Milestones

By Amanda Bower, Val Castronovo, Steven Frank, Ling Minhua, Ellin Martens, Michele Orecklin, Julie Rawe, Sora Song and Josh Tyrangiel

APPOINTED. THEODORE MCCARRICK, 70, Archbishop of Newark, advocate for debt relief in Third World countries and supporter of immigration; to head the high-profile Archdiocese of Washington. McCarrick succeeds retiring Cardinal James Hickey. Like all bishops, McCarrick is expected to resign at 75.

DIED. LARS-ERIK NELSON, 59, audacious columnist for the New York Daily News for nearly two decades, who also worked for the New York Review of Books, Reuters and Newsday; of an apparent stroke; in Washington. Nelson was an old-school journalist who never missed a deadline, but he had a fanciful streak--he taught himself to play guitar on a long flight back from Latin America with Henry Kissinger (later, he picked up the balalaika). He also spoke fluent Russian and used it to interview Soviet dignitaries during the cold war--and to nettle the English-only reporters.

DIED. CHARLES RUFF, 61, Watergate prosecutor and White House counsel who defended President Clinton in his Senate impeachment trial; of an apparent heart attack; in Washington (see Eulogy, below).

DIED. J. RUSSELL WIGGINS, 96, editor of the Washington Post and U.N. ambassador; in Maine. During his 21-year tenure at the Post, Wiggins turned the laboring paper into a national force. He left journalism at 64 for politics but four months later began a 30-year career at the helm of the often whimsical Maine weekly, the Ellsworth American.

DIED. EMIL ZATOPEK, 78, four-time Olympic gold medalist and political dissident; after a stroke; in Prague. Zatopek won three of his golds at the Helsinki Games in 1952, in the 5,000 m, the 10,000 m and--having never run one before--the marathon. Nicknamed "the Engine," Zatopek ran up to 100 miles a week, sometimes in place in the bathtub, or with his wife on his shoulders. He was dismissed from the military and reduced to manual labor after standing on anticommunist front lines during the 1968 Prague Spring. He broke 18 world records but once said of his unorthodox, arm-flailing, grimacing style, "I wasn't talented enough to run and smile at the same time."