Deaths of the Rich and Famous - June, 2020

Arts & Letters   ––   Business   ––   Miscellaneous


Movies, Stage, & Television   ––   Politics & Government   ––   Music   ––   Sports

Arts and Letters

Rudolfo Anaya (age 82) - Best known for his Chicano coming-of-age novel  Bless Me, Ultima, Anaya was a native new Mexican who stayed in Albuquerque to teach at the University of New Mexico. Besides Ultima, which has been published in both Spanish (Benediceme, Ultima) and English, Anaya also wrote a series of mysteries about Latino private eye Sonny Baca. Anaya died June 28, 2020, after a long illness.

Bruce Jay Friedman (age 90) - Friedman wrote novels, plays, and screenplays; with a special emphasis on dark humor in a deadpan voice. He was most active in the early mid-century, including the screenplays for The Heartbreak Kid and Stir Crazy. He also published several novels and short-story collections, as well as non-fiction. Friedman died June 3, 2020.

Milton Glaser (age 91) - Glaser was best known as a graphic designer who designed the logos for many well-known entities, including DC Comics, Stony Brook University, and a psychedelic Bob Dylan album cover. His best-known work is undoubtedly the logo I ♥ NY, which he designed in the 1970s. Glaser also teamed up with a friend to found New York magazine, and created his own font, Glaser Stencil. He died on his 91st birthday, June 26, 2020.

David Perlman (age 101) - Perlman was a long-time journalist for the San Francisco Chronicle, who took over the newspaper's science reporting in 1957. He remained with the Chronicle throughout his career, becoming science editor emeritus at the age of 98. The American Geological Union created an award in his honor in 2000, and he received awards from multiple societies and the USGS. Perlman died June 19, 2020.

Charles Webb (age 81) - Webb was a novelist with some nine titles to his name. His second most famous might have been The Marriage of a Young Stockbroker, but few who survived the sixties will forget his most famous work, The Graduate. Despite the success of his novel and the film based on it, Webb lived a blue-collar life working low-wage jobs. He died June 16, 2020.

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Business

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Miscellaneous

Thomas Edward Blanton, Jr. (age 82) - In 2001, Blanton was convicted of murder in the 1963 bombing of a black church in Birmingham, Alabama. He and another man were the two remaining suspects out of four in the case, all members of the local Kyu Klux Klan chapter, and were both sentenced to four consecutive life sentences. Blanton died in prison on June 26, 2020.

Sergei Kruschev (age 84) - The son of Soveit Premier Kikita Kruschev, Sergei was an engineer and sometime college professor. A naturalized American citizen, he taught at the Naval War College. Kruschev died of a gunshot wound, apparently self-inflicted, on June 19, 2020.

Emidio Soltsyk (age 44) - "Mimi" Soltsyk was a California socialist - the real thing, not a Bernie Sanders Social Democrat - who ran for U. S. President on the Socialist ticket in 2016, receiving less than 3,000 votes nationwide. . He also ran for state assemblyman in California in 2016. Soltsyk died of liver cancer June 28, 2020.

Antonio Veciana (age 91) - The Cuban-born Veciana was an accountant in his native country when he was recruited by the CIA in a plot to kill newly-installed president Fidel Castro after the Bay of Pigs invasion failed. Veciana fled Havana in 1961, settling in Miami where he founded a fiercely anti-Castro group, Alpha 66.  He died June 18, 2020, in Miami.

Jack Whittaker (age 72) - At the time a construction worker, Jack Whittaker won almost $$315 million in a 2002 PowerBall lottery game. His good luck, however, did not guarantee happiness.  Whittaker's life was... troubled, including association with drug overdoses, lawsuits, a DUI, and the death of his granddaughter. Whittaker died June 27, 2020.

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Movies, Television, and Stage

Mary Pat Gleason (age 70) - Gleason's list of film and television credits runs into the hundreds of entries. She was active from the 1980s until 2019, including a three-year stint on "The Guiding Light" in the early 1980s. She also won a writing Emmy Award for the same soap. Although never a featured actor, she made guest appearances on dozens of television shows from "NYPD Blue" to "Mom." She died of cancer on June 2, 2020.

