William Reynolds Gianelli (February 19, 1919 – March 30, 2020) was an American engineer and public servant. He was the 3rd United States Assistant Secretary of the Army (Civil Works) from 1981 to 1984, serving during the Ronald Reagan administration.
Helen Sanger (September 21, 1923 – July 30, 2020) served as the fifth chief librarian of the Frick Art Reference Library and the institution's first Andrew W. Mellon Chief Librarian, a position inaugurated in 1990.
Jerry Gordon Sturm (December 31, 1936 – June 17, 2020) was an American professional gridiron football player. He played college football at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. He played professionally in Canadian Football League (CFL) for the Saskatchewan Roughriders (1958), and Calgary Stampeders (1959–1960), the American Football League (AFL) for the Denver Broncos (1961–1966), and in the National Football League (NFL) for the New Orleans Saints (1967–1970), Houston Oilers (1971), and Philadelphia Eagles (1972). He was an American Football League All-Star in 1964 and 1966.
After retiring from football, Sturm owned "The South" restaurant along with his wife, Debbie, in Englewood, Colorado. The restaurant offers a selection of Mexican and American food.
Sturm died on June 17, 2020. He had been suffering dementia prior to his death. His family announced that they would donate Sturm's brain to the Concussion Legacy Foundation at Boston University to study the effects of brain trauma from Sturm's football career.
Alan Abel (December 6, 1928 – April 25, 2020) was an American percussionist, music educator, and inventor of musical instruments. He was the associate principal percussionist of the Philadelphia Orchestra from 1959 until his retirement in 1997. He is widely regarded as one of the most important percussion educators of the second half of the twentieth century, having taught at Temple University beginning in 1972. Abel's inventions include several unique and ubiquitous triangles and a bass drum stand that allowed the instrument to be suspended with the use of rubber bands.
Kenneth Leroy Peek Jr. (July 25, 1932 – July 20, 2020) was an American Air Force lieutenant general whose last assignment was vice commander in chief, Strategic Air Command, headquartered at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska. He assumed this position January 30, 1987 and served until September 9, 1988.
Philip D. Appleman (8 February 1926 – 11 April 2020) was an American poet and writer. He was a Professor Emeritus in the Department of English at Indiana University, Bloomington.
He published seven volumes of poetry, the first of which was Summer Love and Surf and the latest of which is Perfidious Proverbs (Humanity Books, 2011); three novels, including Apes and Angels (Putnam, 1989); and half a dozen nonfiction books, including the widely used Norton Critical Edition, Darwin and the Norton Critical Edition of Malthus' Essay on Population. His poetry and fiction have won many awards, including a fellowship in poetry from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Castagnola Award from the Poetry Society of America, the Friend of Darwin Award from the National Center for Science Education, and the Humanist Arts Award of the American Humanist Association, and have appeared in scores of publications, including Harper's Magazine, The Nation, New Republic, New York Times, Paris Review, Partisan Review, Poetry, Sewanee Review, and Yale Review.
He has given readings of his poetry at the Library of Congress, the Guggenheim Museum, the Huntington Library, and many universities. He read several of his poems on the July 6, 2012, episode of Moyers & Company.
He was a founding member of the Poets Advisory Committee of Poets House, New York, a former member of the governing board of the Poetry Society of America, and a member of the Academy of American Poets, PEN American Center, Friends of Poets & Writers, Inc., and the Authors Guild of America.
Appleman wrote many poems drawing on the work of Charles Darwin. In 2003 he signed the Humanist Manifesto.Appleman died in April 2020 at the age of 94.
Richard Passwater (July 24, 1926 – July 10, 2020) was an American racecar driver who raced in NASCAR and USAC Stock Cars. He won the fifth race of the 1953 NASCAR Grand National Series (now NASCAR Cup Series) at Charlotte Speedway.
James McGarrell (February 22, 1930 – February 7, 2020) was an American painter and printmaker known for painting lush figurative interiors and landscapes.
Robert Alan Lewis (February 9, 1925 – April 28, 2020) was an American rock and roll and rhythm and blues singer, best known for his 1961 hit singles "Tossin' and Turnin'" and "One Track Mind".
Ravenna Mathews Helson (February 13, 1925–2020) was an American psychologist known for her research on the psychology of women and creativity. Dacher Keltner has described her as "a pioneer in the study of women's lives".