 people died in 2018 in the US from mass shootings, including 5 at the Capitol Gazette paper in Annapolis MD, 13 killed at a dance event in Thousand Oaks CA, 11 killed at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh PA. So far in 2019, 120 people have been killed in 105 events, including a school shooting at STEM school in Colorado, a college shooting at UNC Charlotte, and a house of worship shooting at the Chabad synagogue near San Diego, CA. Since I started writing this on May 1, 9 more deaths from mass shooting have been reported.
Georges Loinger, 108. An engineer, he criss-crossed Vichy France with the cover story of teaching physical education to youth groups—and preparing Jewish children in hiding to hike across the Swiss border. He is credited with personally leading more than 350 children to safety—sometimes carrying them on his back through the mountains.
Joachim Ronneberg, 99. He led a team of 8 saboteurs who destroyed the Nazi heavy-water research project in Norway and kept Hitler from developing the A-bomb. They escaped by skiing 200 miles to safety in Sweden. His exploits were the basis of the 1965 movie, The Heroes of Telemark.
Selma Engel, 96. A Dutch Jew, she survived the Nazi death camp at Sobibor in Poland. The Nazis dismantled the camp and planted crops over the site, but she and her husband (whom she met in the camp) spread the story. Returning home to the Netherlands, she was threatened with deportation because she had married a Pole, and Dutch held the Poles responsible for war crimes (even though her husband was a victim of those crimes). They emigrated to Israel, and then eventually to the US.
Belasario Betancur, 95. President of Colombia from 1982-86, he tried to reach a peace deal with the leftist rebels who had been fighting the government since the 1960s. His efforts were undone by a violent bloodletting fueled by his own state security forces. The violence continued until 2017 when a cease-fire was finally negotiated with the FARC.
Roelof “Pik” Botha, 86. South Africa’s last foreign minister under apartheid, he was too moderate for the Afrikaner establishment and yet he defended their policies until the end. He displayed the Revolutionary War Gadsden flag (“Don’t tread on me”) in his office and accused the US of moral hypocrisy—“Let the US achieve complete equality before pontificating to me from a high moral forum,” he said. Yet, when Mandela was elected president in 1994, Botha served as his energy minister.
Kofi Atta Annan, 80. Born in Kumasi, Ghana, his first name means “born on Friday” and his second means “twin” (he had a twin sister). He was educated at Macalester College and went on to work at WHO in Geneva. In 1997 he became the first Black African Secretary General of the UN, where he served for nine years. In 2001 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work leading the UN Peacekeeping forces in Bosnia. He broke with the precedent that the UN should not interfere in the internal affairs of a member country, arguing that a government’s suppression of its own people threatened international stability.
Jalaluddin Haqqani, 71. Founder of the Taliban’s most potent fighting force, he died after a long illness. Hailed as a Freedom Fighter by President Reagan for his opposition to the Soviet presence in Afghanistan, he was declared a terrorist by the Obama administration for opposing the US presence.
National Affairs
Richard Overton, 112. America’s oldest person. He was in his mid-30’s when he enlisted to fight in WW II. In a 2014 profile, he was still driving widows to church in his pickup truck, smoking cigars, and adding whiskey to his coffee—“It’s just like medicine,” he said. Good living.
Ernest “Fritz” Hollings, 97. As governor, he led S. Carolina through desegregation and went on to serve six terms in the US Senate. He called fundraising “the main culprit, the cancer on the body politic” when he retired in 2004. A strong defense supporter, he nonetheless wrote about Viet Nam that “it’s a mistake to try to build and destroy a nation at the same time” and that we are “repeating the same wrongheaded strategy in Iraq.”
John Dingall, Jr., 92. He served in Congress as Representative from Detroit for 59 years—from 1955 to 2015—the longest-serving Representative ever. In his time, he was instrumental in passage of the Medicare Act, the Water Quality Act of 1965, Clean Water Act of 1972, the Endangered Species Act of 1973, the Clean Air Act of 1990, and the Affordable Care Act, among others. He was most proud of his work on the Civil Rights Act of 1964. He succeeded his father, who served for 22 years before him, and was succeeded by his widow. Dynasty isn’t just a TV show.
Birch Bayh, 91. Governor of Indiana and 3-term US Senator, he is the only person since the Founding Fathers to draft more than one amendment to the Constitution (the 25th on Presidential Selection and the 26th lowering the voting age to 18). But he is best known for his work creating Title IX of the Higher Education Act, prohibiting gender discrimination.
