Obituaries - Dec. 10, 1999

Kenny Baker; British Trumpet Player, Bandleader

Kenny Baker, 78, a versatile and sometimes technically brilliant jazz trumpet and flugelhorn player best known for his work with the group Baker’s Dozen in his native England. Born in Withernsea, Baker began his career in London in 1939 playing with a variety of groups in forms ranging from straight-ahead jazz to sweet dance music. He was one of the original members of Ted Heath’s orchestra and was its lead trumpeter and soloist. He was also responsible for many of the orchestra’s arrangements and compositions that set a strong, energetic style. He worked in British television, radio and film with his own group, Baker’s Dozen. “Everyone regarded him on a different level to any other trumpeter in the British Isles,” said John Dankworth, the noted saxophonist and bandleader. As a session player, Baker recorded with many of the giants of American music, including Benny Goodman, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett and Sammy Davis Jr. Earlier this year, Baker was honored as a Member of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II. He also was named the best trumpet player at the British Jazz awards for the third time. On Tuesday at a hospital in Felpham in southern England of a viral infection.

Alva Cox Jr.; Directed Films on Rights, Christianity

Alva Cox Jr., 74, an independent filmmaker whose work chronicled the civil rights movement, human rights activism and ecumenical Christianity. Cox made more than 50 historical, cultural, theological and documentary films, including “Kent State: May 1970,” on the shooting of student protesters against the Vietnam War by National Guardsmen; and “Weeping in the Playtime of Others,” which exposed the problems of child labor in the U.S. coal mining industry. Cox joined the Christian education staff of the National Council of Churches in 1951 and served on the council’s staff until 1967 in the areas of evangelism and audiovisual and broadcast production and education. From 1967 to 1976, he was the Protestant consultant to the CBS-TV Sunday morning program “Look Up and Live.” Pamela Ilott, former CBS-TV vice president for cultural and religious broadcasting, called Cox a vital link between religious faith and the creation of public awareness about racism. “He represented the very best of the younger church movement in civil rights and reconciliation,” she said. Former U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young, who served with Cox on the staff of the National Council of Churches in the 1950s, said that Cox “identified the Gospel’s demands within the [civil rights] movement, stayed with it when the going got rough, and subsequently interpreted its meaning to two more generations.” On Nov. 19 at his home in New York.

Richard Latter; Physicist, SALT Talks Advisor

Richard Latter, 76, a theoretical nuclear physicist who warned of possible cheating on arms-reduction treaties during the Cold War. Educated at Caltech, Latter spent his early career at Rand Corp. in Santa Monica as head of the physics division and a member of its research council. In 1952-53, he was also acting head of the theoretical division of the Livermore weapons laboratory. He did extensive research into the results of detonating nuclear bombs, which prepared him to serve as science advisor to the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks and in 1969 as a member of the delegation. Once described politically as “conservative cubed,” Latter warned that cheating on arms testing regulation was easy. He said underground tests could be done in a filled cavity to minimize the explosion’s seismic waves. Latter opposed any comprehensive treaty, but he did help devise what became a 1964 ban on atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons. In 1971, Latter co-founded R&D; Associates and became its vice president and a board member. During his long career, Latter served on the Defense Science Board, the Atomic Energy Commission Plowshare Committee to determine peaceful uses of atomic energy, and the president’s Scientific Advisory Committee. He received the Ernest Orlando Lawrence award from the commission in 1968 and the Defense Intelligence Agency’s Exceptional Civilian Service Medal in 1980. Born in Chicago, Latter served in the Navy during World War II. On Dec. 2 in McLean, Va., of lung cancer.

Jackson Barrett Mahon; WWII Ace, POW, Producer

Jackson Barrett Mahon, 78, a World War II ace and prisoner of war who became a Hollywood producer and manager of actor Errol Flynn. Mahon, who was born in Bakersfield and raised in Santa Barbara, attended the Page Military Academy in Los Angeles and the Laguna Blanca Boys’ School in Santa Barbara, where he learned to fly. In January 1941, well before the United States entered the war, Mahon joined Britain’s Royal Air Force and flew in its American Eagle Squadron, made up of U.S. volunteers. He quickly gained notice by shooting down nine German fighter planes, and in 1942, while missing in action, he received Britain’s Distinguished Flying Cross as “an extremely skillful and confident pilot, whose courage, especially when attacking superior numbers of hostile aircraft, has been unsurpassed.” Mahon was captured by Germans and imprisoned at Stalag Luft III, where he worked on tunnels later made famous in the motion picture “The Great Escape.” Mahon escaped, but was recaptured and remained incarcerated until the war’s end in 1945. Steve McQueen’s “Great Escape” character was partially modeled on Mahon and his exploits. Mahon went on to become the personal pilot and then manager and producer for Flynn. Mahon established “The Production Machine,” making films for television and theaters, and became one of the first to apply computerization to film technology. On Saturday in Las Vegas.