I have seen this done successfully elsewhere.
It is a collective thread for obituaries when the poster chooses to not post a specific thread on the passing of a particularly person. A new thread is started at the beginning of each year.
It is strictly up to the individual posters' preference as to whether or not they wish to post passings to this collective thread, or to give the passed person a thread of his/her own.
This thread also gives an opportunity to post the passings of people who achieved only niche fame rather than wide fame.