AUGUST 2000: CLASS NOTES (print version)
DEATHS
Faculty and Staff
Donald E. Crabb, the associate director of undergraduate and graduate studies in computer science and a senior lecturer in computer science, died February 26 in Chicago from pancreatic disease. He was 44. Crabb began teaching at the University as a history graduate student in 1979. He wrote a syndicated Chicago Sun-Times column, hosted a radio program on WGN, and appeared weekly on the local television show Fox Thing in the Morning, speaking about computers and the Internet. Crabb also wrote several books and edited for Hayden Books. He is survived by his parents and a sister.
Hans G. Güterbock, the Tiffany and Margaret Blake distinguished service professor emeritus in the Oriental Institute, Near Eastern languages & civilizations, and linguistics, died March 29 in Chicago at age 91. Born in Germany, Güterbock taught at Turkey's Ankara University from 1936 to 1948, joining the Oriental Institute in 1949. His research focused on the Hittites. Combining philology and his command of the Akkadian language with archaeology and history, he co-launched the Chicago Hittite Dictionary project in 1976 and served as co-editor until his death. In 1996, Güterbock received the American Oriental Society Medal of Merit for his lifetime contributions to Hittitology. Survivors include his wife, Frances; two sons; and five grandchildren.
Bruce A. Morrissette, the Bernard E. and Ellen C. Sunny distinguished service professor emeritus in Romance languages & literatures, died February 6 in Chicago at age 88. A critic of 20th-century literature and cinema, Morrissette was known for heralding the "new novel" that revolutionized French literature after WWII and for his books on French novelist and filmmaker Alain Robbe-Grillet. After living in Paris in the early 1930s, Morrissette returned to the U.S., taught at Washington University, and joined the Chicago faculty in 1962, becoming the chair of his department. He is survived by his son, James.
Paul B. Sigler, a former professor in the biological sciences, died January 11 in New Haven, CT, of a heart attack. He was 66. After completing a medical residency, Sigler switched to basic research, becoming a chemist, structural biologist, and crystallographer. After spending 21 years on the Chicago faculty, Sigler became a professor of molecular biophysics and biochemistry at Yale University in 1989. He is survived by his wife, Jo; five children; and eight grandchildren.
1920s and 1930s
David Bush, PhB'23, a retired teacher, died January 29 in Nashville, TN, at age 98. He taught the first class in modern Hebrew in the Chicago high schools, as well as courses in English, Latin, and math. After retiring in 1969, Bush wrote poetry and toured with Free Street Too, a senior theater company, throughout Chicago and the nation until 1986. He is survived by two daughters, including Nancy Bush Sherman, PhB'45, JD'48; a son; and two grandchildren.
Fannie Berliss Rosenbaum, PhB'29, died September 5, in Vienna, VA, at age 91. Rosenbaum was a homemaker and active volunteer with many civic and charitable organizations in Chicago and Cook County. She is survived by a daughter, a son, and four grandchildren.
Marianne Stevenson Harper, PhB'33, died January 2 in Lake Forest, IL, at age 89. An adventurer who skied, rode horses, and climbed mountains, Harper also established an international-studies program for the art school at Lake Forest College. She is survived by a daughter; two sons; a brother, James M. Stevenson, AM'59; and six grandchildren.
Sydney H. Kasper, PhB'33, a writer, editor, and public-affairs officer with several government agencies, died February 5 in Olney, MD. He was 88. In the 1960s, he was chief of press services for the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Kasper spent five years with the Labor Department's manpower administration as director of information before retiring in the 1970s. Survivors include his wife, Helen; three children; and three grandchildren.
Miriam Hamilton Keare, JD'33, died January 17 in Highland Park, IL, at age 91. Keare taught English as a Second Language to children at the Highland Park YMCA, was PTA president at Highland Park High School, and sat on the school board. She served on more than 30 boards and committees throughout her life. Dedicated to environmental and population-control issues, she was a local board member for Planned Parenthood and was on the national board of the Sierra Club for seven years. Survivors include two daughters, two sons, and 14 grandchildren.
Robert F. Picken, AM'33, former president of Peerless Confection Company, died December 24 in Hyde Park at age 89. Picken, a political consultant and social activist for nearly 50 years, became president of the business five years after joining Peerless Confection, known for its red-and-white peppermint candies. Picken was also an active fund-raiser for the U of C and a Simpson College trustee. He is survived by his wife, Rita, and a daughter, Kathleen Picken, AB'72, AM'74.
