Famous Amherst College Alumni
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People on this list must have gone to Amherst College and be of some renown.
List of famous alumni from Amherst College, with photos when available. Prominent graduates from Amherst College include celebrities, politicians, business people, athletes and more. This list of distinguished Amherst College alumni is loosely ordered by relevance, so the most recognizable celebrities who attended Amherst College are at the top of the list. This directory is not just composed of graduates of this school, as some of the famous people on this list didn't necessarily earn a degree from Amherst College.
List features graduates like Calvin Coolidge and David O. Russell.
This list answers the questions “Which famous people went to Amherst College?” and “Which celebrities are Amherst College alumni?”- Teller (born Raymond Joseph Teller on February 14, 1948) is an American magician, illusionist, writer, actor, painter, and film director. He is half of the comedy magic duo Penn & Teller, along with Penn Jillette. Teller usually does not speak during performances. He is an atheist, debunker, skeptic, and a fellow of the Cato Institute (a free market libertarian think tank that also lists Jillette as a fellow), an organization which is featured prominently in the duo's Showtime series Bullshit!. Teller legally changed his name from "Raymond Joseph Teller" to the mononym "Teller".
- Age: 76
- Birthplace: USA, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Lawrence John Miller (born October 15, 1953) is an American comedian, actor, podcaster and columnist.
- Age: 71
- Birthplace: USA, New York, Valley Stream
- Joseph Eugene Stiglitz (; born February 9, 1943) is an American economist, public policy analyst, and a professor at Columbia University. He is a recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (2001) and the John Bates Clark Medal (1979). He is a former senior vice president and chief economist of the World Bank and is a former member and chairman of the (US president's) Council of Economic Advisers. He is known for his support of Georgist public finance theory and for his critical view of the management of globalization, of laissez-faire economists (whom he calls "free market fundamentalists"), and of international institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. In 2000, Stiglitz founded the Initiative for Policy Dialogue (IPD), a think tank on international development based at Columbia University. He has been a member of the Columbia faculty since 2001, and received that university's highest academic rank (university professor) in 2003. He was the founding chair of the university's Committee on Global Thought. He also chairs the University of Manchester's Brooks World Poverty Institute. He is a member of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences. In 2009, the President of the United Nations General Assembly Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann, appointed Stiglitz as the chairman of the U.N. Commission on Reforms of the International Monetary and Financial System, where he oversaw suggested proposals and commissioned a report on reforming the international monetary and financial system. He served as chair of the international Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress, appointed by President Sarkozy of France, which issued its report in 2010, Mismeasuring our Lives: Why GDP doesn't add up, and currently serves as co-chair of its successor, the High Level Expert Group on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress. From 2011 to 2014, Stiglitz was president of the International Economic Association (IEA). He presided over the organization of the IEA triennial world congress held near the Dead Sea in Jordan in June 2014.Stiglitz has received more than 40 honorary degrees, including from Cambridge and Harvard, and he has been decorated by several governments including Bolivia, Korea, Colombia, Ecuador, and most recently France, where he was appointed a member of the Legion of Honor, order Officer. In 2011 Stiglitz was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Stiglitz's work focuses on income distribution from a Georgist perspective, asset risk management, corporate governance, and international trade. He is the author of several books, the latest being The Euro: How a Common Currency Threatens the Future of Europe (2016), The Great Divide: Unequal Societies and What We Can Do About Them (2015), Rewriting the Rules of the American Economy: An Agenda for Growth and Shared Prosperity (2015), and Creating a Learning Society: A New Approach to Growth Development and Social Progress (2014).
- Age: 81
- Birthplace: USA, Indiana, Gary
- Calvin Coolidge (born John Calvin Coolidge Jr.; ; July 4, 1872 – January 5, 1933) was an American politician and lawyer who served as the 30th president of the United States from 1923 to 1929. A Republican lawyer from New England, born in Vermont, Coolidge worked his way up the ladder of Massachusetts state politics, eventually becoming governor. His response to the Boston Police Strike of 1919 thrust him into the national spotlight and gave him a reputation as a man of decisive action. The next year, he was elected vice president of the United States, and he succeeded to the presidency upon the sudden death of Warren G. Harding in 1923. Elected in his own right in 1924, he gained a reputation as a small government conservative and also as a man who said very little and had a rather dry sense of humor.Coolidge restored public confidence in the White House after the scandals of his predecessor's administration, and left office with considerable popularity. As a Coolidge biographer wrote: "He embodied the spirit and hopes of the middle class, could interpret their longings and express their opinions. That he did represent the genius of the average is the most convincing proof of his strength".Scholars have ranked Coolidge in the lower half of those presidents that they have assessed. He is praised by advocates of smaller government and laissez-faire economics, while supporters of an active central government generally view him less favorably, though most praise his stalwart support of racial equality.
- Age: Dec. at 60 (1872-1933)
- Birthplace: Plymouth Notch, Vermont, United States of America
- Originally the MTV generation's version of Dr. Ruth, Dr. Drew Pinsky later specialized in dramatic, televised treatment programs featuring substance abusing ex-rockers, former stars and fading models. Early on, "Dr. Drew," as he was affectionately known, dished helpful advice to millions of teens through his nationally syndicated radio show "Loveline," alongside comedic co-host Adam Carolla. Eventually he branched out into television with the series "Strictly Sex with Dr. Drew" (Discovery Health Channel, 2005) and the reality program "Celebrity Rehab" (VH1, 2008- ), where he spent 21 days with stars who battled alcohol and drug addiction, including actor Jeff Conaway, wrestler Chyna, and former "American Idol" (Fox, 2002- ) contestant Jessica Sierra. Pinsky continued to find success sticking to topics more relatable to the average American on his current affairs program "Dr. Drew" (HLN, 2011- ). There was no denying that Pinsky and his methods were part of the celebrity culture zeitgeist of the new millennium.
- Age: 66
- Birthplace: Pasadena, California, USA
- Charles Richard Drew (June 3, 1904 – April 1, 1950) was an American surgeon and medical researcher. He researched in the field of blood transfusions, developing improved techniques for blood storage, and applied his expert knowledge to developing large-scale blood banks early in World War II. This allowed medics to save thousands of lives of the Allied forces. As the most prominent African American in the field, Drew protested against the practice of racial segregation in the donation of blood, as it lacked scientific foundation, and resigned his position with the American Red Cross, which maintained the policy until 1950.
- Age: Dec. at 45 (1904-1950)
- Birthplace: Washington, D.C.
- Charles Hamilton Houston (September 3, 1895 – April 22, 1950) was a prominent African-American lawyer, Dean of Howard University Law School, and NAACP first special counsel, or Litigation Director. A graduate of Amherst College and Harvard Law School, Houston played a significant role in dismantling Jim Crow laws, especially attacking segregation in schools and racial housing covenants. He earned the title "The Man Who Killed Jim Crow".Houston is also well known for having trained and mentored a generation of black attorneys, including Thurgood Marshall, future founder and director of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the first Black Supreme Court Justice. He recruited young lawyers to work on the NAACP's litigation campaigns, building connections between Howard's and Harvard's university law schools.
- Age: Dec. at 54 (1895-1950)
- Birthplace: Washington, D.C.
- Harlan Fiske Stone (October 11, 1872 – April 22, 1946) was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1925 to 1941 and then as the Chief Justice of the United States from 1941 until his death in 1946. He also served as the U.S. Attorney General from 1924 to 1925 under President Calvin Coolidge, with whom he had attended Amherst College as a young man. His most famous dictum was: "Courts are not the only agency of government that must be assumed to have capacity to govern."Born in Chesterfield, New Hampshire, Stone practiced law in New York City after graduating from Columbia Law School. He became the dean of Columbia Law School and a partner with Sullivan & Cromwell. During World War I, he served on the War Department Board of Inquiry, which evaluated the sincerity of conscientious objectors. In 1924, President Calvin Coolidge appointed Stone as the Attorney General. Stone sought to reform the Department of Justice in the aftermath of several scandals that occurred during the administration of President Warren G. Harding. He also pursued several antitrust cases against large corporations. In 1925, Coolidge nominated Stone to succeed retiring Associate Justice Joseph McKenna, and Stone won Senate confirmation with little opposition. On the Taft Court, Stone joined with Justices Holmes and Brandeis in calling for judicial restraint and deference to the legislative will. On the Hughes Court, Stone and Justices Brandeis and Cardozo formed a liberal bloc called the Three Musketeers that generally voted to uphold the constitutionality of the New Deal. His majority opinions in United States v. Darby Lumber Co. and United States v. Carolene Products Co. were influential in shaping standards of judicial scrutiny. In 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt nominated Stone to succeed the retiring Charles Evans Hughes as Chief Justice, and the Senate quickly confirmed Stone. The Stone Court presided over several cases during World War II, and Stone's majority opinion in Ex parte Quirin upheld the jurisdiction of a United States military tribunal over the trial of eight German saboteurs. His majority opinion in International Shoe Co. v. Washington was influential with regards to personal jurisdiction. Stone was the Chief Justice in Korematsu v. United States, ruling the exclusion of Japanese Americans into internment camps as constitutional. Stone served as Chief Justice until his death in 1946. He had one of the shortest terms of any Chief Justice, and was the first Chief Justice not to have served in elected office.
- Age: Dec. at 73 (1872-1946)
- Birthplace: Chesterfield, New Hampshire, USA
- Clarence Frank Birdseye II (December 9, 1886 – October 7, 1956) was an American inventor, entrepreneur, and naturalist, and is considered to be the founder of the modern frozen food industry.
- Age: Dec. at 69 (1886-1956)
- Birthplace: New York City, New York
Preston Rogers Bassett (March 20, 1892 – April 30, 1992) was an inventor, engineer, and pioneer in instruments for aviation.- Age: Dec. at 100 (1892-1992)
- Emily Elizabeth Dickinson (December 10, 1830 – May 15, 1886) was an American poet. Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts, into a prominent family with strong ties to its community. After studying at the Amherst Academy for seven years in her youth, she briefly attended the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary before returning to her family's house in Amherst. Evidence suggests that Dickinson lived much of her life in isolation. Considered an eccentric by locals, she developed a penchant for white clothing and was known for her reluctance to greet guests or, later in life, to even leave her bedroom. Dickinson never married, and most friendships between her and others depended entirely upon correspondence.While Dickinson was a prolific poet, fewer than a dozen of her nearly 1,800 poems were published during her lifetime. The poems published then were usually edited significantly to fit conventional poetic rules. Her poems were unique to her era. They contain short lines, typically lack titles, and often use slant rhyme as well as unconventional capitalization and punctuation. Many of her poems deal with themes of death and immortality, two recurring topics in letters to her friends. Although Dickinson's acquaintances were likely aware of her writing, it was not until after her death in 1886—when Lavinia, Dickinson's younger sister, discovered her cache of poems—that the breadth of her work became public. Her first collection of poetry was published in 1890 by personal acquaintances Thomas Wentworth Higginson and Mabel Loomis Todd, though both heavily edited the content. A 1998 New York Times article revealed that of the many edits made to Dickinson's work, the name "Susan" was often deliberately removed. At least 11 of Dickinson's poems were dedicated to sister-in-law Susan Huntington Gilbert Dickinson, though all the dedications were obliterated, presumably by Todd. A complete, and mostly unaltered, collection of her poetry became available for the first time when scholar Thomas H. Johnson published The Poems of Emily Dickinson in 1955.
- Age: Dec. at 55 (1830-1886)
- Birthplace: Amherst, Massachusetts
- Leander Hamilton McCormick (May 27, 1859 – February 2, 1934) was an American author, inventor, art collector and sculptor.
