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Marisol Malaret, first Puerto Rican Miss Universe, dies at 73

Marisol Malaret in 1970 overcame a difficult childhood to become the first woman from Puerto Rico, and from the Caribbean, to win the Miss Universe pageant.

Marisol Malaret, first Puerto Rican Miss Universe, dies at 73

Marisol Malaret in 1970 overcame a difficult childhood to become the first woman from Puerto Rico, and from the Caribbean, to win the Miss Universe pageant.

Fuzzy Haskins, who helped turn doo-wop into P-Funk, dies at 81

Fuzzy Haskins was a foundational member of the vocal group that morphed into Parliament-Funkadelic, the genre-blurring collective led by George Clinton that shook up the pop music world in the 1970s.

Darcelle, world’s oldest working drag queen, dies at 92

Darcelle was crowned the world’s oldest working drag performer in 2016 by the Guinness Book of World Records and was was known for hosting the longest-running drag show on the West Coast.

Patrick French, unsparing biographer of V.S. Naipaul, dies at 56
Patrick French, a historian and biographer whose books include acclaimed accounts of India’s march toward independence and the life of writer V.S. Naipaul, “The World Is What It Is,” died March 16 in London. He was 56.

Raphael Mechoulam, ‘father of cannabis research,’ dies at 92
A pioneering Israeli chemist, Raphael Mechoulam is credited with opening the field of cannabis science after identifying the structure and function of the key compounds of cannabis.

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William A. Wulf, pioneering computer scientist, dies at 83

A pioneering researcher, entrepreneur, and policymaker in computer science, William Wulf helped adapt an early Pentagon communications web into the network that eventually grew into the Internet.

Virginia Zeani, versatile and durable soprano, dies at 97

A Romanian soprano with a brilliant, powerful voice, Virginia Zeani overcame childhood poverty and the perils of war to become a fixture on the opera stage.

Warren Boroson, who surveyed psychiatrists on Goldwater, dies at 88

A journalist who conducted a survey of psychiatrists that declared 1964 Republican presidential nominee Barry Goldwater mentally unfit to be president, Warren Boroson provoked a libel suit from the candidate and prompting a psychiatric association to muzzle its members from ever diagnosing a public figure from afar.

Willis Reed, Hall of Famer and leader on Knicks title teams, dies at 80

Nicknamed “The Captain,” Willis Reed was the undersized center and emotional leader on the Knicks’ two NBA championship teams, with a soft shooting touch from the outside and a toughness to tussle with the era’s superstar big men on the inside.

Carol Sloane, graceful jazz singer for decades, dies at 85

In a 60-year recording career, Ms. Sloane said she would only sing “the most beautiful songs.”

Former US representative John Jenrette, jailed in Abscam scandal, dies

Mr. Jenrette served three terms as a Democrat in the U.S. House, and while his crime and escapades received the most attention, he also was known for securing federal help for his mostly rural district.

Cruz Miguel Ortíz Cuadra, ‌face of Puerto Rican culinary history, dies at 67

Cruz Miguel Ortíz Cuadra, a food historian who as Puerto Rico’s leading gastronomy expert sought to define the island’s cuisine and educate the world about it, died March 8 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He was 67.

Rafael Viñoly, architect who designed the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, dies at 78

Among convention center designs, “this may well be the best of its kind in the country,” Globe architecture critic Robert Campbell wrote.