Obituaries in the news

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Obituaries in the news

E. Laurence Chalmers

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — E. Laurence Chalmers, who led the University of Kansas during a turbulent period from 1969 to 1972, died Tuesday. He was 81.

The death in Durango, Colo., was announced by the school. A cause of death was not immediately known.

Chalmers, a psychologist, became chancellor during a period of student protests nationwide. At Kansas, he was credited with keeping the peace after an arsonist struck the student union in 1970.

Chalmers also averted a student strike by agreeing to let students leave for the semester with the grades they had already earned — a move that angered some faculty members.

Chalmers eventually resigned as chancellor under pressure from the Kansas Board of Regents. He later went on to serve as director of the Chicago Art Institute.

Nancy Bellavia Mangione

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) — Nancy Bellavia Mangione, the mother of jazz musician Chuck Mangione and jazz pianist Gap Mangione, died Wednesday. She was 95.

She died in Rochester, her family said. A cause of death was not immediately known.

Chuck Mangione, a flugelhorn player, achieved international success in 1977 with his jazz-pop single, “Feels So Good.” He has released more than 30 albums since 1960. He won his first Grammy Award in 1977 for the album “Bellavia,” which was named after his mother.

Her maiden name means “beautiful way.”

Mike Meese

KELSEYVILLE, Calif. (AP) — Mike Meese, the lead investigator in the 1993 Polly Klaas kidnapping and murder case, died Monday. He was 55.

He died of complications from pancreatic cancer in his home in Kelseyville, his family said.

Meese was a sergeant with the Petaluma Police Department when he and an FBI agent obtained a videotaped statement from Richard Allen Davis confessing that he had abducted and strangled the 12-year-old Polly.

Davis later led Meese and other officers to a field outside Cloverdale where he revealed the location of the girl’s body.

Meese had worked for more than 30 years in law enforcement, 15 with the Petaluma Police Department.

Davis has been on death row at San Quentin State Prison since being convicted of first-degree murder with special circumstances and other charges in the case in 1996.

Edward Stimpson

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Edward Stimpson, an aviation advocate who pushed to rejuvenate struggling small aircraft manufacturers in the 1990s by limiting lawsuits against them, died Wednesday after a five-month illness. He was 75.

He died from complications related to lung cancer, though he wasn’t a smoker, said his sister, Catharine Stimpson.

Stimpson, president of the General Aviation Manufacturers Association for 25 years, was a major proponent of legislation signed by President Bill Clinton in 1994 to prevent general aviation companies from being named as defendants in lawsuits in crashes of small planes 18 years old or older.

By 1994, a wave of lawsuits was blamed for a downturn at small aircraft manufacturers such as Beech Aircraft Co. and Cessna Aircraft Corp., costing 100,000 industry jobs.

He retired from the General Aviation Manufacturers Association in 1996 to become chairman of “Be A Pilot,” an industrywide education and research program aimed at increasing the number of people learning to fly.

Stimpson received the Wright Brothers Memorial Trophy for public service in aviation in 1998. A year later, then-President Clinton appointed Stimpson to the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization, a Montreal-based group that promotes safe aviation around the world. Stimpson served through 2004.