- Age: Dec. at 75 (1859-1934)
- Birthplace: Chicago, Illinois
- Steve Baer is an American inventor and solar and residential designer. Baer has served on the board of directors of the U.S. Section of the International Solar Energy Society, and on the board of the New Mexico Solar Energy Association. He is the founder, Chairman of the Board, president, and Director of Research at Zomeworks Corporation.
- Age: 87
- Birthplace: Los Angeles, California
Jared French
Jared French (February 4, 1905 – January 8, 1988) was an American painter who specialized in the medium of egg tempera. He was one of the artists attributed to the style of art known as magic realism along with contemporaries George Tooker and Paul Cadmus.- Age: Dec. at 83 (1905-1988)
- Birthplace: Ossining, New York
- Burgess Meredith, born on November 16, 1907, in Cleveland, Ohio, was an iconic American actor with a career spanning over six decades. He was famous for his distinctive raspy voice and his ability to portray a wide range of characters in theatre, film, and television. His versatility as an actor was evident in his various roles from portraying comic book villains to serious dramatic roles. Meredith's career in the entertainment industry began in theater during the 1930s, where he appeared in several Broadway productions before making his transition into film. He starred in classic films such as Of Mice and Men (1939) and The Story of G.I. Joe (1945), earning critical acclaim for his performances. Despite his success in film, Meredith never left theater behind, consistently returning to the stage throughout his career. However, it was his work on television that made Burgess Meredith a household name. He is perhaps best known for his role as The Penguin in the 1960s Batman series, a character that has since become synonymous with his name. He also starred in four episodes of The Twilight Zone, further solidifying his status as a television icon. Meredith passed away in 1997, leaving behind a legacy in the entertainment industry that continues to influence actors and filmmakers today.
- Age: Dec. at 89 (1907-1997)
- Birthplace: Cleveland, Ohio, USA
- Robert Lansing (; October 17, 1864 – October 30, 1928) was an American lawyer and high government official who served as Counselor to the State Department at the outbreak of World War I, and then as United States Secretary of State under President Woodrow Wilson from 1915 to 1920. A conservative pro-business Democrat, he was pro-British and a strong defender of American rights at international law. He was a leading enemy of Germany autocracy and Russian Bolshevism. Before U.S. involvement in the war, Lansing vigorously advocated in favor of the principles of freedom of the seas and the rights of neutral nations. He later advocated U.S. participation in World War I, negotiated the Lansing–Ishii Agreement with Japan in 1917 and was a member of the American Commission to Negotiate Peace at Paris in 1919. However Wilson made Colonel House his chief foreign policy advisor because Lansing privately opposed much of the Versailles treaty and was skeptical of the Wilsonian principle of self-determination.
- Age: Dec. at 64 (1864-1928)
- Birthplace: Watertown, New York, USA
- Actor and occasional singer Stephen Collins essayed numerous clean-cut, well-intentioned men with an adventurous or romantic side in countless television movies and features from the mid-1970s through the 21st century. Adept at both drama and breezy comedy, he was a natural go-to for the lead in numerous regular series, but had trouble finding one that took with audiences until he starred in "7th Heaven" (The WB/The CW, 1996-2007), a family-values drama which cast him as a savvy Protestant minister and head of a large brood that deals with complex life issues. The show's popularity gave his career a solid boost, leading to more supporting roles in features like "Blood Diamond" (2006) and "Because I Said So" (2007), making Collins a versatile actor able to carry himself on screens both big and small. Collins' career was derailed, however, after allegations of sexual molestation of minors became public in October 2014.
- Age: 77
- Birthplace: Des Moines, Iowa, USA
- William Henry Hastie Jr. (November 17, 1904 – April 14, 1976) was an American lawyer, judge, educator, public official, and advocate for the civil rights of African Americans. He was the first African American to serve as Governor of the United States Virgin Islands, as a federal judge, and as a federal appellate judge. He served as a United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and previously served as District Judge of the District Court of the Virgin Islands.
- Age: Dec. at 71 (1904-1976)
- Birthplace: Knoxville, Tennessee, USA
- David Takayoshi Suzuki (born March 24, 1936) is a Canadian academic, science broadcaster and environmental activist. Suzuki earned a Ph.D. in zoology from the University of Chicago in 1961, and was a professor in the genetics department at the University of British Columbia from 1963 until his retirement in 2001. Since the mid-1970s, Suzuki has been known for his television and radio series, documentaries and books about nature and the environment. He is best known as host of the popular and long-running CBC Television science program The Nature of Things, seen in over 40 countries. He is also well known for criticizing governments for their lack of action to protect the environment. A longtime activist to reverse global climate change, Suzuki co-founded the David Suzuki Foundation in 1990, to work "to find ways for society to live in balance with the natural world that does sustain us". The Foundation's priorities are: oceans and sustainable fishing, climate change and clean energy, sustainability, and Suzuki's Nature Challenge. The Foundation also works on ways to help protect the oceans from large oil spills such as the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Suzuki has also served as a director of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association from 1982 to 1987. Suzuki was awarded the Right Livelihood Award in 2009. His 2011 book, The Legacy, won the Nautilus Book Award. He is a Companion of the Order of Canada. In 2004, David Suzuki ranked fifth on the list of final nominees in a CBC Television series that asked viewers to select The Greatest Canadian of all time.
- Age: 88
- Birthplace: Vancouver, Canada
- Scott Frederick Turow (born April 12, 1949) is an American author and lawyer. Turow has written 11 fiction and three nonfiction books, which have been translated into more than 40 languages and sold more than 30 million copies. Films have been based on several of his books.
- Age: 75
- Birthplace: Chicago, Illinois, USA
- Thomas Francis Eagleton (September 4, 1929 – March 4, 2007) was a United States senator from Missouri, serving from 1968 to 1987. He is best remembered for briefly being the Democratic vice presidential nominee under George McGovern in 1972. He suffered from bouts of depression throughout his life, resulting in several hospitalizations, which were kept secret from the public. When they were revealed, it humiliated the McGovern campaign and Eagleton was forced to quit the race. He later became adjunct professor of public affairs at Washington University in St. Louis.
- Age: Dec. at 77 (1929-2007)
- Birthplace: USA, St. Louis, Missouri
- Albert II (Albert Alexandre Louis Pierre Grimaldi; born 14 March 1958) is the reigning monarch of the Principality of Monaco and head of the princely house of Grimaldi. He is the son of Prince Rainier III and Grace, Princess of Monaco formerly Grace Kelly, the American actress. Prince Albert's sisters are Caroline, Princess of Hanover, and Princess Stéphanie. In July 2011, Prince Albert married Charlene Wittstock.Prince Albert II is one of the wealthiest royals in the world, with assets valued at more than $1 billion, which include land in Monaco and France. Although Prince Albert does not own the Prince's Palace of Monaco, he does own shares in the Société des bains de mer de Monaco, which operates Monaco's casino and other entertainment properties in the principality.
- Age: 66
- Birthplace: Monaco, Prince's Palace of Monaco
- Patrick J. Fitzgerald (born December 22, 1960) is an American lawyer and partner at the law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom since October 2012.For more than a decade, until June 30, 2012, Fitzgerald was the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois. Prior to his appointment, he served as Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York from 1988 to 2001, and as Chief of the Organized Crime-Terrorism Unit since December 1995, where he participated in the prosecution of United States v. Usama Bin Laden, et al., United States v. Abdel Rahman, et al., and United States v. Ramzi Yousef Rahman, et al. As special counsel for the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Special Counsel, Fitzgerald was the federal prosecutor in charge of the investigation of the Valerie Plame Affair, which led to the prosecution and conviction in 2007 of Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff Scooter Libby for perjury.As a federal prosecutor, he led a number of high-profile investigations, including ones that led to convictions of Illinois Governors Rod Blagojevich and George Ryan, media mogul Conrad Black, several aides to Chicago Mayor Richard Daley in the Hired Truck Program, and Chicago detective and torturer Jon Burge.
- Age: 64
- Birthplace: New York City, USA, New York
- David O. Russell quickly developed a reputation for being one of the most original and forward-looking directors working in Hollywood. The splash he made with his debut, "Spanking the Monkey" (1994), opened the doors wide for Russell, who became one of those rare talents to gain studio backing for highly-personal and risky films that typically generated rave reviews, but little profit. After the toned-down sophomore effort "Flirting with Disaster" (1996), he scored a large-scale success with "Three Kings" (1999), which thrust Russell into the top tier of working directors. Russell maintained a reputation for bringing the most taboo subjects into a fresh and hilarious light, while earning considerable awards attention for "The Fighter" (2010) and "Silver Linings Playbook" (2012), making him one of Hollywood's more creatively risk-taking directors.
- Age: 66
- Birthplace: New York, New York, USA
- Dwight David Eisenhower II (born March 31, 1948), better known as David Eisenhower is an American author, public policy fellow, professor at the University of Pennsylvania, and eponym of the U.S. Presidential retreat, Camp David. He is the only grandson of the 34th president of the United States, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and the son-in-law of the 37th president of the United States, Richard Nixon.
- Age: 76
- Birthplace: West Point, New York
- David Foster Wallace (February 21, 1962 – September 12, 2008) was an American writer and university professor in the disciplines of English and creative writing. His novel Infinite Jest (1996) was listed by Time magazine as one of the 100 best English-language novels published between 1923 and 2005. His last novel, The Pale King (2011), was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2012. The Los Angeles Times' David Ulin called Wallace "one of the most influential and innovative writers of the last twenty years". Among the writers who cite Wallace as an influence are Dave Eggers, Zadie Smith, Jonathan Franzen, Elizabeth Wurtzel, George Saunders, Rivka Galchen, John Green, Matthew Gallaway, David Gordon, Darin Strauss, Charles Yu, Porochista Khakpour, and Deb Olin Unferth. Wallace died by suicide at age 46 after struggling with depression for many years.
- Age: Dec. at 46 (1962-2008)
- Birthplace: Ithaca, New York
Herbert L. Pratt
BusinesspersonHerbert Lee Pratt (November 21, 1871 – February 3, 1945) was an American businessman and a leading figure in the United States oil industry. In 1923, he became head of Standard Oil; his father Charles Pratt was a founder of Astral Oil Works, which later became part of Standard Oil. He lived and worked in New York City, as well as having a country estate, "The Braes" in Glen Cove, Long Island, and a hunting preserve and estate, "Good Hope Plantation" in Ridgeland, South Carolina. He was also an art collector and philanthropist.- Age: Dec. at 73 (1871-1945)
- Birthplace: New York City, New York
- James Powers may refer to: J. F. Powers (James Farl Powers, 1917–1999), American novelist and short-story writer James L. Powers, founder of Powers Accounting Machine Company James Powers (New York) (1785–1868), New York politician James E. Powers (born 1931), New York politician James F. Powers (1938–2012), New Hampshire politician James T. Powers (actor) (1862–1943), American stage actor, vocalist, and lyricist James Patrick Powers (born 1953), an American Roman Catholic bishop Jimmy Powers, see Boxing on NBC and Gillette Cavalcade of Sports
- Age: Dec. at 73 (1938-2012)
- Birthplace: Montague, Massachusetts
Gilbert Hovey Grosvenor
Gilbert Hovey Grosvenor (; October 28, 1875 – February 4, 1966), father of photojournalism, was the first full-time editor of National Geographic (1899–1954). Grosvenor is credited with having built the magazine into the iconic publication that it is today. As President of the National Geographic Society, he assisted its rise to one of the world's largest and best known science and learning organizations, aided by the chronicling in its magazine of ambitious natural and cultural explorations around the globe.- Age: Dec. at 90 (1875-1966)
- Birthplace: Istanbul, Turkey
- Thomas Flanagan (November 5, 1923 – March 21, 2002) was an American university professor and novelist. He was born in Greenwich, Connecticut. His father was a dentist, his mother a homemaker. All four of his grandparents had come to the United States from County Fermanagh, Ireland. He served in the United States Army during World War II. He graduated from Amherst College in 1945. He married Jean Parker, a nurse, in 1949. They had two daughters, Caitlin and Ellen. He received his Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy degrees from Columbia University. From 1960 to 1978 he was Professor of English Literature at the University of California at Berkeley, specializing in Irish literature. He was a tenured Full Professor in the English Department at the State University of New York at Stony Brook until his retirement. He and his wife spent much of their time in Ireland. They lived in East Setauket, Long Island. Flanagan was also a successful novelist. His first novel, The year of the French, won the National Book Critics Award for fiction in 1979 and was adapted into a TV series, which was broadcast in Ireland in 1982. He died in 2002 at the age of 78 in Berkeley. His historical novels are: The Year of the French (1979); ISBN 9781590171080 (2004) The Tenants of Time (1988) The End of the Hunt (1995)The Archives and Special Collections at Amherst College holds his papers.
