Frankie Knuckles obit

Frankie Knuckles, ‘Godfather of House Music,’ Dead at 59

Remembering the life and legacy of the man who birthed every aspect of electronic dance music culture 

He was not on the list.

NOBODY CAN AGREE on who invented the blues or birthed rock & roll, but there is no question that house music came from Frankie Knuckles, who died Monday afternoon of as-yet-undisclosed causes at age 59. One of the Eighties and Nineties’ most prolific house music producers and remixers, Knuckles is, hands down, one of the dozen most important DJs of all time. At his Chicago clubs the Warehouse (1977-82) and Power Plant (1983-85), Knuckles’ marathon sets, typically featuring his own extended edits of a wide selection of tracks from disco to post-punk, R&B to synth-heavy Eurodisco, laid the groundwork for electronic dance music culture—all of it.

Knuckles made an abundant number of dance classics, including early Jamie Principle collaborations “Your Love”(1986) and “Baby Wants to Ride”(1987); “Tears”(1989), with Satoshi Tomiiee and Robert Owens; “The Whistle Song”(1991); and his remixes of Chaka Khan’s “Ain’t Nobody”(1989), Sounds of Blackness’s “The Pressure” (1992), and Hercules and Love Affair’s “Blind” (2008).

Born Francis Nicholls in the Bronx on January 18, 1955, Knuckles began hitting New York’s after-hours spots such as the Loft, the Sanctuary, Better Days, and Tamburlaine—the clubs where disco was born—as a teenager, along with his best friend, Larry Philpot. By the mid-Seventies, both of them were DJs themselves, and Philpot had changed his surname to Levan. The duo worked together at two of the most important early discos: the Gallery (presided over by Nicky Siano, whose smooth on-beat mixing style was enormously influential) and the Continental Baths, a multi-room gay bathhouse on Manhattan’s West Seventy-fourth Street. (Two other entertainers got their start there: Bette Midler and her pianist, Barry Manilow.)

By 1977, both started their own clubs in difference cities. While Levan (who died in 1992) helmed the Paradise Garage in Soho, Knuckles moved to Chicago, where Robert Williams, an old friend of both, was opening what became the Warehouse. A narrow building with oblong windows at 206 South Jefferson St. (today it’s a law office), the Warehouse was where Knuckles began honing his sound and style—”a wide cross-section of music,” as he told The Guardian in 2011. His mélange of disco classics, weird indie-label soul curiosities, the occasional rock track, European synth-disco and all manner of rarities would eventually be codified (at Importes, Etc., the record shop where Knuckles bought much of his music) as “House Music”—short, of course, for the Warehouse. (In 2004, the block where the Warehouse stood was renamed Honorary Frankie Knuckles Way.)

At a time when Saturday Night Fever had cranked up disco’s profile till it blanketed pop culture, Knuckles favored the music’s weirdoes and rebels. He spun tracks on independent labels like Salsoul and cheesy-exotic synth-disco from Italy. He liked things floridly dramatic and stark (First Choice’s “Let No Man Put Asunder,” Black Ivory’s “Mainline”); he liked party conviviality (Positive Choice’s wonderfully loose “We Got the Funk”); he liked genuine strangeness (Two Man Sound’s heavily phased “Que Tal America”). Working with reel-to-reel tape, he’d re-edit his favorite tracks to extend the grooves for his dance floor. “It wasn’t traditional disco like Donna Summer,” Jesse Saunders, another Chicago DJ of the time, said in 1995. “It was really R&B.”

It was also enormously influential. Chicago was a DJ town, with local radio broadcasting several mix shows starting in the late Seventies, and nearly every jock in the city bowed to Frankie. One of the city’s most popular jocks was Farley Keith Williams—then “Funkin'” Farley Keith of WBMX-FM’s Hot Mix 5 DJ team, and later a Chicago house hit-maker as Farley “Jackmaster” Funk. “Honestly, when I started, I didn’t go out buying new records,” Farley said in 2008. “I went out and regurgitated what Frankie Knuckles would play.”

Knuckles was so popular that the Warehouse—initially a members-only club for largely black gay men—began attracting straighter, whiter crowds, leading its owner, Robert Williams, to eschew memberships. Knuckles left in November 1982, opening the Power Plant a few months later. Not long after that, a fast-talking young DJ from Detroit named Derrick May, who’d recently been knocked flat after hearing Knuckles for the first time, sold Frankie a drum machine to further enhance his mixes—something several DJs in Chicago (and Detroit) were already doing.

