Obituaries in the news

Billy Consolo

DETROIT (AP) — Billy Consolo, a former major league infielder and longtime Detroit Tigers coach, has died of an apparent heart attack. He was 73.

Former Tigers public relations director Dan Ewald, a longtime friend, said Friday that Consolo died Thursday at his home in Westlake Village, Calif.

Sparky Anderson and Consolo became close friends while playing high school baseball in southern California. Anderson became the Tigers' manager midway through the 1979 season and added Consolo to his staff in 1980. Consolo retired after the 1992 season.

Consolo went straight from high school to the majors in 1953 when he signed with the Boston Red Sox. He hit .221 with nine homers and 83 RBIs in 603 games in 10 seasons with the Red Sox, Senators-Twins, Phillies, Angels and Athletics.

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Robert Fagles

NEW YORK (AP) — Robert Fagles, a professor emeritus at Princeton University whose bold, flowing translations of Homer and Virgil made him an esteemed and best-selling classical scholar, has died. He was 74.

Fagles died Wednesday in Princeton of prostate cancer, the university said Friday.

According to Fagles' publisher, Viking, his translations sold more than 4 million copies worldwide, and he enjoyed both an academic and popular audience. He received numerous awards, including the National Humanities Medal, the Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the PEN/Ralph Manheim prize for lifetime achievement. His editions were staged all over the world and the audiobooks attracted such acclaimed actors as Derek Jacobi, who narrates "The Iliad," and Simon Callow for "The Aeneid."

A published poet, Fagles came to classical literature and translation relatively late, or late for his chosen field. He was a junior at Amherst College when he read "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey" and longed to learn them in their original language.

Fagles' first published translation, of the lyric poet Bacchilydes, came out in 1961, around the time he joined the Princeton University faculty. He translated several Greek tragedies, including works by Aeschylus and Sophocles, and took on "The Iliad" in the 1970s.

Fagles, who was not working on any project at the time of his death, retired from the Princeton faculty in 2002. Last year, the school awarded him an honorary doctor of humane letters.

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Edward Rafeedie

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Edward Rafeedie, a federal judge who presided over a number of high-profile cases during his two decades on the bench, has died. He was 79.

Rafeedie died Tuesday at his Malibu home after a 1 1/2 year battle with cancer, the Los Angeles Daily Journal reported in Thursday's edition.

Rafeedie was appointed by Ronald Reagan in 1971 to be a judge on the Los Angeles Superior Court, where he heard cases involving celebrities such as Groucho Marx, Rod Stewart and Evel Knievel.

Reagan later appointed Rafeedie to the federal bench, where he heard the torture-murder case of a Drug Enforcement Administration agent. He also presided over the plea agreement of Steven Cooperman, a Beverly Hills doctor who masterminded the disappearance of valuable paintings he owned, including a Picasso and a Monet, and fraudulently collected the insurance money.

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Herb Rich

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Herb Rich, a three-sport star at Vanderbilt and defensive captain of the New York Giants when they won the NFL title in 1956, died Friday. He was 79.

Rich died at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, the school said.

Rich spent seven years in the NFL. The Baltimore Colts drafted him in the sixth round in 1950, and he averaged 23 yards on punt returns as a rookie. He won a championship with the Los Angeles Rams in 1951 and was a two-time All-Pro defensive back. He played for the Giants between 1954 and 1956.

He had 29 career interceptions in 65 pro games, including three returned for touchdowns.

Rich was an all-Southeastern Conference player at Vanderbilt who also lettered in basketball and baseball. He led the Commodores in rushing in 1948 and 1949 with 1,282 yards. Rich averaged 27.7 yards on kickoff returns in 1948, helping the Commodores finish the season ranked No. 12.

After his NFL career, Rich returned to Nashville and practiced law.