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HAROLD BENJAMIN, 80, who established a national network of support centers for cancer patients after his wife developed breast cancer died Thursday at his home in Marina del Rey of complications from pulmonary fibrosis. The former attorney created the first Wellness Community center in 1982, offering cancer victims and their families a place to attend support groups or workshops. The idea was to raise patients' optimism, increasing their odds of recovery. The Wellness Community now serves 30,000 people a year at 22 centers in the United States and one each in Tokyo and Tel Aviv. He started the first center in a Santa Monica house in 1982 with $250,000. Within two years, it was running 25 support groups a week.
FREDDIE PERREN, 61, a Grammy Award-winner who produced records for Gloria Gaynor, the Jackson Five and the Saturday Night Fever album, died Dec. 16 in Los Angeles after a long illness, his wife said. Perren shared an Album of the Year Grammy in 1978 for producing two songs on the Saturday Night Fever album. With Dino Fekaris, he produced I Will Survive, sung by Gaynor, which won the Grammy for best disco recording in 1979. His post-Motown records include Peaches and Herb's Reunited and Shake Your Groove Thing; the Sylvers' Boogie Fever and Hot Line; and Tavares' Heaven Must Be Missing an Angel.
PRESTON TOLEDO, 81, a member of the Navajo Code Talkers group that invented a military code based on the Navajo language to confound the Japanese during World War II, died Dec. 15 in Santa Fe, N.M., after a car accident, his family said. Toledo was awarded the Bronze Star, American Campaign Medal, Asiatic Pacific Campaign Medal, World War II Victory Medal and the China Service Medal. He served from 1941 until 1945 but didn't receive the medals and recognition until about 10 years ago, family members said.
MACK VICKERY, 66, who wrote hits including George Strait's The Fireman and Jerry Lee Lewis' Rockin' My Life Away, died Tuesday of a heart attack in Nashville, Tenn. As a teenager, Vickery played in Ohio and Michigan honky-tonks before heading to Memphis, where he worked with producer Sam Phillips in the 1950s. He moved to Nashville around 1964, and released an album in 1970 titled Mack Vickery at the Alabama Women's Prison. Vickery, who was born in Town Creek, Ala., was inducted to the Alabama Music Hall of Fame in 2003.
GRETCHEN BENDER, 53, an artist who worked with photography and film and whose work is displayed in several major museums, died of cancer on Dec. 19 in New York, her family said. Bender, who worked primarily in photography and film, had her first Manhattan gallery show at the Nature Morte Gallery in the East Village in 1983. Bender extended her pursuits to include directing music videos for acts like Babes in Toyland and Martha Wash, and editing videos for R.E.M., New Order and Megadeth.
SAM PAPICH, 90, a former liaison between the FBI and CIA who was involved in the investigation of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, died Wednesday in Albuquerque, N.M. Papich countered Japanese and Nazi spies in South America during World War II. He later served as the legal attache at the U.S. Embassy in Brazil and supervised undercover agents in the pre-CIA days. Papich worked as the FBI's liaison with various divisions within the CIA. He sat at the table with then-FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and CIA directors Allen Dulles and Richard Helms.