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Obituaries

Highlights

  1. Photo
    Don Bateman in 2012. He began working on a device to warn pilots of potential obstacles in the 1960s.
    CreditJohn Lok/The Seattle Times

    Don Bateman, Trailblazer in Airline Safety, Dies at 91

    His cockpit warning system, which alerts the crew if an aircraft is heading toward a mountain, a building or the ocean, has saved thousands of lives.

     By Richard Sandomir

  2. Photo
    Emilia and Ilya Kabakov in their studio in Mattituck, N.Y. They had been collaborators since they married in 1992, sharing credit on all of Mr. Kabakov’s immersive installations.
    CreditAgaton Strom for The New York Times

    Ilya Kabakov, 89, Dies; Soviet-Born Artist Depicted Grimness With Wit

    In often fantastical paintings, drawings and immersive installations, he explored the privations and indignities of the Soviet life he would flee, landing on Long Island.

     By Penelope Green

  3. Photo
    Harvey Pitt chairing a meeting of the Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington in January 2003. He was unanimously confirmed as the agency’s chairman but resigned after only 18 months on the job.
    CreditDoug Mills

    Harvey Pitt, S.E.C. Chair Who Resigned Amid Scandals, Dies at 78

    Mr. Pitt, who served under President George W. Bush, oversaw a swift reopening of stock exchanges after 9/11 but was tarnished by later missteps.

     By Rob Copeland

  4. Photo
    Amitai Etzioni in 1989. A wide-ranging public intellectual, he was a commentator on everything from the nuclear arms race to sex therapy and once oversaw a state panel investigating nursing home abuses.
    CreditPaul Hosefros/The New York Times

    Amitai Etzioni, 94, Dies; Envisioned a Society Built on the Common Good

    A sociologist, he advised U.S. presidents and other Western leaders while fathering communitarianism, a political middle ground between the left and the right.

     By Robert D. McFadden

  5. Photo
    Eusebius McKaiser traced many of South Africa’s social problems to the apartheid era, and wrote about them for South Africans and a broader Western audience.
    CreditOupa Bopape/Gallo Images, via Getty Images

    Eusebius McKaiser, Acerbic South African Political Analyst, Dies at 44

    Adamantly progressive, openly gay and politically fearless, he cast a sharp eye on the country’s post-apartheid politics and culture.

     By Alan Cowell

Overlooked

More in Overlooked ›
  1. Photo
    Sultan Khan in 1933. In a whirlwind period of four years, he competed against the world’s best chess players and more than held his own.
    CreditANL/Shutterstock

    Overlooked No More: Sultan Khan, Untrained Chess Player Who Became a Champion

    He beat some of the world’s top players despite growing up with little access to chess books and not having the same knowledge his rivals possessed.

     By Dylan Loeb McClain

  2. Photo
    James Sakoda in the 1970s at a computer laboratory at Brown University that he decorated with his origami. While at Brown, he pushed to merge computing with the study of human behavior.
    CreditCenter for Oral and Public History, California State University, Fullerton

    Overlooked No More: James Sakoda, Whose Wartime Internment Inspired a Social Science Tool

    After documenting his experience in Japanese American internment camps, Sakoda helped bring the study of human behavior to the computer age.

     By Elizabeth Landau and Ben Klemens

  3. Photo
    Elizabeth Wagner Reed in about 1946 with her son, John. Though her husband died in World War II, leaving her alone to raise her son, she continued pursuing her career in science.
    Creditvia Reed family

    Overlooked No More: Elizabeth Wagner Reed, Who Resurrected Legacies of Women in Science

    Reed made several discoveries in genetics and dedicated her career toward supporting women scientists. Yet she herself fell into obscurity.

     By Rachel May

  4. Photo
    Alice Ball in an undated photo. She developed a method for the treatment of leprosy that was widely used in the pre-antibiotic years of the 1920s and ’30s.
    CreditPictorial Press Ltd/Alamy

    Overlooked No More: Alice Ball, Chemist Who Created a Treatment for Leprosy

    After she died — and just a year after her discovery — another scientist took credit for her work. It would be more than half a century until her story resurfaced.

     By Delthia Ricks

  5. Photo
    Lindsay as an older woman. Her book “A Short History of Dentistry” is considered one of the first serious histories of the profession.
    CreditThe British Dental Association Museum

    Overlooked No More: Lilian Lindsay, Britain’s First Female Dentist

    The profession was considered unladylike in 1890s England, where she was refused admission to dental school. But she found one in Scotland, and became a notable figure in dentistry.

     By Seth Mydans

  1. Juan Carlos Formell, Buoyant Heir of Cuban Musical Legacy, Dies at 59

    The son of Juan Formell, a giant of Cuban music, he found his own voice as a singer-songwriter. He died during a performance in New York.

    By Alex Williams

     

  2. Robin Wagner, Visionary Set Designer of Broadway Hits, Dies at 89

    A triple Tony winner, he left a mark in more than 50 productions, including “Hair,” “A Chorus Line,” “On the Twentieth Century” and “The Producers.”

    By Richard Sandomir

     

  3. Brian Shul Dies at 75; Fighter Pilot Who Flew World’s Fastest Plane

    He was near death after his plane was shot down in the Vietnam War but survived to fly the world’s fastest and highest-altitude jet.

    By Sam Roberts

     

  4. George Maharis, TV Heartthrob of ‘Route 66,’ Is Dead at 94

    He appeared in Off Broadway roles before starring on CBS as one of two young men who find adventure crossing the country in a Corvette convertible.

    By Anita Gates and Alex Traub

     

  5. Ian Hacking, Eminent Philosopher of Science and Much Else, Dies at 87

    Never limited by categories, his free-ranging intellect delved into physics, probability and anthropology, establishing him as a major thinker.

    By Alex Williams

     

  6. Stanley Engerman, Revisionist Scholar of Slavery, Dies at 87

    His two-volume study, written with Robert W. Fogel, used data to challenge commonly held ideas about American slavery, including that it was unprofitable and inefficient.

    By Richard Sandomir

     

  7. Ingrid Haebler, Pianist Known for Her Mastery of Mozart, Is Dead

    In concerts and on dozens of recordings, she applied a delicate touch that critics said set her apart from other performers.

    By Neil Genzlinger

     

  8. Mary Turner Pattiz, Rock D.J. During FM’s Heyday, Dies at 76

    She was known as “the Burner” for her seductive delivery, but off the air she was anything but a wild rock ’n’ roller. She later became an addiction counselor.

    By Penelope Green

     

  9. Ed Ames, Singing Star Who Became a Familiar Face on TV, Dies at 95

    After more than a decade of hit records with his brothers, he found success as a solo performer and a star of the series “Daniel Boone.”

    By Dennis Hevesi

     

  10. Tom Sawyer, Congressman Who Challenged Census Undercount, Dies at 77

    A Democrat from Ohio, he said the 1990 population data missed more than two million Black Americans and shortchanged the nation’s older cities.

    By Sam Roberts