Sinbabad

Clifton R. Wharton Jr. who was Deputy Secretary of State for six months at the beginning of Clinton’s first term, has died aged 98.

Italian Gino Pivatelli is definitely alive. Uruguyans Omar Pedro Méndez and Roberto Leopardi are like Dincer and Ersoy : no knews about them, so could be alive or dead. So technically, there could be 6 survivors from the 1954 World Cup.

Notable ? In France we follow quite closely North African football and I’ve never heard of him. He only got 4 caps with his country.

The article says that he was "one of the last members alive from the 1954 WC squad". So Mehmet Dinçer and Sükrü Ersoy could be alive.

Il était dans une librairie de mon quartier pour un en entretien/dédicace pour la sortie de son autobiographie. Il est arrivé en marchant au bras de sa coauteure et a un sacré embonpoint, mais côté visage on pourrait lui donner moins que son age, 80 ans. L’esprit très alerte, il faisait de l’humour. En arrivant il a d’ailleurs dit "comme vous voyez, contrairement à ce qu’a dit BFM, je ne suis pas mort !" Il a d’ailleurs dit qu’il remonterait sur scène en janvier, et qu’il continuerait car c’est ça qui le maintient.

I found this.

Christian Brac, who was in 4x100m French relay for the 1948 games but did not actually run, died on 20 August aged 97. He doesn’t have a wiki page so I put his olympedia.

Goalkeeper Paul Kalambay Otepa who was in DR Congo (Zaïre at the time) squad at the 1974 WC, has died on his 76th birthday. He was an unused substitute during the competition. His death means that the three goalkeepers of the team are gone ! He was also in the squad that won the 1974 African Cup of Nations.

Thomas E. Kurtz has died aged 96.

French Jeanine Moussier, who participated at the 1948 games in athletics, died on 22 April aged 94.

Turns out Bill Monfort was not in Pearl Harbor during the attack, according to his son in law. Definitely a WW2 and Pacific war veteran though.

American Bruce Degen, who illustrated The Magic School Bus book (later animated) series has died aged 79.

Moroccan Hassan Akesbi has died at 89. He was the top Ligue 1 African goalscorer with 173 goals and Nîmes Olympique top goalscorer ever with 140 goals.

Helle Meri, the first First Lady of Estonia from 1992 to 2001, has died aged 75. She is the first (out of 6) First Spouse to die, but not the longest lived, as her successor Ingrid Rüütel is 89 years old.

Yes one of the best Ligue 1 players ever, very sad.