An eighth-grade dropout who became a billionaire by investing in casinos and Hollywood film studios; the executive who led Goldman, Sachs Co.’s international growth in the 1970s and ’80s; and Saudi Arabia’s monarch for the past decade, who kept Arab Spring protests to a minimum by pouring more than $100 billion into the nation’s economy. Kirk Kerkorian, John Whitehead and King Abdullah were among the year’s notable deaths in business, finance and government.
The business world lost Satoru Iwata, the chief executive officer of Nintendo Co., which leapfrogged past competitors with the introduction of the Wii video game system; and Adrian Cadbury, former chairman of Cadbury Schweppes Plc and a champion of best practices in corporate governance.
Among financial leaders who died were James “Jimmy” Lee, the charismatic vice chairman of JPMorgan Chase Co.; and Jerome Kohlberg, the co-founder of leveraged-buyout firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts Co., today’s KKR Co.
Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s first elected prime minister, and Helmut Schmidt, a former West German chancellor, were heads of state who died this year. Both men steered their nations through difficult eras.
This list also includes Margaretta “Happy” Rockefeller, who used her position as the wife of U.S. Vice President Nelson Rockefeller to become one of the first prominent women to raise public awareness of breast cancer, by openly discussing her own experience with the disease.
Here are the year’s notable deaths, with each name linked to a previously published obituary. A cause of death is provided when known.
January
Mario Cuomo, 82. The Democratic three-term governor of New York from 1983 through 1994 oversaw the state’s economic renewal and earned a national following in his party as an eloquent and passionate advocate of liberal policies. Died Jan. 1 of heart failure at his home in Manhattan.
Edward Brooke, 95. A moderate Republican from Massachusetts, in 1966 he became the first black U.S. senator elected by voters. Died Jan. 3 of natural causes at his home in Coral Gables, Florida.
Thomas Gilbert Sr., 70. Founder of New York-based Wainscott Capital Management was shot to death in his Manhattan home on Jan. 4. His son, Thomas Gilbert Jr., was charged with murder.
Guenther Cramer, 62. A dominant figure in Germany’s push to become a leader in the clean-energy movement, in 1981 he co-founded the predecessor of SMA Solar Technology AG, which converts power from solar panels for use on the electrical grid. Died Jan. 6.
Stephane Charbonnier, 47. Better known by his pen name, Charb, he was editor-in-chief of the satirical French newspaper Charlie Hebdo and was one of 12 people murdered by terrorists who struck the publication’s office in Paris on Jan. 7.
Bernhard Walter, 72. CEO of Germany’s Dresdner Bank AG from 1998 to 2000, when he resigned after Deutsche Bank AG broke off talks to acquire his bank. Dresdner was later bought by Commerzbank AG. Died Jan. 11.
Tone Grant, 70. Former president of New York-based Refco Group Ltd., an independent U.S. futures trading firm that collapsed in 2005, Grant was serving a 10-year prison sentence for defrauding investors of $2.4 billion. Died Jan. 18 at the federal medical center in Rochester, Minnesota.
Peter Wallenberg Sr., 88. Sweden’s top industrialist turned his family’s control over Ericsson AB, Electrolux AB and other companies into a global conglomerate while at the helm of Investor AB from 1982 to 1997. Died Jan. 19.
Melvin Gordon, 95. The chairman of Chicago-based Tootsie Roll Industries Inc. for more than 50 years whose octogenarian wife, Ellen Gordon, succeeded him as head of the maker of Tootsie Rolls, Junior Mints and Dots. Died Jan. 20 in Boston after a brief illness.
Donald W. Hodges, 80. One of T. Boone Pickens’s favorite money managers, he founded Dallas-based Hodges Capital Management Inc. and First Dallas Securities Inc., which have more than $3 billion of assets under management. Died Jan. 21 of complications from a blood disorder at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas.
Vince Camuto, 78. Women’s shoe designer in 1978 co-founded Nine West Group, which was sold in 1999 to Jones Apparel Group. Died Jan. 21 of cancer at his home in Greenwich, Connecticut.
Wendell Ford, 90. The Democratic former U.S. senator and governor of Kentucky sponsored the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, which allows citizens to register to vote when they apply for or renew a driver’s license. Died Jan. 22 of lung cancer at his home in Owensboro, Kentucky.
King Abdullah, about 90. He became Saudi Arabia’s sixth king in 2005 — after serving as the nation’s de facto ruler since 1996 — and oversaw a fivefold increase in the size of the Arab world’s biggest economy. Died Jan. 23 in a hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Zhelyu Zhelev, 79. As Bulgaria’s first democratically elected president after the fall of communism, he helped the nation transition from the Soviet Union’s strongest ally to a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the European Union. Died Jan. 30 at his home in Sofia, the capital.