Bernice Sandler, 90. The “godmother of Title IX.” Rejected for full-time academic appointments because of her gender (she “came on too strong for a woman” and would “stay home when the children got sick” and “was just a housewife who went back to school”), she researched sex discrimination and found that it was not illegal. But she also found a footnote citing an executive order signed by Pres. Johnson that barred organizations with federal contracts from discriminating on the basis of sex—and most universities received federal dollars! She began a class action suit on behalf of women in higher education, and in time went to the staff of Rep. Edith Green of Oregon who held the first hearings on sex discrimination. The rest is history.
Robert Selmer Bergland, 90. Three-term Congressman from Minnesota and President Carter’s Secretary of Agriculture, he was stuck with defending the president’s grain embargo against Russia, which had disastrous consequences for American farmers. He didn’t agree with the decision, but once it was made he saw his role as serving the president.
Richard Lugar, 87. Longtime Senator from Indiana, he helped start a program that destroyed former Soviet nuclear and chemical weapons as the Cold War ended.
Ronald V. Dellums, 82. 14-term Representative from Berkeley. As a freshman, he introduced a resolution calling for investigation into possible US War Crimes in Indochina. While he arrived in Congress as (in his words) “an Afro-topped, bell-bottomed radical… from the commie-pinko left-wing community of Berzerkely,” in time he dropped the confrontational approach in favor of courtly persuasion and dressed to suit. He opposed the Star Wars antimissile program and the Persian Gulf War, and yet was elected to chair the Armed Services Committee toward the end of his time in Congress.
John McCain, 81. Air Force pilot, one of the higher profile POWs in Hanoi, 35 years in the Senate, and twice a candidate for the presidency. And always a maverick, who voted from his values and ideals rather than political expediency.
Thomas P. Gallagher, 77. A career foreign-service officer, he had served in Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia, and Nigeria. Recently divorced after 6 years of marriage, he agreed to be on a panel at the Gay Activist Alliance on “Gays as Federal Employees” in 1975. When asked as a panelist what his colleagues thought about his sexuality, he said no one knew yet; “I guess this is my coming out party.” He left the Foreign Service to do AIDS work in California, returning 20 years later to work in Eritrea and Sudan and with the Office of International Health. In 2012, Secretary Clinton singled him out for recognition for risking his career when he came out back in 1975.
Rosemary (Bryant) Mariner, 65. One of six who were the Navy’s first class of female pilots, the first female aviator to fly a single-seat Skyhawk, first woman to command a naval aviation squadron, she logged 17 landings on aircraft carriers. She was a leading figure in the fight to lift the ban on women serving in combat.
Alan Krueger, 58. Assistant secretary of the Treasury and Chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisors under President Obama. He was an expert on income inequality and demonstrated that a higher minimum wage does not generally slow hiring.
Brent Taylor, 39. Mayor of North Ogden, UT and a major in the Army National Guard. He was killed on his fourth mission to Afghanistan by one of the people he was training. He had posted on his blog that his three priorities were God, family, and country; “I have given my life to serve all three of these loyalties, whenever and however I can.”
Jeremy Richman, 49, father of Avielle who was killed at Sandy Hook school; and Sidney Aiello, 19, and an unnamed 16-year-old student, both survivors of Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School. All three committed suicide. Not all of the damage from gun violence is visible or immediate.
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A poet who died this year was Mary Oliver, 83. A keen observer and poet of nature and animal life, and beloved of UU’s. While she professed no religion, she did deliver the 2006 Ware Address and the General Assembly of the UUA. In an interview with Maria Shriver, she said “If I have any lasting worth, it will be because I have tried to make people remember what the Earth is meant to look like.” Let’s listen to one of her poems, “In Blackwater Woods.”
Science & Business
William K. Coors, 102. Grandson of Adolph Coors, he led the company from 1959 to 200. A Princeton-educated chemical engineer, his first job was sweeping the floors. He is credited with pioneering the returnable aluminum can and leading Coors to the third largest brewery in the country. He also was anti-union and supported ultraconservative political causes. When he was a boy, his mother wanted him to become a concert pianist, but his father wanted him for the family business.
Samuel Snipes, 99. A white lawyer, he defended the first Black family to move into the all-White development of Levittown, PA. in 1957. But he considered his greatest courtroom victory to have come in 1972 when he stopped a nuclear power plant from being built on an island in the Delaware River, across from what was once the summer home of William Penn.
Richard DeVos, 92. Billionaire co-founder of Amway. He was also a major philanthropic force in western Michigan. “I give because the Lord told me to give. But more than that, I give here because this is our town.”
