Deaths in September 1989

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The following is a list of notable deaths in September 1989.

Entries for each day are listed alphabetically by surname. A typical entry lists information in the following sequence:

• Name, age, country of citizenship at birth, subsequent country of citizenship (if applicable), reason for notability, cause of death (if known), and reference.

September 1989

1

• Frank Collier, 56, English international rugby league footballer.
• Kazimierz Deyna, 41, Polish international footballer, car accident.
• Bart Giamatti, 51, American Commissioner of Major League Baseball, heart attack.
• Dipa Ma, 78, Indian meditation teacher.
• Albert Outler, 80, American Methodist historian, theologian and pastor.
• Shah Azizur Rahman, 63, Bangladeshi politician, Prime Minister of Bangladesh.

2

• Clifton Parker, 84, British composer.
• Brian Robinson, appr. 27, Northern Ireland loyalist militant, shot.

3

• Franzisca Baruch, 87, German–Israeli graphic designer.
• Vice Admiral John Augustine Collins, 90, Royal Australian Navy officer.
• Augie Lio, 71, American NFL footballer. ^[1]
• Sten Mellgren, 89, Swedish international footballer and Olympic medalist.
• Gaetano Scirea, 36, Italian international footballer, car accident.
• Rip Sewell, 82, American Major League baseballer.
• Meena Shorey, 67, Pakistani film actress.

4

• Bernard Belleau, 64, Canadian molecular pharmacologist.
• Colin Clark, 83, British and Australian economist and statistician.
• Wilfred Payton, 75, English clergyman and first-class cricketer.
• Georges Simenon, 86, Belgian writer, complications from a fall. ^[2]
• Ronald Syme, 86, New Zealand-born British classicist and historian. ^[3]

5

• Les Allen, 78, Australian rules footballer.
• Sir John Philip Baxter, 84, British-Australian chemical engineer.
• Michael Fidler, 73, British politician.
• Geneviève Kervine, 68, French film actress, cancer.
• William Mann, 65, English music critic.
• J. Barkley Rosser, 81, American logician, aneurysm.

6

• Gina Manès, 96, French film actress.
• Jimmy Ruffell, 89, English international footballer.

7

• Tom Blackaller, 49, American yachtsman and world championship gold medalist, heart attack. ^[4]
• Valery Goborov, 23, Soviet basketball player and Olympic gold medalist, car crash.

8

• Keef Cowboy, 28, American hip hop recording artist, drug overdose.
• Karel Finek, 69, Czech footballer and manager.
• Paul Alfred Weiss, 91, Austrian-American biologist.

9

• Heinrich Angst, 74, Swiss bobsledder and Olympic gold medalist.
• Fred Ashworth, 82, English rugby union and rugby league footballer.
• John McShain, 92, American building contractor, complications from pneumonia.

10

• Dutch Elston, 70, American NFL footballer, cancer.
• William Joseph Hedley, 86, American civil and consulting engineer.
• Gordon McCallum, 70, American-born English sound engineer.
• Herman Peters, 90, Australian rugby league footballer for North Sydney and Australia.
• Zbigniew Rychlicki, 67, Polish graphic artist and illustrator of children's books.
• Jeff Stollmeyer, 68, Trinidad and Tobago test cricketer for the West Indies, wounds from home invaders.

11

• Bill Weiley, 88, Australian politician, member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly.
• Bill Wood, 67, Australian rules footballer.

12

• George Gniel, 70, Australian rules footballer.
• Anton Lubowski, 37, Namibian anti-apartheid activist and advocate, assassinated.
• Sterjo Spasse, 75, Albanian prose writer and novelist.
• Seamus Twomey, 69, Irish republican activist, militant and chief of staff of the Provisional IRA. ^[5]
• Don Walker, 81, American Broadway orchestrator and composer. ^[6]

13

• Acharya Aatreya, 68, Indian poet, lyricist, playwright and screenwriter.
• İsmail Rüştü Aksal, 77–78, Turkish politician, Secretary General of the Republican People's Party.
• Ken McCaw, 81, Australian politician, Attorney-General of New South Wales.
• Giuseppe Ugo Papi, 96, Italian economist.
• Charles H. Russell, 85, American politician, Governor of Nevada. ^[7]
• John Yovicsin, 70, American NFL footballer, heart disease.

