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It is with profound sadness that we learned of the passing of Fouad Ajami, who lost his battle with cancer on Sunday. Fouad is truly one of the most brilliant Middle East scholars of our time. His Hoover Institution family will forever miss his superb scholarship, quick wit and gentle spirit. As we reflect upon a man whose life and intellectual contributions influenced so many, our thoughts and prayers go to his lovely wife, Michelle. Fouad Ajami was born September 18, 1945 in Arnoun, Lebanon. Ajami was a senior fellow of the Hoover Institution, and more recently the Herbert and...

Elias Saavedra, one of the last survivors of the Bataan Death March, died Wednesday. He was 96. Saavedra died of natural causes at his San Rafael, New Mexico, home after battling a number of illnesses, his son Alfred Saavedra said. Born in 1918 in San Rafael, Saavedra joined the New Mexico National Guard at the outset of World War II. He was one of 75,000 Filipino and American soldiers taken captive by the Japanese in World War II when U.S. forces surrendered in the province of Bataan and Corregidor Island in April 1942. In all, tens of thousands of troops...

Efrem Zimbalist Jr., who portrayed the indefatigable Inspector Lewis Erskine on the long-running U.S. television series "The F.B.I.", died on Friday at the age of 95, according to media reports. Zimbalist died of natural causes at his home in Solvang, California, his daughter, actress Stephanie Zimbalist, and his son Efrem Zimbalist III, said in a statement, Hollywood trade magazine Variety and other media reported. "A devout Christian, he actively enjoyed his life to the last day, showering love on his extended family, playing golf, and visiting with close friends," the statement said, according to Variety.

Walter Walsh, a former FBI agent and Marine who was the world’s oldest Olympian, died Tuesday, just six days shy of his 107th birthday. USA Shooting announced Walsh’s death Wednesday afternoon on Twitter. He competed for the United States in the 1948 London Games, placing 12th in the 50m free pistol event. But that achievement (at age 41) was a mere footnote in a memorable life. Walsh first gained fame as an FBI agent in the nascent days of the Bureau, discovering the body of noted gangster Baby Face Nelson after a shootout.

MIAMI -- Earl Morrall, an NFL quarterback for 21 years who started nine games during the Miami Dolphins' perfect season in 1972, has died. He was 79.

John C. Houbolt, an engineer whose contributions to the U.S. space program were vital to NASA's successful moon landing in 1969, has died. He was 95. Houbolt died Tuesday at a nursing home in Scarborough, Maine, from complications from Parkinson's disease, his son-in-law Tucker Withington, of Plymouth, Mass., confirmed Saturday. As NASA describes on its website, while under pressure during the U.S.-Soviet space race, Houbolt was the catalyst in securing U.S. commitment to the science and engineering theory that eventually carried the Apollo crew to the moon and back safely.

Lorenzo Semple Jr., the creator of the campily classic Batman TV series who went on to craft such big-screen paranoid thrillers as The Parallax View and Three Days of the Condor -- though he would be replaced on both films -- has died. He turned 91 on Thursday... Semple’s résumé also includes the Steve McQueen-Dustin Hoffman escape tale Papillon (1973); Paul Newman’s Harper sequel The Drowning Pool (1975); Dino De Laurentiis’ King Kong (1976) starring Jessica Lange; and the rogue James Bond movie Never Say Never Again (1983)...

Anyone who grew up playing the beloved editions of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons will remember the detailed medieval fantasy artwork that made the role-playing games creatures and characters come to life. Artist David A. Trampier was the man who drew those illustrations. An Illinois newspaper is reporting that he passed away this week at the age of 59. Trampier's renderings of wizards, giant spiders and lizardmen helped electrify the rules, storytelling and play experience of Dungeons & Dragons. But his whereabouts were a mystery for years because the artist faded into obscurity after D&D lodged itself into the consciousness of...

The former U.S. Senator from Alabama, Navy admiral and Vietnam prisoner of war who blinked “T-O-R-T-U-R-E” in Morse Code to alert the world of abuse by his North Vietnamese captors, died on Friday.

Raymond 'Jerry' Roberts was one of elite team who helped decode messages sent between Hitler and his high command. ne of the last of a team of wartime British codebreakers who deciphered Hitler's messages at Bletchley Park has died after a short illness. Raymond "Jerry" Roberts, 93, from Liphook in Hampshire, was part of a group that cracked the German high command's secret code. Roberts joined Bletchley Park as a German linguist and was among four founder members of the Testery section, named after its head Ralph Tester. Their target was a system known as Tunny, which carried messages between...