- Age: Dec. at 78 (1923-2002)
- Birthplace: Greenwich, Connecticut
Alan F. Segal
ProfessorAlan F. Segal (August 2, 1945 – February 13, 2011) was a scholar of ancient religions, specializing in Judaism's relationship to Christianity. Segal was a distinguished scholar, author, and speaker, self-described as a "believing Jew and twentieth-century humanist." Segal was one of the first modern scholars to write extensively on the influences of Judaism (including Second Temple Rabbinic texts, Merkabah mysticism, and Jewish apocalypticism) on Paul of Damascus. Segal was born in Worcester, Massachusetts. He attended Amherst College (B.A., 1967), Brandeis University (M.A., 1969), Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (Bachelor of Hebrew Letters, 1971), and Yale University (M.A., 1971; M.Phil., 1973; and Ph.D., 1975). At the time of his retirement, Segal was Professor Emeritus of Religion and Ingeborg Rennert Professor Emeritus of Judaic Studies at Barnard College and held a concurrent appointment as Adjunct Professor of Scripture at Union Theological Seminary. He had also taught at Princeton University and the University of Toronto.Segal was an expert in the field of history and religious traditions of Judaism and Christianity of the Roman period, and on the Semitic languages in use in Israel in that period. His scholarly reputation commenced with his landmark book, Two Powers in Heaven: Early Rabbinic Reports About Christianity and Gnosticism (1977), in which he explored early references in rabbinic texts that he proposed were directed against beliefs of Jewish Christians and gnostics. His 1986 book, Rebecca's Children, was a sensitive study showing that rabbinic Judaism and early Christianity were sibling developments from the parent biblical tradition. His award-winning book, Paul the Convert (1990) was Editor's Choice and main selection of the History Book Club's summer 1990 list, and a selection of the Book of the Month Club. The 368 page text is a collection of studies that interprets Paul within the context of Jewish mysticism and history, providing unique depth and insight for Biblical exegetes and Jewish historians. His last book, Life After Death: A History of the Afterlife in Western Religion (2004) was a massive study of beliefs spanning from ancient near-eastern civilizations to the present and across various religious traditions. Life After Death is "considered one of the definitive treatments of that weighty subject — and was weighty in its own right, at 731 pages." It was a selection of the History Book Club, the Book of the Month Club, and the Behaviorial Science Book Club. It also featured on the Leonard Lopate Show, Talk of the Nation, and was the cover story of the Globe and Mail Book Review Supplement (Toronto). In addition, he wrote numbers articles and chapters in scholarly books. Segal gave conference presentations and lectures internationally. He was a founding member of the Society of Biblical Literature program unit on Early Jewish and Christian Mysticism, and the SBL program unit on Divine Mediators in Antiquity. In 1988, he was the first Jewish member of the Society for New Testament Studies to address the society. He was elected a member of the American Society for the Study of Religion and the first American living outside Canada to be elected President of the Canadian Society for Biblical Studies. Until Segal's book Paul the Convert was published in 1990, most modern Biblical scholars failed to take into account the Jewishness of Paul and the vast majority of Jewish historians ignored Paul altogether because of his perceived anti-Semitic writing. Segal argues in Paul the Convert that despite Paul's polemical rhetoric, the Jewish community must nevertheless consider the historical value of Paul's epistles because of the insights he provides into first century Hellenisic Judaism. Segal's exegetical concern is with the Jewish context of Paul's religious struggle following his conversion. He reads Paul's epistles in light of the social sciences, borrowing from modern sociological and psychological studies (especially those pertaining to conversion). He also examines Paul through the lens of Jewish Merkabah mysticism and the Rabbinic tradition – a pioneering method of study of the New Testament. Segal argues that in order to understand Paul thoroughly, one must understand the circumstances of his time and culture. Segal draws similarities between things like Paul's description of his conversion on the road to Damascus (2 Cor. 12:1-9) and Ezekiel and Enoch's heavenly ascent. He argues that Paul's emphasis on the Glory of God (Kavod) in these stories is characteristic of the Merkabah mystic tradition. The type of exegesis that Segal engages in provides a rare insight into first century thinking. Segal understands Paul as part of Jewish history; he interprets Paul's conversion as an apostasy and a break from Judaism because of his insistence on transformation in Christ, although Paul never perceived his actions as outside the Jewish community (Acts 21:24). Paul, Segal argues, never felt that he had left Judaism, "He began as a Pharisee and became a convert from Pharisaism. He spent the rest of his life trying to express what he converted to. He never gave it a single name." Paul's conversion experience, Segal argues, forced him to re-evaluate his faith and understanding of the Torah; he was made to reconcile his revelation with his Pharasaism. Segal was a frequent media commentator on St. Paul and other issues to deal with early Christianity and Judaism. Segal, who wrote on Christian and Jewish beliefs in an afterlife, explained to reporters that belief in an existence beyond death persists among Americans no matter how little they observe their religion.During September 2007, Segal became part of the controversial tenure battle concerning Barnard anthropology professor Nadia Abu El Haj. Segal, who was opposed to Abu El Haj's tenure bid, told The New York Times that "there is every reason in the world to want her to have tenure, and only one reason against it — her work, I believe it is not good enough." Segal wrote a critique of Abu El Haj's book Facts on the Ground for the Columbia Daily Spectator, in which he said that the reasons for which he opposed tenure for Abu El Haj were professional, not personal.- Age: Dec. at 65 (1945-2011)
- Birthplace: Worcester, Massachusetts
- Matt Besser was a vibrant source of comedy on the big screen, bringing laughter and joy to many audiences over the course of his Hollywood career. Besser began his acting career by debuting in films like "Junebug" (2005) with Amy Adams and Embeth Davidtz. Besser also brought characters to life with his vocal talents in "Escape From It's a Wonderful Life" (1997). His film career continued throughout the early 2000s in productions like "Undead or Alive" (2007), the comedy "The TV Set" (2007) with Lindsay Sloane and "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story" (2007) with John C Reilly. He also appeared in the Owen Wilson comedy "Drillbit Taylor" (2008). He shifted from film to television work through the 2010s, appearing on "New Girl" (2011-), "Key & Peele" (Comedy Central, 2011-15) and "Burning Love" (E! Networks, 2012-14). He also appeared in "Playing House" (USA, 2013-15) and "Big Time in Hollywood, FL" (Comedy Central, 2014-15). Besser most recently acted on "Weird Loners" (Fox, 2014-15). Besser was married to Danielle Schneider.
- Age: 57
- Birthplace: Little Rock, Arkansas, USA
- Amos Barr Hostetter Jr. (born January 12, 1937) is an American businessman, who was the founder, chairman, and CEO of Continental Cablevision. With an estimated current net worth of around $2.6 billion, he is ranked by Forbes as the 521st richest person in the world as of 2012. He has also served as the chairman of C-SPAN.
- Age: 88
John P. Howe III
- Robert Sanford Brustein (born April 21, 1927) is an American theatrical critic, producer, playwright, writer and educator. He founded both the Yale Repertory Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut, and the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he remains a creative consultant, and was the theatre critic for The New Republic. He comments on politics for the Huffington Post. Brustein is a senior research fellow at Harvard University and a distinguished scholar in residence at Suffolk University in Boston. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1999 and in 2002 was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame. In 2003 he served as a senior fellow with the National Arts Journalism Program at Columbia University, and in 2004 and 2005 was a senior fellow at the National Endowment for the Arts Arts Journalism Institute in Theatre and Musical Theatre at the University of Southern California. In 2010, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Barack Obama.
- Age: 97
- Birthplace: New York City, New York
- Age: 51
- Birthplace: New York City, New York
- George Andreas Papandreou (Greek: Γεώργιος Ανδρέας Παπανδρέου, pronounced [ʝeˈorʝios papanˈðreu], shortened to Giorgos (Γιώργος) [ˈʝorɣos] to distinguish him from his grandfather; born 16 June 1952) is a Greek American politician who served as Prime Minister of Greece from 2009 to 2011. He is currently serving as an MP for Movement for Change. Belonging to a political dynasty of long standing, he served under his father, then-prime minister Andreas Papandreou as Minister for National Education and Religious Affairs (1988–1989 and 1994–1996) and Minister for Foreign Affairs from 1999 to 2004. Papandreou was leader of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) party, which his father founded, from February 2004 until March 2012, and has been President of the Socialist International since January 2006. On 6 October 2009, George Papandreou became the 182nd Prime Minister of Greece. He was the third member of the Papandreou family to serve as the country's prime minister, following his father Andreas and his grandfather Georgios Papandreou. He resigned on 11 November 2011 during the Greek government debt crisis to make way for a national unity government. In March 2012, he resigned as leader of PASOK, and in January 2015, he left the party completely, founding his own political party, the Movement of Democratic Socialists (KIDISO), which was the 8th most voted-for party in the January 2015 elections, but did not manage to enter Parliament. In 2017, KIDISO joined the Democratic Alignment, a political alliance formed by PASOK and other centre-left parties. Democratic Alignment later evolved into Movement for Change, which in the 2019 elections was the third most voted-for party, with Papandreou himself returning to Parliament as an MP representing the region of Achaea.
- Age: 72
- Birthplace: Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA
- David Bicknell Truman (June 1, 1913 – August 28, 2003) was an American academic who served as the 15th president of Mount Holyoke College from 1969-1978. He is also known for his role as a Columbia University administrator during the Columbia University protests of 1968.
- Age: Dec. at 90 (1913-2003)
- Birthplace: Evanston, Illinois
- Talcott Parsons (1902–1979) was an American sociologist of the classical tradition, best known for his social action theory and structural functionalism. Parsons is considered one of the most influential figures in sociology in the 20th century. After earning a PhD in economics, he served on the faculty at Harvard University from 1927 to 1929. In 1930, he was among the first professors in its new sociology department.Based on empirical data, Parsons' social action theory was the first broad, systematic, and generalizable theory of social systems developed in the United States and Europe. Some of Parsons' largest contributions to sociology in the English-speaking world were his translations of Max Weber's work and his analyses of works by Weber, Émile Durkheim, and Vilfredo Pareto. Their work heavily influenced Parsons' view and was the foundation for his social action theory. Parsons viewed voluntaristic action through the lens of the cultural values and social structures that constrain choices and ultimately determine all social actions, as opposed to actions that are determined based on internal psychological processes.Although Parsons is generally considered a structural functionalist, towards the end of his career, in 1975, he published an article that stated that "functional" and "structural functionalist" were inappropriate ways to describe the character of his theory.From the 1970s, a new generation of sociologists criticized Parsons' theories as socially conservative and his writings as unnecessarily complex. Sociology courses have placed less emphasis on his theories than at the peak of his popularity (from the 1940s to the 1970s). However, there has been a recent resurgence of interest in his ideas.Parsons was a strong advocate for the professionalization of sociology and its expansion in American academia. He was elected president of the American Sociological Association in 1949 and served as its secretary from 1960 to 1965.
