Credit: Illustrations by Greg Houston, design by Joey Neill

Yeah, we lost a bunch of icons in 2018.

Stan Lee. Bush the Elder. His wife Barbara. Anthony Bourdain. Aretha Franklin. John McCain. Roy Clark. Burt Reynolds. Neil Simon. Kofi Annan. Penny Marshall. Philip Roth. Harry Anderson. Tom Wolfe. Stephen Hawking.

This list goes on. And it’s only going to get longer as the years pass — these names and faces that defined so much of our culture for so much of our lives, names and faces instantly recognizable to huge swaths of America.

They’ve been eulogized by hundreds of media outlets. Thousands attended their funerals. In some cases, millions pored over the details of their deaths, looking for reasons, or resonance.

This year, we’d like to shine a light on and pay tribute to some lesser-known, but still influential, folks whom we lost this year. Folks whose important contributions to our lives may have gone largely unsung, but who made important contributions nonetheless.

What follows are eulogies for 15 people — and one national sports team mascot — whose passing you may have missed, but whose effects on the lives of millions you may have not, along with gorgeous illustrations by Greg Houston. —Scott Harrell

Mike Arnold, Owner-operator of St. Louis’ Gus Gus Fun Bus

Hamiet Bluiett, Progressive jazz titan

Thomas Bopp, Amateur astronomer and discoverer of Comet Hale-Bopp

Gary Burden, Essential album cover artist of the 1970s

Mary Carlisle, “Baby starlet” who made more than 60 films in a decade

Ted Dabney, Electronics engineer and co-founder of Atari

Emily "Mount Fiji" Dole, Pioneer of female professional wrestling

Ursula K. Le Guin, Trailblazing speculative novelist

Judith Leiber, Holocaust survivor and designer of extravagant handbags

Arnie Lerma, Ex-Scientologist who became Scientology’s fiercest critic

Dorcas Reilly, Inventor of the green bean casserole

William Shearer, Immunologist and physician to the so-called Bubble Boy