Deaths
Faculty and Staff
Richard Lashof, professor emeritus in mathematics, died February 4 in Alameda, CA. He was 87. A WW II veteran, Lashof, who joined the faculty in 1954 and chaired Chicago’s math department from 1967 to 1970, was instrumental in making the department a leading center for geometric and topological research. He retired in 1988. Recipient of the University’s 1963 Quantrell Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, he also was a senior postdoctoral fellow at the National Science Foundation in 1959 and a member of the Institute for Advanced Study. He is survived by his wife, Joyce; daughters Judith Lashof, U-High’71, and Carol Lashof, U-High’73; son Daniel Lashof, U-High’77; and six grandchildren.
Philip L. White, assistant professor of American history from 1959 to 1962, died October 15 in Austin, TX. He was 86. A WW II veteran, White taught at the University of Texas at Austin, then joined the Chicago faculty for three years before returning to UT–Austin, where he taught until the 1990s. Founder of the West Austin Democrats, he also served for 20 years as faculty adviser for the Student Council for Voter Registration and the Student Action Committee. In retirement he coauthored the 2006 book Global History: Interactions Between the Universal and the Local. He is survived by his wife, Meda White, AM’62; two daughters; three sons; and three grandchildren.
1930s
Natalie Goldstein Heineman, PhB’33, died February 28 in Chicago. She was 96. The first female president of the Chicago Child Care Society, she also was president of the Child Welfare League of America, which established a national award in her honor for outstanding service to children. One of the first women on the United Way of America national board, she served on several civic boards and committees, including the School of Social Service Administration’s visiting committee. Heineman received two University Alumni Association awards: a 1967 Public Service Citation and a 1990 Alumni Service Citation. She is survived by her husband, trustee emeritus Ben Heineman; daughter Martha Heineman Pieper, U-High’58, AM’63, AM’74, PhD’79; son Ben W. Heineman Jr., U-High’61; six grandchildren, including Thalia Field, U-High’83, Jessica Heineman Pieper, U-High’88, AM’97, PhD’05, Victoria Pieper Stein, MBA’92, and Johanna Heineman Pieper, U-High’09; and two great-grandchildren.
Dorothy (Overlock) Stewart, AB’39, died July 15, 2009, in Ann Arbor, MI. She was 92. A White House assistant to Eleanor Roosevelt during WW II, Stewart then joined the New York headquarters of Americans for Democratic Action. After raising her children, she returned to work, developing Staten Island’s Snug Harbor Cultural Center. In 1978 she relocated to San Francisco and spent nearly 20 years as a realtor with Rossmoor adult community, where she was named Realtor of the Decade during the 1980s. In 1994 she moved to Ann Arbor. Survivors include two daughters, a son, and eight grandchildren, including Nicholas Winter, AB’90, and Timothy Stewart-Winter, AM’03, PhD’09.
1940s
May Gomberg Elinson, SB’40, died January 4 in Teaneck, NJ. She was 90. Elinson headed dietary services at Holy Name Hospital in Teaneck before becoming a public-health nutritionist in the New Jersey College of Medicine and Dentistry’s prenatal and family-planning clinic. Serving as president of the Northern New Jersey Dietetic Association, she coedited the organization’s book Enjoying Your Restricted Diet. She is survived by her husband, Jack; a daughter; three sons; seven grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.
Shirley (Shapiro) Barsky, AB’41, AM’42, of Port Washington, NY, died September 21. She was 88. A member of the editorial staff of Mortimer Adler’s and Robert Hutchins’s Great Books Syntopicon from 1943 to 1946, she taught high-school Spanish before moving to New York with her husband, Morrey, in 1960. There they helped found and operate the Port Washington Senior Center, and Barsky taught for 23 years at South Huntington’s Walt Whitman High School, retiring in 1991. She is survived by her husband, two sons, and three grandchildren.
Carl Myrent, AB’43, AM’47, a Chicago Public Schools teacher and administrator, died February 26 in Libertyville, IL. He was 88. A WW II veteran, he taught history in several city high schools before joining Mather High School when it opened in 1959. Affectionately known as “Myrent the Tyrant,” he served as a teacher, assistant principal, and briefly as principal before his 1982 retirement. He is survived by his wife, Sylvia; a daughter; a son; a sister; and a granddaughter.
Joanne Malkus Simpson, SB’43, SM’45, PhD’49, died March 4 in Washington. She was 86. The nation’s first woman to earn a PhD in meteorology and the first woman to head the American Meteorological Society (AMS), Simpson developed early mathematical cloud models. She taught at the University of California, Los Angeles, before directing the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Experimental Meteorology Laboratory from 1965 to 1974. She spent the next three decades as chief scientist for meteorology at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, studying atmospheric currents and running an international satellite project to measure tropical rainfall. A Guggenheim recipient and winner of a 1975 Alumni Association Professional Achievement Award, she also won the AMS’s 1983 Carl-Gustav Rossby Research Medal and in 2002 became the first woman to receive the International Meteorological Organization Prize. She is survived by her husband, Robert H. Simpson, PhD’62; a daughter; two sons; two stepchildren; brother Daniel C. Gerould, AB’46, AM’49, PhD’59; and six grandchildren.
