Deaths
Friends
Irmgard Hess Rosenberger died February 13 in Chicago. She was 91. With her second husband she endowed the Ludwig Rosenberger Library of Judaica at the University Library, as well as a Judaic-studies chair at the Oriental Institute. After earning her bachelor’s in art from the School of the Art Institute and a master’s in education from Chicago Teachers College, she taught art at local schools. A pianist, she also sponsored classical-music concerts at the University. Survivors include a son and two grandchildren.
Faculty and Staff
Allen G. Debus, the Morris Fishbein professor emeritus in history, died March 6 in Deerfield, IL. He was 82. An expert on Renaissance alchemists, Debus joined the University in 1961, becoming the first director of the Morris Fishbein Center for the Study of the History of Science and Medicine in 1970. He wrote or edited more than 20 books, won the History of Science Society’s Sarton Medal for lifetime achievement, and was a Guggenheim and Fulbright fellow. He is survived by his wife, Brunilda; two sons; and seven grandchildren.
John Hope Franklin, the John Matthews Manly distinguished service professor emeritus in history and former chair of the history department, died March 25 in Durham, NC. He was 94. A scholar of African American history, Franklin published From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African-Americans in 1947. After teaching at historically black colleges, including Howard University, where he was working when he helped prepare the brief that led to the Brown v. Board of Education decision, in 1956 he became chair of Brooklyn College’s all-white history department. He came to Chicago in 1964 and a year later participated in Martin Luther King Jr.’s Selma-to-Montgomery march. He retired in 1982 and joined Duke University’s history department. In 1997 he headed President Clinton’s national advisory board on race. The author or editor of more than 20 books, he won the Clarence L. Holte Literary Prize, the Jefferson Medal, the Charles Frankel Prize, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the Library of Congress Kluge Prize. In 2002 he was awarded the U of C Alumni Association’s Norman Maclean Faculty Award. Survivors include his son John Whittington Franklin, U-High’69.
Aron A. Moscona, the Louis Block professor emeritus of molecular genetics and cell biology and pathology, died January 14 in New York. He was 87. Renowned for research that showed how cells arrange to form tissues and organs, Moscona shed light on processes such as cancer metastasis. With his wife and collaborator, Malka Moscona, he joined the Chicago faculty in 1958. Moscona cofounded the Committee on Developmental Biology and founded the journal Current Topics in Developmental Biology. A member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he served as president of the International Society of Developmental Biology and chaired the scientific board of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Most recently he served on Tel Aviv University’s board of governors. He is survived by his wife; his daughter, Anne Moscona, U-High’74; and two grandchildren.
1930s
Viola Somerville-Bond, PhB’30, died December 3 in Arlington Heights, IL. She was 101. After serving as executive secretary of Evanston’s Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, she joined Lutheran General Hospital, working as assistant director of nursing services until her 1972 retirement. She was predeceased by her husband, Cyril B. Bond, X’36.
Mildred Williams, AB’33, AM’61, died January 18 in Chicago. She was 97. After teaching at the Warrenton School in Virginia and attending the Sorbonne, she married David Williams in 1941. While he taught at the University, she taught Latin and French at the Faulkner School, where she eventually served as principal. She was predeceased by her husband. Survivors include two sons, David Williams, U-High’62, and William Williams, U-High’63; and two grandchildren.
David Haas Kutner, U-High’31, AB’35, died June 27, 2008, in San Diego. He was 93. A WW II veteran, he worked as a marketing executive and served as president of Hammond Organ Company and Baker and Taylor. After his 1981 retirement, Kutner served two terms as president of the San Diego State University–affiliated Continuing Education Center. He is survived by his wife, Betty Kutner, U-High’38; a son; a daughter; and two granddaughters.
Aaron Bell, AB’37, died January 16 in Helsinki, Finland. He was 91. Following government service during WW II, Bell assisted Mortimer Adler on the Encyclopedia Britannica’s Great Books of the Western World series. He taught at several U.S. institutions, including the New School for Social Research and New York University, then taught for a year in France. In 1964 he moved to Finland, where he taught at schools, including the University of Helsinki. Retiring in 1985, Bell continued to translate and to teach English at the Finnish Parliament, as well as write and publish poetry. He is survived by his wife, Mirja, and a daughter.
Harold Ales “Jim” Jambor, AM’39, died December 28 in Olympia, WA. He was 95. After working for the United Nations on family-reunification efforts in post–WW II Europe, Jambor joined the University of Hawai’i School of Social Work. A dedicated gardener, Jambor was recognized by the Washington Community Forestry Council and the Washington State Department of Natural Resources for his forestry commitment. Survivors include three daughters, a son, nine grandchildren, and a great-granddaughter.
