Deaths in September 1997

The following is a list of notable deaths in September 1997.

Contents
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← August	September	October →

Entries for each day are listed alphabetically by surname. A typical entry lists information in the following sequence:

• Name, age, country of citizenship at birth, subsequent country of citizenship (if applicable), reason for notability, cause of death (if known), and reference.

September 1997

1

• Boris Balinsky, 91, Ukrainian and South African biologist, embryologist and entomologist.
• Gordon Blake, 87, U.S. Air Force lieutenant general.
• Harriet Browne, 65, American tap dancer and choreographer.[1]
• Zoltán Czibor, 68, Hungarian Olympic football player (1952 gold medal).[2]
• Reidar Olsen, 86, Norwegian footballer.

2

• George E. Allen, 85, American football player and coach.
• Rudolf Bing, 95, Austrian-born opera manager.[3]
• Viktor Frankl, 92, Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist.[4]
• Joseph Thomas O'Keefe, 78, American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church, heart failure.
• Germán Rieckehoff, 82, Puerto Rican politician.
• Mary Sears, 92, American oceanographer.[5]

3

• George Henry Andrews, Liberian sports journalist and minister of Tourism and Cultural Affairs of Liberia, heart attack.
• Arthur Chin, 83, American pilot and World War II flying ace.
• Harold G. Dick, 90, American mechanical engineer.
• Ernst C. Stiefel, 89, German-American jurist.[6]

4

• Khaled Abdul-Wahab, 86, Tunisian rescuer of Jews.
• Chuck Arnold, 71, American racecar driver.
• Jeffrey Bernard, 65, British journalist, renal failure.
• Dharamvir Bharati, 70, Indian poet, author and playwright, heart disease.
• Hans Eysenck, 81, German-born British psychologist.[7]
• Julio Musimessi, 73, Argentine football goalkeeper.
• Ivan Nenov, 95, Bulgarian painter.[8]
• Lobo Nocho, 78, African-American émigré jazz singer and painter.
• Jan Opperman, 58, American racecar driver.
• Ken Otremba, 48, American politician, member of the Minnesota House of Representatives (1995–1997), liver cancer[9]
• Ester Paredes Jimenez, 81, Filipina activist.
• Florence Engel Randall, 79, American author.[10]
• Aldo Rossi, 66, Italian architect and designer, car accident.[11]
• Belle Stewart, 91, Scottish traditional singer.
• Bill Whatley, 74, British trade unionist.

5

• Mildred Dein, 85, American screenwriter.
• Ann Dunnigan, 87, American actress and teacher.[12]
• Leon Edel, 89, American literary critic and biographer.[13]
• Sir George Solti, 84, Hungarian conductor.[14]
• Mother Teresa, 87, Albanian missionary and humanitarian, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.

6

• Edward H. Hurst, 80, United States Marine Corps officer.
• Roy Huskey Jr., 40, American upright bass player, lung cancer.
• Mary Lawson, 73, American baseball player (AAGPBL).[15]
• Bianca Majolie, 96, Italian-American story artist, concept artist and writer.
• P. H. Newby, 79, English novelist.[16]
• H. W. L. Poonja, Indian sage and jivanmukta, pneumonia.
• Refik Resmja, 66, Albanian footballer.

7

• Mukul S. Anand, 45, Indian film director and producer, heart attack.
• Elisabeth Brooks, 46, Canadian actress (The Howling), brain cancer.
• Edwin Brock, 69, British poet.
• Connie Clausen, 74, American actress, author, and literary agent, stroke.[17]
• George Crockett Jr., 88, African-American attorney, jurist, and congressman.[18]
• Edgar Kaplan, 72, American bridge player, cancer.[19]
• Mobutu Sese Seko, 66, Congolese politician and president of Zaire.
• Bill Strannigan, 78, American basketball coach.
• Abdullah Tariki, 78, Saudi politician and government official, heart attack.
• Derek Taylor, 65, English journalist, writer and record producer, throat cancer.[20]

8

• Yu Jim-yuen, 92, China opera singer and actor, heart attack.
• Helen Shaw, 100, American actress.
• Vladimír Sommer, 76, Czech composer.
• Sabatino Moscati, 74, Italian archaeologist and linguist.[21]

9

• Richie Ashburn, 70, American baseball player (Philadelphia Phillies) and member of the MLB Hall of Fame.[22]
• Sir John Hackett, 86, Australian-born British army general and painter.
• Burgess Meredith, 89, American actor, director, producer, and writer.[23]
• Thomas L. Tatham, 85, American attorney and land developer.