Dan Hicks (age 68) - Primarily known for his appearances in horror films, Hicks spent thirty years in Hollywood. He broke into the biz in 1987's Evil Dead II and speared in thirty-plus other films up to 2019's The Blood Hunter. Hicks revealed that he had stage 4 cancer on June 5, 2020, and died on June 30, 2020.

Sir Ian Holm (age 88) - Holm was a Tony-winning (1967, The Homecoming) British actor who also made numerous film appearances. He was a BAFTA winner and an Oscar nominee for his role in Chariots of Fire.  More recently, be played the role of "older" Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Holm died June 19, 2020, of complications of Parkinson's Disease.

Carl Reiner (age 98) - Reiner was a fixture in television and movies from the '50s up to his last years. He is known for his many comedy roles, including Dick van Dyke's boss, Alan Brady, on his eponymous show. He made hundreds of other appearances in television and films. His late wife, Estelle, had a cameo appearance in When Harry Met Sally, directed by their son, Rob, in which she delivered the iconic line, "I'll have what she's having." Reiner died June 29, 2020.

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Music

Hux Brown (75) - Lynford "Hux" Brown was a Jamaican rocksteady and reggae guitarist with a long discography over his 50-year-career. In the US, he is known for his work with Paul Simon and Jimmy Cliff, and for a three-and-a-half decade stint with Toots and the Maytalls. Brown died suddenly on June 18, 2020.

Dame Vera Lynn (age 103) - Lynn's renditions of "The White Cliffs of Dover" and "We'll Meet Again" and her tireless performances for the troops have long been credited with helping the British endure World War II; an accomplishment for which she received the OBE. She was acclaimed as a national treasure, and performed up until her death. She passed away 18 June, 2020.

Johnny Mandel (age 94) - Mandel was a Oscar- and Grammy-winning composer and arranger who wrote music for television and movies. He is best-known for songs such as "The Shadow of Your Smile" (from The Sandpiper), "Emily" (from The Americanization of Emily), and "Suicide Is Painless" (theme song of both the movie and television series, M*A*S*H). He also arranged the Grammy-winning version of "Unforgettable" that reunited Nat King and Natalie Cole. Mandel died June 29, 2020.

Bonnie Pointer (age 69) - Bonnie and her three sisters (June, Anita, and Ruth),  collectively known as The Pointer Sisters, were a hot Soul/R&B act in the 1970s, charting such hits as "Yes We Can Can." The group collected three Grammy Awards in the '70s and '80s, two of them after Bonnie left in 1977. As a solo act, Pointer met moderate success. She died of cardiac arrest on June 8, 2020.

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Politics

Jean Kennedy Smith (age 92) - Smith, youngest sister of President John F. Kennedy, was a humanitarian and philanthropist. She founded Very Special Arts, an international non-profit supporting the differently abled. In 1993, President Clinton appointed her U. S. Ambassador to Ireland, where she was instrumental in the peace process in Northern Ireland. President Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011. Smith died June 17, 2020.

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Sports

Joe Arenas (age 94) - Arenas was a halfback and kick returner for the 49ers in the 1950s, also filling in as a defensive back. He amassed a startling 3800 kick return yards; averaging more then 27 yards per return, still ninth best in NFL history. He was one of the first LatinX players in the NFL. Arenas died June 30, 2020.

"Killer" Brooks(age 72) - Tim Brooks was an American wrestler who competed... appeared under the nickname "Killer." He began his career in the Midwest before nationalization of the sport in the 1980s, ultimately working in such circuits as the WWE, WWF, WWG, WWH, WWI...  you know what we mean. Much of his career was spent in the NWA, which we thought was a rap group. Whatever. Brooks died of cancer on June 30, 2020.