Henry W. Bloch, 96. Co-founder of H&R Block tax preparers. A reminder that there once was a time when most people could do their taxes themselves.
Nancy Grace Roman, 93. Mother of the Hubble Telescope. As NASA’s first chief of astronomy (and first woman in a leadership position) in the 1960s, she was in charge of the early planning for the Hubble telescope. She also helped develop the Cosmic Background Explorer.
Aaron Klug, 92. Nobel Laureate. His PhD was in physics, but his Nobel was in chemistry because he applied techniques from physics and mathematics to problems of molecular structure, which in turn led to some forms of medical imaging. In his day, crossing the boundary from physics to biology was not very common—“Many physicists hate the idea of anything wet and sloppy,” he quipped.
Jean Francois Antoine Vanier, 90. Born in Geneva the son of the Governor General of Canada, he considered becoming a Catholic priest and taught philosophy at the University of Toronto. In his 30s, on a trip to France, he was shocked at the conditions in the French asylums that he visited. He went on to found L’Arche International, a community of people some with mental disabilities and some without who lived and worked together. In time, it grew to include people with physical disabilities, and spread to 154 communities in 38 countries. He wrote 30 books on religion, disability, normality, success, and tolerance and was awarded the Templeton Prize in 2015.
Burton Richter, 87. Nobel Laureate who shared the discovery of an atomic particle, the “charm quark” (that’s its name, I’m not joking). He designed, financed, and built the high-energy particle accelerator that he used to make his discovery.
James Mirrlees, 82. Nobel Laureate in economics for his exploration of how information asymmetry affects individual behavior and economic policy—think real estate, health insurance, investing, welfare, and employee motivation.
Millard Fuller, 74. A self-made millionaire, he gave away his wealth to start Habitat for Humanity. “We want to make it socially, politically, morally and religiously unacceptable to have substandard housing and homelessness,” he said.
Pamela Henry, 68. Polio’s last poster child. She developed polio as an infant, and became the poster child for the March of Dimes in 1959—the last time one was chosen. When she met Walter Cronkite in the newsroom, in front of his trademark world map, she went up to it and used her crutch to do a weather forecast. Cronkite loved it. She went on to become the first female TV reporter in the Oklahoma City market and went on to become news director Oklahoma’s PBS station. One of her colleagues described first meeting her in the middle of a 3-alarm fire: “She came wading through three feet of water, on crutches, holding a microphone in her teeth.” What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.
Sergio Marchionne, 66. CEO who turned around two major auto corporations, Chrysler and Fiat. He was also chairman of Ferrari and Maserati.
Paul Allen, 65. Co-founder of Microsoft, he became a billionaire philanthropist who invested in conservation, space travel, and professional sports.
Hanabi-ko “Koko”, 46. OK, so she is not a human. Koko the Gorilla was born on Independence Day (her given name means “fireworks child”), and when still an infant learned Gorilla Sign Language from Penny Patterson. She became the ambassador for her species to humans, and over the years became friends with Fred Rogers, Betty White, and Robin Williams.
And, thinking about all these people who worked and shared their gifts to build the community, this is probably a good time to receive in gratitude the Offering. While the baskets are passed around, let me mention another who died this year. Doris Kappelhoff, 97. You know her as Doris Day. She had three very successful careers, as a singer, an actress, and animal rights activist. She recorded more than 650 songs, was the top US box office draw four times (one of eight to do so), and after retiring from performing she founded the Doris Day Animal Foundation. She started out to be a dancer, but broke her leg in a car accident when she was 15. While she was recuperating, she listened to the songs of Ella Fitzgerald on the radio and refined here talent for singing. Let’s listen to one of her number-one hits, “Sentimental Journey.”
Writers
Herman Wouk, 103. He won the Pulitzer for The Caine Mutiny, and then went on to write Winds of War and War and Remembrance. He also wrote This Is My God, an explanation of Modern Orthodox Judaism, written for Jews and goys alike.
Betty Ballantine, 99. With her husband, Ian, she transformed American reading habits by introducing inexpensive paperback books. In 1939, they established the US division of the paperback house, Penguin Books. They went on to found Bantam Books and Ballantine Books. Her role was primarily on the editorial side, where among other things she nurtured science fiction writers.
Stan Lee, 95. First a writer, then the publisher of Marvel Comics, he imbued tights-in-action with sophisticated plots, college-level dialogue, satire, science fiction, and philosophy. “I write fairy tales for grown-ups,” he once said. He won the National Medal of Arts in 2008
Cha Leung-Yung “Louis” (Jin Yong), 94. The most widely-read Chinese language author of the 20th Century, he was often compared to JRR Tolkien. His first novel (should you wish to check it out) is The Book and the Sword.
