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Lois Lew, The Woman Who Mastered IBM’s 5400-Character Typewriter

"Spinning continuously at a speed of 60 revolutions per minute, or once per second, the drum measured 7 inches in diameter, and 11 inches in length. Its surface was etched with 5,400 Chinese characters,⁠ letters of the English alphabet, punctuation marks, numerals, and a handful of other symbols. How was the typist in the film able to pull off such a...

Katherine Barber, Founding Editor Of The Canadian English Dictionary, 61

The woman who entered "jambusters" in the (well, her) dictionary read popular novels and listened to parliamentary debates to find the most Canadian English in the country. "To hunt for Canadian entries and the distinct Canadian meanings of words, Ms. Barber partly relied on a technique long used by Oxford. She assembled a small army of freelance 'readers,' who...

Pervis Staples, Who Moved His Family’s Staple Singers From Gospel To Soul, 85

Staples once compared the Staple Singers' "effect on ecstatic church audiences to 'a miracle or the hand of God.'" Pervis Staples "attended grammar school with the future singing stars Sam Cooke and Lou Rawls. After class, Pervis and his friends would practice singing under street lamps and in Cooke’s basement." - The New York Times

Longtime Curtis Institute Dean Robert Fitzpatrick, 75

Mr. Fitzpatrick served as dean at Curtis from 1986 to 2009 and was dean of students and executive assistant to the director from 1980 to 1984. - Philadelphia Inquirer

At 50 Pianist Lars Vogt Was Diagnosed With Cancer. Here’s What He’s Learned

For sure, in classical music, we have internalized particularly strongly an ideal image of ourselves—which we think we need to communicate to others— as the omnipotent magician who makes magic at the piano and whose personal life is going great as well. - Van

Jazz Trombone Great Curtis Fuller Dead At 88

"Mr. Fuller was among the dozens of musicians to emerge from the fertile mid-century jazz scene of Detroit, where he learned to play intricate, fast-paced bebop lines on the unwieldy slide trombone. When arrived in New York in the mid-1950s, he immediately became a major figure in the hard-bop movement." He played with many of the greatest jazz...

Phylicia Rashad Named Dean Of Howard University’s New College Of Fine Arts

The award-winning actor, herself a Howard alumna, will be the first dean of the re-established college. The nation's leading historically Black university folded its fine arts school into its College of Arts and Sciences in 1998 as a cost-cutting measure; Rashad's arrival completes the return of Howard's College of Fine Arts as an independent entity. - The Washington Post

Norman Lloyd, Whose Career Spanned Most Of Hollywood’s History, Dead At 106

He started his working life onstage with Eva Le Gallienne and Orson Welles; acted in films by Welles, Chaplin, Renoir, and Hitchcock (he was the villain in Saboteur); produced and directed episodes of Hitchcock's TV series (which saved him from the blacklist); had a key role in the primetime medical drama St. Elsewhere; and racked up countless other credits...

Balanchine’s Biggest Fan – Nancy Lassalle, 93

“She was the ultimate board member,” said Albert Bellas, chairman emeritus of the S.A.B. “She was financially supportive, knowledgeable and committed.” She was also a daily presence. - The New York Times

Architect Helmut Jahn, 81, Killed In Bicycle-Car Collision

He's best-known for a series of major buildings in Chicago, including the Thompson Center, the Xerox Center (now 55 West Monroe), the addition to the Chicago Board of Trade, and the United Airlines Terminal at O'Hare Airport, as well as the Liberty Place towers in Philadelphia, the Sony Center in Berlin, and Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport. - CNN

Manzoor Ahtesham, Who Brought Bhopal To Life, Has Died Of COVID At 73

Ahtesham wrote of his native city with care and love. One of his translators said, "He had this almost magnifying glass of an eye. ... If a cinema hall was razed or a new suburb was being built, he would describe these changes with a sensitivity, caring and love as if it were part of his own corporal organism."...

Lloyd Price, Whose Smash Hits Prefigured Rock, Dies At 88

Price, inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1998, had his first big rhythm and blues hit with "Lawdy Miss Clawdy" in 1952. "Nicknamed Mr. Personality after his most recognizable hit, which reached No. 2 on the Billboard singles chart in 1959, Mr. Price found success with Black and white audiences alike. He was a prolific...

Lyn Macdonald, Who Preserved The Voices Of WWI Soldiers, 91

Macdonald was a producer for the BBC in 1973 when she "was given what she thought would be a one-off journalistic assignment: to accompany a group of World War I veterans from a British rifle brigade on a final pilgrimage to the battlefields of France." She interviewed more than 600 veterans and wrote seven books about their experiences, popularizing...

Martin Bookspan, The Voice Of The Lincoln Center, 94

Bookspan realized young that he probably wouldn't make it as a solo violinist, but he brought music to anyone with a radio or TV. "After an early career behind the scenes at radio stations in Boston and New York, he established himself as a stalwart of Live From Lincoln Center, the PBS program that became America’s premier source of...

Discovered: When Tennessee Williams Wrote A Fan Letter To Eugene O’Neill

“An impassioned letter from Tennessee Williams to Eugene O’Neill is an astonishing find in the world of American drama studies. Just when it seems that the archival well has been drunk dry for these exhaustively studied artists, something truly wonderful appears and changes things. - UKNOW

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