1926 births

Russell L. De Valois (December 15, 1926 – September 20, 2003) was an American scientist recognized for his pioneering research on spatial and color vision.

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.

Richard Lea Dickey (October 26, 1926 – July 3, 2006) was an American professional basketball player for the National Professional Basketball League's Anderson Packers and National Basketball Association's Boston Celtics, although he is best remembered for his college career while playing at NC State.

Oswald Mathias Ungers (12 July 1926 – 30 September 2007) was a German architect and architectural theorist, known for his rationalist designs and the use of cubic forms. Among his notable projects are museums in Frankfurt, Hamburg and Cologne.

Louis Velle (29 May 1926 – 2 February 2023) was a French actor. He appeared in numerous films including Stopover in Orly, The Impossible Mr. Pipelet, and Kings for a Day.

Alfred Paul Ries (November 14, 1926 – October 7, 2022) was an American marketing professional and author. He was the cofounder and chairman of the Atlanta-based consulting firm Ries & Ries with his partner and daughter, Laura Ries. Along with Jack Trout, Ries is credited with resurrecting the idea of "positioning" in the field of marketing.

Rosario Gálvez (October 15, 1926 – September 17, 2015) was a Mexican actress. She was married to Luis Aguilar, "El Gallo Giro", one of the icons of the golden age of Mexican cinema, from 1957 until his death in 1997.

Eugenio Garza Lagüera (18 December 1923 – 24 May 2008) was a Mexican businessman and philanthropist who served as chairman of the board of the Monterrey Institute of Technology (ITESM) and Femsa, Latin America's largest beverage corporation. In February 2008 he was laureated with the Business Social Responsibility Award from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, a nonpartisan institution created by the U.S. Congress within the Smithsonian Institution.

Rubén Fuentes (15 February 1926 – 5 February 2022) was a Mexican classical violinist and composer who was best known for his contributions to mariachi music.

Lawrence Donald Soens (August 26, 1926 – November 1, 2021) was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. In 2008, the Diocese of Davenport in Iowa announced multiple credible accusations that Soens had sexually abused children as a priest. He served as bishop of the Diocese of Sioux City in Iowa from 1983 to 1998.