14

• John Bright, 81, American journalist, screenwriter and political activist.
• Benjamin Peary Pal, 83, Indian plant breeder and agronomist.
• Dámaso Pérez Prado, 72, Cuban bandleader, pianist and composer, popularised the Mambo, complications from a stroke.
• Wayne Sabin, 74, American tennis player.

15

• Harry Cave, 66, New Zealand cricketer, captain of New Zealand test team.
• Jan DeGaetani, 56, American mezzo-soprano, leukemia.
• Michael Klinger, 68, British film producer and distributor.
• Joseph M. Pettit, 70, American engineer, dean of Stanford University School of Engineering, cancer.
• Robert Penn Warren, 84, American poet, novelist and literary critic, complications from prostate cancer. ^[8]

16

• Arno Behrisch, 76, German politician.
• Bruno Heck, 72, German politician.
• Steven Stayner, 24, American kidnapping victim, motor cycle collision.

17

• Leon Culberson, 70, American Major League baseballer. ^[9]
• Field Marshal Sir Richard Hull, 82, British Army officer, Chief of the General Staff, cancer.
• Ion Dezideriu Sîrbu, 70, Romanian philosopher, novelist, essayist and dramatist, esophageal cancer.
• Jay Stewart, 71, American television and radio announcer, suicide.
• Don Vines, 57, Welsh rugby union and rugby league footballer.

18

• Jack Smith, 56, American filmmaker, actor and pioneer of underground cinema. ^[10]

19

• Philip Sayer, 42, British actor, cancer.
• Willie Steele, 66, American long-jumper and Olympic gold medalist, cancer.

20

• Mihajlo Andrejević, 91, Serbian doctor, footballer and sports administrator.
• Chen Boda, 85, Chinese Communist journalist, professor and political theorist. ^[11]
• John Carrell, 42, American ice dancer and ballet dancer, complications of AIDS.
• Alexey Diakonoff, 82, Russian–Dutch entomologist.
• Richie Ginther, 59, American race car driver, heart attack.
• Tuti Indra Malaon, 49, Indonesian actress, dancer and lecturer, internal bleeding.
• Len Pye, 78, Australian rules footballer.

21

• Bill Barron, 62, American jazz tenor and soprano saxophonist.
• Troy Davis, 42, American convicted murderer of police officer, executed.
• Ertem Eğilmez, 60, Turkish film director, producer and screenwriter.
• Murry Dickson, 73, American Major League baseballer, emphysema. ^[12]
• Corrado Gaipa, 64, Italian actor and voice actor.

22

• Ambrose Folorunsho Alli, 60, Nigerian Executive Governor of defunct Nigerian state of Bendel State.
• Irving Berlin, 101, American composer and lyricist, heart attack. ^[13]
• Bob Calihan, 71, American NBL basketballer and coach.
• John E. Hunt, 80, American politician, member of the U.S. House of Representatives. ^[14]

23

• Bradley Kincaid, 94, American folk singer and radio entertainer.
• John T. Koehler, 85, United States Assistant Secretary of the Navy, cancer. ^[15]
• William Traylor, 58, American film, stage and television actor, heart attack.

24

• Chuck Bond, 75, American NFL footballer.
• Walter Koelz, 94, American zoologist and museum collector.
• Shri Yogendra, 91, Indian yoga guru, author and poet.

25

• Pedro Amorim, 69, Brazilian international footballer.
• Darlington Hoopes, 93, American politician and lawyer, member of Pennsylvania House of Representatives. ^[16]
• Nowell Myres, 86, British archaeologist.

26

• Lieselotte Berger, 68, German politician.
• Jimmy Delaney, 75, Scottish international footballer.
• Kaj Franck, 77, Finnish designer and applied artist.
• Hemant Kumar, 69, Indian music director and playback singer, heart attack.

27

• Tetsuzō Tanikawa, 94, Japanese philosopher.

28

• Dorothy Andrus, 81, American tennis player.
• José Arribas, 68, Spanish professional footballer and manager.
• Thomas Keller, 64, Swiss president of FISA, governing body of international rowing.
• Ferdinand Marcos, 72, Filipino dictator, politician and statesman, President of the Philippines.
• Evan McCaskey, 24, American guitarist, suicide.
• Qian Zhidao, 78, Chinese chemist.

