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Art Cooley, 87, a longtime activist who cofounded the Environmental Defense Fund more than 50 years ago, died Jan. 30 in Colorado of natural causes, said his son, Jonathan. Cooley helped launch the group, now one of the world’s leading environmental organizations, from his living room on Long Island, New York, in 1967. In the mid-1960s, while a high school teacher, Cooley was one of several activists who organized to stop use of the pesticide DDT. The legal battle led to the banning of DDT in the United States and the formation of EDF. Cooley was involved with the organization’s board, including as its chair and later secretary, for decades.

Jason Epstein, 93, a publishing innovator and bon vivant who helped put the classics in paperback, co-founded The New York Review of Books and worked with such novelists as E.L. Doctorow, Vladimir Nabokov and Philip Roth, died Friday “surrounded by his books” at his home in Sag Harbor, New York, said his wife, the author and former New York Times journalist Judith Miller. The cause was congestive heart failure, she said. Among the many books edited by Epstein: Doctorow’s Depression-era novel “Billy Bathgate,” Jane Jacobs’ classic of urban studies “The Death and Life of Great American Cities” and Mailer’s CIA epic “Harlot’s Ghost.”

Bill Fitch, 89, a twotime NBA coach of the year who guided Boston to one of its championships during a Hall of Fame coaching career spanning three decades, died Wednesday night in Lake Conroe, Texas, surrounded by family. Fitch coached for 25 seasons in the NBA, starting with the expansion Cleveland Cavaliers in 1970. He was Larry Bird’s first pro coach in 1979, won a title with the Celtics in 1981 and spent time with Houston, New Jersey and the Los Angeles Clippers.

Robin Herman, 70, a gender barrier-breaking reporter for The New York Times who was the first female journalist to interview players in the locker room after an NHL game, has died. Her husband, Paul Horvitz, told the newspaper Herman died Tuesday at their home in the Boston suburb of Waltham, Massachusetts, from ovarian cancer. Herman was a hockey reporter covering the New York Islanders when she and another female reporter were allowed to interview players in the locker room – as their male counterparts were commonly permitted to do – following the 1975 All-Star Game in Montreal.

Howard Hesseman, 81, who played the radio disc jockey Dr. Johnny Fever on the sitcom “WKRP in Cincinnati” and the actor-turned-history teacher Charlie Moore on “Head of the Class,” died Jan. 29 in Los Angeles due to complications from colon surgery, his manager Robbie Kass said Sunday. Hesseman, who had himself been a radio DJ in the 1960s, earned two Emmy nominations for “WKRP in Cincinnati,” which ran for four seasons from 1978- 1982.

Cheslie Kryst, 30, the 2019 winner of the Miss USA pageant and a correspondent for the entertainment news program “Extra,” has died. Police said Kryst jumped from a Manhattan apartment building and was pronounced dead at the scene Jan. 30. Her family confirmed her death in a statement. Kryst, a former Division I athlete and North Carolina attorney, won the Miss USA pageant in May, 2019, and competed in the Miss Universe pageant that year. When Kryst was crowned, it marked more than a personal triumph: It meant that for the first time, three Black women were the reigning Miss USA, Miss Teen USA and Miss America.