That combination of bare, insistent drum machine pulse and an overlay of cult disco classics just about defines the sound of early Chicago house music—a sound many young local producers were beginning to mimic in the studio by 1985. That year, Knuckles made his first recordings with an ethereal-voiced, Prince-obsessed singer-songwriter named Byron Walford, a.k.a. Jamie Principle. The pair’s early tracks were recorded in the Power Plant DJ booth, but they soon graduated to local studios. Several of their songs together wound up released by the local label Trax Records—without the artists’ permission, as both Knuckles and Principle later insisted; it’s just one example of the cutthroat business practices at the dark heart of early house music.

But the music wasn’t just popular in the city’s clubs or party-rental spaces. Chicago house blew up in England in 1986, with Farley “Jackmaster” Funk and Daryl Pandy’s “Love Can’t Turn Around,” hitting the U.K. Top Ten and J.M. Silk’s “Jack Your Body” going to Number One in January 1987. “I remember being interviewed by a journalist in ’86,” Knuckles told Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton in The Record Players: DJ Revolutionaries. “And I remember telling her this music’s gonna be around for a while. It’s gonna take it a long time for it to get to where it needs to be at, but it’ll be around for a long time.”

Though the dance charts were about as far as most Chicago house titles went in their home country, house music—as well as Detroit techno, the style Derrick May was helping pioneer—not only yielded actual chart hits overseas, they fueled a new style of clubbing. In the summer of 1987, a group of English DJs—including Paul Oakenfold and Danny Rampling—traveled to the Mediterranean island of Ibiza and were turned on to both a more expansive playlist than usual, thanks to DJ Alfredo of the open-air club Amnesia, and a new drug: MDMA, or Ecstasy. Bringing that combo back to England, Rampling’s Shoom club, followed by Oakenfold’s Spectrum, birthed what the Brits called “raves”: enormous gatherings, usually in warehouses or open fields, of kids wearing smiley-face T-shirts while dancing all night, often on Ecstasy, to house and techno.

Knuckles wasn’t interested. In 1988, he returned home to New York and took on a series of club residencies—the World, the Roxy, the Sound Factory, and Sound Factory Bar (a different venue) among them—and teamed up with manager Judy Weinstein and fellow DJ David Morales (who’d filled in for Levan at the Paradise Garage) to form Def Mix Productions, a studio umbrella that altered the job description of a club remixer. Rather than simply change the arrangement or even grafting a new track onto an existing song, Knuckles and Morales would remake the source material from the ground up, even bringing the artist back in to cut a new vocal. Eric Kupper, a keyboardist and producer who worked on many of Knuckles’ great Nineties recordings, said that Frankie’s work “had a little more of an arrangement going on” than Morales’.

“[When] you’ve got someone as big as Luther Vandross and Michael Jackson sitting there saying, ‘Whatever you want, however you want it, I’ll stay here as long as you need me,’ that’s the reward right there,” Knuckles said in 2011. “All the programmers I worked with were all classically trained musicians . . . I was teaching them a different side of what it is they do. Infusing certain ideas like Debussy-esque piano over a very thick house track or bass line is something that blew their minds. It blew mine, too, but it’s something they never imagined and/or heard of before . . . We didn’t know if it would work or not, but it did.”

Jeremiah Denton obit

This war hero was not on the list.

Jeremiah Denton: Grade-A hero

Jeremiah Denton, the Vietnam War POW who died Friday at age 89, uttered one of the great statements of defiance in American history.


In 1965, he was shot down in his A-6 during a bombing run over North Vietnam. He became a captive for more than seven years and endured an unimaginable regime of torture, humiliation and isolation, managing to retain his dignity and spirit even as his captors went to hideous lengths to snuff them out.


Soon after his capture, a young North Vietnamese solider signaled to him to bow down and, when he refused, pressed a gun to his head so hard it created a welt. Denton quickly learned that this would be mild treatment. He was taken to Hoa Lo Prison, or the Hanoi Hilton, where he led the resistance to the North Vietnamese efforts to extract propaganda confessions from their prisoners.


As Denton related in his book, “When Hell Was in Session,” they tried to starve one out of him. After days, he began to hallucinate, but he still refused. They took him to what was called the Meathook Room and beat him. Then, they twisted his arms with ropes and relented just enough to keep him from passing out. They rolled an iron bar on his legs and jumped up and down on it. For hours.


He agreed finally to give them a little of what they wanted, but at first his hands were too weak to write and his voice too weak to speak. He hadn’t recovered from this ordeal when the Vietnamese told him he would appear at a press conference.


