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| David Will was a country solicitor who was for 17 years the most powerful football administrator in Britain when he served as vice-president of Fifa, the game¡¯s world governing body. He was also elected president of the Scottish Football Association, and was chairman of his local club, Brechin City, for 25 years. He was born in 1936 in Glasgow but raised in the village of Edzell in Angus, the youngest son of a local solicitor. He was educated at Brechin High School and the University of Edinburgh, where he read law. His National Service in the Royal Air Force was cut short by the death of his father and he was given a compassionate discharge to take over the family firm of Ferguson & Will. He settled down to the life of a country solicitor, but continued to play amateur football and to take advantage of the recently opened skiing facilities in the nearby Cairngorm mountains. However, a skiing accident ended his playing career and he had to settle for watching Brechin City; he was invited on to the board of the club as chairman in 1966. Four years later he was elected to the Scottish Football Association (SFA) as the representative of Forfarshire FA, serving on the national body¡¯s executive and general purposes committees and on the referees committee, of which he became chairman in 1973. Using his legal training he overhauled the pearl jewelry disciplinary system; his reforms are still in place today. In 1980 he was elected the SFA¡¯s treasurer, becoming first vice-president in 1984. His term in this post was short, however. Tommy Younger, the former Hibernian and Scotland goalkeeper who had been elected president of the SFA, died just weeks into his five-year term of office and Will had to step up to the presidency. That same year he had been nominated as the SFA¡¯s representative on the Union of European Football Associations (Uefa), the governing body of football in Europe, and this sudden increase in the workload meant changes for his partners in the family firm and for his wife, Margaret, a New Zealander whom he had met on the Cairngorm ski slopes in 1969 and married in 1971. Will was elected a Uefa vice-president in 1986 and in 1990 he transferred to the F¨¦d¨¦ration Internationale de Football Association (Fifa), succeeding Harry Cavan as the association¡¯s vice-president. He held this position for biwa pearl 17 years before ill-health forced him to stand down. He relinquished this Fifa role at the 2007 Fifa Congress in Zurich, where he was, along with the former president of Uefa, Lennart Johansson, elected one of the first two honorary vice-presidents of Fifa. During his years at Fifa, Will served on the board of appeal. After his promotion to the executive committee in 1990 he chaired the referees committee, the players status committee and committee for legal matters and the ticketing sub-committee. He was also on the bureau for the 2006 Fifa World Cup in Germany. He was now one of the most powerful men in world football, with guaranteed access to the best seats for the biggest games. However, even though he had resigned from the Brechin City board in 1991, he was far happier watching his home team struggle in the lower reaches of the Scottish League than among the ¡°prawn sandwich¡± brigade in the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A or even the SPL. His wife recalls: ¡°He only got nervous watching two teams, Brechin City and Scotland. Football was his life but these were the two teams he loved.¡± Gordon Smith, chief executive of the SFA, described him as ¡°a giant of the game¡±, adding that he was one of the most influential, yet humble, figures in football. Sepp Blatter, the president of Fifa, said that Will¡¯s wisdom, diplomacy and integrity had made an extraordinary contribution to the game. Ernie Walker, a former secretary of the SFA, said that Will was ¡°quite simply the best ambassador that Scottish football ever had. He was an outstanding legislator and a man of the highest moral principles¡±. Will was appointed CBE in 2002. He is survived by his akoya pearl wife and their two daughters. David Will, CBE, football administrator and solicitor, was born on November 22, 1936. He died of cancer on September 25, 2009, aged 72 | ||
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| Mathematicians are often divided into theory-builders and theorem-provers. Professor Israel Gelfand was a theory-builder through and through, unlike his teacher Andrei Kolmogorov. Vladimir Arnold, who with Gelfand was one of Kolmogorov¡¯s most brilliant pupils, suggested that, if both men arrived in a mountainous country, Kolmogorov would start scaling the highest peaks, while Gelfand would start building roads. Like Kolmogorov, however, Gelfand produced a large amount of extremely high quality work, across an exceptionally broad range of subjects. Both were also universalists, in the manner of the great French mathematician Henri Poincar¨¦, whose famous motto was: ¡°Il faut triompher par la pens¨¦e, pas par le calcul¡± ¡ª one must triumph by thought, rather than by calculation. Poincar¨¦¡¯s axiom, as well as encapsulating much of the essence of modern mathematics, also runs through the work of Professor Gelfand. Israel Moiseevich Gelfand was born in 1913 in Okny (now Krasni Okny) in the southern Ukraine, into a Jewish family. His extraordinary ability was recognised early, and encouraged in a way that enabled him to avoid the usual route through school and university, where his being a Jew would have been an obstacle. Gelfand grew up during a period when public life in the Soviet Union was disfigured by