List of Famous people who died at 78

William Fergus McCormick was a New Zealand rugby union footballer who played for the All Blacks and Canterbury. McCormick first played representative rugby for Canterbury in 1958 when he played first five-eighth against Wellington. The following year he played twelve matches for Canterbury; the first of the season a 20–14 victory over the touring British Lions.

Gary Ross Dahl was an American businessman and advertising director. He founded and created the collectible toy Pet Rock; smooth stones from the city of Rosarito, Baja California, Mexico. in the mid '70s which was successful enough to make him a millionaire.

Olivier de Berranger was a Roman Catholic bishop.

Toshihiko Izutsu was a Japanese philosopher of language and mysticism and an Islamic scholar. He was a Professor at Keio University in Japan and author of many books on Islam and other religions. Izutsu taught at the Institute of Cultural and Linguistic studies at Keio University in Tokyo, the Iranian institute of Philosophy in Tehran, and McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He was fluent in over 30 languages, including Arabic, Persian, Sanskrit, Pali, Chinese, Japanese, Russian and Greek.

Otto John Schaden was an American Egyptologist. He was the field director of the Amenmesse Tomb Project of the University of Memphis (Tennessee). In addition to his work on the tomb of Amenmesse (KV10) in the main arm of the Valley of the Kings, he has also cleared and reinvestigated tombs WV23, WV24, and WV25 in the Western Valley.

Abderrahmane Soukane was an Algerian footballer who played as a striker.

Emmanuel Hocquard was a French poet.

Sudharmono was an Indonesian politician and military officer, who served as the 5th Vice President of Indonesia under President Suharto, from 1988 until 1993. Previously, he served as a general in the army and the chairman of Golkar from 1983 until 1988.

Ibrahim Ferrer was a Cuban singer who played with Los Bocucos for nearly forty years. He also performed with Conjunto Sorpresa, Chepín y su Orquesta Oriental and Mario Patterson. After his retirement in 1991, he was brought back in the studio to record with the Afro-Cuban All Stars and Buena Vista Social Club in March 1996. He then toured internationally with these revival groups and recorded several solo albums for World Circuit before his death in 2005.

Bernard Victor Aloysius (Bert) Röling was a Dutch jurist and founding father of polemology in the Netherlands. Between 1946 and 1948 he acted as the Dutch representative for the International Military Tribunal for the Far East.