Politics

Bernice Sandler, academic and activist who championed women’s rights on campus and was hailed as the “godmother of Title IX,” died Jan. 5, age 90.

John Dingell Jr., tenacious Michigan Democrat who pushed landmark legislation—including Medicaid and Medicare—and became Congress’ longestserving member, died

Feb. 7, age 92.

Ross Perot (pictured),

Texas gadfly who made billions selling computer software before twice running for president as an independent in the 1990s, died July 9, age 89.

John Paul Stevens, centrist

Supreme Court justice who evolved into a liberal icon and frequent dissenter during his 35 years on the bench, died July 16, age 99.

David Koch, billionaire industrialist and philanthropist who funded a right-wing libertarian movement that reshaped American politics, died Aug. 23, age 79.

Elijah Cummings, 13-term congressman from Baltimore who investigated President Trump as chair of the House Oversight Committee, died Oct. 17, age 68.

William Ruckelshaus, incorruptible Republican who battled pollution as the EPA’s founding head and defied President Richard Nixon during Watergate as deputy attorney general, died Nov. 27, age 87.

Paul Volcker, Federal Reserve chairman who tamed runaway inflation and sought to rein in risk-taking bankers, died Dec. 8, age 92.

Sports

Golf Association, died April 9, age 89.

Forrest Gregg, famously tough lineman with Vince Lombardi’s Green Bay Packers dynasty of the 1960s, who played in a record-setting 188 consecutive games, died April 12, age 85.

John Havlicek, inexhaustible basketball star who propelled the Boston Celtics to eight NBA championships and who remains the team’s all-time leading scorer, died April 25, age 79.

Niki Lauda, Austrian Formula One driver who was horrifically burned in a 1976 crash, but was back behind the wheel six weeks later, winning the world championship the following year, died May 20, age 70.

Bart Starr, inspirational quarterback who led the Green Bay Packers to five league championships and wins in the first two Super Bowls, died May 26, age 85.

Nick Buoniconti, linebacker who anchored the Miami Dolphins’ defense during the team’s glory years in the 1970s, died July 30, age 78.

Davo Karnicar, daredevil Slovenian skier who made the first nonstop ski descent of Mount Everest, died Sept. 16, age 56.

Harrison Dillard, former Buffalo Soldier in World War II who became the only Olympic athlete to win gold in both the sprints and high hurdles, died Nov. 15, age 96.

Fred Cox, star placekicker with the Minnesota Vikings who helped invent the Nerf football, died Nov. 20, age 80.

Business

John Bogle, Vanguard Group founder who made investing accessible by creating the low-cost index fund, died Jan. 16, age 89.

Florence Knoll Bassett, architect who designed the open-plan workspace and transformed office culture, died Jan. 25,

age 101.

Karl Lagerfeld, acid-tongued couturier who revived a fading Chanel and, in the process, made luxury fashion a commercial juggernaut, died Feb. 19, age 85.

Tony Mendez, CIA agent who helped smuggle six American diplomats out of Iran during the 1979–81 hostage crisis by posing as a movie director, inspiring the movie Argo, died Jan. 19, age 78.

Lewis Judd, psychiatrist who sought to destigmatize mental illness by exploring the biological causes of conditions such as depression, showing them to be just like other diseases, died Feb. 10, age 88.

Richard Cole, co-pilot of the lead bomber in the daring 1942 Doolittle Raid, the first U.S. counterattack on the Japanese mainland after Pearl Harbor, died April 9, age 103.

I.M. Pei (pictured), architect of geometric beauty who designed the glass pyramid at the entrance to the Louvre in Paris, died May 16, age 102.

Robert Morgenthau,

Manhattan district attorney who brought mobsters and white-collar crooks to justice during his 35 years in office, died July 21, age 99.

Aleksei Leonov, Soviet cosmonaut who in 1965 became the first person to walk in space, died Oct. 11, age 85.

Pete Frates, former college baseball player with ALS who promoted the Ice Bucket Challenge, helping to raise $100 million to fight the disease, died Dec. 9, age 34.