Denton told a fellow POW that his plan was to “blow it wide open.” He famously blinked T-O-R-T-U-R-E in Morse code during the interview, a message picked up by Naval Intelligence and the first definitive word of what the prisoners were being subjected to. When asked what he thought of his government’s war, Denton replied, “Whatever the position of my government is, I believe in it, yes sir. I’m a member of that government, and it’s my job to support it, and I will as long as I live.”


The legend is that under the pressure of the Inquisition, Galileo said of the Earth, “Yet, it moves.” That Martin Luther said, “Here I stand, I can do no other.” Denton’s words aren’t an embellishment. They were seen by millions when they were broadcast in the United States, and he almost immediately paid for them in torment so horrifying that he desperately prayed that he wouldn’t go insane.


For two years, he was confined in what was dubbed “Alcatraz,” reserved for the “darkest criminals who persist in inciting the other criminals to oppose the Camp Authority,” in the words of one of the guards. Alvin Townley, author of the book “Defiant,” writes of the Alcatraz prisoners and their wives back in the States, “Together, they overcame more intense hardship over more years than any other group of servicemen and families in American history.”


When the American involvement in the war ended and the POWs finally were released, Denton made a brief statement on the tarmac upon his return, no less powerful for its simplicity and understatement: “We are honored to have had the opportunity to serve our country under difficult circumstances. We are profoundly grateful to our commander in chief and to our nation for this day. God bless America.”


A Roman Catholic, Denton told his family that he had forgiven his captors and, after recounting to them what he had gone through his first night back, that he didn’t want to speak to them of it again. His son James says he often heard him say — with typical modesty — “That’s over. I don’t want to be a professional jailbird.”


He certainly wasn’t that. Denton went on to become a US senator from Alabama. With his passing, we’ve lost a hero whose example of faithfulness and duty should be for the ages

.

Marc Platt obit

'Seven Brides for Seven Brothers' Dancer Marc Platt Dies at 100

 

He was not on the list.

Marc Platt, who danced up a storm on stage and screen in Oklahoma! and played the fourth brother in the classic 1954 Stanley Donen musical Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, has died. He was 100.

Platt, who danced in the 1930s with the famed Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, died Saturday in Marin, Calif., his daughter Donna told the San Francisco Chronicle.

Platt also displayed some fancy footwork in the Rita Hayworth films Tonight and Every Night (1945) and Down to Earth (1947) and appeared with comic Sid Caesar in the musical Tars and Spars (1946).

Platt created the role of Dream Curly in the 1943 original Broadway production of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein’s Oklahoma!, then appeared as a friend of Curly’s (played in the movie by Gordon MacRae) in the 1955 film musical directed by Fred Zinnemann.

In Seven Brides for Seven Brothers – choreographed by the legendary Michael Kidd and one of the earliest CinemaScope movies made for MGM -- Platt played Daniel, one of the rugged Pontipee brothers living in the Oregon mountains in the 1850s. He marries Martha (Norma Doggett) in the film.

Platt also appeared in such features as You’re In the Army Now (1941), The Swordsman (1948) and Addio Mimi! (1949) and on such TV shows as Sky King, The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, State Troopers and Matlock.

Born Marcel LePlat in Pasadena on Dec. 2, 1913, Platt grew up in Seattle and trained for eight years with renowned dance teacher Mary Ann Wells.

He told The Seattle Times in a 2005 interview how he came to love dance: “I walked up to the barre, and grabbed the barre, and I saw all these pretty little girls. I thought, ‘Wow, I could like this.’”

His career took off in the 1930s after he landed a spot with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, which had stopped in Washington during a tour. (His name was Russianized to Marc Platoff during his time with the company, which many credit as giving birth to modern ballet). He reminisced about those years in the 2005 documentary Ballets Russes.

In 1939, Platt choreographed a ballet to music by Rodgers called “Ghost Town,” then departed for Broadway to star as Curly in Agnes de Mille’s ballet sequence in the original Oklahoma!, the first musical from Rodgers & Hammerstein.

In the 1950s, he toured in a cabaret team with Kathryn Lee and continued acting on stage.

Platt accepted an invitation in 1962 to become the first guest producer-choreographer at Radio City Music Hall in New York and later opened a ballet school in Florida with his wife, Jean Goodall, whom he had met during a tour of Kiss Me Kate. She died in 1994.