Russell Baker, 93. Celebrated newspaper columnist, he won two Pulitzer Prizes, the first for distinguished commentary, the second for his autobiography. He described his 750-word columns as “ballet in a telephone booth.”
William Stanley Merwin, 91. Poet Laureate, Bollingen and Pulitzer Prize winning poet (he accepted one Pulitzer for “The Shadow of Sirius,” but declined one thirty years earlier in protest of the VietNam War). His poetry celebrated nature, condemned war and industrialism, and revisited a lost past.
Ursula Kroeber LeGuin, 88. Preferring to be known as an “American novelist,” she is best known for her speculative and science fiction (she was the first woman to win both the Hugo and Nebula awards for the same book, and went on to win seven Hugos and six Nebulas) and was named a Living Legend by the Library of Congress.
Richard Valeriani, 85. NBC News correspondent, he covered the Bay of Pigs invasion, civil rights demonstrations, Kissinger’s globe-trotting, and the Iran hostage crisis.
Philip Roth, 85. American novelist and short-story writer, he won the Pulitzer Prize for his novel American Pastoral. His 30 novels explore American identity, particularly American Jewish identity, and blur the distinction between reality and fiction.
Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul, 85. Trinidadian-British writer, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in part for The Enigma of Arrival, an autobiographical novel which reflects on the societal change he had observed in his time. Much of his writing is based on his travels, and he has been criticized for racism, sexism, chauvinism, and Islamophobia. Derek Walcott, who described him in a poem as “a rodent in old age,” also described him as “the finest writer of the English sentence.”
Harlan Jay Ellison, 84. Known for his New Wave speculative fiction and for his combative personality, he has been described as “the only living organism … whose natural habitat is hot water.” He published over 1,700 short stories, novellas, screenplays, comic book scripts, teleplays, essays, and a wide range of criticism covering literature, film, television, and print media. Some of his best-known work includes the Star Trek episode “The City on the Edge of Forever“, his A Boy and His Dog cycle, and his short stories “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream” and ” ‘Repent, Harlequin!’ Said the Ticktockman“. He was also editor and anthologist for Dangerous Visions (1967) and Again, Dangerous Visions (1972). Ellison won numerous awards, including multiple Hugos and Nebulas
Sylvia Belle Chase, 80. Emmy-award winning correspondent, she was a pioneer for women in serious journalism and TV Guide called her “the most trusted woman on TV.” She was born in Northfield and raised in Minneapolis.
Amos Oz, 79. Probably the best-known Israeli writer, he was a frequent candidate for the Nobel Prize in literature. His best-known work is A Tale of Love and Darkness.
Ntozake Shange, 70. Born Paulette Linda Williams, she changed her name as a young adult after surviving a suicide attempt and coming to terms with her alienation and depression. In Zulu, Ntozake means “she who comes with her own things” and Shange means “who walks like a lion”. A poet, novelist, and playwright, she is best known for her choreopoem For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf.
Vonda McIntyre, 70. Both a novelist herself and a mentor of others (she established the Clarion West Writers Workshop in Seattle), she won both the Hugo and the Nebula for her novel Dreamsnake. It was initially rejected by publishers; a protagonist who was a woman healer was not considered salable. She won a second Nebula for her alternate history, The Moon and the Sun.
Charles Krauthammer, 68. Pulitzer Prize winner and neoconservative columnist, he helped lay the groundwork for the US invasion of Iraq. He graduated from Harvard Medical School, despite a diving accident that left him a paraplegic, and practiced psychiatry before turning to journalism. One of his early jobs was as speechwriter for Walter Mondale.
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One last poet. One of the poets who died this year was Donald Hall, 89. A Poet Laureate, he is perhaps best known for the paired work, Otherwise, by his wife Jane Kenyon, and his book, Without, written in the time of her dying. “Remembered happiness is agony,” he once wrote, “so is remembered agony.” He has been described as the poet of love and loss. Let’s listen to part of his poem, “September Ode”
Actors & Film
Shinobu Hashimoto, 100. Screenwriter who collaborated with the director, Akira Kurosawa, on such classics as Rashomon, Ikiru, Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood, and The Hidden Fortress.
Carol Channing, 97. Three-time Tony winner, she played the definitive Dolly Levi, last performing the role when she was in her 70s. Producer David Merrick wasn’t sure he wanted her: “I don’t want that silly grin with all those teeth that go back to your ears,” he told her. She also won a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress for here role as Muzzy in Thoroughly Modern Millie.
