Recent necrology, June 2012

A list of notable people who have died recently

• Richard Adler, 1921-2012
  American lyricist, composer and producer of several Broadway shows
• Peter Beaven, 1925-2012
  Christchurch architect, one of NZ’s best-known
• M. J. Bowden, 1938-2012
  Early CEO of the Canterbury Regional Council who made a large contribution to Canterbury’s water management
• Ray Bradbury, 1920-2012
  Writer famed for such science fiction as Fahrenheit 451 who was in fact very wary of technology
• Nora Ephron, 1941-2012
  Romantic comedy queen behind When Harry Met Sally whose career was founded on Heartburn
• Jane Evans, 1946-2012
  Noted Nelson artist
• Norman Fruman, 1923-2012
  Scholar who claimed the poet Coleridge was a blatant liar and a wily plagiarist
• John Golding, 1929-2012
  Eminent art historian who combined the rigour of a scholar with the acute eye of an accomplished artist
• Alan Hacker, 1938-2012
  Clarinettist who overcame personal tragedy to become a champion of modern British music
• C. David Heymann, 1945-2012
  Writer whose titillating biographies of the rich and famous never let facts stand in the way of a good story
• Jan Nigro, 1920-2012
  Eminent NZ artist who celebrated the human figure
• Gitta Sereny, 1921-2012
  Author who went face to face with Nazis and child killers to produce controversial studies of evil
• Victor Spinetti, 1929-2012
  Comic actor who starred with the Beatles, befriended John Lennon, and famously offered Inspector Clouseau “a rheum”
• Paul Sussman, 1968-2012
  Author and archaeologist whose thrillers were praised as the thinking man’s answer to the Da Vinci Code
• Barry Unsworth, 1930-2012
  Booker Prize-winning novelist who drew on the past to illuminate the moral failings of the present