Carl Djerassi, 91. The Austrian-born chemist synthesized a hormone used in the oral contraceptive known as the Pill, spurring the sexual revolution of the 1960s. Died Jan. 30 of complications of liver and bone cancer.
Jose Manuel Lara Bosch, 68. Chairman of the world’s largest Spanish-language publisher, Grupo Planeta SA, who with his siblings inherited the company founded by his father in 1949. Died Jan. 31 in Barcelona, Spain.
Richard von Weizsaecker, 94. President of Germany from 1984 to 1994, who expanded the role of the ceremonial post and warned Germans to never forget the nation’s Nazi era in order to avoid repeating the past. Died Jan. 31.
February
Lawrence Adelman, 75. A former director of research at New York-based Dean Witter Reynolds Inc., he covered food, beverage and tobacco companies and appeared on Institutional Investor’s “All-America Research Team” lists. Died Feb. 2 in Boca Raton, Florida, of brain cancer.
Joseph Nadol, 42. Managing director at New York-based JPMorgan Chase, who was named by Institutional Investor magazine as one of the best analysts covering the aerospace and defense-electronics industries. Died Feb. 3 in a Metro-North Railroad train accident in Westchester County, New York.
Eric Vandercar, 53. Senior managing director in institutional sales and trading, and head of municipal funding at Mesirow Financial in New York. Died Feb. 3 in the Metro-North Railroad train accident.
Heinz-Joachim Neubuerger, 62. The chief financial officer at Munich-based Siemens AG from 1998 to 2006. Last year, he agreed to pay the engineering company 2.5 million euros ($2.7 million) in damages for his role in a Germany’s biggest bribery scandal. Found dead on Feb. 4.
John Whitehead, 92. The co-chairman of New York-based Goldman Sachs from 1976 until he retired in 1984, he applied modern marketing techniques to win clients and expanded globally by opening offices in London and Tokyo. Died Feb. 7 at his home in New York.
Jeffrey Axelrod, 55. A managing director for mortgage-backed securities and structured-product sales at Brean Capital LLC, a New York-based investment bank. Died Feb. 8.
Ed Sabol, 98. Emmy-winning founder of NFL Films Inc. revolutionized sports broadcasting in the 1960s by introducing innovations such as super slow-motion replays, blooper reels, and placing microphones on players and coaches. Died Feb. 9 at his home in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Richard Schwartz, 85. Founder of the Boat Owners Association of the U.S., the Alexandria, Virginia-based boat insurance and towing operation that Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. bought in 2007. Died Feb. 11.
Harvey Goldschmid, 74. A Columbia Law School professor in New York who, as a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission member from 2002 to 2005, pushed for increased oversight of the accounting industry after fraudulent practices at Enron Corp. and WorldCom Inc. Died Feb. 12.
Liam McGee, 60. Former CEO at Hartford Financial Services Group Inc., who sold stock and debt to help the Hartford, Connecticut-based insurer repay its $3.4 billion federal bailout under the Troubled Asset Relief Program. Died Feb. 13 of cancer.
Michele Ferrero, 89. Italy’s richest person and owner of the Ferrero Group transformed the business founded in the 1940s by his parents into one of the world’s biggest candy companies. Died Feb. 14.
Jacob Stolt-Nielsen, 83. In 1959, he founded the predecessor of today’s London-based Stolt-Nielsen Ltd., the world’s largest chemical-tanker company. Died Feb. 15 at his home in Oslo.
Ivers Riley, 82. He pioneered a new era in investing in 1993 with an exchange-traded fund called Standard Poor’s Depository Receipts, or SPDR, which tracks the SP 500 Index and now has a market value of about $180 billion. Died Feb. 17 at his home in Savannah, Georgia, after being diagnosed with colorectal cancer.
Irving Kahn, 109. Co-founder and chairman of Kahn Brothers Group Inc., a New York-based broker-dealer and investment adviser with about $1 billion under management. Died Feb. 24 at his apartment in Manhattan.
Donald Keough, 88. As president of Atlanta-based Coca-Cola Co. from 1981 to 1993, he helped the soft-drink maker more than double its revenue while also introducing New Coke, which was discontinued less than three months after its debut. Died Feb. 24 of pneumonia at Emory Saint Joseph’s Hospital in Atlanta.
Theodore Hesburgh, 97. President of the University of Notre Dame from 1952 to 1987, he reshaped the South Bend, Indiana, school by admitting women, tripling the number of faculty and increasing the endowment to $350 million from $9 million. Died Feb. 26 at Holy Cross House adjacent to the university.
Robert Benmosche, 70. The former CEO of New York-based American International Group Inc., he guided the insurer to repay a $182.3 billion taxpayer bailout by selling major divisions and focusing on U.S. life insurance and global property-casualty coverage. Died Feb. 27 at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York following treatment for lung cancer.
John Fairchild, 87. As head of the family business, Fairchild Publications Inc., for more than 30 years, he transformed Women’s Wear Daily from a niche trade periodical for the fashion industry into a global brand. Died Feb. 27 at his Manhattan home.
