APRIL 2001: CLASS NOTES
DEATHS
Faculty, Staff, and Friends
Ugo Fano, professor emeritus of physics, died February 13 in Chicago at age 88. Fano's research in theoretical atomic physics helped lead to the development of the gas laser and radiation therapy. He began his career in 1934 working first with Enrico Fermi at the University of Rome and then with Werner Heisenberg at the University of Leipzig. After fleeing Europe in 1939, he worked at the Washington Biophysical Institute, the Carnegie Institution of Washington, the U.S. Army Ballistic Research Laboratory, and for 20 years at the National Bureau of Standards. Joining the U of C in 1966, Fano advised 30 Ph.D. students, most of whom have become physics professors. He was elected to the Royal Society of London in 1995 and the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei in 1993. He received, among many honors, the 1996 Enrico Fermi Award from President Bill Clinton. He is survived by his wife, Camilla; two daughters, including Mary Fano Giacomoni, MAT'69; a brother; and four grandchildren. A memorial service will be held Saturday, May 5, at 2 p.m. at the Max Palevsky Cinema, Ida Noyes Hall, 1212 E. 59th Street.
Aaron Novick, SB'40, PhD'43, a scientist, died December 21 in Eugene, OR. He was 81. Part of the team that designed and built the first atomic bomb, Novick left the Manhattan Project because he opposed military control of the nation's nuclear program. From 1947 to 1958 Novick was an associate professor at the U of C, and in 1959 he became the founding director of the University of Oregon's Institute of Molecular Biology. Survivors include his wife, Jane Graham Novick, AB'45, and two sons.
Frank J. Orland, SM'45, PhD'49, a retired professor in dental surgery and researcher, died November 25 in Oak Park, IL. He was 83. A former director of the dental clinic at Billings Hospital, Orland taught oral microbiology at the University for 30 years. He edited the Journal of Dental Research and served as president of the Society of Medical History of Chicago, the American Academy of the History of Dentistry, and the International Association for Dental Research. Throughout his life, Orland was active in the Forest Park community, founding the town's historical society. Survivors include his wife, Phyllis; a daughter; and three sons, including Frank R. Orland, AB'69.
John H. Rust, PhD'56, professor emeritus of radiology and pharmacological & physiological sciences, died February 11 in Chicago at age 91. Rust combined early training in veterinary pathology with his interest in radiation biology to pioneer the study of radiation injury. His research on the effects of radiation on farm animals became the standard models for estimating human risk. After joining the University faculty in 1959, he designed and served as director of the animal-research facility. He continued to consult on radiation safety and toxicology for public utilities and pharmaceutical companies after his 1973 retirement. He served on radiation safety committees for the World Health Organization, the U.S. Public Health Service, and the Environmental Protection Agency. He is survived by two daughters; two sons, including Milbern J. Rust, PhD'66; and eight grandchildren.
1920s and 1930s
Howard Landau, PhB'24, a real-estate developer and philanthropist, died February 8 in Chicago. He was 98. In 1954 Landau and a partner opened the Woodmar Mall in Hammond, IN. He became a major developer and manager of commercial property in Illinois and Indiana. After retirement, he co-founded the Community Ventures program of the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs, which linked Jewish investors with community-development groups to build or renovate affordable housing in the Humboldt Park, Grand Boulevard, and Pilsen neighborhoods. A board member and president of the Young Men's Jewish Council, he was also a founding member of the Illinois chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. He later worked with the Albert Einstein Peace Prize Foundation to bring together U.S., Israeli, and Egyptian scientists to develop technology for irrigating Egyptian fields. Survivors include a daughter, Kay Landau Berkson, AM'69; a son; and a grandson.
Ruth F. Charles, SB'25, MD'39, a physician, died November 10 in Evanston, IL, at age 97. Charles opened a successful obstetrics practice in the Beverly neighborhood and served on the staff of Chicago Lying-In Hospital for many years. Survivors include two nieces and a nephew.
Mary Hunter Wolf, X'29, a Broadway director, died November 3 in Hamden, CT. She was 95. From 1931 to 1933 Hunter played the part of Marge on the WGN radio comedy Easy Acres. One of the first female directors on Broadway, she made her debut with the 1944 production of Horton Foote's Only the Heart. In 1945 she directed Carib Song, the first black Broadway musical. She founded the American Actors Company and helped Lawrence Langner establish the American Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford, CT, serving as executive director and later as associate producer. She is survived by her husband, Herman Wolf, AB'33; a stepdaughter; two stepsons, including David P. Wolf, AB'65, JD'68; and six grandchildren.
Robert B. Lewy, SB'30, MD'35, a physician, died October 6 in Chicago at age 91. Lewy, who practiced medicine for 50 years in Chicago and taught at the University of Illinois, developed surgical techniques and instruments, including the Lewy laryngoscope holder. A former president of the Laryngological and Otological Society, in retirement he became a regular member of the roundtable at the Quadrangle Club. He is survived by a daughter; a son, Alfred J. Lewy, SB'67, MD'73, PhD'73; and a brother, Lawrence E. Lewy, AB'34, JD'36.
Herbert A. Simon, AB'36, PhD'43, an economics Nobel laureate, artificial-intelligence expert, and professor, died February 9 in Pittsburgh. He was 84. Simon studied how computer science, economics, administration, and psychology affect decision making and problem solving in social institutions. A founder of the field of artificial intelligence, he used computers to simulate human thinking. He joined the Carnegie-Mellon University faculty in 1959 and helped develop its cognitive-science group. Among his distinctions are the 1975 A. M. Turing Award for work in computer science, the 1978 Nobel Prize in economic sciences, and the 1986 National Medal of Science. Simon also was a fellow or member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Association for Artificial Intelligence, and the Econometric Society. Survivors include his wife, Dorothea Pye Simon, AM'41; two daughters; a son; and six grandchildren.
1940s and 1950s
Melvin B. Gottlieb, SB'40, PhD'52, a physicist, died December 1 in Haverford, PA, at age 83. Among the first Westerners to inspect the Soviet Union's fusion-energy program in 1958, Gottlieb helped plan joint research projects and promoted cooperation between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. As director of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory from 1961 to 1980, Gottlieb oversaw the project to increase production of fusion energy for peaceful scientific purposes. Survivors include his wife, Golda Gehrman Gottlieb, PhB'48; a daughter; and two grandchildren.
David R. Hunter, AM'40, an innovator in philanthropy, died November 25 in Port Washington, NY. He was 84. During his career in nonprofit organizations and government, Hunter served as executive director of the Stern Fund, a Manhattan-based foundation whose causes included protecting battered women and promoting environmental justice. Author of The Slums: Challenge and Response, he also designed urban anti-poverty programs. He is survived by his wife, Barbara; two stepsons; and two grandchildren.
Joseph A. Greenwald, AB'41, a foreign service official, died October 30 in Washington, DC. He was 82. Greenwald served as ambassador to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris from 1969 to 1972 and to the European Community in Brussels from 1972 to 1976. Retiring in 1976 as assistant secretary of state for economic and business affairs, he became president of the Japanese subsidiary of the Bendix Corporation and later practiced international law. Survivors include his wife, Virginia; a daughter, Jawj E. D. Greenwald, JD'80; two sons; and five grandchildren.
Richard C. Blakeslee, AB'43, AM'46, a professor emeritus of English, died April 7, 2000, in Santa Barbara, CA. He was 78. Blakeslee taught at Northwestern University, Wisconsin State College, and San Fernando Valley State College (now California State University), where he remained until his 1992 retirement. He was the author of the folk song "Passing Through." Survivors include his wife, Pat; three daughters; a son; and nine grandchildren.
Edith M. Fleming, AB'43, AM'50, a staff member at the Field Museum, died December 20 in Oak Park, IL. She was 78. Fleming worked for the museum until retirement. Survivors include her sister.
Jack C. Berger, SB'44, MD'46, a psychiatrist and former surgeon, died January 2 in Chicago at age 77. Berger's experience during the Korean War inspired him to become a plastic surgeon, and he continued to work with veterans. In mid-career, when the onset of complete blindness prevented him from practicing surgery, he became a psychiatrist. He retired in 1991. Survivors include his wife, Virginia "Ginny" Butts, AB'44, and a sister, Lois Berger Woodbridge, PhB'46.
Sebastian De Grazia, AB'44, PhD'48, a political philosopher and biographer, died December 31 in Princeton, NJ. He was 83. Best known for his 1990 Pulitzer Prize-winning biography, Machiavelli in Hell, De Grazia taught political philosophy at Rutgers University from 1962 to 1988. Survivors include his wife, Lucia; a daughter; four sons; and three brothers, including Alfred De Grazia, AB'39, PhD'48, and Edward R. De Grazia, AB'48, JD'51.
Robert J. List, SB'46, SM'47, a retired U.S. Weather Bureau meteorologist, died December 22 in Alexandria, VA, at age 81. An expert at tracking radioactive fallout from U.S. and Soviet nuclear tests, List testified at Congressional hearings for the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty of 1963. After serving in WWII as a commissioned officer in the Navy, he edited the 1949 Smithsonian Meteorological Tables, a standard reference book for scientists before the computer age. Survivors include his wife, Ernestine; a daughter; a son; a stepdaughter; a stepson, Daniel M. Katz, JD'69; and nine grandchildren.
James M. Blaut, PhB'48, SB'50, a professor, author, and fighter for social justice, died November 13 in Chicago. He was 73. Blaut taught geography and anthropology at the University of Illinois and developed theories on how land affects the way people live and learn. He believed strongly in justice for developing nations and supported Puerto Rican independence. Survivors include his wife, America, and a daughter.
C. Ray Dobbins, AM'51, a minister, died December 28 in Nashville, TN, at age 81. Dobbins, who served the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Memphis, TN, edited its denominational news and opinion magazine, the Cumberland Presbyterian Press. From 1984 to 1985 he moderated the General Assembly of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, a 100,000-member denomination in 22 states and five countries. He served nine years on the board of the Associated Church Press of U.S. and Canada. Survivors include his wife, Mary Alice; four daughters; three sons; and ten grandchildren.
Marshall Patner, JD'56, an attorney who lived in Hyde Park, died December 24 at age 69. After law school Patner became the administrative aide to Leon M. Despres, PhB'27, JD'29, who led the small opposition movement against the late Mayor Richard J. Daley. As a cooperating attorney for the Illinois division of the American Civil Liberties Union, Patner argued before the Supreme Court in the free speech case of comedian-activist Dick Gregory v. the City of Chicago. Later he co-created Businessmen in the Public Interest, a civic organization that supported such groups as the Chicago-based Friends of the Parks and the Coalition to Save the South Shore Railroad. He also founded a private litigation practice. A lover of food and conversation, Patner joined with friends to start the Medici Coffee House and Gallery on East 53rd Street in 1958. He is survived by his wife, Irene; three sons, including Andrew Patner, X'81, X'88; and a brother, Bruce D. Patner, JD'60.
1960s to Current
Stephen R. Yates, AB'63, JD'67, a Cook County judge, died December 15 of Lou Gehrig's disease in his Streeterville home. He was 60. Yates, the son of the late U.S. Representative Sidney Yates, PhB'31, JD'33 (D-IL), served as an associate judge for the city from 1976 until 1988, when he was elected a full judge. In 1994 he became the first Illinois judge to rule that same-sex couples could adopt children. Survivors include his mother, Adeline Holler Yates, PhB'34; two daughters; and a son.
Lawrence H. Schwartz, JD'66, an attorney and former public defender, died October 14 in Washington, DC, of a cerebral hemorrhage. He was 58. In the early 1970s Schwartz handled class-action cases for the Center for Law and Social Policy, a public-interest law firm in Washington, DC. He helped found the private law firm Stiller, Adler and Schwartz and taught and lectured for the National Institute of Trial Advocacy and as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center. Survivors include his wife, Judith Levey Schwartz, AM'67, and three sons.
William J. Murnane, AM'68, PhD'73, a scholar of Egyptian history, died November 17 of heart failure in Memphis, TN. He was 55. The author of The Penguin Guide to Ancient Egypt, Murnane also served as an expert for television programming including the History Channel. He taught undergraduate and graduate courses as an adjunct professor at the University of Memphis's Institute of Egyptian Art and Archaeology. He is survived by his mother and a sister.
Michael P. Mortara, MBA'74, a partner at Goldman Sachs, died November 12 of a brain aneurysm in his Litchfield, CT, home. He was 51. Mortara was an innovator in the market for mortgage-backed securities. After working for Salomon Brothers from 1974 to 1987, he joined Goldman Sachs to head its mortgage-backed securities division, later becoming co-head of fixed income, currencies, and commodities, and president and chief executive of GS Ventures, a venture capital offshoot of Goldman Sachs. He is survived by his wife, Virginia, and two sons.
Nina M. Klarich, MBA'76, a former aide to Mayor Richard M. Daley and former chief of Chicago Technology Park, died December 30 of lung cancer in Chicago. She was 61. During her three-year position as president and CEO of Technology Park, a small business incubator, Klarich increased occupancy rates. In 1991 she assumed a leadership role in the Department of Economic Development and continued to oversee her small-business consulting firm. She is survived by her mother and two brothers.
James M. Sullivan, PhD'93, an anthropologist, died November 8 of a heart attack in his Hyde Park home. He was 50. A self-taught computer programmer, he developed an information system to evaluate programs at the Ounce of Prevention Fund, a Chicago-based organization that helps teenage mothers and their children. A former employee of the National Opinion Research Center and United Charities (now Metropolitan Family Services), Sullivan contributed to a study of high school health clinics and their effects on teen smoking and alcohol abuse. Survivors include a sister.
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