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Obituaries of note

By Times Staff Writer
Published December 11, 2005

WILLIAM P. YARBOROUGH, 93, a retired lieutenant general who was an early leader of the Army's Airborne forces, died Tuesday in Southern Pines, N.C. He gained President John F. Kennedy's blessing for special forces soldiers to wear green berets.

FREDERIK JACQUES PHILIPS, 100, former president of the Dutch electronics giant that bears his family's name, died Monday in Nijmegen, Netherlands. He was credited with saving hundreds of Jews during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands in World War II. He reportedly tried to hire as many Jews as possible and then told the Nazi occupiers that they were irreplaceable.

FREDERICK L. ASHWORTH, 94, the weaponeer aboard the B-29 that dropped the atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan, in 1945, died Dec 3 in Sante Fe, N.M. Three days after the bombing of Hiroshima, he was aboard the bomber that dropped a weapon nicknamed Fat Man on Nagasaki on Aug. 9. It was his job to arm the bomb on the flight.

EDWARD L. MASRY, 73, the crusty personal-injury lawyer portrayed by Albert Finney in the Oscar-winning movie Erin Brockovich, died Monday in Los Angeles. He and Brockovich, his legal assistant, gained fame when they won a $333-million settlement on behalf of residents of Hinkley, Calif. They claimed Pacific Gas & Electric tanks leaked carcinogens into the groundwater.

JACK COLVIN, 71, an actor best known for his role as tabloid reporter Jack McGee in the 1970s television series The Incredible Hulk, died Dec. 1 in Los Angeles.

WENDIE JO SPERBER, an actor who starred opposite Tom Hanks on TV's Bosom Buddies and appeared in dozens of television shows and movies, including all three Back to the Future films, died Nov. 29 in Los Angeles. She was in her 40s and had breast cancer.

[Last modified December 9, 2005, 18:29:02]