1940s
Pauline King Long, SM’40, died February 23 in Birmingham, AL. She was 94. Long’s 60-year teaching career included positions at Woodlawn High School, Harvard University, Jefferson State Community College, and Purdue University School of Medicine. In the early 1960s the Birmingham News named her Alabama’s Teacher of the Year. Survivors include three daughters, a son, eight grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.
John H. Cover Jr., U-High’37, SB’41, inventor of the Taser Nonlethal Weapon, died February 7 in San Clemente, CA. He was 88. A WW II veteran, Cover worked at IBM, Hughes Space Division, and North American Aviation, where he helped secure a contract for the Apollo Moon Landing Program. Involved with several U.S. defense programs, he also invented Thermecon, a thermal-energy conversion system. He is survived by his wife, Ginny; a son; three daughters; two stepchildren; ten grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.
Hyman Ratner, SB’41, SM’48, of Novi, MI, died December 10. He was 88. A WW II Army Air Corps veteran, Ratner spent 20 years as a research chemist for Shell Oil Company before moving to Sperry-Vickers Corporation, from which he retired in 1988 as chief chemist and director of the materials-science laboratory. He was an emeritus member of the American Chemical Society and Sigma Xi Scientific Research Society. He is survived by his wife, Marilyn; two sons; and a grandson.
Edrey Elizabeth Smith Albaugh, X’42, died January 25 in Vancouver, WA. She was 88. While an executive secretary for Glenn Seaborg on the Manhattan Project, she met her husband. A pianist, Albaugh was active in her local Protestant church and the Boy and Girl Scouts. Survivors include two sons, a daughter, a sister, and four grandchildren.
Louis E. Leopold, X’48, died January 6 in Hollidaysburg, PA. He was 86. A WW II veteran, he spent two decades in a family brokerage business before joining the political-science faculty at Penn State–Altoona, where he taught for 20 years. In retirement he volunteered for the U.S. Department of the Interior’s America’s Industrial Heritage Project. With his wife, Anna Shaefer Leopold, PhB’44, AM’62, he wrote and photographed more than 40 articles for the regional magazine Westsylvania. He is survived by his wife, a son, a daughter, a granddaughter, and two great-grandsons.
Walter Rose, SB’44, died January 19 in Champaign, IL. He was 89. Rose worked at major oil-company laboratories and edited the Gulf Coast section of the Oil & Gas Journal before joining the University of Illinois College of Mining, Metallurgy, and Petroleum Engineering in 1955. In 1967 he resigned to protest the expulsion of seven students who had participated in a sit-in against Dow Chemical Company. He continued teaching and also led several petrophysical laboratories. Widely published, he held patents for laboratory equipment and was inducted into the Society of Petroleum Engineers’ Legion of Honor. He is survived by his wife, Edith; a sister; six children; ten grandchildren; and nine great-grandchildren.
Fred Somkin, X’44, died February 1 in Ithaca, NY. He was 84. A WW II veteran, Somkin practiced law in Washington for seven years, including an appearance as counsel before McCarthy’s Committee on Government Operations. He then earned a doctorate in American history from Cornell and taught at Queen’s University and Harvard before joining Cornell as associate professor in 1968. Author of Unquiet Eagle: Memory and Desire in the Idea of American Freedom, 1815–1860 (1967), he retired professor emeritus in 1994. He is survived by his fiancée, Lily.
Gretchen Gearhart Claman, PhB’47, died January 25 in Denver. She was 80. Claman received her nursing degree from the Massachusetts General Hospital School of Nursing, where she later taught. She also taught in St. Louis. Claman is survived by her husband, Henry; a son; and a daughter.
Alan Kuper, U-High’42, PhB’47, SB’49, died December 13 in Shaker Heights, OH. He was 84. A WW II veteran, Kuper was a research physicist at Bell Labs before joining Case Western University, where he taught engineering and applied physics. An environmental activist, he chaired the Northeast Ohio Sierra Club and for nearly 30 years served as the organization’s voice on a local radio station. He is survived by his wife, Ginger (Aplon) Kuper, AB’46; three children; and five grandchildren.
Victoria Germaine Gelbke Guenther, SM’49, died December 15 in Aurora, OH. She was 91. A second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Nursing Corps, she taught chemistry, biology, and general science at Crestwood High School in Mantua, OH, for 13 years, before joining the nursing faculty of Kent State University in 1970. Retiring professor emerita in 1982, she ran Guenthers’ Tree Farm with her husband, who predeceased her. Survivors include a daughter; two sons; a brother; three grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
1950s
Terry Farquhar Lunsford, AB’51, JD’57, died January 3 in Berkeley, CA. He was 80. A former head of Coulter and Burton-Judson’s Linn house with his first wife, Molly Felker Lunsford, AB’52, AM’57, Lunsford also directed the University’s Student Forum. He then worked for the Western Interstate Commission on Higher Education before earning his sociology doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley, where he served as academic director of the field-studies program and chaired the social-sciences integrated courses. A founding trustee of the Western Institute for Social Research, Lunsford was a trial consultant for the National Jury Project West. He is survived by his wife, Rhoda; two daughters; a son; four sisters; and four grandchildren.
