List of Famous people who died in 2008

Marjory Shedd was a world-class Canadian badminton player who won numerous titles from the early 1950s to the early 1970s. Shedd won a total of 23 Canadian National Championships, as well as several Canadian Open Championships, between 1953 and 1972. These wins, along with her 44 provincial titles, earned her more badminton titles than any other Canadian in history. She was one of only a few women to defeat the great U.S. player Margaret Varner in singles competition during the late 1950s, and twice reached the semifinal of women's singles at the All England Championships, then considered the unofficial world championship of the sport. Shedd played on six consecutive Canadian Uber Cup teams between 1956 and 1972. A gifted all-around athlete, Shedd was also a member of two national championship basketball teams and several national volleyball teams. Later in her career she shared her formidable expertise with others, coaching the University of Toronto volleyball team from 1964 to 1974, and the U of T badminton team from 1973 to 1991. Her accomplishments were formally honoured in 1970 when she was inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame.

Willis Eugene Lamb Jr. was an American physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1955 "for his discoveries concerning the fine structure of the hydrogen spectrum." The Nobel Committee that year awarded half the prize to Lamb and the other half to Polykarp Kusch, who won "for his precision determination of the magnetic moment of the electron." Lamb was able to determine precisely a surprising shift in electron energies in a hydrogen atom. Lamb was a professor at the University of Arizona College of Optical Sciences.

Ibrahim Nasir Rannabandeyri Kilegefan, KCMG, NGIV was a Maldivian politician who served as Prime Minister of the Maldives under Sultan Muhammad Fareed Didi from December 1957 to 1968 and succeeded him to become the first President of the Second Republic from 1968 to 1978.

Anthony Grove Hillerman was an American author of detective novels and nonfiction works best known for his Navajo Tribal Police mystery novels. Several of his works have been adapted as theatrical and television movies.

Lukas Vischer was a Swiss Reformed theologian, author, and advocate of ecumenical dialogue among the world's Christian churches.

Louis Hon was a French association football defender and manager. He notably played for Real Madrid.

David Watkin BSC was a British cinematographer, an innovator who was among the first directors of photography to experiment heavily with the usage of bounce light as a soft light source. He worked with such film directors as Richard Lester, Peter Brook, Tony Richardson, Mike Nichols, Ken Russell, Franco Zeffirelli, Sidney Lumet and Sydney Pollack.

Ansgar Bethge was Inspector of the Navy from 1980 to 1985.

Günther Rücker was a German writer, playwright and film director. Rücker won several awards for his work, including the National Prize of the GDR and the Prix Italia.