The University of Chicago Magazine

Faculty and Staff

Izaak Wirszup, PhD’55, professor emeritus in mathematics, died January 30 in Chicago. He was 93. A Holocaust survivor, he returned to Wilno (Vilnius), where he had been a mathematics lecturer, to learn that all of his relatives, including his wife and young son, had died. Invited to become director of research at the Paris department store Galeries Lafayette, he moved with his new wife and her young daughter to France; in 1949 a professor from his time in Wilno asked him to join the U of C as a mathematics lecturer; he became a full professor in 1965. A key player in improving American mathematics education, in 1983 he helped establish the University of Chicago School Mathematics Project, now the nation’s largest university-based curriculum project for kindergarten through 12th-grade math—work for which he received the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics’ lifetime achievement medal. Wirszup, who won a 1958 Quantrell Award for undergraduate teaching, and his wife, Pera, a lecturer in Slavic languages, served as resident masters of Woodward Court (1971–85), beginning a lecture series to encourage student-faculty interaction; a former student endowed the Wirszup Lectures in 1986. He is survived by his wife; a daughter, Marina W. Tatar, U-High’54, AB’59; three granddaughters, including Carolyn B. Tatar, MBA’86, and Audrey Tatar, MD’88; and six great-grandsons.

1920s

Leo Shapiro, PhB’25, a retired business executive, died October 31 in Anaheim, CA. He was 102. After 20 years with Sears, Roebuck and Co., where he became national sales manager, he held upper-management posts at Raisin Markets Inc. and Alpha Beta, retiring in 1970. Asked by Cal State Fullerton’s Office of Extended Education to organize a self-supporting educational program for the region’s older adults, he created what is now the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute and later cochaired fund-raising efforts for the university’s gerontology center. A founding member of the Orange County chapter of the National Conference of Christians and Jews, he was one of the first recipients of Cal State Fullerton’s highest honor, the presidential medallion.

1930s

Bertha Heimerdinger Wadt, PhB’30, died December 7 in Newtown, PA. She was 98. After raising her family in Illinois, she moved with her late husband Michael Greenebaum, PhB’24, to Washington, DC, where he worked for the Federal Home Loan Bank. In 1980, following Greenebaum’s death, Wadt moved to Pennswood Village, a retirement home in Newtown, where she met and married Bill Wadt. Active in politics, she was a member of the League of Women Voters. Survivors include two sons, five grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren.

Miriam G. Lichtenstein, SB’33, a retired school teacher, died this past December in Lincolnwood, IL. She was 93. Lichtenstein taught for many years at Niles North High School in the Chicago suburbs. She was preceded in death by her husband Milton.

Ashley A. Foard, JD’34, a civil servant, died November 29 in Nampa, ID. He was 97. After work as a law clerk at the Public Works Administration in Washington, DC, he held posts at the National Housing Agency, the Housing and Home Finance Agency, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, where he was acting general counsel. He received the HHFA’s Superior Accomplishment Award, a National Civil Service League Citation of Merit, and a Rockefeller Public Service Award from Prin?ceton University’s Woodrow Wilson School. In the 1960s he traveled to Peru and the Dominican Republic to work on housing programs with the Agency for International Development. Retiring in 1972, he belonged to Kiwanis and National Active and Retired Federal Employees. Survivors include his wife Eleanore, a daughter, a son, four stepsons, three grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.

Ralph Mansfield, SB’35, SM’37, a retired junior-college professor, died December 17 in Santa Rosa, CA. He was 95. As a Chicago grad student, he worked on a project to light the 1933 World’s Fair’s opening night using energy from the star Arcturus. The longtime Beverly, IL, resident taught in the City Colleges of Chicago system until his 1977 retirement; he and his wife lived on Majorca for 11 years before moving to California. In the 1960s he chaired the Independent Voters of Illinois. Among survivors are his wife Hilda, a former Lab Schools teacher; three daughters, including Pamela Mansfield, U-High’70; a son; four grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

1940s

Theodore Klitzke, AB’41, PhD’53, an art historian, died January 5 in Ruxton, MD. He was 92. Klitzke, who earned a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and studied in Paris, taught at Alfred University (NY) and the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, then joined the Maryland Institute College of Arts in 1968 as vice president of academic affairs; he later served as dean of the faculty and twice as interim president. He taught a printmaking course and, with his wife Margaret, who died in 1990, collected works by Kathe Kollwitz. Active in the civil-rights movement, the couple joined the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery. Klitzke’s survivors include two daughters and two grandchildren.

