Round-the-world sailor and author

Hal Roth, 81, an avid sailor who circumnavigated the globe three times and was the author of 12 books, died Saturday in Easton, Md., after a 2 1/2 -year battle with lung cancer, according to his wife, Margaret.

Roth’s first book, “Pathway in the Sky,” about the John Muir Trail, was published in 1965. The next year, Roth and his wife quit their jobs and began a 19-month journey around the Pacific on a 35-foot sloop. The adventure led to his first sailing book, “Two on the Big Ocean.” His publisher, McGraw-Hill, later put that book together with two other critically acclaimed titles, “Two Against Cape Horn” and “The Longest Race,” to produce “The Hal Roth Seafaring Trilogy,” released in 2005.

The Roths sailed around the world together from 1981 to 1985, and Hal Roth later competed in two solo round-the-world races.

A Cleveland native, Roth graduated from UC Berkeley with a journalism degree and later studied photography with Ansel Adams. His final book, “Handling Storms at Sea,” is to be published this month.

John B. Farrell, who as president of the UCLA Alumni Association served two years on the UC Board of Regents, died Saturday at Providence Tarzana Medical Center. He was 86. After retiring as a partner from Pricewaterhouse in 1983, he taught in UCLA’s graduate school of management.