APRIL 2000: CLASS NOTES (print version)
DEATHS
Faculty and Staff
Benjamin S. Bloom, PhD'43, a professor emeritus of education, died September 13 in Chicago at age 86. Bloom's research helped spur the creation of Head Start, an early-education program for low-income families included in President Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society program. Survivors include his wife, Sophie Bloom, AM'60; two sons; and a brother.
Merlin S. Bowen, AB'36, AM'47, PhD'57, a professor emeritus of English language and literature, died November 7 in Chicago at age 89. An expert on Herman Melville, Bowen received the 1959 Quantrell Award for teaching. After his 1976 retirement, he taught for two years in Japan and occasionally lectured for the Graham School of Continuing Studies. Survivors include his wife, Ruth; two sons, including Jeffery C. Bowen, AB'67, AM'73; and two grandsons.
John C. Godbey, DB'58, AM'62, PhD'68, a former lecturer, died November 5 in Hyde Park. He was 72. Godbey, a Unitarian-Universalist minister, first taught at Hyde Park's Meadville Theological Seminary, where he served as academic dean before joining Chicago's faculty in 1977. Survivors include his wife, Greta; a daughter; two sons, Nicholas R. Godbey, MBA'86, and Charles F. Godbey, AB'79; two brothers; two sisters; and five grandchildren.
Zvi Griliches, AM'55, PhD'57, a former economics professor, died November 4 of pancreatic cancer in Cambridge, MA. He was 69. An authority on the statistical analysis of economic data, Griliches served on Chicago's faculty from 1956 to 1969, when he moved to Harvard. In 1965, he won the John Bates Clark Medal, awarded to the best economist under the age of 40 by the American Economic Association, of which he later became president. Survivors include his wife, Diane; a daughter; and a son.
Nicholas C. Metropolis, SB'36, PhD'41, a former physics professor, died October 17 in New Mexico at age 84. A member of the Manhattan Project team, Metropolis is best known for his contributions to the Monte Carlo method of probability. He spent most of his career alternately teaching at the U of C and working at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Survivors include two daughters, a son, two sisters, and a grandchild.
Christen C. Rattenborg, a professor emeritus in anesthesia & critical care, died November 15 in Chicago. He was 81. Survivors include his wife, Agnethe; four children; and two grandchildren.
John W. Stout, a professor emeritus of chemistry, died December 16 in Hyde Park. He was 87. Stout specialized in magnetism, thermodynamics, and cryogenics, the physics of low temperatures. He edited the Journal of Chemical Physics from 1959 to 1985 and served as consulting editor until his death. Survivors include a son, John, and four grandchildren.
Shu-Yung Wang, MD'54, a surgeon and former research associate, died August 26 in Colorado Springs, CO. He was 85. Skilled in maxillofacial and plastic surgery, Wang spent more than four decades practicing and teaching medicine until his 1984 retirement. Survivors include his wife, Lonny; four daughters; a son, Sherwood R. Wang, AB'78, MST'83; a sister; and eight grandchildren.
Paul Wheatley, the Irving B. Harris professor emeritus in the Committee on Social Thought, died October 30 in Porter, IN, at age 78. Wheatley chaired the Committee on Social Thought from 1977 until 1991. Able to read five languages, he studied the influence of religion and culture in ancient cities, particularly those in China, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Japan. Survivors include his wife, Margaret; two sons; and four granddaughters.
1920s and 1930s
John A. Morrison, SB'25, SM'27, PhD'38, a geopolitics expert, died December 6 in Quincy, IL, at age 96. Morrison served as deputy chief of the U.S.S.R. division of the Office of Strategic Services during WWII, and later worked for the U.S. State Department. Survivors include his wife, Frederica Ann; a son; and three grandchildren.
Dina Rosi Congino, PhB'29, of Evergreen Park, IL, a former teacher, died April 4 at age 90. Congino taught for 42 years in the Chicago public schools. Survivors include her brother, Reno Rosi, SB'32.
