The following is a list of notable deaths in March 2002.
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.
March 2002
1 John A. Blume, 92, American structural engineer, known as "the father of earthquake engineering". C. Farris Bryant, 87, American Governor (34th Governor of Florida from 1961 to 1965). John Challens, 86, British scientist and civil servant, helped develop Britain's first atomic bomb. David DiMeglio, 35, American professional wrestler, heart attack. Leigh Gerdine, 85, American musician, composer, and civic leader, heart attack. Rafael Lang, 92, Romanian-born Argentine boxer (1932). David Mann, 85, American songwriter. Bob Smith, 76, American professional football player (Brooklyn Dodgers, Detroit Lions). Hocine Soltani, 29, Algerian boxer, murdered. Doreen Waddell, 36, British soul singer (Soul II Soul), struck by vehicle. John Wieners, 68, American poet. Roger Wilson, 96, British Anglican prelate.
2 Dionisio Aguilar, Mexican Olympic gymnast (1948). Andrés Archila, 88, Guatemalan violinist and music conductor. Kern Carson, 61, American football player (San Diego Chargers, New York Jets). Alvin Eicoff, 80, American advertising executive, known as a founder of direct response television advertising. Pasquale Giannattasio, 61, Italian sprinter and Olympian (1964). Finlay MacDonald, 79, Canadian senator, member of the Senate of Canada (1984-1998). Friedrich Gorenstein, 69, Russian-Jewish author and screenwriter. Don Haig, 68, Canadian filmmaker, editor, and producer. Jason Mayélé, 26, Congolese football player, traffic collision. Halfdan Rasmussen, 87, Danish poet. Fritz-Rudolf Schultz, 85, German army officer during World War II and politician. Alexei Yegorov, 26, Russian ice hockey player (San Jose Sharks), beating.
3 Henry Nathaniel Andrews, 91, American paleobotanist. G. M. C. Balayogi, 50, Indian lawyer and politician, helicopter crash. Vijaya Bhaskar, 71, Indian music director and composer, heart attack. James Dunne, 60, British boxer and Olympian (1964). Marvin E. Frankel, 81, American judge (US district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York). Harlan Howard, 74, American country music songwriter ("I Fall to Pieces", "Busted", "Heartaches By The Number", "Why Not Me"). Charles H. MacDonald, 87, American Air Force officer and a fighter ace during World War II. Fran McKee, 75, American Navy Rear Admiral. Al Pollard, 73, American gridiron football player (Army, New York Yanks, Philadelphia Eagles) and broadcaster, lymphoma. Roy Porter, 55, British historian and writer, heart attack. H. Keith Thompson, 79, American neo-Nazi and political writer..
4 John A. Chapman, 36, US Air Force combat controller who was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. Eric Flynn, 62, British actor and singer (Ivanhoe, The Caesars, Freewheelers), cancer. Ryō Hanmura, 68, Japanese science fiction, fantasy, and horror author, pneumonia. Ugnė Karvelisehebeb, 66, Lithuanian writer and diplomat. Bernard Matemera, 56, Zimbabwean sculptor. Stephen McGonagle, 87, Northern Irish and Irish trade unionist. Elyne Mitchell, 88, Australian author. Prunella Ransome, 59, English actress, throat cancer. K. V. Raghunatha Reddy, 77, Indian politician. Shirley Ann Russell, 66, British costume designer, cancer. Velibor Vasović, 62, Serbian footballer and manager, heart attack. Jean Elizabeth Geiger Wright, 78, American conservationist, educator, and animal activist.
5 Howard Cannon, 90, American politician (U.S. Senator from Nevada from 1959 to 1983). Stanisław Jankowski, 90, Polish SOE agent and resistance fighter during World War II. Surendra Jha 'Suman', 91, Indian poet, writer, publisher and politician, heart failure. Péter Kiss, 65, Hungarian mathematician. Pauline Elfriede Leps-Estam, 98, Estonian printmaker. Frances Macdonald, 87, English painter. Kai Outa, 71, Finnish Olympic weightlifter (1952). Clay Smith, 87, American baseball player (Cleveland Indians, Detroit Tigers).
