Newt Heisley, 88, the designer of the POW/MIA flag adopted by Congress in 1990 as a symbol of the nation's concern for those missing during military actions in Southeast Asia, has died. Heisley died Thursday at his home in Colorado Springs after years of failing health, said his son Jim.
Heisley's image sketched in pencil in 1971 during the Vietnam War shows the silhouette of a gaunt man, a strand of barbed wire and a watchtower in the background with the words POW/MIA "You are not forgotten."
Congress in 1998 mandated the flag be displayed at the White House, U.S. Capitol, military installations and other federal buildings on national observances that include Memorial Day and the Fourth of July. The flag also flies at Veterans Affairs medical centers each day, along with the American flag.
Heisley was working at a New Jersey ad agency when he was assigned the task of submitting a design. His oldest son, Jeffrey, now 61, who had contracted hepatitis while training at Quantico, Va., in preparation for a tour of Vietnam, provided the inspiration for the silhouette, Jim Heisley said. The words came from Heisley's experience of flying C-46 transport planes over the Pacific Ocean during World War II. "He told me many a time that when he was flying missions out over the water at night, he'd look around and say, 'Oh my God, if I put this thing in the drink or land on a deserted island, I hope to hell they don't forget about me,'" Jim Heisley said.
The image was never copyrighted and Heisley didn't financially benefit from his design that has been used on everything from lapel pins to vehicle designs, Jim Heisley said.
John E. Connelly, 83, a former coal miner turned multimillionaire entrepreneur and operator of riverboat dining and gambling cruises, died Saturday morning of congestive heart failure, said his grandson, Terrence Wirginis.
Connelly was born in Pittsburgh, worked in a coal mine to support his family after his parents died and was also a Golden Gloves boxer. He later built a fortune coming up with bank promotions, and was once called by Fortune Magazine "the godfather of make-a-deposit, get-a-toaster bank marketing." Connelly later created riverboat dining cruises in Pittsburgh, as well as New York and St. Louis. He ran riverboat gambling cruises on the Mississippi and sought to bring casino gambling to Pittsburgh. In 1993, he was on Forbes' list of the 400 richest Americans.
Turkan Saylan, 74, a doctor who battled leprosy in Turkey and founded a secularist association devoted to providing educational grants for poor children, died after a long battle with cancer, the Association to Support Contemporary Life said. Saylan founded the group in 1989. Since then it has provided grants to thousands of poor students, especially girls, and built schools in Turkey's impoverished regions.