Filmography

 

    The Gay Parisian (1941) (short subject)

    You're in the Army Now (1941)

    Who Calls (1942) (short subject)

    Tonight and Every Night (1945)

    Tars and Spars (1946)

    Down to Earth (1947)

    When a Girl's Beautiful (1947)

    The Swordsman (1948)

    Addio Mimi! (1949)

    Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954)

    Oklahoma! (1955)

    These Wilder Years (1956)

    Ballets Russes (2005) (documentary)

    Broadway: Beyond the Golden Age (2018) (documentary)

 

Stage appearances

 

    Jubilee (1935)

    Broadway Sho-Window (1936)

    Yokel Boy (1939)

    The Lady Comes Across (1942)

    Beat the Band (1942)

    Oklahoma! (1943)

    Kiss Me, Kate (1949-1952)

    Maggie (1953)

Billy Mundi obit

RIP Billy Mundi

 

He was not on the list.

It was reported today on Zappateers that original Mothers of Invention/Rhinocheros/Tim Buckley and 60s session drummer Billy Mundi passed away 29th March 2014. He was 71. After the 70s, Billy went away from the music scene, and kept a private life, but according to those who were still in touch with him, he was diabetic and he had a leg amputated for this, even though he was still playing on a special set. According to his profile page on Zappa's United-Mutations website, at one point, Billy was writing a book about his carreer, which was to be called "Sideman". Unfortunately, to my knowledge, it never came out.

If you like the swing/jazzier stuff on the early Mothers of Invention albums... well, that was Billy. I always prefeered the way Mundi handled the drums on "King Kong" than Tripp. He gave the song a jazzier feel, which made it sound more majestic

He plays on "Absolutely Free" (the left-panned drums), most of "We're Only In It For The Money" (the original non-overdubbed version) and on some of "Uncle Meat".

The drummer was best known as a member of The Mothers of Invention and Rhinoceros. He also worked as a session musician. He sometimes used the name Tony Schnasse.

A former Hells Angel, his career dates back to the late 1950s, when he majored in music at UCLA. After graduation, Mundi worked for three months as a timpanist in the Los Angeles Philharmonic before moving into studio work and a succession of local bands.[2] In the early 1960s he played in Skip Battin's group, Skip and The Flips, and worked as a session musician on Tim Buckley's debut album among others. Mundi was briefly a member of The Lamp of Childhood in mid-1966.

In 1966, he joined The Mothers of Invention during the recording of the album Freak Out!, and later provided drums for several subsequent Mothers albums. He also featured in the movie Uncle Meat. He was enticed away from the Mothers by Jac Holzman at Elektra Records to form a supergroup, Rhinoceros. According to Frank Zappa, Holzman "offered Billy Mundi a huge amount of money, a place to live, the whole package — we'll make you a star, you'll work with these top-grade musicians instead of those comedy guys... But I don't blame Billy for taking the job, because at that time we were so poor he was living in the Albert Hotel and he couldn't get enough to eat — he used to come in and tell us how he'd quell his appetite by drinking the hot water in the shower...".

Around 1970, Mundi moved to Woodstock, New York, where he worked with Geoff Muldaur and Maria Muldaur and as a session musician. He lived in California with his wife of 31 years, Patty.

Lorenzo Semple Jr. obit

Hollywood writer, longtime Aspenite Semple dies at 91

 

He was not on the list.

Famed Hollywood writer and longtime Aspen resident Lorenzo Semple Jr. — known for his work on the original “Batman” television series and big-screen thrillers “The Parallax View” and “Three Days of the Condor” — died of natural causes at his Los Angeles home Friday. He was 91.

Born in New Rochelle, N.Y., Semple attended Yale University for two years before enlisting with the Free French Forces during World War II, earning him a Croix de Guerre award. He also served in the U.S. Army, which awarded him a Bronze Star.

In 1950, he began his writing career as a critic for Theater Arts magazine. By 1959, he had written two Broadway plays, “Tonight in Samarkand” and “The Golden Fleecing.” He adapted the latter for the screen with “The Honeymoon Machine,” starring Steve McQueen.

Riding on the success of his plays, Semple had the idea to buy a bookstore in the mountains, which led him to Aspen. Though Semple never got his store, he moved his family here for what was supposed to be 12 months. According to his wife, Joyce, after a year of renting, they liked Aspen so much that they built a house and stayed for more than 20 years, raising three children — Johanna, Maria and Lo — along the way.

Joyce said that when she met Semple, he was full of ideas. He was “so different from any of the other college guys I went out with,” she said

“He was the first writer I ever dated, and I thought, ‘This is the way I want to live,’” she said. “He could take a typewriter and go anywhere, and so we did. When we were first married, we went to Mexico, had a kid there, and then we had another kid and went to Spain. And then we had another kid in the United States and settled in Aspen and now California. I could just tell being married to him was an adventure.”

