Deaths
Trustees
Robert P. Gwinn, PhB’29, died December 10 in Riverside, IL. He was 102. In 1936 Gwinn began his career at Sunbeam Corporation as a salesman. He rose to president and then chair, a position he held until 1981. From 1973 to 1981, Gwinn also served as chair and CEO of Encyclopaedia Britannica, where he spearheaded revisions to the company’s best-known collections, such as adding 20th-century authors to its Great Books of the Western World series. A University trustee emeritus, Gwinn received a 1973 distinguished-alumnus award from the business school. Survivors include a son, five grandchildren, and several great-grandchildren.
Faculty and Staff
Allen Fitchen, a University of Chicago Press editor from 1967 to 1982, died December 25 in Madison, WI. He was 73. Fitchen worked at several academic presses before joining Chicago, where he edited Norman Maclean’s (PhD’40) novella A River Runs Through It, the Press’s first fictional work. He left to direct the University of Wisconsin Press, retiring in 1990. He is survived by his wife, Shirley; a brother; a daughter, Anne Fitchen Currier, U-High’79; two sons, Christopher Fitchen, U-High’80, and William Fitchen, U-High X’82; a stepdaughter; and six grandchildren.
John E. Jeuck, AB’37, MBA’38, PhD’49, former dean of Chicago Booth (then the Graduate School of Business), died December 18 in Evanston, IL. He was 93. A WW II veteran, Jeuck joined Chicago in 1946. Over the next four decades, he led the creation of a downtown business-school location; wrote an acclaimed history of Sears, Roebuck, and Company; and won the 1979 McKinsey Award for Excellence in Teaching. He also served as director or consultant for more than a dozen companies, including Walgreens, Midway Airlines, Coca-Cola Inc., and IBM. After retiring as the Robert Law professor of business administration in 1988, he started the Distinguished Fellows Program, which annually provides five MBA students with full tuition and leadership training.
1930s
Elise Schweich, PhB’30, died November 8 in University City, MO. She was 100. Founder of Springboard to Learning, a St. Louis nonprofit that brings cultural programs into schools, Schweich started the organization while working as an elementary substitute teacher. Recipient of the 1984 Mayor’s Award for the Arts and a 1988 Missouri Arts Award, she received a 1992 University of Chicago Public Service Citation and served as vice president of the National Council of Jewish Women. Survivors include a son, a daughter, four grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren.
Bert J. Vos, PhD’34, MD’37, died December 3 in Virginia, MN. He was 101. Vos joined the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as a toxicologist in 1941, retiring 30 years later as acting director for the pathology division. A fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, he spent the next decade as a consultant with the Stanford Research Institute. He is survived by two daughters, including Betty Vos, AM’69, PhD’88; and a grandson.
Erika Rosenthal, AB’35, died December 27 in Oak Park, IL. She was 95. Rosenthal met her husband, Samuel, while attending Chicago Teachers College. Following their 1941 marriage, she aided the war effort wiring cockpits for the Boeing Company in Seattle. Returning to Chicago, she was a Chicago Public Schools teacher for nearly three decades. She is survived by her husband, two daughters, four grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.
Paul Samuelson, AB’35, died December 13 in Belmont, MA. He was 94. The first American to win the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, Samuelson revolutionized the field by introducing mathematical analysis into economic research. Joining the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1940, he served as an adviser to Presidents Kennedy and Johnson and was a Newsweek columnist for 15 years. His book Economics: An Introductory Analysisis the all-time best-selling undergraduate economics text. A recipient of the American Economic Association’s inaugural John Bates Clark Medal in 1947, Samuelson also received the University Alumni Association’s 1983 Alumni Medal. He is survived by his wife, Risha; six children; 15 grandchildren; and his brother, Robert Summers, SB’43.