Joe Bugel (age 80) - Although he did not play organized football after high school, Bugel became one of the most respected assistant coaches in professional football. He started with a small college in 1964 before becoming a Big Ten coach and moving into the pros in 1975 with the Lions. OVer the next 35 years, Bugel was an assistant with six different pro teams and the head coach of the Cardinals and Raiders in the '90s, His Redskins offenses won two Super Bowls. Bugel died June 28, 2020.

Reche Caldwell (age 41) - The Florida native played six seasons as an NFL wide receiver, four tiwht he Chargers and one each with the Redskins and Patriots. He finished with 152 receptions and 1851 yards for eleven TDs. Caldwell died as a result of a gunshot wound in his native Tampa on June 6, 2020, allegedly during an attempted robbery.

Adrian Devine (age 68) - Devine was a right-handed pitcher for the Braves and Rangers in the 1970s, compiling a 26-22 record. Oriinally a starting pitcher, he became a middle reliever, also recording 31 career saves. Devine, who recovered twice from tongue cancer, died after a long battle with the disease on June 27, 2020.

Eddie Kasko (age 88) - Kasko was a slap-hitting infielder with a strong glove who toiled for several MLB teams (Red Sox, Colt .45s-Astros, Reds, and Cardinals) in the '50s and '60. He was an All-Star while playing with the Reds in 1961, and retired with a lifetime .264 batting average and 261 RBIs. He managed the Red Sox from 1970-73, compiling a 345-295 W-L record, and is in the Sox Hall of Fame. Kasko died June 24, 2020.

Jim Kiick (age 73) - Kiick was a stalwart running back alongside Larry Csonka for the Miami Dolphins from 1968 to 1974 and later with the Broncs and Redskins, racking up 3700-plus rushing yards and more than 2300 receiving yards. He was a two-time AFL All-Star and a member of the Dolphins undefeated team in 1972-3. Kiick succumbed to Alzheimer's Disease on June 20, 2020.

Ken Riley (age 72) - Riley spend fifteen seasons in the NFL as a cornerback, all with the Cincinnati Bengals. He was a three-time All-Pro, racking up 65 picks over the years. In the final game of the 1976 season, he collected three interceptions, including two of Joe Namath. After retiring as a player, he coached at the college level for Florida A&M. Riley died June 7, 2020.

Paul Rochester (age 81) - "Rocky" Rochester spent ten seasons in professional football, the entirety of the existence of the old AFL. The defensive tackle/end played four seasons  (1960-63)  for the Texans/Chiefs and the remainder of his career (1964-69) with the Jets. He was an All-Stat in 1961 and won a Super Bowl with the Jets in 1968. Rochester died June 9, 2020.

Kurt Thomas (age 64) - Thomas was the first ever American man to win gymnastics gold in the world championships, a feat he accomplished three times in the 1970s. He had a short, undistinguished career as an actor and also worked as a gymnastics commentator for television. He died June 5, 2020, as the result of a stroke two weeks earlier.

Wes Unseld (age 74) - Unseld was only the second NBA player to be named league MVP in his rookie year, joining Wilt Chamberlain. He spent all fourteen of his seasons with the Bullets, collecting 5 All-Star berths, a playoffs MVP, Rookie of the Year, and a retired number. He finished with more than 10,000 points and almost 14,000 rebounds; and is a member of both the NBA and College basketball Halls of Fame. He also coached the Bullets for seven seasons. Unseld passed away as a result of pneumonia on June 2, 2020.

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Deaths in May, 2020 --- July, 2020

2020 Deaths, Business

A   B   C   D   E  F   G   H   I   J   K   L   M   N   O   P   Q   R   S   T   U   V   W   X   Y   Z  



— B —
William Bartholomay (age 91) - Bartholomay made his fortune as an insurance executive who, at 34, became a baseball owner when he joined a consortium buying the then-Milwaukee Braves. Although the team was doing well in Wisconsin, Bartholomay believed that the future of the sport was in the American south. In 1966, he moved the team to Atlanta, where it became a mainstay of the new Turner Broadcasting Network in the mid-70s. Bartholomay died of a respiratory illness on March 25, 2020.

