Roderick Anthony Robinson Native Land Claims Leader
Roderick Anthony Robinson, 74, elder statesman of the Nisga'a Indians and a leading force in Canada's long-running native land claims talks, died Nov. 30 in New Aiyansh, British Columbia. No cause of death was reported.
He played a pivotal role in the nation's first Indian land claims settlement involving the Nisga'a in 2000. A hereditary chief of the Eagle Clan, Robinson also held the Nisga'a name Sim'oogit Minee'eskw. After serving as a negotiator in the Nisga'a Final Agreement, as the settlement was called, Mr. Robinson was appointed first ambassador of Nisga'a Lisims Government and elected chairman of the Council of Elders in 2000. He retired from that post in 2002.
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Mr. Robinson also was a deacon of Holy Trinity Anglican Church in New Aiyansh and was made canon of St. Andrews Cathedral in Prince Rupert in 2000. In October, he was presented the Order of Canada by Gov. Gen. Adrienne Clarkson for lifelong service to his people.
Josef Schwammberger Nazi Labor Camp Commander
Josef Schwammberger, 92, a former Nazi labor-camp commander who hid for 40 years in Argentina before being captured and returned to Germany for trial, died Dec. 3 in a prison hospital near Stuttgart. No cause of death was reported.
Mr. Schwammberger was a native of Austria. He was known for sadism during the war and was convicted in 1992 in Stuttgart of seven counts of murder and 32 counts of accessory to murder. He was sentenced to life in prison. He originally was charged with murdering or helping to murder 3,377 people, including more than 40 by his own hand.
Mr. Schwammberger escaped in January 1948 from a train taking him to Austria for trial. Within months, he entered Argentina, where he lived under his own name and obtained Argentine citizenship in 1965. Argentine officials tracked him down Nov. 13, 1987, in a village 500 miles northwest of Buenos Aires near a German Argentine settlement.
Brother Timothy Diener Christian Brothers Cellarmaster
Brother Timothy Diener, 94, who helped shape the California wine industry as longtime cellarmaster for the Christian Brothers' wines and brandies, died of congestive heart failure Nov. 30 at the Christian Brothers Mont La Salle, Calif., novitiate.
Born in Elizabeth, N.J., he worked for more than 50 years at the Mont La Salle Vineyards in the Napa Valley, retiring in 1989 when the Brothers of the Christian Schools sold their wine and brandy-making operation to the Heublein Fine Wine Group. Brother Timothy had amassed an extensive collection of rare and historic corkscrews.
His order, commonly known as the De La Salle Christian Brothers -- a Roman Catholic religious order dedicated to education -- had run a small business making sacramental and medicinal wines since the late 19th century and bought the larger Napa Valley vineyards in 1930. Brother Diener, then a high school chemistry teacher, was assigned to be "wine chemist" at the winery in 1935. Production was then no more than 10,000 gallons a year, but with the help of German immigrant Alfred Fromm, the sales and reputation of Christian Brothers wines grew.
