Robert M. Ball

WASHINGTON (AP) – Robert M. Ball, a former Social Security commissioner considered by many as its chief defender and the father of Medicare, has died. He was 93.

Ball’s death Tuesday was announced by the National Academy of Social Insurance, which he founded in 1986. No cause was given.

Ball first worked as a Social Security field assistant in New Jersey in 1939. Appointed commissioner of Social Security by President John F. Kennedy in 1962, he stayed on as commissioner until his retirement in 1973. The Medicare and the Social Security disability program was enacted under his watch, and he was considered one of the foremost experts in those areas.

Ball was a member of the 1983 Greenspan Commission that was able to strike a deal to boost taxes and cut benefits to keep Social Security solvent during the Reagan administration, the last major piece of Social Security legislation passed by Congress in the 20th century.

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Mary Engle

EASTON, Md. (AP) – Dr. Mary Engle, who took part in the first operation to repair a type of defect that restricted blood from reaching a child’s lungs and turned the infant’s skin bluish, has died. She was 86.

Engle, who died Sunday after a lengthy battle with cancer, was a medical pioneer, serving for 30 years as the first director of pediatric cardiology at what is now known as New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. She was instrumental in creating the Division of Pediatric Cardiology, which was later named in her honor.

While a medical student at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, she was chosen to serve on the pediatric house staff and took part in the renowned “blue baby” operation in 1944, the first procedure of its kind. The operation prompted Engle to become a pediatric cardiologist.

Engle also helped establish pediatric cardiology as the first subspecialty section within the American Academy of Pediatrics in 1957. She is credited with many research breakthroughs involving pediatric heart defects.

She also was a medical ambassador, traveling to China as part of a team of eight cardiologists in 1977.

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James Easter Heathman

EMPORIA, Kan. (AP) – James Easter Heathman, the teenager who raced to a field near his family’s central Kansas farm to find the plane crash that killed Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne, has died. He was 90.

Heathman died Tuesday at an Emporia hospital, where he had been for about a week after contracting pneumonia, said his son, Tom Heathman.

Tom Heathman said his father had been taking people to the crash site, located on private land near the Heathman farm, for about 20 years. He said his father gave the free tours because he wanted to honor Rockne, who at 43 was at the height of his career at the time of the March 1931 crash.

Rockne led the Fighting Irish to consecutive undefeated records his final two seasons. His death, which President Herbert Hoover called “a national loss,” made front-page news across the country.

The elder Heathman didn’t talk about the crash much with his children until the last two decades, his son said. The family attributed some of the increased attention to the Internet.

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Ron Horton

PHOENIX (AP) – Ron Horton, who led police to two suspected serial killers in 2006 and was credited with ending their monthslong shooting spree, has died. He was 49.

Horton died Saturday after suffering from a staph infection called methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, said his former wife, Debbie Dryer.

Horton said in a 2006 interview with The Associated Press that he started working with police after his old drinking buddy, Samuel Dieteman, told him about shooting people. Over beers one night, Dieteman allegedly told Horton that he and his roommate, Dale Hausner, would blast at people with shotguns late at night as they cruised the streets of Phoenix.

“They called it “RV’ing,”‘ Horton told The AP. “Random Recreational Violence.”

Phoenix police have since publicly credited Horton with helping them with the case.

Dieteman has been charged with two counts of murder, and Hausner is charged with seven counts of murder. Both have pleaded not guilty. Their murder trial is scheduled to begin in April.

AP-ES-01-31-08 0722EST