DIED
Pioneering physicist
and technologist
Freeman Dyson, on
Feb. 28, at 96.
> Joe Coulombe,
founder of grocery
chain Trader Joe’s, on
Feb. 28, at 89.OPENED
The Vatican archives
of Pope Pius XII,
who reigned from
1939 to 1958, on
March 2. He has
been accused of
turning a blind eye to
the Holocaust.NOMINATED
Representative John
Ratcliffe, to become
Director of National
Intelligence, Presi-
dent Trump said on
Feb. 28. In 2019,
Ratcliffe withdrew an
earlier bid for the job.DECLINED
Colombia’s
Constitutional
Court, to rule on a
high-profile abortion
case, on March 2,
leaving the country’s
restrictive abortion
laws in effect.RULED
That Trump
Administration
immigration official
Ken Cuccinelli’s
appointment was
unlawful, by a federal
judge, on March 1.AWARDED
The 2020 Pritzker
Prize, to Dublin-
based architects
Yvonne Farrell and
Shelley McNamara,
on March 3. They are
the first two women
to share the award.INSERTED
Misleading language
about the science
behind climate
change, into at least
nine U.S. Interior
Department reports,
by an agency official,
according to a New
York Times report
published March 2.Lipton, guest-starring as himself on an episode of Glee in 2012,
above, won an Emmy in 2013 for Inside the Actors StudioDIED
James Lipton
Maestro of the master class
By Ellen BurstynWhen jameS liPTon, Who died march 2 aT 93, firST came
to the writer-directors unit at the Actors Studio, I knew who he
was from his 1968 book, An Exaltation of Larks. What I didn’t
know was that he was not only a writer but also an actor and a
producer and a director. I was very impressed with all his accom-
plishments in so many different areas.
This was soon after the death in 1982 of Lee Strasberg, who
was head of the studio, and we had to take over the responsibil-
ity of keeping the Actors Studio going. We invited Jim to be on
the board, and he suggested the idea that we develop a master’s-
degree program, so we’d have a workshop for professional actors
but also a school that trains the new generation. Jim became the
dean of the school, and then we designed a master class where
members of the studio, like Al Pacino and Paul Newman, would
come in and be interviewed by Jim for the students. Then Jim
said, “You know, we really should tape this.” And that became
Inside the Actors Studio.
I’ve never known anybody who did so many things in so many
different directions so well. I was most shocked when he turned
out to be an expert horseman! And he was very amusing with
a great sense of humor, so he was quite a spectacular person to
know and to work with all these years. We are all going to miss
him desperately.Burstyn is an actor and a current co-president of the Actors StudioMilestones
DIED
Jack Welch
Business leader
When he Took The reinS
of American industrial be-
hemoth General Electric in
1981, Jack Welch—who died
March 1 at 84—launched a
new era at the manufacturer.
He cut divisions making
small household appliances,
which were stymied by com-
petition from Asia; drasti-
cally expanded GE’s finance
business; and shed thou-
sands of jobs “for produc-
tivity reasons.” During his
tenure, revenue nearly quin-
tupled, and Welch retired in
2001 with a record $417 mil-
lion exit package and a repu-
tation as one of the most re-
vered executives of the 20th
century.
GE has since fallen on
harder times, and so has
Welch’s legacy. The 2008
crisis made the finance arm
a liability, and he has been
denounced by critics for out-
sourcing manufacturing to
China. Welch’s management
style has fallen out of favor
among executives, and ex-
ecutives have fallen out of
favor with the public. But
Welch was not one for look-
ing backward. Among his
precepts was this one: “If we
wait for the perfect answer,
the world will pass us by.”
—alejandro de la garza
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