Boris Nemtsov, 55. A former deputy prime minister after the collapse of the Soviet Union, he became a vocal critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Died Feb. 27 after being shot in the back while walking across a Moscow bridge.
March
Cardinal Edward M. Egan, 82. Archbishop of New York from 2000 to 2009, he was the spiritual leader of 2.7 million Roman Catholics and restored financial order to the archdiocese by closing or merging parishes and schools. Died March 5 of cardiac arrest at NYU Langone Medical Center.
Elizabeth Bramwell, 74. The founding manager of Gabelli Co.’s growth mutual fund, she quit in 1994 to form Bramwell Capital Management. Died March 7 of a blood clot in New York.
Walter Salmon, 84. Harvard Business School professor for four decades, who taught consumer marketing and retailing in the school’s Advanced Management Program for senior executives. Died March 8 of complications from a stroke at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.
Stephen Murray, 52. CEO of CCMP Capital Advisors, the leveraged-buyout firm spun off in 2006 by JPMorgan Chase and which invested in Cabela’s Inc., Quiznos Corp. and Warner Chilcott Plc. Died March 12.
Guenter Vogelsang, 95. The former chairman of Thyssen AG from 1984 to 1996, he recast Germany’s largest steelmaker by expanding into industrial goods and services. Died March 15 in Dusseldorf, Germany.
Malcolm Fraser, 84. As prime minister of Australia from 1975 to 1983, he cut government spending, lowered taxes and eased immigration laws to accept about 200,000 Asians, including Vietnamese refugees. Died March 20.
Sheldon Jacobs, 84. Founder of the No-Load Fund Investor newsletter in 1979, which advocated buying commission-free mutual funds. Died March 20 while walking near his winter home in Paradise Valley, Arizona.
Miriam Bienstock, 92. Pioneer in the male-dominated music industry, who helped start New York-based Atlantic Records, a leading independent label during the rise of rock ‘n’ roll. Died March 21 at her home in Manhattan.
Lyle Gramley, 88. The economist and researcher spent 25 years at the Federal Reserve, serving on the Board of Governors from 1980 to 1985 while the central bank raised the federal funds rate to almost 20 percent to combat double-digit inflation. Died March 22 at his home in Potomac, Maryland.
Lee Kuan Yew, 91. The first elected prime minister of Singapore, who ruled from 1959 to 1990 and built the nation into an economic force by encouraging foreign investment, minimizing corruption and emphasizing social order and discipline. Died March 23 at Singapore General Hospital after being admitted for pneumonia.
Steven Smith, 65. Co-founder of Tazo Tea, the premium-priced brand of tea blends acquired by Starbucks Corp. in 1999. Died March 23 of cancer.
Francis Rooney Jr., 93. His record of success as a top executive in the shoe industry led Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. to buy Greenwich, Connecticut-based H.H. Brown Shoe Co. in 1991, one year after Rooney became CEO. Died March 24 at Greenwich Hospital in Connecticut.
Paul Lenkeit, 55. As a managing director at Springfield, Massachusetts-based Babson Capital Management, a unit of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co., he was in charge of derivatives and insurance investments. Died March 25 while on vacation in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Nurlan Kapparov, 44. Chairman of Kazatomprom, Kazakhstan’s state-owned mining company and the world’s biggest uranium producer. Died March 26 after collapsing in a Beijing restaurant while on a business trip.
James Wood, 85. CEO of the Great Atlantic Pacific Tea Co. from 1980 to 1998, an era in which the owner of the AP grocery chain faltered, regained profitability and stalled again. Died March 26 of congestive heart failure in New York.
Klaus Tschira, 74. In 1972, he co-founded SAP SE, the Walldorf, Germany-based maker of software that manages companies’ finances and production operations, and went on to amass a net worth of $7 billion. Died March 31.
April
Paul Reynolds, 52. CEO of Canaccord Genuity Group Inc., a Toronto-based investment bank, who doubled the bank’s assets to C$3.9 billion ($2.8 billion) during his tenure. Died April 1 while participating in a triathlon in Kona, Hawaii.
Robert H. Schuller, 88. Televangelist whose weekly “Hour of Power” broadcasts from the Philip Johnson-designed Crystal Cathedral megachurch in California was watched by 20 million people in 50 countries. Died April 2 at a health-care facility in Artesia, California, after he was diagnosed with esophageal cancer.
Sarah Brady, 73. Passionate advocate for gun-control legislation since 1981, when her husband, White House press secretary James Brady, was shot in the head and left partially paralyzed during an assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan. Died April 3 of pneumonia in Alexandria, Virginia.
Glenn Costello, 53. Mortgage-bond specialist and senior managing director at New York-based Kroll Bond Rating Agency Inc., where he rose to head of credit policy. Died April 4 of cancer at his New Jersey home.
