* Zvi Griliches; Key Developer of Econometrics
Zvi Griliches, 69, Harvard economist who was a key developer of modern econometrics. Considered an elder statesman of economics, Griliches helped introduce sophisticated mathematics to economic analysis and showed that publicly financed research and development could produce benefits for the economy. One of his studies, for example, showed that national income rose 40 cents a year for every dollar invested in the research and development of hybrid corn. He also helped the government improve its measurement of inflation. His research was called “special and marvelously original” by the American Journal of Economics and Sociology. Considered a serious contender for the Nobel Prize, Griliches was an unlikely candidate to become one of the world’s leading economists. Born in Lithuania, he grew up in comfortable circumstances. But as a Jew, he was imperiled by the Nazis’ rise to power. When the Germans arrived in 1941, the Jews in his town of Kaunas were sent into the ghetto and eventually to a work camp in the Dachau system in Bavaria. Both his parents died in the camp. Griliches was 15 when American troops led by Gen. George S. Patton Jr. liberated his camp in 1945. He made his way via an underground railroad through Europe to a boat bound for Palestine but was detained by the British for several months in Cyprus. He finally arrived in Haifa in 1947. After a stint in the Israeli army, he enrolled at Hebrew University. In 1951, he won a scholarship to UC Berkeley. He spent 12 years on the faculty of the University of Chicago, and was lured to Harvard in 1969. Griliches was a fellow of the National Academy of Sciences and past president of the Econometric Society and the American Economic Assn. On Thursday in Cambridge of complications from pancreatic cancer.
* Bill Pannell; Popular Hollywood Bandleader
Bill Pannell, 81, Hollywood bandleader whose fans included Marilyn Monroe, Mack Sennett, Jack Lemmon and Guy Lombardo. Pannell was a popular bandleader among the Hollywood set during the 1940s and 1950s. He formed his first band in 1945 in Fresno, playing at the California Hotel. He later moved to Los Angeles and drew a celebrity-studded following during two decades of appearances at the Hollywood-Roosevelt Hotel. His longest engagement at the Roosevelt’s Cinegrill lasted 10 years. The 12-member Bill Pannell Orchestra also toured the West Coast, including venues on Catalina and in Las Vegas, and featured vocalists Allan King and Kenny Kenniston. A review in Variety once praised his band as “a solid commercial outfit” with “good instrumental integration, pleasing vocalists, distinctive musical phrasing and bright arrangements.” Pannell was born in Fresno and worked with his father as a farm laborer picking grapes and tomatoes. His right arm was disabled in an accident when he was in grade school, but he retained enough movement to play trombone. He left high school to join a band in Hollywood, although he later earned a diploma. He retired in the early 1970s because of severe arthritis. On Oct. 23 in Burbank.
* Robert Van Kampen; Millionaire Collected Rare Bibles
Robert Van Kampen, 60, multimillionaire investor who built one of the world’s largest private collections of rare biblical manuscripts. Van Kampen’s life was a stunning testament to the proposition that a person can serve God and still make money--tons of it. Included in the Forbes magazine list of the nation’s 400 wealthiest people, Van Kampen founded Van Kampen Merritt (now Van Kampen Funds), an investment banking firm specializing in insured municipal bonds. He was also a fundamentalist Christian who founded two churches and amassed one of the world’s largest private collections of ancient Bibles and manuscripts. He ran his businesses “in a godly way,” which he believed accounted for their success. He hired only employees who showed a healthy respect for religion, retrained underperformers instead of firing them, and reduced travel assignments if they impinged on his workers’ home lives. He also required his top managers to sign what he described as a Judeo-Christian work code, delineating strict business ethics and high standards. In 1984 he sold Van Kampen Merritt to Xerox for $184 million and began to devote himself to writing books about eschatology, the branch of theology concerned with the study of apocalyptic biblical prophecies. He spent eight years writing a 522-page book analyzing those prophecies, called “The Sign,” which became a bestseller in Christian bookstores after publication in 1992. Seventeen years ago, Van Kampen discovered a blood-soaked 14th century Bible which he believed belonged to a Christian martyr. That discovery launched a passionate search for more rare Bibles and manuscripts. His 5,000-item collection includes papyrus and clay tablets dating to 2000 BC, Hebrew Torah scrolls, the only complete Bible with Renaissance-style printing, and a Gutenberg Bible. On Oct. 29 at Loyola University Medical Center outside Chicago, where he was awaiting a heart transplant.
* Said Mahdi Hasan Zaidi; Indian Pakistani Activist
Said Mahdi Hasan Zaidi, 74, Indian Pakistani American activist. Zaidi immigrated to the United States in 1984 from Pakistan, where he was the first regional director of the Pakistan Narcotic Control Board. After settling in the Los Angeles area, where his six children lived, he became involved in the Indian-Pakistani community of Southern California, which now numbers about 60,000. He was an early contributor to two of the community’s major newspapers, the India Journal and Pakistani Link. He also helped found the Pakistan-American Veterans Assn. and the Pakistan-American Assn., a social and cultural organization. Through his writing and speeches, he encouraged members of the immigrant community to register to vote and take part in the American political process. Born in Lucknow, India, he moved to Pakistan during the 1947 partition of India. He served in the Pakistan army and government for 40 years. On Oct. 1 of heart failure at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
