Robert Emmett Cantwell (January 31, 1908 – December 8, 1978), known as Robert Cantwell, was a novelist and critic. His first novel, Laugh and Lie Down (1931) is an early example, twenty years before Jack Kerouac, of the American classic genre the "road novel", and also an important example of the "Depression novel" period genre. His most notable work, The Land of Plenty, focuses on a lumber mill in a thinly disguised version of his hometown in Washington state.
Leif Andreas Larsen (2 January 1898 – 29 April 1978) was a Norwegian telegrapher and politician for the Labour Party.
He was born in Kristiania, and moved to Bærum in 1926. He had an education as a telegrapher, and also took the cand.jur. degree in 1924. He chaired of the Labour Party chapter in Bærum from 1930 to 1935, and was elected to serve in Bærum municipal council in 1932. During the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany he was imprisoned in Bredtveit concentration camp from 30 March 1943, then in Berg concentration camp from 26 July 1944 to 26 March 1945.In May 1945, when Norway was liberated from the five-year-long German occupation, Larsen became deputy mayor of Bærum. After the 1945 Norwegian local elections he became mayor. He was the first mayor of Bærum to represent the Labour Party. He left the municipal council in 1951, but returned for the years 1956 to 1963, when he was again deputy mayor. From 1962 to 1968 he was the director of Telegrafverket, which would change its name to Televerket in 1969 and Telenor in 1995.Larsen was decorated as a Commander of the Order of St. Olav. A road in Sandvika, Leif Larsens vei, has been named after him.
Kirsten Sinding-Larsen (4 August 1898 – 10 December 1978) was a Norwegian architect.She was born in Kristiania (now Oslo), Norway. She was the daughter of colonel Birger Fredrik Sinding-Larsen (1867–1941) and Emilie Rustad (1871–1904). She was a paternal granddaughter of jurist and writer Alfred Sinding-Larsen, niece of physician Christian Magnus Sinding-Larsen, architect Holger Sinding-Larsen and painter Kristofer Sinding-Larsen, first cousin of journalist Henning Sinding-Larsen and grandniece of architect Balthazar Lange.She finished her secondary education in 1912, and studied at the Norwegian National Academy of Craft and Art Industry (now Oslo National Academy of the Arts) from 1915 to 1917. She worked as an apprentice to architect Sigurd Lunde in Bergen from 1919 to 1921. She worked with architect Håkon Ahlberg in Stockholm from 1923 to 1925 and Tage William-Olsson to 1927. She studied architecture at the Royal Institute of Technology from 1927 to 1929. She was employed by architects Gustav Classon and Wolter Gahn in Stockholm from 1929 to 1932. She returned to Oslo in 1932 and worked for a short time with her uncle architect Holger Sinding-Larsen before establishing her own practice in 1933.During the period 1933–38, she designed a number of homes in Moss and Jeløy in Østfold. Her most notable single work was the design of Sunnaas Hospital at Nesodden in the mid-1950s. She is also remembered as a debater of housing policy.
Stanley Phillips Frankel (1919 – May, 1978) was an American computer scientist. He worked in the Manhattan Project and developed various computers as a consultant.
Dick Yin Wong (September 13, 1920 – December 26, 1978) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Hawaii.
Juliette Clarens (10 April 1887 – 10 October 1978), born Juliette Marie Charlotte Dietz-Monnin, was a French actress, singer, and writer.
Bill Jennings (September 12, 1919 – November 29, 1978) was an American jazz guitarist and composer.
Thomas Oscar "Tod" Davis (July 24, 1924 – December 31, 1978) was an American professional baseball player of the 1940s and 1950s. The native of Los Angeles appeared in 42 games as an infielder and pinch hitter in Major League Baseball during the 1949 and 1951 seasons for the Philadelphia Athletics. Davis was 6 feet 2 inches (1.88 m) tall, weighed 190 pounds (86 kg) and threw and batted right-handed.
During his trials with the Athletics, Davis collected 21 hits. His only big-league home run, hit September 5, 1949, came off Vic Raschi of the New York Yankees at Shibe Park during a 13–4 New York victory. The remainder of Davis' nine-year career (1943–1944; 1947–1953) was spent in the top-level Pacific Coast League. He appeared in 782 games in the PCL for both Los Angeles–based teams, the Angels and the Hollywood Stars, as well as for the Seattle Rainiers.
Davis served in the United States Army during World War II and its aftermath, and missed the 1945–46 seasons.
Robert Coogan (December 13, 1924 – May 12, 1978) was an American film and television actor.
Paul Harold Cootner (May 24, 1930 – April 16, 1978) was a financial economist noted for his book The Random Character of Stock Market Prices.
Cootner was born in Logansport, Indiana. He attended the University of Florida, where he earned bachelor's and master's degree. He received a PhD in industrial economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1953.
He worked at Brown University briefly before serving in the Army. He then joined Resources for the Future.
He joined finance faculty of the MIT Sloan School of Management in 1959, where he started work on the "random walk" theory of securities prices, work that led to the 1964 publication of his groundbreaking book.
In 1970, he left MIT to join the faculty of the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University.
He died unexpectedly of a heart attack in 1978.