The New York Times. April 04, 2020

B14 N THE NEW YORK TIMES OBITUARIESSATURDAY, APRIL 4, 2020

Faces From the Coronavirus Pandemic

Those We’ve Lost

In early March, Dr. Roberto

Stella, a general practitioner in a

town near Milan, told a colleague

that the medical staff at his prac-

tice had run out of face masks and

gloves.

“We’re not stopping,” he said.

“We’re being careful and pressing

on.”

Dr. Stella died on March 11, the

first doctor known to have suc-

cumbed to the virus in Italy, said

Dr. Marco Cambielli, a colleague.

“The first of many,” he added. Dr.

Stella was 67.

Dr. Stella lived in Busto Arsizio,

20 miles northwest of Milan in

Lombardy, the Italian region that

has been hit particularly hard. His

death made headlines and was a

grim reminder that health care

workers are among those at great-

est risk. At least 66 Italian doctors

have died of the virus through

March, and thousands of health

care workers have been infected.

“Busto salutes you and above all

thanks you; your example won’t

be forgotten,” Mayor Emanuele

Antonelli wrote that day on his

Facebook page. The post received

more than 300 comments, many

from patients praising Dr. Stella’s

bedside manner.

Dr. Stella was born in Busto on

July 22, 1952, graduated from med-

ical school in 1978 and began prac-

ticing there. He also specialized in

hematology.

For nearly 30 years, Dr. Stella

held elected positions with the Ital-

ian National Federation of the As-

sociations of Doctors, Surgeons

and Dentists, at local and national

levels. For the national organiza-

tion, he was responsible for the

medical training and continuing

medical education division. He sat

on the boards of various national

medical associations, was presi-

dent of the Italian Scientific Soci-

ety for Continuing Medical Educa-

tion of General Practitioners and

served as an expert to Italy’s gov-

ernment health advisory board.

“When

you’ve held var-

ious positions

for many years,

you leave an

even bigger

void,” Dr. Cam-

bielli said.

With Dr. Stel-

la’s death, the

Italian health

system lost a

“point of refer-

ence,” Health Minister Roberto

Speranza said.

He is survived by his wife, Dan-

iela, and two sons.

Dr. Stella’s last publication for

The BMJ, a peer-reviewed medical

journal, was a co-written article

published on March 16 presenting

an e-learning course on Covid-19

that had been made available to

Italian doctors “a few hours after

the confirmation of the first case of

local transmission in Italy.”

“He was a real doctor,” said Dr.

Alessandro Colombo, another col-

league and friend. “He worked un-

til the end.”

Roberto Stella, 67

Regional Doctor With a National Presence in Italy

By ELISABETTA POVOLEDO

Dr. Roberto

Stella

Mababa “Pape” Diouf, who became the

only black president of a top tier European

soccer club when he was appointed to lead

France’s Olympique de Marseille, died on

Tuesday in Dakar, Senegal. He was 68.

The cause was Covid-19, the club said in a

statement. Mr. Diouf had been scheduled to

fly to France for urgent treatment before his

health deteriorated, forcing him to be

placed on a ventilator, according to news re-

ports.

Mr. Diouf was born on Dec. 18, 1951, in

Chad to Demba and Aminata Diouf, and

held French and Senegalese citizenship. He

moved to France at 18 with the expectation

of completing his university studies, but

that plan quickly gave way to a stint in jour-

nalism.

After the sports daily that he worked for

closed, he went to work as a sports agent.

He used the contacts he had built up during

his time as a journalist — which coincided

with a period of glory for Marseille — to sign

up as clients some of France’s best-known

players of African descent. They included

stars like Basile Boli and Marcel Desailly.

“He’s not a friend — he was a big brother

to me,” Mr. Boli said. “All my children, my

father and my mother knew him, loved

him.”

Mr. Diouf was hired in 2004 as general

manager of Marseille, a notoriously difficult

club to run, with a passionate fan base and

turbulent modern history.