Joyce said all three of her children benefited from having Semple as a father. Maria, a screenwriter and novelist in her own right, is scheduled to appear in Aspen on Monday, when her brother Lo will interview her at the Aspen Meadows Resort. Maria said she is looking forward to the humiliation her brother might set off with his questions.

“He learned that from his father,” Joyce said with a laugh.

In the 1960s, Semple broke into television writing with a four-episode pilot for “Batman,” which introduced the villains the Joker, the Riddler, the Penguin and Catwoman. Credited with the idea of including the “Pow!” “Zap!” and “Kapow!” graphics during the show’s fight scenes, Semple wrote numerous episodes as well as the 1966 feature film “Batman.”

“I think ‘Batman’ was the best thing I ever wrote, including those big movies,” Semple said in a 2008 interview with the Archive of American Television. “As a whole work, it came out the way that I wanted it to, and I was excited by it.”

In the interview, Semple recalled a wine-tasting benefit in Princeton, where people mobbed him when they found out he had written “Batman.”

“I was astounded,” he said.

In the 1970s, he delivered screenplays for “Papillon,” a prison film starring McQueen and Dustin Hoffman; “The Parallax View,” starring Warren Beatty as an ambitious reporter investigating a senator’s assassination; and Sydney Pollack’s “Three Days of the Condor,” starring Robert Redford and Faye Dunaway. He also is credited for “Flash Gordon” in 1980 and “Never Say Never Again,” a 1983 James Bond film starring Sean Connery.

From 1984 to 1990, Lorenzo taught graduate screenwriting at the New York University Tisch School of the Arts. His students include John Fusco (“Young Guns” and “Hidalgo”), Susan Cartsonis (“What Women Want”) and Stan Seidel (“One Night at McCool’s”).

In 2007, Semple teamed up with longtime friend and Hollywood producer Marcia Nasatir for “The Reel Geezers,” a popular YouTube series in which they bicker over films. A year later, the Writers Guild of America honored Semple as a “Living Legend.”

A private service will be held for Semple at a later date, and he will be buried in Aspen, Joyce said. He is survived by his wife, Joyce; children Johanna Herwitz, Maria Semple and Lorenzo Semple III; and six grandchildren.

 

Filmography

 

Screenplays

Batman (1966)

Fathom (1967)

Pretty Poison (1968)

Daddy's Gone A-Hunting (with Larry Cohen) (1969)

The Sporting Club (1971)

The Marriage of a Young Stockbroker (1971)

Papillon (with Dalton Trumbo) (1973)

The Super Cops (1974)

The Parallax View (with David Giler) (1974)

The Drowning Pool (1975)

Three Days of the Condor (with David Rayfiel) (1975)

King Kong (1976)

Hurricane (with Tracy Keenan Wynn and Walter Hill) (1977)

Flash Gordon (with Michael Allin) (1980)

Never Say Never Again (1983)

Sheena (with David Newman) (1984)

Never Too Young to Die (with Gil Bettman) (1986)

 

Television

The Alcoa Hour (1955)

Target (1958)

Pursuit (1958)

The Rogues (1964)

Burke's Law (1964)

Batman (1966)

Thompson's Ghost (1966)

The Rat Patrol (1966)

The Green Hornet (1966)

Rearview Mirror (1984)

Rapture (1993)

Joseph Rigano obit

Actor Joseph Rigano Has died

 He was not on the list.

Joseph Rigano was an acclaimed American character actor known for his versatile performances in film, television, and theater. Born in New York City, Rigano established himself as a talented and respected actor throughout his career.

Rigano's filmography includes notable appearances in films such as "Goodfellas" (1990), directed by Martin Scorsese, where he portrayed Joseph "Joey" Stampa, a member of the mob . He showcased his versatility by taking on diverse roles in popular TV series as well, leaving a lasting impression on audiences.

Throughout his career, Rigano garnered respect and admiration for his ability to bring depth and authenticity to his characters. His contributions to the entertainment industry continue to be celebrated, and he remains remembered as a talented character actor.

