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Obituaries

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Brookline Native Mike Wallace Dies

The 93-year old 60 Minutes 'icon' passed on Saturday night, CBS says.

Brookline native and Brookline High School graduate Mike Wallace is reported to have died peacefully last night at a care facility in New Canaan, Conn., where he had been living. He was 93.  The hard-driving 60 Minutes anchor/reporter was born in 1918 in Brookline. His parents were Russian Jewish immigrant Frank and Zina (Sharfman) Wallace. His father was a grocer and insurance broker.  The Academy of Achievement says he was born Myron Wallace.  Wallace was a 1935 graduate of Brookline High, says Wikipedia, who went on to get his undergraduate degree from University of Michigan. He summered on Martha's Vineyard, and had a home in New York. CBS.com says next Sunday's 60 Minutes program, on Sunday, April 15, will be dedicated to Wallace. […

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Grahame Turner

12:35 pm on Thursday, April 12, 2012

Thanks for updating us on the change! I have edited the article to reflect it, and included the editor's note (partly so that these comments still make sense).   more ›

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Share Your Thoughts: Brookline's Stanley Sydney Dies

Community benefactor and Brookline resident, Stanley Sydney, died Jan. 22.

Stanley Sydney, 80, a Brookline resident and active member of the community, died on Jan. 22. Yesterday would have been his 81st birthday. 1443 Beacon Street, a building managed by Sydney Associates, was one of those that opened its doors to people displaced by the fire at 1471 Beacon St. on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.  In addition, The Sydneys were big supporters of MIT's McGovern Institute of Brain Research. He was also an early benefactor of the Maimonides school's atheltics program, and a sponsor of Congregation Young Israel. Services were held last Monday (Jan. 23) at Levine Chapel, and he was interred in Rhode Island. The family has asked that instead of flowers, donations be sent to: A guest book appeared on Legacy.com with comments…

Monday, November 7, 2011

A Look At the Life of Nobel Laureate Norman F. Ramsey

The Brookline resident died in Wayland Friday at the age of 96.

When Norman F. Ramsey passed away on Friday, Nov. 4 in Wayland, the 96-year-old physicist was best known for his Nobel Prize-winning work in atomic physics. “My early interest in science was stimulated by reading an article on the quantum theory of the atom. But, at that time I did not realize that physics could be a profession,” Ramsey wrote in his Nobel Prize autobiography. In 1989, he earned the Nobel Prize for work which led to a new way to read the electromagnetic frequencies of atoms, and from that a new standard by which to keep time: the atomic clock. And in 1981, FermiLab named its auditorium for Ramsey, who had helped found the accelerator project there. Ramsey searched for over four decades for what is called the “Neutron …

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Michael & Nomi Burstein

8:51 am on Tuesday, November 8, 2011

There's quite a few people living in Brookline who are important and well-known in their fields but who would be unrecognizable if you saw them on the street. As it is, my background is in Physics so I've been aware of Ramsay and his work for a long time. It's sad to see him gone. -- Michael   more ›

Norman Ramsey Dies at 96; Work Led to the Atomic Clock

Norman F. Ramsey, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist who developed a precise method to probe the structure of atoms and molecules and used it to devise a remarkably exact way to keep time, died on Friday in Wayland, Mass. He was 96.

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Report: Mixed Feelings about Gaddafi's Death for Widow of Brookline's Lockerbie Victim

Eleanor Bright tells the Boston Herald that with Muammar Gaddafi's death may go the possibility of ever knowing what really happened in the crash of Pan Am 103.

News that Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi may have died today in Sirte has prompted response from around the world. Families of Pan Am Flight 103 passengers from around the Boston area responded in their own ways. Eleanor Bright is the widow of Nicholas Bright, who was one of 178 people from the U.S. who died that December day in 1988 when the Boeing 747 exploded over the small town of Lockerbie, Scotland. Ther Boston Herald reports that Bright believes Gaddafi being killed may mean she may never role what he may have played in the death of her husband and the other 258 passengers and crew that day, besides the 11 people killed on the ground when the plane crashed. Nicholas Bright, who was from Brookline, was 32 years old. A business …

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Human Rights Activist Yelena Bonner Dies

The Russian human rights activist, who lived part-time in Brookline, passed away on Saturday.

Yelena Bonner, widow of Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov and renowned for being a "fearsome" critic of Soviet-era right abuses, died Saturday at the age of 88, after a long illness. A statement posted on the website of the Andrei Sakharov Foundation by her daughter, Tatiana Yankelevich, and son, Alexey Semyonov, says a memorial service will take place at noon Tuesday, June 21, at Stanetsky Memorial Chapel, 1668 Beacon St., Brookline. The statement said that, according to Bonner's wishes, her body will be cremated. The urn with her ashes will be interred at the Vostryakovo Cemetery in Moscow, with her husband, mother, and brother. Bonner reportedly had been splitting her time between Brookline and Moscow. Bonner was born in Soviet …

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Brookline's Sumner Kaplan was Former State Representative

Kaplan was also retired Trial Court judge, former selectman.

Former State Representative and involved Brookline citizen Sumner Kaplan died Tuesday at the age of 90. Kaplan was also a  retired Trial Court judge and Brookline selectman. Kaplan was born in Roxbury in 1920, when Roxbury was a largely Jewish community. He graduated from Boston Latin High School in 1937. His friend, Susan Senator, said he also founded both the Brookline Community Mental Health Center and Bedside Advocates, a non-profit group dedicated to supporting patients' rights. "He will be missed outside of Brookline as well," Selectman Jesse Mermell said of him during Tuesday night's meeting. "He was very much a go-to guy for the total perspective and the infield perspective. He will leave a gaping hole at many of the schools." He …

Jon Albertson

12:48 pm on Wednesday, March 23, 2011

We are flying up from Florida to say our goodbyes. Tremendous man, he will be deeply missed in our community as well...   more ›

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

UPDATED: Former Brookline Fire Chief Passes

Fire Chief William Murphy was chief in Brookline for 5 years.

Today, former Fire Chief William Murphy passed. Murphy joined the Brookline Fire Department in 1946, and served as Fire Chief from 1974 until 1979, when he retired. He was following in his father's footsteps, also a Brookline Fire Chief. He was a resident of Brookline for 57 years, an avid Red Sox and Patriots fan, and a World War II veteran. He was married for 62 years to wife Melanie, and was known as Papa to his 21 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. Services will be held on the Cape next week, in Mashpee, Mass. Burial will follow at the Mass. National Cemetary in Bourne, Mass. Instead of flowers, his family asks that you send donations to Brookline Firefighters Relief Association. Those who wish to pay their respects may do so …

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Storied Beacon Hill Reporter Remembered for Lesser-Known Role on Brookline Television

Kevin McNicholas, 61, died Thanksgiving Day.

When news of Kevin McNicholas' sudden death reached Beacon Hill last week, kind words flowed quickly from the offices of politicians he had long hounded with tough but cordial questions. Gov. Deval Patrick released a statement praising his work, and Sen. Scott Brown was seen at his wake over the weekend. The day he died, the Associated Press ran a tribute written by a colleague who had been at McNicholas' bedside as his cancer worsened, and other newspapers followed with obituaries heralding his reign as "dean of the Statehouse press corps." But in Brookline, the unassuming radio reporter from Allston is remembered better as a warm, gravelly voiced man who joined two friends on local television show every week to banter about politics and…

Bill Davidson

9:40 pm on Monday, December 6, 2010

I knew Kevin from "The Fun Show" during the years I volunteered at BAT. He was a great guy, a wealth of knowledge on current events. "The Fun Show" won't be as fun without him.   more ›

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