Interesting, overlooked, and significant obituaries from around the world, as they happen, emphasizing the positive achievements of those who have died. Member, Society of Professional Obituary Writers.
Former MLB pitcher -- via the Miami Herald. He died at 34 -- he was in Venezuela, and could not access antibiotics that might have kept his pneumonia from killing him.
Snow-sport filmmaking pioneer -- via the Seattle Times. Anyone who's lived in the West for any length of time knew Warren Miller's films. He began after WWII, taking home movies of himself and friends skiing and surfing. Soon he turned his hobby into a cottage industry -- making one skiing feature film per year from 1950 to 2004. These he peddled himself, showing them in ski towns while filming for the following year. Slowly, he grew a sports-movie empire now run by his kids. His films were "snow porn" -- beautiful documentary films with voiceover narration containing rapturous, slo-mo ski footage, stunts, comic interludes, and the like. They were FUN. People loved them, and for decades his films were a part of growing up near the mountains. I am sure he inspired thousands to try the sport he loved so much.
Writer -- via the New York Times. Best known for her fantasy and science fiction, she elevatd the genre to heights that included being placed in Library of America.
One of the original "Rosie the Riveter"s -- via the New York Times. The model for the iconic 1943 poster "We Can Do It!" by J. Howard Miller. Two other women are also identified as sources for the mythic female American WWII worker.
