Milestones Feb. 28, 2005

CONVICTED. CHRISTOPHER PITTMAN, 15, teenager who claimed taking the antidepressant Zoloft led him to shoot his grandparents in their bed in 2001; on two counts of murder; in Charleston, S.C. Though jurors rejected the Zoloft defense, they agonized over trying Pittman, who was 12 when he committed the crime, as an adult. He was sentenced to the minimum term of 30 years in prison.

AILING. ARLEN SPECTER, 75, veteran Republican Senator from Pennsylvania; with an advanced stage of Hodgkin’s disease, an often curable cancer of the lymph system, which his doctors say he has a 70% chance of surviving; in Washington. The chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Specter will continue to work while undergoing chemotherapy over the next six to eight months. “I have beaten a brain tumor, bypass surgery and many tough political opponents, and I’m going to beat this too,” he said.

DIED. FRITZ SCHOLDER, 67, Expressionist painter and sculptor best known for bringing a fresh eye to so-called Indian art in the 1960s and ’70s; of complications from diabetes; in Scottsdale, Ariz. One-quarter Native American, he initially refused to paint Indians, saying he hated the usual sentimental images of them as noble savages. In 1967, vowing to depict “real, not red,” he changed his mind. His “Indian” series included the still striking rendering of a Native American man wrapped in an American flag, based on 19th century prison photographs of Indians dressed in surplus flags after their tribal regalia had been confiscated.

DIED. SISTER DOROTHY STANG, 73, American nun who spent decades fighting illegal efforts by loggers and ranchers to appropriate land in the Amazon rain forest; after being shot in the face by gunmen just days after she met with Brazil’s Human Rights Secretary to report death threats against local farmers; near Anapu, Brazil. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva responded to the outcry over her death last week by creating two vast Amazonian forest preserves and sending the first of 2,000 troops to the region.

DIED. DICK WEBER, 75, skinny onetime postal worker who became bowling’s biggest star at the height of its popularity in the ’60s; in Florissant, Mo. The unfailingly polite Hall of Famer helped found the Professional Bowlers Association in 1958 and went on to win 26 tour events and six seniors titles. A self-described ham, he promoted the sport with such exploits as bowling on a Miami beach and taking aim at lava lamps on David Letterman’s late-night TV show.

DIED. DAN O’HERLIHY, 85, Irish actor of stage, film and TV; in Malibu, Calif. His British theater credits led to many U.S. film roles, including his first, Macduff in Orson Welles’ Macbeth; F.D.R. in 1977’s MacArthur; and dozens of other characters in movies ranging from Fail-Safe to RoboCop. He was nominated for an Academy Award in 1954 for the title role in Luis Buñuel’s The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe but lost to Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront.

DIED. SAMUEL ALDERSON, 90, inventor who created the first automobile crash test dummy, an articulated model of an adult male used to measure car safety; in Los Angeles. After developing dummies to test parachutes and jet ejection seats, he refined his work to suit the needs of the increasingly safety-conscious auto industry, introducing the first dummy specifically for cars, called the “VIP,” in 1968.

DIED. SISTER LUCIA DE JESUS DOS SANTOS, 97, the last survivor of three children who claimed in 1917 to have seen apparitions of the Virgin Mary near the Portuguese village of Fatima, which has become a pilgrimage site for millions annually; at her convent in Coimbra, Portugal. At age 10, she and two cousins said the Virgin offered revelations to them on the 13th day of every month from May through October. Though the children were jailed in efforts to get them to retract, church officials, after an exhaustive investigation, lent legitimacy to the visions in 1930 by calling them “worthy of belief.”