Analysis on obits
Arthur Code, Astronomer and Professor, Dies at 85, was published on March 22, 2009 by The New York Times.
It has a very standard obituary lead:
Arthur D. Code, an astronomer and designer of space observatories who helped lead a triumphant experiment in the 1960s that yielded information about the composition of stars, comets and galactic gases, died on March 11 in Madison, Wis. He was 85.
It starts with the name of the person, notable identifying facts and when the person died. The last sentence is separate, "He was XX" and follows our guidelines for writing leads.
This lead works because by starting this way it lets the reader know that it is an obituary and not a special interest piece or a feature.
The kinds of sources that are used are his family (they tell how he died), and verifiable facts such as, "Dr. Code taught at Wisconsin, the University of Virginia and the California Institute of Technology before returning to Wisconsin as a professor of astronomy in 1958."
This obit differs from a resume in that it does not just list his accomplishments, it explains them in detail. It does not include all of his accomplishments, rather a summary of the most important events in his life. It also features quotes by Code about discovers he made.