This week's passages

Karma Hadjimichalakis, 67, principal lecturer in economics at the University of Washington, who taught with joy and infectious enthusiasm and is remembered by students for her kindness and generosity, died Monday of ovarian cancer.

Justin Taylor, 90, who helped build his South Sound family business, Taylor Shellfish, into a dynasty now in its fifth generation and the largest shellfish-farming business in the country, died suddenly Monday of heart failure.

Robin McCuistion, 53, a 13-year veteran of the Kent Police Department and a lover of slot cars, died in a car crash early Thursday in Auburn while off-duty.

Edwin D. Kilbourne, 90, a medical researcher who figured out how to outwit fast-evolving flu germs, developing a new vaccine each year by intermingling genes of different disease strains, died Monday in Branford, Conn.

Thomas DeBaggio, 69, a nationally prominent herb grower and gardening author who became a defiant and poignant voice for fellow Alzheimer's patients, died Feb. 21 in Annandale, Va.

David R. Thompson, 80, a registered Republican named to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reportedly to balance the court's perceived liberal bent, died Feb. 19 after taking ill in San Francisco. His 25 years on the bench earned him a reputation as a moderate and a quiet force of common sense and fairness.

Joseph H. Flom, 87, whose expertise and ruthlessness in corporate mergers and acquisitions reshaped America's business landscape in the 1980s and helped turn his tiny firm into one of the nation's largest law practices, died Feb. 23 of a pulmonary embolism in New York.

Bernard Nathanson, 84, who performed or oversaw more than 60,000 abortions, only to undergo a change of conscience and become one of the most compelling national voices against the procedure, died of cancer Feb. 21 in New York.

Russell W. Peterson, 94, who helped develop Dacron as a DuPont researcher before becoming a champion of environmentalism as governor of Delaware, a White House adviser and president of the National Audubon Society, died of a stroke Monday in Wilmington, Del.

Arthur Schatzkin, 62, an epidemiologist who did groundbreaking work on links between diet and cancer — he overturned the widely held belief that a diet rich in fiber could prevent the recurrence of colon polyps — died of brain cancer Jan. 20 in Chevy Chase, Md.

Anant Pai, 81, whose colorful comic-book adaptations of Hindu mythology have been cherished by Indian children for nearly half a century, died of a heart attack Friday in Mumbai.

Dwayne McDuffie, 49, a comic-book writer known for diversifying the pantheon of superheroes, creating popular black characters for print and television, died of heart-surgery complications Monday in Burbank, Calif.

Edward Zigo, 84, the New York City detective who cracked the notorious Son of Sam case in the 1970s by acting on a hunch about a parking ticket and arresting killer David Berkowitz, died of cancer Feb. 19 in Lynbrook, N.Y.

Judith P. Sulzberger, 87 a physician and researcher whose philanthropy led to the creation of a center for genome studies in her name at Columbia University, and a member of the family that controls The New York Times, died Monday in Manhattan.

Sofia Cosma, 96, a concert pianist who defied long odds to rebuild her career after seven years in Soviet prison camps, died Feb. 12 in Oxnard, Calif.

Andy Jurinko, 71, a Phillies fan and one of the nation's foremost baseball artists, died of pancreatic cancer Feb. 14 in Manhattan.

Troy Jackson, 38, one of the best-known stars of street basketball — a showy style of play that gained global attention when its games were shown on ESPN — died last Sunday in Los Angeles of hypertensive heart disease.

Victor Martinez, 56, who won the 1996 National Book Award for Young People's Literature for his "Parrot in the Oven: Mi Vida," died Feb. 18 in San Francisco after a battle with cancer.