Man, you take some time off for Christmas, and Death decides to be even busier than usual.<\/p>\n
Edward O. Wilson<\/a>.<\/p>\n As an expert on insects, Dr. Wilson studied the evolution of behavior, exploring how natural selection and other forces could produce something as extraordinarily complex as an ant colony. He then championed this kind of research as a way of making sense of all behavior \u2014 including our own.<\/a> Jean-Marc Vall\u00e9e<\/a>. THR<\/a>. Credits include<\/a> “Dallas Buyers Club” and the “Big Little Lies” series. (Hattip: Lawrence<\/a>.)<\/p>\n Desmond Tutu<\/a>, for the historical record.<\/p>\n Sarah Weddington<\/a>, attorney in the Roe v Wade case. (Hattip: Lawrence<\/a>.)<\/p>\n Wanda Young<\/a>, of the Marvelettes.<\/p>\n Ms. Young (who was also known as Wanda Rogers) and Gladys Horton shared lead singer duties. \u201cDon\u2019t Mess With Bill,\u201d which rose to No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1966, was one of several hits written by Smokey Robinson on which Ms. Young sang lead. (Ms. Horton was the lead singer on \u201cPlease Mr. Postman,\u201d \u201cBeechwood 4-5789\u201d and other songs.)<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Richard “Demo Dick” Marcinko<\/a>.<\/p>\n Commander Marcinko climbed the ranks to command Team 6 and wrote a tell-all best seller that cemented the SEALs in pop culture as heroes and bad boys. Though the highly decorated Vietnam veteran led Team 6 for only three years, from 1980 to 1983, he had an outsize influence on the group\u2019s place in military lore.<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n I’ve read (and thoroughly enjoyed) Rogue Warrior<\/a><\/strong> and, believe it or not, Leadership Secrets of the Rogue Warrior<\/a><\/strong> and The Real Team: Rogue Warrior<\/a><\/strong> (affiliate links). Oddly enough, though, I never met Mr. Marcinko. I say “oddly” because he was actually one of the guests of honor at a convention Lawrence and I went to years back, but I never sought him out. Both of us were busy hanging out with one of the other guests<\/a>.<\/p>\n Bruce Todd<\/a>, former Austin mayor.<\/p>\n Todd served two terms as mayor, first elected in June 1991 and retired in June 1997. In his time as mayor, he and the council considered issues such as airport relocation, wilderness preservation and transferring the city-run hospital to Seton. He also helped recruit major employers to the city, like Samsung, AMD and Applied Materials.<\/a> (Hattip: Lawrence.)<\/p>\n This is a little old, and has been touched on by other folks, but I did not find a good obit until now: Edward D. Shames<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mr. Shames\u2019s Easy Company, Second Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division parachuted behind Utah Beach in the D-Day invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944. It fought the Germans in France, jumped into the German-occupied Netherlands in Operation Market Garden and held off Hitler\u2019s troops in their prolonged siege of the Belgian town of Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge.<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n …<\/p>\n Entering combat as a sergeant with Easy Company, he was among its many paratroopers who found themselves scattered and lost upon hitting the ground behind Utah Beach before dawn on D-Day.<\/a> Mr. Shames was the last surviving officer of Easy Company.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Man, you take some time off for Christmas, and Death decides to be even busier than usual. Edward O. Wilson. As an expert on insects, Dr. Wilson studied the evolution of behavior, exploring how natural selection and other forces could produce something as extraordinarily complex as an ant colony. He then championed this kind of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[113,12,97,31,16,64],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-austin","category-geek","category-history","category-movies","category-obits","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23938"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23938\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23939,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23938\/revisions\/23939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nAs part of his campaign, Dr. Wilson wrote a string of books that influenced his fellow scientists while also gaining a broad public audience. \u201cOn Human Nature\u201d won the Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction in 1979; \u201cThe Ants,\u201d which Dr. Wilson wrote with his longtime colleague Bert H\u00f6lldobler, won him his second Pulitzer in 1991.<\/a>
\nDr. Wilson also became a pioneer in the study of biological diversity, developing a mathematical approach to questions about why different places have different numbers of species. Later in his career, Dr. Wilson became one of the world\u2019s leading voices for the protection of endangered wildlife.<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nHe also helped pass the city’s no-smoking law, banning cigars and cigarettes in all restaurants and bars.<\/a>
\nTodd also led the effort to get the U.S. Airforce to transfer then-Bergstrom Air Force Base to the city when the base was being decommissioned. He succeeded and also worked to pass a $600 million bond election to transform the base into Austin-Bergstrom International Airport.<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\n\u201cI landed in a bunch of cows in a barn,\u201d he recalled in a July 2021 interview with the American Veterans Center. \u201cI had no idea where I was.\u201d<\/a>
\nHe rounded up his men and found a farmhouse. The farmer didn\u2019t speak English and he didn\u2019t speak French, but he took out his maps and, through the farmer\u2019s gestures, found that he was in the town of Carentan, some five miles from a bridge where he was supposed to have touched down. When he got there with his men, he received a battlefield commission as a second lieutenant for his resourcefulness.<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n