David Laventhol, 81. The former Times Mirror Co. president and publisher led the company’s Newsday and Los Angeles Times newspapers to seven Pulitzer Prizes. Died April 8 of Parkinson’s disease in Manhattan.
Morgan B. Stark, 75. The chairman of New York-based Cowen Group Inc.’s Ramius Alternative Investments unit and head of its macro trading strategy, he helped oversee $12.5 billion in client assets. Died April 13 of cancer in Manhattan.
Damon Mezzacappa, 79. Lazard Freres Co. managing director from 1980 to 1999, he built the investment bank’s capital-markets division, expanding the firm’s business beyond mergers and acquisitions to include stock and bond underwriting and trading. Died April 14 of lung cancer in Palm Beach, Florida.
A. Alfred Taubman, 91. Billionaire founder of Taubman Co., a shopping-mall developer, who bought New York-based auction house Sotheby’s Holdings Inc. in 1983 and was imprisoned for fixing prices with chief competitor Christie’s International Plc. Died April 17 of a heart attack at his home in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.
James Doak, 59. Canadian chairman of Khan Resources Inc., a Toronto-based uranium miner, and managing partner of Megantic Asset Management Inc. Found dead on April 23 in a hotel room in the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar.
Pierre Claude Nolin, 64. Speaker of Canada’s Senate since November 2014, he was appointed to the upper chamber in 1993 and helped his Conservative Party return to power in 2006. Died April 23 of complications from pancreatic cancer.
Heribald Naerger, 91. Siemens AG’s supervisory board chairman from 1988 to 1993, he had spent two decades as CFO at Europe’s largest engineering company. Died April 26.
Harvey Miller, 82. A partner at New York-based Weil, Gotshal Manges LLP, he helped turn bankruptcy law into a respectable and highly profitable specialty, representing clients such as Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., General Motors Corp. and Texaco Inc. Died April 27 of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis at his home in Manhattan.
Jean Nidetch, 91. As an overweight New York housewife in 1963, she co-founded what is now Weight Watchers International Inc., the dieting company that counts Oprah Winfrey among its biggest shareholders. Died April 29 at her home near Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Francois Michelin, 88. Grandson of Michelin Cie.’s founder, who stepped down in 2002 after 47 years as CEO and turning the French company into Europe’s largest tiremaker. Died April 29.
Patricia Goldstein, 69. Vice chairman and head of commercial real estate at New York-based Emigrant Bank, who previously oversaw $23 billion of property-related assets at Citicorp. Died April 29 at Delray Medical Center in Delray Beach, Florida, of injuries from a bicycle accident.
May
David Goldberg, 47. CEO at SurveyMonkey.com, an online questionnaire service, and husband of Facebook Inc. Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg. Died May 1 of head trauma while vacationing in Punta Mita, Mexico.
Jim Wright, 92. The Texas Democrat served in the House of Representatives from 1955 to 1989 and rose to the top position of speaker before charges of ethics violations forced him to resign. Died May 6 at a nursing facility in Fort Worth, Texas.
Maurice Flanagan, 86. British-born founding CEO of Emirates Airline, who built the carrier into the world’s largest international airline. Died May 7 at his home in London.
Frank DiPascali, 58. Bernard Madoff’s finance chief, who testified against his former colleagues and died before he could be sentenced for his role in the firm’s $17.5 billion Ponzi scheme, the biggest in U.S. history. Died May 7 of lung cancer.
Steven Elkman, 68. A managing director at Deutsche Bank’s asset and wealth management unit in New York, he was also former chairman of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Died May 8 of pancreatic cancer at his home in Ridgefield, Connecticut.
Alexandre Lamfalussy, 86. Founding father of the euro served as the first president of the European Monetary Institute, created in 1994 to set up the European Central Bank. Died May 9.
Robert Koehler, 66. Munich-born former CEO of SGL Carbon SE, a maker of graphite and carbon products, who oversaw the company’s 1995 spinoff from Hoechst AG. Died May 17.
Jean-Francois Theodore, 68. The creator of the first trans-Atlantic stock exchange, he united bourses in Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam to form Euronext NV in 2000 and later merged it with NYSE Group. Died May 18 after a brain tumor was diagnosed.
Margaretta “Happy” Rockefeller, 88. Socialite whose 1963 marriage to New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, after both divorced, triggered public disapproval and hurt his bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 1964. Died May 19 at her home in Tarrytown, New York.
John Nash, 86. Nobel Prize-winning mathematician at Princeton University whose struggle with schizophrenia was the subject of the 2001 movie “A Beautiful Mind.” Died May 23 with his wife, Alicia, when the taxi they were riding in crashed on the New Jersey Turnpike.
