Death
Cowen suffered from Parkinson's disease for at least the last 15 years of his life. He died on 8 December 2011, at the age of 92, at his home in Toorak, Victoria. It was the 34th anniversary of his swearing-in as Governor-General in 1977.
In his state funeral at Melbourne's Temple Beth Israel, former Prime Ministers Malcolm Fraser, Bob Hawke and John Howard attended, in addition to the current Governor-General, Quentin Bryce, the current Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, and the current Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott.
Read more about this topic: Zelman Cowen
Famous quotes containing the word death:
“As deaths have accumulated I have begun to think of life and death as a set of balance scales. When one is young, the scale is heavily tipped toward the living. With the first death, the first consciousness of death, the counter scale begins to fall. Death by death, the scales shift weight until what was unthinkable becomes merely a matter of gravity and the fall into death becomes an easy step.”
—Alison Hawthorne Deming (b. 1946)
“half-way up the hill, I see the Past
Lying beneath me with its sounds and sights,—
A city in the twilight dim and vast,
With smoking roofs, soft bells, and gleaming lights,—
And hear above me on the autumnal blast
The cataract of Death far thundering from the heights.”
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1809–1882)
“I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”
—Voltaire [François Marie Arouet] (1694–1778)