List of Famous people who died at 78

Allen Eugene Paulson was an American businessman.

Veikko Johannes Hakulinen was a Finnish cross-country skier, triple champion in both the Olympics and World Championships. He also competed in biathlon, orienteering, ski-orienteering, cross-country running and rowing at a national level.

Carol Doris Chomsky was an American linguist and education specialist who studied language acquisition in children.

Anne Elisabeth Jane Claiborne known as Liz Claiborne was an American fashion designer and businesswoman. Her success was built upon stylish yet affordable apparel for career women featuring colorfully tailored separates that could be mixed and matched. Claiborne is best known for co-founding Liz Claiborne Inc., which in 1986 became the first company founded by a woman to make the Fortune 500 list. Claiborne was the first woman to become chair and CEO of a Fortune 500 company.

Ulysses Simpson Kay was an American composer. His music is mostly neoclassical in style.

Dolores Gray was an American actress and singer. She was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Lead Actress in a Musical twice, winning once.

Salvador Edward Luria was an Italian microbiologist, later a naturalized U.S. citizen. He won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1969, with Max Delbrück and Alfred Hershey, for their discoveries on the replication mechanism and the genetic structure of viruses. Salvador Luria also showed that bacterial resistance to viruses (phages) is genetically inherited.

Ernesto Laclau was an Argentine political theorist and philosopher. He is often described as an 'inventor' of post-Marxist political theory. He is well known for his collaborations with his long-term partner, Chantal Mouffe.

Frederick Trubee Davison was an American World War I aviator, Assistant United States Secretary of War, Director of Personnel for the Central Intelligence Agency, and President of the American Museum of Natural History.