Jeffrey Spetalnick, 48. Principal at Nighthawk Capital, a Hong Kong-based hedge fund company, who earlier in his career had helped rebuild Keefe, Bruyette Woods Inc. after 67 of the investment bank’s employees died in the Sept. 11 attack on New York’s World Trade Center. Died May 26 of Ewing’s sarcoma, a rare bone cancer, at Calvary Hospital in the Bronx, New York.
S. Parker Gilbert, 81. Chairman of New York-based Morgan Stanley from 1984 to 1990, when the investment bank’s equity increased almost 10-fold, to $2 billion, and its head count more than doubled, to 6,800. Died May 27 at New York Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center in Manhattan.
Ed Gilligan, 55. President of American Express Co. since 2013, who started working at the New York-based credit-card issuer as an intern and never left. Died May 29 after becoming ill on a flight from Tokyo to New York.
Beau Biden, 46. The son of U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, his election as Delaware attorney general at age 37 made him a rising star in the national Democratic Party. Died May 30 of brain cancer.
Stanley Egener, 81. President of Neuberger Berman’s mutual fund division from 1982 to 1999, he helped build the business through successful marketing strategies. Died May 30 of complications from Alzheimer’s disease at his home in Manhattan.
Karl Wlaschek, 97. Austrian founder of the Billa chain of discount supermarkets who in 1996 sold its 1,300 stores to Germany’s Rewe Group for $1 billion. Died May 31 in Graz, Austria.
June
John Beck, 83. Founding chairman in 1987 of Princeton University Investment Co., known as Princo, which oversees the school’s endowment. Died on June 3 of complications from Parkinson’s disease at his home in Vero Beach, Florida.
John Noyce, 36. Technical analyst at Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s London foreign-exchange desk whose weekly report, “The Charts That Matter Next Week,” was widely followed on Wall Street and beyond. Died June 4 of cancer.
Tariq Aziz, 79. Saddam Hussein’s deputy prime minister from 1979 until the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. He was sentenced to death for crimes against humanity, however the order was never carried out. Died June 5 in Iraq.
Alan Bond, 77. The London-born Australian entrepreneur controlled Bond Corp., which included mining, brewing and media companies, and won the 1983 America’s Cup yachting title before his empire collapsed in the 1990s and he was imprisoned for corporate fraud. Died June 5 in a hospital in Perth, Australia, of complications from heart surgery.
Philip Skidmore, 75. As chairman of Belpointe Asset Management, he helped develop the capital-markets unit of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in the 1970s. Died June 13 of a stroke at his home in Stamford, Connecticut.
Kirk Kerkorian, 98. Amassed a net worth of $3.6 billion by investing in Nevada casinos, Hollywood studios, carmakers and airlines. Died June 15 in Los Angeles.
Susan Hirt Hagen, 79. Billionaire heiress whose father was Henry Orth Hirt, founder of the Erie, Pennsylvania-based insurer Erie Indemnity Co. Died June 15.
James “Jimmy” Lee, 62. Vice chairman at JPMorgan Chase, who worked at the bank and its predecessors since the mid-1970s and helped create the modern private-equity industry through his early use of leveraged loans. Died June 17 at a hospital after exercising at his home in Darien, Connecticut.
Nelson Doubleday Jr., 81. After selling his family’s company, book publisher Doubleday Co., he became co-owner of the New York Mets baseball team from 1986 to 2002, when he sold his stake to partner Fred Wilpon for $131 million. Died on June 17 of pneumonia at his home in Locust Valley, New York.
Suleyman Demirel, 90. Former Turkish president and seven-time prime minister, who emphasized large-scale infrastructure projects that urbanized the nation and spurred economic growth. Died June 17 of heart failure at Guven hospital in Ankara, Turkey.
Ralph Roberts, 95. The founder and chairman emeritus of Philadelphia-based Comcast Corp., he turned the company into the largest U.S. cable-television operator by acquiring ATT Broadband for $58.7 billion and NBC Universal for about $30.5 billion. Died June 18 in Philadelphia of natural causes.
Yevgeny Primakov, 85. Named prime minister of Russia by President Boris Yeltsin in September 1998, he was fired less than a year later as his popularity grew and he backed investigations into corruption among Yeltsin’s relatives. Died June 26 at a Moscow hospital after a long illness.
July
Nicholas Winton, 106. British stockbroker helped 669 Jewish children escape from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia on the eve of World War II, saying nothing about his efforts until 1988, when his wife discovered a scrapbook he had kept that contained the names of those he saved. Died July 1.
Jonathan Brook, 44. Director of institutional credit sales at Janney Montgomery Scott, who specialized in fixed-income trading during almost 20 years on Wall Street. Died July 3 of a heart attack in Rye, New York, where he lived.
James Marcus, 85. A retired general partner at Goldman Sachs, he later served as board chairman of New York’s Metropolitan Opera from 1986 to 1993. Died July 5 of congestive heart failure at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York.