10

• Satish Chandra Agarwal, Indian politician.
• Abraham Akaka, 80, American clergyman.[24]
• Richard Brandt, 86, American philosopher.
• Fritz Von Erich, 68, American professional wrestler, cancer.[25]
• George Schaefer, 76, American television and theatre director.
• Donald Vails, 48, American gospel musician.

11

• Fernando Ayala, 77, Argentine film director, screenwriter and producer.
• Mel Groomes, 70, American football player and baseball coach, renal failure and cardiac arrest.[26]
• Camille Henry, 64, Canadian ice hockey player.[27]
• Rosalie King, 95, American actress and singer.
• Xhevdet Shaqiri, 74, Albanian football player and coach.
• Hannah Weiner, 68, American poet.

12

• Stig Anderson, 66, Swedish music manager and publisher, heart attack.[28]
• Julien Binford, 88, American painter.
• Leslie E. Brown, 77, United States Marine Corps aviator.
• Archer Denness, 82, Australian Army officer.
• Elsa De Giorgi, 82, Italian actress and writer.
• Mool Chand Jain, 82, Indian politician.
• Leonard Maguire, 73, Scottish actor.
• Judith Merril, 74, American-Canadian science fiction writer.[29]
• Eddie O'Toole, 76, American long-distance runner, heart attack.[30]

13

• Paul Brechler, 86, American athletic director (University of Iowa).[31]
• Robert Cant, 82, British politician.
• Roger O. Egeberg, 94, American medical educator and administrator.
• Roger Frey, 84, French politician.
• Georges Guétary, 82, French singer, dancer and actor.[32]
• David Rice, 83, English physician, naval officer, and psychiatrist.
• Margo Rose, 94, American puppeteer.[33]
• Victor Szebehely, 76, Hungarian-American physicist.[34]

14

• Andrew Fountaine, 78, British far right activist.
• Stig H. Hästö, 79, Finnish jurist, businessman and vuorineuvos.
• Clyde Johnson, 80, American football player.[35]

15

• Angel Balevski, 87, Bulgarian inventor and engineer.
• Georges Bergé, 88, French Army general.
• Bulldog Brower, 63, American professional wrestler, complications from hip surgery.
• David Dunbar-Nasmith, 76, British Royal Navy officer.
• Edna Mae Harris, 82, American actress and singer, heart attack.
• Bashiru Kwaw-Swanzy, 75, Ghanese politician.
• Thomas J. Parmley, 99, American physicist.[36]
• Gertrude Pitzinger, 93, German contralto.[37]
• Larry Rosati, 79, American football coach.

16

• Bill Burns, 84, American journalist.
• Terence Cooper, 64, British film actor.
• Helen Jepson, 92, American lyric soprano.[38]
• William N. Oatis, 83, American journalist, Alzheimer's disease.[39]

17

• Benjamin Atkins, 29, American serial killer and rapist, HIV.
• Barbara Canright, 77, American human computer at NASA.
• Anthony Franchini, 99, American guitarist.[40]
• Brian Hall, 59, English actor (Fawlty Towers), cancer.
• Harry Jago, 84, Australian politician.
• Trevor Redmond, 70, New Zealand speedway rider.[41]
• Amanoyama Shizuo, 43, Japanese sumo wrestler.
• Red Skelton, 84, American comedian.[42]
• Jan P. Syse, 66, Prime Minister of Norway (1989–1990).
• Aida Yūji, 81, Japanese historian, pneumonia.

18

• Robert Macintyre, 57, Scottish architect.
• Patricia Pulling, 49, American anti-role-playing games activist, lung cancer.[43]
• Ganesh Man Singh, 81, Nepali politician.
• Seigo Tada, 75, Japanese founder of Goju-Ryu Seigokan Karatedo.
• Jimmy Witherspoon, 77, American blues singer, cancer.[44]

19

• Józef Bielawski, 87, Polish Arabist and scholar of Islam.
• Bill Butland, 79, American baseball pitcher (Boston Red Sox).
• Malcolm Hughes, 77, British artist.
• Cao Jianyou, 80, Chinese electrical engineer.
• Kathy Keeton, 58, American editor and publisher of Penthouse magazine, complications from surgery.[45]
• Rich Mullins, 41, American Christian musician, car accident.[46]
• John E. Pickering, 79, United States Air Force Medical Corps officer.

20

• Virginia d'Albert-Lake, 87, American French Resistance agent during World War II.
• Matt Christopher, 80, American children's author.[47]
• Derek Empson, 78, British admiral.
• Kurt Gloor, 54, Swiss film director, screenwriter and producer, suicide.
• Anoop Kumar, 71, Indian film actor.
• Nick Traina, 19, American punk band singer, suicide.
• Graham Willars, 57, English rugby player.