Stanley Donen, 94. You probably don’t recognize his name. When he was 16, he danced in the original Broadway production of Pal Joey, which starred Gene Kelly. Kelly brought him to Hollywood, where eventually they co-directed Singin’ in the Rain and On the Town. He went on to direct Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Damn Yankees, Funny Face (with Astaire & Hepburn), Indiscreet (with Hepburn & Cary Grant), Two for the Road (with Hepburn and Albert Finney) and Charade (again with Hepburn and Grant). He never received an Oscar for any of his movies, but in 1998 he finally received an honorary Oscar for the body of his directing.
Katherine MacGregor, 93. She created the role of Mrs. Oleson for Little House on the Prairie. Her character was originally written as just out and out mean. “Anyone that mean has to be a fool,” she said. “So I began mixing farce into it. I think the audience counts on seeing Mrs. Oleson fall on her fanny and ger her comeuppance.”
Neil Simon, 91. Four Tonys, a Pulitzer, and the Mark Twain Prize for Humor. He wrote Barefoot in the Park, The Odd Couple, Brighton Beach Memoirs, Biloxi Blues, Broadway Bound, and Lost in Yonkers. What more is there to say?
Bernard Bragg, 90. Co-founder of the National Theater of the Deaf, he was inspired by the work of Marcel Marceau. He also taught theater at Gallaudet for almost 20 years. As a mime, he portrayed every animal in Noah’s ark and every instrument in the orchestra; as an actor, he signed the poetry of William Blake.
Douglas Rain, 90. A child actor for the CBC, he went abroad and studied under Laurence Olivier. Returning to Canada, he performed at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival for 32 seasons. But you don’t know him for that. He was the voice of HAL in Kubrick’s Space Odyssey. And became the inspiration for the voices of Siri and Alexa.
William Goldman, 87. Novelist and screenwriter. He won Academy Awards for Butch Cassidy and for All the President’s Men. And he converted into screenplays his novels like Marathon Man and Magic. But he is probably best known for his novel and screenplay, Princess Bride.
Tab Hunter, 86. Teenage heartthrob star in the 50’s in movies like Battle Cry and Damn Yankees, and on TV in Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates (in real life he was a figure skater and a horseman), he also recorded a top hit song, “Young Love.” He made the news again during the AIDS epidemic when he was outed as gay, and wrote about it in his 2005 memoir, Tab Hunter Confidential.
Tim Conway, 85. Master comedian, he excelled at improvising characters and scripts (and breaking up the others on the set). He won six Emmys for his work on the Carol Burnett Show, and was also a standout for his portrayal of Ensign Parker on McHale’s Navy and Barnacle Boy on Sponge Bob Square Pants.
Peter Masterson, 84. He wrote The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas and directed the movie adaptation of Trip to Bountiful.
Burt Reynolds, 82. Hard to say if he is better known for his chase movies like Smokey and the Bandit and Cannonball Run, or more serious roles in Deliverance and Boogie Nights, or for his nude centerfold in Cosmopolitan magazine. He once joked that he was known for movies “they show in airplanes or prisons or anywhere else the people can’t get out.”
Mark Medoff, 79. Playwright, producer, and director he wrote 30 plays and won both a Tony and an Obie. His work includes Children of a Lesser God, When You Comin’ Back Red Ryder, and City of Joy.
Bernardo Bertolucci, 77. Italian director and screenwriter, known for The Conformist, Last Tango in Paris, The Last Emperor, and The Sheltering Sky.
Penny Marshall, 75. First, she had a very successful run on TV as Laverne on “Laverne & Shirley.” Then she turned to directing, and did Big, Awakenings, A League of Their Own, The Preacher’s Wife, and Riding in Cars with Boys. Not bad for an actress whose voice was once described as “a groan filtered through a whine.”
Peter Mayhew, 74. George Lucas discovered the 7’3” actor while he was an orderly in the radiology department at King’ College Hospital in London. Offered the role as the wookie Chewbacca, he asked what he would have to do. “Just stand up,” was Lucas’ reply. Later in life he pursued philanthropic work and established his own foundation.
Anthony Bourdain, 61. Celebrity chef, TV personality for 11 seasons in CNN’s “Parts Unknown,” and author of Kitchen Confidential.
Stephen Hillenburg, 57. You probably don’t recognize his name, but you know his creation. He was the creator, writer, producer, and director of Sponge Bob Square Pants. And the little ditty, “Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?” He died of Lou Gehrig’s disease.
