Obituary - Current Affairs for August, 2016

Gene Wilder who starred in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and the Blazing Saddles, died at 83 from complications of Alzheimer’s disease.

• He is well known for producer director Mel Brooks, who cast him in "Blazing Saddles," "Young Frankenstein" and "The Producers" in the 1960s, '70s and '80s.
• Besides his classic collaborations with Brooks, Wilder paired memorably with comedian Richard Pryor in hits "Silver Streak" and "Stir Crazy.”
• He also promoted ovarian cancer awareness after wife Gilda Radner passed away from this disease.

John Ellenby, Britishborn computer engineer who played a vital role in paving the way for the laptop computer died in San Francisco

• He died at the age of 75 and is known for pioneering Grid Systems and working as its CEO
• The team under him produced a clamshell computer with orange electroluminescent flat panel that was introduced as the compass and went to market in 1982
• Compass is now widely acknowledge as being far ahead of its time.
• Grid Compass was the first successful clamshell laptop computer
• It became a valuable tool for corporates, espionage astronauts as well as government spies
• Compass came with advanced and expensive data storage capacity called bubble memory and found an enthusiastic customer in the secret service
• Ellenby graduated from University College London and spent a year in LSA before coming up with the idea of laptop computers.

Akhlaq Ur Rahman served as Governor of many states including Bihar, West Bengal and Haryana.

• Kidwai passed away on 24th August 2016 following a brief illness at the age of 96.
• He is survived by two sons and four daughters.
• Born in 1920 in Barabanki District in UP, Kidwai served as governor of several states for 17 whole years
• Bihar (1979 to 1985,1993-1998)
• West Bengal (1998 to 1999)
• Haryana (2004 to 2009)
• He has been held the temporary charge of the Governor of Punjab and Rajasthan and administrator of Chandigarh and Delhi
• He has served as Chairman of the UPSC from 1974-1978
• He also served as the chancellor of AMU
• In January 2011, he was awarded Padma Vibhushan, the second highest civilian award for outstanding contribution towards public affairs in India.

Writer associated with popular British satirical shows Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister, Sir Anthony Jay died on 21st August at age 86 after a lengthy illness.

• Writer and producer died peacefully and is survived by his wife and children.
• Jay began his career in the BBC Current Affairs department
• He was the founding member of the Tonight team
• He also scripted numerous documentaries on the British Royal family and Queen Elizabeth II.
• He is best known for the two political comedies he co-wrote with Jonathan Lynn.
• Yes Minister ran for three series between 1980 and 1984
• It tracks the problems of fictitious British MP James Hacker, the minister for administrative affairs and battles against Whitehall civil servant Sir Humphrey Appleby
• Yes Prime Minister broadcast for two seasons between 1986 and 1988 showed Hacker’s life after his entry into 10 Downing Street
• Former British PM Margaret Thatcher was known to be a great fan of the series
• Jay also wrote several management books.
• He founded a management and sales training film company alongside British actor John Cleese and two other coworkers in 1972.

Sellapan Ramanathan, Singapore’s sixth and longest serving president, died on 22nd August at 92.

• Widely called SR Nathan, he was hospitalised in critical condition after a stroke on July 31
• It was his second stroke in less than two years.
• He served two terms as Singapore’s head of state from 1999 to 2011 before being succeeded by Tony Tan Keng Yam>
• Ramanathan started work without completing studied to settle family debts. He held many public service posts and occupied the highest office in the land.
• He is survived by a wife, daughter, son and three grandchildren.
• Meanwhile, noted American epidemiologist Donald Ainslie Henderson-leader of the international campaign against smallpox in the 1980s has passed away at age 87 due to complications from a hip fracture
• DA will be known as a disease detective leading to the eradication of smallpox more than 30 years ago.
• Henderson spent years as an official at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organisation before joining the Johns Hopkins University’s School of Public Health as its dean.
• He was also bioterrorism and science adviser under three presidential administrations in the US
• In 1980, WHO declared the world Smallpox free.

