Shirah Neiman,  who in 1970 cracked open the glass ceiling at the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York, becoming the first woman in decades to be hired into its criminal division, died on Jan. 4 in the Riverdale section of the Bronx. She was 81. Ms. Neiman first applied for a job with the Southern District in 1969. Of the 50 lawyers in the criminal division at the time, not one [...]

Martin Karplus, a Novel Prize-winning theoretical chemist who used computers to model how complex systems change during chemical reactions, a process that has led to advances in the understanding of biological processes, died on Dec. 28 at his home in Cambridge, MA. He was 94. Scientists can control the chemicals in a reaction, and they can measure and evaluate the results, but what happens inbetween is a mystery. As explained by Sven Lidin, chairman of [...]

David Schneiderman, an editor turned publisher, turned chief executive of The Village Voice, died on Jan. 17 in Edmonds, WA. He was 77. Named editor in 1978, Mr. Schneiderman elevated The Voice’s journalistic game, diversified a newsroom, and reckoned with an increasingly competitive landscape of alternative publications imitating The Voice’s cutting-edge counter-cultural tone and media coverage, and enhancing The Voice’s commitment to reporting. He resigned in 2006, worked for a corporate communications firm, Abernathy MacGregor [...]

George Kalinsky, who in contrived his way into a boxing gymnasium where Muhammad Ali was training for an upcoming fight, claiming to be a photographer for Madison Square Garden, died Jan. 16 in Manhattan. He was 88. The photos he took that day paved the way for a decades-long career as a sports photographer, for the Garden as well as for the New York Mets and Radio City Music Hall.  His photos have appeared widely [...]

Jules Feiffer was an American Cartoonist and author, who at one time was considered the most widely read satirist in the country. He died on Jan. 26, in Richfield Springs, NY. He was 95. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1986 for editorial cartooning, and in 2004, he was inducted  into the Comic Book Hall of Fame. He wrote the animated short, “Munro,” which won an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 1961. [...]

Joel Paley, a dancer, playwright and director who wrote the book and lyrics for “Ruthless!,” an award-winning Off-Broadway musical about an ambitious girls who will do anything — including murder her rival — to star in a grade school snow, died on Jan. 11 in Milford, CT. He was 69. “Ruthless!” won the 1992 Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Off-Broadway Musical and the Drama Desk Award  for Mr. Paley’s lyrics. The musical has been [...]