The University of Chicago Magazine

Faculty and Staff

Kenneth J. Rehage, AM’35, PhD’48, professor emeritus of education, died January 31 in New Brunswick, NJ. He was 96. Rehage joined the education department in 1949, later serving as its dean of graduate students. He received a 1959 Quantrell Award for undergraduate teaching, ran the Pakistan education program (1963–73), and was dean of students in the Social Sciences Division (1972–82). Survivors include his wife Laurel; daughter Joan Rehage Kleckner, U-High’57, AB’62; sons Lawrence D. Rehage, U-High’68, MST’80, and David F. Rehage, U-High’63; five grandchildren; and a great-grandchild.

Nathan A. Scott Jr., professor of theology and literature, died December 20 in Charlottesville, VA. He was 81. After teaching at Howard University, in 1955 Scott joined the Divinity School; in 1972 he became the Shailer Mathews professor of theology and literature. An Episcopal priest, he served as canon theologian at St. James Cathedral (1966–76). He and his wife, Charlotte H. Scott, MBA’64, were the first African Americans tenured at the University of Virginia, where he taught from 1976 until 1990. Survivors include his wife, a daughter, a son, and six grandchildren.

1920s

Allan A. Filek, SB’28, MD’33, a public-health officer, died January 9 in Sun City, AZ. He was 99. Joining the Wisconsin State Board of Health in 1936, he served as a captain in the Army Medical Corps during WW II. In 1958 he moved to Illinois, retiring as public-health director for the Evanston–North Shore Health Department in 1972. Survivors include his wife Maurine, a daughter, a stepdaughter, six grandchildren, two step-grandchildren, and nine great-grandchildren.

1930s

Burton Aries, PhB’32, JD’34, died February 18 in San Diego. He was 96. After work at a law firm, Aries joined Spiegel Catalog. He later became general manager of a family business, Harris Wrecking Company of Cleveland. Survivors include his wife Sue, a daughter, a son, two stepchildren, two sisters, and a grandson.

Miriam Bloch Lovins, PhB’34, AM’35, died December 18 in Albuquerque, NM. She was 97. A social worker in Washington, DC, for ten years, Lovins later helped her husband, Gerald H. Lovins, SM’34, run a scientific-instrument business. She also worked as a technical editor and was active in civic affairs. Survivors include her husband, daughter Julie Beth Lovins, AM’70, PhD’73, and a son.

Cody Pfanstiehl, X’37, died February 1 in Silver Spring, MD. He was 90. A WW II air force veteran, he worked in Chicago and DC before becoming community-service director of what is now the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. Retiring in 1982, he joined his wife Margaret in developing audio services for the blind. Survivors include his wife, two daughters, a son, a stepson, nine grandchildren, and a great-grandson.

Samuel J. Gorlitz, AB’38, an economist, died January 5 in Bethesda, MD. He was 89. A WW II army veteran, Gorlitz joined the State Department in the 1950s. In 1962 he began the Federal Realty Investment Trust, which now owns some 19 million square feet of property nationwide. He also founded the Samuel & Grace Gorlitz Foundation, which supports medical, educational, and Jewish women’s organizations. Survivors include his wife Grace, two daughters, and four grandchildren.

Majid Khadduri, PhD’38, an expert on Islamic law and the politics and history of Iraq, died January 25 in Potomac, MD. He was 98. In 1945 the Iraq native was a member of that country’s delegation to the founding session of the United Nations; four years later he joined Johns Hopkins’s fledgling program in Middle East studies, which he directed until his 1980 retirement. Khadduri wrote more than 35 books in English and Arabic and founded the al-Shaybani Society of International Law. Survivors include a daughter, a son, a brother, a sister, and three grandchildren.

Anatol Rapoport, SB’38, SM’40, PhD’41, a mathematician and social scientist who wrote two-dozen books on game theory and human behavior, died January 21 in Toronto. He was 95. After seven years at Chicago, Rapoport joined the University of Michigan in 1955. A peace activist, he staged the nation’s first teach-in in 1965. Moving to the University of Toronto Scarborough in 1970, he founded the Peace and Conflict Studies program; in 1976 he won the Lenz International Peace Research Prize. After his 1979 retirement he became director of the Institute of Advanced Studies in Vienna, a post he held until 1983. Survivors include his wife Gwen, a daughter, and two sons.