Ida Goldberg Terkel, PhB'33, a retired social worker and activist, died December 23 in Chicago at age 87. Terkel did relief work, worked with children, and fought for peace, fair housing, and civil rights. She also helped husband Studs Terkel, PhB'32, JD'34, with his books, appearing under pseudonym as a character in several, including Hard Times. Terkel is survived by her husband, a son, a brother, and a sister.
Stanley A. Walton Jr., PhB'33, a retired bank executive, died November 30 in Willowbrook, IL, at age 88. A WWII veteran, Walton began his career as a mail boy for Lake Shore National Bank-now Bank One-working his way up to vice chair of the board by the time he retired 40 years later. Afterward, Walton served as president and manager of several smaller banks and was on the board of directors for OEI Business Systems in Itasca until 1997. He is survived by his wife, Joan; three sons; two stepdaughters; a stepson; and six grandchildren.
James L. Zacharias, PhB'33, JD'35, a retired businessman and legal activist, died October 29, in Winnetka, IL, at age 87. After practicing law for three years, Zacharias entered the plastics industry, served in the Army, and then joined his brother as a partner in Precision Plating Company. He retired in 1989. Zacharias was a member of the board of directors, executive committee, and advisory council of the ACLU and in 1999 was awarded the group's Roger Baldwin Award for longtime commitment to civil liberties. Zacharias also helped to develop the Dove Bar ice-cream bar. Survivors include his wife, Bobette; two daughters; a son; and a grandchild.
Ethel Fessler Niemann, SB'35, a retired teacher, died May 17, 1999, in Rockville, MD, at age 85. After teaching high-school math in the 1930s, Niemann worked as an accountant and taught shorthand and typing in the 1940s. Active in the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, she retired in 1973 after conducting Red Cross first-aid and nutrition classes. Survivors include a stepson, two sisters, and a grandson.
Walvin R. Giedt, MD'37, a retired doctor and laboratory chief, died September 30 in Seattle at age 94. Giedt served as Washington state's epidemiologist and chief of laboratories for nearly 30 years. In 1985, a new Department of Health laboratory was built and named for Giedt, who was the West Coast team leader for Jonas Salk's polio trials and a specialist in Rocky Mountain spotted fever. He is survived by two daughters and four grandchildren.
G. McMurtrie Godley, X'39, a retired foreign ambassador, died November 7 in Oneonta, NY, at age 82. Godley joined the Foreign Service in 1941 and had a number of international posts before being named ambassador to Congo in 1964. As ambassador to Laos during the Vietnam War, he helped to direct Laotian and Thai guerrillas fighting North Vietnamese troops. Godley then became ambassador to Lebanon. The founder and president of the Glimmerglass Opera, he chaired the boards of Fox Hospital and of Hartwick College in Oneonta, NY. Survivors include his wife, Elizabeth; two sons; a brother; and a sister.
John W. ("Jack") Webster, AB'39, died October 15 in Hinsdale, IL, at age 83. He is survived by two daughters, a brother, and three grandchildren.
1940s and 1950s
Elmer L. Becker, SB'40, a former medical professor, died February 13 in Farmington, CT, at age 81. After teaching at the University of Illinois and Georgetown University, Becker was department chief at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Washington, DC, for 18 years. He was an expert on the biochemistry of acute allergic reactions. Joining the University of Connecticut's new medical school in 1970, Becker was its first professor to hold an endowed chair. He is survived by his wife, Carol; two daughters; a son; a brother; and three grandchildren.
Jack T. Conway, AB'40, a Kennedy and Johnson administration official, died January 6, 1998, in Sarasota, FL, at age 80. Conway went to Washington in 1960 as the deputy administrator of the Housing and Home Finance Agency, helping to draft the act that established the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Under Johnson, Conway headed the Community Action Program, a part of the War on Poverty, and helped arrange financing for the Head Start and Job Corps programs. From 1970 to 1975, he was the first president of Common Cause, which opposed the Vietnam War and promoted finance reform. He later served as executive director of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees and as senior vice president of the United Way of America. He is survived by his wife, LuVerne; two daughters; a son; and five grandchildren.
Seymour Katcoff, SB'40, PhD'44, a retired chemist and researcher at Brookhaven National Laboratory, died October 17 in New York at age 81. As part of the Manhattan Project, he conducted radiochemical studies on fission projects. He joined Brookhaven in 1948, determining the half-life of iodine-129, studying the nuclear decay properties of isotopes, and isolating 17-minute half-life uranium-242. In the 1980s, he established and taught classes on nuclear and radiochemistry for undergraduates. Katcoff received the 1998 Seaborg Medal of the American Nuclear Society. Survivors include his wife, Edith LaPorte Katcoff, AB'42, CLA'42, and two sons.
Charles V. Shostrom, AB'40, a former bank executive, died December 24 in Indian Head Park, IL, at age 81. A loan officer and vice president at several Chicago banks, Shostrom was also a former president of the Chicago Tennis Association. Survivors include his wife, Harriette; a daughter; two sons; and two grandchildren. Virginia Woods Corbett, AM'36, PhD'41, a former classics professor, died December 7 in Illinois at age 86. After serving as a Latin professor and dean of women at DePaul University in 1936, Corbett taught at Howard University for 30 years. Author of books and articles on Andrea Alciato and St. Gregory of Nyssa, Corbett was an American Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts. Survivors include several cousins.
John B. Rinaldo, AM'37, PhD'41, died November 29 in Des Moines, IA, at age 87. Rinaldo, a WWII veteran, worked for the National Park Service, the Civilian Conservation Corps, and the Chicago Museum of Natural History. He also taught at Cochise College in Dragoon, AZ, and was a director of the Flexible Steel Lacing Company. Survivors include his wife, Ruth, and a brother.
Mary Davis Carroll, SB'43, SM'44, MD'48, a retired family physician in Crown Point, IN, died January 23 at age 78. Carroll, who maintained a private practice for 45 years before retiring in 1995, was a former president of both the Lake County Indiana Medical Society and the medical staff of St. Anthony Medical Center. She was also medical director for the St. Anthony Home for 20 years. Survivors include her husband, William; two daughters; a son; and five grandchildren.
Anita Silverstein Firestone, AB'44, a retired public-school counselor, died February 19 in Boston at age 76. Firestone worked in the Brookline, MA, school system for almost 25 years, retiring in 1992. She was involved in the League of Women Voters, the Circle for Charity, and other community organizations. She is survived by her husband, Edwin; two sons; a brother; a sister; and four grandchildren.
Joseph D. Hartwig, PhB'44, MBA'44, a lawyer in St. Joseph, MI, died February 9 at age 87. While teaching at Boston and Michigan State Universities, Hartwig earned a J.D. from Harvard and entered private practice in 1956. A chair of the Michigan bar's taxation section and a member of its trust and estate-planning council, Hartwig also helped organize a local Great Books club and a recycling center. Survivors include his wife, Marjorie Clemens Hartwig, AB'44, MBA'44; a daughter; and two granddaughters.
George J. Fischer, SB'45, SM'50, a retired nuclear scientist, died January 11 in Hyannis, MA, at age 81. Fischer, a former scientist with Argonne National Laboratory, worked for Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York from 1973 until his 1983 retirement. He was a member of the Sierra Club and the League of Women Voters. Survivors include his wife, Alice; a son; and two sisters.
Lloyd J. Lifton, PhB'45, a jazz pianist and social worker, died March 13 in Taos, NM. He was 75. A WWII veteran, Lifton performed in several clubs in the Chicago area. In the 1950s, he moved to New York to study under Lennie Tristano. After earning a social-work degree, he had a full-time job as a social worker during the day, performing in New York clubs at night. In 1983, he released a solo recording, Summer of 81, Stash Records. Survivors include a daughter; a son; a brother, Robert B. Lifton, AB'42; a sister; and three grandchildren.
James S. Fujioka, PhB'47, SB'51, a retired chemical engineer, died December 21 in Boca Raton, FL. He was 70. His career with Exxon spanned more than 30 years, specializing in logistics and transportation. Upon retirement, he became a consultant to the food-services industry. Survivors include his wife, Sue; two children; and two sisters.
Nancy Oxenhandler Hillard, PhB'47, AM'50, a retired psychologist, died February 29 in Caledonia, MO, at age 71. A former high-school English teacher, Hillard maintained a private psychology practice--specializing in children--until her 1982 retirement. She also wrote a book about the impact of divorce on grown children. Survivors include her husband, Robert; three children; and four grandchildren.
