Four prominent people have died in the last day and each of them deserves to be mentioned.

Joe Gold, founder of Golds Gym, died following heart and kidney problems. His Venice Beach Gym, the first of the national chain, was the setting for Pumping Iron, a documentary that featured Lou Ferrigno and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Schwarzenegger issued a statement on Monday saying he was "deeply saddened" by Gold's death.

"Joe was a trusted friend and a father figure and was instrumental in my training during my days as a bodybuilder," Schwarzenegger said. "Gold's Gym was not only a training facility, but it became a home to me.

"In 1968, when I came to America, Gold's Gym was the gym where I first went to work out. Joe looked after me and encouraged me and his dry sense of humor was a daily feature of the gym," he said.

In addition, Laurance S. Rockefeller, grandson of John D. Rockefeller and an heir to the Rockefeller estate died of pulmonary fibrosis. He was a philanthropic staple and ardent venture capitalist, investing in heavily in Intel and Apple. He also donated extensive land tracts to the public trust, such as 1100 acres to the Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming.

[There] were projects he thwarted, including the encroachment of high-rise developments along the Palisades north of the George Washington Bridge. There, as an active member of the Palisades Interstate Park Commission, he helped create a chain of parks that blocked the advance of sprawl and maintained the majestic view that he first saw as a child looking out from Kykuit, the Rockefeller country home in Pocantico Hills, in Westchester County.

Mr. Rockefeller served on dozens of federal, state and local commissions and advised every president since Eisenhower on issues involving recreation, wilderness preservation and ecology. He founded the American Conservation Association and supported scores of other environmental groups.

A radical feminist writer, Corrine Grad Coleman, passed away due to heart disease. She was a founding member of the Redstockings in the late 1960s, protesting a New York City legislative hearing on abortion law reform where the scheduled speakers were 12 men and a nun. She also was affiliated with the New York Radical Women and helped stage the first protest of the Miss America Pageant.

Ms. Coleman was also one of the leaders of a daylong occupation of the Ladies' Home Journal editorial office by more than 100 feminists in 1970. The women demanded a chance to put out a "liberated" issue and the replacement of the editor and publisher, John Mack Carter. The magazine, which had a circulation of 6.9 million, agreed to let the women publish a special section.

Finally, actress Isabel Sanford, Weezie from The Jeffersons, died of natural causes at the age of 86. She was the first black woman to accept an Emmy for Best Actress in a Comedy. She appeared with Sherman Hemsley in both All in the Family and its spin-off, The Jefferson.

Sanford made her feature film debut in the 1967 classic, "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner."

Recently, Sanford lent her voice to "The Simpsons" and appeared in commercial campaigns for Denny's restaurants and retailer Old Navy. []
[Norman] Lear, who produced and created "All in the Family" and "The Jeffersons," said Monday that "we have lost one of the most naturally funny performers and great human beings."