Clifford Frondel, 95, a distinguished Harvard mineralogist who was among the first people on Earth to view rocks brought back from the moon, died Nov. 12 of Alzheimer's complications in Winchester, Mass.
As a scientist recruited by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to study the moon rocks brought back by Apollo 11 astronauts, Dr. Frondel was present when a box containing 48 pounds of rocks from the Sea of Tranquillity was opened in Houston on July 25, 1969.
"It's basalt! It's igneous!" Dr. Frondel exclaimed upon examining the rocks. At the time, no one had known what to expect, said Carl Francis, who succeeded Dr. Frondel as curator of the Harvard Mineralogical Museum in 1977.
"Basically, what he said means that you don't have to start over to understand lunar geology," Dr. Francis explained. "It's similar to work we have done here on Earth."
Over the years, Dr. Frondel was credited with discovering 48 new types of minerals. He had two minerals, Cliffordite and Frondelite, named in his honor.
James P. Hendrix, 77, a Medal of Honor recipient who met seven presidents and fought in two wars, died Thursday of throat cancer in Davenport, Fla.
A native of Lepanto, Ark., Mr. Hendrix earned the military's highest honor for his bravery in the Battle of the Bulge. He was a 19-year-old Army private Dec. 26, 1944, when he single-handedly disarmed 14 German soldiers in a foxhole. He captured 13 of them, killing the other.
In the days that followed, he also pulled two helpless soldiers from a burning tank while under heavy fire.
Mr. Hendrix, who was given the Medal of Honor by President Harry S. Truman, said he was one of six soldiers to receive the award without getting a Purple Heart for being wounded. He also distinguished himself during the Korean War by completing a parachute attack behind enemy lines.
William Marrie, 33, a lead dancer in Movin' Out, the Billy Joel-Twyla Tharp Broadway show that opened last month, died Saturday, hours after his motorcycle collided with a taxi in midtown Manhattan.
Mr. Marrie, a former classical dancer with the National Ballet of Canada, played the part of Eddie, the Long Island mechanic and Vietnam veteran, in the Wednesday and Saturday matinees of the show. He had recently moved from Toronto to perform in Movin' Out.
Bill Berry, 72, a big band leader and trumpeter who performed with Duke Ellington and Woody Herman and on Merv Griffin's television show, died of lung cancer Wednesday in Los Angeles.
Mr. Berry performed in the big bands of Herman and Maynard Ferguson before joining Ellington's band for a three-year stint in 1961.
Ellington had a profound influence on Mr. Berry, who went on to play and teach his music in a career that spanned more than 50 years. He also was musical director for several years of the Monterey Jazz Festival.
Jay D. Hair, 56, who helped turn the National Wildlife Federation into the nation's largest membership-based environmental organization, died Friday in Seattle of bone marrow cancer.
Mr. Hair, a former zoology professor at Clemson and North Carolina State universities, was president of the federation from 1981 to 1995 -- a period when the group's membership swelled to 6 million.
While at the federation, he established the Corporate Conservation Council, designed to teach businesses about environmental issues.
The Rev. L. Venchael Booth, 83, who helped organize the 2.5 million-member Progressive National Baptist Convention, died Saturday in Memphis, Tenn., after a long illness.
The Washington-based convention, which includes about 1,800 Baptist churches, was created at a 1961 meeting that Mr. Booth held at the Zion Baptist Church in Cincinnati, where he was pastor for 32 years.
Mr. Booth was a former member of the board of trustees of Central State University. He was also the first black trustee of the University of Cincinnati, a post he held for 21 years.
Cho Choong-hoon, 82, founder and chairman of the transportation conglomerate Hanjin, died Sunday at Inha University Hospital in Incheon, South Korea, after being ill for most of the year, said Korean Air spokesman Lee Tae-whan.
A native of Seoul, Mr. Cho founded the Hanjin Group in 1945 and expanded the business after winning contracts to transport U.S. military equipment after the Korean War. The group is now the nation's eighth-largest conglomerate with 21 subsidiaries including Korean Air, Hanjin Shipping Co. and Hanjin Transportation Co. It has also advanced into other business sectors including telecommunications and finance.
Dan Moschetti, 53, the host of a widely syndicated radio show about golf, died of a heart attack Nov. 12 in his studio in Monterey, Calif.
Mr. Moschetti, who had received a diagnosis of heart disease two years ago, collapsed at his desk at The Golf Guys' Radio Show, according to his wife and producer, Diane Moschetti -- just minutes after being interviewed on-air by a San Francisco radio station.
The show has been broadcast on 800 stations in 160 countries.