James O. Bond, MD'50, died November 9 in Sandy Spring, MD, at age 76. An epidemiologist in the field of public health, Bond worked for the Florida Board of Health, the Encephalitis Laboratory in Tampa, FL, the World Health Organization, and the Pan-American Health Organization. He wrote some 70 scientific publications and several books. Survivors include four daughters, a son, a stepdaughter, a stepson, and two granddaughters.
Luther H. ("Halsey") Gulick Jr., AM'48, PhD'52, a retired professor, died January 1 in Pleasant Hill, TN, at age 77. Gulick, a WWII veteran, taught geography at Florida State University, Winona State College in Minnesota, and the State University of New York College at Potsdam (1962-1985). Survivors include his wife, Chris; two daughters; a son; and four grandchildren.
Solomon I. Hirsh, AB'52, JD'55, a retired labor lawyer, died December 5 in Evanston, IL, of leukemia. He was 67. Hirsh worked for the National Labor Relations Board before becoming general counsel for the Brotherhood of Railway and Airline Clerks in 1969. He later became involved in the Supreme Court case Ellis v. Railway Clerks. Hirsch spent the last 20 years of his career in private practice, retiring in 1999. He was active in the community and in Beth Emet Synagogue. Survivors include his wife, Judith Kitz Hirsh, AB'56, AM'76; a daughter; a son, Adam D. Hirsh, JD'91; and two grandsons.
George A. Athanson, JD'55, former mayor of Hartford, CT, died there on January 9. He was 72. A Democrat who taught international relations at the University of Hartford, Athanson served as Hartford's mayor for five terms, from 1971 to 1981. Upon leaving office, he practiced law and hosted a public-access television program called By George, It's Athanson. He is survived by his wife, Zoe, and a son.
Iwao Shino, MBA'55, died January 19 in Tokyo at age 75. Shino, the former president of the Pfizer Pharmaceutical Company in Japan, had also been president of the U of C's alumni club in Japan. He is survived by three children, including son Hirotaka Shino, MBA'90.
Anna Sabara, AM'57, a retired nurse, died July 24, 1999, in Skokie, IL, at age 87. Her professional positions included director of nursing at Research Hospital in Kansas City, MO, and supervisor of nursing at Mount Sinai Hospital in Chicago. She was a longtime member of Emanuel Congregation. Survivors include a sister.
Thomas P. Kapantais, AB'58, a retired lawyer, died January 31 in Huntington, WV, at age 65. Kapantais practiced in Maine for many years, specializing in indigent criminal defense and poverty law cases. He later joined the Social Security Administration as a legal adviser. After retiring in 1987, he collected writings documenting the history of the U.S. progressive, socialist, and communist movements, donating them in 1997 to Frostburg State University in Maryland.
1960s to Current
Tamara Horowitz, AB'71, died January 30 in Pittsburgh of a brain tumor. She was 49. Horowitz, the first woman to receive a Ph.D. degree from MIT, specialized in the relationship between metaphysics and semantics. After teaching at Vassar College, NYU, and the State University of New York at Purchase, she joined the University of Pittsburgh faculty. She became the first woman to chair its philosophy department a few months before her death. Her book The Backtracking Fallacy will be published posthumously. She is survived by her brother, Josh Howard.
John J. Ryan, AM'69, PhD'72, a former assistant professor at Loyola University in Chicago, died February 20 in Montreal at age 74. After serving as a priest in the Peoria, IL, diocese for 13 years, Ryan began teaching at Loyola in 1964. He joined the Concordia University (Montreal) faculty in the late 1970s, remaining there until his retirement. Survivors include a brother and four sisters.
Richard H. Hannemann, MBA'73, a banker, died January 21 in Naperville, IL, of stroke-related ailments. He was 58. Hannemann was an Army interpreter and linguist in Vietnam. After serving as vice president of Continental Bank in Miami for 16 years, he became vice president of Continental Illinois, Continental Bank, and Household International Bank. He is survived by his wife, Dolores; two sons; his mother; three brothers; and a sister.
Richard V. Kilinski, AB'77, a consultant, died in October in Andover, MA. He was 45. Kilinski had worked for Arthur Andersen Consulting, Visibility, and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Survivors include his daughter, Megan; his mother; and a sister.
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