- Feb 1 Bryce Harland, New Zealand diplomat, dies at 74
Betty Friedan
Feb 4 Betty Friedan, American writer and feminist (The Feminine Mystique), dies of congestive heart failure at 85
Betty Friedan
Peter Benchley
Feb 11 Peter Benchley, American author, dies at 65
Peter Benchley
- Feb 13 Peter Frederick Strawson, British philosopher (b. 1919)
- Feb 20 Lucjan Wolanowski, Polish journalist, writer and traveller (b. 1920)
- Feb 20 Curt Gowdy, American sportscaster and author (Ford C. Frick Award; Pete Rozelle Award; lifetime achievement Emmy, 1992), dies of leukemia at 86
- Feb 22 Hilde Domin [Hilde Palm], German writer and poet, dies at 96
- Feb 24 Octavia Butler, American author and MacArthur Foundation Fellow (b. 1947)
- Feb 24 Denis Twitchett, Cambridge scholar, and Chinese historian (b. 1925)
- Feb 27 Otis Chandler, American newspaper publisher (b. 1927)
- Feb 27 Robert Lee Scott, Jr., American General and Air Force pilot, dies at 97
- Feb 28 Owen Chamberlain, American physicist (antiproton, Nobel-1959), dies at 85