Murray Senkus, PhD’38, died November 12 in Winston-Salem, NC. He was 95. As a research chemist at Commercial Solvents Corporation, Senkus created a process allowing penicillin to be stored at room temperature. In 1951 he became director of the chemical-research division at RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company, where he was promoted to director of scientific affairs before his 1979 retirement. Survivors include a daughter, three sons, two stepdaughters, six grandchildren, and nine great-grandchildren.
1940s
Eliza Atkins Gleason, PhD’40, died December 15 in Louisville, KY. She was 100. Gleason held librarian positions at Louisville’s Municipal College for Negroes before earning her master’s at the University of California, Berkeley. The first African American to earn a doctorate in library science at Chicago, she founded the Atlanta University School of Library Science and served as its first dean. In 1964 she won an alumni award from Fisk, her undergraduate alma mater. Survivors include a daughter and a granddaughter.
Robert E. Johnson, AB’40, died December 10 in Palos Park, IL. He was 91. Johnson spent 42 years at Argonne National Laboratory, retiring as budget director in the 1980s. He is survived by his wife, Betty; three daughters; four grandchildren; and one great-granddaughter.
Harold Lawrence Aronson Jr., AB’41, LLB’42, of Chicago, died December 18. He was 89. A WW II veteran who won three Bronze Stars, Aronson fought in the leading unit at the Battle of the Bulge and served in the military government during the U.S. occupation of Germany. He was honorably discharged as captain and named vice president of Arcole Midwest, later holding positions in the Peace Corps and the Cost of Living Council. In 1974 Congress approved him as Midwest regional director of the Small Business Administration. Aronson served as counsel to New York Congressman John LaFalce before retiring from Hill & Knowlton in 1996. He is survived by his wife, Jeanne; three sons, including Peter Aronson, MD’77; and five grandchildren.
Richard Levin, AB’43, AM’47, PhD’57, died October 30 in Long Island, NY. He was 87. A WW II Navy veteran, he taught in the College from 1948 to 1957. He then joined the State University of New York at Oyster Bay (later Stony Brook) as a founding faculty member, serving several terms as English-department chair before his 1994 retirement. A Guggenheim and Fulbright teaching fellow, Levin wrote many books, including The Multiple Plot in English Renaissance Drama (1971), which won the Explicator Award for best book. He is survived by his wife, Muriel Levin, PhB’48; two sons, David Levin, AB’76, and Daniel Levin, JD’81; a sister, Nancy Sack, AM’48; and a granddaughter.
John C. Neff, AB’45, MBA’48, died November 25 in Nashville, TN. He was 85. A WW II veteran, Neff held posts at Merrill Lynch and State Farm Insurance before joining Hospital Corporation of America in 1968. He became president and CEO in 1973 and later served as Tennessee’s commissioner of commerce and insurance. He retired in 1994 as chair of Pinnacle Care Corporation, a nursing-home–operation company he cofounded. He is survived by his wife, Joan Neff, SB’44; a daughter; three sons, including Douglas Neff, MBA’73; a sister; and eight grandchildren.
Warren W. Lane, AB’46, died December 16 in Buffalo, NY. He was 81. Ordained to the Episcopal priesthood in California, Lane was a rector in New York before earning his doctorate at the Princeton Theological Seminary in 1969. He then joined the faculty at McMaster University, where he taught psychology of religion. Active in the Episcopal Diocese of Western New York for three decades, he spent the latter part of his career as a research scientist at Buffalo’s Roswell Park Cancer Institute. He is survived by his wife, Virginia; two daughters; two sons; a brother; and a sister, Katherine Tremain, SM’50.
Judith Held Isbell Miller, PhB’46, died December 20 in Southern California. She was 84. A nurse and nursing instructor, she taught for many years at El Camino College in Torrance, CA. Her first husband, Earl Isbell, DB’47, died in 1999. Survivors include three daughters, three sons, and 12 grandchildren.
