List of Famous people who died in 1996

Francis Joseph Murray was a mathematician, known for his foundational work on functional analysis, and what subsequently became known as von Neumann algebras. He received his PhD from Columbia University in 1936. He taught at Duke University.

Terrel Howard Bell was the Secretary of Education in the Cabinet of President Ronald Reagan. He was the second Secretary of Education, following Shirley Hufstedler.

Ferdinand Leitner was a German conductor. Leitner studied under Franz Schreker, Julius Prüwer, Artur Schnabel and Karl Muck.

Anthony Peck was an American actor. He was born in Youngstown, Ohio.

Brian Abel-Smith was a British economist and expert adviser and one of the most influential figures of the twentieth century in shaping health and social welfare. In Britain, his research for the Guillebaud committee in 1956 proved that the NHS provided extremely good value for money and deserved more investment. From the 1960s he was one of a new breed of special advisers to Labour government ministers – helping Richard Crossman, Barbara Castle and David Ennals to reconfigure the NHS, set up Resource Allocation Working Party, and the Black Inquiry into Health Inequalities. Internationally, he steered the development of health services in over 50 countries. He was a key WHO and EEC adviser, intimately involved in setting the agenda for global campaigns such as Health for All by the year 2000.

James Whitman McLamore was the founder and first CEO of the Burger King fast food franchise, along with David Edgerton. He also created the Whopper sandwich. After selling Burger King to the Pillsbury Company in 1967, he remained CEO for 5 years. After retiring, he served on the board of several large corporations, was Chairman of the University of Miami, chaired the United Way and was a member and Chairman of the Orange Bowl Committee. He invested in the Miami Dolphins for several years and reinvested in the educational institutions that impacted him at Northfield Mount Hermon and Cornell University. He was also a gardener, and Chairman at Fairchild Tropical Gardens.