August 2006
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Robert K. Hoffman, one of the three founders of the irreverent
National Lampoon magazine, died Sunday at a Dallas hospital. He had suffered from leukemia since December. Hoffman, Henry Beard, and Doug Kenney co-founded the humor magazine spawned from the
Harvard Lampoon while Hoffman was still a student. The magazine spun off successful films, the best known being
Animal House. The trio sold their interest in
National Lampoon in 1975. Later in life, Hoffman became known for his philanthropy, and was lauded in
Business Week as one of the
top 50 philanthropists for 2005. "He had an exceptional pair of talents," Beard recalled in the Tuesday edition of
The Dallas Morning News, "he was extremely smart, and utterly fearless." Hoffman was 59.
Sources: National Lampoon, Yahoo News, IMDB, Harvard Lampoon, Business Week, Dallas Morning News
Posted by Corey Anderson at August 23, 2006 3:57 PM
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Japan's richest man, Yasuo Takei, who gained fame and fortune as the founder of the consumer credit company
Takefuji Corp., died Thursday, August 10, of
liver failure at his home in Tokyo. In Forbes magazine's
listing of the world's billionaires, Takei was ranked number one with $5.4 billion in assets. Takei founded Fuji Shoji, in 1966, and renamed it Takefuji in 1974. During Takei's tenure, Takefuji became the country's consumer loan industry leader. His reputation was tarnished, however, in 2004 by his conviction on charges he ordered the wiretapping of a journalist who had written articles criticizing the company. Takei was 76.
Sources: Takefuji Corp., WebMD, Forbes
Posted by Corey Anderson at August 16, 2006 4:35 PM
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Lt. Col. Besby Frank Holmes, a World War II fighter pilot who took part in the successful mission to kill the Japanese admiral who planned the
Pearl Harbor attack, died of a stroke July 23 at Marin General Hospital. Holmes was a member of the
67th Pursuit Squadron, and his most famous mission came after American cryptographers cracked a Japanese naval code that revealed the itinerary of
Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto, the architect of the Pearl Harbor attack. Holmes's was among the 16 fighter planes that ambushed Yamamoto in early 1943. Holmes's career included service in the
U.S. Army Air Corps and the
U.S. Air Force from 1941 to 1968, serving in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam, earning the Navy Cross, three Distinguished Flying Crosses, the Legion of Merit, and the Air Medal. He was 88.
Sources: Pearl Harbor Memorial, GlobalSecurity,org, U.S. Navy, Yahoo News, Acme Depot, U.S. Air Force
Posted by Corey Anderson at August 15, 2006 10:09 AM
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Robert McCullough, who led a group of black students in a landmark civil rights protest 45 years ago, died Monday, August 7. In February 1961, McCullough, along with eight other black students from Friendship Junior College, had demanded service at the whites-only McCrory's lunch counter in
Rock Hill, South Carolina, and were charged with trespassing and breach of peace. The group, which became known as the
Friendship Nine, chose to serve 30 days in jail on a chain gang instead of paying the $100 fine. The protest came around the first anniversary of a sit-in at a segregated Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, by four students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College, that helped galvanize
the civil rights movement. McCullough was 64.
Sources: City of Rock Hill, New York Times, The King Center, Yahoo News, Wikipedia
Posted by Corey Anderson at August 14, 2006 9:28 AM
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Bob Thaves, the writer and illustrator of the nationally syndicated comic strip "Frank & Ernest," died Tuesday, August 1, of respiratory failure at
Little Company of Mary Hospital in Torrance, California. The strip, which was syndicated in 1972, features a pair of disheveled punsters who comment on science, world politics, and current events, sometimes travelling through time and space to achieve the inevitable punchline. "Frank & Ernest" is distributed to 1,300 newspapers worldwide and is read by more than 25 million people a day. According to its syndicator,
United Media, "Frank & Ernest" was the first newspaper cartoon to use block lettering; the first single panel strip; the first to use comic book-style digital coloring for the Sunday pages; and one of the first to have
its own website, launched in 1997. Thaves's son, Tom, who has collaborated on the strip for the past nine years, will continue to produce it. Bob Thaves was 81.
Sources: FrankAndErnest.com, Yahoo News, United Media
Posted by Corey Anderson at August 11, 2006 12:29 PM
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Vincent J. Fuller, the famed Washington attorney who successfully defended would-be presidential assassin John Hinckley, died last week of lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Hinckley shot President Reagan, press secretary James Brady and two law enforcers, outside a Washington hotel on March 30, 1981. Retained within hours of the shooting, the lawyer centered his defense on Hinckley's mental state, maintaining the gunman was delusional, insane, and obsessed with the actress Jodie Foster. During Fuller's career he also defended boxer Mike Tyson and Teamster union boss Jimmy Hoffa. He was 75.
Sources: University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law, Yahoo News, Reagan Presidential Library, The Brady Center, IMDB
Posted by Corey Anderson at August 2, 2006 9:28 AM
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