Milestones Dec. 16, 2002

DIED. ROONE ARLEDGE, 71, pioneering ABC executive whose technical innovations, show-biz flair and fierce competitive drive changed the face of TV news and sports; of complications from cancer; in New York City. Joining ABC Sports as a producer in 1960 and rising to head of the division, he introduced instant replay and slow motion, infused ABC's Olympics coverage with human drama and journalistic rigor, and made Howard Cosell and Monday Night Football national obsessions. Traditionalists were alarmed when the sports guy was named president of ABC News in 1977. But he made the No. 3 news network a competitive force for the first time, paying Hollywood salaries to newscasters like Diane Sawyer and Barbara Walters, expanding news into prime time with shows like 20/20 and badgering the network to air a late-night newscast during the Iran hostage crisis, which turned into Nightline, one of TV's most revered news shows.

DIED. THERESA MILLER, 44, teacher at Columbine High School who ran through the halls warning students and staff while Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were conducting a massacre that killed 12 students and a teacher; of colon cancer; in Littleton, Colo. On hall duty at the time, she escorted students to hiding areas, put out a pipe-bomb fire and stayed by the side of basketball coach Dave Sanders as he died on the floor of a classroom.

DIED. IVAN ILLICH, 76, social critic and onetime Catholic priest whose iconoclastic views made him a hero to baby boomers in the 1970s; in Bremen, Germany. In essays and books like 1971's Deschooling Society, he criticized the Catholic Church, said public education shouldn't be mandatory and accused hospitals of making people sicker. He left the priesthood after the Vatican called him "politically immoral."

DIED. PHILIP BERRIGAN, 79, former priest whose fight against the Vietnam War and nuclear arms helped inspire a generation of antiwar dissenters; of cancer; in Baltimore, Md. Berrigan led the Catonsville Nine, which staged one of the era's most dramatic protests, dousing a bonfire of draft records with homemade napalm in a Catonsville, Md., parking lot.

DIED. ACHILLE CASTIGLIONI, 84, whimsical patriarch of modern Italian design whose playful, highly stylized lamps, vacuum cleaners, ashtrays and other domestic objects helped establish Italy's postwar reputation as a design innovator; in Milan. Castiglioni created some 200 items, including the Arco lamp (shown), an arching alternative to a ceiling light, and the Mezzadro, a tractor seat stool.

DIED. U NE WIN, 91, reclusive former dictator of Burma, now Myanmar; in Yangon, Myanmar. A leader in Burma's fight for independence, he took power in 1962. His repressive rule helped lead the country into poverty and the status of least-developed nation by 1987. When he died, Ne Win, who once demanded that Burmese currency be issued in notes divisible by his lucky number, 9, was under house arrest for allegedly plotting to overthrow the current regime.