1940s

Ruth Mortenson Sowash, AB’42, died January 31 in Bath, ME. She was 86. An administrative assistant to University President Robert M. Hutchins, Sowash married State Department officer William B. Sowash, AB’39, AM’41, traveling with him to Spain, El Salvador, Guatemala, Argentina, and Honduras. A proofreader for the Congressional Indexing Service, she also read for the blind. Survivors include a daughter and two grandchildren.

Arthur R. Koch, AB’45, a pastor, died December 30 in La Grange, IL. He was 83. After his 1948 ordination, Koch served his first pastorate in Waipahu, HI. Moving to Illinois, he served at United Church of Christ churches in Edgebrook, Galva, and Mundelein for 11 years and in Springfield for 19 years. Survivors include his wife Ruth and two daughters.

Dona Z. Meilach, PhB’46, died December 28 in Carlsbad, CA. She was 80. Meilach began writing for Redbook, the New York Times, and the Chicago Tribune in the late 1950s. In the 1970s she published books on macramé, and later on wood furniture, ethnic jewelry, ironwork, and blacksmithing. She also wrote cookbooks and titles on computers and software. Survivors include her husband Melvin, a daughter, a son, and three grandsons.

Sydney H. Rosen, PhB’46, AM’49, PhD’73, died December 29 in San Francisco. She was 81. Rosen’s career included teaching at Colby College and reporting at the Sacramento Bee, as well as work with the law firm Farella Braun + Martell.

Sherwin Landfield, AM’48, a Foreign Service officer, died February 3 in Arlington, VA. He was 86. A WW II army veteran, Landfield taught briefly at Roosevelt University before joining the nascent U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). At posts in Haiti, Paraguay, Ecuador, and Bolivia, he helped set up local education programs. For his work improving USAID’s internal communications, he won the agency’s Meritorious Honor Award. Retiring in 1977, he traveled widely and was active in civic affairs. Survivors include his wife Jacqueline, two sons, two sisters, and a grandson.

John H. Landor, a PhB’48, MD’53, a surgeon, died January 4 in Monterey, MA. He was 79. Landor was founding chief of general surgery at what is now the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, where an annual award for scholarship and teaching bears his name. In 1984 he joined the Indian Health Service as chief of surgery at Shiprock Hospital on New Mexico’s Shiprock Navajo reservation. In 1987 Landor moved to the SUNY Health Science Center in Brooklyn, retiring as professor emeritus in 1992. Survivors include his wife Mary W. Gibbons, three daughters, three sons, two stepchildren, four grandchildren, and five step-grandchildren.

Donald E. Osterbrock, PhB’48, SB’48, SM’49, PhD’52, ScD’92, an astronomer and science historian, died January 12 in Santa Cruz, CA. He was 82. As a graduate student, he helped determine the spiral shape of the Milky Way; in 1973 he left a post at the University of Wisconsin, joining the University of California, Santa Cruz, as a professor and director of the Lick Observatory (1973–81), retiring in 1992. Author of a standard graduate text, Astrophysics of Gaseous Nebulae and Active Galactic Nuclei (1989), he wrote five books and more than 150 articles, was president of the American Astronomical Society, and received numerous honors. Survivors include his wife Irene, two daughters, a son, and three grandchildren.

Robert B. Stewart, PhB’48, AM’51, a textbook editor, died February 13 in Chappaqua, NY. He was 79. During his 40-year publishing career, Stewart worked for Scott-Foresman, Holt, and Prentice Hall. Survivors include his wife Betty, two daughters, and two grandchildren.

1950s

Anna-Marie Chirico, MD’50, an internist, died February 4 in Philadelphia. She was 82. After several years in private practice, Chirico joined the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in 1959. During her 30-year career at Penn, she chaired the medical board and received several teaching awards. She also volunteered at the Morris Arboretum, growing plants for medical research. Retiring professor emeritus, she tutored high-school students in science and math.

Albert C. Svoboda Jr., AB’51, SB’55, MD’58, died September 14 in Santa Barbara, CA. He was 75. Moving to Santa Barbara in 1966, Svoboda joined the Sansum Medical Clinic as an internist and gastroenterologist. Since 1996 he had been a senior scientist at the Sansum Diabetes Research Institute and director of the summer internship program. An amateur horticulturist, he was president of the Santa Barbara Orchid Society and the local chapter of the Cymbidium Society of America. Survivors include his wife Sandra, two daughters, a son, and a sister, Mae Svoboda Rhodes, AB’48, AM’51.

Raymond L. Gold, AM’50, PhD’54, a sociologist, died January 6 in Missoula, MT. He was 85. He taught at the University of Montana from 1955 to 1981, retiring as director of its Institute for Social Science Research. In the early ’60s he worked in Uganda as director of research for Teachers for East Africa. Survivors include his wife Alice, a daughter, four stepchildren, and seven grandchildren.

