Deaths


Trustees

Arthur E. Rasmussen, AM’43, a philanthropist, died September 3 in Walton, NY. He was 85. A life trustee of the University, the WW II veteran spent a decade at Avco Corporation before being named president of Household International, which he chaired from 1972 to 1984. Rasmussen helped establish the School of Social Service Administration’s family-support graduate degree, the first of its kind in the nation. He served on several boards, including Abbott Laboratories and Adler Planetarium, and was a member of the National Association of Scholars and the National Alumni Forum. In 1990 he and his wife, Joann, moved to Walton, where he belonged to organizations such as Delaware National Bancshares, the Catskill Center for Conservation and Development, and the Delaware County Conservation Association. He is survived by his wife; two sons, including Mark Rasmussen, MBA’79; two daughters; and six grandchildren.


Faculty and Staff

Seymour Glagov, professor emeritus of pathology and surgery, died October 29 in Chicago. He was 83. Best known for his studies on blood vessels’ early response to partial blockage, known as the “Glagov phenomenon,” in 1959 he and his colleague Donald Rowley, SB’45, SM’50, MD’50, invented the gel electrode, used in electrocardiograms to monitor the heart. Joining the University’s medical faculty in 1958, he directed both the autopsy service and the clinical pathophysiology course for more than 20 years, publishing some 275 articles. In 2003 and 2004, symposia on hemodynamic and vascular remodeling were organized in his honor at Stanford University. Glagov worked closely with SANE/FREEZE (now the Peace Action network) and volunteered at Quaker House during the Vietnam War. Survivors include his son, Hersh Glagov, U-High’79; a brother; and a grandson.

Lawrence Elgin Glendenin, SB’41, a chemist, died November 22 in Crystal Lake, IL. He was 90. Codiscoverer of promethium, he was a research chemist on the Manhattan Project. Senior scientist at Argonne National Laboratory (1949–85), he served on the U.S. delegation to the 2003 Atoms for Peace Conference. Glendenin was a 1974 recipient of the American Chemical Society’s Glenn T. Seaborg Award. He is survived by his wife, Ethel; two daughters; a son; six grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.

Larry Hawkins, director of the Office of Special Programs–College Prep, died January 30 in Chicago. He was 78. The Army veteran was a championship basketball coach at Chicago’s Carver High School in the ’60s, coaching former NBA star Cazzie Russell. Joining the University in 1968, Hawkins was an advocate for disadvantaged urban youth, founding the Institute for Athletics and Education and the Space Explorers program, which connected middle- and high-school students with scientists at the University’s Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics. Receiving George Williams College’s Distinguished Alumni Award in 1984, Hawkins earned three graduate degrees, including an EdD from the University of Illinois in 1986. A month before his death he was honored with the inaugural Diversity Leadership Staff Award. Survivors include a sister.

Margaret Rosenheim, JD’49, former dean of the School of Social Service Administration, died February 2 in San Francisco. She was 82. A scholar of juvenile-justice and child-welfare policy, Rosenheim joined the SSA faculty in 1950. In the mid-’60s she was a consultant to the President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice, and in 1970 she coauthored a report to the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare on social-service techniques. Named the Helen Ross professor of social welfare policy in 1975, she served as the SSA’s dean from 1978 to 1983. With her late husband Edward Rosenheim, AB’39, AM’46, PhD’53, she taught a course on society’s perceptions of the disadvantaged. Retiring in 1996, Rosenheim was one of the first faculty members to receive the Alumni Association’s Norman Maclean Faculty Award. Survivors include three sons—Andrew Rosenheim, U-High X’74; Daniel Rosenheim, U-High’66; and James Rosenheim, U-High’68—and five grandchildren.


1920s

Toby Kurzband, PhB’29, died September 10 in New York. He was 99. After working for Cincinnati’s Bureau of Jewish Education, he moved to New York, where he won awards for innovative work as an art and science teacher at the Bronx High School of Science and as principal of P.S. 1. Coauthor of two books widely used in Jewish curricula, he taught at Pace University, the University of Rhode Island, the Pratt Institute, and Marymount College. He was predeceased by his wife, Diana, PhB’28. Survivors include two daughters and two grandchildren.


