Yes, almost certainly.
The idea under discussion here comes from Max Planck:
“A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.”
This is a pretty ridiculous idea that reeks of sour grapes, to be honest. And it's more than a little ironic, since several years later some researchers with the benefit of hindsight discovered that many of the most important discoveries of Planck and Einstein would almost inevitably have been discovered approximately half a century earlier, if it hadn't been for James Maxwell's untimely death of cancer. (And just imagine what Planck and Einstein might have been able to discover then, if Maxwell's death hadn't held progress back for decades!)
This isn't specifically a longevity example, but dead is dead. When great scientists die, they tend to take a lot with them, no matter what it is they specifically died from.