|
Sam Aubrey STILLWATER, Okla. -- Sam Aubrey, who played on a national championship team in 1946 and succeeded Henry Iba as Oklahoma State's basketball coach, has died. He was 85.
He died Monday at a retirement center in Stillwater, the school's athletic department said. The cause of death was not disclosed. Aubrey was a starting forward on the 1946 national championship team at what was then Oklahoma A&M. It was the second straight NCAA title for the school. Aubrey became coach in 1970 following the retirement of Iba, one of the game's coaching greats. Aubrey coached the Cowboys until 1973. He was born in Sapulpa, spent three years at Oklahoma A&M and joined the Army during World War II. He then coached in high school and junior college before returning to Oklahoma State as freshman coach and an assistant.
Louise Shadduck COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho -- Louise Shadduck, a newspaper reporter and author who became the first woman in the nation to serve in a state cabinet post, has died. She was 92. Shadduck died Sunday in Coeur d'Alene after a long illness, her nephew said. Shadduck worked as a journalist and columnist at the Coeur d'Alene Press and the Spokesman-Review newspapers, then was on the staffs of Lt. Gov. Donald Whitehead, Govs. C.A. Robins, Len Jordan and Don Samuelson, U.S. Sen. Henry Dworshak and U.S. Rep. Orval Hansen. She became the first woman in the U.S. to serve at a state cabinet level when Gov. Robert Smylie appointed her secretary of commerce and development in the late 1950s, according to the National Federation of Press Women. In 1998, the state named a new Idaho Department of Lands building for her in Coeur d'Alene. Shadduck was among 100 Idahoans honored by the Idaho Centennial Commission in 1990. In 1996, she was inducted into Idaho Hall of Fame. Her books included "Andy Little: Idaho Sheep King," "Rodeo Idaho!," "At the Edge of the Ice, Where Coeur d'Alene and its People Meet" and "Doctors With Buggies, Snowshoes and Planes: One Hundred Years and More of Idaho Medicine."
Irvine Robbins LOS ANGELES -- Irvine Robbins, who as co-founder of Baskin-Robbins brought Rocky Road, Pralines 'n Cream and other exotic ice cream concoctions to every corner of America, has died. He was 90. Robbins had been ill for some time and died Monday at Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, Calif., his daughter said. While the company advertised that it offered 31 flavors, in fact it has created more than 1,000 flavors, according to its Web site. Some flavors were short-lived and created to mark specific events, such as Lunar Cheesecake for the moon landings and Valley Forge Fudge for the 1976 bicentennial. Robbins opened his first ice cream store in Glendale, Calif., in December 1945, following his discharge from the Army. He used $6,000 from a cashed-in insurance policy his father had given him for his bar mitzvah. Robbins offered 21 flavors at the store. His brother-in-law, the late Burton Baskin, opened his own ice cream store in neighboring Pasadena a year later. By the end of the 1940s, they had joined forces to create Baskin-Robbins. Robbins recalled they used a flip of the coin to decide which name came first. They also decided to sell their stores to managers, pioneering the franchise concept for ice cream stores. Baskin-Robbins was sold to United Fruit Co. in 1967, but Robbins continued to work for the company until retiring in the 1970s. Today, Baskin-Robbins is part of Dunkin' Brands Inc. and has more than 5,800 franchises worldwide.
Morgan Sparks ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- Morgan Sparks, who led Sandia National Laboratories for nearly a decade and invented a semiconductor device that has revolutionized almost every aspect of modern life, has died. He was 91. Sparks died Saturday at his daughter's home in Fullerton, Calif., Sandia said in a news release. Sparks worked for 30 years at Bell Laboratories in New Jersey before taking over as director of Sandia in 1972. He served in the post until his retirement in 1981. Sandia and Bell labs officials said Sparks invented the first practical transistor, a semiconductor device that led to devices such as personal computers, cell phones and DVD players. Transistors work something like light switches, flipping on and off inside a chip to generate the ones and zeros that store and process information inside a computer. Sparks joined the Semiconductor Research Group at the New Jersey lab in 1948 just as a group of physicists were developing the first transistor. Soon, transistors became essential in electronic computers and their production grew monumentally after the emergence of the microchip in the 1960s. Sparks was born in 1916 in Pagosa Springs, Colo., and raised in Texas. He earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in chemistry at Rice University before receiving his doctorate in physical chemistry from the University of Illinois in 1943.
Witold Woyda BRONXVILLE, N.Y. -- Witold Woyda, a fencer who won medals in three consecutive Olympics for Poland, has died. He was 68. Woyda had lung cancer for two years and died Monday at his suburban Bronxville home, his wife said. Woyda won two gold medals, team and individual foil, at the 1972 Munich Olympics. He won the silver medal for team foil in 1964 in Tokyo and the bronze in 1968 in Mexico City. Woyda moved to the United States in the late 1970s and became a successful businessman and an American citizen, his wife said. -- The Associated Press |
