Isaac Asimov, 72, who wrote nearly 500 books, ranging from science fiction that forecast an era in which mankind and benign robots spread across the galaxy as well as science fact, histories and humor; the most popular of his novels and stories were excursions into a future in which Earth is forgotten by a humanity that spreads through the stars, ruled by a galactic
”Foundation” and served by robots; he was an associate professor of biochemistry at the Boston University School of Medicine; April 6, in New York, of heart and kidney failure.
Sam Walton, 74, the feisty business pioneer and one of the nation`s richest people; he built Wal-Mart into the nation`s largest retail chain; he was a shrewd businessman who used high-tech management and cheerleading to sell low-paid employees on a philosophy of efficiency and service to the customer; that philosophy enabled Wal-Mart, which began with a single store in Rogers, Ark., in 1962, to ring up $43.89 billion in 1991 sales and dethrone Sears, Roebuck and Co. as the nation`s largest retailer early in 1991; April 5, in Little Rock, Ark., of leukemia.
Molly Picon, 94, comedic actress and singer who lightened and brightened the Yiddish theater with shows that were sprightly operettas; an indefatigable performer well into her 80s, she enjoyed a stage career that began when she was 5 years old; she reigned supreme in more than 200 productions along the Yiddish theater row that was lower Second Avenue in Manhattan in the 1920s;
she also appeared on Broadway, achieving her most notable success in a two-season run of ”Milk and Honey,” a hit musical that opened in 1961, when she was in her mid-60s; April 6, in Lancaster, Pa.
Aaron Bohrod, 84, realist painter and native Chicagoan whose work appeared widely, in magazines, galleries, museums and even the White House, during the Truman administration; he won many prizes and two Guggenheim fellowships; for 25 years he was artist-in-residence at the University of Wisconsin; his subjects ranged from the urban street scenes of Chicago to the rural settings of Wisconsin and the fighting on Omaha Beach in World War II;
in later years, he specialized in precisely detailed trompe l`oeil paintings; they were so realistic that they were exhibited with do-not-touch signs; April 3, in Madison, Wis.
John Cherberg, 81, a political institution in Washington state who served a record 32 years as lieutenant governor; a Democrat who stepped down in 1988 after serving eight four-year terms as lieutenant governor, he outlasted four governors and, over time, served as acting governor for a total of 4 1/2 years while the chief executives were outside the state; his tenure covered nearly one-third of the 103 years Washington has been a state; April 8, in Olympia, Wash.
Rixi Markus, 81, first woman to be named a grandmaster of bridge; she was a winner of many national and international bridge titles, the editor of a bridge column and the author of eight books on the game; in 1974, she became the first woman ever to be named grandmaster by the World Bridge Federation, and she was the world`s top-ranked player among women for the next six years; she won another title at the World Team Olympiad in New York in 1964; April 4, in London.
Robert Deane Pharr, 75, author whose several novels included ”The Book of Numbers,” about black numbers operators in a Southern city in the Depression; it was his first novel, published in 1969 and later made into a movie starring Raymond St. Jacques; his other books include ”S.R.O.” and
”The Soul Murder Case”; he also is represented in several anthologies of black writers; April 1, in Syracuse, N.Y.
Margaret T. Barker, 83, actress and director who was an original member of the Group Theater in New York City; in addition to many Broadway appearances in the 1940s and `50s, including roles in the original productions of Lillian Hellman`s ”Autumn Garden” and Carson McCullers` ”Member of the Wedding,” she performed with the Williamstown (Mass.) Summer Theater for 10 years and was a member of the Circle Repertory Company in New York; April 3, in New York, of lung cancer.
Karl Tunberg, 83, who wrote the script of the Hollywood epic ”Ben-Hur”; born in the U.S., he set out to be a teacher but turned to scriptwriting after he won a short-story competition; his early successes included the hit musical ”Down Argentine Way” (1940) starring Betty Grable and ”Orchestra Wives”
(1942), which featured the Glenn Miller Band; his screenplay for William Wyler`s ”Ben-Hur” (1959) brought him an Oscar nomination; April 4, in London.
