PASSINGS

Luther Devine Knox

Louisiana elections activist

Luther Devine “L.D.” Knox, 80, a farmer and perennial candidate who tried to get “None of the Above” on Louisiana’s ballot by legally adding it to his name, died Wednesday at a nursing home in Winnsboro, La. He had Alzheimer’s disease.

Knox ran unsuccessfully in many state and local elections, often abbreviating the name he took in 1979 as “NOTA.” He began campaigning in the 1960s. He lost his first race against state Rep. Lance Womack by 18 votes, 3,526 to 3,544. It was his closest finish.

It was during the 1979 race for governor that Knox made “None of the Above” an additional middle name.

As one of nine candidates in the open primary, he contended that the phrase should show up as his nickname. Louisiana’s secretary of state said no. By the time he had gone to court and legally changed his name, it was too late to change the ballot, a state judge ruled.

That race ended with David Treen becoming Louisiana’s first Republican governor since Reconstruction. Knox finished seventh in the primary.

His aim -- allowing voters to call for a new election with new candidates by voting for “none of the above” -- remained his main plank in subsequent elections, though he later ran as L.D. “NOTA” Knox.

“The people of this country have never had a free election,” he said in 1991. “We don’t have a right to reject candidates. We have to take the lesser of the evils.”

Knox, who was born March 9, 1929, in Jigger, La., ran as a Democrat. Winnsboro Mayor Jack Hammons said Knox’s politics tended toward the liberal, but he didn’t believe in party politics. “He thought people had a right to vote how they chose and didn’t necessarily need to follow a party line.”

Ephraim Katzir

Biophysicist was Israel’s 4th leader

Ephraim Katzir, 93, Israel’s fourth president and an internationally recognized biophysicist, died Saturday at his home in Rehovot, south of Tel Aviv, after a brief illness, according to news reports.

Katzir’s 1973-78 tenure spanned two seminal events in Israeli history: the 1973 Yom Kippur War and the visit of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat to Jerusalem in 1977.

He left the presidency after one term to return to scientific research.

Born in 1916 in Kiev, Ukraine, which was then part of the Russian empire, Katzir immigrated at age 6 with his family to British-ruled Palestine and studied biology at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, receiving his doctorate in 1941, according to his official biography on the Foreign Ministry website.

He served in the Haganah, the underground Jewish defense organization, where he helped set up a military research and development unit that developed explosives, propellants and other munitions.

During the war that followed Israel’s independence in 1948, he was appointed head of the military’s science corps. He served as the Israeli military’s chief scientist from 1966 to 1968, the website said.

Katzir was a founder of Israel’s renowned Weizmann Institute of Science and headed its biophysics department, where his work on synthetic protein models deepened understanding of the genetic code and immune responses.

Vincent O’Brien

Famed European racehorse trainer

Vincent O’Brien, 92, one of horse racing’s great European trainers during a career that lasted more than half a century, died Monday at his home in Straffan in County Kildare, his family said. He retired from training in 1994 and had been spending his winters in Australia.

He won 16 English and 27 Irish classics in addition to 25 victories at Royal Ascot and 23 at the Cheltenham Festival.

Breeders’ Cup President Greg Avioli lauded O’Brien for his “deep and profound impact” on racing. “His career was extraordinary, and he set a standard of international excellence that will be rarely equaled,” Avioli said.

O’Brien began training in 1943 and masterminded the career of three-time Champion Hurdle winner Hatton’s Grace. He won straight Grand National steeplechases with Early Mist, Royal Tan and Quare Times.

O’Brien later switched to thoroughbred racing and trained Nijinsky, Sir Ivor, Alleged, Sadler’s Wells, Golden Fleece, The Minstrel, El Gran Senor, Ballymoss and Roberto.

-- times staff and wire reports

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