Susan Wojcicki, who helped turn Google from a start-up in her garage into an Internet juggernaut, and who became one of Silicon Valley’s  most prominent female executives with her leadership of YouTube, died on August 9. She was 56.

Ms. Wojcicki’s more than two decades with Google began in 1998 in her house in Menlo Park, CA, part of which she rented to her friends Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the company’s founders. For $1,700 a month, the two used the garage as their office to build the search engine.

Ms. Wojcicki, who had been working at Intel, soon joined Google as one of its earliest employees, and was its first marketing manager. Over the years, she reached its executive ranks, becoming Google’s most senior woman employee, eventually leading YouTube, which Google acquired in 2006, and which became one of the world’s largest social media companies.

Jay Kanter, whose long career as an agent to the stars — including Marlon Brando, Marilyn Monroe and Grace Kelly — and later as a studio executive made him one of the last of the generation of power brokers who dominated Hollywood in the late 20th century, died on August 6 at his home in Beverly Hills, CA. He was 97.

Among Mr. Kanter’s close friends was Mel Brooks. He joined Mr. Brooks, the director Paul Mazursky and a small group of other film industry insiders for a regular Friday lunch. The repast became legendary around Hollywood. He was there the Friday before his death, for a meal at Porta Via in Beverly Hills. Getting up after the meal, Mr. Kanter told his old friends, “See you guys next  week.”

Rabbi Shmuel Butman, who was the public face of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic sect during the antisemitic riots in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, in 1991, and who every Hanukkah for decades saw that possibly the world’s largest menorah was illuminated in Central Park, died on July 22 in Manhattan. He was 81.

The announcement of his death on the Chabad community website recalled that Rabbi Butman had written The Rebbe in Paris, a book about Rabbi Menachem Schneerson’s three visits to the French capital; published a weekly pamphlet called “L’Chaim”; written a weekly column for The Jewish Press; and hosted a weekly program for COL-live.com, the Chabad-Lubavitch website.

Charlie Moss, the visionary advertising executive who produced the stunningly successful “I ❤ NY” tourism campaign in the mid-1970s, died on August 5 at his home in Wainscott, NY. He was 85. By 1983, the New York Times said that $3 billion in spending by tourists was directly attributed to the campaign.

Mr. Moss also conceived Alka-Seltzer’s popular “Plop, plop, fizz, fizz” jingle and the “Flick your Bic” slogan for Bic lighters. He helped Braniff International Airways bring about “the end of the plain lane” and declared Tic Tac “the original mouth whack.”

Richard Simmons, the eccentric fitness guru known for his sunny demeanor and positive attitude, died on July 13 at his home in Los Angeles. He was 76.

His concept of fitness exploded in popularity in the 1980s, along with a nationwide fitness craze that included aerobics and Jazzercise. His videos became some of the most popular videos of the era. He also made regular TV appearances on talk shows. He also hosted his own talk and fitness show “The Richard Simmons Show,” from 1980 to 1984. The show won four Daytime Emmy Awards.

Audrey Flack, a pioneer of photorealism who became known for oversize still lifes crowded with color and detail, died on June 28 in Southampton, NY. She was 93.

In the early 1960s, Ms. Flack began painting from photographs. She went on paint directly over projections. She also bought a square-format Hasselblad camera, turned her bathroom into a darkroom, and learned to paint with an airbrush. In the early 1980s, she switched to sculpture.

Her “Leonardo’s Lady” (1974) was the first photorealist painting acquired by the Museum of Modern Art, and her work has been collected by numerous other museums. She and Mary Cassatt were the first two women to be included in the comprehensive textbook Janson’s History of Art.