Worldandnation: Obituaries

C. DOUGLAS DILLON, 93, a Wall Street investment banker and diplomat who served as secretary of the treasury in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, died Jan. 10 in New York City. Under both presidents, he led the Alliance for Progress, a program to spur economic development in Latin America, an effort he had spearheaded as a founder of the Inter-American Development Bank. In 1989, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award.

RILEY D. HOUSEWRIGHT, 89, a microbiologist who helped direct U.S. research in biological warfare from World War II until 1970, died Saturday in Frederick, Md. He was scientific director of the U.S. Army Biological Laboratories at Fort Detrick, Md., from 1956 to 1970, when President Richard Nixon banned offensive biological weapons. The laboratory was converted to defensive research. One of his projects in the 1960s was developing agents that could kill or incapacitate large numbers of Cubans in preparing for an invasion of Cuba.

MARGARET "TOOTS" NUSSE, 85, a pioneer of women's softball, died Dec. 29 in Lakewood, N.J. Miss Nusse, who lived in retirement in Pinellas Park, New Port Richey and Port Richey for several years, began her career in 1934 as a pitcher for the Linden (N.J.) Arians fast-pitch team and led it to 18 state championships and five regional titles. She was elected to the American Softball Association's Hall of Fame in 1983.

LUIS ANDRES VARGAS GOMEZ, 87, a former economist, diplomat and anti-Fidel Castro activist who spent 21 years in Cuban prisons, died Monday in Coral Gables. The grandson of Gen. Maximo Gomez, a hero of Cuba's wars for independence, he served as Cuba's ambassador to the United Nations shortly after Castro took power in 1959, but quit because of a political falling out with the Cuban leader. He moved to Coral Gables in 1960 and was involved in the planning of the failed Bay of Pigs invasion. Five days before the invasion, he slipped into Cuba and was captured. He was released in 1982.

PAUL MONASH, 85, a producer and screenwriter whose credits include the films Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Carrie and Slaughterhouse-Five, died Tuesday in Los Angeles. He wrote, directed and produced the hit 1960s television show Peyton Place and wrote the TV movie All Quiet on the Western Front, which won the 1980 Golden Globe as best miniseries or movie made for television.

VICTOR ROSELLINI, 87, a former president of the National Restaurant Association, died Jan. 9 in Seattle.

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