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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

In passing


Zetterlund
 (The Spokesman-Review)
The Spokesman-Review

Hugh Montefiore, 85, Anglican ‘eco-bishop’

London The Rt. Rev. Hugh Montefiore, a Jewish-born Anglican archbishop and passionate environmentalist, died Friday, church officials said. He was 85.

The Diocese of Southwark said Montefiore fell ill on Thursday – his 85th birthday – and died early Friday in a London hospital.

Born to a prominent Jewish family, Montefiore converted to Christianity as a teenager after, he said, seeing a vision of Christ. He liked to be known as a Jewish Christian.

After serving as an army officer in Burma during World War II, Montefiore studied theology and was ordained a priest. He spent many years working in Cambridge before becoming Bishop of Kingston-upon-Thames and later Bishop of Birmingham, a post he held from 1978 to 1987.

After his retirement, Montefiore pursued an interest in the occult, compiling his research in a book, “The Paranormal: A Bishop Investigates.”

Montefiore’s outspoken environmentalism saw him dubbed the “eco-bishop.” He was a trustee of Friends of the Earth for 20 years and chaired the group between 1992 and 1998. But he resigned from the group’s board last year after writing an article supporting the use of nuclear power to help fight global warming.

Monica Zetterlund, 67, Swedish jazz singer

Stockholm, Sweden Jazz singer Monica Zetterlund, who became one of Sweden’s best-known artists during a career that spanned five decades, died in an apartment fire, police said Friday. She was 67.

Firefighters found Zetterlund’s charred body in her bed Thursday evening, after a fire broke out in her central Stockholm apartment. It was not clear what sparked the blaze, but Swedish media reports said she had been smoking in bed.

Born Monica Nilsson, she began her career as the singer in her father’s band. Zetterlund recorded more than 20 records, from “Swedish Sensation” in 1958 to “Bill Remembered” in 2000.

Widely praised at home for singing jazz in Swedish, she won international acclaim after touring the United States in 1960, where she performed on the “Steve Allen Show.” Later, she made recordings with trumpet player Thad Jones and saxophonist Zoot Sims. Her most famous record is the classic “Waltz for Debby,” made in 1964 with pianist Bill Evans.

Zetterlund suffered from scoliosis, a disabling disease that twists the spine, making it difficult to move. During the last years of her career, she often had to be helped onto the stage, and sang sitting down.

In a TV interview in 2000, she said the disease was keeping her largely confined to her apartment.

Tristan Egolf, 33, political activist, author

Lancaster, Pa. Tristan Egolf, a political activist and author whose first novel at age 27 won him comparisons to William Faulkner and John Steinbeck, died May 7 of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in a Lancaster apartment, said G. Gary Kirchner, Lancaster County coroner. He was 33.

Egolf had shown signs of depression over the past 18 months, said Michael Hoober, a family therapist in Lancaster and friend of Egolf.

Egolf received literary acclaim after the 1998 publication of his first novel, “Lord of the Barnyard: Killing the Fatted Calf and Arming the Aware in the Corn Belt,” a manic tale about a Kentucky farm boy. It was rejected by more than 70 U.S. publishers before being picked up by a French publisher while Egolf was working as a street musician in Paris’ arts district.

Egolf’s second book, a frenetic love story called “Skirt and the Fiddle,” was published in 2002, and a third novel, “Kornwolf,” about a werewolf in Amish country, is slated for release next year.

Egolf was known in Pennsylvania as the leader of the Smoketown Six, a group of men arrested during a visit by President Bush in July when they stripped down to thong underwear and formed a human pyramid to protest the Abu Ghraib prison-abuse scandal. Disorderly conduct charges against the men were eventually dropped.