JACK NEWFIELD, 66: He was a muckraking reporter and newspaper columnist who wrote books on Robert F. Kennedy and boxing impresario Don King. "I think he invented a whole new form of journalism, a new form of personal investigative journalism that was rooted in a consuming ethic and a brilliant search for truth," said Wayne Barrett, Mr. Newfield's co-author on the book "City for Sale: Ed Koch and the Betrayal of New York." Mr. Newfield died Dec. 20 in New York of kidney cancer that spread to his lungs.
ALVIN HOWELL, 96: He led the first team to send an unmanned balloon around the world. The 1957 around-the-world flight of the 400-foot-tall balloon was a triumph, but Mr. Howell never got a chance to revel publicly in the achievement: It was a top-secret spy flight funded by the Air Force to gather intelligence on the former Soviet Union. He died Dec. 19 at his home in Arlington, Mass.
LORENZO J. PONZA JR., 86: He developed and perfected the modern pitching machine. Mr. Ponza's 1952 invention, the "Power Pitcher," became the prototype for pitching machines he and others later built. His 1974 machine, "The Hummer," became a batting practice staple for players from Little League to the Major League because it could be set to imitate fast balls, ground balls and pop-up flies. Mr. Ponza died at his home in Santa Cruz County.
SIDONIE GOOSSENS, 105: Principal harpist of the BBC Symphony Orchestra from 1930 until her retirement 50 years later, she was the last survivor of a musically distinguished family. She died Dec. 15.
RAY RUDE, 88: He went from working on a farm at age 5 to becoming a multimillionaire benefactor after developing the Duraflex diving board. He died Dec. 16 in his hometown of Stanley, N.D. He left Stanley as a teenager and worked as a tool engineer for aircraft companies. In 1948, he developed an aluminum diving board from a discarded airplane wing panel. It led to his Nevada-based Duraflex diving company, which has made thousands of the diving boards used in the Olympics since 1960. Mr. Rude recently donated $1.75 million to the University of North Dakota, his alma mater, in memory of his late wife.
HARRY UENO, 97: He stood up to corrupt operators of the Manzanar internment camp for Japanese-Americans during World War II and later supported a campaign to win reparations for the 120,000 people forced into such camps. He died Dec. 14. When Mr. Ueno realized that camp operators were selling sugar intended for his fellow internees on the black market, he confronted them and was arrested. He spent the war in various jails around the West, including a year in solitary confinement in Tule Lake, and received $15 and a train ticket to San Jose at war's end.
CARL W. BUELL, 98: His Old World-style violins, violas and cellos are owned by symphony orchestra musicians around the nation. Mr. Buell developed his own varnish and carved instruments by hand from blocks of wood over a career spanning about five decades. Mr. Buell, who lived most of his life in the Everett, Wash., area, died Nov. 5.