1930s

Robert E. Asher, U-High’27, PhB’32, AM’34, an economist, died October 13 in Washington, DC. He was 97. During more than six decades in Washington, he held posts with the Works Progress Administration, the U.S. State Department, and the Brookings Institution. A member of the War Production Board during WW II, he worked for the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration. He then helped develop the Marshall Plan on four continents before joining the State Department. A member of the University’s Phoenix Society, he retired from Brookings in 1973. Survivors include his wife, Marilee Shapiro Asher, U-High’29, PhB’33; a son; a daughter; two stepchildren; five grandchildren; and six great-granddaughters.

Aaron Hilkevitch, SB’33, a psychiatrist, died October 4 in Chicago. He was 96. The last surviving Illinois member of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, which fought Francisco Franco in the Spanish Civil War, Hilkevitch served as a chief of psychiatry in the Army during WW II. A faculty member at the University of Chicago Hospitals, he practiced psychiatry in Chicago for more than 50 years. He is survived by his wife, Joyce Turner Hilkevitch, AM’63; three daughters; a brother; six grandchildren; and a great-grandson.

G. Roy Ringo, SB’36, PhD’40, died November 5 in Burr Ridge, IL. He was 91. After four years at Washington’s Naval Research Lab during WW II, Ringo joined Argonne National Laboratory. One of the first physicists to work on its nuclear reactor, he spent 40 years at the lab, researching properties of weak interaction and symmetries of nature. He is survived by his wife, Miriam Ringo, AM’61; two sons; a daughter; and five grandchildren.

Elisabeth Ruch Dubin, AB’37, AM’39, PhD’46, died November 17 in Eugene, OR. She was 92. After studying with psychologist Carl Rogers, she taught at the Cook County School of Nursing before becoming an associate professor of counseling psychology at the University of Oregon. In 1970 she moved to the University of California, Irvine. A painter and expert on Far Eastern art, Dubin was elected to the Watercolor Society of Oregon. She is survived by her husband, Robert Dubin, AB’36, AM’40, PhD’47; two sons; and two daughters.

J. Leonard Schermer, AB’39, JD’41, died September 13 in Phoenix. He was 90. During his 65-year career as a labor lawyer in St. Louis and Illinois, Schermer appeared before the U.S. Supreme Court, winning the 1963 union-worker termination case National Labor Relations Board v. Adams Dairy. He later served as president of the Jewish Center for the Aged. Survivors include a son; two daughters; and five grandchildren.

Jane Lorraine Lasner Weiner, AB’39, died September 19 in Bethesda, MD. She was 90. After posts with Chicago youth programs, she joined the American Red Cross. She then moved to the National Institutes of Health, where as a medical social worker she received a 1976 quality-of-service award. Weiner also chaired the education committee of the League of Women Voters. She is survived by her husband, Robert; a son; a daughter; and six grandchildren.


1940s

Howard Sloan, AB’40, AM’41, died in September in Northfield, IL. He was 88. A WW II veteran, Sloan spent his career as a Chicago Public Schools teacher, principal, and district superintendent. He is survived by his wife, Maryce (Klaff) Sloan, AB’44, MBA’47; four sons; and eight grandchildren.

Jay Paxton Bartlett, SB’41, MD’43, died April 21 in Napa, CA. He was 88. An active mountaineer in his youth, Bartlett scaled Wyoming’s Grand Teton at age 13. A WW II veteran, he practiced general medicine and surgery in Ogden, UT. Earning his master’s from the Harvard School of Public Health, he spent seven years as chief of the Santa Clara County Health Department in California, then oversaw the Oakland County Health Department. Survivors include three daughters and four grandchildren.