- Age: Dec. at 76 (1902-1979)
- Birthplace: Colorado Springs, Colorado
- John Mark Deutch (born July 27, 1938) is an American physical chemist and civil servant. He was the United States Deputy Secretary of Defense from 1994 to 1995 and Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) from May 10, 1995 until December 15, 1996. He is an Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and serves on the boards of directors of Citigroup, Cummins, Raytheon, and Schlumberger Ltd. Deutch is also a member of the Trilateral Commission.
- Age: 86
- Birthplace: Brussels, Belgium
- Kingman Brewster Jr. (June 17, 1919 – November 8, 1988) was an American educator, president of Yale University, and diplomat.
- Age: Dec. at 69 (1919-1988)
- Birthplace: Longmeadow, Massachusetts
Henry Thomas Rainey
LawyerHenry Thomas Rainey (August 20, 1860 – August 19, 1934) was a prominent American politician during the first third of the 20th century. A member of the Democratic Party from Illinois, he served in the United States House of Representatives from 1903 to 1921 and from 1923 to his death. He rose to Speaker of the House, during the famous Hundred days of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933.- Age: Dec. at 73 (1860-1934)
- Birthplace: Carrollton, Illinois, USA
Frederick H. Gillett
LawyerFrederick Huntington Gillett (; October 16, 1851 – July 31, 1935) was an American politician who served in the Massachusetts state government and both houses of the U.S. Congress between 1879 and 1931, including six years as Speaker of the House.- Age: Dec. at 83 (1851-1935)
- Birthplace: Westfield, Massachusetts, USA
Debby Applegate
Biographer, Historian, ProfessorDebby Applegate is an American historian and biographer. She is the author of The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher, for which she won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography. Born in Eugene, Oregon, Applegate attended Amherst College as an undergraduate, where she began a two-decade fascination with famous alumnus Henry Ward Beecher, a 19th-century abolitionist minister who was later the subject of a widely publicized sex scandal. She made Beecher the subject of her dissertation in American Studies at Yale, where she received a Ph.D. After several more years of research, Applegate published The Most Famous Man in America, which was praised by critics and awarded the Pulitzer Prize. She has announced that her second book will be a biography of New York City brothel-keeper Polly Adler.- Age: 57
- Birthplace: Eugene, Oregon
- Melville Louis Kossuth "Melvil" Dewey (December 10, 1851 – December 26, 1931) was an American librarian and educator, inventor of the Dewey Decimal system of library classification, and a founder of the Lake Placid Club.
- Age: Dec. at 80 (1851-1931)
- Birthplace: Adams Center, New York
- Thomas Milburn Davis III (born January 5, 1949) is a lobbyist and former Republican member of the United States House of Representatives who represented Virginia's 11th congressional district in Northern Virginia. Davis was considering a run for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by five-term incumbent and fellow Republican John Warner in the 2008 election, but decided against it. He announced on January 30, 2008, that he would not seek reelection to an eighth term. Davis resigned from Congress on November 24, 2008.From 2008 to 2018, he was a director of federal government affairs at Deloitte. He is currently the rector (head of the Board of Visitors) of George Mason University and a trustee of its Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study. In January 2019, he began work as a partner in the law firm Holland and Knight.
- Age: 76
- Birthplace: Minot, North Dakota, USA
Galusha A. Grow
Businessperson, LawyerGalusha Aaron Grow (August 31, 1823 – March 31, 1907) was a prominent American politician, lawyer, writer and businessman, who served as 24th Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1861 to 1863. Elected as a Democrat in the 1850 congressional elections, he switched to the newly-organized Republican Party in the mid-1850s when the Democratic Party refused to prohibit the extension of slavery into western territories. Elected speaker for the 37th Congress, Grow presided over the House during the initial years of the American Civil War. During his tenure Congress passed the landmark Homestead Act of 1862, which he supported. Grow was defeated for reelection in 1862. For over a century he remained the last incumbent House speaker to be defeated, until Speaker Tom Foley lost his seat in 1994.After leaving office he continued to speak out on political issues, but did not serve in elective office. Then, 31 years after leaving office, Grow won an 1894 special election to succeed William Lilly. It remains one of the longest known interregnums between terms of service for a House member. Over the course of his career, Grow represented the people of three Pennsylvania congressional districts: the 12th district (1851–1853), 14th district (1853–1863), and Pennsylvania's at-large congressional district (1894–1903).- Age: Dec. at 84 (1822-1907)
- Birthplace: Ashford, Connecticut, USA
- William James Rolfe, Litt.D. (December 10, 1827 – July 7, 1910) was an American educator and Shakespearean scholar.Rolfe was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts on December 10, 1827. He attended Amherst College from 1845 through 1848, but left without graduating after three years due to financial hardship. Amherst, though, nonetheless later awarded him an honorary degree. Between 1852 and 1868, he served as headmaster of high schools at Dorchester, Lawrence, Salem, and Cambridge, Massachusetts. Early in his career, he edited selections from Ovid and Virgil and (in collaboration) the Cambridge Course of Physics (six volumes, 1867–68). Rolfe's Shakespearean work began with an American edition of George Lillie Craik's English of Shakespeare (3rd revised ed., 1864, LCCN 28-15228), which Crosby and Ainsworth published in 1867 (LCCN 03-26761). This led to his preparation for Harper & Brothers of a complete edition of Shakespeare – the Friendly Edition (forty volumes, 1870–83; new edition, 1903–07). Rolfe also edited a complete edition of Tennyson (twelve volumes, 1898) and verse by many of the other great English poets. He wrote a very useful Satchel Guide to Europe, revised annually for 35 years, and at least five other books: Shakespeare the Boy (1896) The Elementary Study of English (1896) Life of Shakespeare (1901) Life of William Shakespeare (1904) Shakesperean Proverbs (1908)William James Rolfe died on July 7, 1910, at the home of a son in Tisbury, Massachusetts. He was the father of John Carew Rolfe, Charles J. Rolfe and George Rolfe, who may all have been academicians.
- Age: Dec. at 83 (1827-1910)
- Birthplace: Newburyport, Massachusetts
- After developing a prolific and acclaimed career on the stage, actor Jeffrey Wright quietly worked his way into the public consciousness in chameleon-like fashion, playing a wide range of roles in features and on television. Though he spent several years honing his craft off-Broadway and in regional theater, Wright staked his reputation with a Tony Award-winning performance in the widely acclaimed play, "Angels in America: Perestroika," which he later reprised almost a decade later in the highly lauded HBO miniseries. In between the play and the six-part movie, Wright built a resume that included deft performances as such divergent historical figures as Martin Luther King, Jr. and Jean-Michel Basquiat, as well as an array of strong supporting roles in Woody Allen's "Celebrity" (1998) and "Shaft" (2000). After earning an Emmy for "Angels in America," Wright had finally broken through to the mainstream, earning meatier parts in "Syriana" (2005), "Casino Royale" (2006) and "W" (2008). The versatile actor continued to genre hop, jumping from the musical biopic "Cadillac Records" (2008) to the sci-fi thriller "Source Code" (2011) to the prescient political drama "The Ides of March" (2011) with impressive ease. During this period, he also gained mainstream success in the blockbuster "The Hunger Games" franchise, Pixar hit "The Good Dinosaur" (2015) and science-fiction cable drama "Westworld" (HBO 2016- ). While not the marquee draw of some of his contemporaries, Wright could always be counted upon to deliver a performance on par with the very best.
- Age: 59
- Birthplace: Washington, D.C., USA
- Carl Richard Woese (; July 15, 1928 – December 30, 2012) was an American microbiologist and biophysicist. Woese is famous for defining the Archaea (a new domain of life) in 1977 by phylogenetic taxonomy of 16S ribosomal RNA, a technique pioneered by Woese which revolutionized the discipline of microbiology. He was also the originator of the RNA world hypothesis in 1967, although not by that name. He held the Stanley O. Ikenberry Chair and was professor of microbiology at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.
- Age: Dec. at 84 (1928-2012)
- Birthplace: Syracuse, New York
- David Duane Freudenthal (; born October 12, 1950) is an American attorney, economist, and politician who served as the 31st Governor of Wyoming from 2003 to 2011.
- Age: 74
- Birthplace: Thermopolis, Wyoming, USA
Benjamin Kendall Emerson
GeologistBenjamin Kendall Emerson (December 20, 1843 – April 7, 1932) was an American geologist and author.- Age: Dec. at 88 (1843-1932)
- Birthplace: Nashua, New Hampshire
- Horace Maynard (August 30, 1814 – May 3, 1882) was an American educator, attorney, politician and diplomat active primarily in the second half of the 19th century. Initially elected to the House of Representatives from Tennessee's 2nd Congressional District in 1857, Maynard, an ardent Union supporter, became one of the few Southern congressmen to maintain his seat in the House during the Civil War. Toward the end of the war, Maynard served as Tennessee's attorney general under Governor Andrew Johnson, and later served as ambassador to Turkey under President Ulysses S. Grant and Postmaster General under President Rutherford B. Hayes.Maynard left his teaching position at East Tennessee College in the early 1840s to pursue a career in law, and quickly developed a reputation among his peers for his reasoning ability and biting sarcastic style. He spent much of his first two terms in Congress fighting to preserve the Union, and during the Civil War he consistently urged President Abraham Lincoln to send Union forces to free East Tennessee from its Confederate occupiers. Maynard returned to Congress after the war, but being a Republican in a Democrat-controlled state, he struggled in statewide elections.
- Age: Dec. at 67 (1814-1882)
- Birthplace: Westborough, Massachusetts, USA
- Jeffrey Alan Hoffman (born November 2, 1944) is an American former NASA astronaut and currently a professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT. Hoffman made five flights as a Space Shuttle astronaut, including the first mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope in 1993, when the orbiting telescope's flawed optical system was corrected. Trained as an astrophysicist, he also flew on the 1990 Spacelab Shuttle mission that featured the Astro-1 ultraviolet astronomical observatory in the Shuttle's payload bay. Over the course of his five missions he logged more than 1,211 hours and 21.5 million miles in space. He was also NASA's first Jewish male astronaut, and the second Jewish man in space after Soviet cosmonaut Boris Volynov.
- Age: 80
- Birthplace: New York City, New York
- Alexander Hamilton Bullock (March 2, 1816 – January 17, 1882) was an American lawyer, politician, and businessman from Massachusetts. First a Whig and then a Republican, he served three terms (1866–69) as the 26th Governor of Massachusetts. He was actively opposed to the expansion of slavery before the American Civil War, playing a major role in the New England Emigrant Aid Society, founded in 1855 to settle the Kansas Territory with abolitionists. He was for many years involved in the insurance industry in Worcester, where he also served one term as mayor. Bullock was educated as a lawyer, and married into the wealthy Hazard family of arms manufacturers, becoming one the state's wealthiest men. He served in the state legislature during the war, and was active in recruiting for the war effort. He was an advocate of temperance, and of the expansion of railroads in the state.
- Age: Dec. at 65 (1816-1882)
- Birthplace: Massachusetts, USA
- John Maurice Clark (1884–1963) was an American economist whose work combined the rigor of traditional economic analysis with an "institutionalist" attitude. Clark was a pioneer in developing the notion of workable competition and the theoretical basis of modern Keynesian economics, including the concept of the economic multiplier.
