Obituaries of note

J.J. JACKSON, 62, a longtime rock-radio personality who became an original MTV VJ, or video jockey, more than two decades ago, died March 17 in Los Angeles of an apparent heart attack.

ROY F. CRAIG, 79, who worked on the nation's largest, most systematic investigation of flying saucers, died March 18 in Ignacio, Colo., of cancer. He was chief field investigator for the Colorado Project, the official government search for scientifically verifiable evidence of the existence of unidentified flying objects. The three-volume report that he co-wrote debunked mysteries about outer space.

BRIAN MAXWELL, 51, founder of the PowerBar empire and a former world-class marathon runner, died March 19 in San Anselmo, Calif., of a heart attack, friends said. He came up with the idea of an energy bar after he had to drop out of a 26.2-mile marathon race at the 21-mile mark. He and his wife, Jennifer, a nutritionist, co-founded the energy bar company in 1986 and sold it in March 2000 to Nestle SA for a reported $375-million.

NATHAN HEARD, 67, an author and professor whose five novels drew from his experiences in prison and on the streets of Newark, N.J., died March 16 in Livingston, N.J. His writing career, which included Howard Street in 1968, started in New Jersey State Prison in Trenton while he was serving seven years for armed robbery. Howard Street sold more than 1-million copies. He taught creative writing at Rutgers and Fresno State universities.

IRVING CRESPI, 77, an author and polling expert long associated with the Gallup organization, died March 18 in Princeton, N.J. He taught at Baruch College and served as president of the American Association for Public Opinion Research in 1976-77.

STEVE THOBURN, 39, a fruit and vegetable trader in London who was nicknamed the "Metric Martyr" after he was prosecuted for selling his wares in pounds and ounces, died March 14 in Sunderland, England, said fellow campaigner Neil Herron. He died of an apparent heart attack. Mr. Thoburn became a household name after his scales were seized from his market stall in 2001 by Trading Standards officers who caught him selling bananas exclusively by the pound. European Union rules that were adopted by the British Parliament allow fruit and vegetables to be labeled in both metric and imperial measures, but require that the produce be sold in grams and kilograms only.

JOHN W. SEYBOLD, 88, a pioneer in the field of computerized typesetting, which transformed the publishing industry, died March 14 in Haverford, Pa. He founded Research on Computer Applications in the Printing and Publishing Industries, which invented and developed concepts for creating, editing and formatting text for print or electronic distribution. His company also created a pagination program that made it possible to control the appearance of text on a printed page with software.

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