Departures: Russian chess grandmaster dead at 88

Boris Spassky

A Russian chess grandmaster whose cham­pionship match against Bobby Fischer in 1972 was dubbed the “Match of the Century,” Spassky died Feb. 27 at the age of 88. His 1960 defeat of Soviet Grandmaster David Bronstein employed a bold King’s Gambit opener that eventually forced Bronstein to resign. The makers of the James Bond film From Russia With Love paid tribute to Spassky’s aggressive genius by duplicating the game in the film. He would become a world champion in 1969, holding that position until his famous Cold War matchup against Fischer in Reykjavik, Iceland, three years later. Despite defeating Fischer in previous matchups, Spassky fell to the American eccentric.

Martin E. Marty

A Lutheran theologian and historian whose prolific writings helped explain the evolving landscape of American Protestantism, Marty died Feb. 25. He was 97. After seminary and pastoring a Lutheran parish, Marty joined the University of Chicago Divinity School as a professor in 1963. From that perch, he wrote more than 50 books and over 5,000 scholarly articles, including the 1972 National Book Award–winning tome Righteous Empire: The Protestant Experience in America. Marty joined Martin Luther King Jr. in civil rights marches in Selma, Ala., and in the 1960s he attended the Second Vatican Council. His three-volume Modern American Religion ­provided an exhaustive survey of American religious trends in the 20th century.

Roberta Flack

A jazz and soul singer best known for her mesmerizing ballads, Flack died Feb. 24. She was 88. As the daughter of a church organist mother, she would occasionally accompany her Arlington, Va., church choir on piano. Later she got a break in music, signing a record deal with Atlantic and cutting her first album in 1969. The album sold poorly until Clint Eastwood selected her song for his 1971 film Play Misty for Me. Her years-old debut album reached No. 1 in 1972, and the single “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” earned her a Grammy Award. Later, Flack would achieve another chart-topper with “Killing Me Softly With His Song” in 1973.

David Boren

A reform-minded Democratic politician turned university president who dominated Oklahoma politics for decades, Boren died Feb. 20. He was 83. The son of a New Deal congressman, Boren at the age of 33 defeated Oklahoma’s incumbent governor in a primary race and would eventually win the 1974 gubernatorial election. After one term, Boren rode his popularity to a U.S. Senate seat he held from 1979 until 1994. For six years he chaired the Senate Intelligence Committee, earning a reputation as a pragmatic centrist. He left the Senate to become president of the University of Oklahoma, where he regularly taught a freshman-level politics class but later faced (and denied) sexual harassment accusations.

Gene Hackman

A 20th-century icon whose gravelly voice and subtle mannerisms earned him two Academy Awards, Hackman died at the age of 95. The bodies of Hackman and his wife, musician Betsy Arakawa, were discovered at their home in New Mexico on Feb. 26. Hackman portrayed a rough-around-the-edges police detective in the 1971 thriller The French Connection. The role earned him an Oscar and set him up for decades of savory roles. He played Lex Luthor in a series of Superman movies. Hackman received an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of an FBI agent in 1988’s Mississippi Burning and won an Academy Award for his supporting role in Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven in 1992.