Our Daily Dead

Over at the Toronto Star we found out that James Hiller, co-inventor of the electron microscope died recently at the age of 91.

After winning a scholarship to attend the University of Toronto, he studied mathematics and physics, earning a master’s degree in 1938 and a doctorate in physics in 1941.

“He was very humble, very humble, but he was inwardly also very proud (of his work),” said his son, J. Robert Hillier.

While at the University of Toronto, Hillier and fellow student Albert Prebus designed and built a microscope in 1938 that passed a beam of electrons instead of a beam of light through a specimen.

The device magnified an image 7,000 times – three times more powerful than what could be done optically at the time.

Today, the modern equivalent of his device – now known as the electron microscope – can magnify objects to more than 2 million times their actual size. However, each generation of the instrument has been based on the principles developed by Hillier’s original work.

~~The ODDones for OurDailyDead.com

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Former NASCAR champion Benny Parsons has died at age 65.

TheState.com reports that “Benny Parsons, whose gentle nature made him a favorite among NASCAR fans as a broadcaster and whose competitive fire drove him from his father’s taxi company in Detroit to the championship in stock-car racing’s top division, died early Tuesday at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte.”

“Parsons retired as a driver following the 1988 season. He won 21 races and 20 poles in 526 races in a career highlighted by his 1973 championship and victories in the 1975 Daytona 500 and the 1980 Coca-Cola 600.”

And from the Asheville Citizen-Times comes this: “He was diagnosed with cancer in his left lung in July after complaining of difficulty breathing. A former smoker who quit the habit in 1978, Parsons underwent intensive chemotherapy and radiation treatments and was declared “cancer-free” in October.”

“But the aggressive treatment cost Parsons the use of his left lung, and he was hospitalized Dec. 26 when doctors found a blood clot in his right lung. He was transferred to intensive care shortly after his admission, and he remained there in an induced-coma.”

~~The ODDones for OurDailyDead.com

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From the LA Times…Anne Ophelia Todd Dowden, botanical artist known for detailed paintings of flowers and insects, has died at age 99.

Anne Ophelia Todd Dowden, a botanical artist who wrote and illustrated a number of books and displayed her watercolors at museums and botanical gardens around the country, has died. She was 99.

Dowden died Jan. 4 in her sleep at Frasier Meadows Retirement Community in Boulder, Colorado, according to Carolyn Crawford, a longtime friend.

A native of Denver, Dowden spent many years in New York City but returned to her home state in 1990. She was known for painting flowers, herbs and insects in precise anatomical detail, using only live blossoms as models. She also kept a large collection of beetles and bugs for her work, and once said she had spent six weeks painting the hairs on a bee’s leg for one of her works.

You may find examples of her work here: Hunt Institute For Botanical Documentation

Several of her books won awards. “Look at a Flower” (1963) and “Wild Green Things in the City, A Book of Weeds” (1972) received awards from the American Library Assn. “The Blossom on the Bough, A Book of Trees” (1975) was named an outstanding book for children by the National Science Teachers Assn.

She also illustrated books written by others. “Shakespeare’s Flowers” by Jessica Kerr (1969) and “Roses” by Louis Untermeyer (1970) are among her best-known collaborations.

~~The ODDones for OurDailyDead.com

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