Donald W. Farwell, MBA’51, died June 17, 2008, in Omaha, NE. He was 83. A Marine Corps veteran, Farwell worked in personnel management for companies, including Kroger and Blue Cross/Blue Shield, and then had his own accounting business, retiring in 1993. He served on the boards of Family and Children Services in Nashville and Chicago, as well as in the Urban League of Nebraska. Survivors include his wife, Ruth; two daughters; a son; and two granddaughters.
Arland Christ-Janer, JD’52, died November 15 in Sarasota, FL. He was 86. Serving as president of several institutions, including Cornell College, Boston University, and the Ringling College of Art and Design, he was a longtime civic leader in Sarasota, where he helped expand Ringling into an accredited four-year institution. He also led a revitalization of Sarasota’s North Tamiami Trail and was the first director of the Florida State University Ringling Center for the Cultural Arts. He is survived by his wife, Uta.
Marjorie Montague Wilson, MD’53, died January 21 in Olympia, WA. She was 88. A U.S. Army physical therapist during WW II, Wilson founded two health clinics for the poor, retiring in 1984. A member of the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society, Wilson was also a volunteer physician in Pakistan, India, Nicaragua, and Guatemala. She is survived by her husband, Wesley Wilson, MBA’54, and two sons.
William Fawcett Hill, PhD’55, died November 13 in La Verne, CA. He was 90. A WW II veteran, Hill served in the Royal Canadian Air Force before working as a clinical psychologist and researcher. He developed the Hill Interaction Matrix, founded the journal Comparative Group Behavior, and created a method called Learning Thru Discussion, widely used in education. He retired professor emeritus from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, in 1988 and then served 11 years as founding president of the Duke Ellington Society of Southern California. Survivors include his wife, Priscilla; two sons; and a daughter.
Walter L. Walker, U-High’51, AB’55, died November 11 in Memphis, TN. He was 73. A former vice president for planning at the University of Chicago, he served as LeMoyne-Owen College’s third president from 1974 to 1986. After being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis more than 30 years ago, he became an advocate for the disabled. He is survived by his wife, Sonia.
Henry Schmidek, U-High’53, AB’57, died of a heart attack October 26 in Oxford, England. He was 71. The youngest neurosurgical chair in Hahnemann Medical College’s history at the time, he later became chief of neurosurgical service at the New England Deaconess Hospital and associate professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School. Schmidek went on to hold senior positions at several hospitals before retiring in 2001 to become CEO of Brigadoon Farm, where he raised Kobe cattle. Author of Schmidek and Sweet’s Operative Neurosurgical Techniques, he was living in England to lecture on neurosurgery at Oxford University. He is survived by his wife, Mary; two daughters; two sons; and two grandsons.
James Ward, AM’58, a food critic, died February 26 in Chicago. He was 76. Ward began his career with Restaurants & Institutions, where he rose to associate editor and publisher, and later became editorial director of travel and food magazines at R. R. Donnelley & Sons. He started reviewing restaurants for the Chicago Daily News in 1975 and then joined the Sun-Times, where he worked until 1984. Author of the book Restaurants, Chicago-Style (1979), he joined WLS-Channel 7 in 1985 and was known for his theatrical style. He retired in 2005. Survivors include his wife, Johanna.
1960s
Robert J. Panos, AB’62, AM’64, PhD’66, died August 25 in Grand Rapids, MI. He was 71. Recipient of both a Fulbright and a National Science Foundation fellowship, Panos held positions at the American Council on Education, National Computer Systems, and the National Scholarship Service and Fund for Negro Students. He was also a higher-education administrator, spending 17 years at Oberlin College before becoming dean of student affairs at Lehman College. Survivors include his former wife, Fran; two sons; two daughters; and seven grandchildren.
Henry Hudnut Bischoff, AM’63, died November 22 in Northbrook, IL. He was 81. After teaching at St. Paul’s School in Garden City, NY, he was named assistant principal of the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools in the late 1950s. Bischoff then spent 30 years at Evanston Township High School as a math teacher, department chair, and dean of students. From 1991 to 2007 he shelved books at Northbrook Public Library. Bischoff sang in the choir and was a vestryman at local churches. He is survived by his wife, Rachel; two daughters; a son; a brother; and nine grandchildren.
