Words Lose Some Allies

The news has not been of the best the last two days. Among those lost to lovers of words and language:

• John M. Ford, one of my favorite science fiction writers and one of the most versatile around. He was younger than me.
• Esther Martinez, a prime contributor to the preservation of the Tewa language, a Pueblo language threatened with extinction. She created the first (and only?) Tewa dictionary, for example. Killed by a drunk driver, at age 94.
• Norman Lewis, author of 30 Days to a More Powerful Vocabulary, one of the most enduring of vocabulary books ever published. (He was also a long-time columnist, author (63 books), and professor, and "one of the nation's foremost authorities on vocabulary and language skills".) Age 93.