Noted Odia filmmaker, actor and director Gobind Tej passed away on 18th August 2016.

• He died following a brief illness in Odisha’s capital city Bhubaneswar at the age of 88.
• In a career spanning 5 decades, he has created many Odia feature films as director and producer and acted in many of these.
• He started his acting career in Kedar Gouri a movie released in1954.
• he directed his first movie in 1979 titled Ramayana.
• He acted in films like Krushna Sudama, Bandhan, Bandhu Mohanty, Dharitri, Gouri, Mana Akasha and Schoolmaster.
• He has also received the State Film Award for Best Director for movies such as School Master, Kaberi, Tunda Baida and Gare Sindura Dhare Luha.
• He is also a recipient of the Odisha State Film Award In 1977 for Best Actor for his role in the movie Bandhu Mohanty.
• In 1986, he was honoured with the Jaydev Award for his lifelong contribution to the growth and development of Odia cinema.

Well known Punjabi writer and Jnanpith awardee Gurdial Singh passed away on 16th August 2016 in Bathinda Punjab at the age of 83.

• He was known as the Spartan of the Literary world in Punjab
• He started his career with a short story titled Bhaganwale which was published in Pani Darya magazine.
• He published the novel Marhi Da Deeva in 1964.
• He is the second writer after Amrita Pritam to receive the Jnanpith award.
• He has penned 10 novels including Anhoe and Parsa.
• Two of his novels (Marhi Da Deeva and Addh Chanani Raat) have been translated into English.
• He has won the Sahitya Akademi award (1975), Padma Shri (1998) and Jnanpith Literary Award (2000).
• Prominent Malayalam writer TA Rasaq also passed away on 15th August 2016 at the age of 58
• The script writer had worked for more than 30 films in Malayalam commencing from 1991.
• He started his career with film Vishnulokam directed by noted filmmaker Kamal in the 1990s
• He won the state film award ofr best screen play and story for Kanakinavu, Ayirathil Oruvan and Perumazhakkalam

Joao Havelange served as head of FIFA from 1974 to 1998 and handed over the reins to Sepp Blatter.

• He resigned in 1998 following an investigation into allegations bribes had been accepted to grant lucrative contracts at numerous world cups to the marketing company ISL.
• He remained honorary president of FIFA till 2013.
• He was also a member of IOC till he resigned on December 2011.
• He was heading the FIFA Presidency when Brazil won the World Cup under his reign in 1958, 1962 and 1970.

Two time national award winning lyricist Na Muthukumar died from jaundice in Chennai at the age of 41.

• He is survived by his wife and a son and daughter
• He first won the national award for Aananda Yazhai Meetukiraj in the film Thagameenkal and Azhage Azhagu in Saviam.

Former TN social welfare minister and DMK deputy general secretary SP Sarguna Pandian passed away on early hours of 13th August 2016 at the age of 75

• Sarguna Pandian was elected from RK Nagar Constituency twice in 1989 and 1996 and was social welfare minister between 1996 and 2001 when DMK President M. Karunanidhi was CM

Pramukh Swami, the 95 year old founder of Akshardham temple and Swaminaryan sect passed away following prolonged illness at Sarangpur temple.

• He was the president of the Bpchasanvasi Akshar Purushottam Sanstha/BAPS, a sub-sect of the Swami Narayan sect extending his tenure internationally with 3000 temples created in 5 decades.
• Akshardham temple built in New Delhi and Gandhinagar are considered the largest HIndu temple complexes in India.
• Swaminarayan temple in Atlanta created by BAPS is the largest Hindu temple outside of the Indian subcontinent.

Hanif Mohammad , the cricketer who was known as the original Little Master passed away on August 11,2016 in Karachi Pakistan. He was 81 years old and succumbed to cancer in 2013.