Arthur T. Franke, 85, a pioneer in the use of bacteria and natural micro- organisms to eat up oil spills; he had been a rancher since 1925 and was president of Medina Agriculture Products; he was involved in making biological products for agriculture that were used worldwide; he also was a pioneer in bioremediation, the use of bacteria and natural micro-organisms to clean up oil spills and other waste materials; April 6, in Hondo, Texas.
David C. Smothers, 65, senior editor for United Press International`s Midwest Division, worked as a reporter there and as an editor for 38 years, retiring in 1986; among other major stories, he covered the Gemini and Apollo space shots, the Richard Speck murder case, and the disappearance of labor leader Jimmy Hoffa; he was shot in 1975 while covering riots in Detroit but was saved by a bulletproof vest; he started in the news business at the City News Bureau of Chicago; April 9, in Chicago`s Warren-Barr Pavilion.
Clovis Ruffin, 46, an award-winning fashion designer who had his first major show of a collection in 1972; the next year he became the youngest designer to win a Coty award; early in his career, he went against the prevailing trend of pants for women by designing inexpensive, clingy, T-shirt- like dresses that became his trademark; he helped focus the fashion industry`s attention on young women who had grown up in blue jeans and were looking for youthful, affordable clothes as they began entering the work force; he was also among the first designers extensively employing black models; in 1990, he designed costumes for the Alvin Ailey dance company and in recent years branched out to interior design; born in Clovis, N.M., he grew up in Egypt and Europe and returned to the United States as a teenager; in New York, April 6, of complications from AIDS.
Daniel Bovet, 85, a Swiss-born pharmacologist who discovered the first antihistamine and won the Nobel Prize for medicine in 1957 for his discoveries of certain chemotherapeutic agents; in 1944, he discovered the first antihistamine, a drug effective against allergies; in searching for a substitute for a poison used by Soquth American Indians on arrow tips, he was credited with the discovery of muscle relaxants in 1947; born in Neuchatel, Switzerland, he obtained Italian citizenship in the 1940s; in Rome, April 8, of cancer.
Percy Evan Wagner, 98, a developer and banker who was instrumental in building the Civic Center building in Flossmoor and acquiring land for Governors State University; he built hundreds of South Side and south suburban homes with his brother during the 1920s; he was president of the Chicago Real Estate Board in 1963; before graduating from the University of Chicago in 1916, he formed Wagner Brothers Real Estate with his brother Alvin; during the late 1920s and 1930s, he was president of Midway State Bank and worked for the Federal Housing Administration in Washington; in the late 1970s, he became involved in efforts to buy the land that was used for the Park Forest South development, which includes Governors State University; April 9, in his South Side home.
Dr. Samuel J. Meyer, 95, an ophthalmologist and eye surgeon, who practiced in the Chicago area for more than 50 years; his clients over the years included royalty and movie stars such as Mae West and Tyrone Power;
among the hospitals where he was an attending physician were: Michael Reese Hospital from 1927 to 1979 and Highland Park Hospital from 1949 to 1979; he was past president of the Chicago Ophthalmological Society; he was the author of a glaucoma manual for the American Academy of Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology; he also wrote 39 articles in the field of Ophthalmology; April 5, in Highland Park Hospital.
Elizabeth Grogan Barry, 91, the daughter of the late 18th Ward Ald. Bernard J. Grogan and wife of the late Judge Norman Barry, graduated from St. Mary of Notre Dame High School, and attended St. Mary`s College at Notre Dame, Ind.; while there, she married her husband, a football player under Knute Rockne and blocking fullback for the legendary George ”the Gipper” Gipp, who was the best man at their wedding; during World War II, she worked with Mayor Edward Kelly`s Serviceman`s Center; a resident, April 8, in her daughter`s home in Winnetka.
