WOLF LESLAU, professor emeritus of Hebrew and Semitic linguistics at UCLA, has died at the age of 100.

Wolf Leslau, 100; UCLA professor sought out and recorded Ethiopian languages
By Jocelyn Y. Stewart, [Los Angeles] Times Staff Writer
November 23, 2006

Wolf Leslau, professor emeritus at UCLA and a leading expert on Ethiopian languages and culture, died of natural causes Nov. 18 at a nursing home in Fullerton, said his daughter, Eliane Silverman. He was 100.

Leslau learned to use a computer at 80, and the last of the nearly 50 books that he wrote was published when he was 98. He spoke 17 languages.

[...]

There's a little more information on Professor Leslau here. He had already retired by the time I came to UCLA in 1978, although I think he was still around and even teaching classes. But I don't recall ever meeting him in person.

May his memory be for a blessing.

UPDATE (20 January 2007): More here.