6 Piet Bannenberg, 91, Dutch Olympic swimmer (1928). Chuck Chapman, 90, Canadian Olympic basketball player (1936). Richard Kenneth Dell, 81, New Zealand malacologist. Bryan Fogarty, 32, Canadian ice hockey player (Quebec Nordiques, Pittsburgh Penguins, Montreal Canadiens), enlarged heart.Bryan Fogarty, Sports-Reference / Hockey-Reference.com. Retrieved 2019-02-26. Walter Goodman, 74, American author and journalist for The New York Times. David Jenkins, 89, Welsh librarian. Dan Jilek, 48, American football player (Buffalo Bills). Johnny Norlander, 81, American basketball player (Baltimore Bullets, Washington Capitols). Bill Radovich, 86, American gridiron football player (Detroit Lions), and film actor. Henry Rapoport, 83, American organic chemist and academic. Ralph Rumney, 67, English artist, cancer. Dietrich Schmidt, 82, German Luftwaffe night fighter ace during World War II. Elizabeth W. Stone, 83, American librarian and educator. Ernie Williamson, 79, American gridiron football player (Washington Redskins, New York Giants, Los Angeles Dons). Donald Wilson, 91, British television writer and producer (The Forsyte Saga, Doctor Who).
7 Doris Twitchell Allen, 100, American child psychologist. Geoff Charles, 93, Welsh photojournalist. Daaf Drok, 87, Dutch football player. John Goodyear, 81, American gridiron football player (Washington Redskins). Troy Graham, 52, American professional wrestler, heart attack. Mickey Haslin, 92, American baseball player (Philadelphia Phillies, Boston Bees, New York Giants). Ian Vernon Hogg, 75, British author of books and biographies on military subjects. Mati Klarwein, 69, German painter, cancer. Franziska Rochat-Moser, 35, Swiss Olympic marathon runner (1992, 1996), avalanche . Charles H. Wright, 83, American physician, founder of the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History.
8 Justin Ahomadégbé-Tomêtin, 85, Beninese politician. Robin Anderson, 53, Australian documentary filmmaker, cancer. Al Bonniwell, 90, American basketball player (Akron Firestone Non-Skids). George F. Carrier, 83, American mathematician, esophageal cancer. Marțian Dan, 66, Romanian politician and university professor. Yury Gusov, 61, Russian Olympic welterweight freestyle wrestler (1972). Sanji Hase, 66, Japanese voice actor, lung cancer. Peter Holmes, 69, British businessman. Bill Johnson, 85, American football player (University of Minnesota, Green Bay Packers). Jansug Kakhidze, 66, Georgian musician, composer, singer and conductor. Santiago Lovell Jr., 60, Argentine Olympic boxer (1964). Winnie Markus, 80, Czechoslovakia-German actress, pneumonia. Ted Sepkowski, 78, American baseball player (Cleveland Indians, New York Yankees). Ellert Sölvason, 84, Icelandic football player.
9 Denise Bosc, 85, French film actress. Carlos Casares, 60, Spanish Galician language writer, cardiac arrest. Mary Elmes, 93, Irish aid worker credited who saved over 200 Jewish children during World War II. Leonard Gershe, 79, American playwright, screenwriter, and lyricist, cerebrovascular disease. Hamish Henderson, 82, Scottish poet. Bora Spužić Kvaka, 67, Serbian vocalist and recording artist. Normand Lockwood, 95, American composer. Carol Los Mansmann, 59, American judge. Mohammad Paziraei, 72, Iranian Greco-Roman flyweight wrestler and Olympic medalist (1960). Oleg Trubachyov, 71, Soviet and Russian linguist. Sverre Zachariassen, 82, Norwegian footballer.
10 Elguja Amashukeli, 73, Georgian sculptor and painter. Louise Carletti, 80, French film actress. Irán Eory, 64, Iranian-Mexican actress, stroke. Genevieve Fiore, 90, American women's rights and peace activist. George Fix, 62, American mathematician, cancer. Erik Lönnroth, 91, Swedish historian. George Mungwa, Zambian football coach. Vladimir Nakhabtsev, 63, Soviet cinematographer and actor. Gilmore Schjeldahl, 89, American businessman, Alzheimer's disease. Shirley Scott, 67, American jazz organist, heart failure. Howard Thompson, 82, American journalist and film critic, pneumonia. Irene Worth, 85, American actress (Tiny Alice, Sweet Bird of Youth, Lost in Yonkers), Tony winner (1965, 1976, 1991), stroke.