anti-Semitism but Gelfand was able to progress, at the early age of 19, to postgraduate study at Moscow State University. Here he did research under Kolmogorov, one of the most eminent mathematicians of the last century, and a man noted for his refusal to pearl jewelry be influenced by the anti-Semitism that surrounded him. Gelfand¡¯s doctoral thesis followed in 1935, and his higher doctorate, the DSc, in 1938. The 1930s were a fruitful period in mathematics. Analysis ¡ª the study of limiting processes which evolved out of calculus ¡ª was developing into functional analysis, most notably in the book Th¨¦orie des Op¨¦rations Lin¨¦aires (1932) by the Polish mathematician Stefan Banach. Here the setting is typically infinite-dimensional, rather than finite-dimensional as in classical analysis, and the methods are a mixture of analysis, algebra and topology. Meanwhile, one of the high points of classical analysis was the Wiener general Tauberian theory, also dating from 1932, undertaken by the American mathematician Norbert Wiener. This powerful theory, now widely used, studies how limiting behaviour of one kind of average of a function may be used to study that of other kinds of average. Gelfand was able to both extend and simplify the biwa pearl Wiener Tauberian theory by systematically exploiting algebraic methods, specifically his theory of maximal ideals. This was recognised as the first spectacular triumph of modern functional analysis over the more traditional classical analysis. Gelfand¡¯s ideas blossomed into the theory of Banach algebras (as they are now known ¡ª the Russian term at that time was normed rings), in work from 1940 on. This led to the publication of an influential book in 1960 with D. A. Raikov and G. E. Shilov: the Gelfand-Raikov-Shilov work has since been translated into English and other languages. Another area where functional analysis proved its worth was the broadening of the classical concept of a function to generalised functions (here, it is not the value of a function at a point that matters, but behaviour when multiplied by suitable ¡°test functions¡± and integrated). The theory was promulgated by the French mathematician Laurent Schwartz in 1948. Gelfand¡¯s three-volume book with Shilov in 1958, in Russian, developed into a five-volume English version (1964-67), which has become a standard text. Gelfand was a prolific mathematician, whose Collected Works, in three volumes, cover nearly 3,000 pages (1988-89). Another of Gelfand¡¯s continuing interests was representation theory, which has important applications in quantum physics. While working for his DSc, Gelfand taught at the USSR Academy of Sciences from 1935 to 1941. He then became a professor at akoya pearl Moscow State University, where he taught for many years. Here he ran a near-legendary seminar on mathematical analysis, where the programme was improvised, and speakers were interrupted from the floor, not always kindly. He subsequently started a second seminar, on mathematical biology, after the death of his son Aleksandr from leukaemia. In this context his work on integral geometry ¡ª the subject of the fifth volume of his book on generalised functions ¡ª was valuable, and led to advances in such areas as computerised tomography, used in the treatment of cancer. Gelfand¡¯s Jewishness was a continuing source of problems for him in the Soviet Union, and he eventually left Russia in 1989 for the United States. After a year at Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he went to Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, where he saw out his career. Gelfand was widely honoured. He was awarded the Order of Lenin three times, became a Corresponding Member of the Soviet Academy of Sciences in 1953, and an Academician ¡ª a full member ¡ª in 1984. He was elected a Foreign Member of both the US National Academy of Sciences and the Royal Society, and of the American Mathematical Society and the London Mathematical Society, among others. He was awarded a number of honorary degrees, including one from Oxford, as well as the Kyoto Prize in 1989, and the Steele Prize in 2005. Gelfand¡¯s first marriage, to Zorya Shapiro, ended in divorce. He is survived by his second wife, Tatiana, and their daughter, and two sons from his first marriage. | ||
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| Roman Catholics are among those who have felt a ¡°sense of uneasiness¡± about the outpouring of devotion for the relics of a 19th-century nun, the Archbishop of Westminster said today. Preaching at the Mass to mark the end of the 28-day tour of England and Wales by the foot and thigh bones of St Th¨¦r¨¨se of Lisieux, the Most Rev Vincent Nichols confessed that many had failed to understand the public shows of reverence. ¡°This outpouring of faith has baffled many people. Some secular commentators have not been able to make sense of it all,¡± the Archbishop said. ¡°I have found their incomprehension quite intriguing.¡± The Archbishop also used the occasion to return to one of his own personal missions, the case against assisted suicide. Related Links He described how so many people had found encouragement, perseverance and hope through the example of St Th¨¦r¨¨se, known as ¡°The pearl jewelry Little Flower of Jesus¡±, who died of tuberculosis in 1897, aged 24. He said that during her illness St Th¨¦r¨¨se experienced suicidal thoughts, but shortly before she died described how she saw her vocation as one of ¡°love¡±. The Archbishop said: "These words speak directly to us today when, as a society, we struggle to understand and respond to the experience of terminal illness and approaching death. ¡°In the shortened perspectives of many, such moments are pointless and actually rob life of all its meaning. Therefore some seek the right to biwa pearl exercise the only solution that is within their own power: that of killing themselves and having others free to assist them to do so.