Man Knows Not His Time
Compiled by Edward Plowman
James Arness, 88, June 3. The six-foot-seven actor played morally principled U.S. Marshall Matt Dillon in two decades and 635 episodes of TV's Gunsmoke, keeping compassionate law and order in the Kansas frontier cow town of Dodge City in the late 1800s.
Therman Austel, 83, May 29. Hebrew scholar, seminary professor, Bible translator, and editor of the Old Testament translation of the New American Standard Bible.
Charles Kingsley Barrett, 94, Aug. 26. British New Testament scholar, author of Bible commentaries, teacher, and Methodist minister whose opposition to a proposed Anglican-Methodist union in the 1960s gained him recognition.
David Barrett, 83, Aug. 4. Anglican-priest-turned-Baptist and missions researcher who focused on "unreached people groups," and founding editor of the monumental World Christian Encyclopedia.
Shahbaz Bhatti, 42, March 2. Pakistani legislator, government Minister for Minorities, human-rights advocate opposed to the country's anti-Christian blasphemy law, and a Catholic who defended fellow Christians from the law's abuses; gunned down in the streets by an Islamic group claiming he was a "known blasphemer."
Osama Bin Laden, 54, May 2. Saudi founder of al-Qaeda who planned the Sept. 11, 2001, airliner attacks on New York and Washington; shot by U.S. forces in a firefight at his comfortable hideout near Pakistan's capital.
Albert Brown, 105, Aug. 14. Oldest living survivor of the 1942 WWII six-day, 66-mile Bataan Death March in the Philippines.
Frank Buckles, 110, Feb. 27. The last U.S. World War I veteran of the nearly 5 million Americans who served in that war.
Don Butler, 80, Feb. 3. Gospel singer, composer, talent agent, co-founder in 1964 of the Gospel Music Association, and TV producer for the GMA Dove Awards.
Delois Barrett Campbell, 85, Aug. 2. "The mightiest voice of the greatest female trio in gospel," as the Chicago Tribune music critic described her. She grew up in church, with Mahalia Jackson and composer Tommy Dorsey as neighbors, and with her siblings performed as the Barrett Sisters for more than 60 years, with over 50 world tours and the acclaimed 1982 documentary, Say Amen, Somebody.
Ken Curtis, 71, Jan. 3. Evangelical filmmaker and church historian, founder of Gateway Films/Vision Video and Christian History magazine.
Samuel Ericsson, 66, Jan. 21. Lawyer who directed the 4,500-member Christian Legal Society in the 1980s and later founded and headed Advocates International, a large global network of lawyers championing religious freedom. He was lead counsel in the landmark California Supreme Court case in 1988 that closed the door to "clergy malpractice" claims, and was a key architect of the federal Equal Access Act of 1984.
Robert P. Evans, 93, July 28. Navy chaplain wounded in World War II, evangelist and early leader in Youth for Christ, and founder and long-time director of Paris-based Greater Europe Mission, also an organizer of Billy Graham's historic 1966 World Congress on Evangelism in Berlin.
George Gallup, Jr., 81, Nov. 21. Evangelical Episcopalian who led the well-known opinion polling research company his father founded, expanding it to include sampling and appraising Americans' views on religion and the level of commitment to their faith.
Edwin Gaustad, 87, March 25. Influential church historian, leading expert on religion in colonial America, and author (The Great Awakening in New England, Religious History of America, and works on theologian Roger Williams). He was a lifelong Baptist who took a strict approach to separation of church and state.
William Greathouse, 91, March 24 | Scholarly giant of the Wesleyan holiness movement who served as a Church of the Nazarene pastor, university and seminary president, and the denomination's general superintendent 1976-1989.
Philip Hannan, 98, Sept. 29. Catholic archbishop of New Orleans for 23 years, staunch anti-communist, leader of U.S. Catholic bishops, an Army chaplain during WWII in Europe, and during years in the Washington archdiocese, a confidante to President Kennedy, whose funeral sermon he preached.
Mark Hatfield, 89, Aug. 7. Two-term Oregon governor and Republican U.S. Senator 1967-1997; known for his opposition to the Vietnam War and promotion of federal spending on healthcare; an ardent evangelical, pro-life Baptist active in Washington's prayer breakfast movement.
Arthur F. Holmes, 87, Oct. 8. Influential and sometimes controversial Wheaton College philosophy professor and author (All Truth Is God's Truth) who countered the anti-intellectualism he perceived in the American church, pressing for integration of faith and learning.
Ray Hughes, 87, April 4. Former general overseer of the Church of God (Cleveland, Tenn.) and president of the denomination's Lee College (now University), who also served terms as president of the National Association of Evangelicals, Pentecostal Fellowship of North America, and the Pentecostal World Conference.
Bil Keane, 89, Nov. 8. Father of five and an artist who in 1960 created "Family Circus," a single-panel cartoon in a circle featuring traditional values and subtle humor as a mommy, daddy, and their four kids live out the warmth and joys of everyday family life. Son Jeff is continuing the hugely popular cartoon, syndicated in some 1,500 newspapers.
