Wednesday, July 9

Noteworthy

Jacques Le Brun, historian
France, Noteworthy, Profiles

Jacques Le Brun, historian

Jacques Le Brun ‑ a French historian who specialized in the study of Christianity in the 17th century – died on 6 April 2020 after suffering from coronavirus. Le Brun's first works were related to Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet. He was Director of Honorary Studies at the École pratique des hautes études, and the Chair of History of Modern Catholicism at the school. In addition to his research, he also edited the works of François Fénelon. Jacques Le Brun died on 6 April 2020 at the age of 88 after contracting Covid-19.
Mark Steiner, professor
Israel, Noteworthy, Profiles, United States

Mark Steiner, professor

Mark Steiner - an American-born Israeli professor of philosophy. He taught philosophy of mathematics and physics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem - died on April 6, 2020 due to COVID-19. Mark Steiner was born in the Bronx, New York. He graduated from Columbia University , and studied at Oxford as a Fulbright Fellow and earned his Ph.D. at Princeton University in 1972. Steiner taught at Columbia from 1970 –  77. Steiner is best known for his book The Applicability of Mathematics as a Philosophical Problem, in which he attempted to explain the historical utility of mathematics in physics. The book may be considered an extended meditation on the issues raised by Eugene Wigner's article The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences. Steiner is also the aut...
Josep Maria Benet i Jornet, playwright
Noteworthy, Profiles, Spain

Josep Maria Benet i Jornet, playwright

Josep Maria Benet i Jornet - a Spanish  playwright and TV writer -  died on 6 April 2020 due to coronavirus. He was born in Barcelona. In 1997, he was awarded the Creu de Sant Jordi by the Catalan government. He died from COVID-19 during the coronavirus pandemic in Spain on 6 April 2020 at the age of 79.
Michel Parisse, historian
France, Noteworthy, Profiles

Michel Parisse, historian

Michel Parisse -- a French historian who specialized in medieval studies   died on 5 April 2020 at the age of 83 due to COVID-19.  He was a professor emeritus at the University of Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne. Parisse earned his agrégation in history in 1959. He earned two doctoral degrees, with the first coming in 1966. His thesis was titled Actes des évêques de Metz (1120-1179). His second doctoral degree came in 1975, with the thesis La noblesse lorraine (xie – xiiie siècle). He was a professor at Nancy 2 University from 1965 to 1993. He was the Director of ARTEM from 1983 to 1993, which conducted research on medieval texts and their meanings. He directed the French Historical Mission in Germany from 1985 to 1991, and then wo...
Lee Fierro, actress
Noteworthy, Profiles, United States

Lee Fierro, actress

Elizabeth Lee Fierro ‑ an American actress and theater promoter best known for playing Mrs. Kintner in the Jaws film franchise -  died on April 5, 2020 in Aurora, Ohio, of COVID-19. Fierro had training as an actress in theater but not as a screen actress. Fierro acted in a famous scene in the 1975 film Jaws, in which she (as Mrs. Kintner) slapped the police chief. Fierro lived for many years on Martha's Vineyard, where from 1974 to 2017 she was artistic director of the Island Theatre Workshop and mentored hundreds of aspiring actors. Kevin Ryan, the Theater's board president in 2020, who had worked with her for 30 years, estimated that Fierro had mentored and taught theater to more than 1,000 children, and recalled Fierro as "fiercely dedicated to the missi...
Marcel Moreau, writer
Belgium, Noteworthy, Profiles

Marcel Moreau, writer

Marcel Moreau - a fancophone Belgian writer – died on 4 April, 2020 due to COVID-19. Moreau was born in Boussu, a town in  the mining region of Borinage, in the Hainaut Province, into a working class environment in which there was, as he put it himself, a pure cultural void, a total absence of any cultural reference point”.  He lost his father at the age of fifteen, and abandoned his studies a short time later. He worked in various trades before becoming an accountant’s assistant in Brussels for the newspaper Le Peuple. In 1955 he became a proof-reader for the daily Le Soir. In 1963 he published his first novel, Quintes, notably praised by Simone de Beauvoir. Considered a marginal writer with an idiosyncratic style, he was the author of a consider...
Lila Fenwick, lawyer
Noteworthy, Profiles, United States

Lila Fenwick, lawyer

Lila Althea Fenwick – an American lawyer, human rights advocate and United Nations official – died on April 4, 2020 due to Covid-19. She was the first black women to graduate from Harvard Law School. Fenwick was born in Manhattan, New York, on May 24, 1932. Her parents, John and Hilda Fenwick, had immigrated to the United States from Trinidad. She received her bachelor’s degree from Barnard College in 1953 before enrolling at Harvard Law School. A student in the class of 1956, Fenwick matriculated into the school’s fourth class that admitted women. She then completed her studies at the London School of Economics. During her career, Fenwick was a private practice lawyer and later became chief of the U.N. Human Rights Section. She held the position ...
Tom Dempsey, footballer
Noteworthy, Profiles, United States

Tom Dempsey, footballer

Thomas John Dempsey ‑ an American professional football player who was a placekicker in the National Football League (NFL) for the New Orleans Saints, Philadelphia Eagles, Los Angeles Rams, Houston Oilers and Buffalo Bills – succumbed to Covid-19 on April 4, 2020. Unlike the "soccer style" approach which was becoming more and more widely used during his career, Dempsey's kicking style was the then-standard straight-toe style. With the Saints in 1970, he made a 63-yard field goal, setting an NFL record which stood for over 40 years. Dempsey was born in Milwaukee and attended high school and college in Southern California. He attended high school at San Dieguito High School and played college football at Palomar College. He was born with no toes on his right f...
Olan Montgomery, actor & pop artist
Noteworthy, Profiles, United States

Olan Montgomery, actor & pop artist

Timothy Olan Montgomery, best known as Olan Montgomery or simply as "Olan," was an American actor and pop artist specializing in mixed-media portraiture. He succumbed to Covid-19-related complications on April 4, 2020. He was active in New York art circles as a photographer, painter, author, and actor in film and television. He died during the COVID-19 pandemic due to complications brought on by COVID-19. Timothy Olan Montgomery was born April 12, 1963, in Warner Robins, Georgia, the second of identical twins born to Eslye Lee Moate and Gary Misner Montgomery. He spent most of his youth in Macon, Georgia, graduating in 1980 from Northeast High School in that city. Following graduation he attended the Columbia University in New York City. Montgomery left colle...
Jay Benedict, actor
Noteworthy, Profiles, United Kingdom, United States

Jay Benedict, actor

Jay Benedict, an American actor who played Captain/Major John Kieffer in the British detective drama Foyle's War, in the episodes "Invasion" and "All Clear" – died of Covid-19 on April 4, 2020. Benedict was born in Burbank, California. He lived and worked in Europe from the 1960s onwards. His theatrical credits include The Rocky Horror Show in the Kings Road in the early 1970s, Harold Pinter's production of Sweet Bird of Youth, The Reverend Lee in The Foreigner and Riccardo in Franco Zeffirelli's production of Filumena in which he played opposite Pierce Brosnan in the latter's first stage role, and Bill Wilson, co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, in a touring production of "One Day at a Time". In 2013 he appeared opposite Stev...