JOHANN JOACHIM WINCKELMANN German art historian and archaeologist, born (d:  1768); Winckelmann was a pioneering Hellenist who first articulated the difference between Greek, Greco-Roman and Roman art. "The prophet and founding hero of modern archaeology," Winckelmann was one of the founders of scientific archaeology and first applied the categories of style on a large, systematic basis to the hostory of art. Many consider him the father of the discipline of art history. His would be the decisive influence on the rise of the neoclassical movement during the late eighteenth century.

With the intention of becoming a physician, in 1740 Winckelmann attended medical classes at Jena. He also worked teaching languages. From 1743 to 1748, he was the deputy headmaster of the gymnasium of Seehausen in the Altmark. Winckelmann felt that work with children was not his true calling. Moreover, his means were insufficient: his salary was so low that he had to rely on his students' parents for free meals. He was thus obliged to accept a tutorship near Magdeburg. While tutor for the powerful Lamprecht family, he fell into unrequited love with the handsome Lamprecht son. This was one of a series of such loves throughout his life. His enthusiasm for the male form excited Winckelmann's budding admiration of ancient Greek and Roman sculpture.

Winckelmann arrived in Rome in November 1755. His first task there was to describe the statues in the Cortile del Belvedere -- the Apollo Belvedere, the Laocoön, the so-called Antinous, and the Belvedere Torso—which represented to him the "utmost perfection of ancient sculpture."

Originally, Winckelmann planned to stay in Italy only two years with the help of the grant from Dresden, but the outbreak of the Seven Years War (1756-1763) changed his plans. He was named librarian to Cardinal Passionei, who was impressed by Winckelmann's beautiful Greek writing. Winckelmann also became librarian to Cardinal Archinto, and received much kindness from Cardinal Passionei. After their deaths, Winckelmann was hired as librarian in the house of Alessandro Cardinal Albani, who was forming his magnificent collection of antiquities in the villa at Porta Salaria.

With the aid of his new friend and lover, the painter Anton Raphael Mengs (1728-79), with whom he first lived in Rome, Winckelmann devoted himself to the study of Roman antiquities and gradually acquired an unrivalled knowledge of ancient art. Winckelmann's method of careful observation allowed him to identify Roman copies of Greek art, something that was unusual at that time—Roman culture was considered the ultimate achievement of Antiquity. His friend Mengs became the channel through which Winkelmann's ideas were realized in art and spread around Europe. "The only way for us to become great, yes, inimitable, if it is possible, is the imitation of the Greeks," Winckelmann declared in the Gedanken. With imitation he did not mean slavish copying: "... what is imitated, if handled with reason, may assume another nature, as it were, and become one's own."

LUCIUS BEEBE, journalist, railroad buff, dandy and bon vivant, born (d: 1966); Beebe was born in Wakefield, Massachusetts, to a prominent Boston  family and attended both Harvard University and Yale University. During his tenure at boarding school and university, Beebe was known for his numerous pranks. One of his more outrageous stunts included an attempt at festooning J.P. Morgan's yacht Corsair with toilet paper from a chartered airplane. His pranks were not without consequence and he proudly noted that he had the sole distinction of having been expelled from both Harvard and Yale, at the insistence, respectively, of the president and dean of each. Beebe eventually was readmitted to Harvard where he earned his undergraduate degree in 1926.

He worked as a journalist for the New York Herald, the San Francisco Examiner, the Boston Telegram, and the Boston Evening Transcript and was a contributing writer to many magazines such as Gourmet, The New Yorker, Town and Country, Holiday, American Heritage and Playboy. Beebe re-launched Nevada’s first newspaper, the Territorial Enterprise in 1952. Beebe was a noted gourmand. He wrote numerous articles in Gourmet, Holiday and Playboy about restaurants and dining experiences around the world. Some of the restaurants he covered include The Colony, The Pump Room and The 21 Club, Simpson’s-in Simpson's-in-the-Strand, and Chasen's. A noted wine aficionado, he was a member of the Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin.

He wrote a column called “This New York,” which was quite popular in the 1930s. Brendan Gill has written that the column contained so many references to Beebe’s “intimate friend” Jerome Zerbe that Walter Winchell suggested it should be called not “This New York” but “Jerome Never Looked Lovelier.” Beebe is said to have been fond of inviting luscious young things to his private railroad car for what one wag described as “whisky and sofa.”

In addition to his work as a journalist, Beebe wrote over 30 books. His books dealt primarily with railroading and café society. Many of his railroad books were written with longtime companion, Charles Clegg. Beebe met Clegg in 1940 while both were house-guests at the Washington, D.C. home of Evelyn Walsh McLean. The two soon developed a personal and professional relationship that continued for the rest of Beebe's life. By the standards of the era, the relationship Beebe and Clegg shared was relatively open and well-known.

The pair initially lived in New York City, where both men were prominent in café society circles. Eventually tiring of that social life, the two moved in 1950 to Virginia City, Nevada, a tiny community that had once been a fabled mining boom-town. There, they reactivated and began publishing the Territorial Enterprise, a fabled 19^th century newspaper that had once been the employer of Mark Twain. Beebe and Clegg shared a renovated mansion in the town, traveled extensively, and remained prominent in social circles. Clegg and Beebe sold the Territorial Enterprise in 1961, and purchased a home in suburban San Francisco. They continued the writing, photography, and travel that had marked their lives until Beebe's death from a heart attack in 1966, at the age of 64. Clegg committed suicide in 1979, on the day that he reached the precise age at which Beebe had died.

DAVID BRUDNOY, American radio personality died (b. 1940); a popular talk show radio host in Boston from 1976 to 2004. Most recently, his regular commentary show aired on WBZ radio. He is most widely known for espousing his libertarian views on a wide range of political issues.

Brudnoy came out publicly in 1994, after returning from hospitalization to overcome his long-hidden fight with HIV-AIDS. Having attracted a largely conservative audience based on his political views, traditional anti-homosexual conservatives rejected him, though others admired him for his courage. The controversy was rekindled somewhat after the release in 1997 of his autobiography, Life Is Not a Rehearsal, in which he described a history of sexual excesses.

Brudnoy did not attempt to mask his sexuality during his adult life, but also made no direct indications of it; it was well-known among his colleagues in broadcasting long before he spoke publicly about it. His closest and oldest friend was psychologist Dr. Ward Cromer, with whom he took dozens of trips abroad, and who was incorrectly assumed by many to be Brudnoy's partner. Neither of them used that phraseology to describe their relationship, preferring a more accurate title of "best friend".