- Age: Dec. at 78 (1884-1963)
- Birthplace: Northampton, Massachusetts
- Stephen Cole Kleene ( KLAY-nee; January 5, 1909 – January 25, 1994) was an American mathematician. One of the students of Alonzo Church, Kleene, along with Rózsa Péter, Alan Turing, Emil Post, and others, is best known as a founder of the branch of mathematical logic known as recursion theory, which subsequently helped to provide the foundations of theoretical computer science. Kleene's work grounds the study of computable functions. A number of mathematical concepts are named after him: Kleene hierarchy, Kleene algebra, the Kleene star (Kleene closure), Kleene's recursion theorem and the Kleene fixpoint theorem. He also invented regular expressions, and made significant contributions to the foundations of mathematical intuitionism.
- Age: Dec. at 85 (1909-1994)
- Birthplace: Hartford, Connecticut
- William Hedgcock Webster (born March 6, 1924) is an American attorney and jurist serving as Chair of the Homeland Security Advisory Council since 2005. He was a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri and a United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit before becoming Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from 1978 to 1987 and Director of Central Intelligence (CIA) from 1987 to 1991—the only person to have held both of these positions.
- Age: 100
- Birthplace: St. Louis, Missouri, USA
- John Davis is a producer who is known for producing "The Equalizer," "Jungle Cruise," and "Harold and the Purple Crayon."
- Age: 70
- Birthplace: Denver, Colorado, USA
- Samuel Clarke Pomeroy (January 3, 1816 – August 27, 1891) was a United States senator from Kansas in the mid-19th century. He served in the United States Senate during the American Civil War. Pomeroy also served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives. A Republican, he also was the mayor of Atchison, Kansas, from 1858 to 1859, the second president of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, and the first president to oversee any of the railroad's construction and operations. Pomeroy succeeded Cyrus K. Holliday as president of the railroad on January 13, 1864.
- Age: Dec. at 75 (1816-1891)
- Birthplace: Southampton, Massachusetts, USA
- Edmund Strother Phelps (born July 26, 1933) is an American economist and the recipient of the 2006 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. Early in his career, he became known for his research at Yale's Cowles Foundation in the first half of the 1960s on the sources of economic growth. His demonstration of the golden rule savings rate, a concept related to work by John von Neumann, started a wave of research on how much a nation should spend on present consumption rather than save and invest for future generations. Phelps was at the University of Pennsylvania from 1966 to 1971 and moved to Columbia University in 1971. His most seminal work inserted a microfoundation, one featuring imperfect information, incomplete knowledge and expectations about wages and prices, to support a macroeconomic theory of employment determination and price-wage dynamics. That led to his development of the natural rate of unemployment: its existence and the mechanism governing its size. In the early 2000s, he turned to the study of business innovation. He is the founding director, since 2001, of Columbia's Center on Capitalism and Society. He has been McVickar Professor of Political Economy at Columbia since 1982.
- Age: 91
- Birthplace: Evanston, Illinois
Francis Amasa Walker
StatisticianFrancis Amasa Walker (July 2, 1840 – January 5, 1897) was an American economist, statistician, journalist, educator, academic administrator, and military officer in the Union Army. Walker was born into a prominent Boston family, the son of the economist and politician Amasa Walker, and he graduated from Amherst College at the age of 20. He received a commission to join the 15th Massachusetts Infantry and quickly rose through the ranks as an assistant adjutant general. Walker fought in the Peninsula Campaign and was wounded at the Battle of Chancellorsville but subsequently participated in the Bristoe, Overland, and Richmond-Petersburg Campaigns before being captured by Confederate forces and held at the infamous Libby Prison. In July 1866, he was nominated by President Andrew Johnson and confirmed by the United States Senate for the award of the honorary grade of brevet brigadier general United States Volunteers, to rank from March 13, 1865, when he was age 24.Following the war, Walker served on the editorial staff of the Springfield Republican before using his family and military connections to gain appointment as the Chief of the Bureau of Statistics from 1869 to 1870 and Superintendent of the 1870 census where he published an award-winning Statistical Atlas visualizing the data for the first time. He joined Yale University's Sheffield Scientific School as a professor of political economy in 1872 and rose to international prominence serving as a chief member of the 1876 Philadelphia Exposition, American representative to the 1878 International Monetary Conference, President of the American Statistical Association in 1882, and inaugural President of the American Economic Association in 1886, and vice president of the National Academy of Sciences in 1890. Walker also led the 1880 census which resulted in a twenty-two volume census, cementing Walker's reputation as the nation's preeminent statistician. As an economist, Walker debunked the wage-fund doctrine and engaged in a prominent scholarly debate with Henry George on land, rent, and taxes. Walker argued in support of bimetallism and although he was an opponent of the nascent socialist movement, he argued that obligations existed between the employer and the employed. He published his International Bimetallism at the height of the 1896 presidential election campaign in which economic issues were prominent. Walker was a prolific writer, authoring ten books on political economy and military history. In recognition of his contributions to economic theory, beginning in 1947, the American Economic Association recognized the lifetime achievement of an individual economist with a "Francis A. Walker Medal". Walker accepted the presidency of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1881, a position he held for fifteen years until his death. During his tenure, he placed the institution on more stable financial footing by aggressively fund-raising and securing grants from the Massachusetts government, implemented many curricular reforms, oversaw the launch of new academic programs, and expanded the size of the Boston campus, faculty, and student enrollments. MIT's Walker Memorial Hall, a former students' clubhouse and one of the original buildings on the Charles River campus, was dedicated to him in 1916.- Age: Dec. at 56 (1840-1897)
- Birthplace: Boston, Massachusetts
Uchimura Kanzō
Pacifist, WriterUchimura Kanzō (内村 鑑三, March 26, 1861 – March 28, 1930) was a Japanese author, Christian evangelist, and the founder of the Nonchurch Movement (Mukyōkai) of Christianity in the Meiji and Taishō period Japan. He is often considered to be the most well-known Japanese pre-World War II pacifist.- Age: Dec. at 69 (1861-1930)
- Birthplace: Tokyo, Japan
- Kimmie Weeks (born December 6, 1981) is a Liberian human rights activist.
- Age: 43
- Birthplace: Monrovia, Liberia
- John Cullen Murphy, Jr. (born September 1, 1952) is an American writer, journalist and editor who was managing editor of The Atlantic magazine from 1985–2006. He was born in New Rochelle, New York, in 1952, a son of illustrator and cartoonist John Cullen Murphy. He grew up in Greenwich, Connecticut. He was educated at Amherst College, from which he graduated with honors in medieval history in 1974. Murphy's first magazine job was in the paste-up department of Change, a magazine devoted to higher education. He became an editor of The Wilson Quarterly in 1977. From the mid 1970s until 2004 he worked with his father, John Cullen Murphy, as writer for the comic strip Prince Valiant, for which his father produced the artwork. He is also the author of The Word According to Eve: Women and the Bible in Ancient Times and Our Own (1999); Are We Rome? (2007), which compares the politics and culture of Ancient Rome with that of the contemporary United States; God's Jury: The Inquisition and the Making of the Modern World (2012); and Cartoon County: My Father and His Friends in the Golden Age of Make-Believe (2017), a history of the cartoonists and illustrators from the Connecticut School. He currently serves as editor at large for Vanity Fair and lives in Massachusetts. He is on the advisory board of the literary magazine The Common, based at Amherst College. He has three children: Jack, Anna, and Tim.
- Age: 72
- Birthplace: New Rochelle, New York
Elijah Coleman Bridgman
MissionaryElijah Coleman Bridgman (April 22, 1801 – November 2, 1861) was the first American Protestant Christian missionary appointed to China. He served with the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. One of the first few Protestant missionaries to arrive in China prior to the First Opium War, Bridgman was a pioneering scholar and cultural intermediary, and laid the foundations for American sinology. His work shaped the development of early Sino-American relations. He contributed immensely to America's knowledge and understanding of Chinese civilization through his extensive writings on the country's history and culture in publications such as The Chinese Repository — the world's first major journal of sinology, which he began and edited. Bridgman became America's first "China expert." Among his other works was the first Chinese language history of the United States: "Short Account of the United States of America" (or "Meilike Heshengguo Zhilüe") and "The East-West Monthly Examiner" (or "Dong Hsi Yang Kao Meiyue Tongji Zhuan"). As a translator he contributed greatly to the formulation of America’s first treaty with the Chinese government under the Qing Dynasty.- Age: Dec. at 60 (1801-1861)
- Birthplace: Belchertown, Massachusetts
William Bullock Clark
GeologistFor other people named William Clark, see William Clark (disambiguation) For the Lewis and Clark Expedition, see Lewis and Clark ExpeditionWilliam Bullock Clark, Ph. D., LL.D (December 15, 1860 – July 27, 1917), was an American geologist.He was born at Brattleboro, Vermont, and educated at Amherst College and in Munich. In 1888 he became connected with the United States Geological Survey. William Bullock Clark was a professor of geology at Johns Hopkins University (1887–1917) who led the department through a period of great growth, during which it awarded forty-six PhDs, twice as many as any other university. One of these was the first PhD in meteorology ever earned in the United States awarded to Oliver Lanard Fassig. In addition to this, Clark founded and directed both the Maryland State Weather Service (founded in 1891) and the Maryland Geological Survey (1896). The State Weather Service was a cooperative venture between Hopkins, the Maryland Agricultural College [now University of Maryland], and the United States Weather Bureau, while the Geological Survey was also a joint effort between the State of Maryland, Hopkins, and the Maryland Agricultural College. In both instances, Johns Hopkins provided facilities and funding for their ongoing support. Clark also served as the State's representative when the Mason-Dixon line was resurveyed in 1900. For his work at the Johns Hopkins University, one of the dormitories in the Alumni Memorial Residences ("AMRs") has been named after him. The building Clark Hall (also at The Johns Hopkins University), however, is not named after him (Clark Hall is named after donor A. James Clark). Clark died in 1917 from a stroke at the age of 57.- Age: Dec. at 56 (1860-1917)
- Birthplace: Brattleboro, Vermont
- Henry Ward Beecher (June 24, 1813 – March 8, 1887) was an American Congregationalist clergyman, social reformer, and speaker, known for his support of the abolition of slavery, his emphasis on God's love, and his 1875 adultery trial (see below). Henry Ward Beecher was the son of Lyman Beecher, a Calvinist minister who became one of the best-known evangelists of his era. Several of his brothers and sisters became well-known educators and activists, most notably Harriet Beecher Stowe, who achieved worldwide fame with her abolitionist novel Uncle Tom's Cabin. Henry Ward Beecher graduated from Amherst College in 1834 and Lane Theological Seminary in 1837 before serving as a minister in Indianapolis and Lawrenceburg, Indiana. In 1847, Beecher became the first pastor of the Plymouth Church in Brooklyn, New York. He soon acquired fame on the lecture circuit for his novel oratorical style in which he employed humor, dialect, and slang. Over the course of his ministry, he developed a theology emphasizing God's love above all else. He also grew interested in social reform, particularly the abolitionist movement. In the years leading up to the Civil War, he raised money to purchase slaves from captivity and to send rifles—nicknamed "Beecher's Bibles"—to abolitionists fighting in Kansas and Nebraska. He toured Europe during the Civil War speaking in support of the Union. After the war, Beecher supported social reform causes such as women's suffrage and temperance. He also championed Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, stating that it was not incompatible with Christian beliefs. He was widely rumored to be an adulterer, and the Woodhull & Claflin's Weekly published a story about his affair with Elizabeth Tilton in 1872, the wife of his former associate Theodore Tilton. In 1874, Tilton filed adultery charges against him for the affair. The subsequent trial resulted in a hung jury and was one of the most widely reported trials of the century. Beecher's long career in the public spotlight led biographer Debby Applegate to call her biography of him The Most Famous Man in America.
- Age: Dec. at 73 (1813-1887)
- Birthplace: Litchfield, Connecticut
- Henry Way Kendall (December 9, 1926 – February 15, 1999) was an American particle physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1990 jointly with Jerome Isaac Friedman and Richard E. Taylor "for their pioneering investigations concerning deep inelastic scattering of electrons on protons and bound neutrons, which have been of essential importance for the development of the quark model in particle physics."
- Age: Dec. at 72 (1926-1999)
- Birthplace: Boston, Massachusetts
- John Roosevelt Boettiger (born March 30, 1939, in Seattle, Washington) is a retired professor of developmental and clinical psychology, and the son of Anna Roosevelt Boettiger and her second husband, Clarence John Boettiger. He is a grandson of U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt. He lives in northern California.
- Age: 85
- Birthplace: Seattle, Washington
- Richard Purdy Wilbur (March 1, 1921 – October 14, 2017) was an American poet and literary translator. One of the foremost poets of his generation, Wilbur's work, composed primarily in traditional forms, was marked by its wit, charm, and gentlemanly elegance. He was appointed the second Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1987 and received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry twice, in 1957 and 1989.
- Age: 103
- Birthplace: New York City, New York
- Age: 75
- Harlan Coben's books tended to center on a misunderstanding or misinterpretation that ended badly for someone. The author, who was born in Newark, New Jersey on Jan. 4, 1962, got the urge to write during his senior year at Amherst College, where he graduated in 1984 with a degree in Political Science. (In the "Small World" department, he was in the same fraternity as fellow mega-bestselling author Dan Brown.) After he graduated, Coben worked in the travel industry for a bit but then began writing thrillers. He had two novels published in short order: Play Dead (1990) and Miracle Cure (1991). He then began writing his most popular series of books, featuring Myron Bolitar, a sports agent who often found himself trying to solve mysteries. Bolitar was often helped by his extremely rich friend Windsor Lockwood III, who had a vigilante streak that would make Batman jealous. After several Bolitar novels, he continued with a number of several stand-alone thrillers, including Tell No One, which was made into a film of the same name directed by Guillaume Canet and produced by Luc Besson. Coben then began alternating between new entries in the Myron Bolitar series (plus a young adult series starring Bolitar's headstrong nephew Mickey) and stand-alone thrillers, all of which did very well on the best seller lists.
- Age: 63
- Birthplace: Newark, New Jersey, USA
- For the South Carolina politician see James Merrill (politician).James Ingram Merrill (March 3, 1926 – February 6, 1995) was an American poet. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1977 for Divine Comedies. His poetry falls into two distinct bodies of work: the polished and formalist lyric poetry of his early career, and the epic narrative of occult communication with spirits and angels, titled The Changing Light at Sandover (published in three volumes from 1976 to 1980), which dominated his later career. Although most of his published work was poetry, he also wrote essays, fiction, and plays.
- Age: Dec. at 68 (1926-1995)
- Birthplace: New York City, USA, New York
Charles Baker Adams
GeologistCharles Baker Adams (January 11, 1814 – January 19, 1853) was an American educator and naturalist.- Age: Dec. at 39 (1814-1853)
- Birthplace: Dorchester, Boston, Massachusetts
Richard Glenn Gettell
Richard Glenn Gettell (March 3, 1912 – August 14, 1988) was an American educator who served as the 13th President of Mount Holyoke College from 1957 to 1968. His mother, Nelene Groff Gettell (née Knapp), taught at Amherst High School from 1921-1923 ; the 1923 Yearbook was dedicated to her . His father was college football coach and political scientist Raymond G. Gettell. The family moved to Berkeley, California in 1923 after Raymond was appointed head of the political science department at the University of California, which he held until his death. Gettell served in the Merchant Marines, then attended Deerfield Academy. He received his B.A. from Amherst in 1933, where he was president of its Alpha Delta Phi chapter, and his Ph.D. from the University of California in 1940. Before his appointment to Mount Holyoke, Gettell taught at Harvard University, Wellesley College, Yale University, and Columbia University.- Age: Dec. at 75 (1912-1988)
- Birthplace: Hartford, Connecticut
- A tall, dark-haired, handsome and magnetic performer, Hamish Linklater worked extensively on stage, convincingly portraying a vast array of characters before making his first entries into film and television in 2000. The son of esteemed dramatic vocal trainer Kristin Linklater, the young performer was raised among the theater community, taking supporting roles in Shakespeare & Company productions beginning from age nine and making his professional starring debut playing Tom Sawyer in a 1996 production of "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" at Kentucky's Actors Theatre of Louisville. He went on to amass credits in The Acting Company's 1998 productions of "Romeo and Juliet" and "Love's Fire," an anthology of plays staged in New York and London. For the remainder of 1998, Linklater could be seen on the West Coast, portraying an opportunistic gravedigger in "Hydriotaphia or The Death of Dr. Browne" for the Berkeley Repertory Group. After a stint Off-Broadway in the dysfunctional family portrait "The Chemistry of Change" (1999), Linklater returned to California, where he had featured roles in the Shakespeare classics "Measure for Measure" and "A Midsummer Night's Dream," both directed by Peter Hall at Los Angeles' Ahmanson Theater. The 1999-2000 season saw the actor take on the role of Laertes in the Bard's "Hamlet" in a New York Shakespeare Festival production starring Liev Schreiber. Linklater stood out in this production, putting a decidedly sexually charged spin on his portrayal of the doomed avenger.
- Age: 48
- Birthplace: Great Barrington, Massachusetts, USA
- Herbert Baxter Adams (April 16, 1850 – July 30, 1901) was an American educator and historian.
- Age: Dec. at 51 (1850-1901)
- Birthplace: Shutesbury, Massachusetts
- Samuel I. "Sandy" Rosenberg (born May 18, 1950) is an American politician who represents the 41st legislative district in the Maryland House of Delegates. Delegate Rosenberg is the House Chair of the Joint Committee on Administrative, Executive, and Legislative Review and has been in the General Assembly since 1983.
- Age: 74
- Birthplace: Baltimore, Maryland
- Mark joined NEA as a Consultant in 1995 and became a General Partner in 1996. Mark focuses on information technology investments. Present NEA portfolio companies include Alien Technology, Glacier Bay, Interlace Systems, ISGN Technologies, NewPath Ventures LLC, newScale, ProStor Systems, TestMart, Think3, and TiVo (NASDAQ: TIVO). Previous board memberships include, Growth Networks (acquired by Cisco Systems), Hyperion Solutions (NASDAQ: HYSL), iManage (acquired by Interwoven), Magma Design Automation (NASDAQ: LAVA), Silicon Graphics (NASDAQ: SGI), Silicon Spice (acquired by Broadcom), and Trading Dynamics (acquired by Ariba). From April 1994 to December 1995, Mark served as President and Chief Executive Officer and then as Chairman of Viewstar Corporation. From 1985 to 1994, he was an executive with Silicon Graphics, Vice Chairman (1992-1994) responsible for worldwide field operations, Executive Vice President (1988-1991) responsible for the product divisions, and Vice President of Finance and Administration and Chief Financial Officer (1985-1987). Prior to this, Mark was Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Sonoma Vineyards and a partner at Arthur Young Company. He is a Certified Public Accountant in California. Mark received a Masters in Business Administration (with distinction) from the Harvard University Graduate School of Business and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics (cum laude) from Amherst College. He is also a member of the board of Northern California Public Broadcasting (KQED).
Arthur Sherburne Hardy
For the premier of Ontario 1896–1899, see Arthur Sturgis Hardy.Arthur Sherburne Hardy or Arthur S. Hardy (August 13, 1847 – March 14, 1930) was an American engineer, educator, editor, diplomat, novelist, and poet.- Age: Dec. at 82 (1847-1930)
- Birthplace: Andover, Massachusetts
- John Jay McCloy (March 31, 1895 – March 11, 1989) was an American lawyer, diplomat, banker, and a presidential advisor. He served as Assistant Secretary of War during World War II under Henry Stimson, helping deal with issues such as German sabotage, political tensions in the North Africa Campaign, and opposing the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. After the war, he served as the president of the World Bank, U.S. High Commissioner for Germany, chairman of Chase Manhattan Bank, chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations, a member of the Warren Commission, and a prominent United States adviser to all presidents from Franklin D. Roosevelt to Ronald Reagan. Today, he is best remembered as a member of the foreign policy establishment group of elders called "The Wise Men", a group of statesmen marked by nonpartisanship, pragmatic internationalism, and aversion to ideological fervor.
- Age: Dec. at 93 (1895-1989)
- Birthplace: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
- James Stephen Ewing () (December 25, 1866, Pittsburgh – May 16, 1943, New York City) was an American pathologist. He was the first Professor of pathology at Cornell University and became famous with the discovery of a form of malignant bone tumor that later became known as Ewing's sarcoma.
- Age: Dec. at 76 (1866-1943)
- Birthplace: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
- James Richard Steinman (born November 1, 1947) is an American composer, lyricist, record producer, and playwright. He has also worked as an arranger, pianist and singer. His work has included songs in the adult contemporary, rock and roll, dance, pop, musical theater and film score genres. Beginning his career in musical theater, Steinman's most notable work in the area includes lyrics for Whistle Down the Wind and music for Tanz der Vampire. His work includes such albums as Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell and Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell, and producing albums for Bonnie Tyler. His most successful chart singles include Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart", Air Supply's "Making Love Out of Nothing at All", Meat Loaf's "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)", the Sisters of Mercy's "This Corrosion" and "More", Barry Manilow's "Read 'Em and Weep", Celine Dion's cover of "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" (originally released by Steinman's project Pandora's Box) and Boyzone's "No Matter What" (as the group's first and only single to be popular and charted in the US). The album Bad for Good was released in his own name in 1981.
- Age: 77
- Birthplace: New York City, USA, New York
Robert M. Morgenthau
Politician, LawyerRobert Morris Morgenthau ( MORG-ən-thaw; July 31, 1919 – July 21, 2019) was an American lawyer. From 1975 until his retirement in 2009, he was the District Attorney for New York County (the borough of Manhattan), having previously served as United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York throughout much of the 1960s on the appointment of John F. Kennedy. At retirement, Morgenthau was the longest-serving district attorney in the history of the State of New York, although William V. Grady of Dutchess County surpassed this record at the midway point of his ninth term on January 1, 2018.- Age: 105
- Birthplace: New York City, New York
James Furman Kemp
GeologistJames Furman Kemp, Sc.D., LL.D (August 14, 1859 – November 17, 1926) was an American geologist.- Age: Dec. at 67 (1859-1926)
- Birthplace: New York City, New York
- Stansfield Turner (December 1, 1923 – January 18, 2018) was an admiral in the United States Navy who served as President of the Naval War College (1972–1974), commander of the United States Second Fleet (1974–1975), Supreme Allied Commander NATO Southern Europe (1975–1977), and was Director of Central Intelligence (1977–1981) under the Carter administration. A graduate of Oxford and the Naval Academy, Turner served for more than 30 years in the Navy, commanding warships, a carrier group, and NATO's military forces in southern Europe, among other commands. Turner was appointed to lead the CIA by Jimmy Carter in 1977 and undertook a series of controversial reforms, including downsizing the Agency's clandestine arm and emphasizing technical intelligence collection over human intelligence. He also oversaw the CIA's responses to the Iranian Revolution and the Soviet–Afghan War. After leaving the CIA in 1981, Turner entered the private sector, authored several books, and displayed criticism of subsequent administrations, notably chastising the Bush administration's handling of the Iraq War. He was a senior research scholar at the University of Maryland, College Park's School of Public Policy.