Laurence Raymond Lee, PhB’46, JD’51, died January 7 in Lake Bluff, IL. He was 81. Lee worked at Chicago law firm Miller, Gorham, Wescott & Adams before joining Abbott Laboratories in 1955. He helped build Abbott’s legal division and rose to senior vice president before retiring in 1988. Lee was a board member for the First National Bank of Lake Bluff and a trustee for several of the town’s public institutions. He and his family endowed the Laurence R. Lee Family Chair in Natural and Mathematical Science at Lake Forest College, where he also was a trustee. He is survived by his wife, Barbara; two sons; and five grandchildren.
Carleton P. Menge, AM’40, PhD’46, died February 16 in Grantham, NH. He was 92. A WW II veteran, Menge taught education at the University of New Hampshire for 42 years, winning the school’s distinguished teaching award in 1987. During the late 1960s he also worked for the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, developing health and voter-training centers for segregated blacks in the South. He is survived by his wife, Bette; two daughters; two sons; seven grandchildren; and a great-granddaughter.
Gordon Donaldson, MBA’48, died February 12 in Parkland, FL. He was 87. A member of the Royal Canadian Air Force during WW II, he taught corporate financial management at Harvard Business School for nearly 40 years before retiring professor emeritus. The coauthor of the influential 1983 management book Decisions at the Top: The Shaping of Strategic Direction, Donaldson held several administrative positions at Harvard, including senior associate dean for faculty development, and in 1995 a named professorship was created in his honor. Two years later the business school gave him a distinguished service award. Donaldson also helped establish the school’s Senior Faculty Center for emeriti professors. Survivors include two daughters, two sons, and six grandchildren.
William Martin Angus Jr., X’48, died December 14. He was 81. More interested in X-ray machines than medicine while doing his residency at Chicago hospitals, Angus joined the sales force of Philips Medical Systems, where he spent the rest of his career. Instrumental in advancing radiology technology, he retired as senior vice president, general manager, and technical director. His work improved image amplifiers, raising the success rates of coronary angiogram surgeries. Angus served as director of the Radiological Society of North America’s Research and Education Foundation and in 1996 was named an honorary fellow of the American College of Radiology.
Ray Solomonoff, PhB’48, SM’51, died December 7 in Boston. He was 83. Part of the original 1950s Dartmouth Summer Research Project that birthed the artificial-intelligence field, Solomonoff developed probability-theory ideas that are now the dominant approach among AI researchers. Self-employed for much of his career, he held visiting-scholar positions at several institutions, including Switzerland’s Dalle Molle Institute for Artificial Intelligence and the Computer Learning Research Center at Royal Holloway, University of London. He is survived by his wife, Grace.
Laughlin Phillips, AM’49, died January 24 in Washington, CT. He was 85. A WW II veteran, Phillips was a CIA officer, holding posts in Saigon and Tehran, before founding Washingtonian magazine. In 1979 he sold the publication to become director of the Phillips Collection, his family’s contemporary art gallery, often considered the first American modern-art museum. Over the next decades—Phillips was director until 1991 and board chair until 2001—he transformed the struggling enterprise into a thriving gallery, purchasing works by Picasso, Matisse, and Pollock. He is survived by his wife, Jennifer; a daughter; a son; four stepchildren; and 15 grandchildren.
1950s
Roy F. Greenaway, AB’50, chief of staff to U.S. Senator Alan Cranston, died January 20 in Gold River, CA. He was 80. An Army veteran, he became head of Fresno County’s California Democratic Council at age 25. When Cranston was elected to the Senate in 1968, Greenaway joined him in Washington as a legislative assistant and two years later was appointed chief of staff, a post he held until Cranston’s 1993 retirement. Returning to California, he cofounded Habitat 2020, a coalition of environmental groups, and was an adviser to Sacramento State University’s Center for California Studies. He is survived by his wife, Carol.
Luis Leal, AM’41, PhD’50, a scholar of Mexican, Chicano, and Latin American literature, died January 25 in Goleta, CA. He was 102. A WW II veteran, Leal taught at Chicago and other universities before joining the University of California, Santa Barbara, which established an endowed chair in his honor in 1995. Awarded the 1997 National Humanities Medal, Leal also received the 1988 Distinguished Scholar Award from the National Association for Chicano Studies and the 1991 Mexico Order of the Aztec Eagle. He wrote more than 45 books, including A Brief History of the Mexican Short Story (1956). Survivors include a son, two grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.
Irwin Murry Sarnat, AB’51, died November 5 in Chicago. He was 79. As a management consultant specializing in information systems, he held posts with several companies, including A. T. Kearney & Co., Times Mirror Company, and Abbott Laboratories. In retirement he owned a canoe shop and served as an election judge. He is survived by his wife, Judy Skotzko; two sons; and two sisters, including Marlene Sarnat, SB’58.
