How death notices evolved into personality portraits and became unexpected tools for tracking scientific progress
After a star scientist's death, publications by non-collaborators increase by 8.6% on average, bringing fresh perspectives to the field 3
When Joe Heller died at age 82, his obituary didn't merely list his dates and accomplishments. Instead, it painted a vivid portrait of a penny-pinching prankster with a talent for napping and a habit of giving dogs hilariously vulgar names. This obituary, penned by his daughter, went viral, praised as the "best obituary ever" by The New York Times and captivating thousands of readers who never knew him 1 .
What made this remembrance so compelling wasn't just its humor, but its authentic capture of a unique personality—proof that modern obituaries have evolved far beyond their origins as simple death notices.
"I don't want to write what everyone else thinks of the person. I want what they thought of the world. It's a completely different viewpoint."
The transformation from formal announcements to personality-focused narratives
In an unexpected application, obituaries have become valuable datasets in economics of science research, helping scholars understand how knowledge evolves and scientific fields progress. A landmark study published in the American Economic Review examined how the premature death of 452 eminent life scientists affected their fields, testing what Nobel laureate Max Planck once observed: "A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die" 3 .
Researchers used a difference-in-differences setup to compare scientific subfields that had lost prominent figures against carefully matched control fields. To define these intellectual neighborhoods, they employed the PubMed Related Citations Algorithm (PMRA), which groups articles into subfields based on abstract words, title words, and detailed medical keywords—creating boundaries based on intellectual content rather than social networks or citation patterns 3 .
| Metric | Before Death | After Death | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Publications by Collaborators | Baseline | Decreased | ↓ |
| Publications by Non-Collaborators | Baseline | Increased Significantly | ↑ |
| Citation Impact of New Entrants | Comparable | Higher Than Pre-Death Average | ↑ |
How scientific collaboration networks shift after a key member's death
Changes in publication patterns before and after eminent scientist deaths
| Aspect of Field Evolution | Finding | Interpretation |
|---|---|---|
| Source of New Contributions | Primarily from outsiders, not existing competitors | Challenging luminaries directly may be intimidating; their absence creates space |
| Intellectual Foundations | New work drew on different scientific literature | Fresh perspectives integrating knowledge from other fields |
| Impact of New Work | Disproportionately highly cited | Novel combinations of ideas often generate high-impact science |
| Regulation of Entry | Variation based on field structure and remaining collaborators | Social and intellectual structure of field affects openness to new ideas |
Researchers approaching obituaries as data sources employ diverse methodological tools. The table below outlines key approaches in the research reagent solutions for obituary science.
| Methodological Approach | Description | Application Example |
|---|---|---|
| Computational Text Analysis | Automated processing of large obituary collections to identify patterns in language, themes, and representation | Tracking changing descriptions of women's vs. men's accomplishments over time |
| Network Analysis | Mapping relationships between deceased individuals and their professional and personal connections | Studying how collaborative networks in science disperse after a key member's death |
| Content Analysis | Systematic coding of obituaries for specific themes, mentions, or framing | Analyzing how causes of death are addressed or avoided in public remembrance |
| Comparative Analysis | Examining obituaries across publications, regions, or time periods | Identifying cultural differences in values emphasized in death notices |
| Citation Analysis | Tracking how scientific papers reference deceased researchers' work | Measuring the "career" of ideas after their originator's death |
Obituaries, once considered merely as death announcements or personal tributes, emerge as unexpected but valuable lenses through which to examine social change, cultural values, and the progress of knowledge. From viral celebrations of ordinary extraordinary lives to sophisticated economic studies tracking how scientific fields evolve after prominent deaths, these notices provide unique windows into what societies value, remember, and how ideas transition between generations.
The research reveals a paradoxical pattern: the departure of established leaders often creates space for innovation and new perspectives to flourish. This holds true whether examining how families are reclaiming the narrative process to create more authentic portraits or how scientific fields experience surges of creativity after the loss of luminaries.
"Tigers die and leave their skins; people die and leave their names."
References will be added here in the final publication.
Obituaries as Social Mirrors
Gender Representation
Historical and contemporary gender distribution in obituary subjects
Cultural Values Shift
Traditional Approach
Formal tone, reserved emotions, focus on achievements and status
Modern Approach
Personal voice, emotional authenticity, focus on personality and relationships
Obituaries function as cultural artifacts that both reflect and shape societal values. Historically, they documented the lives of the powerful and prominent—political leaders, war heroes, industrialists—reinforcing existing social hierarchies. As one analysis notes, in some societies, obituaries are "not only a mere reporting system informing about anyone's death, but also the symbolic system that is both reflecting and constructing the power relationships in society" .