 

Filmography

 

Year     Title            Role            Notes

1961    Hey, Let's Twist!            Vinnie            Uncredited

1965    Three Rooms in Manhattan            Jean            Uncredited

1969    Out of It          Vinnie  

1982    Dear Mr. Wonderful            Artie    

1995    Casino            Vincent Borelli 

1998    The City      The Contractor       

1999    Analyze This            Dominic Manetta        

1999    Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai            Joe Rags    

1999    Mickey Blue Eyes            Tony Risolli  

1999    Sweet and Lowdown            Stagehand       

2000    The Crew    Frankie 'Rash' Decuello

2001    Twelve            Ed Danoff 

2002            Hollywood Ending            Projectionist    

2002    The Blue Lizard            Casino Guy     

2002    High Times' Potluck            Rigano 

2002    Four Deadly Reasons            Sapiro 

2003    This Thing of Ours            Joe      

2003    Coffee and Cigarettes            Joe            (segment "Those Things'll Kill Ya")

2003    Season of the Hunted            Joe      

2005    Johnny Slade's Greatest Hits            Sam    

2008            Meatballs, Tomatoes and Mobsters            Don Forchenzo       

2009            Mnemonica      The Messenger       

2010    Lotto            Benny The Bone        

2011            Humdinger            Carbone          (final film role)

James Schlesinger obit

He was not on the list.


James Schlesinger, former U.S. defense secretary, dies at 85


James R. Schlesinger, a hawkish and erudite Republican who straddled the partisan divide to serve in Cabinet-level posts under three U.S. presidents, has died, a Washington think tank said Thursday. He was 85.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies, where Schlesinger was a trustee, confirmed his death.

The onetime University of Virginia economics professor built an impressive national-security resume as defense secretary for Republican presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford and was the nation's first energy secretary under Democratic President Jimmy Carter. Earlier he was a top White House budget official, chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission and director of the Central Intelligence Agency - all under Nixon.

In later years, he served on a host of defense and energy-related task-forces and advisory committees and continued to push for more sophisticated nuclear weapons systems. He was a longtime member of the Pentagon's Defense Policy Board and was appointed by President George W. Bush to the Homeland Security Advisory Committee.

Schlesinger also led a prison abuse investigation in the wake of the Abu Ghraib scandal.

Schlesinger was "a remarkable public servant," said former Sen. Sam Nunn, a Democrat, who sparred with him as chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

"He left an astounding mark on American security and energy policy," CSIS said on its website. "After leaving government, Dr. Schlesinger continued to promote a stronger and more prosperous country through his work at many policy institutions, including CSIS."

The Harvard-educated Schlesinger gained a reputation as a perceptive thinker on nuclear strategy, advocating a retreat from reliance on mutually assured destruction as a means of avoiding nuclear war with the Soviet Union. "Deterrence is not a substitute for defense," he said.

Becoming defense secretary in 1973 at age 44, Schlesinger was well-liked among military leaders, consulting with them frequently and aggressively lobbying Congress for more money for the armed forces. His pro-interventionist foreign policy also brought him favor with the new-right coalition of the day. He worked to rebuild military morale and revamp nuclear strategy in the turbulent period after the Vietnam War era. He opposed amnesty for draft resisters.

But his bluntness and tenacity in military budget struggles made for often prickly relations with Congress and he clashed frequently with Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. President Ford fired him in 1975 and replaced him with his White House chief of staff, Donald Rumsfeld.

But Schlesinger wasn't gone for long.

He was back in the senior ranks of government roughly two years later, serving first as Carter's energy "czar" and then as the first secretary of the new Energy Department, created amid severe fuel shortages and soaring prices spawned by oil embargoes and tensions with Iran in the 1970s.

Ralph Wilson - # 75

He was number 75 on the list.

Bills founder and owner Ralph Wilson Jr. dies at 95

Ralph Wilson Jr., the founder and owner of the Buffalo Bills, has died, team president Russ Brandon announced Tuesday. Wilson was 95 years old.

Wilson was enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2009 and was the longest tenured active owner.

"No one loved the game of football more than Ralph Wilson," Brandon said Tuesday at the NFL owners meetings in Orlando, Fla. "They don't make 'em like Ralph Wilson, they just don't.

"He passed away peacefully at his home with his beautiful wife, Mary, and his daughters by his side."

During his ownership, the Bills won two American Football League championships (1964-65) and, after the 1970 AFL-NFL merger, four consecutive AFC championships (1990-93) to reach the Super Bowl.

In last five months, three NFL owners have passed away: Bud Adams of the Tennessee Titans, William Clay Ford of the Detroit Lions and now Wilson.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell released a statement:

"Ralph Wilson was a driving force in developing pro football into America's most popular sport. He loved the game and took a chance on a start-up league in 1960 as a founding owner of the American Football League. He brought his beloved Bills to western New York and his commitment to the team's role in the community set a standard for the NFL.

