Robert Bass, 76, came to Seattle in 1957, and soon afterward took a teaching job at Luther Burbank School on Mercer Island, later becoming that school's head teacher. It was the start of a 34-year career with area public schools. In 1964 he became an intergroup relations coordinator (what might be known today as a diversity advocate) for the Seattle School District. In 1966 he became the district's first African American principal. Over the years he was a principal or vice principal at five Seattle elementary schools, and a counselor at Franklin High School. He also worked as an assistant education professor at the University of Washington in the '70s, recruiting minorities to the teaching profession. To the end of his days, he remained an outspoken advocate for minority students. Bass died on November 24 from unspecified causes. Survivors include his twin brother, Roscoe Bass (a former principal at Garfield High and Sharples Alternative Secondary School), and his daughter, Mary Bass (who became a member of the Seattle School Board last year).

Bill Gallant, 48, was a member of a rapidly disappearing species--a liberal on talk radio. He was perhaps best known as a midday host on KIRO-AM from 1991 to 1996. He also held stints, at various times, on KOMO-AM and the old KING-AM. He left his on-air career in 1998 to take a behind- the-scenes job at NorthWest Cable News; in 2000, he took a PR job with the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle. He started the weekly television talk show Northwest Catholic, and was the local archdiocese's press-conference voice during the recent scandals over sex-abuse charges against priests. Gallant died on November 26, following a six-year bout with colon cancer.

The United Artists Cinemas 70/150 at Sixth and Blanchard was finally demolished on November 15, four years after the United Artists (UA) chain abandoned its only Seattle branch. The twin-cinema (Seattle's first) was built in 1962 to exploit two of the postwar film business' big-screen fads, 70 mm and Dimension 150. The 70/150 had its most famous moment as the local first-run home for the original Star Wars in 1977 (at the height of the film's popularity, the movie ran there 24 hours a day). In the mid-'80s, the UA chain leased the house to local operators, who briefly renamed it the Seattle Cinedome (no relation to the national Iwerks CineDome chain). UA retook operation of the 70/150 in 1992, operating it for six years as a discount house with midnight cult-film screenings. For its final demise, workers put up one final title on its long-empty marquee: DEMOLITION MAN.

obits@thestranger.com