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Obituaries of note

THOMAS A. MURPHY, 90, who led General Motors for most of the 1970s, died Wednesday at his home in Boynton Beach. His tenure was one of considerable prosperity for GM. In 1978, while he was chief executive, GM reached its record of 9.55-million cars and trucks sold globally. Last year, GM sold 9.17-million vehicles, the first time since 1978 it sold more than 9-million.

WILLIAM MATTHEW BYRNE JR., 75, the federal judge who presided over the 1970s Pentagon Papers trial of Daniel Ellsberg, died Jan. 12 in Los Angeles. Military analyst Daniel Ellsberg and a co-defendant, Anthony J. Russo Jr., were charged with espionage, theft and conspiracy for leaking a secret study of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. The judge dismissed the case in 1973, ruling the government was guilty of misconduct.

JOAN ROOT, 69, who collaborated with her husband, Alan, on a series of African wildlife documentaries in the 1970s, was killed Jan. 13 in Naivasha, Kenya. She was shot to death by assailants who invaded her farmhouse, police said. Two men were arrested; the motive is unknown, officials said.

COL. EDWARD N. HALL, 91, the Air Force's foremost rocket expert who is widely considered the father of the Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missile program that is the core of this country's missile defense, died Sunday in Los Angeles. The solid-fuel rocket technology that he helped develop was subsequently used in most other U.S. missiles, including the boosters on the space shuttle.

ELDON DEDINI, 84, a cartoonist who concocted a mythical world of satyrs and nymphs for Playboy and another of quirky, sophisticated wit for the New Yorker, died Jan. 12 in Carmel, Calif.

[Last modified January 22, 2006, 01:03:12]