Paul S. McPherson, X’42, a retired intelligence analyst, died December 17 in Washington, DC. He was 87. Enlisting in the army in 1942, he served in Europe, was discharged four years later, and retired as a major from the reserves in 1963. In 1948 he joined the Foreign Broadcast Information Service as an intelligence analyst, later serving as chief of the London and the Okinawa bureaus; he retired in 1971. An Anglophile, he spent several months each year in England. Survivors include three daughters, a sister, and four grandchildren.

Madeline Stratton Morris, X’42, a retired teacher and principal, died December 26 in Chicago. She was 101. Morris, who held bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education from Northwestern University, began her Chicago Public Schools career in 1933. As a social-studies teacher, principal, and curriculum specialist, she introduced African American studies into the curriculum, publishing three books, including Stride Forward: Afro-American Biographies. Leaving the public-school system in 1968, she taught African American history, supervised practice teachers, or developed social-studies curricula for several local universities. President of the Chicago chapter of the National Council of Negro Women, she was a delegate to the 1980 Democratic National Convention. Twice widowed, she enjoyed travel. Survivors include a sister.

George Richard “Dick” Schreiber, X’44, a vending-machine–industry expert, died December 14 in Lake Bluff, IL. He was 85. In 1946 Schreiber joined Billboard Publishing, becoming editorial director; spotting a niche market in vending machines, he founded Vend magazine. He left publishing to become president of the National Automatic Merchandising Association, serving from 1970 until 1987. Author of many books, including three editions of A Concise History of Vending in the United States, he also chaired the board at Indiana’s St. Joseph’s College, which awarded him an honorary doctorate and named the humanities department in his honor. Survivors include his wife of 62 years, Veva J. Schreiber, PhB’44; two daughters; a son; and eight grandchildren.

Joan Leidner Miller, AB’45, former co-owner of a fabric shop, died December 5 in Silver Spring, MD. She was 85. After a stint with the Army Map Service in Washington, DC, she worked for a Georgetown interior-design and fabric store. In 1952 she and a coworker founded the Market Square Shop in the Old Town district of Alexandria, VA; she sold her interest in the fabrics and home-furnishings store in 1986. Miller volunteered with Fairfax County libraries, taught design in the public schools, and enjoyed tending an herb garden at her family’s vacation home. Survivors include her husband of 62 years, Paul A. Miller, AB’43, AM’47; two sons; and a sister.

Cornelius R. Hager, X’47, died May 18, 2007, in Wilmore, KY. He was 93. Hager’s career in education included 27 years as assistant dean of extended programs and adult education at the University of Kentucky. A trustee of Asbury College, his undergraduate alma mater, he thrice served as its interim president, and he spent four years as executive director of the United Methodist Foundation and served on many church-related boards. He also cofounded the local Little League and Babe Ruth Leagues, and he was a Boy Scout leader and a member of the library board and the 4-H council. Survivors include a daughter, two sons, nine grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.

Peter R. Senn, AM’47, an economics and social-sciences professor, died December 11 in Evanston, IL. He was 84. A WW II veteran, in 1951 Senn joined the faculty of Wilbur Wright College, where he won several Ford Foundation fellowships and National Science Foundation grants. Also a labor activist, he helped organize Cook County College Teachers Union Local 1600 in 1965. Senn retired as professor emeritus in 1984. Survivors include his wife Mary Stone Senn, AM’48; a son; two brothers; a sister; and two grandchildren.

Carl E. Gylfe, AB’49, an advertising and marketing executive, died July 11 in Evanston, IL. He was 81. A WW II navy veteran, he worked at Leo Burnett, Armour Foods, and Hygrade Food Products, retiring in 1990. He then served as director of Maple Leaf Farms and volunteered for the College. Survivors include two daughters, including Patricia Gylfe, MBA’85; a son, David Gylfe, MBA’00; and a sister.