Howard W. Johnson, AM’47, former president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, died December 12 in Lexington, MA. He was 87. He taught at the U of C for seven years before joining MIT as an associate management professor in 1955. As MIT’s president from 1966 to 1971, Johnson oversaw initiatives creating more research opportunities and residence halls and addressing urban problems such as transportation and housing. He then chaired the MIT Corporation until 1983. The recipient of the University Alumni Association’s 1970 Alumni Medal, Johnson also served on several government committees, including the National Committee on Productivity and the President’s Advisory Committee on Labor-Management Policy. He is survived by his wife, Elizabeth; two sons; a daughter; a brother; a sister; and three grandchildren.
Carol Rosenbush, AM’47, died November 2 in Avon, CT. She was 83. A psychiatric social worker, Rosenbush held positions at Children’s Services and the Institute of Living in Hartford, CT, for many years. She also worked in Boston, Washington, and New York City. Survivors include a daughter; a son, David Rosenbush, AB’71; and two grandchildren.
Jean Burnet, PhD’48, a sociologist, died September 14 in Toronto. She was 90. Burnet taught at the University of Toronto before joining Glendon College in 1967. There she founded the sociology department, focusing on multiculturalism and women’s studies. Chair of the Canadian Ethnic Studies Advisory Committee on Multiculturalism Issues and the Canadian Ethnic History Advisory Panel, Burnet was honored with the 1989 Order of Canada and the Canadian Ethnic Studies Association’s first Lifetime Achievement Award. Survivors include several nieces and nephews.
Barbara Da Vee, AB’48, died August 27 in Fitchburg, WI. She was 80. An editor and copywriter at Chicago’s Grant-Jacoby from 1955 to 1965, Da Vee spent the next decade as a freelance writer while raising her children. In 1978 she started a second career as a Chicago real-estate broker. She was predeceased by her husband, Robert Da Vee, AB’49. Survivors include two sons and a grandson.
Lawrence N. Jones, AM’48, died December 7 in Atlanta. He was 88. A WW II veteran and minister in the United Church of Christ, Jones was a pastor at churches in Ohio, New York, and Washington during his four-decade career. Dean of the chapel at Fisk University in the early 1960s, he later worked at New York’s Union Theological Seminary before being named dean of Howard University’s divinity school. Jones retired in 1991 and at 86 published African Americans and the Christian Churches, 1619–1860. Survivors include a daughter, a son, four grandchildren, and a great-grandson.
1950s
Alton Broten, AM’50, a social worker, died November 8 in Henning, MN. He was 88. A WW II Navy veteran, he was a reporter before beginning his social-work career as a teacher at an Illinois orphanage. He later led a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Social Work program that introduced social-work standards to institutions in the Southeast. Broten returned to Chicago in 1961 as executive director of Mary Bartelme Homes, a residential program for teenage girls. He is survived by his wife, Jane; a daughter; four sons; and four grandchildren.
Frederick Wranovics, AB’50, AM’62, died November 10 in Chicago. He was 80. A WW II veteran, he taught in the University’s continuing-education program and co-owned Hyde Park’s Compass Tavern. In 1968 Wranovics moved to California, where he taught rhetoric at the University of California, Berkeley, and sold real estate. Survivors include two sons, three daughters, a brother, three sisters, and nine grandchildren.
A. Paul Hare, PhD’51, a sociologist, died October 31 in Beer Sheva, Israel. He was 86. A WW II veteran, in 1960 he joined the sociology and anthropology faculty at Haverford College, where he founded the Center for Nonviolent Conflict Resolution. He was also appointed deputy representative of the newly formed U.S. Peace Corps in the Philippines. In 1973 Hare became sociology-department head at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, until joining Israel’s Ben-Gurion University in 1980. Editor of the 1955 work Small Groups: Studies in Social Interaction, he edited books on antiwar protests and the peace movement. He is survived by his wife, June; three daughters; three sons; and two granddaughters.
Stephen Tsai, SM’53, an engineer, died November 25 in Silver Spring, MD. He was 87. Tsai taught at the Illinois Institute of Technology, the University of Illinois at Chicago, and Catholic University. In the mid-1980s, he switched to the private sector, working for BDM and Mitre corporations. He retired in 1989. He is survived by his wife, Moli Shen Tsai; three children; a brother; and four grandchildren.
