2021 deaths

Van A. Harvey was George Edwin Burnell Professor of Religious Studies (Emeritus) at Stanford University. Born in Hankow, China, he served in the U.S. Navy (1943–46), and was awarded a BA in Philosophy from Occidental College (1948, Phi Beta Kappa). After attending Princeton Theological Seminary for one year, he received a B.D. from Yale Divinity School in 1951 and a PhD. from Yale University in 1957 in post-Enlightenment religious thought. His thesis was entitled "Myth, Faith, and History" and his thesis supervisor was H. Richard Niebuhr.Van Harvey taught at Princeton University (1954–58), Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University (1958–68), the University of Pennsylvania (1968–78), and Stanford University (1978–1996). He was Chair of the graduate program in religion at SMU and Chair of his departments at both the University of Pennsylvania and Stanford.The aim of his first book A Handbook of Theological Terms (1964) was to explain to laypersons the meaning of technical terms found in Christian theology, with special attention to issues dividing Protestant and Catholic theology. His second book The Historian and the Believer (1966) was concerned with the way in which "morality of knowledge" that informs professional historical inquiry poses problems for the believer and theologian who attempt to justify the historical claims of Christianity “on faith”, especially when historical inquiry is concerned with Jesus of Nazareth. Harvey argues that these problems have not been satisfactorily dealt with by modern Christian theologians. He pays particular attention to the theologies of Karl Barth, Paul Tillich, and Rudolf Bultmann. New Testament scholar Gerd Lüdemann states in a citation of this book that "I have long been more indebted to this than is evident from the number of explicit references" The third edition of 1996 contains a new introduction outlining his mature position on these issues.
One commentator has characterized Harvey's career after 1980 as having been transformed from theologian into skeptical student of religion. This change is reflected in both his articles and preeminently in his third book Feuerbach and the Interpretation of Religion (1995), winner of the 1996 American Academy of Religion’s award for excellence in constructive-reflective studies. This book argues that the neglected later writings of Ludwig Feuerbach dropped much of the Hegelian elements informing his better-known early work and created a more powerful theory for the origins and persistence of religion. Harvey compares this theory with several well-known contemporary social-scientific and psychological theories and judges Feuerbach's to be superior.
Harvey was awarded an honorary degree in the Humanities from Occidental College, two John Simon Guggenheim Fellowships (1966 and 1972), a National Endowment of the Humanities Fellowship (1979), a Visiting Fellowship from Clare Hall, Cambridge University (1979), and distinguished teaching awards from both the University of Pennsylvania and Stanford University. He contributed to several encyclopedias and reference works including the online Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Harvey died July 11, 2021.

Vera Louise Holmøy (27 April 1931 in Oslo – 12 December 2021) was a Norwegian judge.
She was hired in the Ministry of Justice and the Police in 1957, became assisting secretary in 1965 and deputy under-secretary of State in 1974. She was a Supreme Court Justice from 1976 to 2001.Vera Louise Holmøy was married to judge Tor Holmøy. She died at the age of 90.

Carl Halvor Høgset (3 November 1941 – 2 June 2021) was a Norwegian lecturer, musician and choral conductor.
Høgset held degrees in language and musicology from the University of Oslo, 1974, as well as voice and choral conducting from the Norwegian Academy of Music, 1976. He was a student of the composer Knut Nystedt.
In 1971, Høgset founded the chamber choir Grex Vocalis. In 2012 he was appointed, for the second time, conductor of the Norwegian Student Choral Society (first time 1982–1985). He previously conducted the Norwegian Youth Choir (1987–2003).
Høgset was also a singer, with a career stretching back to his youth, when he was a member of Sølvguttene. Høgset in later years released a number of solo recordings of pieces by Henry Purcell, Georg Friedrich Händel, Edvard Grieg and Arne Nordheim.As a lecturer, Høgset taught both in state schools and the Norwegian Academy of Music and ran courses and seminars for choir singers both in Norway and internationally.
In 2007, King Harold V awarded Høgset "Knight 1st Class", Royal Norwegian Order of Saint Olav, for his contribution to Norwegian music.Høgset was an honorary member of the Norwegian Choir Conductor Society (Fonoko), as well as the Norwegian Student Choral Society. He was also one of two honorary members of "The Norwegian Choir Society"; the second being Norunn Illevold Giske.

Kjersti Alveberg (26 July 1948 – 19 October 2021) was a Norwegian choreographer and dancer. Over the last 30 years of her career she created ballets for stage and television and won prestigious awards for her work.

Kjersti Holmen (8 February 1956 – 26 September 2021) was a Norwegian actress.
She was born on Nøtterøy, and later moved to Alnabru, where she grew up with her parents and two sisters. She graduated from the Norwegian National Academy of Theatre in 1980, and was employed at the National Theatre since 1981 – permanently since 1992. There she had roles such as "Eliza Doolittle" in George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion, the title role in Henrik Ibsen's Hedda Gabler and "Blanche" in Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire.Holmen was also a well-known television and film actress, and had her break-through on the big screen in the 1985 film Orions belte. She won the Amanda – the main Norwegian film award – twice: in 1993 for her role in Telegrafisten, and in 2000 for the two films S.O.S. and Sophie's World. In television she was known from the Norwegian/Swedish collaboration "Röd snö" – aired the same year as Orions belte came out – as well as several other roles.Holmen lived with actor Sverre Anker Ousdal, and had two sons from a previous relationship with actor Reidar Sørensen.Holmen died at Økernhjemmet on 26 September 2021, after a long illness.

J. Michael Dunn (June 19, 1941 – April 5, 2021) was Oscar Ewing Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, professor emeritus of Informatics and Computer Science, was twice chair of the Philosophy Department, was Executive Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and was founding dean of the School of Informatics (now the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering) at Indiana University.

David Beriáin Amatriáin (1977 – 26 April 2021) was a Spanish journalist, producer, and documentary anchor, who specialized in armed conflicts, violence, and immersion journalism.

Emile Hemmen (6 December 1923 – 8 January 2021) was a lyric poet and writer from Luxembourg who lived in Mondorf-les-Bains.

Lillian Ann Luckey (July 9, 1919 – December 13, 2021) was an American baseball pitcher who played in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Listed at 5 ft 1 in (1.55 m), 126 lb (57 kg), she batted and threw right handed.Born in South Bend, Indiana on July 9, 1919, Luckey joined the All American League in its 1946 season. She was assigned to the South Bend Blue Sox club and appeared in eight games for them.She posted a 2–4 record with a 3.44 ERA, allowing 37 runs - 21 earned - on 51 hits and 48 walks, while striking out 10 through 54 innings of work. As a hitter, she went 2 for 15 for a .133 batting average.The All American League folded in 1954, but there is a permanent display at the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum at Cooperstown, New York since 1988 that honors the entire league rather than any individual figure.In July 2008, it was reported that Luckey still played golf twice a week at the age of 89. She died in Niles, Michigan, on December 13, 2021, at the age of 102.

Charlotte Mailliard Shultz (née Smith; September 26, 1933 – December 3, 2021) was a socialite, and philanthropist. She was the Chief of Protocol for the state of California, and the Chief of Protocol for the City and County of San Francisco. She was married to former United States Secretary of State George P. Shultz, from 1997 until his death in 2021.
Mailliard Shultz was President of the board of the War Memorial Performing Arts Center and a member of the boards of the San Francisco Symphony, Grace Cathedral, the Commonwealth Club of California, and the San Francisco Ballet. A native Texan, Mailliard Shultz often quipped about San Francisco, "... if I don't pay my dues, they may send me back to Texas!"