Luke Perry, 52. His generation’s James Dean (and if you don’t know that reference, he’s your generation), he played Dylan McKay on Beverly Hills 90210. He went on to play roles on film and stage, as well. He died young of a massive stroke.
John Singleton, 51. First Black director to receive an Academy Award nomination, for Boyz N the Hood. He called it “a rap album on film,” and it is now on the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress.
Music & Art
Ieong Ming “I.M.” Pei, 102. Born in Guangzhu, China, he came to the US when he was 18 to study architecture at Penn and then MIT but was dissatisfied with the Beaux Arts tradition they taught. On his own, he studied rising architects like Corbusier and van de Rohe. He won the Pritzker Prize (the “Nobel” of architecture) for work like the Kennedy Library, Dallas City Hall, and the East Wing of the National Gallery (to mention just a few of his American projects). French President Mitterand insisted that he design a new entrance for the Louvre, despite Pei’s misgivings. His design was commonly despised when it was first revealed, but once it was built it was universally admired. So much for listening to the critics!
George Walker, 96. He thought of himself as a concert pianist, but he is best known as a composer of classical music. The first Black graduate of the Curtis School of Music in Philadelphia, he found that racial discrimination kept him from performing, so he turned to composing and teaching (he was the chair of the music department at Rutgers). His best-known compositions are Lilacs (a song cycle set to stanzas from Whitman’s poem)—for which he won a Pulitzer (the first African American composer to do so), and his Lyric for Strings, inspired by the death of his grandmother, a former slave.
Shanoun Varenagh Aznavourian (Charles Aznavour), 94. Born in Paris to Armenian refugees, Aznavour was a protégé of the torch singer, Edith Piaf. He wrote and performed more than 1000 songs over an 80-year career. Although he thought of himself as a composer, it was on stage that he came alive. “On stage, I don’t feel like I’m singing for the audience. I’m singing for myself, and I give it to the audience. We share. If it’s not shared, it’s not good.” His last concert, at age 94, was in Japan a month before he died—and he was preparing for six concerts in Paris in November.
Andrew Frierson, 94. A Julliard graduate, Frierson was the first generation of Black opera singers. A bass-baritone, he sang the roles of Porgy, the King in Aida, and Caronte in Orfeo. He also sang with the Belafonte folk singers, and taught voice at Oberlin Conservatory.
Dan Robbins, 93. Is it art? He invented paint-by-numbers in the late ‘40s. “I remembered hearing that Leonardo used numbered background patterns for his students and apprentices, and I decided to try something like that,” he said. I dunno—my paint-by-numbers Last Supper was no masterpiece.
Christine McGuire, 92. Oldest of the McGuire Sisters trio, they sang on the Arthur Godfrey show (if you can remember that, you are really old), singing hits like “Mona Lisa,” Goodnight, Sweetheart, Goodnight,” “Muskrat Ramble,” “Sincerely,” and “Sugartime.” Their mother, a minister, encouraged their singing, but not “secular” music.
Dominick Argento, 91. One of Minnesota’s many gifts to music. He earned his PhD at the Eastman School, and moved to Minneapolis to teach theory and composition at the UofM—and co-founder of what has become the MN Opera. He won a Pulitzer for his song cycle, “From the Diary of Virginia Woolf.” He was also a lifelong collaborator with Philip Brunelle and Vocal Essence.
Galt MacDermott, 89. He composed the score for the rock musical, Hair. John Lennon once invited him to a party, but he didn’t go—he preferred to stay home on Staten Island with his family. “I had never even heard of a hippie,” he said when he was asked to score Hair.
Andreas Ludwig Priwin (Andre Previn), 89. Conductor, composer, pianist—in classical, jazz, showtunes and pop genres—this German Jew fled Berlin as a child and eventually ended up in LA, graduating from Beverly Hills High. He became principal conductor of the London’s Royal Philharmonic and of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He won four Academy Awards for arranging My Fair Lady, Irma La Douce, Gigi, and Porgy & Bess, 10 Grammy Awards.
And while we are thinking about Oscars, France lost two Oscar-winning composers, both at age 86: Michel Legrand won three Oscars, for the song “Windmills of Your Mind” and the scores for Summer of ’42 and Yentl. Francis Lai won his Oscar for Love Story, and he won a Golden Globe for his score for A Man and a Woman.
Sister Wendy Beckett, 88. A Carmelite nun, she became famous in the ‘90s for her art history shows on the BBC. She began as a teaching nun (Tolkien presided over her examinations at Oxford and invited her to stay on) in South Africa, but health forced her to return to England in the ‘70s, where she petitioned to live the life of a hermit. In her solitude she began to write books on art, and the rest is… history.