Burt Shavitz, 80. Reclusive beekeeper in rural Maine, who in 1984 co-founded Burt’s Bees, the natural cosmetics maker that was acquired by Clorox Co. in 2007 for about $925 million. Died July 5 of respiratory complications in Bangor, Maine.
Prince Saud Al-Faisal, 75. Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister for four decades, whose career spanned OPEC oil-price increases in the 1970s, two U.S. wars in neighboring Iraq and the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks carried out by mostly Saudi citizens. Died July 9 in Los Angeles where he was receiving medical treatment for an undisclosed illness.
Satoru Iwata, 55. During his tenure as president of Kyoto, Japan-based Nintendo, he tripled the company’s revenue in part by introducing the Wii, which became the world’s best-selling video-game console. Died July 11 of bile duct cancer.
Hans Angermueller, 90. The Citicorp banker helped devise a secret plan to unfreeze Iranian deposits in European banks in exchange for the release of hostages taken from the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979. Died July 11 in Westerly, Rhode Island.
John Buchanan, 72. New Zealander who spent 32 years at London-based BP Plc, rising to CFO. Died July 13.
Wan Li, 98. Last survivor of the Chinese Communist Party’s group of elders known as the “Eight Immortals,” who lost power during Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution, then re-emerged to lead China’s economic resurgence in the 1980s and ’90s. Died July 15 in Beijing.
James Rothenberg, 69. The chairman of Capital Group Cos., a Los Angeles-based mutual fund company managing more than $1.35 trillion, and chairman of Harvard Management Co., which invests the university’s endowment of more than $37 billion. Died July 21 of a heart attack.
Jan Kulczyk, 65. Poland’s richest person, with a net worth of $3.5 billion, amassed after buying companies from the government and selling them to investors following the fall of communism. Died July 28 of complications from cardiac surgery.
Joseph Trustey, 53. Managing director and chief operating officer of Summit Partners, a Boston-based private equity firm, where he worked since 1992. Died July 29, with his 18-year-old daughter, when his small airplane crashed at Timmerman Airport in Milwaukee.
Mullah Muhammad Omar, about 54. Reclusive cleric who founded Afghanistan’s Taliban guerrilla movement. Died in Pakistan in April 2013, the Afghan government confirmed on July 29.
Jerome Kohlberg Jr., 90. In 1976, he and partners Henry Kravis and George Roberts formed New York-based Kohlberg Kravis Roberts Co., an early specialist in leveraged buyouts. Died July 30 of cancer at his home on Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts.
Richard Schweiker, 89. The Pennsylvania Republican served eight years in the House and 12 years in the Senate, and was one of the first members of his party to call for President Richard Nixon to resign following the Watergate scandal. Died on July 31 at Atlantic Care Regional Medical Center in Pomona, New Jersey.
August
Johanna Quandt, 89. Billionaire widow who with her two children owned a combined 47 percent of Germany’s BMW AG after her husband, Herbert Quandt, saved the company from bankruptcy 50 years ago and helped it become the world’s biggest luxury-car maker. Died Aug. 3 at her home in Bad Homburg, Germany.
Manuel Contreras, 86. The chief of Chile’s National Intelligence Directorate during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, he was sentenced to more than 500 years in prison for human-rights abuses that occurred from 1973 to 1990. Died Aug. 7 of organ failure at a military hospital in Santiago.
Julian Bond, 75. Civil rights activist in the 1960s, who was a leader of the NAACP, co-founded the Southern Poverty Law Center and served six terms in the Georgia State Senate. Died Aug. 15 of complications from vascular disease in Fort Walton Beach, Florida.
John Correnti, 68. As CEO of Osceola, Arkansas-based Big River Steel, he helped reshape the U.S. steel industry by moving operations away from Pittsburgh, building mills in Arkansas and Mississippi, and embracing innovative technologies. Died Aug. 18 in Chicago.
September
Richard Cheney, 94. Hill Knowlton’s chairman from 1987 to 1991, he specialized in advising companies involved in mergers and acquisitions during a 33-year career at the New York-based public relations firm. Died Sept. 2 at his home in New York City after a long illness.
Adrian Cadbury, 86. Chairman of Cadbury Schweppes, the U.K.- based food and beverage company, from 1974 to 1989, and a leader in the field of best practices in corporate governance. Died Sept. 3 in Birmingham, England.
Leon Gorman, 80. L.L. Bean’s grandson ran the family’s outdoor clothing-and-gear company in Freeport, Maine, for 46 years, expanding from a catalog operation with one store into a multi-platform retailer with annual revenue of more than $1.5 billion. Died Sept. 3 of cancer at his home in Yarmouth, Maine.
Merv Adelson, 85. A Las Vegas real-estate developer, he co-founded Lorimar, which produced television shows such as “Dallas” and “The Waltons.” Died Sept. 8 of cancer in Los Angeles.
Charles Hallac, 50. Co-president of New York-based BlackRock Inc., the world’s largest money manager. Died Sept. 9 of colon cancer at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York.
