In passing

David B. Haight, 97, Mormon leader

Salt Lake City David B. Haight, the eldest member of a high-ranking body of the Mormon church, died of natural causes Saturday at age 97.

At 69, he was named to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles – which is part of the church’s top leadership.

For years, Haight oversaw the church’s global missionary effort, and had been a member of the church’s Public Affairs Board, helping in its outreach to other faiths.

“We deeply regret the passing of our beloved friend and associate,” the church said. “He has stirred the hearts of people across the Earth with his declaration of faith and his testimony of the living reality of the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Haight died 10 days after the death of another elder, Neal Maxwell.

Born in Oakley, Idaho, Haight served as mayor of Palo Alto, Calif., in the 1950s, but later resigned to serve as president of a Mormon mission in Scotland. He also served as a commander in the U.S. Navy during World War II.

Farouk Abdel-Muhti, 56, Palestinian activist

Philadelphia Farouk Abdel-Muhti, a Palestinian activist who sued the federal government for allegedly holding him longer than its standards allow, died of a heart attack on July 21 after giving a speech in Philadelphia, officials said. He was 56.

To immigrant rights advocates and critics of the Bush administration’s handling of civil liberties, Abdel-Muhti became a symbol of the dragnet that took more than 1,200 people, mostly Arabs and south Asians, into custody after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Adbel-Muhti was born in 1947 in Ramallah. He came to the United States in the early 1970s, but overstayed his visa, finding work as a vendor and advocating Palestinian causes. The U.S. government tried to deport him several times, but was unable to find a country willing to take him. Israeli officials could not find his name on a list of residents of the occupied territories, according to court documents.

After missing a hearing in 1995, he was again ordered deported but remained free until April 2002, when federal agents seeking to question him as part of the investigation into the World Trade Center attacks took him into custody at his apartment in New York City.

A federal judge in Harrisburg, Pa., ordered Abdel-Muhti to be released earlier this year, saying the government did not prove he was to blame for the fact he had not been deported.

Irvin Shortess Yeaworth Jr., 78, movie director

Malvern, Pa. Irvin Shortess “Shorty” Yeaworth Jr., who directed the 1958 cult movie “The Blob” and later made hundreds of films with religious and social messages, died July 19 in a car accident in the Middle East. He was 78.

Yeaworth was completing a major entertainment complex in Jordan called Jordanian Experience at the Aqaba Gateway, which was set to open next month.

He often struggled with his legacy as director of the camp sci-fi classic, much of which was filmed in his Chester County back yard.

But fan adoration of the film endured. Last week, the annual BlobFest tribute was held at Phoenixville’s Colonial Theatre where a scene was filmed of moviegoers screaming and fleeing the phlegmatic monster.

Joseph Teller, 91, father of magician

Henderson, Nev. Joseph Teller, the father of magician Teller and subject of a 2000 memoir by the silent half of the comedy-magic act Penn & Teller, died Friday of cardiac failure, his family said. He was 91.

Teller, who legally dropped his first name, said he loved his father’s wry sense of humor.

Joseph Teller and his wife, Irene, were the subject of a 2000 memoir by Teller, their only child. The title is a quote from Joseph Teller, a commercial artist, about their basement clutter: “When I’m Dead This All Will Be Yours!”

The book chronicles Joseph Teller’s travels as a teenage hobo, the cartoons he drew on the road and in 1930s- and 1940s-era Philadelphia, and his life with Irene.

Joseph Teller studied art at what is now the Fleischer Art Memorial. The Rosenfeld Gallery hosted a show of Joseph Teller’s paintings when he was 88.