Within a year, the owner, Robert Louis-

Dreyfus, promoted him to club president.

During his time at the helm, from 2005 to

2009, Marseille came up just short of win-

ning a title, twice finishing second in the

league and twice losing in the French cup

finals. But many credit Mr. Diouf’s recruit-

ment decisions for ending an 18-year wait

for the championship.

It came the season after he was dis-

missed.

The results of his stewardship notwith-

standing, Mr. Diouf proved popular with the

club’s fan base, among the largest and per-

haps most vociferous in French soccer. He

had a habit of standing up for the club in the

face of criticism, and used his skills as an

orator to defend his club’s interests in the

media and to motivate the roster.

His popularity “was immense with the

Marseille people whose hearts he had won,”

France’s national team manager, Didier

Deschamps, a former Marseille captain,

told the French sports daily L’Equipe.

Mr. Diouf was widely respected in the soc-

cer world. Senegal’s president, Macky Sall,

described him as “a great figure of sport,”

and the head of French soccer, Noël Le

Graët, called him “an important man in our

football, a quality man, atypical, listened to

and respected.”

Despite Mr. Diouf’s breakthrough in the

mainly white world of European soccer

management, he told an interviewer in 2008

that being the only black club leader in Eu-

rope’s top leagues was “a painful observa-

tion.”

Pape Diouf, 68

Former President of Marseille Soccer Club

By TARIQ PANJA

Mababa Diouf became a sports agent after the sports daily he worked for closed.

ANNE-CHRISTINE POUJOULAT/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES

Dr. James T. Goodrich, a pediatric neuro-

surgeon known for successfully separating

conjoined twins in a complicated and rare

procedure, died on Monday at Albert Ein-

stein College of Medicine and Montefiore

Medical Center in the Bronx. He was 73.

The cause was complications of the coro-

navirus, according to Montefiore, where he

was the director of pediatric neurosurgery

and had spent more than 30 years of his ca-

reer.

Dr. Goodrich was thrust into public view

when he conducted a series of four opera-

tions over nearly a year on Clarence and

Carl Aguirre, twins from the Philippines

who were joined at the tops of their heads

and shared major veins in their brains. Dr.

Goodrich led a team of surgeons at Mon-

tefiore’s Children’s Hospital, and the twins’

story generated headlines, including in The

New York Times, and was the subject of

television specials.

During the final surgery, in August 2004,

the team discovered that the twins’ brains

were connected by more brain tissue than

they had initially thought, a potentially se-

rious complication.

“We got to this point and we were stuck,”

Dr. Goodrich told The Times after the oper-

ation, but “we did a lot of soul-searching”

and decided to continue.

Hours later, Clarence and Carl lay next to

each other, alive and well. Their mother, Ar-

lene Aguirre, said, “My dream has come

true.”

Carl and Clarence, who turn 18 later this

month, live with their mother in Scarsdale,

N.Y.

James Tait Goodrich was born in Port-

land, Ore., on April 16, 1946, to Richard and

Gail (Josselyn) Goodrich. His mother was

an artist and a designer, and his father

worked in advertising. Dr. Goodrich served

in the Marines during the Vietnam War,

then studied neurosurgery and psychobiol-

ogy at the University of California, Irvine;

Columbia University; and the Neurological

Institute of New York before starting at

Montefiore.

He married Judy Laudin in 1970. In addi-

tion to his wife, he is survived by three sis-

ters, Kristine Goodrich, Jan Rentenaar and

Carol Montecucco.

In another celebrated case, Dr. Goodrich

led a team of 40 surgeons in a 27-hour pro-

cedure in 2016 to separate another set of

twin boys, the seventh separation pro-

cedure of his long career.

James T. Goodrich, 73

Neurosurgeon Who Separated Conjoined Twins

By MICHAEL GOLD

and DANIEL E. SLOTNIK

Dr. James Goodrich with Clarence Aguirre after the final surgery in August 2004.