11 Al Cowens, 50, American baseball player (Kansas City Royals, California Angels, Detroit Tigers, Seattle Mariners), heart attack. Marion Dönhoff, 92, German journalist and publisher of Die Zeit, known for opposing Hitler. Genevieve George, 74, Canadian baseball player. George Joseph Gottwald, 87, American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. Rudolf Hell, 100, German inventor and manufacturer. Harry Jansson, 85, Swedish Olympic speed skater (1948). Willibald Jentschke, 90, Austrian-German nuclear physicist. Franjo Kuharić, 82, Croatian Catholic cardinal, cardiac arrest. Albert Ritserveldt, 86, Belgian racing cyclist. Herbert Spencer, 77, British designer, writer and photographer. Nicholas Gilman Thacher, 86, American diplomat, pulmonary fibrosis. James Tobin, 84, American economist, cerebrovascular disease. Carmela Toso, 89, Italian Olympic gymnast (1936).
12 Louis-Marie Billé, 64, French Roman Catholic cardinal, cancer. Peter Blau, 84, American sociologist. Steve Gromek, 82, American baseball player (Cleveland Indians, Detroit Tigers). Hartini, 78, Indonesian wife of President Sukarno, heart disease Abdul Kadir, 57, Pakistani cricket player. John "Speedy" Keene, 56, English songwriter, vocalist, and drummer, heart failure. Spiros Kyprianou, 69, 2nd President of Cyprus, cancer. Jacqueline Patorni, 84, French tennis player. Heinz Pehlke, 79, Freelance German cinematographer in film and television. Vitaly Peskov, 57, Russian cartoonist. Jean Paul Riopelle, 78, Canadian painter and sculptor. Ben van der Voort, 87, Dutch Olympic cyclist (1936).
13 Ivano Blason, 78, Italian football player. Hans-Georg Gadamer, 102, German philosopher. Abd al-Wahhab Hawmad, 87, Syrian politician, lawyer, and academic. Nasir Hussain, 75, Indian film producer, director, and screenwriter, cardiovascular disease. Jacques Jansen, 88, French baryton-martin singer. Lou Kahn, 86, American baseball player, manager, scout and coach. Bayliss Levrett, 88, American racecar driver from Jacksonville, Florida, Alzheimer's disease. Nick Mickoski, 74, Canadian ice hockey forward. Alice du Pont Mills, 89, American aviator. Marc Moreland, 44, American rock musician, kidney failure. Polly Riley, 75, American amateur golfer, cancer. Ri Tu-ik, 81, North Korean Army officer and politician. Hubert Wagner, 61, Polish volleyball player, coach, and Olympian (1968), traffic collision.
14 Smail Balić, 81, Bosnian-Austrian historian, culturologist and scholar. Nelson Estupiñán Bass, 89, Ecuadorian writer, pneumonia. Kevin Danaher, 89, Irish folklorist and author on Irish traditional customs and beliefs. Karl Gratz, 83, Austrian-German Luftwaffe fighter ace during World War II. Leon L. Van Autreve, 82, American Army Sergeant Major. Antoine Verdu, 86, French Olympic weightlifter (1936). Cherry Wilder, 71, New Zealand writer, cancer. Thomas Winship, 81, American newspaper editor of the Boston Globe from 1965 until 1984. Henry Woods, 83, American district judge (United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas).
15 Yoshimitsu Aragaki, 51, Japanese Olympic boxer (1972). Tamala Krishna Goswami, 55, American Hare Krishna, car accident. Poul L. Hansen, 86, Danish footballer. Rand Holmes, 60, Canadian artist and illustrator, Hodgkin's lymphoma. Oscar Pérez, 79, Argentine Olympic basketball player (1948). Werner Unger, 70, German football player and Olympian (1964). Sylvester Weaver, 93, American television executive, credited with creating Today, Tonight, Home, Wide Wide World. Jairo Zulbarán, 32, Colombian football player and Olympian (1992), murdered.
16 Kid Azteca, 88, Mexican boxer.