James W. Spain, AM’49, a diplomat, died January 2 in Wilmington, NC. He was 81. A WW II veteran, Spain joined the U.S. Foreign Service in 1951, holding posts in Pakistan, Turkey, Tanzania, Sri Lanka, and the United Nations. Retiring in 1988 as a career minister, he stayed in Sri Lanka until 2006, when he moved to Wilmington. He wrote several articles and books, including his memoir, In Those Days: A Diplomat Remembers. He is survived by three sons, including Patrick Spain, AB’74, and five grandchildren.

1950s

McCrea Hazlett, AM’38, PhD’51, an English professor, administrator, and diplomat, died July 5 in Rochester, NY. He was 91. After a period as a dean at the U of C, Hazlett moved in 1957 to the University of Rochester as dean of students and assistant professor of English. The next year he was appointed dean of the College of Arts and Science, becoming provost in 1961 and finally university vice president. In 1971 he was appointed cultural-affairs officer to the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi, returning to Rochester to teach advanced writing and speech in the 1980s and 1990s. A University of Rochester award for excellence in public speaking was named in Hazlett’s honor. Survivors include a daughter, two sons, seven grandchildren, and eight great-grandchildren.

Leonard B. Meyer, PhD’54, a musicologist, died December 30 in New York City. He was 89. Joining Chicago’s music faculty in 1946, Meyer published Emotion and Meaning in Music in 1956; adapted from his dissertation, it became a classic text. In 1975 he moved to the University of Pennsylvania as the Benjamin Franklin professor of music and humanities. He was a fellow of Wesleyan University’s Center for Advanced Studies, received a Guggenheim Fellowship, and was elected into the American Academy of Arts and Letters; he retired as professor emeritus in 1988. In 2006 a former student organized a symposium at Northwestern University in honor of the 50th anniversary of Emotion and Music. Survivors include three daughters—Muffie Meyer, U-High’63, Carlin Meyer, U-High’65, and Erica Meyer, U-High’70—and two granddaughters.

Barbara Temaner Brodley, AB’54, AB’55, AM’62, PhD’75, a retired psychotherapist, died December 14 in Chicago. She was 75. Brodley practiced the client-centered psychotherapy pioneered by Carl Rogers, who was based at the U of C in the 1950s; with a colleague she later collected 189 tapes of Rogers’s sessions, and she wrote extensively about her own work. She was an early advocate of natural childbirth, and the birth of her first son was the subject of a 1970 documentary, Marco, by her then-husband, Chicago filmmaker Gerald Temaner, AB’57. Survivors include her husband of 23 years, Robert; a daughter, Noah Temaner Jenkins, U-High’87; a son, Marco Temaner, U-High’85; a stepdaughter; and a granddaughter.

Glenn W. Ferguson, X’57, the first director of Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA), died December 20 in Santa Fe, NM. He was 78. A WW II air force veteran, Ferguson studied law at Chicago before earning his JD at the University of Pittsburgh. His career included time in the Peace Corps, as the U.S. ambassador to Kenya, and as the head of four universities (Long Island University, Clark University, the University of Connecticut, and the University of Paris). Author of five books and fluent in five languages, he was founder and president of Equity for Africa. Survivors include his wife Patricia, a daughter, two sons, and four grandchildren.

Glenn Allison, AM’58, a social activist, died April 24, 2007, in San Diego. He was 81. A WW II army veteran, he spent more than 40 years working for social-service organizations that championed the rights of the homeless, minorities, the mentally ill, and other disenfranchised populations. In 1981 he began a 14-year term as executive director of Episcopal Community Services, and he was ordained as an Episcopal deacon. He then joined the Ecumenical Council of San Diego County as executive director, continuing his social activism until his death. Survivors include his wife Patt, three daughters, a son, seven grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.

Philip Hall Hedges, JD’58, a retired attorney, died December 30 in Harrison, NY. He was 74. The Wesleyan University graduate spent his career at the New York firm of White & Case, where he was a senior partner in corporate real estate. Survivors include his wife of 47 years, Edith, a daughter, two sons, and seven grandchildren.

1960s

David L. Davis, MBA’61, an engineer, died November 5 in Skokie, IL. He was 90. A mechanical engineer for the Curtiss-Wright Corporation, he then joined Maremont Corporation, eventually retiring from Chamberlain Manufacturing Co. He was a lifetime member of Tau Beta Pi, the engineering honor society. He is survived by his wife Sylvia, three daughters, seven grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.

Ben T. Nelson, MBA’61, a retired bank executive, died February 18, 2007, in Tucson, AZ. He was 74. Living in Lake Bluff, IL, for 51 years, Nelson was the executive vice president of Harris Trust and Savings Bank. He also served as a board member for several organizations, including Family Service of South Lake County, Resurrection Project of Chicago, and the Lake Forest Heath and Fitness Institute. Survivors include his wife Sue Rankin; a daughter; a son, Marc Nelson, MBA’89; and four grandchildren.

Richard Evan Mundy, X’63, a social worker, educator, and peace activist, died November 20 in Syracuse, NY. He was 83. As a conscientious objector during WW II, the 19-year-old Mundy volunteered for a yearlong starvation experiment aimed at helping rehabilitate starving refugees in Europe. After study at Indiana University and the U of C, he was a social worker in Chicago and Syracuse. For 19 years he taught at the Syracuse University School of Social Work, retiring in 1989. A member of the Syracuse Friends Meeting, the American Friends Service Committee, and Peace Action, he sang in a choir, wrote poetry, and traveled. Survivors include his wife Lisa, a daughter, two sons, and two grandchildren.

Allan Berube, X’68, a historian, died of stomach-ulcer complications December 11 in Liberty, NY. He was 61. A gay-rights activist, in the early 1970s Berube founded the San Francisco Gay and Lesbian History Project, and he was a founding member of the project’s successor, the Gay and Lesbian (now GLBT) Historical Society. His 1990 book, Coming Out Under Fire, won a Lambda Literary Award and inspired a documentary of the same name. Berube, who wrote for several GLBT and progressive publications, received a 1996 MacArthur “genius grant.” Moving to New York City in the 1990s and then to Liberty, Berube co-ran a bed and breakfast and an antiques shop while working on an early–20th-century history of gay men in the Marine Cooks and Stewards Union. Survivors include his mother and three sisters.

Lewis C. Solmon, AM’67, PhD’68, a specialist in education economics, died of a stroke December 17 in Los Angeles. He was 65. After posts at Purdue University and the City University of New York, he joined the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1974 to head its Higher Education Research Institute; after serving as dean of UCLA’s Graduate School of Education and Information Studies (1985–91), he became the founding president of the Milken Institute, an economics think tank. In 1997 he joined the Milken Family Foundation. The author of more than two dozen books and monographs on education topics, he had been president since 2005 of the nonprofit National Institute for Excellence in Teaching. Survivors include his wife of 42 years, Vicki, his mother, two children, and six grandchildren.

1970s

Dominique Godet Wenzel, X’70, an independent French teacher, died October 10 in Princeton, NJ, after being struck by a car while bicycling. She was 59. A native of France, Wenzel earned a master’s in anthropology from the Sorbonne and came to Chicago on a Fulbright fellowship. Moving to Princeton in 1987 after living in France, Denmark, England, and Maryland, she taught French to students at all levels, coauthored several French language texts, and developed and translated educational materials and tests for Berlitz, ETS, and others. Active with the Princeton Recorder Society as an officer and a player, a local book club, and the Princeton Latin America Task Force, she enjoyed nature, walking, tennis, travel, Renaissance music, and Latin American culture. Survivors include her former husband, Jack Wenzel, SM’70, PhD’75, a daughter, a son, her parents, a brother, and two sisters.

1990s

Melinda K. Gordon, MD’98, an oncologist, died of breast cancer October 24 in Chicago. She was 36. After an internal-medicine residency at the University of California, San Francisco, she held a clinical medical-ethics fellowship and a hematology/oncology fellowship at the University of Chicago Medical Center. Survivors include her husband Stephan Meyer, her mother, a sister, and two grandmothers.