"As a trusted advisor to his fellow league owners and the commissioner, Ralph always brought a principled and common-sense approach to issues. His lifelong loyalty to the game was instrumental in his richly deserved induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. We are grateful for his many contributions to the NFL and offer our heartfelt sympathy to the Wilson family."

Brandon later released a statement from the team:

"I speak for everyone within the Bills organization when I say that we are all suffering a deep and profound sadness with the passing of our Hall of Fame owner Mr. Wilson. We have lost our founder, our mentor, our friend, and this is a very difficult time for us all. We extend our deepest sympathies to his wife Mary, his daughters Christy and Dee Dee (Edith), his niece Mary and his entire family.

"Mr. Wilson had a relentless passion, a deep love for his Buffalo Bills, the City of Buffalo and the National Football League. He also loved the Bills fans and all of the people of Western New York who embraced the Bills.

"This incredible man was the personification of the Buffalo Bills. His life was grit, determination and resolve. He was bigger than life in many ways and yet he was the everyday man, driving his Ford Taurus to the local store and greeting everyone as they called out 'Hi Ralph!' He will be greatly missed by those in our community whose lives he touched.

"Mr. Wilson was a man of true integrity, charisma and a hero in every sense of the word. His service to his country in the South Pacific in World War II is well documented. He was a pioneer in the American Football League. He was instrumental in forging the merger between the AFL and the NFL. Mr. Wilson will long be remembered as a man who was true to his word and did countless acts of kindness and generosity for so many, while never seeking the limelight in doing so.

"More than anything, he wanted to bring a Super Bowl championship to Western New York. He wanted it for the players, the coaches and the franchise. But mostly he wanted it for the fans. No owner has wanted a title more for these reasons than Mr. Wilson. In the end, he was extremely proud that his Bills are the only team to have played in four consecutive Super Bowls.

"For those of us fortunate to have worked for him, we'll miss his kindness, his insight, his leadership, but mostly his sense of humor. He possessed the unique ability to turn a negative into a positive.

"Our organization, our league, our community has lost a great man."

Brandon said in the statement that the Bills' plans for future ownership would be "addressed in the near future."

"Right now all of us are absorbing this tremendous personal loss," Brandon said. "We are performing our day-to-day functions as we normally would. We understand our fans' curiosity in wanting to know what the future holds for our organization."

According to the Buffalo News, the team will be placed in a trust, which likely will control the franchise for a minimum of a few years. Eventually, the trust will sell the team, with the proceeds going to Wilson's estate, the newspaper reported.

Wilson brought major sports to Buffalo in 1959, when he joined a group that became known as "The Foolish Club," eight businessmen led by Texas oilman Lamar Hunt, who founded the AFL. The initial cost to Wilson was $25,000, and it was considered a risky venture to challenge the established NFL

Wilson's team is valued today at roughly $870 million, based on estimates by Forbes Magazine. The Bills arguably are the single-most identifiable and unifying institution in Western New York, according to the Buffalo News.

"The strength of the Bills franchise is the passion of the fans," Wilson said after signing a 15-year lease deal in 1997. "Buffalo is a community of down-to-earth, hard-working families who, in large numbers, are also avid sports fans. You know how the people here feel about you because they are very straightforward. That is a quality I admire."

Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder paid his respects in a statement.

"We are deeply saddened by the passing of the great Ralph Wilson," Snyder said. "All of us have lost a NFL legend whose passion for his team was inspiring. We will always be thankful for Ralph's contributions to the development of the AFL and NFL."

Bills running back C.J. Spiller, a first-round pick of the team in 2010, issued a statement.

"I would like to send out my condolences to the entire family of Mr. Ralph Wilson," Spiller said. "He will forever be remembered and loved by myself and the rest of the Bills fans across the world. I personally want to thank Mr. Wilson for drafting me and showing me what a great organization he has built.

"As I sit here and think back, I remember first meeting him shortly before my press conference the day after the draft. He looked me in the eye and said, 'I know that you will put some points up for us.' I will not let you down, Mr. Wilson. May God be with you and your family always. This world has lost a great leader, but his legacy will surely live on forever."

Wilson was born in Columbus, Ohio on Oct. 17, 1918 and moved with his family to Detroit when he was a youngster. He attended the University of Virginia and later attended law school at the University of Michigan before enlisting in the Navy during World War II. He earned his commission within a year and served aboard minesweepers in both the Atlantic and Pacific.

After the war ended he took over the successful insurance business of his father and invested in Michigan area mines and factories. He eventually purchased several manufacturing outlets, construction firms, and radio stations, and founded Ralph Wilson Industries.

