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Deukmejian, George

(Encyclopedia)Deukmejian, George (Courken George Deukmejian, Jr.), 1928–2018, American political leader, b. Menands, N.Y., grad. St. Bernardine of Siena College (now Siena College), 1949, St. John's Univ. law sch...

Davis, Al

(Encyclopedia)Davis, Al (Allen Davis), 1929–2011, American football executive, b. Brockton, Mass. After coaching mainly college teams in the 1950s, he was (1960–62) a coach with the Los Angeles, then San Diego,...

Chamberlain, Wilt

(Encyclopedia)Chamberlain, Wilt (Wilton Norman Chamberlain), 1936–99, American basketball player, b. Philadelphia. At the Univ. of Kansas he was a two-time All-American center. During 14 seasons in the National B...

Gretzky, Wayne

(Encyclopedia)Gretzky, Wayne (Wayne Douglas Gretzky), 1961–, Canadian ice hockey player, b. Brantford, Ont. He played with the Edmonton Oilers (1978–88), Los Angeles Kings (1988–96), St. Louis Blues (1996), a...

Ghez, Andrea Mia

(Encyclopedia)Ghez, Andrea Mia, 1965–, American astrophysicist, b. New York City, Ph.D. California Institute of Technology, 1992. She has been on the faculty at the Univ. of California, Los Angeles, since 1994. G...

Moon, Warren

(Encyclopedia)Moon, Warren (Harold Warren Moon, Jr.), 1956–, African-American football player, b. Los Angeles. Moon quarterbacked the Univ. of Washington Huskies to a Rose Bowl title in 1978, but he went undrafte...

Marriner, Sir Neville

(Encyclopedia)Marriner, Sir Neville, 1924–2016, British conductor, b. Lincoln, England, grad. Royal College of Music, London (1946), studied Paris Conservatory. A violinist, he taught at the Royal College (1949â€...

Kleinrock, Leonard

(Encyclopedia)Kleinrock, Leonard, 1934–, American computer scientist, b. New York City, B.E.E. City College of New York (1957), Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1963). Moving to the Univ. of Californi...

Watts Towers

(Encyclopedia)Watts Towers, group of folk-art towers in the Watts section of Los Angeles. The complex was built (1921–54) single-handedly by the self-taught Italian immigrant Simon Rodia (also spelled Rodilla, 18...

Randall, John Ernest, Jr.

(Encyclopedia)Randall, John Ernest, Jr., 1924–2020, American ichthyologist, b. Los Angeles, Ph.D. Univ. of Hawaii, Manoa, 1955. A marine taxonomist, he named 30 new genera and hundreds of new species of fish. Par...