List of Famous people who died at 78

Jürgen Ehlers was a German physicist who contributed to the understanding of Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity. From graduate and postgraduate work in Pascual Jordan's relativity research group at Hamburg University, he held various posts as a lecturer and, later, as a professor before joining the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Munich as a director. In 1995, he became the founding director of the newly created Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics in Potsdam, Germany.

Henry David Leonard George Walston, Baron Walston CVO, JP was a British farmer, agricultural researcher and politician, firstly for the Liberal Party, then for Labour and then for the Social Democratic Party.

Roberto Orlando Bracone Macceialli, better known as Elio Roca was an Argentine singer.

Andre Kostelanetz was a Russian-born American popular orchestral music conductor and arranger who was one of the major exponents of popular orchestra music.

Robert H. Morris Sr. was an American cryptographer and computer scientist.

Tonny Kristine Ahm was a female badminton player from Denmark.

Helmut Frenz (1933–2011) was a German Lutheran pastor and human rights activist. He moved to Chile in 1965, working as a pastor and bishop, setting up two refugee-support organisations and co-founding the Committee of Cooperation for Peace in Chile before being expelled in 1975.