What an exciting and traumatic year 2008 has been. A historic presidential campaign that ended with the election of an African-American to the U.S. presidency. An economic meltdown not seen since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

We also lost those who have made a significant impact to the academy as well as American culture.

Diverse takes a look at those who died this year and recalls the contributions they made to the national and global community:

Johnnie Carr: Carr joined childhood friend Rosa Parks in the historic Montgomery bus boycott and succeeded the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. as president of the Montgomery Improvement Association in 1967. It was the newly formed association that led the boycott of city buses in the Alabama capital. She was 97.

Dr. Michael DeBakey: DeBakey was chancellor emeritus of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and a pioneering heart surgeon who is considered the father of modern cardiovascular surgery. DeBakey died in July at age 99.

Dr. Murry DePillars: Born in Chicago in 1938, DePillars was an artist and educator who served as dean of the School of the Arts at Virginia Commonwealth University from 1976 until his retirement in 1995. Under his leadership, the School of the Arts grew to become one of the largest and well-respected art schools in the United States.

Dith Pran: A New York Times photojournalist and survivor of the Khmer Rouge labor camps in Cambodia, Dith became world-famous with the release of the Academy Award-winning film “The Killing Fields,” which was based on his life, the Cambodian civil war and Dith’s friendship with Times correspondent Sydney Schanberg. He was 65.

Dr. Robert Cook Edwards: The former Clemson University president is credited for his leadership and calls for peace and order during a contentious integration battle in 1963 in which Harvey B. Gantt, a Black student, successfully enrolled in the then all-White Clemson College. He was 94.