Lives

Will Counts, 70, a Pulitzer Prize-- nominated photographer whose many images included the 1957 desegregation battle nine Black students withstood at Arkansas' Little Rock Central High School, died Oct 5 in Bloomington, Ind.

Charles A. Duncan, 50, who was White House liaison at the Defense and State departments during the Clinton administration, died Sept. 30 at his home in Washington. He had AIDS. Duncan, who first worked at the White House during the Carter administration, also handled logistics for five Democratic presidential campaigns, many local races and national events.

Sea Gaddy, 68, a well-known advocate for the hungry and homeless in Baltimore, died on Oct. 3 of breast cancer. Former president George Bush had declared Gaddy America's 695th "point of light." Her annual Thanksgiving dinner required 80 tons of food; more than 3,500 volunteers fed 20,000 people.

Calvin C. Hernton, 69, a scholar, poet and critic who explored the intersection of American race relations and sexual politics, died at his home in Oberlin, Ohio. The emeritus professor of African American studies at Oberlin College and author of the noted 1965 study Sex and Racism in America, had suffered from cancer for some time.

Sylvia Taylor Johnson, 64, a professor of research methodology and statistics at Howard University's education school, died on Aug. 10 at her home in Silver Spring, Md. She had cancer. Johnson was an authority in areas including standardized testing and assessment bias and served as editor in chief of the Journal of Negro Education.

Govan Mbeki, 91, father of South African President Thabo Mbeki and a leader in the country's struggle against apartheid, died at his home in the coastal city of Port Elizabeth on Aug. 30. Mbeki spent more than 23 years in prison alongside Nelson Mandela. He joined the African National Congress (ANC) in 1935 while a student at the University of Fort Hare (where he earned a teaching diploma), was elected national chairman in 1956 and went on to serve as secretary of the ANC's military wing.

Louis Purnell, 81, an original member of the Tuskegee Airmen who flew 88 combat missions as a World War II fighter pilot, died of cancer at his home in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 10. Purnell went on to work as a researcher and surveyor at the Smithsonian Institution, where he retired in 1985 as a curator at the National Air and Space Museum.

Lisa Y. Sullivan, 40, founder and president of LISTEN (Local Initiative Support, Training, and Education Network), Inc., a three-year old national organization that promotes the training of young urban leaders, died on Oct. 1, at Howard University Hospital in Washington, D.C. Previously, Sullivan was director of the field division at the Children's Defense Fund. Sullivan graced the July/August 2001 cover of The Crisis magazine, which focused on the future of Black leadership.

Tank Younger, 73, the first athlete from a historically Black college to play in the National Football League (NFL), died on Sept. 15 in Inglewood, Calif. He had been in poor health for some time. Younger played at what is now Grambling State University under coach Eddie Robinson and in 1949 went to the Los Angeles Rams training camp, becoming a star fullback and linebacker for the team that won the NFL championship in 1951. Younger was later an executive with the Rams and the San Diego Chargers.