Marjory Katz Alper, AB’57, a therapist, died February 10 in Newtown, PA. She was 71. Alper taught at the Phillips-Barber Family Health Center, Kean College, and Rutgers University. She also was a social worker at Jewish Family and Children’s Service of Greater Philadelphia and Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania, and served as director of behavioral health at Hunterdon Medical Center. For five years before her April 2006 retirement, she was a psychotherapist at the Center for Advanced Psychological Solutions. Survivors include two daughters, a son, and a brother.

Jean Clish Butt, AM’58, died October 26 in Peabody, MA. She was 78. After serving with the Red Cross in Korea, Butt joined Tufts University’s Wessell Library, where she worked for 18 years, rising to department head. Survivors include her husband Clifton, a son, and two sisters.

Joseph R. Byerwalter, MBA’58, an airline executive, died January 9 in Stanford, CA. During 30 years with United Airlines, Byerwalter rose from project engineer to senior vice president of the western division. Active in local causes, he chaired the Bay Area United Way and cochaired the Save the Cable Car Committee of San Francisco; he received a brass key to the City of San Francisco from Mayor Diane Feinstein. Survivors include his wife Mary; a daughter; a son; a brother, Robert J. Byerwalter, MBA’60; and three grandchildren.

Benjamin F. Holman, X’59, a journalist, died January 20 in Greenbelt, MD. He was 76. For ten years the only African American reporter at the Chicago Daily News, in 1962 Holman moved to broadcast news, working with CBS and NBC. Appointed assistant director of the Justice Department’s Community Relations Service during the Johnson Administration, he served as director under presidents Nixon and Ford. In 1978 he joined the University of Maryland, where he was acting dean of the journalism school in 1980–81; he retired in 2004. Survivors include a sister.

1960s

Elois Field, PhD’61, a nurse educator, died February 4 in Fort Worth, TX. She was 85. After holding posts at Duke, Emory, and the University of Arkansas Medical Sciences College of Nursing, in 1979 Field joined the University of Texas at Arlington. There she served as professor of nursing and developed the nurse-practitioner program.

Allan R. Pred, PhD’62, a geographer, died January 5 in Berkeley, CA. He was 70. A pioneer in human geography, Pred joined the University of California, Berkeley, in 1962, chairing its geography department from 1979 to 1988. Studying city life in the U.S. and Sweden, he wrote 22 books and monographs and 70 articles and book chapters. He was honored by both the Swedish Society for Geography and Anthropology and the Association of American Geographers. Survivors include his wife Hjördis, a daughter, a son, a brother, and a sister.

Iliya F. Harik, PhD’64, a Middle East scholar, died February 24 in Bloomington, IN. He was 72. Joining Indiana University in 1964, Harik helped establish and directed (1980–83) its Middle East Studies Center. He also was a visiting professor at the universities of Lebanon and Cairo. After his 1998 retirement, Harik continued to teach, write, and consult. Survivors include his wife Elsa, his mother, three sons, six sisters, and a granddaughter.

Marvin J. Kohn, SB’65, AM’66, PhD’70, a mathematics professor, died of renal cancer January 2 in Larchmont, NY. He was 63. An expert in trigonometric series, he taught for some 30 years at Brooklyn College and was active in Westchester’s Jewish community. Survivors include his wife Paula, a daughter, and a brother, Stanley E. Kohn, AB’69.

Lois Roney, AM’65, an expert on medieval literature, died August 24 in Boston. Roney taught at the University of Missouri–Columbia, Rice University, University of Texas–Dallas, and St. Cloud State University. Her books include Chaucer’s Knight’s Tale and Theories of Scholastic Psychology (1990) and Academic Animals: A Bestiary of Higher-Education Teaching and How It Got That Way (2002). Survivors include a daughter and a grandson.

1980s

Linda Urban Sears, MST’81, died of breast cancer February 18 in Sayre, PA. She was 55. After studying the Montessori method in Bergamo, Italy, Sears set up the first Montessori classroom in the Chicago Public Schools. Survivors include her husband Stanley Franklin Sears, AM’80, and two sons.

2000s

Gloria Padilla, AB’00, a cosmetics saleswoman, was murdered January 16 in Chicago. She was 28. A former case manager with the Lawndale Christian Health Center, Padilla joined Mary Kay after her children were born. Survivors include her parents, three sisters, a son, and a daughter.