Fred DeLuca, 67. In 1965, he co-founded the Subway sandwich chain, which by 2002 overtook McDonald’s Corp. in number of global locations. Died Sept. 14 after receiving treatment for leukemia.
Robert Newburger, 102. Wall Street veteran whose career started in 1935 and continued through his 90s as executive director of the Alliance of Floor Brokers. Died Sept. 15.
Robert Simon Jr., 101. The real-estate developer who built the planned community of Reston, Virginia, a template for what he hoped would be an alternative to typical postwar suburban sprawl. Died Sept. 21 at his home in Reston.
Richard Rainwater, 71. Money manager for the Bass family who later amassed a net worth of $3.5 billion from investments in commercial real estate, entertainment and oil. Died Sept. 27 at his home in Fort Worth, Texas, after being diagnosed with progressive supranuclear palsy, a degenerative brain disease.
Claude Dauphin, 64. Billionaire co-founder of Amsterdam-based Trafigura Beheer BV in 1993, he led the firm to become one of the world’s largest traders in metals and oil. Died Sept. 30 of cancer in a hospital in Bogota.
October
Denis Healey, 98. A member of the Labour Party, he served as defense secretary from 1964 to 1970 and chancellor of the exchequer from 1974 to 1979, a period of economic turmoil and trade union unrest in the U.K. Died Oct. 3 at his home in Sussex, in southern England.
Jose Eduardo Dutra, 58. The CEO of Petroleo Brasileiro SA, Brazil’s state-run energy company, from 2003 to 2005, and Worker’s Party president from 2010 to 2012. Died Oct. 4.
Walter Gerken, 93. He ran Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Co. from 1975 to 1986 and built its investment unit, Pacific Investment Management Co., or Pimco, which oversaw the world’s biggest bond fund. Died Oct. 5.
Andreas Hoefert, 48. UBS Group AG’s chief economist for wealth management and the Zurich-based bank’s chief investment officer for Europe. Died Oct. 6 of an apparent heart attack in New York.
Kenneth Koe, 90. A Pfizer Inc. chemist, he co-invented Zoloft, which was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 1991 and became the most-prescribed antidepressant in the U.S. Died Oct. 7 in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts.
Geoffrey Howe, 88. The U.K. Conservative minister who imposed controversial austerity measures in 1981 as chancellor of the exchequer under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and helped trigger her political demise by resigning as foreign minister nine years later. Died Oct. 9 at his home in Warwickshire, England.
John Dawkins, 95. Co-founded Wall Street brokerage Faulkner, Dawkins Sullivan Inc. in 1959 and sold it in 1977 to Sanford “Sandy” Weill, who was acquiring firms that ultimately formed Citigroup Inc. Died Oct. 13 of complications from a stroke.
Mathieu Kerekou, 82. A former general, he seized control of the West African nation of Benin in a military coup in 1972 and ruled until he was defeated in an election in 1991, then served as a democratically elected president. Died Oct. 14.
Greg Reiter, 52. Wells Fargo Co. managing director and head of residential mortgage research. Died Oct. 16 at his home in Middleburg, Virginia.
Thomas Tizzio, 77. Retired vice chairman of New York-based American International Group Inc. worked at the insurer from 1967 until 2006 and was once considered a possible successor to former CEO Maurice “Hank” Greenberg. Died Oct. 20 of pancreatic cancer at his home in Middletown, New Jersey.
Pierre Berger, 47. The CEO since 2011 of Eiffage SA, France’s third-largest construction company based on sales, whose corporate roots extend to building the Eiffel Tower and Statue of Liberty. Died Oct. 22 of a heart attack.
Thomas Stemberg, 66. Founder and former CEO of Staples Inc., which started in 1986 and is now the largest U.S. office-supply retailer, with more than 1,600 stores in North America and revenue of $22.5 billion. Died Oct. 23 of stomach cancer at his home in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.
Robert Davidoff, 88. Early investor in both corporate raider Saul Steinberg and movie producer New Line Films during his tenure as managing director at the Wall Street investment firm Carl Marks Co. Died Oct. 27 at his home in Great Neck, New York.
November
Fred Thompson, 73. Former Republican U.S. senator from Tennessee, who later acted in television programs such as “Law Order.” Died Nov. 1 of a recurrence of lymphoma.
Brijmohan Lall Munjal, 92. Founded India’s Hero MotoCorp Ltd., formerly known as Hero Honda Motors Ltd., and turned it into the world’s largest maker of motorcycles. Died Nov. 1.
Helmut Schmidt, 96. The West German Social Democrat who as chancellor from 1974 to 1982 steered his country through a global economic crisis and took an uncompromising stand against domestic terrorism. Died Nov. 10 in his home in Hamburg.
Marco Antonio Rossi, 54. As head of Banco Bradesco SA’s insurance business, he was a leading candidate to become the next CEO of the Brazilian bank, the nation’s second-biggest in terms of market value. Died Nov. 10 in a plane crash.
