John Bachar, a noted rock climber, has died in a fall. He was 51.

Bachar, who was climbing near his Mammoth Lakes home Sunday, died at an area hospital after a fall from the Dike Wall cliff, the Mono County Sheriff's Department said.

Bachar was known as a free-soloist who used no ropes or safety gear. He began climbing as a teenager, dropped out of UCLA to pursue the sport full-time and in the 1970s and '80s was famed for his sheer climbs in Yosemite National Park.

In 2006, he was in a car accident that fractured five vertebrae but returned to climbing.

He also was director of design for Acopa International LLC, a Las Vegas company that makes rock climbing shoes.

Oscar G. Mayer, retired chairman of the Wisconsin-based meat-processing company that bears his name, died Monday. He was 95.

Mayer died of old age at Hospice Care in Fitchburg, said his wife, Geraldine.

He was the third Oscar Mayer in the family that founded Oscar Mayer Foods, which was once the largest private employer in Madison. His grandfather, Oscar F. Mayer, died in 1955, and his father, Oscar G. Mayer Sr., died in 1965.

Mayer retired as chairman of the board in 1977 at age 62 soon after the company recorded its first $1 billion year. The company was later sold to General Foods and is now a business unit of Kraft.

Harry J. Gray, the retired United Technologies Corp. chief executive who is credited with transforming the company into an industrial conglomerate, died Wednesday. He was 89.

United Technologies said he died in Hartford, Conn.

Gray, who became president of what was then United Aircraft Corp. in 1971, served as chairman and CEO from 1972 to 1986.

The Hartford-based United Technologies, which is the parent of jet engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney, Otis elevator, Sikorsky Aircraft and other businesses, credits Gray for leading it from a $2 billion defense company to a $17 billion diversified conglomerate. It posted revenue of $58.68 billion in 2008.

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