Arnold Jacob Wolf, AA’42, X’57, a Reform rabbi, died December 23 in Chicago. He was 84. Wolf began his career at Chicago’s Temple Emanuel, then served as a Navy chaplain in Japan during the Korean War. A civil-rights activist, he helped found Highland Park’s Congregation Solel, where he brought Martin Luther King Jr. in as a guest speaker, and later led Chicago’s oldest Jewish congregation, KAM Isaiah Israel. In 1972 he became Jewish chaplain and Hillel director at Yale, then returned to Hyde Park and KAM Isaiah in 1980, winning the U of C Alumni Association’s Public Service Citation in 1998. A year before his death, Wolf became a bar mitzvah, undertaking the ceremonial ritual at age 83 instead of the customary age 13. He is survived by his wife, Grace; two sons; four stepdaughters; and ten grandchildren.

Dorothy B. Goldberger, AB’43, died September 28 in Seminole, FL. She was 86. Goldberger spent 25 years as a federal staff and budget analyst for government agencies, including the Social Security Administration. In retirement she volunteered for the Golda Meir Jewish Community Center and the Internal Revenue Service. She is survived by her daughter, Gail Goldberger, AM’74.

Melvin H. Daskal, U-High’40, PhB’45, MBA’47, an accountant, died October 2 in Los Angeles. He was 84. A WW II veteran, Daskal established Daskal/Spector Accountancy in 1950. The part-time executive director for the Electronic Representatives Association, he wrote The Sales Representatives’ Business and Tax Handbook (1994) and was a frequent speaker on tax issues. He is survived by his wife, Carol; four children, including Dean Daskal, AB’75; two stepchildren; and six grandchildren.

John A. Cook, AB’46, JD’47, an attorney, died October 5 in Chicago. He was 87. After serving in the Army Medical Corps during WW II, he practiced law for 60 years. Committed to preserving his longtime Old Town neighborhood, he cofounded the Lincoln Park Conservation Association and the Old Town Triangle Association. He is survived by his wife, Barbara; a son; and two grandchildren.

Robert Katzman, PhB’47, SB’49, SM’50, died September 16 in La Jolla, CA. He was 82. A founder of the national Alzheimer’s Association, Katzman chaired the neurology departments at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and at the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine, where he held the Florence Riford chair for research in Alzheimer’s disease, retiring professor emeritus in 1995. Founder of the Shiley-Marcos Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, he served as president of the American Neurological Association and coedited the first neurochemistry text. His honors included the Alzheimer’s Association’s Crystal Tower Award. He is survived by his wife, Nancy Katzman, AB’48; two sons; and a grandson.

Basil Michael Ratiu, AB’47, died September 22 in Memphis, TN. He was 87. A WW II veteran, he taught romance languages at Memphis State University, now the University of Memphis, for more than two decades and was named professor emeritus in 1986. Survivors include two daughters and two grandsons.

Samuel Huntington, AM’48, a political scientist and public intellectual, died December 24 in Martha’s Vineyard, MA. He was 81. Author and editor of 17 books on war, international development, and American character, Huntington wrote The Clash of Civilizations (1996), which expounded the idea that cultural and religious differences between civilizations would be the source of violent, post-cold-war conflict. He taught at Harvard University for nearly 58 years, heading the school’s Olin Institute for Strategic Studies, cofounding the journal Foreign Policy, and serving briefly as a National Security Council official in the Carter administration. He is survived by his wife, Nancy; two sons; and four grandchildren.

Karl Bramblett Hill, AB’49, AM’55, died October 24 in Forsyth, GA. He was 79. A Korean War veteran, he was a book editor for Beacon Press and consultant with Associates for International Research before joining the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. He later returned to his hometown of Forsyth, GA, to serve as president of Monroe County Bank. He is survived by one sister.

Melvin L. “Mike” Fowler, AM’49, PhD’59, an archaeologist, died September 6 in Milwaukee. He was 83. Fowler’s research uncovered the Cahokia site in Collinsville, IL, a UNESCO World Heritage Site believed to be the largest ancient metropolis in North America. A WW II veteran, he taught anthropology at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee from 1966 to 1995. He is survived by his wife, Dorothy; two daughters; two sons; a brother; grandchildren; and great-grandchildren.

Ruth E. Silver, AB’49, an educator, died July 12 in Philadelphia. She was 78. Throughout her career Silver taught students from primary school to the graduate level. A longtime Philadelphia resident, she traveled extensively. Survivors include a daughter, two grandchildren, and a brother.


1950s

Spencer A. Murphy, MBA’54, died October 13 in Honolulu. He was 93. A WW II veteran, he worked as a trust officer at Northern Trust Co., then joined Pacific National Bank of San Francisco’s trust department. In 1967 he was named president and chief executive of Bishop Trust Co., in Hawaii. He is survived by his wife, Mitzi; a son; a daughter; three grandsons; a sister; a stepdaughter; a step-granddaughter; and two step-great-grandchildren.

Lloyd E. Ohlin, PhD’54, a sociologist and expert on criminal justice, died December 6 in Santa Barbara, CA. He was 90. A WW II and Korean War veteran, Ohlin worked for the Kennedy and Johnson administrations on juvenile-delinquency and law-enforcement programs. After posts at the U of C’s Center for Education and Research in Corrections and Columbia University’s School of Social Work, he became research director of Harvard Law School’s Center for Criminal Justice and retired as the Touroff-Glueck professor emeritus of criminal justice in 1982. A former president of the American Society of Criminology, he received the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences’s Bruce Smith Jr. Award; his books included Delinquency and Opportunity (1960). He is survived by his wife, Elaine, and two daughters.

Robert Sterrett “Bob” Oglesby, MBA’55, died September 11 in Newport News, VA. He was 86. A WW II and Korean War veteran, he worked as an industrial engineer for U.S. Steel in Gary, IN, then joined the industrial-engineering faculty of the Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Apprentice School, retiring in 1985. A founding member of the American Institute of Industrial Engineers in Northwest Indiana and in Newport News, Oglesby was a Sunday school superintendent at Hilton Presbyterian Church. He is survived by his wife, Lois; a son; a daughter; a sister; two brothers; and three grandchildren.

Glenn R. Hilst, PhD’57, of Seattle, died September 25. He was 85. A WW II veteran, Hilst was an environmental-research scientist at General Electric and the Electric Power Research Institute, and he directed the Aeronautical Research Associates. A fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Meteorological Society, he edited the Journal of Applied Meteorology, served on governmental advisory committees, and was a visiting lecturer at the University of Washington and Yale University. He is survived by his wife, Zenobia; three daughters; a son; six granddaughters; a great-granddaughter; two sisters; and two brothers.

Ferdinand van der Veen, PhD’58, a psychotherapist, died January 7 in Encinitas, CA. He was 78. A student of Carl Rogers, he had a private practice, working also as a researcher at the Institute of Juvenile Research, the Association for the Development of the Person-Centered Approach, and the Center for the Studies of the Person. Survivors include a daughter; two sons, including Matthew L. van der Veen, SM’89; and three grandchildren.


1960s

Kenneth Kessin, PhD’67, died December 17 in Las Cruces, NM. He was 74. Kessin taught at Illinois Tech and Rutgers University before chairing the sociology department at Trenton State University. He held social-work positions in Connecticut and New Mexico, including clinical director of the Jewish Family Service and of the Doña Ana County Children and Adolescent Collaborative. He served as president of the United Way of Southern New Mexico. He is survived by his wife, Deana; a daughter; a son; two stepchildren; and 13 grandchildren.

Howard Lutz Kirz, MD’67, a physician, died of a heart attack August 22 in Vashon Island, WA. He was 65. President of the American College of Physician Executives, Kirz wrote and taught extensively on medical leadership. He worked as an ER physician and medical director at Group Health Cooperative, where he founded the Northwest Center for Medical Leadership. A clinical professor in the University of Washington’s department of health services, he helped start the school’s certificate program in medical management. A member of the University’s Phoenix Society, he is survived by his wife, Stephanie; a son; a brother; and two sisters.

