James T. Cordon, broadcast systems design engineer, died after a year-long battle with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma at University Hospital in New York City. He was 53. Cordon, a veteran of the recording and broadcast industries, worked for NBC Radio and Television for nearly 20 years. He began his career in broadcasting at WRAL(FM) Raleigh, N.C., in the 1970s where he worked as operations manager. His accomplishments for NBC include the installation and maintenance of a new NBC radio network facility in the mid'80s, the introduction of McCurdy matrix intercom systems to NBC's Rockefeller Center headquarters in 1989, and the design and installation of NBC's broadcast communication systems for the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. Cordon's contribution in creating a communications system that seamlessly tied NBC's Rockefeller Center studios to the NBC Olympic studios in Atlanta for the 1996 Olympics won the network a Sports Emmy. He is survived by his mother, sister and brother. Donations in his memory may be made to the Cure for Lymphoma Foundation, 215 Lexington Ave., 11th Floor, New York, NY 10016, or the New York University Hospital Hematology Fund, NYU Hospital Center, 550 First Ave., New York, NY 10016.
Gregory B. Shuker, documentary filmmaker, died last week of cancer at Calvary Hospital in the Bronx, New York. He was 67. Shuker won an Emmy for Free at Last, a 90-minute film that was to chronicle Martin Luther King during the Civil Rights movement but ended up documenting the last days of his life, cut short by assassination. Shuker began his career as a college student when he went to the Soviet Union and shot pictures for Life magazine. In 1959, he wrote about Ernest Hemingway for the magazine. His documentary Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment covered President Kennedy and Governor George C. Wallace of Alabama during desegregation. He won a grand prize at the Venice Film Festival for taking images of the crowd and President Kennedy's funeral in Faces in November. His son, two daughters and five grandchildren survive him.
Helen Martin, star of television, film and theater, died March 25 at her home in Monterey, Calif. She was 90. In the early 1970s, Martin played various roles on such shows as That's My Mama, Good Times, and Full House. Her most recent TV work included 227, on which she played the next-door neighbor, Pearl. Martin's favorite role was that of a village elder in Alex Haley's Roots. The NAACP nominated her for an Image Award for her role as the grandmother in the 1987 film Hollywood Shuffle. She recently completed work on the film Something to Sing About, which will be released this spring.