29

• Gussie Busch, 90, American brewing magnate, pneumonia.
• Mark Dignam, 80, English actor.
• Paul Elzey, 43, American NFL footballer.
• János Farkas, 47, Hungarian footballer, heart attack.
• Geoffrey Sumner, 80, British actor.
• Jean-Louis Tixier-Vignancour, 81, French lawyer and far-right politician.

30

• Horace Alexander, 100, English Quaker teacher, writer, pacifist and ornithologist. ^[17]
• Oskar Davičo, 80, Yugoslavian novelist and poet.
• William M. Fairbank, 72, American physicist. ^[18]
• Janko Orožen, 97, Slovene historian and schoolteacher.
• Huỳnh Tấn Phát, 76, Vietnamese architect and politician, Prime Minister of the Republic of Vietnam.
• Arthur Rook, 68, English equestrian and Olympic gold medalist.
• Drew Shafer, 53, American LGBT rights activist, complications of AIDS.
• Virgil Thomson, 92, American composer. ^[19]

References

1. "Augie Lio, 71, Editor And Ex-Football Star" . The New York Times . September 5, 1989. p. B 6. Retrieved March 23, 2024.
2. Eric Pace (September 7, 1989). "Georges Simenon Dies at 86; Creator of Inspector Maigret" . The New York Times . p. A 1. Retrieved March 23, 2024.
3. "Ronald Syme, 86, Classics Scholar And Historian at Oxford, Is Dead" . The New York Times . September 7, 1989. p. B 19. Retrieved March 23, 2024.
4. Barbara Lloyd (September 8, 1989). "Tom Blackaller, 49, Competitor in America's Cup" . The New York Times . p. D 19. Retrieved March 23, 2024.
5. "Seamus Twomey, 70, a Leader of Provisional I.R.A." . The New York Times . September 14, 1989. p. D 24. Retrieved March 23, 2024.
6. Richard F. Shepard (September 13, 1989). "Don Walker, 81, an Orchestrator Of Broadway Musical Comedies" . The New York Times . p. B 8. Retrieved March 23, 2024.
7. "Charles Russell, 85, Ex-Governor of Nevada" . The New York Times . September 15, 1989. p. B 6. Retrieved March 23, 2024.
8. "Robert Penn Warren, Poet and Author, Dies" . The New York Times . September 16, 1989. p. 1 1. Retrieved March 23, 2024.
9. "Leon Culberson Outfielder, 71" . The New York Times . September 23, 1989. p. 1 6. Retrieved March 23, 2024.
10. "Jack Smith, Film Maker, 57" . The New York Times . September 22, 1989. p. A 28. Retrieved March 23, 2024.
11. Eric Pace (September 30, 1989). "Chen Boda, 85, Leader of Chinese Purges in 60's" . The New York Times . p. 1 29. Retrieved March 23, 2024.
12. "Murry Dickson, Pitcher, 73" . The New York Times . September 22, 1989. p. A 28. Retrieved July 4, 2023.
13. Marilyn Berger (September 23, 1989). "Irving Berlin, Nation's Songwriter, Dies" . The New York Times . p. 1 1. Retrieved March 23, 2024.
14. "John E. Hunt, 79, Ex-Jersey Congressman" . The New York Times . September 26, 1989. p. B 20. Retrieved March 23, 2024.
15. "John Koehler, 85, Former Federal Official" . The New York Times . September 27, 1989. p. D 26. Retrieved March 23, 2024.
16. Glenn Fowler (September 27, 1989). "Darlington Hoopes, Socialist, 93; Twice Party Choice for President" . The New York Times . p. D 27. Retrieved March 23, 2024.
17. "Horace G. Alexander, A Quaker Writer, 100" . The New York Times . October 5, 1989. p. B 22. Retrieved March 23, 2024.
18. Walter Sullivan (October 3, 1989). "Prof. William N. Fairbank, 72, Physicist and Pioneer in Quarks" . The New York Times . p. B 10. Retrieved March 23, 2024.
19. John Rockwell (October 1, 1989). "Virgil Thomson, Composer, Critic and Collaborator With Stein, Dies at 92" . The New York Times . p. 1 42. Retrieved March 23, 2024.