• Born in 1934, he was a Pakistani cricketer who played in 55 test matches.
• He was one of the best batsmen in the world at one point in time and named Wisden Cricketer of the year in 1968.
• Highest test century attained by the cricketer which is the longest innings in Test history was 337 against West Indies in the six day test at Bridgetown in the 1950s.

Veteran film producer, script and screenplay writer Panchu Arunachalam passed away on 9th August 2016 following an illness at the age of 75

• He is survived by a wife as well as two daughters and sons
• Panchu Arunachalam is famous for introducing Illayraja as music director in Annakili and made many films starring noted stars like Rajnikanth and Kamal Hassan

Veteran Tamil actress Jyothilakshmi died on August 9, 2016 in Chennai at the age of 63

• She was famous for dance numbers and negative roles in Bollywood and South Indian film industry
• She debuted in Periya Idathu Penn and was a trained dancer
• Her Telugu movies which were bits include Gandharva Kanya and Prem Nagar
• She also starred in Hindi movies like Rani Aur Jaani and Jawab
• She has over 300 movies to her credit

Well known Assamese literary figure Mahim Bora died on 5th August 2016 from old age complications at the age of 92

• He is survived by a son and two daughters-in-law
• He was a Padma Shri and Sahitya Akademi award winner
• He won the Sahitya Akademi award in 2001 for Edhani Mahir Hanhi
• He received the Padma Shri in 2011 and Assam Valley Literary Award in 1998

Australian surfing champ Bernard Farrelly best known as Midget for his diminutive size died on 7th August 2016 at the age of 71

• He was the Australian World Surfing Champion since the 1960s
• He became the first Australian to win the world championships at Hawaii in 1963
• In 2007, he was included in the surfing walk of fame in California. He also found a place on the Australia Sports Hall of Fame in 1985

Kashi, well known as Sanketh Kashi is a well known Kannada actor who passed away on 6th August 2016

• Kashi started his career with theatre and was known as ‘Sanketh’ Kashi for his association with Sanketh troupe, which was led by late actor Shankar Nag.
• Kashi played comic roles in most of the over hundred films he acted. He played the lead role in a 2000 Kannada film Nanna Hendathi Chennagidale.
• His dual role in the film Ulta Pulta, based on Shakespeare’s play Comedy of Errors, earned him much praise.

Scientist Ahmed Bewail who won the Nobel Chemistry Prize in 1999 died in the US on 2nd August 2016 at the age of 70.

• He pioneered work in femtochemistry, the study of chemical reactions in ultra-short time scales approximately 10-15 seconds (one femtosecond, hence the name).
• He was known as the father of femtochemistry.
• He was part of the UN Scientific Advisory Board in 2013 and authored close to 600 scientific articles and 16 books. He has also won the Wolf Prize and Davy Medal for Science

Well known Indian American linguist Braj B Kachru passed away on July 29, 2016 in Urbana, Illinois

• He was 84 years old at the time of his death.
• He was known for coining the term World English.
• He also published studies on Kashmiri.
• At the University of Illinois, Department of Linguistics was headed by him from 1968-1979.
• He was also Director of the Centre for Advanced Study from June 1996 to January 2000 at the University.
• He was named Jubilee Professor of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Illinois in 1992.

Veteran tabla maestro Pandit Lacchu Maharaj passed away in Varanasi on 28th July 2016 at the age of 72.

• He is one of the frontline tabla players in the world.
• He was married and is survived by a wife and daughter.
• He has also played the tabla for numerous Bollywood compositions.

James Alan McPherson, author of widely anthologised short stores and essays that explore the experiences of African Americans in America in 1978 was the first black author to receive the Pulitzer Prize for fiction.

• He passed away at the age of 72 at Iowa City on July 27, 2016.
• He succumbed to complications from pneumonia and wrote works such as “Elbow Room” “Gold Coast” and a volume of short stories “Hue and Cry.”