December 8, 2023
M. S. Swaminathan, the eminent crop geneticist who fused plant breeding science with keen administrative skills to produce bountiful harvests that ended famine and steadily transformed India into one of the world’s top growers of wheat and rice, died on Thursday. He was 98. His daughter Nitya Rao confirmed the death. Known around the world
READ MOREMax Gomez, an award-winning medical and science journalist who delivered informed reports for more than 40 years on TV stations in New York and Philadelphia, most recently during the Covid-19 pandemic, died on Sept. 2 at his home in Manhattan. He was 72. His partner, Amy Levin, said the cause was head and neck cancer,
READ MOREJohn Warnock, a founder of Adobe Systems whose innovations in computer graphics, including the ubiquitous PDF, made possible today’s visually rich digital experiences, died on Aug. 19 at his home in Los Altos, Calif. He was 82. The cause was pancreatic cancer, Adobe, which Dr. Warnock started in 1982 with Chuck Geschke, said in a
READ MOREJerome M. Hauer, who as the first director of the Mayor’s Office of Emergency Management oversaw New York City’s response to floods, manhole explosions, mold outbreaks, building collapses, water main breaks, blackouts, hurricanes, sink holes, downed trees, terrorist threats, vermin and the uncertain digital impact on computer networks of Y2K, the turn of the millennium,
READ MOREClarence Avant, a record executive who shaped the careers not only of Bill Withers, Whitney Houston, Janet Jackson and other Black singers, but also of politicians, actors and sports figures — exerting so much influence that a 2019 documentary about him was called simply “The Black Godfather” — died on Sunday at his home in
READ MOREAlice Kahn Ladas, a psychologist and psychotherapist whose best-selling 1982 book, “The G Spot: And Other Recent Discoveries About Human Sexuality,” created a tipping point for female sensual autonomy by introducing ways for women to experience greater sexual pleasure, died on July 29 at her home in Santa Fe, N.M. She was 102. Her daughter
READ MOREJoan Kaplan Davidson, a preservationist and philanthropist who set projects in motion that upgraded the quality of life in New York City, died on Friday in Hudson, N.Y. She was 96. Her son John Matthew Davidson confirmed the death, in a hospital. He did not specify a cause, saying simply that “her heart gave out.”
READ MORECheri Pies, a professor of public health who broke barriers with her landmark 1985 book, “Considering Parenthood: A Workbook for Lesbians,” a bible of the “gayby boom” of the 1980s and beyond, died on July 4 at her home in Berkeley, Calif. She was 73. The cause was cancer, said her wife, Melina Linder. Later
READ MOREAngelo Mozilo, a founder of Countrywide Financial who presided over that lending giant’s rapid ascent and then its collapse during the financial crisis of 2008, died on Sunday. He was 84. His death, in the Santa Barbara, Calif., area, was announced in a statement by the Mozilo Family Foundation, the family’s philanthropic organization. It did
READ MOREEverett I. Mendelsohn, a longtime Harvard professor who as a scholar of the history of science explored how the evolution of science has been influenced by historical and cultural trends and vice versa, died on June 6 at his home in Cambridge, Mass. He was 91. His wife, Mary B. Anderson, said the cause was
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