Gene Amdahl, 92. A computer designer at Armonk, New York-based International Business Machines Corp., he helped the company introduce general-purpose computers in the 1960s and a decade later challenged IBM’s dominance by starting Amdahl Corp. Died Nov. 10 of pneumonia at Vi at Palo Alto, a continuing care retirement community in Palo Alto, California.
Bruce Dayton, 97. Retired CEO of Dayton-Hudson Corp., the retailer founded by his grandfather that became Target Corp., based in Minneapolis. Died Nov. 13 at his home in Orono, Minnesota.
Kwek Leng Joo, 62. As deputy chairman at City Developments Ltd., Singapore’s second-largest developer, he advocated sustainability as a corporate mission. Died Nov. 16 of a heart attack.
Beth Curry, 74. Co-founded Eagle Capital Management, a New York-based investment firm with $25 billion in assets, and the Ravenel and Elizabeth Curry Foundation, which has assets of $180 million. Died Nov. 16 of recurrence of breast cancer at her home in Manhattan.
Albert Weis, 88. Led the New York Cotton Exchange in a 1998 merger that formed the New York Board of Trade, a formidable competitor to the Chicago Board of Trade, the biggest futures exchange. Died Nov. 17 at St. Francis Hospital in Roslyn, New York.
Charles Cawley, 75. Founded MBNA Corp., built it into a credit-card empire and sold it to Bank of America Corp. for $35 billion in 2006. Died Nov. 18 at his home in Camden, Maine.
James Slater, 86. As co-head of London-based Slater Walker Securities Ltd., he carried out corporate takeovers in the 1960s and early ’70s that placed him alongside Warren Buffett and Peter Lynch on lists of the greatest investors of all time. Died Nov. 18.
Austin Kiplinger, 97. Succeeded his father in 1959 as president and publisher of Kiplinger Washington Editors Inc., a financial publishing company whose products include Kiplinger Personal Finance magazine and the weekly Kiplinger Letter. Died Nov. 20 of cancer at a hospice in Rockville, Maryland.
Carol Buch, 54. A managing director at BMO Capital Markets, she spent more than two decades specializing in leveraged finance at the Bank of Montreal unit and other lenders. Died Nov. 21 after a long illness.
Richard Russell, 91. Publisher since 1958 of the influential Dow Theory Letters, which accurately announced the top of bull markets and end of bear markets. Died Nov. 21 at his home in La Jolla, California, after he was diagnosed with blood clots and other ailments.
Kim Young Sam, 87. South Korea’s president from 1993 to 1998, who ended a period of military coups in the country and accepted an international bailout during the Asian financial crisis that began in 1997. Died Nov. 22 of heart failure and a blood infection at Seoul National University Hospital.
David Silfen, 69. The co-head of the equities division at Goldman Sachs from 1990 until retiring in 1996, he was instrumental in building the firm’s equities derivative business. Died Nov. 28 of pancreatic cancer at his home in Manhattan.
Fabio Barbosa, 54. CFO of Rio de Janeiro-based Vale SA from 2002 to 2010, he helped it become the world’s second-largest mining company. Died Nov. 29.
December
Lawrence Pugh, 82. As VF Corp.’s CEO from 1982 to 1995, he added Wrangler to its own Lee brand and guided the apparel maker past Levi Strauss Co. as the biggest jeans maker. Died Dec. 3 of respiratory failure at NCH Healthcare System’s Downtown Hospital in Naples, Florida.
Chuck Williams, 100. Founded cookware retailer Williams-Sonoma Inc. in 1956, spurring a gourmet revolution in American kitchens by selling items such as saute pans and fish poachers to homemakers who cooked with department store pots and pans. Died Dec. 5.
Douglas Tomkins, 72. The founder of outdoor-clothing retailer North Face Inc. and fashion company Esprit Holdings Ltd., he left retailing and used his wealth to acquire hundreds of thousands of acres of land in Chile and neighboring Argentina for preservation. Died Dec. 8 from hypothermia in a kayaking accident in Chile.
Lester Pollack, 82. Former Lazard Freres Co. managing director who in the 1980s founded private equity firm Centre Partners and helped start early leveraged-buyout fund Odyssey Partners in New York. Died Dec. 9 of complications from Parkinson’s disease at his Manhattan apartment.
Lillian Vernon, 88. Starting with $2,000 in wedding-gift money and an idea hatched at her kitchen table in 1951, she built one of the best-known U.S. mail-order catalog businesses, Lillian Vernon Corp., specializing in monogrammed gifts such as handbags, belts and welcome mats. Died Dec. 14 in New York City.
Teresa Laraba, 53. As Southwest Airlines Co.’s head of customer services, she was one of the U.S. airline industry’s highest-ranking female executives. Died Dec. 25.