KATHY WILLENS/ASSOCIATED PRESS

TOKYO — Ken Shimura could

make people laugh just by tweak-

ing a traditional dance, mangling

an English lesson or acting like a

shogun fool.

A beloved comedian in Japan, he

died on Sunday in the coronavirus

pandemic at a hospital in Tokyo,

the Izawa Office, which repre-

sented him, said. He was 70.

Mr. Shimura’s slapstick humor,

physical comedy and naïve per-

sona made him a household name

in Japan for nearly five decades.

Generations of children grew up

watching his comedy skits and

dance routines.

And before there was “Ameri-

ca’s Funniest Home Videos,” Mr.

Shimura introduced the concept of

broadcasting footage contributed

by viewers on the variety show

“Kato-Chan Ken-Chan Gokigen

TV,” which aired for six years on

Saturday nights on TBS, one of Ja-

pan’s main television networks.

Mr. Shimura started feeling sick

on March 17 and developed a fever

and extreme fatigue two days lat-

er. He was hospitalized on March

20 and tested positive for the coro-

navirus three days later.

He had recently been cast as the

lead in a forthcoming film to be di-

rected by the well-known director

Yoji Yamada. Mr. Shimura had also

been invited to be a torch runner in

the Olympic relay, which was can-

celed after the Tokyo Summer

Olympics was delayed for a year

because of the pandemic.

Ken Shimura was born Yasunori

Shimura on Feb. 20, 1950, in Hi-

gashimurayama, a city in the

western Tokyo metropolitan re-

gion, to Kenji and Kazuko

Shimura. His father was a school-

teacher and cel-

ebrated judo

athlete.

Mr. Shimura

joined a popular

music band, the

Drifters, as a

roadie in 1974.

As the group

branched into

comedy, he was

recruited to join

it and performed regularly with it

in its television variety show. He

created characters including Baka

Tonosama (stupid lord) and

Henna Ojisan (weird uncle).

One of Mr. Shimura’s most fa-

mous and enduring acts was his

rendition of “Higashimurayama

ondo,” a song written about his

hometown. He added impish

moves to traditional dance forms

as he performed it on the variety

show, and the routine was popular

enough that people all over Japan

learned the words whether they

had any connection to the town or

not.

Mr. Shimura’s survivors include

two older brothers.

Ken Shimura, 70

Comedian Whose Sketches Delighted Japan

By MOTOKO RICH

Hisako Ueno contributed report-

ing.

