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.