Shelly Zegart, a colossus in the world of quilting, who was instrumental in elevating what was long considered a mere utilitarian craft into the canon of American art and material culture, died on July 22 at her home in Louisville, Ky. She was 84.

Once called the “Queen of Quilts,” Ms. Zegart never stitched so much as a sweater in her life. “I don’t make anything,” she once said, “not even dinner.”

What she did make were connections: Between quilters, art collectors, historians and museums. In doing so, she connected quilting to the American experience.

“I like to work with marginalized groups of people, marginalized communities, and quilts felt to me like they were marginalized,” she said. “The first time I saw quilts, I said, ‘Wait a minute, there’s something wrong here. These are great works of arts.’”

Jerry Adler was in his 60s and what he joked was the “twilight of a mediocre career,” as a stage manager and director on Broadway, when he fell by happenstance into a long and respected second act in show business as an actor of scene-stealing versatility.

By the time he died on August 30 in Manhattan at 96, Mr. Adler had amassed 60 film and television credits as well as the acclaim of his peers. After years of sitcom work, he came to wider attention on the hit HBO crime-family drama “The Sopranos” as Herman Rabkin, known as Hesh, a trusted associate of Tony Soprano.

The character was supposed to be a one-off for the 1999 pilot, but David Chase, the show’s creator, found Mr. Adler so compelling that he kept bringing him back for six seasons.

Marilyn Diamond, who with her husband at the time, Harvey Diamond, wrote a blockbuster 1985 diet book, Fit For Life, which attracted millions of adherents to their fruit-and-vegetable-based regimen but which also drew sharp criticism from the medical establishment, died on Sept. 7 in Roanoke, VA. She was 81.

Fit For Life spent 35 weeks on the New York Times best-seller list. The book presented ideas ahead of their time, like veganism, caloric restriction and drinking oat and nut milk to replace dairy.

Michael Seltzer, whose bedside vigil for a friend who was dying of AIDS, transformed him into a prodigious fundraiser for the disease. He rallied individuals, foundations and corporations to support prevention and treatment in the 1980s, when it was largely neglected at all levels of government. Mr. Seltzer died on July 31 while vacationing on Governor Island, near Branford, CT. He was 78.

During Mr. Seltzer’s tenure as executive director of Funders Concerned About AIDS, private philanthropy for H.I.V.-related programs soared to $59 million in 1996 from $18 million in 1987. A total of nearly $700 million has been raised from his sources since then.

Rosa Roisinblit, an Argentine human-rights activist who fought to establish the truth about the fate of her pregnant daughter and thousands of others who were kidnapped by security personnel and “disappeared” during the country’s 1976-83 military dictatorship, died on Sept. 6 in Buenos Aires. She was 106.

Human rights groups have estimated that 30,000 Argentines were kidnapped, among them Mrs. Roisinblit’s 25-year-old daughter and her son-in-law, who were taken on Oct. 6 1978 when Patricia was eight months pregnant. Her infant son was given to a civilian Air Force intelligence officer and his wife. The boy was one of reportedly hundreds of those born in captivity who were, under false papers, transferred to childless military couples.

Mrs. Roisinblit joined a group called the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo who fought to find the stolen generation of children. According to the Grandmothers Group, about 300 grandchildren remain to be found; 140 have been given back to their families, including her grandson who was found on a tip in 2000 that a fast-food worker might be related to her. Tests proved positive.

At the age of 96 Mrs. Roisinblit had the satisfaction of facing in court the men charged with kidnapping her daughter and son-in-law. All three were found guilty and sentenced to prison.

“I want to find the remains of my children,” Mrs. Roisinblit said in court, “because then I’d have a place to lay a flower.”

Tom Lehrer, the Harvard-trained mathematician whose wickedly iconoclastic songs made him a favorite satirist in the 1950s and ‘60s on college campuses and in all the Greenwich Villages of the country, died on August 9 at his home in Cambridge, MA. He was 97.

Mr. Lehrer’s lyrics were clever, sometimes salacious, and almost always satirical. Accompanying himself on the piano, he performed in nightclubs, in concert, and on records that his admirers purchased originally by mail order, in the hundreds of thousands. In 1953 encouraged by friends, he produced an album. To his surprise, “Songs by Tom Lehrer,” cut and pressed in an initial run of 400 copies, was a hit. Sold through the mail and initially promoted almost entirely by word of mouth, it ultimately sold an estimated half-million copies.

His music, though, was just a detour in an academic career that included teaching posts at Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of California, and even a stint with the Atomic Energy Commission.

Reflecting on his bicoastal life in a 1981 interview for Newsday, he said he planned to keep his Massachusetts home “until my brain turns completely to Jell-O, at which time I will, of course, move to California full time.”

Morton Mintz, a journalist who in articles and books exposed the perils of prescription medical products like thalidomide and the Dalkon Shield, and who challenged the auto industry to be more accountable to consumers, died on August 4 at his home in Washington. He was. 103.

From 1946 to 1958, Mr. Mintz was a reporter in St. Louis first for The Star-Times and then for The Globe-Democrat, where he exposed the plight of vulnerable people with intellectual disabilities. He was hired by The Washington Post in 1958, and for the next 30 years his reporting on consumer issues would help spur reforms by the federal government and Congress.

Of all the stories he investigated, his thalidomide exposé led to hearings that required pharmaceutical companies to prove both the safety and efficacy of their products before marketing them, to get informed consent before clinical trials and to report adverse drug reactions.

He also raised red flags about birth control pills, MER/29, a medicine that lowered cholesterol levels but with harmful side effects, and Oraflex an anti-arthritis drug that was ultimately withdrawn.