Gertrude Smith Lee, AM'30, a former teacher, died September 25 in Hyde Park at age 101. Lee chaired the history department at North Carolina's R. J. Reynolds High School until she moved to Chicago, where she lived with the family of sculptor Lorado Taft. Among survivors are three daughters, including Caroline Lee, AB'53, and Evelyn Lee, AM'66; a sister; and six grandchildren, including Lindsey Johnson Suddarth, AB'81.
Morris Chertkov, PhB'31, JD'33, a lawyer, died September 29 in Silver Spring, MD. He was 90. Chertkov was named executive director of the Civil Aeronautics Board during the Kennedy administration. After retirement, he served as general counsel and executive director of the Alaska Public Utilities Commission. Survivors include his wife, Ruth Naomi; a son; and two grandchildren.
Russell L. Marshall, PhB'31, a former postal worker, teacher, and chaplain, died in September in Tucson, AZ. He was 94. One of Chicago's first African-American Roman Catholic deacons, Marshall taught in the Chicago public schools and spent 15 years as an assistant chaplain at Cook County jail.
George H. Otto, SB'31, PhD'42, a retired geological consultant, died August 27 in Wilmette, IL, at age 91. Otto was a consultant for the construction of Chicago's subway system and the John Hancock Building. He also worked at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography before opening his own consulting firm in the 1970s. He is survived by a daughter, Anne Otto Earle, SB'60, MAT'62, and two grandsons.
David K. Easton, PhB'33, a former research librarian, died August 26 in Middletown, OH, at age 89. Easton worked as a research librarian for the Caribbean Commission in Trinidad, the American Library Association, and Saudi Arabia's University of Petroleum and Minerals. Survivors include his wife, Claire; two daughters; a son; and two grandsons.
Velma Cook Williams, PhB'35, a former teacher, died September 18 in Indianapolis. She was 87. For 21 years, Williams taught high-school Latin and English. For more than 50 years, she was a member of the Order of the Eastern Star. Survivors include two daughters, a son, and a grandson.
Gerald B. Demarest, SB'38, MD'38, a cardiologist who lived in Reno, NV, died October 22 in Wilton, CT. He was 87. Elected Fellow of the American College of Cardiology in 1975, Demarest practiced internal medicine and cardiology at the Westfield Medical Group for 37 years. He was also president of the medical staff at Overlook Hospital in Summit, NJ. Survivors include his wife, Marian; three daughters; three sons; and 13 grandchildren.
1940s and 1950s
Joan Kammerer Heineck, SB'40, an Annapolis, MD, food chemist, died September 9. She was 80. Also a teacher of science and French, Heineck was once ranked tenth nationally in doubles tennis for women aged 75-79. Survivors include a daughter and two sons.
Martin Levit, SB'40, AM'47, PhD'49, of Overland Park, KS, died August 31. He was 81. Voted best scholar-athlete in the Big 10 Conference during his senior year, Levit earned two Purple Hearts, the Silver Star, and the Navy Cross during WWII. He taught at the Marine Corps Command Staff School in Virginia before teaching philosophy and education for 40 years at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Survivors include a daughter, a son, and two grandchildren.
Helen G. Charley, SM'41, a Carlisle, IN, former professor, died October 17 at age 90. A member of Phi Beta Kappa at DePauw University, for 30 years, Charley taught food science at Oregon State University. Survivors include two sisters.
Arnold D. Hasterlik, AB'41, a Los Angeles writer, died June 18 at age 79. Hasterlik worked as a market researcher in New York before becoming involved with theater production as both an actor and writer. He was also an avid golf player. Hasterlik is survived by his aunt and three cousins.
Ralph J. Sticht, SB'41, a Newport Beach, CA, physicist, died December 4, 1992. He was 73. Sticht spent 50 years as a defense-industry physicist, first at the MET laboratories and then at the Hanford Plant in Hanford, WA. Survivors include his wife, Nina.
Evelyn Taylor Hough, X'42, a school psychologist, died September 25 in Aptos, CA, at age 79. Hough worked for the Palo Alto Unified School District and was a deacon at St. Andrew Presbyterian Church. Survivors include two daughters, a son, and four grandchildren.