- Age: 101
- Birthplace: Highland Park, Illinois, USA
- John Bates Clark (January 26, 1847 – March 21, 1938) was an American neoclassical economist. He was one of the pioneers of the marginalist revolution and opponent to the Institutionalist school of economics, and spent most of his career as professor at Columbia University.
- Age: Dec. at 91 (1847-1938)
- Birthplace: Providence, Rhode Island
Austin Flint
Physician, Science writerAustin Flint I (October 20, 1812 – March 13, 1886) was an American physician. He was a founder of Buffalo Medical College, precursor to The State University of New York at Buffalo. He served as president of the American Medical Association.- Age: Dec. at 73 (1812-1886)
- Birthplace: Petersham, Massachusetts
- Novelist Dan Brown became one of the best-selling authors in history with an ingeniously crafted mystery-thriller. Initially an aspiring songwriter and pianist, Brown recorded several music albums in the early 1990s. Later inspired by the potboilers of Robert Ludlum, Brown debuted with 1998's techno-thriller Digital Fortress. He introduced the character of symbology professor Robert Langdon in the Vatican-set thriller Angels & Demons in 2000, although it and the following year's Deception Point met with only moderate sales. In 2003, Brown returned to Langdon and the themes of secret societies, ancient mysteries and malevolent conspiracies with The Da Vinci Code. This time, however, the mix of religious myth-busting, art history and code-breaking struck a chord with readers across the globe, making the book a cultural phenomenon and Brown an overnight celebrity author. Soon adapted into a feature film, "The Da Vinci Code" (2006) starred Tom Hanks as Langdon, and audiences flocked to the theaters just as they had to the bookstores. He returned to bookshelves and cinemas three years later with the novel The Lost Symbol and the movie sequel "Angels & Demons" (2009), both of which performed nearly as admirably as their respective predecessors. Continuing with the dozen or so Langdon adventures he had planned, Brown published Inferno in 2013. Without a doubt, Brown had become one of the most influential popular writers of the early 21st century.
- Age: 60
- Birthplace: Exeter, New Hampshire, USA
All the Robert Langdon Books, Ranked Best to WorstSee all
- 1Angels & Demons110 Votes
- 2The Da Vinci Code103 Votes
- 3Inferno71 Votes
Calvin Plimpton
PhysicianCalvin Hastings Plimpton (7 October 1918 – 30 January 2007) was an American physician and educator, who served as president of Amherst College and American University of Beirut. He is known for appointing a commission in 1970 whose findings resulted in the admission of women to Amherst in 1975. Plimpton was the son of George Arthur Plimpton, who was chairman of the Amherst board of trustees from 1906 to 1936. His mother was Fanny "Anne" Hastings, and through her he was descended from Thomas Hastings, who came from the East Anglia region of England to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1634. Plimpton attended Phillips Exeter Academy and received a bachelor's degree from Amherst, where he was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity. He received master's and M.D. degrees from Harvard University and a Doctor of Medical Science degree from Columbia University. He served in the U.S. Army as a captain during World War II. He later taught at Columbia. Plimpton was president of Amherst from 1960 to 1971 (Plimpton House, now a dormitory, was named in his honour), president of Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn, N.Y., a division of the State University of New York, from 1971 to 1979 and president of American University of Beirut from 1984 to 1987.- Age: Dec. at 88 (1918-2007)
- Birthplace: Boston, Massachusetts
- David Ferry is an American poet, translator, and educator. He has published eight collections of his poetry and a volume of literary criticism. He won the National Book Award for Poetry for his 2012 collection Bewilderment: New Poems and Translations.
- Age: 100
- Birthplace: Orange, New Jersey
- Addison Brown (February 21, 1830 – April 9, 1913) was a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York and a botanist.
- Age: Dec. at 83 (1830-1913)
- Birthplace: West Newbury, Massachusetts
- John C. "Jack" Coffee, Jr. (born November 15, 1944) is the Adolf A. Berle Professor of Law at Columbia Law School and director of the Center on Corporate Governance at Columbia University Law School.
- Age: 80
- Birthplace: Albany, New York
George B. Churchill
George Bosworth Churchill (October 24, 1866 – July 1, 1925) was an American politician, a Representative from Massachusetts, and an academic and editor.- Age: Dec. at 58 (1866-1925)
- Birthplace: Worcester, Massachusetts, USA
Peter Berek
Peter Berek is a Professor of English and Shakespearean scholar at Amherst College. He also served as the dean of faculty and provost of Mount Holyoke College from 1990–1998. He was the interim president of Mount Holyoke College in Fall 1995.- Birthplace: New York City, New York
- Frank Johnson Goodnow (January 18, 1859 – November 15, 1939) was an American educator and legal scholar, born in Brooklyn, New York.
- Age: Dec. at 80 (1859-1939)
- Birthplace: New York City, New York
William Smith Clark
William Smith Clark (July 31, 1826 – March 9, 1886) was an American professor of chemistry, botany and zoology, a colonel during the American Civil War, and a leader in agricultural education. Raised and schooled in Easthampton, Massachusetts, Clark spent most of his adult life in Amherst, Massachusetts. He graduated from Amherst College in 1848 and obtained a doctorate in chemistry from Georgia Augusta University in Göttingen in 1852. He then served as professor of chemistry at Amherst College from 1852 to 1867. During the Civil War, he was granted leave from Amherst to serve with the 21st Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, eventually achieving the rank of colonel and the command of that unit.In 1867, Clark became the third president of the Massachusetts Agricultural College (MAC), now the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He was the first to appoint a faculty and admit a class of students. Although initially successful, MAC was criticized by politicians and newspaper editors who felt it was a waste of funding in a state that was growing increasingly industrial. Farmers of western Massachusetts were slow to support the college. Despite these obstacles, Clark's success in organizing an innovative academic institution earned him international attention. Japanese officials, striving to achieve rapid modernization of that country in the wake of the Meiji Restoration, were especially intrigued by Clark's work. In 1876, the Japanese government hired Clark as a foreign advisor to establish the Sapporo Agricultural College (SAC), now Hokkaido University. During his eight months in Sapporo, Clark successfully organized SAC, had a significant impact on the scientific and economic development of the island of Hokkaido, and made a lasting imprint on Japanese culture. Clark's visage overlooks Sapporo from several statues and his parting words to his Japanese students, "Boys, be ambitious!"(「少年よ大志を抱け Shōnen yo, taishi o idake」) have become a nationally known motto in Japan.After resigning the presidency of MAC in 1879, Clark left academia to become the president of a mining company, Clark & Bothwell. The company, in operation from 1881 to 1882, purchased several silver mines, mostly in Utah and California. Clark's partner, John R. Bothwell, proved to be corrupt and the company quickly folded, destroying Clark's reputation, his own finances and the fortunes of many of his friends and family. The subsequent scandal ruined Clark's health. He died of heart disease at his home in Amherst in 1886.- Age: Dec. at 59 (1826-1886)
- Birthplace: Ashfield, Massachusetts, USA
- Rob Brown is an American actor. He is known for his roles in the films Finding Forrester (2000), Coach Carter (2005), Take the Lead (2006), and The Express: The Ernie Davis Story (2008), and for starring in the HBO series Treme (2010–13). He is currently cast in the NBC drama Blindspot as FBI Agent Edgar Reade.
- Age: 40
- Birthplace: Harlem, New York, USA
- Harold Eliot Varmus (born December 18, 1939) is an American Nobel Prize-winning scientist who was director of the National Institutes of Health from 1993 to 1999 and the 14th Director of the National Cancer Institute from 2010 to 2015, a post to which he was appointed by President Barack Obama. He was a co-recipient (along with J. Michael Bishop) of the 1989 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovery of the cellular origin of retroviral oncogenes. He is currently the Lewis Thomas University Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine and a Senior Associate at the New York Genome Center.
- Age: 85
- Birthplace: USA, New York, Oceanside
- Benjamin Morgan Palmer (January 25, 1818 – May 25, 1902), an orator and Presbyterian theologian, was the first moderator of the Presbyterian Church in the Confederate States of America. As pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of New Orleans, his Thanksgiving sermon in 1860 had a great influence in leading Louisiana to join the Confederate States of America. After 1865 he was minister in the Presbyterian Church in the United States. Palmer was born in Charleston, South Carolina, to Edward Palmer and the former Sarah Bunce. He was educated at Amherst College from 1833 to 1834. He taught school for two years and then attended the University of Georgia from which he graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1838. At Georgia he was a member of the Phi Kappa Literary Society. From 1839 to 1841 he attended the Presbyterian-affiliated Columbia Theological Seminary, at that time located in South Carolina. In 1841 he married the former Mary Augusta McConnell of Columbia. In 1852 he received the doctor of divinity degree from Oglethorpe University near Milledgeville, Georgia. In 1870 he received the LL.D. degree from Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri. He pastored the First Presbyterian Church of Savannah, Georgia, from 1841 to 1842. He was called to First Presbyterian in Columbia, the South Carolina capital, a post he held from 1843 to 1855. He also taught in the Columbia Seminary (his alma mater) from 1853 to 1856 while he was pastoring. In 1856, he accepted the pastorate of First Presbyterian Church of New Orleans, his terminal position which he held for forty-six years. He and his family lived at 1415 Prytania Street, in the lower Garden District neighborhood of New Orleans, and the mansion has been authentically restored and turned into part of the Creole Gardens Hotel. In his personal copy of Rev. Moses Stuart's Hebrews Commentary, seminary student Wallace H. Stratton identifies "B. M. Palmer DD. Didactic" as a faculty member of the Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Columbia, S. C., in the year 1863. In his Thanksgiving sermon just days after the election of Abraham Lincoln as U.S. president, Palmer defended slavery and endorsed secession, saying that it was the South's "providential trust" to preserve the institution of slavery. This was only days before South Carolina became the first of the eleven states to secede from the Union. When federal troops invaded New Orleans and imposed military rule under General Benjamin Butler of Massachusetts, Palmer sent his wife and children to her father's plantation in South Carolina. He spent the remainder of the war preaching primarily to Confederate soldiers. Palmer's opposition on moral grounds to the Louisiana Lottery, operated by former Confederate General P. G. T. Beauregard, helped to doom that institution as a means of raising state revenues. He preached the opening sermon and was elected the first moderator of his denomination on December 4, 1861. When the Synod of Louisiana was formed in 1901, a year before his death, he was elected its first moderator.Palmer's writings include a biography of Presbyterian minister and Columbia Seminary theologian James Henley Thornwell (1812–1862). Palmer also wrote volumes of sermons and theological treatises, including Theology of Prayer, The Broken Home, or Lessons in Sorrow, and Formation of Character. Palmer's wife died in his arms on November 13, 1888, apparently from gastritis. Palmer said that he never recovered from her death. Palmer was struck by a streetcar in New Orleans on May 5, 1902, and died twenty days later. The Palmers' remains are entombed in the city's Metairie Cemetery.One of the Palmer daughters married John Caldwell, the curator of Tulane University in New Orleans. Palmer himself established the Southwest Presbyterian Seminary (now Rhodes College). Palmer Hall at Rhodes College was named after him but renamed to Southwestern Hall on April 12, 2019 by the Rhodes College Board of Trustees after recommendations by the Palmer Hall Discernment committee review found that Palmer "...the principal legacy of Benjamin Palmer, which was found to be fundamentally at odds with our college Vision.". Palmer's papers are in several locations, including Louisiana State University and Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia. An orphanage named for Palmer was started in 1895 in Columbus, Mississippi; Palmer Home for Children is "a Christ-centered home, Where Hope Still Grows." Palmer Avenue and Palmer Park in uptown New Orleans were both named for him.In its obituary of Palmer, the Christian publication The Interior reflected as follows: Dr. Palmer served God and his generation as a symbol of the immutability of the great essentials of our religion. His faithful witness to Jesus Christ in the word of his preaching and the example of his ministry gave him such power in New Orleans as few of the Lord's ambassadors have ever wielded in any age of the church. By all consent he was acknowledged for years to be the most influential man in that city, and he was so brave and outspoken that he made for righteousness not only in the private lives of men but in the civic life of the community.
