Skip to article
NYTimes.com [an error occurred while processing this directive] [an error occurred while processing this directive] Welcome, lazowska - Member Center - Log Out
[an error occurred while processing this directive] [an error occurred while processing this directive]
[an error occurred while processing this directive]

Obituaries in the News

Published: November 16, 2005

Filed at 8:20 a.m. ET

Kingsbury Browne Jr.

KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine (AP) -- Kingsbury Browne Jr., an attorney and influential conservationist who spearheaded the founding of the Land Trust Alliance, died Friday from pneumonia at a nursing home. He was 82.

Browne was regarded as a leader of the American land trust movement and was instrumental in the formation of the Land Trust Exchange in 1982. The exchange eventually became the Land Trust Alliance, a national organization based in Washington, D.C., that represents more than 1,500 land trusts across the United States.

During a sabbatical from his law firm in 1980, Browne visited several land trusts around the country and came to recognize the need for a national association serving their needs.

Browne was an avid outdoorsman who made numerous excursions by float plane to Alaska as well as Baffin Island, Hudson Bay and northern Labrador in Canada.

------

John Campo Sr.

NEW YORK (AP) -- John Campo Sr., who trained the 1981 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Pleasant Colony, has died after a long illness. He was 67.

Campo, who had been in declining health for several years, died Monday, according to the Cassese Funeral Home in Ozone Park.

Campo trained horses for 30 years, retiring in 1996. His best year came in 1981 when he saddled Pleasant Colony to victories in the first two legs of the Triple Crown -- a win over Woodchopper in the Derby followed by a win over Bold Ego in the Preakness. The dark bay colt then lost to Summing by 1 3/4 lengths in the Belmont Stakes.

Campo saddled 1,431 winners from 12,826 starters and his horses earned nearly $25.8 million in purse money.

------

Mary Ducey Crabtree

CROSSVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Mary Ducey Crabtree, who with her husband founded a regional playhouse that helped bring live theater to poor Appalachian children, has died. She was 83.

Crabtree, an actor, director and costume designer, died Friday at her home following an illness, according to the Cumberland County Playhouse Web site.

After growing up in Crossville and Pittsburgh, she moved to New York City in 1941 to pursue a theater career and met her future husband, Paul Crabtree, in the national company of George Abbott's ''Kiss & Tell.''

They settled in Crossville after spending a summer and opened the playhouse in 1965. The well-regarded rural venue drew Broadway and Hollywood veterans to work in its productions and hosted a few world premieres.

Crabtree last performed at the playhouse in November 2003.

------

Jerre D. Noe

SEATTLE (AP) -- Jerre D. Noe, a banking computerization pioneer who became the first chairman of the University of Washington Center for Computer Science and Engineering, died Saturday. He was 82.

Noe, retired since 1989, died six weeks after being diagnosed with mesothelioma, a rare form of cancer, the university announced on its Web site.

Noe earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering at the University of California at Berkeley, worked on radar research in Europe during World War II and earned a doctorate at Stanford University.

He then joined the Stanford Research Institute and led a technical research project that developed a computer system using checks printed with magnetic ink for Bank of America in the 1950s so the checks could read by early computers, eliminating the need for clerks to handle each check individually.

Noe's team also developed the first machines to handle electronic fund transfers.

Noe was recruited to head what was initially called the Computer Science Group as a graduate program at Washington in 1968 and instituted an undergraduate program seven years later.

------

Adrian Rogers

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) -- Adrian Rogers, a three-time former president of the Southern Baptist Convention who helped religious conservatives take control of the 16 million-member denomination, died Tuesday. He was 74.

Rogers was hospitalized earlier this month after developing pneumonia during cancer treatment, according to his ministry's Web site.

''A mighty oak has fallen in God's forest,'' said fellow Baptist leader Jerry Falwell.

Rogers was first elected president of the SBC in 1979 at the beginning of a long and sometimes bitter power struggle between religiously conservative pastors and their more moderate counterparts.

Rogers was part of an ''inerrancy movement,'' which championed the belief that the Bible is free from error and literally accurate in all ways.

The conservative movement Rogers helped lead also pushed the denomination to stronger political opposition to abortion, homosexuality and the ordination of female pastors, said Bob Allen, a writer and commentator for the Baptist Center for Ethics, an independent Baptist organization headquartered in Nashville.

Rogers was pastor of Memphis' Bellevue Baptist Church for 32 years, and under his direction, the church's membership grew from 9,000 to more than 28,000. He stepped down as Bellevue's pastor in March.