Richard Dior; Oscar-Winning Sound Engineer

Richard Dior, 51, Academy Award-winning sound man who worked on “Apollo 13” and “Dead Man Walking.” Dior won his Oscar for sound on the 1995 blockbuster “Apollo 13.” A sound engineer, Dior worked for Todd A.O. Sound in New York for 18 years and for Sync Sound four years before opening his own studio. He handled sound for more than 200 films and television shows, with such credits as “Parenthood,” “Ransom” and “The Paper.” His most recent project was the current motion picture “Slam.” On Monday in Freehold Township, N.J., of a heart attack.

Jeffrey Martin Stern; Orange County Fair Board Member

Jeffrey Martin Stern, 56, who was appointed this year to the board of the Orange County Fair and Exposition Center in Costa Mesa. A native of Los Angeles and graduate of USC, Stern had been president and chief executive officer of Superior Electrical Advertising for the last 25 years. The Long Beach-based company created such signs as the “electronic readerboards” at the Del Amo Fashion Center. Stern was a longtime resident of Newport Beach, where he was active in the Balboa Bay Club and Balboa Yacht Club and an avid boater. He was a leader of such groups as the Orange County Chapter of the American Sign Assn., the American Red Cross, the Los Angeles County Fire Technical Advisory Board, the Los Angeles County Fire Services Commission, the California State Pipeline Safety Standards Board and the Newport Beach Environmental Quality Committee. Stern was founding chairman of the Orange County Earthquake Preparedness Task Force. On Tuesday in Newport Beach of cancer.

Calvin C. Straub; Educator, Award-Winning Architect

Calvin C. Straub, 78, an architect and educator who created what was deemed the ideal California house. Born in Macon, Ga., and raised in Pasadena, Straub attended Pasadena City College and graduated from USC in 1943, earning a prize for designing a circular modern city. After serving as a Navy lieutenant in World War II, he returned to USC to teach and practice architecture. He became a leader in the California modernist movement, and his firm, Buff, Straub & Hensman, was commissioned by Arts and Architecture magazine to create Case Study House No. 20. The design illustrated the epitome of combining structure with environment for a California home. In the 1960s, Straub moved to Phoenix, where he continued designing buildings and taught at Arizona State University. He retired in 1988, after receiving 36 design awards, being elected a fellow of the American Institute of Architects and receiving the title of distinguished professor from the Assn. of Collegiate Schools of Architecture. In 1994, he was honored as a distinguished alumnus of the USC School of Architecture. On Oct. 21 in Phoenix.