James Beggs (age 94) - Beggs was a VP at General Dynamics and an undersecretary in the Department of Trasnportation under the Nixon administration. Ronald Reagan tapped him to lead NASA in 1981, a position he held until resigning after the Challenger disaster in 1986. Beggs died April 25, 2020.

Bill Braum (age 92) - Kansas native Bill Braum grew up in a dairy family and stayed in that business until his death, In 1968, he started the chain of Braum's Restaurants in Oklahoma. By 2020, the chain had grown to more than 300 stores in four states. The restaurants are best known for their brand of ice cream, which is sold only within the chain. Bill Braum died on March 23, 2020.

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— C —
Joe Coulombe (age 89) - The California native began a retail career with the Rexall drug chain in 1958. The company put him in charge of their fledgling convenience store chain, Pronto Markets, which Coulombe bought in 1967, changing the name to Trader Joe's. He sold the chain, which now has more than 470 stores nationwide, to the founder of Aldi in 1979. Coulombe, who continued to act as CEO until 1988, passed away on February 28, 2020.

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— D —

Georges Duboeuf (age 82) - Duboeuf, principal of the wine merchants Le Vins du Georges Duboeuf, was popularly known as "The King of Beaujolais" in his native France. Although raised on a vineyard of Chardonnay grapes, a young Georges assembled a Beaujolais syndicate and the die was cast. Duboeuf succumbed to a stroke on January 2, 2020.

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— E —

Bernard Ebbers (age 78) - Ebbers, a Canadian by birth, was co-founder and CEO of the infamous WorldCom. He began his telecom career as an investor in LDDS in 1983, after which the company changed its name to WorldCom. The company cut a wide swathe through the industry, gobbling up MCI and making a run at Sprint. In 2002, the company collapsed under a wave of investigations for accounting irregularities; eclipsed only by the Madoff debacle in its size. Ebbers died February 2, 2020.

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— F —
S. David Freeman (age 94) - Freeman, an electrical engineer by trade, picked up a law degree in his late 20s and became an attorney for the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). He eventually headed that agency, as well as the LCRA in Texas and the public utilities of NYC, Sacramento, and LA. He also served as an energy policy advisor to presidents Johnson and Carter, especially on renewables. Freeman suffered a heart attack and died May 12, 2020.

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— G —
Earl Graves, Sr. (age 85) - Graves was an entrepreneur, philanthropist, and publisher. He founded Black Enterprise magazine and was the chairman of his eponymous company. He sat on the Small Business administration during the Johnson administration. The business school at his alma mater, Morgan State University, is named for Graves. He died April 6, 2020, of Alzheimer's Disease.

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— H —
Samuel Horchow (age 91) - Horchow founded the mail-order business that still bears his name in 1971, a luxury mail-order business that was the first of its kind without a brick-and-mortar store. He sold the company to Nieman-Marcus seventeen years later. He then turned to theatre, becoming a Broadway producer, winning a Tony his first time out for Crazy for You base on George Gershwin's musical Girl Crazy. Horchow died of Cancer May 2, 2020.

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— J —
Leila Janah (age 37) - Janah, a graduate of Harvard, founded two firms: Samasource, a not-for-profit digital training center intended to help lift clients out of poverty through education; and LXMI, a luxury skin care brand. Janah died of a rare cancer January 24, 2020.

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— K —
Frederick R. Koch (age 86) - The eldest son of Fred C. Koch, Koch was one of four bothers who inherited Koch Industries from their father. Fred and brother Bill divorced themselves from their political activist brothers Charles and David, and Fred became a well-known philanthropist and art collector instead of Libertarian gadfly. Frederick Koch died February 12, 2020.

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— M —
Irwin Molasky (age 93) - Molasky dropped out of college to work in construction in California before moving to Vegas in 1951. That's where he and three other men founded a real-estate development company. The Molasky group developed commercial and resort properties throughout the Southwest an built the first hospital in Las Vegas. Molasky was also co-founder of Lorimar Productions and was instrumental in the development of UNLV. He died July 4, 2020.

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— R —
Carolyn Reidy (age 71) - Reidy's career in publishing lasted from her first days at Random House in the early '70s until her death. During her years at Random House, she headed up the Vintage Books and Avon Books imprints. She joined Simon and Schuster in 1992, eventually becoming CEO in 2008. Reidy died of a heart attack on May 12, 2020.

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— S —

B. Smith (age 70) - In her modeling days, Barbara "B." Smith was the African-American woman to make the cover of Mademoiselle, and was famous as a model and occasional television guest. She was more recently known for her eponymous east-coast chain of restaurants and cookbooks based on their recipes. Smith succumbed to early-onset Alzheimer's disease on February 22, 2020.

Sy Sperling (age 78) -  "I'm not only the Hair Club president, but I'm also a client!" was Sy Sperling's pitch for the company he founded, Hair Club for Men. Sperling founded his company based on a hair weaving technique in the 1960s, and went nationwide with his signature television commercials in 1982. Sperling sold the franchised business in 2000. No word on whether he used some of the $45 million to pay his hair club dues. He died February 19, 2020.

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— W —
Jack Welch (age 89) - "Neutron Jack" Welch took over General Electric in 1981, and immediately adopted a "shareholder value" program. While he increased the company's book value by 200% in the next 20 years, he reduced the company's workforce by some 100,000 employees. For his troubles, he received  a severance package of some $417 million. Welch shuffled off this mortal coil on March 1, 2020, to the delight of tens of thousands of former GE employees.

Arne Wilhelmsen (age 90) - The Harvard-educated Wilhemsen  leveraged his shipping company, Anders Wilhelmsen, to co-found Royal Caribbean Cruise Line in 1968 with two other shipping magnates. The company went public in 1993, leaving the Norwegian a billionaire. Wilhelmsen died April 11, 2020.

Forrest Wood (age 87) - Wood is often cited as the developer of the modern bass boat, a style he pioneered with the company he founded in 1968, Ranger Boats. The company was, for decades, the official sponsor of the Bassmaster Classic fishing tournament. The tournament renamed itself the FLW Tournament in 1996, drawing its name from Wood's initials. He passed away on January 24, 2020.

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2019 Deaths, Business

A   B   C   D   E   F   G   H   I   J   K   L   M   N   O   P   Q   R   S   T   U   V   W   X   Y   Z

A

Max Azria (age 70) - The Tunisian-born Azria was a fashion designer and businessman who founded the company BCBGMAXAZRIA. His company owned more than 20 fashion brands around the world including Jess, Hérve Léger, and the company that bore his name. Azria died May 6, 2019, of lung cancer.

B

Frank Biondi (age 74) - Biondi's entertainment career began with a position at the Children's Entertainment Network. He joined HBO in 1978 and was CEO five years later. He went on to lead Viacom for nine years and later, Universal Pictures for three. Biondi died of cancer November 25, 2019.

Henry W. Bloch (age 96) - Henry Bloch was the "H" in H & R Block, the tax-preparing company he founded with his brother Richard in 1955. A Harvard-trained entrepreneur, Bloch gave back to his Kansas City hometown by endowing the business department of the University of Missouri-Kansas City and the local art museum. Bloch died April 23, 2019.

Joseph Boardman (age 69) - Boardman was a commissioner of the New York Department of Transportation from 1997 until he resigned in 2005 to become the head of the Federal Railroad Association. From that position, he was appointed to head Amtrak in 2008, a position he held until his retirement in 2016. Boardman died as a result of a stroke on March 7, 2019.

John C. Bogle (age 89) - "Jack" Bogle was the founder of and the major investor in mutual fund company The Vanguard Group. The company, founded in 1974, holds more than $5 trillion in assets. Bogle led the group from its founding until stepping down from the CEO position for health reasons in 1996. Bogle died of cancer in January 16, 2019.

Gert Boyle (age 95) - Boyle's father was a German Jewish clothier who fled Nazi Germany when his daughter was 13. The family settled in Oregon, where they founded Columbia Hat Company in 1938. Boyle assumed leadership of the company in 1970, and changed focus to outerwear and sportswear. Boyle herself was featured in advertising, presenting herself as "One tough mother." She remained chairman of Columbia until her death on November 3, 2019.

Gary Burrell (age 81) - Burrell and a friend, Min Kao, collaborated to start Garmin Ltd. in the 1980s in hopes of using the then-crippled global positioning system (GPS) to assist in marine and aviation navigation. With the removal of the signal obfuscation, Garmin became a leader in the field of consumer GPS devices; an industry that earned Burrell more than a billion dollars. He died June 12, 2019.

C

Jake Burton Carpenter (age 65) - New York native Jake Burton is celebrated as a father of the sport of snowboarding and founder of the Burton Snowboard company. In the '70s, Burton was instrumental in transforming the snowboard from a rope-pulled toy to a rival to snow skiing, founding his namesake company in the 1980s. He died of cancer on November 20, 2019.

Chris Cline (age 60) - Following in the family business, Cline started as an underground coal miner in his twenties. By age 50, he had founded one of the largest coal companies in the US, Foresight Energy, and was worth in excess of one billion dollars. Foresight has holdings mainly in the Illinois Basin of Illinois and Indiana. Cline was killed in a helicopter crash in the Bahamas on July 4, 2019.

D

Albert Dunlap (age 81) - Known to his many detractors as "Chainsaw Al," Dunlap was a pioneer of the art of buying a distressed company and "turning it around." Much of his turnaround strategy consisted of firing most of the employees, which won him few friends. When it was determined that many of his "successes" were in fact frauds, Dunlap was blacklisted from serving as a CEO. He died January 25, 2019.

E

Jeffrey Epstein (age 66) - Epstein made his name as a banker and financial consultant with relationships with many of the "movers and shakers" of American society. Following a 2005 arrest for sex trafficking in Florida, Epstein was allowed to plead to a lesser charge. In 2019, however, he was arrested on multiple charges of sex crimes. He committed suicide by hanging while in jail awaiting trial on August 10, 2019.

H

Barron Hilton (age 91) - Hilton, the con of Hilton Hotels founder Conrad Hilton, led the eponymous Hilton Hotel Corporation for more than four decades. He was instrumental in the company's growth, especially in the Las Vegas area. Additionally, as the first owner of the Los Angeles Chargers, he was a founding owner in the American Football League. Like his father, Hilton gave more than 80% of his income to charity via the family foundation. He died September 19, 2019.

Mark Hurd (age 64) - Hurd had a long career in the technology sector; beginning with more than two decades at NCR (National Cash Register), where he rose from junior salesman to CEO. He left the company after two years at the top to take the CEO position at Hewlett-Packard, where he remained for five years. He moved from H-P to a co-CEO position at Oracle, where he remained from 2010 until his death. Hurd passed away October 18, 2019.

I

Lee Iacocca (age 94) - Iacocca is the only person ever to have been the chief executive of two of the "big three" american car makers. He headed up Ford in the 1970s before becoming CEO of Chrysler in 1979. Iacocca shepherded the development of the Mustang and the Pinto while at Ford; at Chrysler he engineered a government bailout of the company. Iacocca died July 3, 2019, of Parkinson's disease.

J

Joan Johnson (age 89) - Johnson and her husband, George, founded the Johnson Products Company in 1954 and parlayed it into one of the largest black-owned companies in America. The company's products, aimed primarily at at African-American market, included Afro Sheen hair care products and cosmetics. Johnson passe away September 6, 2019.

Ron Joyce (age 88) - Joyce and NHL great Tim Horton partnered in 1967 to found the coffee and doughnut chain named for Horton; of which Joyce's Hamilton, Ontario, store was the first franchise.  Joyce bought control of the company after Horton's death in 1974, and continued to serve after the brand's takeover by Wendy's. Joyce died on January 31, 2019.

K

Herb Kelleher, (age 87) - With two partners, Kelleher created the first low-cost airline in the United States. First incorporated as Air Southwest Co. in 1967, Southwest Airlines took off for its first flight in 1971. Originally flying only in the "triangle" that included Houston, San Antonio, Austin, and Dallas, Texas; the airline now extends across more than 100 destinations in the US and ten other countries. Kelleher succumbed to prostate cancer on January 3, 2109.

Michael Kittredge (age 67) - Kittredge and two friends founded the Yankee Candle Company at age 16, eventually parlaying the company into 400-plus stores and nearly a billion dollars in annual sales. A two-time cancer survivor, Kittredge was an active philanthropist in the healthcare field, especially the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. He died July 24, 2019.

David Koch (age 79) - An American billionaire with massive holdings in extractive industries, particularly "downstream" petroleum, David Koch and his brother Charles Koch were even better known as ultraconservative political activists. Koch died August 23, 2019.

L

Karl Lagerfeld (age 85) - German by birth, Lagerfeld is perhaps best known for his association with the French fashion house Chanel, where he was the creative director for more than 35 years. Rarely seen without dark glasses, Coca-Cola, and fingerless gloves; Lagerfeld was a fixture on runways around the world beginning in the 1960s. He also designed for Fendi and had his own label, Lagerfeld. The designer died February 19, 2019.

M

William Macaulay (age 74) - Macaulay was a founding partner and long-time CEO of First Reserve Corporation, the world's largest private equity. His position made him one of America's richest men, worth an estimated $1.1 billion in 2017. In 2006, Macaulay funded the creation of a business school named in his honor at CUNY, his alma mater. He passed away November 29, 2019.

Peter Magowan (age 76) - Magowan joined the grocery company Safeway after graduating from college and, over the next 15 years, worked his way up to chairman and CEO of the company. It didn't hurt that his father was also CEO... I 1993, Magowan was one of a group that bought the San Francisco Giants, of whom he was the managing partner until 2008. Magowan died January 27, 2019, of cancer.

Morton Mandel (age 98) - Mandel and his brothers founded the Premier Automotive Supply, an auto-parts distributor, in 1940. The company later branched into industrial and electronic parts, eventually becoming one of the largest such companies in the world. Mandel was chairman of the company for 36 years, dueing which he also became an active philanthropist in the Cleveland, Ohio, area. Mandel died October 16, 2019.

Donald Marron (age 85) - Marron was a financier who founded his own company in the 1950s and rode it all the way to the top of PaineWebber, which he sold in 2000. He then founded a privte equity firm specializing in financial services. Marron was well-known as an art collector and for his philanthropic work. His name is on the NYU's school of urban management and on a division of Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. He died December 6, 2019.

Ron Miller (age 85) - After a brief career as a tight end for the Los Angeles Rams, Miller went to work for the Disney Corporation in 1956, after marrying the boss' daughter (Diane Disney) in 1954.He rose within the company to become CEO of the Walt Disney Company in 1978 and president of the board of directors of the Disney family museum. Miller died February 9, 2019.

N

Emilio Nicholás (age 88) - The Mexican-born Nicholás came to the US in his teens, attending school in San Antonio, Texas. He graduated with a chemistry degree and worked in research for several years before signing on as a producer with local Spanish-language radio station KCOR. He bought KCOR-TV in 1961, renamed it KWEX, and founded the Spanish International Network. KWEX ultimately became the foundation of Univision. SIN was the first US network to adopt satellite transmission of programming. Nicholás died October 12, 2019.

Edward Nixon (age 88) - The youngest brother of former U. S. President Richard M. Nixon, Edward was a geologist by trade and training. He operated an international consultancy from the Seattle, Washington area, mainly concerned with maintaining the U. S. supplies of critical minerals and fossil fuels. Nixon died February 27, 2019.

