Answers to Questions About Referring to Death
by Mark Nichol
http://www.dailywritingtips.com/ans.....ring-to-death/

Here are three questions about how to treat references to people who have died, and my responses.

1. For how long after someone’s death is it necessary and/or appropriate to use “the late” to describe them? I know we don’t say “the late Ludwig van Beethoven,” but what about a board chairman who died twelve years ago?

There’s no standard rule, but in objective, dispassionate content, late should generally be used only a few years after someone’s death. (A widow or widower referring to a deceased spouse, however, gets a lifetime pass.)

2. If I refer to someone’s having died in 2001, do I refer to the person in the same sentence as “the late John Smith,” for example, or is that redundant?

Late is redundant to an explicit reference to a person’s death, and the objective reference is preferable to late. For example, “The project was funded by a bequest from the late John Smith, who died in 2001” is redundant, and “The project was funded by a bequest from John Smith, who died in 2001” is preferable to “The project was funded by a bequest from the late John Smith,” because the former sentence is more specific.

3. Is it objectionable in formal writing for the general public to refer explicitly to death — i.e., are euphemisms like “passed away” truly preferable to died?

On the contrary: Died is preferable to euphemisms like “passed away.” In informative text, use straightforward language; readers appreciate clear, specific wording and don’t need to be coddled with tiptoeing generalities.