Werner A. Baum, SB'43, SM'44, PhD'48, of Tallahassee, FL, died September 4 at age 76. A native German, Baum was appointed deputy administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in 1967. He later became president of the University of Rhode Island and chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Survivors include his wife, Shirley Bowman Baum, AB'44, AM'47; two daughters, including Janice M. Baum, AM'75; two brothers, Bernard H. Baum, PhB'48, PhD'59, and Jost J. Baum, AB'50, JD'53; and four grandchildren.
Anne M. Macpherson, AB'44, SB'45, AM'54, a former assistant professor, died in Albany, CA, on May 3 at age 74. Macpherson taught geography at California State University and at Berkeley. She also spent 20 years as a docent at the Oakland Museum of California. Among survivors are two brothers, including Roderick J. Macpherson Jr., PhB'49, and a sister.
Burton W. Gorman, X'45, died June 30 in DeLand, FL, at age 92. Gorman's career in education spanned 57 years, beginning as a high-school teacher and concluding as a university professor. He headed the education department at DePauw University and the secondary-education department at Kent State. After his retirement from Kent State in 1972, he continued to teach as a part-time professor at Stetson University. Survivors include his wife, Rebecca; two sons; and seven grandchildren.
Arne E. Slettebak, SB'45, PhD'49, an astronomer, died May 20 in Worthington, OH, at age 73. Slettebak served 45 years on the Ohio State faculty, including 16 years as astronomy department chair and 19 years as the Perkins Observatory director. Survivors include his wife, Connie; a daughter; a son; and four grandchildren.
Hugo W. Celander, AB'48, JD'49, of Homewood, IL, died November 14 at age 76. Celander earned a Purple Heart at WWII's Battle of the Bulge. During the 1950s and 1960s, he and his wife, Marian, ran Celander Studio on the South Side. He then managed Park Forest Photography from 1970 to 1983. Survivors include a son, a brother, and two grandchildren.
James J. Cizek, PhB'48, MBA'50, died December 8 in Hinsdale, IL. He was 72. In the 1950s, Cizek opened a menswear business, the Squire Shop, which he ran until his 1994 retirement. Survivors include his wife, Dolores Miller Cizek, AB'57; a daughter; a son; and two stepsisters.
Paul M. Grissom, PhB'48, MD'52, a retired Air Force colonel, died September 6 in Westmoreland County, VA. Grissom, a WWII veteran, spent his entire career in the military. He is survived by his wife, Helen; two daughters; three sons; two stepsons; and ten grandchildren.
Sam B. Treiman, SB'49, SM'50, PhD'52, a physicist, died November 30 in New York City at age 74. Chair of Princeton's physics department during the 1980s, Treiman helped develop the Goldberger-Treiman relation theory of subatomic particles. Survivors include his wife, Joan Little Treiman, SB'47, AM'52; two daughters; a son; and seven grandchildren.
Clyde C. Walton, AM'49, a historian and librarian, died January 4 in San Jose, CA. He was 74. A decorated veteran of WWII, he served as Illinois State Historian from 1956 to 1967, as the executive director of the Illinois State Historical Society, and as the director of the Illinois State Historical Library. Survivors include his wife, Patricia; two daughters; two sons; and three grandchildren.
Albert L. Caney, MBA'50, of La Grange, IL, died August 21. He was 84. Caney worked for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration as manager of operations from 1951 until his 1994 retirement. Survivors include his wife, Ruth, and a son.
Donnell D. Smith, PhB'50, AB'55, a former Foreign Service officer, died August 4 in Rockville, MD. He was 72. During his career, Smith served in Italy, the United Kingdom, South Africa, Algeria, and Tanzania. Survivors include his wife, Elfriede; a daughter, Jennifer Smith, AB'97; and a son, Charles E. Smith, X'83.
Lois Weinberg Kanter, AB'55, a portrait artist, died December 9 in Norman, OK, at age 68. Kanter, a Chicago native, was active in civic affairs and Braille transcribing. Survivors include her husband, Julian; two daughters; a son; and a brother, Michael Weinberg Jr., AB'47.