- Age: Dec. at 84 (1818-1902)
- Birthplace: Charleston, South Carolina
Robert A. Parker
PhysicistRobert Allan Ridley Parker (born December 14, 1936) is an American physicist and astronomer, former Director of the NASA Management Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and a retired NASA astronaut. He was a Mission Specialist on two Space Shuttle missions, STS-9 and STS-35. He has logged over 3,500 hours flying time in jet aircraft and 463 hours in space.- Age: 88
- Birthplace: New York City, New York
- Chris Bohjalian (Armenian: Քրիս Պոհճալեան), is an American novelist and the author of 20 novels, including such bestsellers as Midwives, The Sandcastle Girls and The Guest Room. His work has been published in over 30 languages and three times has been adapted into films.
- Age: 64
- Birthplace: White Plains, New York
Dwight Morrow
LawyerDwight Whitney Morrow (January 11, 1873 – October 5, 1931) was an American businessman, diplomat, and politician of Scots-Irish descent, best known as the U.S. ambassador who improved U.S.-Mexican relations, mediating the religious conflict in Mexico known as the Cristero rebellion (1926–29), but also contributing to an easing of conflict between the two countries over oil. The Morrow Mission to Mexico was an "important step in the 'retreat from imperialism'". He was the father of Anne Morrow and father-in-law of Charles A. Lindbergh.- Age: Dec. at 58 (1873-1931)
- Birthplace: Huntington, West Virginia, USA
John C. Caldwell
Diplomat, LawyerJohn Curtis Caldwell (April 17, 1833 – August 31, 1912) was a teacher, a Union general in the American Civil War, and an American diplomat.- Age: Dec. at 79 (1833-1912)
- Birthplace: Lowell, Vermont
Nate Dickinson
WriterNathaniel "Nate" Rogers Dickinson (January 14, 1932 – June 15, 2011) was an American wildlife biologist, and author of Common Sense Wildlife Management: Discourses on Personal Experiences, was published in 1993 by Settle Hill Publishing.- Age: Dec. at 78 (1932-2011)
- Birthplace: New York City, New York
John W. Dower
Historian, Professor, AuthorJohn W. Dower (born June 21, 1938 in Providence, Rhode Island) is an American author and historian. His 1999 book Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II won the U.S. National Book Award for Nonfiction, the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction, the Bancroft Prize, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the Mark Lynton History Prize, and the John K. Fairbank Prize of the American Historical Association.Dower earned a bachelor's degree in American Studies from Amherst College in 1959, and a Ph.D. in History and Far Eastern Languages from Harvard University in 1972, where he studied under Albert M. Craig. He expanded his doctoral dissertation, a biography of former Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida, into the book Empire and Aftermath. His other books include a selection of writings by E. Herbert Norman and a study of mutual images during World War II entitled War Without Mercy. Dower was the executive producer of the Academy Award-nominated documentary Hellfire: A Journey from Hiroshima, and was a member of the Committee of Concerned Asian Scholars, sitting on the editorial board of its journal with Noam Chomsky, and Herbert Bix. He has taught at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the University of California, San Diego, and is a Ford International Professor of History, Emeritus, at MIT.- Age: 86
- Birthplace: USA, Providence, Rhode Island
- Lucius Fayette Clark Garvin (November 13, 1841 – October 2, 1922) was the 48th Governor of Rhode Island from 1903 to 1905.
- Age: Dec. at 80 (1841-1922)
- Birthplace: Knoxville, Tennessee, USA
Walter A. McDougall
Historian, Author, WriterWalter Allen McDougall (born December 3, 1946 in Washington, D.C.) is an American historian, currently a professor of history and the Alloy-Ansin Professor of International Relations at the University of Pennsylvania.McDougall graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Amherst College before completing his Ph.D. degree from the University of Chicago in 1974. He was a visiting scholar at the Hoover Institution, and a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and the National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution. He also received an Earhart Foundation Fellowship. He was a professor at the University of California, Berkeley for 13 years before moving to Pennsylvania. He is a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute and also an editor of Orbis, quarterly journal of world affairs published by the institute.- Age: 79
- William Rutherford Mead was an American architect who was the "Center of the Office" of McKim, Mead, and White, a noted Gilded Age architectural firm. The firm's other two founding partners were Charles Follen McKim, and Stanford White.
- Age: Dec. at 81 (1846-1928)
- Birthplace: Brattleboro, Vermont
- Jonatha Brooke (born January 23, 1964) is an American folk rock singer-songwriter and guitarist from Massachusetts. Her music merges elements of folk, rock and pop, often with poignant lyrics and complex harmonies. She has been a performer, writer, and artist since the late 1980s, and her songs have been used in television shows and movies.
- Age: 61
- Birthplace: USA, Illinois
Tad Mosel
Screenwriter, PlaywrightTad Mosel (May 1, 1922 – August 24, 2008) was an American playwright and one of the leading dramatists of hour-long teleplay genre for live television during the 1950s. He received the 1961 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play All the Way Home.- Age: Dec. at 86 (1922-2008)
- Birthplace: Steubenville, Ohio
- Alexander MacDonald "Sandy" Keith (born November 22, 1928) is a Minnesota lawyer who served as a state senator, the 37th Lieutenant Governor, and an associate justice and chief justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court.
- Age: 96
- Birthplace: Rochester, Minnesota, USA
Charles Hallock
WriterCharles Hallock (March 13, 1834 – December 2, 1917) was an American author and publisher born in New York City to Gerard Hallock and Elizabeth Allen. On September 10, 1855 he married Amelia J. Wardell. He was educated at Yale, 1850–51, and Amherst College. He was assistant editor of the New Haven Register, 1854–56; proprietor and associate editor of the New York Journal of Commerce, of which his father was editor, 1856-62. He was founder and publisher, from 1873–80, of Forest and Stream, which was later incorporated into its main competitor Field and Stream. He experimented in Sunflower cultivation, using the seed for oil; in sheep raising on Indian reservations; in establishing a reservation for sportsmen in Minnesota; in the development of Alaska and Florida, and of special industries in North Carolina; and in various other sanitary and economic schemes. He originated the code of uniform game laws and incorporated with Fayette S. Giles and others the first great American game preserve at Blooming Grove, Pike County, Pennsylvania Hallock, Minnesota was named after him.- Age: Dec. at 83 (1834-1917)
- Birthplace: New York City, New York
Martin Russell Thayer
Judge, Politician, LawyerMartin Russell Thayer (January 27, 1819 – October 14, 1906) was a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives from the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. His grandnephew was John Borland Thayer, who died on the sinking of the RMS Titanic.- Age: Dec. at 87 (1819-1906)
- Caleb Rodney Layton (September 8, 1851 – November 11, 1930) was an American physician and politician, from Georgetown, in Sussex County, Delaware. He was a member of the Republican Party, who served two terms as U. S. Representative from Delaware.
- Age: Dec. at 79 (1851-1930)
- Birthplace: Frankford, Delaware, USA
William S. McFeely
Historian, Professor, AuthorWilliam Shield McFeely (born September 25, 1930) is an American historian. He retired as the Abraham Baldwin Professor of the Humanities emeritus at the University of Georgia in 1997, and has been affiliated with Harvard University since 2006. McFeely received his B.A. from Amherst College in 1952, and Ph.D. in American Studies from Yale University in 1966. He studied there with, among others, C. Vann Woodward, whose book The Strange Career of Jim Crow was a staple of the Civil Rights Movement. Like Woodward, he sought to employ history in the service of civil rights. His dissertation, later the 1968 book Yankee Stepfather, explored the ill-fated Freedmen's Bureau which was created to help ex-slaves after the Civil War. While at Yale, during the tumultuous years of the American Civil Rights Movement and Black Power movements, he was instrumental in creating the African-American studies program at a time when such programs were still controversial. He taught for 16 years at Mount Holyoke College before joining the University of Georgia in 1986 as the Constance E. Smith Fellow. McFeely won the 1982 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography for his 1981 biography of Ulysses S. Grant, which portrayed the general and president in a harsh light. He concluded that Grant "Did not rise above limited talents or inspire others to do so in ways that make his administration a credit to American politics."McFeely retired in 1997. He was a fellow at Harvard's Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study during the 2006-2007 academic year, where he studied Henry Adams and his wife Clover Adams, and Clarence King and his wife Ada Copeland King. He is a visiting scholar and associate member of Harvard's Afro-American Studies Department and an associate of their Humanities Center.- Age: 94
- Birthplace: New York City, New York
Charles L. Robinson
PhysicianCharles Lawrence Robinson (July 21, 1818 – August 17, 1894) was the first Governor of Kansas. He was also the first governor of a US state to be impeached, although he was found not guilty and was not removed from office. To date he is the only governor of Kansas to be impeached.- Age: Dec. at 76 (1818-1894)
- Birthplace: Hardwick, Massachusetts, USA
- Melvin Kranzberg (November 22, 1917 – December 6, 1995) was an American historian, and professor of history at Case Western Reserve University from 1952 until 1971. He was a Callaway professor of the history of technology at Georgia Tech from 1972 to 1988. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Kranzberg graduated from Amherst College, received a master's and a PhD from Harvard University and served in the Army in Europe during World War II. He received a Bronze Star for interrogating captured German prisoners and learning the location of Nazi gun emplacements. He was one of two interrogators out of nine in Patton's army who were not killed during the conflict. Kranzberg is known for his laws of technology, the first of which states "Technology is neither good nor bad; nor is it neutral." He was one of the founders of the Society for the History of Technology in the United States and long-time editor of its journal Technology and Culture. Kranzberg served as president of the society from 1983 to 1984, and edited the society's journal from 1959 to 1981, when he turned it over to Robert C. Post of the Smithsonian Institution. The society awards a yearly $4000 fellowship named after Kranzberg to doctoral students engaged in the preparation of dissertations on the history of technology. The award is available to students all over the world. In 1967 Kranzberg was awarded the Leonardo da Vinci Medal by the Society for the History of Technology. Howard P. Segal wrote an informative semi-biographical tribute to Kranzberg in the Virginia Quarterly Review.There are two biographical articles by Robert C. Post in Technology and Culture: "Back at the Start: History and Technology and Culture," T&C 51 (2010): 961-94 "Chance and Contingency: Putting Mel Kranzberg in Context," T&C 50 (2009): 839-72.Kranzberg helped found the International Committee for the History of Technology.
- Age: Dec. at 78 (1917-1995)
- Birthplace: St. Louis, Missouri
- Caroline Thompson (born April 23, 1956) is an American novelist, screenwriter, film director, and producer. She wrote the screenplays for Tim Burton's films Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and Corpse Bride. She co-wrote the story for Edward Scissorhands and co-adapted a new stage version of the film with director and choreographer Matthew Bourne. Thompson also adapted the screenplay for the film version of Wicked Lovely, a bestselling fantasy series, in 2011, but the production was put into turnaround. She directed Black Beauty (1994); Buddy (1997), which she also wrote; and the television movie Snow White: The Fairest of Them All (2001), also as producer and co-writer.
- Age: 68
- Birthplace: Washington, D.C.
