Human obituaries

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2004:

Terry Melcher, 62, a board member of both the Doris Day
Animal Foundation and the Doris Day Animal League since inception,
died of cancer on November 19, 2004 in Beverly Hills, California.
“The son of actress and singer Doris Day and her first husband, the
trombonist Al Jorden, Melcher was known for his role,” primarily
as a record producer, “in shaping the sounds of the folk and surf
music scenes in California,” wrote Jeff Leeds of The New York Times.
Melcher worked with the Beach Boys, the Byrds, the Mamas & the
Papas, and Ry Cooder at various times; was executive producer of
The Doris Day Show, 1968-1972, and a later program called Doris
Day’s Best Friends.

Francis Lynn Holland, 56, animal control supervisor in
Fallon, Nevada, died suddenly on December 3, 2004 at the Washoe
Medical Center in Reno.

Connie Gunn McDonald, 52, of Bossier City, Louisiana, was
killed late on November 21 when she tried to rescue an injured
Chihuahua mix she saw in the road, and was fatally struck, along
with the dog, by a 19-year-old pickup truck driver. Police said
McDonald was wearing dark clothes on a dark night, and the pavement
was wet.

Jennifer Dick, 35, of Westfield Township, Ohio, was
killed by smoke inhalation on December 2 when after evacuating her
children, ages 6, 8, and 10, and a dog and a pet bird from their
burning log cabin home, she returned inside to try to save a second
bird.

Andrew J. Veal, 25, known to friends in Athens, Georgia,
as a vegetarian activist who planned to pursue a career in the food
industry, shot himself at Ground Zero in New York City early on
November 6, 2004. Though no note was found, the suicide appeared
to be a protest against the re-election of U.S. President George W.
Bush. Investigators later learned that Veal was simultaneously
engaged to a 21-year-old university student in Iowa and involved with
another woman in Georgia, whose credit card he allegedly used in a
spending spree before the suicide.

Martin M. Kaplan, DVM, 89, died on October 16 in Geneva,
Switzerland, where he worked for the World Health Organization.
Kaplan helped the United Nations Relief & Rehabilitation
Administration after World War II to rebuild Greek cattle and horse
herds, then served as WHO chief of veterinary public health and
chief of research. He later worked with Hilary Kopowski, M.D. to
develop safer and more effective anti-rabies vaccines at the Wistar
Institute in Philadelphia. In 1955 he demonstrated in Kenya how to
homebrew an anti-rabies vaccine. He and Koprowski tested it by
vaccinating themselves. From 1957 on, Kaplan helped to lead
scientific opposition to the proliferation of nuclear, chemical,
and biological weapons.