List of Famous people who died in 1969

Boris Sergeyevich Stechkin (1891–1969) was Russian scientist, engineer and inventor. He developed a theory of heat engines and was involved in construction of many Soviet aircraft engines. He was also co-developer of Sikorsky Ilya Muromets and Lebedenko's Tsar Tank.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was a German-American architect. He was commonly referred to as Mies, his surname. Along with Alvar Aalto, Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius and Frank Lloyd Wright, he is regarded as one of the pioneers of modernist architecture.

Doris Nefedov, better known by her stage name Alexandra, was a German singer.

John Llewellyn Lewis was an American leader of organized labor who served as president of the United Mine Workers of America (UMW) from 1920 to 1960. A major player in the history of coal mining, he was the driving force behind the founding of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), which established the United Steel Workers of America and helped organize millions of other industrial workers in the 1930s, during the Great Depression. After resigning as head of the CIO in 1941, Lewis took the United Mine Workers out of the CIO in 1942 and in 1944 took the union into the American Federation of Labor (AFL).

Vernon Duke was an American composer/songwriter, who also wrote under his original name, Vladimir Dukelsky. He is best known for "Taking a Chance on Love" with lyrics by Ted Fetter and John Latouche (1940), "I Can't Get Started" with lyrics by Ira Gershwin (1936), "April in Paris" with lyrics by E. Y. ("Yip") Harburg (1932), and "What Is There To Say" for the Ziegfeld Follies of 1934, also with Harburg. He wrote the words and music for "Autumn in New York" (1934) for the revue Thumbs Up! Vernon collaborated with lyricists such as Johnny Mercer, Ira Gershwin, Ogden Nash and Sammy Cahn.

Charles Edward Dvorak was an American track and field athlete who specialized in the pole vault. He attended the University of Michigan where he competed for the Michigan Wolverines men's track and field team from 1900 to 1904. He participated in the 1900 Summer Olympics where he was a favorite in the pole vault. However, he missed the competition after being told by officials that the finals would not be held on a Sunday. He won a special silver medal in a consolation competition. In 1903, he set a world's record in the pole vault with a jump of 11 feet, 11 inches.(This mark doesn't appear in the progression of World or American Records). Dvorak returned to international competition and won the gold medal in the pole vault at the 1904 Summer Olympics. Dvorak later served as a high school football, basketball and track coach in Seattle, Washington, where he died in 1969 at age 91.

Paul Camille Albert Mandrillon was a French biathlete who competed in the early 1920s. At the 1924 Winter Olympics he won the bronze medal in the military patrol event, together with his younger brother Maurice; he was also the flag bearer of the French delegation, and took the Olympic Oath, the first for the Winter Olympics.

Joseph Guy LaPointe Jr. was a combat medic in the United States Army who posthumously received the Medal of Honor for his actions during the Vietnam War.

Friedrich August Eberhard von Mackensen was a German general of the Wehrmacht during World War II who served as commander of the 1st Panzer Army and the 14th Army, and was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves. Following the war, Mackensen stood trial for war crimes before a British military tribunal in Italy where he was convicted and sentenced to death, however the sentence was later commuted and Mackensen was released in 1952, and died in West Germany in 1969.

Constantin Ion Parhon was a Romanian neuropsychiatrist, endocrinologist and politician. He was the first head of state of the Romanian People's Republic from 1947 to 1952. Parhon was President of the Physicians and Naturalists Society in Iași, hospital director, professor, and director of medical institutes.