Alfred Haessig; Convicted in HIV-Tainted Blood Case

Alfred Haessig, 78, a Swiss Red Cross doctor who was convicted of supervising distribution of HIV-infected blood products. Haessig was given a one-year suspended sentence in 1998 after a Geneva court held that he put people at risk through his actions in the 1980s as director of the Swiss central laboratory of the Red Cross. The court decided that Haessig had known since 1982 of the risk that blood products could transmit the virus that causes AIDS but failed to use available safeguards because of “pride and stubbornness.” The doctor said he had not pasteurized blood products because he thought the process made them less efficient in treating hemophiliacs. The charges stemmed from official complaints by eight infected Swiss hemophiliacs, four of whom died before the trial. On Nov. 14 in Geneva after a long illness.

Jack Hooke; Manager for Recording Artists

Jack Hooke, 83, manager for recording artists whose styles ranged from jazz to rock to salsa. Born Jacob Horowitz, Hooke was trained as a tool and die maker but in the late 1940s opted to work in music. He and a partner bought the small jazz label Royal Roost Records, whose artists included Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. Hooke traveled among the nation’s radio stations promoting the records and later became the manager for disc jockey Alan Freed, whom he met on a stop in Cleveland. In the 1960s and 1970s, Hooke worked with Dick Clark Productions and moved into dealing with rock stars, including the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, the Jackson Five and Diana Ross. When the 1980s brought salsa to New York City, Hooke helped organize regular shows in Greenwich Village. He had recently been with RMM Records and was managing artists Tito Puente, Hilton Ruiz, Mongo Santamaria and Giovanni Hidalgo. On Nov. 13 in New York.

Daniel Nathans; Nobelist, Biotech Pioneer

Daniel Nathans, 71, who shared a Nobel Prize for using “biochemical scissors” to analyze DNA. The Johns Hopkins University molecular biologist shared the 1978 Nobel for medicine with his fellow research professor Hamilton O. Smith and Swiss microbiologist Werner Arber. The three winners split the $165,000 award for their discovery of “restriction enzymes” and for using them to slice genes into fragments for detailed examination. The application, dubbed “scissors” by Smith, became a basic tool for much of today’s genetic research and genetic engineering. Nathans’ work helped launch the biotechnology revolution. Highly respected, the quiet, unassuming researcher was asked to serve as interim president of Johns Hopkins in 1995 after the sudden resignation of William C. Richardson. Nathans, a native of Wilmington, Del., earned a bachelor of science degree from the University of Delaware and a medical degree from Washington University in St. Louis. He began teaching at Johns Hopkins in 1962 and remained there the rest of his career, serving as director of the department of microbiology from 1972 and director of the department of molecular biology and genetics after 1981. Nathans was elected to the National Academy of Sciences and the American Philosophical Society and served for three years on the Presidential Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. In 1993, he received the National Medal of Science. On Tuesday in Baltimore of leukemia.

Retired Brig. Gen. Austin Shofner; Wrote POW Diary

Retired Brig. Gen. Austin Shofner, 83, who managed to keep a hidden diary as a Japanese prisoner of war during World War II. Shofner’s diary, preserved in the Tennessee State Library and Archives, describes the hardships at several POW camps where he was imprisoned. He told of seeing fellow soldiers beaten and killed or watching them die from starvation and disease. Shofner and nine other Marines managed to escape the Davao POW camp while on work details outside the camp, and to flee through the Philippine jungle. Shofner was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross from Gen. Douglas MacArthur in 1943 and went on to participate in several Pacific battles to liberate the Philippines. On Nov. 15 in Shelbyville, Tenn.

Barbara Jean Wong; Movie Actress, Teacher

Barbara Jean Wong, 75, pioneering Chinese American actress. A fourth-generation Californian, Wong was born in Los Angeles to Thomas and Maye Wong, who ran a produce market. She broke into radio when she was 5 and, with her long black hair styled in ringlets, became known as the Chinese Shirley Temple for regular appearances on national radio dramas and comedies in the 1930s, including “Lux Theater,” “I Love a Mystery” and “Amos ‘n’ Andy.” She attended the Mar-Ken School for Professional Children in Hollywood, where Mickey Rooney was among her classmates. After earning degrees in drama and English at USC and Columbia University, Wong won roles in several movies, including “Love Is a Many Splendored Thing,” “The Good Earth,” “The Left Hand of God,” “Calcutta” and “The Man From Button Willow.” After marrying in 1950, she gave up her acting career. She eventually earned a teaching credential and taught elementary school in Los Angeles for 23 years until retiring in 1992. A longtime Los Feliz resident, she was active on the boards of several organizations, including El Pueblo Historical Monument and the Friends of the Chinese American Museum. Services will be held today at 1 p.m. at Church of the Hills, Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills. On Nov. 13 in Tarzana of a respiratory illness.