Henry A. Gustafson Jr., PhD’67, died September 1 in Stillwater, MN. He was 84. A New Testament specialist, he served churches in Connecticut and South Chicago before joining Chicago’s North Park Theological Seminary in 1954. After teaching and ministry in Panama, Indonesia, and Lebanon, he taught at the United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities for 21 years. He is survived by his wife, Sheila; a daughter; a son; a sister; two stepdaughters; one stepson; and ten grandchildren.

James W. Wagner, AM’68, died January 10 in Chicago. He was 75. After a career as a Chicago Public Schools teacher and education director at the Chicago Urban League, he served for two decades as dean of students at the School of Public Health at the University of Illinois at Chicago. In retirement he led the DuSable Alumni Coalition and was instrumental in bringing the Checkerboard Lounge and its Sunday night jazz series to Hyde Park. He also founded the Hyde Park Jazz Society and helped start the annual Hyde Park Jazz Festival. He is survived by his wife, Almarie Masoud Wagner, AM’68, and two daughters.

Reed Whittle, ThM’67, DMN’69, died of complications from Sweet’s syndrome August 12 in New York. He was 66. Whittle provided management consulting to Fortune 500 companies, hospitals, and public utilities for more than 35 years. Also a trained psychotherapist and minister, he enjoyed traveling and lived for weeks with an Amazon basin tribe. He is survived by his wife, Sassona; a son; a daughter; a sister; and a brother.

Joseph Francis Zygmunt, PhD’67, died December 22 in Evansville, IN. He was 87. A WW II veteran, he taught in the University of Connecticut’s sociology department from 1961 until 1989. He was predeceased by his wife, Margaret Blough Zygmunt, AM’50. Survivors include a brother.

Norman J. Uretsky, PhD’68, a pharmacologist, died September 20 in Columbus, OH. He was 67. A professor of pharmacology at the Ohio State University College of Pharmacy, in 1996 he received the OSU alumni award for distinguished teaching. He is survived by his wife, Ella; a son; and a daughter.


1970s

Eric Von der Porten, AB’79, died December 2 in San Carlos, CA. He was 50. After working at Bank of America and Berkeley International, he launched the hedge fund Leeward Investments in 1997. Concerned by what he saw as misleading tactics of Wall Street analysts, he once briefed the Securities and Exchange Commission on shortcomings in the system. Von der Porten also served eight years on the San Carlos school board. He is survived by his wife, Cathy; a son; a daughter; a brother, Michael Von der Porten, MBA’82; and his parents.

William Lowe Boyd, PhD’73, died September 21 in State College, PA. He was 73. A specialist in education policy, he taught elementary and high school in Chicago, spending time as an assistant to the principal of University High and assistant to the dean of the University’s Graduate School of Education. Author of more than 140 articles and coeditor of 17 books, he taught at Penn State University for 28 years and was the Batschelet chair professor of educational leadership. A two-time Fulbright scholar, he served as president of the Politics of Education Association, editor of the American Journal of Education, and officer of the American Educational Research Association. He is survived by his wife, Emily; two daughters; a son; and a granddaughter.


1980s

Ronald M. Davis, AM’81, MD’83, died of pancreatic cancer November 6 in East Lansing, MI. He was 52. A former president of the American Medical Association who raised awareness about the dangers of tobacco and obesity, he was the first resident appointed to the AMA’s board while working at the Centers for Disease Control. He directed the CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health, was chief medical officer of the Michigan Department of Public Health, and, most recently, directed health promotion and disease prevention for Detroit’s Henry Ford Health System. Davis also taught at Johns Hopkins University and the University of Michigan. He is survived by his wife, Nadine; three sons; a brother; three half-brothers; a sister; and four half-sisters.


2000s

Emma Bee Bernstein, AB’07, died December 20 in Venice, Italy. She was 23. The star of the documentary Emma’s Dilemma, she wrote her thesis on manifestations of feminism in contemporary photography and exhibited her photos at New York’s A.I.R. Gallery and Chicago’s Smart Museum. A mentor for Step Up Women’s Network, she was coauthor of a feminist blog, GIRLdrive, and she worked at museums, including the Art Institute of Chicago and, most recently, the Peggy Guggenheim Museum in Venice. She is survived by her parents and a brother.

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