Maria von Trapp, whose family's story was told in The Sound of Music, has died. She was the last surviving member of the musical family of seven brothers and sisters and passed away in her sleep at home in Vermont at the age of 99 on Tuesday, PEOPLE confirms. Von Trapp, who was the second-eldest daughter, and her family fled their home in Austria to escape from the Nazis in the 1930s and eventually ended up in the U.S., where their story inspired a Rodgers & Hammerstein musical and the popular 1965 movie starring Julie Andrews.

George Goodman, a journalist, business author and award-winning television host who under the pseudonym "Adam Smith" made economics accessible to millions of people, died Friday at age 83. Goodman's son, Mark Goodman, said his father died at the University of Miami Hospital after a long battle with the bone marrow disorder myelofibrosis. Starting in the 1950s, the elder Goodman had a long, diverse and accomplished career, whether as a founder of New York Magazine, as a best-selling business author or as the personable host of "Adam Smith's Money World."

Big-bang-defying giant of astronomy passes away by John G. Hartnett Published: 31 December 2013 (GMT+10) Halton Arp passed away on Saturday morning 28th December 2013 in Munich, Germany. He will be sorely missed by many but not so much by others because of his challenges to the ruling big bang paradigm. With Geoffrey Burbidge and others, Professor Halton Arp was a thorn in the side of those who held to the standard story line of the big bang. In many papers and several books1 he promoted the idea that quasars are born from the nucleus of active galaxies—parent galaxies. In...

Lament of the Mother of God (Tavener) — Winchester Cathedral Choir with Solveig Kringelborn Tavener - The Lamb John Tavener - Funeral Canticle (The Tree of Life) FULL VERSION

Ronald Coase, an economist hailed as one of the top 10 greatest economic thinkers of all time, passed away Monday, September 2, 2013, just shy of 103 years of age. Coase was truly a titan in economics, publishing his first article at only 27, and producing fresh and insightful content well into his 100s. A winner of the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, Coase is one of the founders of both the law and economics and new institutional economics disciplines, as well as one of the seminal thinkers in industrial organization economics and the study of social costs. He was...

One of the leading lights of the science fiction world, editor and author Frederik Pohl, passed away this weekend after a career that defined the genre for decades... Pohl was known for his mind-bending, often satirical novels (many co-authored with longtime collaborator C.M. Kornbluth), his editing acumen, his science fiction criticism, and his witty, fascinating blog, which he was updating right up until his death...

Jesse Marcel Jr, who said he handled debris from the 1947 crash of an unidentified flying object near Roswell, New Mexico, has died at the age of 76. Denice Marcel said her father was found dead at his home in Helena, Montana, on Saturday, less than two months after making his last trip to Roswell. He had been reading a book about UFOs. Over the past 35 years Marcel appeared on TV shows, documentaries and radio shows, was interviewed for magazine articles and books and travelled the world lecturing about his experiences in Roswell. His wife, Linda, said: "He was...

(Reuters) - British broadcaster David Frost, a master of the television interview, famed for coaxing an apology for Watergate from Richard Nixon, has died suddenly, his family said on Sunday. Aged 74, he had a heart attack late on Saturday aboard a luxury cruise liner where he had a speaking engagement. His sudden death brought tributes from international celebrities and political leaders, many of whom called him a good friend as well as an acute interrogator. "David Frost died of a heart attack last night aboard the Queen Elizabeth, where he was giving a speech," his family said in a...

Veteran broadcaster Sir David Frost has died at the age of 74 after a suspected heart attack while on board a cruise ship. A family statement said he had been giving a speech aboard the Queen Elizabeth on Saturday night. Sir David's career spanned journalism, comedy writing and daytime television presenting, including The Frost Report. Internationally, he will be remembered for his revealing interviews with former US President Richard Nixon.

Seamus Heaney, "acclaimed by many as the best Irish poet since Yeats," has died, the BBC and other news outlets are reporting. Heaney was 74 and had recently been in ill health. According to The Irish Times, he died Friday morning at the Blackrock Clinic in Dublin. Sky TV has a short statement from Heaney's family announcing his death. The Associated Press adds that Heaney's publisher, Faber & Faber, has also confirmed the news. Heaney was awarded the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature. Writer and literary critic Ola Larsmo said then that Heaney's poetry reveals "a profound experience ... that...