The Daily Goodbye

Erwin Wuester, 80, who combined textile know-how with military precision to become a leading designer of Army parachutes, died May 5. He began his career with the Linen Thread Co. in Paterson, N.J., the Associated

Mr. Wuester retired in 2003 as senior textile technologist at the Army's Natick Research, Development and Engineering Center in Massachusetts.

Dave Fisher, 69, lead singer of the 1960s folk group the Highwaymen, died Friday at his home in New York of a rare blood disease.

The Highwaymen, one of the early groups to popularize American roots music, found themselves atop the pop charts in 1962 for their recording the Civil War-era anti-slavery song "Michael, Row the Boat Ashore." Here's the group in 2007, singing the song that brought them fame: