1998 deaths

Clara Fraser (March 12, 1923 – February 24, 1998) was a socialist feminist political organizer, who co-founded and led the Freedom Socialist Party and Radical Women.

Marion O'Brien Donovan (October 15, 1917 – November 4, 1998) was an American inventor and entrepreneur. Recognized as one of the era's most prominent female inventors, she secured a total of 20 patents for her creations. Out of these, though, her most groundbreaking contribution was in 1946 with the creation of a reusable, impermeable diaper cover. Ultimately, this induced the invention of the disposable paper diaper, which was eventually commercialized by Victor Mills, the creator of Pampers. Donovan also innovated various solutions around the home and was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2015..

James Alfred Perkins (October 11, 1911 – August 19, 1998) was an American academic administrator who was the seventh president of Cornell University, from 1963 to 1969.

Clifford Gilpin Snyder (March 1, 1917 – January 17, 1998), professionally Cliffie Stone, was an American country singer, musician, record producer, music publisher, and radio and TV personality who was pivotal in the development of California's thriving country music scene after World War II during a career that lasted six decades. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1989.

James Nyx Jr. (May 3, 1914 – July 16, 1998), sometimes credited as James Nyx, was an American songwriter for the Motown label. He co-wrote "Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)", which became a #9 hit for Marvin Gaye in 1971.
Nyx was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, but moved to Detroit in the 1930s, where he married twice and raised a family of eight children. He supported them through jobs requiring menial labor. At one time he was a resident of the Brewster-Douglass Housing Projects, where notable figures such as Diana Ross grew up.His start in the music business was working as a janitor and handyman for Tri-Phi/Harvey Records, which was owned by the husband and wife team of Harvey Fuqua and Gwen Gordy Fuqua, sister of Berry Gordy.He began to bring lyric ideas to Harvey, who collaborated with him on a few songs, including 1961's "Grieving About A Love," recorded by Lorri Rudolph. and 1963's "What Can You Do Now" recorded by Harvey and Ann.When Fuqua sold his labels to Motown Records in 1963, Nyx came along, signing to Jobete Music as a songwriter, but also working as a janitor and an elevator operator. He continued to write with Fuqua, and also Marvin Gaye, but most of his early songwriting work was shelved.In July 1970, Gaye produced a song for The Originals, a Gaye/Nyx composition called "We Can Make It Baby."Nyx's real breakthrough came a year later, when Gaye needed collaborators to help with lyrics for his next project, the sessions that became the landmark album What's Going On. Nyx co-wrote three tracks on the album, "What's Happening Brother," "God Is Love," and most famously, "Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)."
Motown left Detroit the following year, but Nyx did not go with them. He stayed and continued writing songs for a Detroit company named KellGriff Music. One such effort, 1974's "Outta My Life/I'm One Who Know" by the Brewster Crew on Lifeline records (T. Rodgers/J. Nyx Jr.) was arranged by David Van De Pitte, who famously did the orchestrations for "What's Going On."In the 1990s, samples of "Inner City Blues" were often used on R&B and rap records, providing Nyx with royalty income.

John Gutmann (1905 – June 12, 1998) was a German-born American photographer and painter.

Clarence Walton Musser (April 5, 1909, Mount Joy, Pennsylvania – June 8, 1998) inventor of strain wave gearing and also credited with over 250 major inventions and discoveries.Some of his inventions were the Army recoilless rifle, aircraft personnel catapults, instrumentation for underwater detonation testing. His varied career includes experience in many diverse fields. He was research advisor to the Department of Defense for 15 years. With other industrial and government organizations, he has served as chief engineer, director of research, and consultant. He held professional engineering licences in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. As a research adviser to United Shoe Machinery Corp., he explored nonrigid-body mechanics, using controlled deflection as an operating medium. In 1957 Musser announced invention of strain wave gearing also known as harmonic gearing (U. S. patent 2,906,143). He is also the inventor of first fluidic stepper actuators

George Bird Evans (28 December 1906 – 5 May 1998) was an American writer, artist, dog breeder, and sportsman. Evans' most notable contributions are in the area of upland gunning with English Setters. Over the course of his career, Evans authored or edited over two dozen books and scores of magazine articles on this subject, becoming one of the world's best recognized authorities on upland gunning and bird dogs.
Evans' career also included success as an artist, providing illustrations for Cosmopolitan, American, Woman's Home Companion, and Redbook.
As a dog breeder, Evans created the Old Hemlock line of English Setters whose progeny continue to be prized by hunters across the United States for their bird hunting abilities.

Abraham Sinkov (August 22, 1907 – January 19, 1998) was a US cryptanalyst. An early employee of the U.S. Army's Signal Intelligence Service, he held several leadership positions during World War II, transitioning to the new National Security Agency after the war, where he became a deputy director. After retiring in 1962, he taught mathematics at Arizona State University.

Ariadne Welter (June 29, 1930 – December 13, 1998) was a Mexican movie actress of the Golden Age of Mexican cinema. She appeared in the Luis Buñuel film The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz (1955). In 1956 she starred in the film El Vampiro, a classic among Mexican horror films.