21

• Juan Burgueño, 74, Uruguayan footballer.
• Teuku Muhammad Hasan, 91, Indonesian politician.
• Jennifer Holt, 76, American actress.
• Maurice Kaufmann, 70, British actor, cancer.[48]
• Paturi Rajagopala Naidu, 77, Indian freedom fighter and politician.

22

• Beatrice Aitchison, 89, American mathematician, statistician, and economist.
• Deolindo Bittel, 75, Argentine politician.
• William Craig, 68, American author and historian[49]
• George Henderson, 74, Scottish Anglican bishop.
• Robert E. Huyser, 73, United States Air Force general.
• Ruth Picardie, 33, English journalist and editor, breast cancer.
• Eddie Sawyer, 87, American Major League Baseball scout.[50]
• George Thomas, 1st Viscount Tonypandy, 88, British politician.
• Chiang Wei-kuo, 80, Secretary-General of the National Security Council of the Republic of China (1986–1993).
• Anthony Wreford-Brown, 84, English cricketer.
• Shoichi Yokoi, 82, Japanese soldier, heart attack.[51]

23

• Darko Bratina, 55, Italian sociologist, film theorist and politician, heart attack.
• Pedro de Castro Van Dúnem, 55, Angolan politician.[52]
• Shirley Clarke, 77, American filmmaker, stroke.[53]
• Abe Gibron, 72, American gridiron football player and coach.[54]
• Wilbur R. Ingalls Jr., 74, American architect.
• Cary Lu, 51, American science writer, cancer.[55]
• Abdul Bakeer Markar, 80, Sri Lankan politician.

24

• Dwight Dickinson, 80, United States diplomat and Navy officer, Parkinson's disease.
• Aobayama Hirotoshi, 47, Japanese sumo wrestler.
• William M. Miley, 99, United States Army officer and a professor.[56]
• Marie Jean Philip, 44, American deaf community leader, pulmonary embolism.
• Yen Shui-long, 94, Taiwanese painter and sculptor, surgical complications after fall.
• Ernest Will, 84, French archaeologist and professor.

25

• Hélène Baillargeon, 81, Canadian singer, actor and folklorist.
• Jean Françaix, 85, French musician and composer.
• Juan José Gámez, 58, Costa Rican football player and manager, cardiac arrest.
• Jim Kemmy, 61, Irish politician.[57]
• Maria Mordasova, 82, Russian singer.
• Konda Madhava Reddy, 73, Indian judge, non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
• Kamil Yashin, 87, Soviet/Uzbekistani poet and screenwriter.

26

• Mafizuddin Ahmed, Bangladeshi scientist.
• Woody English, 91, American baseball player.[58]
• Dorothy Kingsley, 87, American screenwriter, heart failure.[59]
• John Schubeck, 61, American television reporter and anchor, kidney and liver failure.[60]
• Samuel W. Taylor, 90, American novelist, scriptwriter, and historian.

27

• Tina Flade, 92, German modern dancer.
• Sven-Eric Johanson, 77, Swedish composer and organist.
• Alex Konikowski, 69, American baseball player.[61]
• Mandali Venkata Krishna Rao, 71, Indian politician.
• Walter Trampler, 82, American violist.[62]
• Péter Zsoldos, 67, Hungarian science fiction author.

28

• Munir Bashir, 66-67, Iraqi musician.[63]
• Ho Feng-Shan, 96, Chinese diplomat.
• David Gill, 69, British film historian, preservationist and documentarian.[64]
• Lage Thunberg, 92, Swedish Air Force officer.[65]
• Elfriede Vey, 75, German cyclist.

29

• William Goddard, 84, American engineer and inventor.
• Roy Lichtenstein, 73, American pop artist, pneumonia.[66]
• Peter G. Marbaniang, 58, Indian parliamentarian and academic.
• Edith B. Price, 100, American children's author and illustrator.

30

• Al "Jazzbo" Collins, 78, American disc jockey and musician.[67]
• Nobuo Fujita, Japanese pilot and warrant officer during World War II.[68]
• Pierre Granche, 49, French-Canadian sculptor, lung cancer.
• Edward L. Kessel, 93, American biologist.
• Graeme MacDonald, 67, British television producer and executive.[69]
• Don Martin, 77, American basketball player.[70]
• Robert De Vestel, 72, American set decorator (Logan's Run).

References

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2. Zoltán Czibor, Sports-Reference / Olympic Sports. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
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