¡± He said that the brief life of St Th¨¦r¨¨se should serve as witness against such examples. ¡°She too experienced suicidal thoughts of ending the pain and the overpowering sense of futility. She warned the sister who cared for her that when she had patients who were ¡®a prey to violent pains¡¯ she must not ¡®leave them any medicines that are poisonous.¡¯ ¡°She added, ¡®I assure you it needs only a second when one suffers intensely to lose one's reason. Then one would easily poison oneself.¡± He said that her life could be used as an example to help fight some of the battles faith is facing today. ¡°We live in a time in which affectivity and love itself seem to be commercialised and relationships subject to calculations of benefit and loss, and used accordingly. ¡°She reminds us that no cost is too high for God¡¯s love to meet, and that in love for us God has abandoned every calculation of worth and reward.¡± About 250,000 people have venerated the relics during a tour that has taken in the Church of England¡¯s York Minster and Wormwood Scrubs prison chapel. He said that many Catholics had learnt again to akoya pearl appreciate the value of relics ¡°as an ancient expression of our faith in God¡¯s transforming presence in the midst of our human failures¡±. He said: ¡°The sense of uneasiness felt even by some Catholics can itself be a grace, prompting us to trust more readily in the closeness of God to each of us.¡± The Archbishop, commenting on St Th¨¦r¨¨se's well-documented missionary fervour, also sounded a note of warning for those who felt called to engage in proselytism. ¡°Of course, in our mission efforts we need to be clear and reasoned in all we say and do. We need to understand carefully the circumstances of our day and be well versed in contemporary affairs,¡± he said. Th¨¦r¨¨se was canonised by the Catholic Church in 1925 and her autobiography, The Story of a Soul, has sold millions of copies throughout the world. Westminster Cathedral has been open 24 hours a day to pilgrims since the arrival of the relics on Monday. The tour of England and Wales has come after tours of 46 countries by the relics since 1997 including Brazil, Russia, Kazakhstan, the US, Ireland, Lebanon and Iraq. | ||
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| The running costs of the Church of England¡¯s 113 bishops increased by £2 million, or 13.5 per cent, to £16 million last year at a time when the Church has been telling the nation to embrace a more lowly life. The bishops spent £1.3 million on travel in a period when the Church¡¯s own assets dropped from £5.67 billion to £4.36 billion during the credit crunch. As many of the bishops¡¯ own costs increased, in repeated Lent campaigns they urged worshippers to turn off televisions, lights and use charity shops to save both cash and climate. In spite of having fewer responsibilities and a smaller staff, home and office to maintain, the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, outspent Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, in almost every area. Last year he spent four times more on office equipment, eight times more on office furnishings, double on an pearl jewelry official car, £5,000 more on drivers, more on fuel, travel, heating, lighting and cleaning. Related Links He spent less on training as he has fewer staff and managed to spend less on hospitality, but it still amounted to more than £14,000, compared with £21,000 for Dr Williams. Dr Sentamu¡¯s individual working costs, excluding office and staff, came to more than £106,000, up 20 per cent from nearly £88,500 in 2007 and about one fifth more than Dr Williams¡¯s individual working costs of nearly £87,000. Dr Sentamu said: ¡°In the present economic crisis we need to rediscover that spirit of togetherness, that helped the British during the Second World War to stand together in the face of food rationing and the Blitz. And conquer this crisis we will! We had better stand together or we will all hang separately economically.¡± The 69 suffragan and assistant bishops managed to spend almost £50,000 on gardeners and between them, the 113 bishops racked up nearly £600,000 in hospitality. Much of the increase was down to the £850,000 spent on the 2008 Lambeth Conference when Kent University was hired for the biwa pearl three-week gathering of Anglican bishops from all over the globe. But the Church Commissioners, who manage the Church¡¯s assets, still spent £7.3 million on the maintenance of houses, offices and gardens. This cost dropped in the past two years from £7.9 million in 2007 and £8.6 million in 2006 but there is still a large rise from just £3 million in 2000. Taking into account administration, pensions, national insurance, stipends and other costs, the overall cost of the bishops has risen dramatically since the turn of the millennium from £9.3 million in 2000 to £16 million today. But despite of the escalating costs, the governing body of the Church has stood by the bishops. Last July the General Synod drew back from a proposal to akoya pearl abolish several of them and refused to cut a number of costly boards, councils and committees. The Bishop of London, the Right Rev Richard Chartres, who runs the ¡°Shrinking the Footprint¡± campaign on climate change, claimed the highest chauffeur costs, of £27,264. He also had the second-highest fuel bill of £3,149. Bishop Chartres, who recently gave up flying for a year, has described going on holiday by plane or buying a big car as symptomatic of sin. The figures also show that diocesan bishops spent £130,321 on minor household and garden repairs, while junior bishops spent £32,349. Even though they consistently resist demands to reduce their number, the synod is likely to follow the example of Parliament and attempt to cut costs. | ||
