Robert Jastrow, 82, an astronomer and science administrator who tried to explain science to a mass audience, died of pneumonia Feb. 8 at his home in suburban Arlington, Va.
Jastrow, former head of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, founded in 1984 with two others the George C. Marshall Institute in Washington, an organization that assesses scientific issues affecting public policy.
In that role, he was a well-known supporter of President Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative, popularly known as “Star Wars,” and wrote a 1985 book about it, “How to Make Nuclear Weapons Obsolete,” that was as controversial as the proposal itself. His best-known book, “Red Giants and White Dwarfs” (1967), helped explain space to a public hungry for news about atmospheric science.
Steve Gerber, 60, a comic-book writer and creator best known for Howard the Duck, the ill-tempered, cigar-smoking Marvel Comics character whose adventures satirized American life in the 1970s, has died.
Gerber also wrote for animated TV series such as “G.I. Joe” and “Dungeons & Dragons” and was known in the comic-book industry as a strong advocate of creators’ rights. He died Sunday in a Las Vegas hospital of complications of pulmonary fibrosis, said Mary Skrenes, a longtime friend and writing collaborator.
David Groh, 68, an actor best known for his role on the 1970s TV sitcom “Rhoda” as the title character’s husband, died of kidney cancer Tuesday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, his family announced.
Groh became an instant celebrity in 1974 when he starred as the easygoing Joe Gerard opposite Valerie Harper’s neurotic Rhoda Morgenstern on the Mary Tyler Moore spinoff. But by the third season, the couple divorced and he was off the show.
Groh later had recurring roles in such prime-time series as “Police Story,” “Melrose Place” and “Law and Order” and on daytime television as D.L. Brock on “General Hospital.”
William Modell, 86, the head of the family-owned Modell’s Sporting Goods chain and a philanthropist who donated millions of dollars to medical research including Crohn’s disease, has died. Modell died Thursday at a Manhattan hospital of complications from prostate cancer, the company said Friday.
Modell became chairman of the company in 1985 after taking over from his father, Henry. Under his leadership, the chain grew from four stores to 136 in about a dozen states in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic region. It markets an assortment of athletic apparel, equipment, accessories and footwear.