Glen Kehrein, 63, Nov. 12. White leader of Circle Urban Ministry in Chicago who lived and worked in a black neighborhood for three decades, transforming relationships and leading Circle to become a national leader in urban community ministry (he also helped to establish Christian Community Development Association), and with Raleigh Washington wrote the influential tell-all and how-to book, Breaking Down Walls.
Jack Kevorkian, 83, June 3. Pathologist and assisted-suicide advocate for the terminally ill, known as "Dr. Death," imprisoned for eight years and arrested frequently for helping more than 130 patients commit suicide from 1990 to 2000.
Catherine Clark Kroeger, 85, Feb. 14. New Testament scholar and teacher at Gordon Conwell seminary, author and editor (The IVP Women's Bible Commentary), evangelical Presbyterian, and founder of Christians for Biblical Equality who advocated equality of roles for men and women in ministry and church leadership.
Harold Lane, 82, June 6. Southern Gospel Hall of Fame singer (with the Gospel Harmony Boys and The Speer Family) and songwriter ("I'm Standing on the Solid Rock" and "Touring That City").
Leonard Lomell, 91, March 1. Highly decorated WWII hero, a thrice-wounded U.S. Army Ranger, known best for finding and disabling five German 155-mm guns with a 12-mile range hidden in an orchard on the Normandy coast in the early hours of D-Day; recognized as the single individual—other than Gen. Dwight Eisenhower—most responsible for the success of D-Day.
Charlie Louvin, 83, Jan. 26. Country Hall of Fame singer, half of the legendary Louvin Brothers (his brother died in a 1965 auto accident), a Grand Ole Opry favorite with nearly 20 solo albums.
“Easy Ed” Macauley, 83, Nov. 8. An early NBA great who starred for the Boston Celtics and at age 32 became the youngest player elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame—a distinction that still holds—who went on to be a TV sportscaster, and, as a Catholic deacon, co-authored a book on how to write sermons.
Ellen McCormack, 84, March 27. Anti-abortion activist who ran as a Democrat for president in 1976, winning 200,000 votes in 18 state primaries; she ran in 1980 on the Right-to-Life Party ticket, garnering about 32,000 votes in three primaries.
Joseph E. Mortimer, Jr., 80, July 1. Catholic founder and publisher of Voices for the Unborn newspaper who proclaimed the message in billboards and other media that "Abortion Stops a Beating Heart."
Bernard Nathanson, 84, Feb. 21. Former Manhattan obstetrician who presided over an estimated 75,000 abortions (including his own child's), then denounced the practice in 1979, authored the best-seller Aborting America, directed and narrated the pro-life films The Silent Scream and Eclipse of Reason, and as a former atheist found "peace" after converting to Catholicism in 1996.
Eugene Nida, 96, Aug. 25. Internationally famed linguist, global trainer of missionary translators, and overseer of hundreds of Bible translations as long-time director of translations for the American Bible Society.
Muammar Qaddafi, 69, Oct. 20. Eccentric, unstable, and brutal dictator who ruled Libya for 42 years; long-time sponsor of global terrorist organizations who allegedly ordered the 1988 bombing that downed Pan Am flight 103, killing 270; brutally slain in the uprising that toppled his government.
William Rusher, 87, April 16. A leading strategist in the postwar rise of political conservatism, seen in the nominations of Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan for president and the rise of the Republican right; he was an author, syndicated columnist, and publisher of National Review.
Jane Russell, 89, Feb. 28. Hollywood sex symbol in the 1940s and 1950s (The Outlaw, Calamity Jane in The Paleface, showgirl in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes) who in later life turned to Christianity and organized Bible study groups in Hollywood.
John Stott, 90, July 27. London-based Anglican preacher, writer, and one of the most influential figures in the formation of the evangelical movement in the 20th century, whose unwavering commitment to the authority of Scripture and scholarly approach to expositing its message won the respect of generations of Christian university students across the globe, many of them nurtured by his best-known book, Basic Christianity.
William Stuntz, 52, March 15. Respected Harvard criminal law professor, author of The Collapse of American Criminal Justice, an evangelical and influential conservative legal scholar known for his teaching of Christian legal theory.
Salmaan Taseer, 65, Jan. 4. Pakistan provincial governor and human-rights advocate assassinated in Islamabad by his security guard opposed to his defense of a Christian woman accused of blasphemy and sentenced to death.
David Wilkerson, 79, April 27. Pentecostal evangelist who in 1959 in Brooklyn founded the well-known ministry to troubled teens Teen Challenge, author of the mega bestseller The Cross and the Switchblade (1963), and founder in 1987 of Times Square Church in Manhattan, where he was senior pastor, preaching to 5,000 on Sundays until retirement in 2010.
Paul Youngdahl, 73, June 20. Leader in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and long-time pastor of 13,000-member Mount Olivet Lutheran Church in Minneapolis, the ELCA's largest congregation.
Norma Zimmer, 87, May 10. Endearing lead singer known as the "Champagne Lady" of ABC's The Lawrence Welk Show from 1960 to 1982; a dedicated Christian since high school, she also often sang at Billy Graham crusades.