More Obits

There are two great obituaries in The New York Times today.

The first is for Jane Bolin, who died on January 8 at the age of 98. In 1939, New York City Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia made Ms. Bolin the first African-American woman judge in the United States. She was also the first black woman to graduate from Yale Law School, to join the New York City Bar Association, and to be hired by the New York City legal department. From the obit:

At Yale, Ms. Bolin was one of three women in her class and the only black woman. In an interview with The New York Times in 1993, she said that a few Southerners at the law school had taken pleasure in letting the swinging classroom doors hit her in the face. One of those Southerners later became active in the American Bar Association and invited her to speak before his bar group in Texas. She declined.

Even today, in 2007, women attorneys and African-American attorneys sometimes face considerable obstacles to professional success. It is difficult to imagine the amount of fortitude that must have been necessary for Judge Bolin to succeed.

Rut ro. Iwao Takamoto, the creator of Scooby-Doo, has died at age 81. Mr. Takamoto, who worked for both Disney and Hanna-Barbera, also is credited with creating Penelope Pitstop; Astro, the Jetsons' dog ("right, Rorge!"); and Atom Ant, from the underrated "Secret Squirrel Show." The obit explains that, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Mr. Takamoto and his family were sent to an internment camp, where the teenage Iwao learned sketching and animation techniques from two other internees who had been art directors at movie studios.

May they both rest in peace.