Mark Silverman, MD’63, died of a heart attack November 12 in Atlanta. He was 69. After two years as an Air Force cardiologist, he joined Emory University’s medical faculty and spent the next 38 years at Piedmont Hospital, where he was founding cardiologist of the Fuqua Heart Center. Named a fellow in London’s Royal College of Physicians, Silverman wrote several articles on medical history. Survivors include his wife, Diana; two sons; two brothers; a sister; and two grandchildren.
Anne Elizabeth (Hall) Tinker, AM’64, died January 10 in Tucson, AZ. She was 89. Holding posts as president of the Southern Women’s Alliance and the University of Chicago Service League, Hall was Roosevelt University’s associate director of continuing education from 1966 to 1968, moving to Oregon in 1971 and to Oro Valley, AZ, in 1992. Survivors include two daughters, including Anne Terrill Tinker Maragos, U-High’62; a son; six grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.
Sandra Bryan, AB’66, MST’67, died of cancer March 10, 2008, in Arlington, VA. She was 64. After receiving her law degree from Suffolk University, she practiced with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for more than 25 years. She is survived by her husband, John Flanigan; a son; a daughter; and two stepsons.
Christina Middlebrook, AM’66, died of breast cancer January 20 in San Francisco. She was 67. A Jungian psychotherapist who worked for 40 years at San Francisco’s Presbyterian Hospital and in private practice, Middlebrook wrote a memoir about her experience with breast cancer, Seeing the Crab: A Memoir of Dying Before I Do (1997). The book earned the Jonquils Award from the Duke University Comprehensive Cancer Center. She is survived by her husband, Jonathan; a daughter; two sons; two stepdaughters; and five grandchildren.
1970s
Phillip L. Walker, AM’71, PhD’73, died February 6 in Santa Barbara, CA. He was 61. A physical anthropologist, he taught at the University of California, Santa Barbara, for more than three decades. Researching human skeletal remains for insights into the health and behavior of past societies, Walker authored some 200 articles, was a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and served as president of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists. He was also an adviser on repatriation to the Society for American Archaeology. He is survived by his wife, Cynthia; a brother; a stepdaughter; and six step-grandchildren.
Winifred (Hunt) Benade, PhD’72, died January 25 in Chicago. She was 86. A research analyst with the U.S. Signal Corps during WW II, she later taught at the University of Nebraska. In 1956 Benade joined the faculties of Chicago City Colleges and Roosevelt University. From 1974 until her 1986 retirement, she edited the American Journal of Sociology. Survivors include four nieces, two nephews, and seven great-nieces and great-nephews.
Jean Burger Daniels, AM’75, died of cancer December 21 in Point Roberts, WA. She was 62. Daniels worked as a social worker in Chicago before moving to San Francisco with her husband, Edward Daniels, AM’75. There she specialized in children’s services, retiring three years ago to Point Roberts, where she worked for the local library. She is survived by her husband, a son, a brother, and three sisters.
1980s
Sid Agrawal, MBA’84, died November 14 in Santa Clara, CA. He was 56. After emigrating from India in 1975, he worked for Intel, Bell Labs, Adobe, and Alliance Semiconductor before launching several small high-tech startups. In 2004 he was named CEO of semiconductor firm SiPort, Inc. He is survived by his wife, Asha; and two sons.
Leslie Nader, PhD’89, died of cancer December 18 in Minneapolis. She was 49. As executive vice president of the Massachusetts Society for Medical Research for nearly 20 years, she developed educational initiatives. A frequent speaker on animal rights and research, she won several awards, including a 2001 honor from the Society of Toxicology. Survivors include a son, her parents, and two sisters.
1990s
Kiyo Finucane, AM’94, died December 11 in Columbia, MD. She was 91. Her studies at Chicago in the 1940s were disrupted by WW II, when her mother and siblings were sent to an internment camp. A social worker, Finucane spent more than 60 years in Washington, where she worked with disabled children and adults and then counseled girls and unwed mothers. She retired in 1980. In 1994 the U of C reviewed her academic records and awarded her a degree. She is survived by six sons, a sister, and 20 grandchildren.
Melinda Ann Reck, MBA’95, died February 12 in Lombard, IL. She was 48. An executive consultant, she created and ran her own firm, Excellent Solutions. Reck enjoyed skiing, tennis, and golf, and she traveled around the world with her son. Survivors include her son, her mother, her stepfather, and two sisters.
2000s
Lani Silver, AM’05, died of brain cancer January 28 in San Francisco. She was 60. Founder of the Bay Area Holocaust Oral History Project, Silver began recording survivors’ experiences while a professor of political science and women’s studies at San Francisco State University. A freelance writer and producer, she later consulted for Steven Spielberg and trained interviewers for the Shoah Foundation. In 2000 Silver became project director for the James Byrd Jr. Racism Oral History Project, coordinating 2,500 interviews. Survivors include two sisters.