Martin B. Gendell, AB’56, died November 9 in New York. He was 76. An Army veteran, Gendell joined the Schering Corporation’s product-planning department in 1965. Following a series of marketing-management positions, he spent two decades as an independent marketing consultant. Before his 2007 retirement, he worked for the New York State Insurance Fund. Gendell served several years as president of the U of C Alumni Association’s New York chapter. Survivors include seven nieces and nephews.
Alex Zelchenko, X’56, died December 24 in Chicago. He was 95. A WW II Army intelligence agent, he studied clinical psychology before moving to journalism. For 20 years he held editorial posts at the City News Bureau, Hyde Park Herald, WNUS Radio, and Near North News. After serving as assistant district commissioner for the Boy Scouts of America’s Lincoln Park division, he spent the next three decades as a dispatcher aide for Chicago’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications. He retired in 2004 at age 90. He is survived by his wife, Phyllis, AB’47; three sons; two daughters; and four grandchildren.
Alice Wagstaff Verostko, AM’57, PhD’59, a psychologist, died December 7 in Minneapolis. She was 90. Verostko taught at Duquesne University, the University of Minnesota, and the Minnesota School for Professional Psychology. From 1971 to 1989, she was a senior clinical psychologist at Minnesota’s Ramsey County Mental Health Clinic, then ran a private practice until her retirement in 2003. Verostko also directed her husband’s art studio for more than 40 years. She is survived by her husband, Roman.
Lawrence “Lorry” J. Postmus, JD’59, died December 1 in Glen Ellyn, IL. He was 74. A corporate and real-estate attorney, he was practicing at the time of his death. Postmus also was a gardener and fisherman. He is survived by his wife, Carole; two daughters; a brother; a sister; and eight grandchildren.
1960s
Paul Laurence Bloom, X’60, an attorney, died October 9 in Rockville, MD. He was 70. Bloom was chief counsel for the New Mexico state engineer for 12 years before being named special counsel for compliance at the newly created Department of Energy in 1977. In this post Bloom led the Carter administration’s effort to recover billions of dollars from oil companies that had violated federal regulatory laws. Leaving the DOE in 1981, he worked for a New Mexico law firm until his 2005 retirement. He is survived by his wife, Marjorie; a daughter; two sons; and a brother.
Richard I. Gumport, SB’60, PhD’68, died October 13 in Chicago. He was 72. A professor emeritus of biochemistry and former associate dean of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign College of Medicine, Gumport researched how enzymes and proteins interact with DNA sequences. His wife, Roberta Gumport, AB’60, AM’69, died in June 2009. Survivors include a daughter and a son.
Roberta (Kugell) Gumport, AB’60, AM’69, died June 7 in Chicago. She was 70. A program manager at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s East Asian languages and cultures department for 20 years, she retired during the 2003–04 academic year. Her husband, Richard Gumport, SB’60, PhD’68, died in October 2009. Survivors include a daughter and a son.
John David Funk, X’61, MBA’68, died December 1 in Port Angeles, WA. He was 70. During his career as a financial manager and accountant, Funk worked at Price Waterhouse, Northern Trust Bank, the Environmental Protection Agency, and other institutions. Most recently he was a financial adviser. For the past 15 years, he had traveled annually to the Philippines to volunteer at an eye clinic. Survivors include a daughter, two sons, and five grandchildren.
Joseph R. Shannon, MD’61, died December 17 in Jupiter, FL. He was 79. A former naval officer, he practiced dermatology until his 1998 retirement from Meyer Medical Group. Survivors include a daughter, two sons, three grandchildren, two sisters, and a brother.
Maxine Losoff Rusche, AB’64, of Flagstaff, AZ, died of thymoma October 18. She was 67. Rusche was a biological-sciences researcher and teacher at Northern Arizona University from 1977 until 2008. She sat on the board of the Flagstaff Festival of the Arts and also served as a Girl Scout leader, Museum of Northern Arizona docent, and Flagstaff Arboretum volunteer. Survivors include her husband, Dennis Rusche, AB’63; two daughters; two sisters; and two grandsons.