Although he made his fortune in the business world, the Bills were always Wilson's No. 1 love. For most of his tenure as owner he attended all of the games, home and away, and only in last few years did he skip games, usually because the travel became too cumbersome for him, according to the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.

 Other players and coaches who were with the Bills during his ownership were: Andre Reed, Jim Kelly, Bruce Smith, O.J. Simpson, Thurman Thomas, Billy Shaw, James Lofton, Steve Tasker, Marv Levy, Buster Ramsey, Archie Matsos, Kent Hull, Frank Reich, Joe Cribbs, Elbert Dubenion, Richie McCabe, Jim Wagstaff, Laverne Torczon, Chuck McMurtry, Wray Carlton, Billy Atkins, Lou Saban, Cookie Gilchrist, Jack Kemp, Tom Sestak, Mike Stratton, Ray Abruzzese, Booker Edgerson, Bill Miller, Daryle Lamonica, George Saimes, Butch Byrd, Pete Gogolak, Joe Collier, Marty Schottenheimer, Bobby Burnett, Bobby Crockett, Art Powell, Tom Flores, Harvey Johnson, Haven Moses, Keith Lincoln, John Rauch, James Harris, J. D. Hill, Bob Chandler, Donnie Green, Jim Braxton, Stan Jones, Jim Ringo, Joe DeLamielleure, Joe Ferguson, Robert James, Dave Foley, Reggie McKenzie, Paul Seymour, Larry Watkins, Dennis Shaw, Ahmad Rashad, Ben Williams, Joe Devlin, Ken Jones, Chuck Knox, Terry Miller, Frank Lewis, Bill Munson, Tom Dempsey, Jerry Butler, Fred Smerlas, Jim Haslett, Shane Nelson, Jim Ritcher, Roland Hooks, Byron Franklin, Tom Catlin, Lawrence McCutcheon, Nick Mike-Mayer, Perry Tuttle, Kay Stephenson, Darryl Talley, Greg Bell, Monte Kiffin, Pete Carroll, Robb Riddick, John Kidd, Terry Bledsoe, Vince Ferragamo, Mike Pruitt, Pete Metzelaars, Scott Norwood, Bill Polian, Hank Bullough, Will Wolford, Ronnie Harmon, Ted Cottrell, Martin Bayless, Shane Conlan, Nate Odomes, Howard Ballard, Brian McClure, Mark Miller, Trumaine Johnson, Cornelius Bennett, Ted Marchibroda, Art Still, Tim Vogler, Carlton Bailey, Jeff Wright, Don Beebe, Larry Kinnebrew, Leon Seals, Stan Gelbaugh, Henry Jones, Kenneth Davis, Ray Bentley, Steve Christie, Chris Mohr, John Butler, Charlie Joiner, Jim Shofner, Gale Gilbert, Carwell Gardner, Bill Brooks, Ruben Brown, Alex Van Pelt, Todd Collins, Ted Washington, Bryce Paup, Jim Jeffcoat, Eric Moulds, Mike Hollis, Wade Phillips, Quinn Early, Chris Spielman, Marcellus Wiley, Jay Riemersma, Sam Cowart, Doug Flutie, John Fina, Antowain Smith, Peerless Price, Antoine Winfield, Joe Pendry, Turk Schonert, Rob Johnson, Sam Rogers, Gregg Williams, Tom Donahoe, Mark Pike, John Holecek, Nate Clements, Aaron Schobel, Travis Henry, Henry Jones, Jerry Gray, Larry Centers, Drew Bledsoe, Josh Reed, Kevin Gilbride, Brian Moorman, London Fletcher, Takeo Spikes, Lawyer Milloy, Willis McGahee, Terrence McGee, Sam Adams, Van Miller,  Mike Mularkey, Travis Henry, Shane Matthews, J.P. Losman, Troy Vincnet, Chris Villarrial, Lee Evans, Rian Lindell, Mike Schneck, Sam Wyche, Tim Krumrie, Mike Gandy, Dick Jauron, Kyle Williams, Donte Whitner, Anthony Thomas, Trent Edwards, Fred Jackson, Marshawn Lynch, Paul Posluszny, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Russ Brandon, Marcus Stroud, Jason Peters, Perry Fewell, Terrell Owens, Eric Wood, Jairus Byrd, Chan Gailey, Buddy Nix, Stevie Johnson, Marcell Dareus, Dave Wannstedt, Adrian White, Shawne Merriman, Mario Williams, Mark Anderson, Tarvaris Jackson, EJ Manuel and Ike Hilliard.