Roy Clark, 85. Headliner for all 24 years of the hit TV show, Hee Haw, he started playing guitar in his father’s square dance band at age 15. A member of the Grand Ole Opry, his best-known song is “Yesterday When I Was Young.”
Montserrat Caballe, 85, the Spanish prima donna known as “La Superba” enjoyed a career that spanned six decades. She could hold a single note for 20 seconds, and sing even her highest notes pianissimo (not easy—try it sometime). Still, perhaps her biggest hit was the single, “Barcelona,” which she performed with Freddie Mercury when he was going solo from Queen.
Arthur Mitchell, 84. Dancer with the New York City Ballet under George Balanchine, he was a major force in founding the Dance Theater of Harlem—which is where he was born.
Nancy Wilson, 81. Self-described “song stylist,” she won two Grammies for Jazz and one for Rhythm and Blues in a career that spanned 5 decades.
Peter Tork, 77. Bass guitarist for the Monkees, he was a singer-songwriter and instrumentalist in his own right. He could have played any instrument for the Monkees, but played bass because none of the others wanted to (lead guitarist Nesmith has said that Tork was the better guitarist).
Daryle Dragon, 76. The Captain, of Captain and Tenille. They won a Grammy for “Love Will Keep Us Together”, and had other hits like “Muskrat Love,” “Shop Around,” and “Do That to Me One More Time.”
Kate Spade, 55. Designer of simple, colorful handbags. She started on her living room floor, using construction paper and scotch tape. Her goal was to design something she could afford, and something that wouldn’t go in and out of fashion. She has been described as an “anti-fashionista.”
James Dayton, 53. He left Frank Gehry’s studio to form his own architecture firm in Nordeast Minneapolis, he designed the Antonello Hall at the McPhail Centre, the addition to Westminster Presbyterian Church, and the Minnetonka Center for the Arts.
Ermias Joseph Asghedom (aka Nipsey Hussle), 33. Rap artist and community activist/entrepreneur (he owned a clothing store in South LA), his last album was nominated for best Rap album of 2018. He was shot on the street outside his store.
Sports
Gino Marchetti, 93. Hall of Famer for the Baltimore Colts in the 1950s (back when the Colts were in Baltimore), he was a fierce defensive end. But before that, he fought in the Battle of the Bulge, and was a member of the University of San Francisco team that rejected an Orange Bowl offer in 1951 because it was contingent on playing without its African-American team members.
John Gagliardi, 91. St. John’s football coach, who with 489 wins in 64 seasons was the most winning football coach in the country. His policy was to not cut any players from the roster and to guide nonstrenuous practices that never went more than 90 minutes. “You don’t need to suffer to succeed,” he said. It appears he was right.
Frank Robinson, 83. Only MVP winner for both the National League and the American League (he played for Baltimore and Cincinnati), he became the first Black manager in the major leagues. As a player, he hit 586 home runs in 21 seasons—and got hit by pitches 198 times. When he debuted as a manager (with Cleveland), he was also a player and hit a home run in his first at-bat for the team.
Wade Wilson, 60. As quarterback, he led the Vikes to an NFC championship in 1987. He went on to coach for the Cowboys and the Bears.
Regional
Barbara Flanagan, 94. Reporter, editor, and columnist for the StarTribune, she was an advocate for downtown vitality and historic preservation before either was mainstream.
Warren MacKenzie, 94. Minnesota potter with an international reputation, he was a master potter and master teacher.
Earl Bakken, 94. Co-founder of Medtronics, he started as a radio maintenance tech in the Navy and after the war went to the UofM in electrical engineering.
Richard Proudfit, 88. Founder of Kids Against Hunger and Feed My Starving Children.
Nils Hasselmo, 87. President of the University of MN
Richard Knowlton, 86. CEO of Hormel, he proposed a 23% wage cut that led to a bitter 10-month strike. And his was the only old-line meatpacker to survive into the 21st Century.
Ron Mesbesher, 85. He defended Marjorie Caldwell in the Congdon murder case and Ken Callahan in the Virginia Piper kidnapping case. The defense rests.
Henry Kalis, 81. A conservative Democrat, he represented southcentral Minnesota in the MN House from 1974 to 2002.
Barbara Carlson, 80. Former wife of Arne Carlson, this self-described “broad” made her mark in real estate, Mpls city council, and talk radio. James Walsh, in the StarTribune, described her as living life “large, loud, and seemingly without a filter.”
