Obituaries

Rabbi Moshe Hirsch, Israel Opponent, Dies at 86

Rabbi Moshe Hirsch, a leader of an ultra-Orthodox Jewish sect that opposes the existence of the Israeli state and a longtime adviser to the Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat, died Sunday at his home in Jersusalem. He was 86. His death was confirmed by Eida Haredit, an organization for ultra-Orthodox Jewish groups. Rabbi Hirsch was the son-in-law of Rabbi Aharon Katzenelbogen, founder of the anti-Zionist sect Neturei Karta. Created in 1938 in what was then Palestine, Netu

The Invaluable Legacy of Willard Wirtz, 94

Never has there been a greater champion of US workers than former Labor Secretary Willard Wirtz, who died on April 24 at 98. Certainly, in more than a half-century of covering labor, I've never met anyone more dedicated - or more effective - in winning and preserving vital protections for working people.That was the lifelong task of Wirtz, who served as secretary under presidents Kennedy and Johnson from 1962 to 1969, a brilliant, charming, Harvard Law School graduate, who spent

Walter Murphy, Author and Princeton Political Scientist, Dies at 80

Walter F. Murphy, a leading constitutional scholar whose otherwise sober, writerly résumé was spiced with commercial fiction, including a bestselling 1979 novel, “The Vicar of Christ,” died April 20 in Charleston, S.C. He was 80. The cause was cancer, said his wife, Doris Maher Murphy. Professor Murphy taught in the politics department at Princeton for 37 years, and from 1968 until his retirement in 1995 he was McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence, a chair whose first o

Whitney Harris, Nuremberg Prosecutor, Dies at 97

Whitney Harris, one of the last of the prosecutors who brought high-ranking Nazi war criminals to justice at the Nuremberg trials and who, a half-century later, was a significant voice in the creation of the International Criminal Court, died on April 21 at his home in St. Louis. He was 97. The cause was cancer, his wife, Anna, said. “Whitney was the last-surviving of the podium prosecutors, or in-court prosecutors, for the international tribunal,” John Q. Barrett, a la

F. E. Dominy, Who Harnessed Water in the American West, Is Dead at 100

Floyd E. Dominy, a child of the Dust Bowl who pursued his dream of improving nature and human society by building vast water projects in the West — steamrolling over pristine canyons, doubtful politicians and irate conservationists — died on April 20 in Boyce, Va. He was 100. His family announced the death. Even before he became the longest-serving commissioner of the federal Bureau of Reclamation (1959 to 1969), Mr. Dominy, as a rising bureaucrat, showed a knack for pe

Benjamin L. Hooks, Civil Rights Leader, Dies at 85

Benjamin L. Hooks, who for 15 years led the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People as it struggled to remain an effective champion of minorities in an era of rising political conservatism, died Thursday at his home in Memphis. He was 85. Leila McDowell, a spokeswoman for the N.A.A.C.P., said the cause was heart failure. “Black Americans are not defeated,” Mr. Hooks told Ebony magazine soon after he became the association’s executive director in 1977.

Antony Flew, Philosopher and Ex-Atheist, Dies at 87

Antony Flew, an English philosopher and outspoken atheist who stunned and dismayed the unbelieving faithful when he announced in 2004 that God probably did exist, died April 8 in Reading, England. He was 87 and lived in Reading. His death was confirmed by Roy Abraham Varghese, with whom he wrote “There Is a God: How the World’s Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind,” published in 2007. Mr. Flew, the son of a Methodist minister, embraced atheism as a teenager. “It just

Daryl F. Gates, L.A.P.D. Chief in Rodney King Era, Dies at 83

Daryl F. Gates, whose aggressive approach to law enforcement as chief of the Los Angeles Police Department was both admired for its innovation and criticized for the racial unrest it provoked, died Friday at his home in Dana Point, Calif. He was 83. In a statement, the Police Department said he died after “a short battle with cancer.” Mr. Gates began his police career in 1949 as a Los Angeles patrolman. It ended when he was forced to resign in June 1992, after 14 years

Civil Rights Leader Dorothy Height Dies at 98

Dorothy Height, who as longtime president of the National Council of Negro Women was the leading female voice of the 1960s civil rights movement, died Tuesday. She was 98. Height, who continued actively speaking out into her 90s, had been at Howard University Hospital for some time. The hospital said in a statement she died of natural causes. As a teenager, Height marched in New York's Times Square shouting, ''Stop the lynching.'' In the 1950s and 1960s, she was the le

Lech Kaczynski, 60, Often a Source of Tension Within E.U.

Lech Kaczynski, who died Saturday in a plane crash in western Russia, rose from childhood fame as an actor to become president of Poland. He was 60. Half of an unusual tandem of power, Mr. Kaczynski was elected president in 2005 from the nationalist-conservative Law and Justice Party, led by his identical twin, Jaroslaw, whom he later appointed prime minister. Swept into office as voters repudiated the group of former Communist officials who had dominated the country’s

Anatoly F. Dobrynin, Longtime Soviet Ambassador to the U.S., Dies at 90

Anatoly F. Dobrynin, the Soviet ambassador to Washington from 1962 to 1986, whose behind-the-scenes diplomacy was credited by many historians with helping to resolve the Cuban missile crisis and ease tensions in the cold war era, has died, the Kremlin announced Thursday. He was 90. News agencies throughout Europe, including Itar-Tass, reported that he died on Tuesday. To a generation of Washington officials in a perilous nuclear age, Mr. Dobrynin was the pre-eminent cha

Abel Muzorewa, African Cleric and Politician, Dies at 85

Bishop Abel T. Muzorewa, once a central player in white minority plans to blunt black majority rule in what is now Zimbabwe, died on Thursday in Harare, the capital, the state-controlled Herald newspaper said Friday. He was 85. Bishop Muzorewa enjoyed brief renown as prime minister of an unrecognized white-dominated government before history, war and diplomacy moved on without him. In a career as a cleric and political activist in what was then called Rhodesia, Bishop

Malcolm McLaren, Seminal Punk Figure, Dies at 64

Malcolm McLaren, an impresario, recording artist and fashion designer who as manager of the Sex Pistols played a decisive role in creating the British punk movement, died on Thursday in Switzerland. He was 64. The cause was mesothelioma, a cancer of the linings around organs, said Young Kim, his companion of many years. She said he had been under treatment at a Swiss hospital. He lived in Paris and New York. Mr. McLaren, a former art student, found an outlet for his id

Anna Walentynowicz, Polish Provocateur Who Spurred Communism’s Fall, Dies at 80

Anna Walentynowicz, a labor leader whose firing as a crane operator at the Lenin shipyard in Gdansk in 1980 touched off the strike that led to the founding of Solidarity and the unraveling of Communism in Poland, died on Saturday in the plane crash in Russia in which Poland’s president and dozens of Polish leaders were killed. She was 80. Those killed, including President Lech Kaczynski and 95 others, were going to a commemoration of the Soviet massacre of Polish officers in the Kat

Charles Muscatine, a Champion of Free Speech at Berkeley, Dies

Charles Muscatine, a renowned Chaucer scholar who was fired by the University of California at Berkeley in 1950 for refusing to sign a loyalty oath, has died at age 89. Mr. Muscatine, a professor and a champion of undergraduate-curriculum reform, died March 12 in Oakland of a lung infection. His 1957 work, Chaucer and the French Tradition, is still considered one of the hallmarks in his field. "Before Charles, people tended to talk about the themes and ideas of Cha

Eugene Allen, Butler to Presidents, Is Dead at 90

Eugene Allen, a White House butler who served presidents from Harry Truman through Ronald Reagan, died Wednesday in Takoma Park, Md. He was 90 and lived in Washington. Mr. Allen, who was black, started at the White House in 1952, when racial segregation prohibited him from using public restrooms in his native state, Virginia. When he left the White House in 1986, he had witnessed not only defining moments in the country’s history, but also in America’s civil rights movement.

J.F. terHorst, Ford Press Secretary, Dies at 87

J. F. terHorst, a reporter who in August 1974 was appointed White House press secretary by an old friend, President Gerald R. Ford, but who resigned less than a month later when Ford granted former President Richard M. Nixon an unconditional pardon in connection with the Watergate scandal, died Wednesday in Asheville, N.C. He was 87. The cause was congestive heart failure, said his son, Peter. Mr. terHorst’s resignation was — and still is — considered a rare act of cons

Jaime Escalante, Inspiration for a Movie, Dies at 79

Jaime Escalante, the high school teacher whose ability to turn out high-achieving calculus students from a poor Hispanic neighborhood in East Los Angeles inspired the 1988 film “Stand and Deliver,” with Edward James Olmos in the starring role, died Tuesday at his son’s home in Rosedale, Calif. He was 79 and lived in Cochabamba, Bolivia. The cause was pulmonary arrest brought on by pneumonia, his son Jaime said. Mr. Escalante, a Bolivian immigrant, used unconventional te

Vasily Smyslov, Former World Chess Champion, Dies at 89

Vasily Smyslov, the seventh world chess champion, who was known for both the artistry of his play and the solidity of his technique, died Saturday at a hospital in Moscow. He was 89. The cause was heart failure, according to the Russian television station NTV. Mr. Smyslov, though he held the championship for just a year, from April 1957 to May 1958, was one of the most successful and durable tournament and match players of the generation that came of age after World War

Albert J. Rosenthal, Columbia Law Dean, Dies at 91

Albert J. Rosenthal, who as dean of Columbia Law School in the late 1970s and early 1980s helped increase the number of women on the school’s faculty, died on Wednesday in Greenwich, Conn. He was 91 and lived in Scarsdale, N.Y. The cause was complications of Alzheimer’s disease, his son Ned said. A specialist in constitutional and environmental law, Mr. Rosenthal joined the law school faculty in 1964. At his death he was the Maurice T. Moore professor emeritus of law t