1970s
Donald Davis Eddy, AM’56, PhD’71, died November 30 in Ithaca, NY. He was 80. After four years of Navy service, he joined the English and rare-books departments at Cornell University, where he taught until his 1996 retirement. A longtime member of Ithaca’s St. John’s Episcopal Church, he sang in the choir. He is survived by his wife, Edith; two daughters; and two grandchildren.
Marcia Adler, AB’76, AM’78, died of breast cancer December 3 in Chicago. She was 55. A specialist in adolescent psychoanalysis, Adler was a professor and dean of students at the Institute for Clinical Social Work, where she expanded the curriculum to address the homeless and other vulnerable groups. She also ran a private practice in downtown Chicago, helping troubled youths. She is survived by her husband, Robert; two sons, John Wise, U-High’05, and Nathaniel Wise, U-High’09; and a sister.
R. Nicholas Gimbel, JD’76, died of pneumonia November 19 in Bryn Mawr, PA. He was 58. Gimbel began his legal career clerking for the U.S. Court of Appeals, Third Circuit, before joining the Securities and Exchange Commission and serving as assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York. Practicing at firms in Philadelphia, Boston, and New York City, Gimbel later became a partner at Philadelphia law firm McCarter & English, which he joined in 2002. Editor of the American Bar Association’s Litigation magazine, he argued several high-profile insurance cases. He is survived by his wife, Martha; two daughters; and two sisters.
Vadis “Vicky” Cothran Mandrell, AB’78, died November 28 in Chicago. She was 54. At Chicago Mandrell played three varsity sports and was one of the all-time leading scorers in basketball, serving as president of the Women’s Athletic Association. After several years in the travel industry, Mandrell spent the past six at the Lincoln Park Zoo. She is survived by her husband, Nelson; a son; two brothers; and a sister.
1980s
Deborah N. Sandroni, AM’81, died August 26 in South Bend, IN. She was 50. Sandroni spent four years as a researcher at the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety before joining her family’s business, BFC Industries (later Prince Agri Products Inc.). A volunteer for the local Ronald McDonald House, she served as president and board member of the Irish Youth Hockey League and sat on the board of the Michiana High School Hockey League. She is survived by her husband, Michael; three sons; her parents; and a brother.
Thomas J. Edward Walker, PhD’83, died March 13, 2009, in Homewood, IL. He was 70. A professor of history, philosophy, and political science at the Pennsylvania College of Technology who won the Eugene V. Debs Prize in American labor history, he wrote two books, Illusive Identity: The Blurring of Working-class Consciousness in Modern Western Culture (2002) and Pluralistic Fraternity: The History of the International Worker’s Order (1991). A member of the Oxford Round Table, Walker led the Penn College Model United Nations debate team to two consecutive championships. He is survived by his wife, Deborah.
Andrew Grene, AB’87, a senior United Nations officer, died in the January 12 earthquake in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. He was 44. Grene served as assistant to the UN Secretary-General’s special representative in Haiti, Hedi Annabi, who also died in the disaster. An award-winning journalist early in his career, Grene joined the UN as a speechwriter for former Secretary-General Boutros Boutros Ghali. He then moved into peacekeeping, serving in the Central African Republic and East Timor before Haiti. He is survived by his wife, Jennifer; a daughter; two sons, Patrick Grene, ’11, and Alexander Grene, ’12; his mother, Ethel Grene, PhB’47, SB’56, MD’59; and a brother. His father, David Grene, a professor in the Committee on Social Thought, died in 2002.
1990s
Brendan Mead Conner, MBA’98, died of brain cancer November 16 in La Grange Park, IL. He was 45. Conner founded the software-consulting company ConnerSoft Inc. in 1998 and operated it for a decade. He is survived by his wife, Mary; his parents; two brothers; and three sisters.