Mary Kelly Mullane, PhD'57, died July 30 in Naples, FL, at age 89. A former dean of the University of Illinois at Chicago's College of Nursing, Mullane helped introduce grad- uate-nursing education to the school's offerings. Survivors include a sister.
Herbert Stein, PhD'58, an economist, died September 8 at age 83. Chair of the Council of Economic Advisors under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, he also served for 22 years on the Committee for Economic Development. Survivors include a daughter, a son, a sister, and three grandchildren.
Kurt D. Bryning, AB'59, a Chicago biochemist, died of a heart attack March 29, 1998, at age 64. Bryning was director of the water quality control laboratory at Chicago's Jardine Water Purification Plant. Survivors include his wife, Mary Anne; three sons; and a grandson.
Daniel J. Elazar, AM'57, PhD'59, died December 1 in Israel. He was 65. Elazar founded and directed the Center for the Study of Federalism at Temple University and headed the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. Survivors include his wife, Harriet.
Sigurd F. Westberg, AM'59, died in Chicago on October 10. He was 89. A professor at North Park Theological Seminary from 1961 to 1975, Westberg served as a missionary in the former Belgian Congo and translated the Bible into Lingala. Survivors include four daughters and nine grandchildren.
1960s to Current
Christiana McFadyen Campbell, PhD'60, a retired history teacher, died August 1 in Australia at age 84. Before her retirement, Campbell was a senior lecturer in American history at the University of Sydney. She is survived by her husband, Keith; one son; and two daughters.
John R. Malone, PhD'63, founding director of the University of Notre Dame's M.B.A. program, died August 29 in South Bend, IN, at age 78. Malone joined Notre Dame as an assistant professor in marketing in 1952, becoming associate dean and director of the M.B.A. program in 1967. He retired after more than 40 years. He is survived by his wife, Ellen; five daughters, including Kathleen Malone Beeler, MAT'71; and a son, John R. Malone Jr., MBA'79.
Eric R. Neisser, AB'67, died November 8 of a heart attack in Concord, NH. He was 52. A civil-liberties lawyer, Neisser served as acting dean at Rutgers School of Law and later as president and dean of Franklin Pierce Law Center. Survivors include his wife, Joan; two daughters; and a granddaughter.
M. Robert Strange, AM'72, a retired librarian, died September 19 in Indianapolis at age 74. Strange was a priest at St. Meinrad Archabbey for 24 years, serving as a professor and head of the Scripture department. After six years with the Gary Public Library, he worked as a genealogy librarian at the Indiana State Library until his retirement. He is survived by his wife, Wanda Jacobs; four brothers; and two sisters.
Joseph W. Fay, MBA'75, an active community volunteer, died of lymphoma October 17 in Libertyville, IL. He was 64. Fay worked with the violence intervention and prevention programs run by Lake County Unites, and he also volunteered as a counselor for youth and families. Survivors include his wife, Anne; two daughters; a son; three brothers; and eight grandchildren.
Chinyere Uduka Owhotu, AB'75, of Lagos, Nigeria, died on September 30, 1998. She was 50. Owhotu was senior manager of research and development at the Nigeria Reinsurance Corporation, and at the time of her death was planning to launch a U of C alumni chapter in Nigeria. Survivors include her husband, Victor.
Robert P. Taylor, AM'82, an Episcopal priest, died September 16 in Virginia Beach, VA, at age 67. A licensed clinical social worker, Taylor spent the first half of his life as a civil-rights activist, then became director of St. Leonard's halfway house for ex-convicts. Survivors include his wife, Carvel Underwood Taylor, AM'72; two daughters; two sons; two brothers; a sister; and six grandchildren.
Harry C. Bull, JD'85, CEO of Bradner Central Company, died August 18 in a boating accident on Lake Michigan that also killed his two daughters, Alexandra and Madeline. He was 39. Bull worked for the law firms of Jenner & Block and Winston & Strawn before taking over as CEO of his family's paper firm. Survivors include his wife, Pam; a son; his parents; a brother; and three sisters. (This corrects information published in the February 2000 issue. --Ed.)
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