Advertisement

OBITUARIES

 
Published July 26, 1996|Updated Sept. 16, 2005

COLIN MITCHELL, 70, a commander who fought against insurgents in British-controlled Yemen and more recently led a charity devoted to clearing mine fields, died Saturday at 70. The cause of death was not disclosed. Mr. Mitchell commanded the Scottish unit that retook a district of the seaport city of Aden from mutineers in South Yemen in 1967. The operation was hailed in the British press, which made a hero of "Mad Mitch." He was a founder of the Hazardous Areas Life-Support Organization Trust in 1986, and as its chairman he led a mine-clearing operation in Cambodia in 1991.

JOSEPHINE RUCKER POWELL, 85, wife of retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. Powell, died Wednesday at her home in Richmond. Mrs. Powell's daughter said her mother died of non-Hodgkins lymphoma. Her husband retired from the Supreme Court in 1986 after playing a pivotal role for 15 years in shaping American law on the high court.

EDMUND A. MIRASSOU, 78, a San Jose, Calif., vintner who toiled in his family's vineyards and then saw them grow into one of the nation's leading wineries, died Wednesday. Mr. Mirassou recently had undergone heart valve and bypass surgery. He took over the Mirassou vineyard and winemaking operation in 1937, not long after the end of Prohibition. In partnership with his brother, Norbert, who died in 1992, he ran the winery for 30 years. The Mirassou operations in Monterey County _ together with Wente Bros. and Paul Masson _ led to the blossoming of the central California coast as an important winemaking region.

JOHN THOMAS LENOX, 50, executive producer of the movie Splash and director of several popular television shows, died Tuesday on his 50th birthday of an apparent heart attack. He worked as an assistant director on such television series as The Odd Couple, Happy Days and Phyllis. His most recent production was the Showtime film Lily Dale, starring Sam Shepard and Mary Stuart Masterson.

RAPHAEL PATAI, 85, a cultural anthropologist who turned the stories of the Jewish people into the story of his life as a pre-eminent scholar of Jewish and Middle Eastern studies, died Saturday at the home of a daughter in Tucson, Ariz. The cause was cancer, said his daughter, Dr. Jennifer Schneider. He was the author of more than three dozen books on Jewish and Arab culture, history, politics, psychology and folklore.

MICHAEL FERENCE JR., 84, a physicist who was in charge of scientific research and development at Ford Motor Co. for almost 20 years, died Wednesday in San Antonio, Texas. A specialist in atmospherics, he was the chief meteorologist for the Army Signal Corps from 1946 until 1948 and later was chief scientist at its Evans Signal Laboratory.

MIKAEL L. TARIVERDIYEV, a Russian composer who wrote the music for more than 80 movies, died Thursday in the Black Sea spa town of Sochi. The ITAR-Tass news agency said Tariverdiyev was preparing to return to his home in Moscow when he died of a heart attack. Tariverdiyev was best known for his film scores, especially Seventeen Moments of Spring and Irony of Fate. He also wrote symphonies, operas, ballets and songs and was an organizer of the "New Names" program, which promoted talented newcomers.

CLIVE S. MENELL, 85, the deputy chairman of Anglovaal Ltd., a South African mining conglomerate, died Wednesday at age 65. The cause of death was cancer, said Paul Theron, a spokesman for Anglovaal. Anglovaal is South Africa's fifth-biggest gold producer, with interests in mining, financial services, food, cement, textiles, packaging, construction and engineering. His father was Slip Menell, one of the founders of the Anglovaal group.

Area obituaries and the Suncoast Deaths list appear in local sections.