Friday, January 4, 2019
Steve Ripley
Patrice Martinez
Brian Garfield
Al Reinert
Dolores 'Dee' Parker
Marc Hauser
Thursday, January 3, 2019
Pegi Young
Daryl Dragon
Wednesday, January 2, 2019
Bob Einstein
His father Harry was in the same business, and gained fame as dialect comic Nick Parkyakarkus, appearing on Eddie Cantor's and Al Jolson's radio shows, as well as his own, "Meet Me at Parky's." His brother is comedian, actor, and filmmaker Albert Brooks. (OK, yes, their father gave Brooks his original name, Albert Einstein. Ouch.) Via Deadline.
'Mean' Gene Okerlund
Dean Ford
Ed Baer
Tom Williams
Mrinal Sen
Nancy Roman
Tuesday, January 1, 2019
Ray Sawyer
Don Lusk
Rosenda Montereos
Hugh Dickson
Troels Klovedal
Borge Ring
Robert Kerman
Monday, December 31, 2018
The Year in Death, 2018: Can you dig it?
It’s the end of the year — the only time when the general
public is as gaga about obituaries as I am. It’s only natural on New Year’s to
review, summarize, and take stock of the past calendar year. In dozens of
publications and websites worldwide lists of the noteworthy deceased spring up.
We flick through them, surprised to have forgotten that what’s-his-name and
such-and-such passed away in 2018. We dwell briefly on their impact and
influence and move on, closing mental doors behind us.
A year-end summary is something I’ve avoided ever since I
began The Obit Patrol more than eight years ago. The site, primarily an
aggregator of other people’s obituary work (itself a difficult and overlooked
endeavor), is run in accordance with this mission statement: to bring to
readers “interesting, overlooked, and significant obituaries from around the
world, emphasizing the positive achievements of those who have died,” not to
run a popularity contest.
My logic was that the famous and powerful received quite
enough attention when they died — but what about those who, like most of us,
live and die below the level of “prominent,” “notable,” and “celebrity”? I’ve
done my best to shine a spotlight on them. I don’t think the dead are concerned
with ratings.
Of course, this begs the question — what qualifies a person
for Obit Patrol inclusion? I am dependent on a constellation of sources that
let me know of more obscure deaths as they happen, yet there are thousands more
every day that go ignored.
In a perfect world, everyone rates an obituary. In fact, every
life lived has significance and meaning, resonates through the world and leaves
some positive legacy behind, even in acts of kindness and gestures of
compassion that were never recorded and won’t find their way into the history
books. As written in Ecclesiasticus, “And some there be, which have no
memorial; who are perished, as though they had never been; and are become as
though they had never been born; and their children after them. But these were
merciful men, whose righteousness has not been forgotten . . . their glory
shall not be blotted out.” Obit Patrol tries to redress that imbalance.
By including the whole world in my searches, I am constantly
turning up not only significant cultural figures from other lands, but finding
out about creations, thoughts, movements, and actions completely outside the
scope of the insular, self-obsessed mainstream English-language media.
Considering the tools at our disposal, we are among the most ignorant about the
world at large. Hopefully, Obit Patrol helps to raise awareness.
What else am I trying to accomplish
here, besides serving as a resource for readers and fellow obituarists, and as
a repository of obit information? “The Obit
Patrol also serves as a source of information on death, dying, mourning,
obituaries, funerals, memorialization, and end-of-life issues. The goal: to
combat the pain and fear that dogs the dying, and haunts the mourning.” I also
aggregate stories about these topics and run them on my Obit Patrol Facebook
page — an outdated platform, to be sure.
But what haven’t I done? Looking back at my stats for year,
I can see right where a Google update killed my traffic earlier this year. They
are emphasizing, and rightly, the prioritization of original content. I will be
ramping up that in the New Year in response. As the huge bulge of baby boomers
reach the last round-up, more and more money, time, and energy will be spent on
geriatric and end-of-life issues. Obit Patrol can help facilitate that
conversation, and will.
And I will join in the year-end fun, if only to point up the
contrast between my emphases and those of the mainstream media. A look at
reader responses shows me what my “top 10” deaths were for the year. Who were
they? Do you recognize any of the names? Let’s take a look:
1. Poppi Kramer — Stand-up comic, 46; gained fame as a
winner of reality-TV weight-loss competition
2. Kristin Harmon Nelson — Actress and artist, 72; daughter
of football star Tom Harmon, sister of actor Mark Harmon, ex-wife of Ricky
Nelson, mother of actress Tracy Nelson; sons Gunnar and Matthew formed the band
Nelson
3. Pamela Gidley — actress, 52
4. Julie Yip-Williams, lawyer and blogger, 42; her eloquent online
cancer journal helped many
5. William Harris — comics writer and editor, 82
6. Vic Damone — singer and actor, 89; the smooth-voiced
crooner appeared in movie musicals such as Hit
the Deck and Kismet
7. Echo Helstrom Casey — Bob Dylan’s first girlfriend, 75; she
inspired his song “Girl from the North Country”
8. Arnold Gold — pediatric neurologist, 92; an advocate of
compassionate medical care
9. Larry Coen — actor, director, and playwright, 59; he
co-wrote Broadway’s Epic Proportions
10. Hwang Byungki — musician, composer and scholar, 81; he
was a master of the gayageum, a Korean zither-like instrument
And as I get older, it becomes more personal. My 40th
high-school reunion took place this summer. I didn’t attend because, well, I
hated high school. Nonetheless, a roster of my dead classmates was produced and
forwarded to me. The number of my dead contemporaries stands at an
incomprehensible FORTY, or one for each year since we graduated. (I can’t
explain why the numbers are so high save for the fact what we all grew up
downwind and downstream of the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant on the Front
Range of Colorado. Hmmm.)
And I myself went through a health scare that extended from
mid-2017 to early this year — neurological damage that had me bedridden for
months and thrust the prospect of my own imminent death into my face. You can
read my thoughts on that here.
As 2019, look for more original content, better curation —
anything I can do to make the site a more rewarding and informative experience.
As always, I welcome your input! Thanks to all my faithful readers, and the
unsung heroes of the obit desk who bring these lives to light.
Sunday, December 30, 2018
Ringo Lam
Iaia Fiastri
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