Robert Bruce Mathias (November 17, 1930 – September 2, 2006) was an American decathlete, politician, and actor. Representing the United States, he won two Olympic gold medals in the Decathlon, at the 1948 and the 1952 Summer Games. As a Republican, he served in the US House of Representatives for California's 18th congressional district, for four terms from 1967 to 1975.
Ursula Kroeber Le Guin (née Kroeber; KROH-bər lə GWIN; October 21, 1929 – January 22, 2018) was an American author best known for her works of speculative fiction, including science fiction works set in her Hainish universe, and the Earthsea fantasy series. She was first published in 1959, and her literary career spanned nearly sixty years, producing more than twenty novels and over a hundred short stories, in addition to poetry, literary criticism, translations, and children's books. Frequently described as an author of science fiction, Le Guin has also been called a "major voice in American Letters". Le Guin said she would prefer to be known as an "American novelist".Le Guin was born in Berkeley, California, to author Theodora Kroeber and anthropologist Alfred Louis Kroeber. Having earned a master's degree in French, Le Guin began doctoral studies but abandoned these after her marriage in 1953 to historian Charles Le Guin. She began writing full-time in the late 1950s and achieved major critical and commercial success with A Wizard of Earthsea (1968) and The Left Hand of Darkness (1969), which have been described by Harold Bloom as her masterpieces. For the latter volume, Le Guin won both the Hugo and Nebula awards for best novel, becoming the first woman to do so. Several more works set in Earthsea or the Hainish universe followed; others included books set in the fictional country of Orsinia, several works for children, and many anthologies.
Cultural anthropology, Taoism, feminism, and the writings of Carl Jung all had a strong influence on Le Guin's work. Many of her stories used anthropologists or cultural observers as protagonists, and Taoist ideas about balance and equilibrium have been identified in several writings. Le Guin often subverted typical speculative fiction tropes, such as through her use of dark-skinned protagonists in Earthsea, and also used unusual stylistic or structural devices in books such as the experimental work Always Coming Home (1985). Social and political themes, including race, gender, sexuality, and coming of age were prominent in her writing. She explored alternative political structures in many stories, such as in the philosophical short story "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" (1973) and the anarchist utopian novel The Dispossessed (1974).
Le Guin's writing was enormously influential in the field of speculative fiction, and has been the subject of intense critical attention. She received numerous accolades, including eight Hugos, six Nebulas, and twenty-four Locus Awards, and in 2003 became the second woman honored as a Grand Master of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. The U.S. Library of Congress named her a Living Legend in 2000, and in 2014, she won the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. Le Guin influenced many other authors, including Booker Prize winner Salman Rushdie, David Mitchell, Neil Gaiman, and Iain Banks. After her death in 2018, critic John Clute wrote that Le Guin had "presided over American science fiction for nearly half a century", while author Michael Chabon referred to her as the "greatest American writer of her generation".
Robert Wesley Knepper (born May 25, 1954) is an American former Major League Baseball pitcher. From 1976 to 1990, he pitched 15 seasons for the San Francisco Giants and Houston Astros, earning two All-Star appearances as well as the 1981 NL Comeback Player of the Year award. He gained notoriety with his 1988 remarks disparaging umpire Pam Postema, the National Organization for Women, and gay people.
Phillip L. Isenberg (February 25, 1939 – October 26, 2023) was an American politician. A member of the Democratic Party, he was mayor of Sacramento, California, from 1975 to 1982. He also served in the California State Assembly from 1982 to 1996. He represented the city of Sacramento and surrounding areas.
Alan Leigh Sawyer (January 1, 1928 – June 30, 2012) was an American professional basketball player for the Washington Capitols of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the UCLA Bruins from 1945 to 1950. He missed the end of the 1948–49 season after an appendectomy. Sawyer helped lead the 1949–50 team to their first Pacific Coast Conference (PCC) championship. He was named to the first team of the All-Southern Division PCC team in 1949, and voted to the second team in 1950. He was selected in the third round of the 1950 NBA draft by the Capitols.After the Capitols were disbanded mid-season in 1951, its players were allocated to other teams, and Sawyer was drafted by the Tri-Cities Blackhawks. However, he decided to return to the University of California, Los Angeles, to complete his degree.Sawyer later became a math teacher and coached basketball at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, California.
Richard Roy Cole (May 6, 1926 – October 18, 2018) was an American Major League Baseball infielder.Before the 1943 season, Cole was signed as an amateur free agent by the St. Louis Cardinals. Over eight years later, he made his debut with the Cardinals, but was traded after only 15 games of service to the Pittsburgh Pirates, where he would spend the majority of his career.Cole was used at three different positions during his career, playing 169 games at shortstop, 118 games at second base, and 107 games at third.In Cole's only full season, 1954, he grounded into 20 double plays, which was enough to tie for the second highest total in the National League with Stan Musial, only being topped by Del Ennis with 23. However, Cole hit .270, along with 22 doubles, 5 triples, and 40 RBI in 138 games. The only home run of the year he hit was off the Brooklyn Dodgers' All-Star Carl Erskine.Cole died on October 18, 2018, at the age of 92.
James Donahue Burke (September 18, 1925 – August 19, 2023) was an American lunar settlement and exploration expert. He was known for being the first manager of the Ranger program, and considered one of the pioneers of America's space program.
Theresa Jimmie Francine Knorr (née Cross; born March 14, 1946) is an American woman convicted of torturing and murdering two of her six children while using the others to facilitate and cover up her crimes. She was acquitted of murdering her first husband and was also considered a suspect in the unsolved murder of her sister. She is currently serving two consecutive life sentences at the California Institution for Women in Chino, California.
Lance Michael Kerwin (November 6, 1960 – January 24, 2023) was an American actor, known primarily for roles in television and film during his childhood and teen years in the 1970s. He played lead roles in the TV series James at 15 as well as the TV films The Loneliest Runner and Salem's Lot.
Jennifer Nicole Freeman, often credited as Jennifer N. Freeman, is an American actress. She is best known for playing the role of Claire Kyle in the sitcom My Wife and Kids (introduced in season 2) and her film roles in You Got Served (2004), and Johnson Family Vacation (2004).