William L. Dwyer, 72, grew up on Queen Anne Hill and worked at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer before starting a career as a trial lawyer. Among his most famous acts were his 1963 defense of State Representative John Goldmark, who'd been falsely accused of having Communist ties; his handling of the state's suit against the American League to bring baseball back to Seattle after the Seattle Pilots split for Milwaukee; and his help in drafting and promoting Seattle's still-nefarious Teen Dance Ordinance. In 1986, Senator Slade Gorton (who, as state attorney general, had hired Dwyer for the baseball suit) nominated him for a U.S. District Court seat. Reagan conservatives stalled the nomination for over a year, until Gorton agreed to a compromise that put both Dwyer and a conservative Midwesterner on federal benches. (The ordeal marked the start of Gorton's transformation from centrist-progressive to right-wing loyalist.) In 1991 Dwyer proved the partisans' fears right when he ruled that loggers in federally owned forests were endangering local ecosystems, as shown by the decline of an "indicator species," the spotted owl. Ever since then, the timber industry has used the ruling as an all-purpose excuse for raising prices, laying off workers, closing mills (even mills fed by privately owned forests), and lobbying for laws allowing greater clear-cuts. Dwyer died February 12 from lung cancer.

Larry Dean "LD" Rains, 59, came to Seattle in 1975. In 1991 he became the fifth owner of Beth's Cafe on Aurora Avenue (a frequent "Best Greasy Spoon" winner in Evening Magazine's annual viewer poll) and its adjacent bar, which he renamed the Duck Island Saloon. He was a faithful steward of the 48-year-old, 24-hour egg-and-grease palace; when a kitchen fire closed Beth's in the mid-'90s, he rebuilt it nearly exactly as it had always looked. His widow, Karen, will run Beth's for now; Rains had put it up for sale over a year ago. Rains died February 13 from lung disease.

Darrell Oldham, 64, was a cofounder of Seattle Weekly and served as its sales/marketing vice president from 1976 to 1984. He later worked for 10 years at The Seattle Times, then started his own marketing firm. In 1978 he co-founded the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies and led its first national convention, held in Seattle. His AAN colleague, California-based publisher Steve McNamara, recalls, "He loved the business and was very good at it, but more than that he was a kind, ethical, and loving human being.... As an industry we couldn't have been called to order by a better exemplar." He also helped start Northwest Bookfest. Oldham died February 16 from lung cancer.

obits@thestranger.com