P

Gerald Paul (age 90) - Paul and his family escaped Nazi Germany in 1938 and emigrated to the U. S. Though he did not speak English when he came to the US, Paul graduated from high school at 15 and began working in the clothing industry in his new home of Indianapolis. In 1952, he and Earl Harris founded the Paul Harris clothing chain, which eventually grew into a chain of almost 400 stores before folding in the 2001. Paul died October 29, 2019.

T. Boone Pickens (age 91) - Pickens trained as a geologist, entering the oil industry after college. He left Phillips Petroleum after just 4 years to found Mesa petroleum, which he parlayed into one of the largest independent oil companies in the world. He soon shifted his focus from the oil industry to hostile takeovers, starting with an attempt to swallow Gulf Oil. In later years, Pickens built some of the largest wind farms on earth. Pickens passed away September 11, 2019.


R

Tony Rodham (age 64) - Rodham's varied careers included stints as a "repo" man, a corrections officer, and a private detective. In 1992, he began working on the presidential campaign of his brother-in-law Bill Clinton, and afterwards remained on the fringes of Democratic Party politics. He was, at one time, married to the daughter of California Senator Barbara Boxer. Critics claimed he often used his political connections to personal gain (duh: can you say "Jared"?). Rodham died June 7, 2019.

Warren Rosenthal (age 96) - Rosenthal founded two restaurant chains - Long John Silver's and Jerry's - and bred thoroughbred horses on his farm in Lexington, Kentucky. Rosenthal grew his seafood restaurant chain to more than 1300 properties worldwide before selling the chain to A&W in 1999. Rosenthal died October 19, 2019.


S

Beverly Sackler (age 95) - Sackler was the wife of  Raymond and father of Richard and Johnathan Sackler, all members of the English/American Sackler family that owns the Purdue Pharma Company.  She was one of several family members named in the opioid class-action suit filed by several hundred states, counties, and cities. Sackler passed away October 14, 2019.

Joseph Segel (age 88) - Segel is the man responsible for both the QVC television network and that mainstay of Sunday newspaper supplements, the Franklin Mint. In all, Segel founded almost two dozen direct-marketing companies covering mail, magazines, and television. For his efforts, he was named one of the greatest business leaders of the 20th century by Harvard Business School. Segel died December 21, 2019.

Alfred E. Smith IV (age 68) - Smith, the great grandson of one-time New York Governor Al Smith, was a well-known NYC financier and philanthropist. He sat on the board of several charities and was chairman of the board of St. Vincent's and director of the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation. Smith died November 20, 2019.

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Jeffrey Tarrant (age 63) - Tarrant founded or managed several hedge funds, including the Sequoia Fund; as was active in fields beyond finance. He was one of the backers of bitcoin development as well as instrumental in artificially-guided investment strategies. Tarrant also founded Candescent Films, a documentary film company that specializes in finance studies. Tarrant died August 5, 2019, of brain cancer.

Joe Tortorice (age 70) - Tortorice, a Texas native, was the founder of the regional Jason's Deli chain of restaurants. The chain has almost 250 locations in 28 states; after having started at a single Beaumont, Tex., location in 1976. Tortorice died of cancer August 10, 2019.

Bernard Tyson (age 60) - Tyson became CEO of Kaiser Permanente, one of the largest healthcare insurers in the U. S., in 2013, after more than 25 years with the organization. He was often cited as one of the most influential persons in the nation's medical community; and served on the board of the American Heart Association. He passed away November 10, 2019.

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Don Valentine (age 89) - Valentine started out as a salesman for tech companies like Raytheon and National Semiconductor, but ultimately founded the venture capital firm Seqouia Capital. The company specialized in tech ventures, among which were early investments in Atari and Apple. Valentine's company also helped stake Google, Oracle, Cisco, and YouTube. He died October 25, 2019.

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Leslie Wunderman (age 98) - Wunderman, a member of the Advertising Hall of Fame, is credited with the invention of direct marketing. Other marketing ploys that are credited to Wunderman include loyalty programs and the toll-free number for customer service. Wunderman died in New York on January 9, 2019.

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