List of Famous people who died at 81

Donald Erb was an American composer best known for large orchestral works such as Concerto for Brass and Orchestra and Ritual Observances.

Donald William Kerst was an American physicist who worked on advanced particle accelerator concepts and plasma physics. He is most notable for his development of the betatron, a novel type of particle accelerator used to accelerate electrons.

Ahmed Samy Khalifa was an Egyptian pediatric hematologist/oncologist. He established the specialty of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology at Ain Shams University. He treated thousands of children with thalassemia, leukemia and other hematologic and ontological diseases all over Egypt.

Lieutenant-Colonel Dudley Jaffray Hynman Allenby, 2nd Viscount Allenby, was a British peer and soldier.

Peter Kalifornsky was a writer and ethnographer of the Dena'ina Athabaskan of Kenai, Alaska.

Carlo Mazzantini (1925-2006) was an Italian writer. He published a number of books; among the best-known is A cercar la bella morte, which was translated by Simonetta Wenkert into English and published under the title In Search of a Glorious Death.