Basil Rifkind, 73, a physician who was a national leader in the 1980s effort to persuade Americans to lower their cholesterol level and avoid heart disease, died June 22 in Washington. He had Parkinson’s disease.
Rifkind was one of the principal figures in a 1984 landmark study that provided the first conclusive evidence that lowering blood cholesterol can prevent heart attacks.
Rifkind was born in Glasgow, Scotland, to immigrants from Lithuania. He received a medical degree from Glasgow University in 1955, graduating first in his class. He immigrated to the United States to work for the National Institutes of Health in the late 1960s. In 1984, he co-chaired the NIH Consensus Conference on Lowering Blood Cholesterol to Prevent Heart Disease, which recognized cholesterol as a cause of heart disease and called for a national education program.
Daihachi Oguchi, 84, a master Japanese drummer who led the spread of the art of “taiko” drumming to the U.S. and throughout Japan, died Friday after being struck by a car Thursday, said an official at Osuwa Daiko, the ensemble he led in northern Japan.
Oguchi helped found top U.S. taiko groups, including San Francisco Taiko Dojo, which has performed in movies and on international tours since its founding 40 years ago.
A former jazz musician, Oguchi was one of the first to elevate the traditional folk sounds of taiko to modern music played in concert halls, not just festivals and shrines.