Ken Shimura

After earning a Ph.D. at the
University of Natal in Durban,
South Africa, in 1994 while rais-
ing two young children, Gita
Ramjee was exhausted.
Her thesis had been on kidney
diseases in children — she had
worked in a pediatrics ward at a
local hospital — but she took a job
on a small research project in a
different field, since it promised a
less frantic pace. It was a life-
changing choice.
The research involved
whether a vaginal microbicide
was useful against AIDS, which
was rampant in South Africa. The
research put her in contact with
sex workers, who told chilling
stories of economic hardship,
high-risk behavior and men who
were indifferent to using protec-
tion.
“It opened my eyes,” Dr. Ram-
jee told The Guardian in 2007.
“That’s when I knew I wanted
to be involved in the prevention
of H.I.V. infection in women,” she
added.
Dr. Ramjee became a leading
researcher on the AIDS epi-
demic. On Tuesday another epi-
demic claimed her: She died of
Covid-19, the disease caused by
the coronavirus, at a Durban hos-
pital. She had become ill shortly
after returning from a visit to her
sons in London, local news ac-
counts said. She was 63.
Dr. Ramjee was chief scientific
officer at the Aurum Institute in
Johannesburg, which battles
AIDS and tuberculosis and an-
nounced her death on its website.
She had previously been director
of the H.I.V. prevention unit at
the South African Medical Re-
search Council.
Those jobs put her at the fore-
front of the effort to contain
AIDS, especially in eastern and
southern Africa, which has long
had the highest rate of H.I.V. in-
fection in the world.
Gita Parekh was born on April
8, 1956, in Kampala, Uganda, to
Dhirajlal and Nirmala Parekh.
After Idi Amin, the Ugandan dic-
tator, forced Asians to leave that
country, Dr. Ramjee finished high
school in India, where her family
was from, and then earned a
bachelor’s degree at the Univer-
sity of Sunderland in England.
There she met her future hus-
band, Pravin Ramjee, a South Af-
rican of Indian descent, and they
settled in South Africa in the
early 1980s.
After joining the research
council in 1996 she rose through
the ranks, administering studies
and drug trials, with a particular
focus on helping women avoid
AIDS.
“Gita was fundamental and in-
extricably linked to the endeav-
ors to find solutions to prevent
H.I.V. in women,” Glenda Gray,
president and chief executive of
the council, said in a statement
on the organization’s website.
Especially in places like south-
ern Africa, that effort remains ur-
gent. Winnie Byanyima, execu-
tive director of UNAIDS, a global
organization working on the is-
sue, called Dr. Ramjee’s death “a
huge loss at a time when the
world needs her most.”
In addition to her husband, Dr.
Ramjee is survived by two sons,
Shaniel and Rushil Ramjee; a
brother, Atul Parekh; and three
sisters, Rita Kalan, Asmita Pa-
rashar and Reshma Parekh.
Dr. Ramjee recognized early
on that the response to AIDS
could not be simplistic, and that
the key was finding ways to give
women control in cultures and
communities that did not always
encourage that. Policymakers,
she knew, needed to understand
that the ABC approach, as it was
often called — “abstinence,” “be
faithful” and “condoms” — was
not enough, a point she made at
the annual International AIDS
Conference in 2006.
“I would like to believe H.I.V.
prevention will be more than
ABC,” she told the conference.
The room burst into applause.

Gita Ramjee, 63

Leading AIDS Researcher

By NEIL GENZLINGER

Dr. Gita Ramjee worked to con-
tain AIDS, especially in Africa.

ASMITA PARASHAR

Nur Hassan Hussein, who led

Somalia as its prime minister dur-

ing a crucial transitional period

beset by insurgency and humani-

tarian crises, died on Wednesday

in London. He was 82.

His death came after he had

contracted the coronavirus, his

family said. Mr. Hussein, popu-

larly known as Nur Adde, had

been treated at King’s College

Hospital for over two weeks.

He was born in Mogadishu, So-

malia’s capital, on Feb. 2, 1938, and

studied law in both Somalia and It-

aly. He spent decades in various

government jobs, including serv-

ing as a law enforcement official

under the Somali dictator Mo-

hamed Siad Barre.

Mr. Hussein became the coun-

try’s attorney general in 1987, four

years before a decades-long civil

war began.

He became prime minister in

November 2007 as tens of thou-

sands of Somalis were fleeing

their homes amid fighting be-

tween Islamist insurgents and

Western-backed Somali and Ethi-

opian forces.

As that humanitarian crisis un-

folded, Mr. Hussein was recog-

nized for overseeing negotiations

with the insurgents, leading to the

signing of a peace agreement in

mid-2008 and the formation of a

unity government several months

later.

He remained as prime minister

until February 2009, replaced by

the new president, Sharif Ahmed.

That June, Mr. Hussein was ap-

pointed Somalia’s ambassador to

Italy.

He is survived by his wife and

seven children, who live in the

United States, the United King-

dom and Somalia.

President Mohamed Abdullahi

Mohamed of Somalia declared a

three-day mourning period and

ordered flags to be flown at half-

staff to give Mr. Hussein, he said,

“the national recognition he de-

serves.”

Nur Hassan Hussein, 82

Former Prime Minister of Somalia

By ABDI LATIF DAHIR

Hussein Mohamed contributed re-

porting from Mogadishu, Somalia.

Prime Minister Nur Hassan

Hussein of Somalia in 2008.

JEHAD NGA FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES