The University of Chicago Magazine

FACULTY AND STAFF

Gwin J. Kolb, AM’46, PhD’49, the Chester D. Tripp professor emeritus in the humanities and English Language & Literature, died April 3 in Hyde Park. He was 86. A WW II veteran, he was an authority on 18th-century English literature who wrote or edited nine books, six on Samuel Johnson, and served 30-plus years on the general editorial committee of the Yale Edition of the Works of Samuel Johnson. During 40 years at Chicago (1949–89), he earned a Quantrell Award for undergraduate teaching (1955), led the undergraduate humanities division (1960-62), chaired the English department (1963–72), coedited Modern Philology (1973–89), and was residential master of Burton-Judson (1974–78). Survivors include his wife, Ruth Godbold Kolb; a son, Jack Kolb, AB’67; a daughter, Alma Dean Kolb, AB’72, an editor with the University Press; and two granddaughters, including Austen Kolb Novak, AB’03.

Charles Shireman, PhD’66, a retired professor in the School of Social Service Administration, died February 24 in Portland, OR. He was 90. An expert on juvenile delinquency, he did social work on the West Coast and in Germany and was director of the Hyde Park Youth Project before joining the SSA in 1958. The former Fulbright scholar cowrote Rehabilitating Juvenile Justice (1986) and coedited Social Work Practice and Social Justice (1973). He retired in 1985, becoming an adjunct professor at Portland State University. Widowed in 1966, he is survived by his second wife, Joan L. Foster, AM’59, PhD’68; a daughter; two sons; six grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

1940s

George W. Johnson, AM’41, a retired English professor, died February 12 in Golden, CO. He was 96. After WW II service in the U.S. Air Force, in 1946 he joined the humanities department of the Colorado School of Mines, retiring as professor emeritus in 1974. In retirement he and his wife Allegra, who predeceased him, traveled widely. He enjoyed reading, gardening, and woodworking. Survivors include three daughters, a sister, and a brother.

Donna Marie Culliton Miller, AB’42, a public-relations specialist, died February 4 in Torrance, CA. After a divorce from Lewis R. Miller, AB’42, she moved to California in 1959. From 1964 to 1972, she was press secretary for Nelson Rockefeller’s California campaign, worked on Ronald Reagan’s first gubernatorial campaign, and raised funds for the Republican Party of Los Angeles County. She then began a display-advertising business and in retirement earned a real-estate license. She was active in the U of C Alumni Association and the Los Angeles County Federation of Republican Women. Survivors include a son and daughter.

David T. Hellyer, MD’44, died January 20 in Tacoma, WA. He was 92. A professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington and author of Your Child and You: A Pediatrician Talks to New Mothers (1966), Hellyer was also a partner in a ski-lift construction and operation company. In 1971 he donated 535 acres of woodlands and meadows to the city of Tacoma to develop Northwest Trek, a free-roaming wildlife park. Survivors include his wife of 70 years, Constance; three daughters; seven grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.

Robert E. Bell, AM’43, PhD’47, an anthropologist, died January 1 in Norman, OK. He was 91. As a teenager traveling in Oklahoma, he saw how relic hunters had raided Spiro Mounds, an important pre-Columbian site, and decided to become an archaeologist. After WW II service in the Army Medical Corps, he finished his studies at Chicago and joined the University of Oklahoma’s anthropology faculty, chairing the department and serving 24 years as curator of the Stovall Museum of Science and History. Founder of the Oklahoma Anthropological Society, he earned many research, teaching, and service awards. Among survivors are a daughter, a son, five grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.

Eliot Freidson, PhB’47, AM’50, PhD’52, who studied the sociology of medicine and other professions, died December 14 in San Francisco. He was 82. Freidson’s Chicago career was interrupted by Army service in WW II. After several postdoctoral fellowships, in 1961 he became a professor of sociology at New York University; as an emeritus professor he moved to San Francisco in 1993 and was a visiting professor at the University of California, San Francisco. Author of the award-winning Profession of Medicine (1970), he wrote 11 other books and almost 100 journal articles and was elected to the National Academy of Sciences. Survivors include his wife, Helen Emery Giambruni; a son; a daughter; four grandchildren; and two sisters.

Fred K. Hoehler Jr., AM’47, a labor educator, died January 4 in Bellingham, WA. He was 87. An Army Air Corps veteran of WW II, he taught at several universities before joining Michigan State University as professor and associate director of its School of Labor and Industrial Relations (1956–70). In 1969 AFL-CIO leader George Meany asked him to establish an advanced training center for union leadership; Hoehler led the George Meany Center for Labor Studies, now the National Labor College, until 1985. Among survivors are his wife, Lisa; two sons; two grandchildren; and a sister.

1950s

Charles Bartlett (“Bart”) McGuire, AM’52, who developed mathematical models for public-policy analysis, died January 23 in Richmond, CA. He was 80. A WW II veteran, he joined the Rand Corporation in 1954; there he coauthored Studies in the Economics of Transportation, still the basis for computer models used in transportation planning. In 1971 he joined the University of California, Berkeley’s Graduate School of Public Policy. Retiring in 1992, he continued his research, most recently studying how efficient sorting could be applied to library design. He enjoyed music, three-dimensional paper folding, hiking, and fishing. Among survivors are his wife, Sally; two stepdaughters; and a brother, Michael McGuire, AB’50.

Sam Ruth, MBA’53, a leader in elder care, died January 27 in Toronto. He was 84. Ruth left a Toledo, OH, job in hospital administration in 1956 to become CEO of Baycrest, then a Toronto home for the aged and chronic-care hospital. Over the next 24 years he oversaw Baycrest’s growth into a “continuum of care” model affiliated with the University of Toronto, where he was an assistant professor of medicine. He retired in 1980 to become founding president of the Baycrest Foundation, spearheading a capital campaign for a 300-bed hospital; retiring in 1988 he continued as a consultant until 2001. Among survivors are his wife of 53 years, Nancy; three sons; and six grandchildren.

Richard K. Seyfarth, AB’54, MBA’55, an investment banker in Chicago, died February 19 in Wilmette, IL. He was 76. A past president of the Friends of the Wilmette Public Library, he was active in local Republican organizations and served on the New Trier Township High School strategic planning committee. Survivors include his wife of 50 years, Barbara; three sons; five grandchildren; and a brother.

The Rev. Hezekiah Maloa Openda, SM’58, an educator who became an Anglican priest, died October 17 in Mumias, Kenya. He was 78. After studying in the United States on a Fulbright scholarship, he began a teaching career and was the first Kenyan principal of the East African School of Aviation, a post he held until 1982. A decade later he retired from government service to devote his time to farming and the church; he was ordained in 1993. Among survivors are his wife, Salome; four daughters; and three sons.

Kenneth D. Nordin, AB’59, AM’67, a professor of communications arts at Benedictine University, died February 23 in Lisle, IL, of a heart attack. He was 68. Captain of Chicago’s fencing team and a member of the soccer team, he became an avid marathoner and triathloner. After working as a reporter for the Christian Science Monitor, he earned a PhD in American studies (University of Michigan) and taught journalism at the University of Wisconsin–Madison before raising and training Arabian horses in New Hampshire. Returning to Chicago, in 1991 he joined the humanities department at Benedictine, where he also served for more than ten years as the student newspaper’s faculty adviser. Survivors include a son and a daughter, two grandchildren, two sisters, and a brother.

1960s

Ruth Emory, AM’61, died January 16 in Portland, OR. She was 86. After teaching in California and New Mexico and doing youth work with the Methodist Church in Nashville, TN, she earned her master’s from the Chicago Theological Seminary (then part of the U of C). In 1969 she moved to Portland, working at the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, in private consulting, and with Human Systems Development Professionals. In 1994, at age 75, she helped create a group-living community known as the Trillium Hollow Cohousing Neighborhood. Survivors include her longtime friend and colleague, Rene Pinó, and two brothers.

Kenneth C. Laitinen, SB’62, SM’67, MBA’77, PhD’79, died January 15 of colon cancer. An economist with Bell Labs in Murray Hill, NJ, he is survived by his wife, Gerry Ketterson, AB’62, AM’66, MBA’76.

Robert M. Janowiak, MBA’63, an information-technology executive, died January 29 in Wilmette, IL. He was 70. With an electrical-engineering degree from the University of Illinois, he joined IIT Research Institute, heading its research and software-development programs before serving as vice president of information products at Rockwell International and president of Federal Signal Corporation. He was executive director of the International Engineering Consortium; Eta Kappa Nu, the electrical and computer engineering honor society; and the 300-member Electrical and the Computer Engineering Department Heads Association. Survivors include his wife, Judy; three daughters; three sons; 17 grandchildren; and a brother.

Samuel Laimon, MBA’65, a former dean of the University of Saskatchewan College of Commerce, died December 5 in Saskatoon. He was 83. Laimon joined the Canadian school’s faculty in 1954 and was named professor and head of accounting in 1966; he served as dean from 1968 to 1976, retiring in 1990. Active in the local Jewish community, he is survived by his wife, Pauline; a son; a daughter; and five grandchildren.

Edward John Stoll, MBA’66, died December 13 in Little Valley, NY. He was 90. In 47 years with the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railroad, retiring as vice president for industrial and real-estate development, Stoll spent 31 years in Chicago. A former president of the American Economic Development Council, he sang in church choirs for some 60 years. In retirement he and his wife, Evelyn, who died in 2002, were active volunteers. Survivors include a son, a grandson, a granddaughter, and two great-grandchildren.

Elodie Smith Colquitt, AB’67, died February 5 in West Chester, PA, of breast cancer. She was 60. With a master’s degree in political science from Virginia Polytechnic Institute, she worked 20 years for Lockheed Martin as a systems engineer. A member of the Barley Sheaf Players and the Toast Mistress Club of Virginia, she is survived by her former husband, Tom; a daughter; a son; and a grandson.

1970s

Michael Wallerstein, AM’78, PhD’85, a professor of political science at Yale University, died January 7 in New Haven, CT, of brain cancer. He was 55. Wallerstein also taught at Northwestern (1994–2004) and the University of California, Los Angeles (1984–1994). His research in comparative politics focused on inequality in advanced industrial societies, especially the impact of labor-market institutions. A member of the National Academy of Arts and Sciences, he coedited Globalization and Egalitarian Redistribution (forthcoming, 2006). An outdoorsman, he enjoyed sailing, skiing, and canoeing. Survivors include his wife, Liz Atlas; a daughter; a son; his parents; and two sisters.

1980s

James Holzwart, MBA’82, a water-management administrator, died December 10 in South Barrington, IL, of pancreatic cancer. He was 57. Holzwart spent much of his 30-year career as general manager of the DuPage Water Commission; joining the agency in 1986 he oversaw the six-year, $400 million construction of a pipeline from Lake Michigan to DuPage County. Retiring in 2004, he divided his time between Barrington and St. George, UT. Survivors include his wife, Anita, and a sister.

Kenneth Cmiel, AM’78, PhD’86, a cultural historian, died February 4 in Iowa City, IA, of a brain tumor. He was 51. A professor of history and American studies at the University of Iowa, where he had taught since 1987 and where he also directed the Center for Human Rights, Cmiel was the author of the award-winning Democratic Eloquence: The Fight Over Popular Speech in Nineteenth-Century America (1990) and A Home of Another Kind: One Chicago Orphanage and the Tangle of Child Welfare (1995). Survivors include his wife, Anne Duggan; two daughters; a son; his mother, Jean Cmiel, U-High’43; his sister, Carol Butler, AB'79, one brother, and an aunt, Ruth Gasior, AB’43.

Clinton A. Roenisch, MBA’88, died February 12 in Kentfield, CA. He was 44. Survivors include his wife, Cynthia C. Roenisch, JD’90; a son and a daughter; his parents and his stepfather, Robert W. Crowe, AB’48, JD’49; a sister; a brother; and two stepbrothers, including Robert Crowe, AB’80.

1990s

Nancy Mollin Michael, PhD’93, died March 30 in Hyde Park of brain and spinal cancer. She was 63. As a laboratory researcher (working at Rockefeller University, Columbia University, Stanford, Copenhagen, and for two decades at the U of C), Michael was the author of major publications on viral regulatory proteins and somatic hypermutation of antibody genes. She enjoyed gardening, cooking, hiking, reading, and swimming. Among survivors are her husband, Robert T. Michael, a professor in the Harris School of Public Policy Studies; a daughter; a son; two grandchildren; and a sister.