Tom Rukavina, 68. Born in Virginia, he represented the Iron Range in the MN House from 1986 to 2012. Known for his fiery populist rhetoric and sense of humor, he said of himself “Sometimes I wasn’t politically correct but I always tried to be politically honest.”
Todd Bol, 62. From his home in Hudson, WI, he founded the Little Free Library Movement. Check out ours, on the side of the driveway.
Terrence Tibbetts, 60. Chair of the White Earth Tribe, the largest tribe in MN. His given name was Nii-Gah-Nii-Mosay (“Walks First”). Prophetic choice for a name.
Local
Lee Nordgren, 94. Recipient of the Navy Cross, Artcraft Camera owner, and community activist. And Jane Schostag’s brother.
John Votca, 91. Led Mankato Vocational Technical Institute (South Central College, to you newbies) from 1955-92 as assistant director, director, and President.
William “Bill” Nelson, 89. Mankato optometrist, he was very active in the community (and in Central America).
James Andersen, 88. Owner of Jim’s Sporting Goods for 27 years, he was influential in skiing programs in the area.
Fr. Ted Hottinger, 87. Longtime parish priest at SS. Peter & Paul, and active in the community.
Jerry Bambery, 76. He brought the first two McDonald’s to Mankato.
David Andreas, 69. CEO of National City Bankcorp, he was active in philanthropic activity in Mankato and in the Twin Cities.
Peggy Carlson, 67. Longtime publisher of St. Peter Herald.
Jonathan Zierdt, 52. President & CEO of Greater Mankato Growth, and all-around booster, of the community and of people.
Schools–Gustavus
Myer “Whitey” Skoog, 92. Basketball star at the UofM, he played for the Lakers for 6 yrs, before becoming the longtime basketball coach at Gustavus.
David Harrington, 89. Longtime literature professor at Gustavus.
Schools—MSU
Mary Dooley, 94. Geography.
Robert “Bob” Utermohlen, 91. Education.
John DiMeglio, 84, History
Elizabeth Lee “Betty” Borchardt, 84. Education
Nancy Olson, 82. Library.
Roger Smith, 81. Urban Studies
Judith Rose “Judy” Mans, 79. President’s Office and first Director of Alumni Affairs
Walton Scott Shrewsbury, 78. Political Science
Michael Peter McLoone, 74. Financial Aid
Kathleen Hurley, 71. English
Mark Kump, 68. Computer Services
Jessica Flatequal, 46. First director of the LGBT Center at MSU Mankato and organizer of SC Minnesota Pride, which become PrideFest.
Schools—K-12
Sister Mary Beth Schraml, 67. Principal of Loyola High School
William Henry “Bill” Schimmel, 91. Mankato West, and Nicollet County Commissioner
Marjorie Ann Fitterer, 89. Mankato Elementary schools
RJ “Red” Rehwaldt, 88. Mankato schools superintendent
Anthony Mathew “Tony” Knapp, 82. East High Social Studies, and Mankato City Council member
Neil Paarman, 54. Mankato East teacher and coach.
UUFM Relatives & Friends
Nancy Jensen Allan, 81.
Roger Scott Thiem, 74.
Howard Knox, 99. John Knox’s father
Wilhelmina Birk Kipp, 98. Steve Kipp’s mother
Dr. P. Alex Roberts, 85, Andy Roberts father
Jane Scheurer Trondsen, 75, Connie Rovney’s sister
Mary Hall, 74. Tricia Nienow’s sister
Richard Toupence, 70. Jason Toupence’s father
Tim Swiercinsky, 58. Sarah Siefer’s brother
There are many others whose names I have not read—some known to most of us, some special to one of us. I will ring the bell one more time, and invite you all to speak aloud the name of those have died this year who hold a special place in your memory.
Finally, one last one. Aretha Franklin, 76. The Queen of Soul, she grew up singing church music in Detroit (her father was a minister and her mother a gospel singer). With 112 charted singles, 17 of them top pop and 20 top R&B, she is one of the best-selling musicians of all time. She was awarded the National Medal of Arts and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Her hits include “Respect“, “Chain of Fools“, “Think“, “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman“, “I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)“, and “I Say a Little Prayer.” When Otis Redding, who wrote and performed “Respect,” heard Franklin’s version, he said, “Well, I guess it’s that girl’s song now.” As we come to the end of this service, let’s listen to her sing “Respect,” an anthem of the women’s movement. If you know the words and the spirit moves you, feel free to sing along (you won’t be able to drown her out).
Extinguishing the Chalice (Penny)
Benediction (from Oedipus at Colonus, Sophocles) (Tony)