Obituaries:
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YANCEY, NOEL M. — Yancey, 90, a newsman in the Raleigh, N.C., bureau of The Associated Press for 39 years, died March 11, 2004 in Chapel Hill, N.C., of respiratory failure.

Yancey graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1935 and was a student of Skipper Coffin, first dean of UNC's journalism school.

He worked for several newspapers before accepting a job with The Associated Press. He spent 39 years with the AP in Raleigh, rising to correspondent of the news service's bureau there.

He was known as the "dean of the Raleigh press corps," covering the Legislature and 12 governors from J.C.B. Ehringhaus to James B. Hunt Jr.

After retirement, Yancey wrote a column, "As I Recall It," which was carried in several North Carolina newspapers. In 2003, the School of Communications at Elon University recognized Yancey for his long and distinguished service to the journalism profession.

YANGIROV, RASHIT — Soviet film historian Rashit Yangirov, who also worked as a journalist at Associated Press Television News, died Sunday, Dec. 14, 2008, in Moscow. Read the AP story below.

Dec. 16, 2008

Soviet film historian Rashit Yangirov dies at 54

MOSCOW (AP) -- Rashit Yangirov, a prominent historian of the Soviet cinema whose works saved many pre-World War II emigre filmmakers from critical oblivion, has died at age 54.

The scholar, who also worked for the past 14 years as a journalist for Associated Press Television News, died of cancer Sunday in Moscow, APTN colleagues said.

Yangirov wrote "Slaves of the Silent," a groundbreaking 2008 book on pioneers of Russian cinema who left their homeland after the 1917 Bolshevik revolution.

His research tracked the lives of emigre actors and directors who became stars or extras in Hollywood, Berlin and Paris and helped shape the prewar film industry worldwide.

"His authority in the world of film critics was indisputable," said the Library of the Russians Abroad Foundation, where Yangirov worked as senior researcher.

Yangirov wrote more than 200 articles on Russian cinema, fiction and folklore. His subjects included the cinematic cult of Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin, emigre female authors, the persecution of dissident Soviet poets and references to silent films in works by writers such as Vladimir Nabokov and Mikhail Bulgakov.

Born 1954 in the city of Ufa, 750 miles (1,200 kilometers) east of Moscow, Yangirov graduated from the history department of Moscow State University in 1977.

Andy Braddel, APTN's regional director for Russia and the CIS, met Yangirov as a graduate student in 1988, and said evenings he spent around the kitchen table with Yangirov and his wife Zoya "taught me more about the Soviet Union than several years of lectures."

Braddel hired Yangirov to work for APTN in 1994 as a journalist covering the wars in Chechnya, among other stories.

"He managed to juggle the relentless demands of agency journalism with an even more successful career as an academic writing about his true love, the history of Russian film," Braddel said. "He will be deeply missed by all of us."

Yangirov is survived by Zoya and a daughter, Lucy. A funeral was scheduled for Wednesday.

YUEH-KANG, PAN — former photographer and administrative director who worked for the AP in Taiwan for 28 years, died Jan. 3, 2001 in Qingdao, China, after a long illness. He was 63.

Pan began working for the AP as a photographer in Taipei in 1971. He became the bureau's administrative director in 1982, responsible for overseeing the news and sales operations.

Before joining the AP, Pan worked for Taiwan's Central News Agency from 1960 to 1971.

Survivors include his wife and three sons.

YOUNG, EDWARD RUSH — news editor for the AP in the Richmond, Va., bureau in the 1970s and early 1980s, died March 28, 2001 in Richmond. He was 81.

Young joined the AP in 1946 after working briefly for The Daily Progress in Charlottesville and serving in the Navy during World War II. He became the Richmond bureau's sports editor in the 1950s. In 1970, he was promoted to news editor responsible for overseeing the AP's news coverage in Virginia. He held the job for 13 years.

AP writer Bill Baskervill, who worked with Young for 14 years, said Young was "the heart and soul" of the Richmond bureau for many years. "His quiet leadership and guidance and his graceful writing inspired many staffers," Baskervill said.

"He knew how to approach the story, what questions to ask and — mostly — how to write it with grace and style," said Merrill Hartson, an AP Washington news editor who started his career working with Young in Richmond.

"He was a co-worker, a mentor — but most of all a friend to whom I could turn for advice or merely companionship,'" said Marshall Johnson, retired sports editor for the Richmond bureau. "He was the greatest writer I've ever known under pressure, and I've been associated with some truly good writers."

In 1999, Young helped the Richmond bureau and Virginia newspapers select the state's most significant stories of the 20th century.

"He could remember so much that none of us could remember," said Dorothy Abernathy, the AP's Richmond bureau chief. "He said, 'I don't know how much I can help because I can only remember news stories back to 1935.'"

Survivors include a nephew and niece.