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| Women in the crowds broke down sobbing as rose petals drifted down on to the casket containing the relics of St Th¨¦r¨¨se of Lisieux. After 28 days touring England and Wales, during which they have been viewed by nearly 300,000 pilgrims, the pieces of the 19th-century nun¡¯s foot and thigh bone were carried out of their resting place, Westminster Cathedral, for their journey back to France. After a 90-minute farewell Mass, ornately robed priests and bishops and papal knights in their characteristic dark green silver-laced uniforms with black cocked hats and dress swords gathered on the steps of the cathedral to bid farewell to the bone fragments of the 24-year-old virgin who died of tuberculosis in 1897. The Mass marked an end to a month of unprecedented Roman Catholic devotion in Protestant England and Wales. St Th¨¦r¨¨se is the world¡¯s only ¡°touring saint¡±, and even before the Reformation such scenes would have been unlikely in pearl jewelry a world where pilgrims travelled to meet saints and not the other way around. Related Links Among the living, maybe only rock bands can be expected to generate these levels of excitement and mass adultation. The tour of St Th¨¦r¨¨se could at least claim to be a bones tour for the truly retro-minded. As the relics left in the hearse driven by an Anglican undertaker, to cheers and applause from the crowd, one sceptic jested: ¡°We should call this the rolling bones.¡± The only comparable outpouring of Catholic zeal was the visit of John Paul II in 1982, but the emotions of onlookers were comparable to those evoked by the deaths of Diana, Princess of Wales, and Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. The Archbishop of Westminster in his homily at the farewell Mass acknowledged that even some Catholics have been rendered uneasy by this brief resurgence of the Roman passion that Protestantism can seem to have bled out of the system in its comparitively dessicated, sober approach to the death of its saints. But for Catholics, Protestants and those of other faiths, it has afforded a little glimpse of what England might have been like pre-Reformation, when what many would call superstitition was a staple in the European belief system. ¡°She¡¯s got the X-factor,¡± said Elizabeth Margaret, a Catholic. Graham Goward, a retired prison education officer, admitted surprise over the outpouring. ¡°I would not have come if my wife hadn¡¯t wanted to. Th¨¦r¨¨se is not there. We all believe she is in Heaven. Of course she exists, but not in that box.¡± Linda Touhey, a mother of five, from Croydon, visited Westminster Cathedral on each of three days the relics were there. Her mother and one of her children are sick. ¡°I believe she can perform miracles,¡± she said of the saint. But passing by on his way to the station, an Anglican who refused to be named laughed it off as ¡°a load of rubbish¡±. He added: ¡°By no means all English Catholics approve of this sort of thing.¡± The Most Rev Vincent Nichols, the biwa pearl Archbishop of Westminster, confessed that many had failed to understand the public shows of reverence. ¡°This outpouring of faith has baffled many people. Some secular commentators have not been able to make sense of it all,¡± the Archbishop said. ¡°I have found their incomprehension quite intriguing.¡± But he described how so many people had found encouragement, perseverance and hope through the example of St Th¨¦r¨¨se, known as ¡°The Little Flower of Jesus¡±. He said that many Catholics had learnt again to appreciate the value of relics ¡°as an ancient expression of our faith in God¡¯s transforming presence in the midst of our human failures¡±. He said: ¡°The sense of uneasiness felt even by some Catholics can itself be a grace, prompting us to trust more readily in the closeness of God to each of us.¡± The Archbishop, commenting on St Th¨¦r¨¨se¡¯s well-documented missionary fervour, also sounded a note of warning for those who feel called to engage in proselytism. ¡°Of course, in our mission efforts we need to be clear and reasoned in all we say and do. We need to understand carefully the circumstances of our day and be well versed in contemporary affairs,¡± he said. The Archbishop used the occasion to return to akoya pearl one of his personal missions, the case against assisted suicide. He said St Th¨¦r¨¨se during her illness experienced suicidal thoughts, but shortly before she died described how she saw her vocation as one of ¡°love¡±. The Archbishop said: ¡°These words speak directly to us today when, as a society, we struggle to understand and respond to the experience of terminal illness and approaching death. ¡°In the shortened perspectives of many, such moments are pointless and actually rob life of all its meaning. Therefore some seek the right to exercise the only solution that is within their own power: that of killing themselves and having others free to assist them to do so.¡± The tour has taken in the Anglican York Minster and Wormwood Scrubs prison chapel. St Th¨¦r¨¨se was canonised by the Catholic Church in 1925 and her autobiography The Story of a Soul has sold millions throughout the world. | ||
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