Bobby C. Wilks, 78, the first African-American Coast Guard aviator and the first African-American to reach the rank of Coast Guard captain, died July 13 at an assisted-living community in Woodbridge, Va., of complications from Parkinson’s disease.
Wilks pulled off a number of daring sea rescues around the world. He received the Air Medal for the initiative, foresight and skill he exhibited on one rescue in the Pacific Ocean on the night of Dec. 9, 1971, battling gale-force winds and heavy seas.
Friend and aviator John “Bear” Moseley recalled a near-miraculous open-sea landing when Wilks directed a destroyer’s captain to increase his speed to smooth out the choppy waters so he could land his HU-16 Albatross, an amphibious plane. He brought the plane down in the wake, got a person in need of medical care aboard and took off, despite being unable to use jet boosters to help lift the plane. He basically “ballooned the aircraft into the air . . . smacked the top of the next wave and then was airborne,” Moseley said. “He pushed the envelope to its very limit, and his skill brought men and machine home.”
Howard A. Engle, a Miami Beach pediatrician and a lifelong smoker who was the lead plaintiff in a landmark class-action suit against the tobacco industry, died at home on Wednesday. He was 89.
The cause was chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, said his son, David Engle. Engle had smoked multiple packs of cigarettes daily since he was in college, his son said, and never was able to quit.
The 1994 class-action suit was filed on behalf of Engle, who had emphysema, and six other Florida residents who said they became sick from smoking.
The size of the class they represented was variously estimated, but one lawyer in the case said it was at least 100,000. The suit contended that the tobacco industry knowingly addicted smokers and failed to adequately warn them of the dangers of smoking.
The case went to trial in 1998, and in 2000, the plaintiffs were awarded $145 billion in punitive damages, the largest punitive damage award ever decided on by a jury. But an appeals court voided the award, saying that it was excessive and that the cases of individual smokers were too disparate to be considered as a class.
The plaintiffs petitioned the Florida Supreme Court, which upheld the decertification of the class but permitted individuals to bring suit. Thousands did. Those cases, known as Engle progeny, are only now beginning to be decided.
Engle received a six-figure settlement from a guaranteed fund provided by the tobacco companies during the appeals process, one of his lawyers said, without being more specific.
Alan G. Davenport, 76, who devised ways to gauge the effects of wind on tall structures, then applied his expertise to some of the world’s biggest buildings and longest bridges, died July 19 in London, Ontario.
The cause was complications of Parkinson’s disease, his son-in-law Dick Huyer said.
Davenport, a professor emeritus at the University of the Western Ontario, used mathematics and experiments with wind tunnels to estimate how far buildings can lean before they fall over. He also analyzed how fast they can sway back and forth before occupants get seasick, partitions crack or elevators get stuck.
Large structures on which Davenport consulted included the World Trade Center in New York; the Sears (now Willis) Tower in Chicago; the CN Tower in Toronto; the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank in Hong Kong; and the Normandy Bridge in France.
Some have suggested his work helped save lives in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the twin towers.
