List of Famous people who died at 78

Marie-Madeleine Duruflé was a French organist. She is generally considered to be the last great representative of the French romantic school of organists, which emphasised elegant grandeur, clarity of texture and freedom of rhythm. She gave incomparable interpretations of works from French organists, like Charles-Marie Widor, Louis Vierne, Jean Langlais, Marcel Dupré and her husband Maurice Duruflé.

Captain Edmund Geoffrey Abbott, GC was a Royal Navy officer and recipient of the Albert Medal, later exchanged for the George Cross.

Sándor Szalay, Sr. was a pioneer of Hungarian nuclear physics.

Thornton "T" Arnold Wilson was the Chairman of the Board and chief executive officer of Boeing corporation.

Fritz Diez was a German actor, producer, director and theater manager.

Paul William Gallico was an American novelist and short story and sports writer. Many of his works were adapted for motion pictures. He is perhaps best remembered for The Snow Goose, his most critically successful book, for the novel The Poseidon Adventure, primarily through the 1972 film adaptation, and for four novels about the beloved character of Mrs. Harris.

Jean-Paul Riopelle, was a painter and sculptor from Quebec, Canada. He had one of the longest and most important international careers of the sixteen signatories of the Refus Global, the 1948 manifesto that announced the Quebecois artistic community's refusal of clericalism and provincialism. He is best known for his abstract painting style, in particular his "mosaic" works of the 1950s when he famously abandoned the paintbrush, using only a palette knife to apply paint to canvas, giving his works a distinctive sculptural quality. He became the first Canadian painter to attain widespread international recognition.