Milestones

By Melissa August, Harriet Barovick, Elizabeth L. Bland, Simon Crittle and Rebecca Winters

DIED. CRAIG KELLY, 36, a founder and world champion of snowboarding, often called the Michael Jordan of the sport; in an avalanche during a backcountry ski outing; near Revelstoke, British Columbia.

DIED. NELL CARTER, 54, multitalented, ebullient singer-actress; of unknown causes, after collapsing at home; in Beverly Hills, Calif. Before entertaining millions as the housekeeper in the 1980s sitcom Gimme a Break!, she won a Tony in 1978 for her performance in the Broadway musical Ain't Misbehavin'.

DIED. BUD ROPER, 77, respected pollster; of lung cancer; in Bourne, Mass. Roper wrote what is now a staple question to gauge the mood of the nation: Are things "generally going in the right direction," or have they "seriously gotten off on the wrong track"?

DIED. GIOVANNI AGNELLI, 81, patriarch of the iconic, if now troubled, Fiat auto company, the largest private employer in Italy; of prostate cancer; in Turin, Italy. Before sales began to decline in the '90s, the elegantly handsome, jet-setting Agnelli, who took over the company in 1966, turned Fiat into an international powerhouse. A symbol of prosperous postwar Italy, the honorary chairman remained, in the words of Henry Kissinger, that country's "permanent establishment."