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:
“At noon, you walk across a river. It is dry, with not this much water: it is just stones and pebbles. But it rains cats and dogs in the mountains, and towards afternoon, the water descends wildly and she ravages all in its path, the madwoman. That is how death comes. Without our expecting it, and we cannot do a thing against it, brothers.”
—Jacques Roumain (1907–1945)
“Every American, to the last man, lays claim to a “sense” of humor and guards it as his most significant spiritual trait, yet rejects humor as a contaminating element wherever found. America is a nation of comics and comedians; nevertheless, humor has no stature and is accepted only after the death of the perpetrator.”
—E.B. (Elwyn Brooks)
“If I had my life over again I should form the habit of nightly composing myself to thoughts of death. I would practise, as it were, the remembrance of death. There is no other practice which so intensifies life. Death, when it approaches, ought not to take one by surprise. It should be part of the full expectancy of life. Without an ever- present sense of death life is insipid. You might as well live on the whites of eggs.”
—Muriel Spark (b. 1918)