William “Hank” Brokaw, AM’53, died February 17 in Santa Paula, CA. He was 82. Brokaw taught high school before starting an avocado nursery in 1956. The enterprise grew to become California’s largest avocado farm, and in the 1970s Brokaw commercialized a method to breed disease-resistant avocados. He twice served as president of the California Avocado Society. He is survived by his wife, Ellen Brokaw, U-High’49, AB’53; three daughters; two sons; and nine grandchildren.
Elam W. Nunnally, AM’53, died February 10 in Milwaukee. He was 85. A WW II veteran, Nunnally met his wife, Eeva, while rebuilding a Finnish community following the war. A cofounder of solution-focused therapy, which focuses on resolving problems rather than on retracing the past, he taught at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee’s Helen Bader School of Social Welfare, retiring professor emeritus. He taught part time and saw clients until 2009. He is survived by his wife, three daughters, two sons, a brother, a sister, eight grandchildren, and a great-grandson.
Robert A. Kelso, JD’54, died February 13 in New Albany, IN. He was 79. The New Albany city attorney, Kelso sat on the Indiana State Board of Law Examiners and on the Indiana and Floyd County bar associations before retiring this past January. He is survived by his wife, Emilie; a daughter; a son; brother Charles D. Kelso, AB’46, JD’50; four grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.
Ruth T. Kaplan, AM’59, died February 15 in Chicago. She was 78. A lifelong Hyde Park resident, she served as social-services director at Michael Reese Hospital’s Developmental Institute and also at the Annex in Hyde Park. A social activist, she supported the No Nukes movement, and she was a 15-year member of the 57th Street Art Fair committee. She is survived by her husband, Gerson; daughter Susan Kaplan, U-High’88; sons Aryeh Kaplan, U-High’81, Bruce Kaplan, U-High’83, and Douglas Kaplan, U-High’78, AB’84; sister Marjorie van der Veen, AB’58; and seven grandchildren.
1960s
Oliver C. Phillips, PhD’62, died February 16 in Lawrence, KS. He was 80. A professor at William Jewell College, in 1964 Phillips moved to the University of Kansas, where he served as classics chair for 12 years. Recipient of the school’s 1978 Mortar Board Outstanding Educator award, Phillips was a member of the American Philological Association and won a 1993 Ovation Award from the Classical Association of the Middle West and South. Retiring in 1994, he continued to teach until 2001. He is survived by his wife, Shirley; two sons; and five grandchildren.
Robert A. Goldwin, AM’54, PhD’63, died January 12 in Rockville, MD. He was 87. A WW II veteran, Goldwin taught political science at Chicago and Kenyon College before joining St. John’s College as dean. In 1973 Donald Rumsfeld, then–U.S. ambassador to NATO, hired Goldwin as an adviser and later brought him to the White House as informal scholar-in-residence during the Ford administration. A Guggenheim fellow, Goldwin won the University’s 1977 Alumni Association Professional Achievement Award and spent two decades as a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. Survivors include three daughters, a son, a sister, and ten grandchildren.
Walter M. Drzewieniecki, AM’58, PhD’63, died February 13 in Kenmore, NY. He was 95. A Polish army veteran, Drzewieniecki immigrated to North America after WW II, earning his PhD in East European history and joining the faculty at Buffalo State College. He later chaired its history department, directed the Buffalo Ethnic Heritage Institute, and founded the school’s East European and Slavic studies program. As president of the Polish Cultural Foundation, in 1976 Drzewieniecki received the Polish Academy of Sciences’ first-prize award for his memoir. He retired from Buffalo State in 1981 and in 2000 was awarded the Polish government’s Commander’s Cross with Star of the Order of Merit. He is survived by his wife, Krystyna; and a daughter.
Robert W. Gladish, AM’56, PhD’64, died December 10, 2008, in Philadelphia. He was 77. After teaching English at Texas A&M University and the University of Illinois at Chicago, he joined the faculty at Bryn Athyn College, where he later was named dean. Gladish retired from teaching in 2005, continuing to work as an editor and to mentor students. He is survived by his wife, Margaret; three daughters; and 11 grandchildren.
Gerald M. “Jerry” Penner, JD’64, CER’82, died of pancreatic cancer January 21 in Chicago. He was 69. Penner worked at two Chicago law firms before becoming a founding partner and starting a sports-law practice at what is now Katten Muchin and Rosenman LLP. As outside general counsel and adviser to Jerry Reinsdorf, owner of the Chicago White Sox and Chicago Bulls, he helped negotiate Reinsdorf’s team purchase, broadcast rights, and player issues. He is survived by his wife, Mona Penner, CER’94; two daughters; a son; a brother; a sister; and eight grandchildren.
Ann Linnea Sandberg, PhD’64, died December 31 in Livingston, MT. She was 71. Sandberg began her career as a research investigator at the New York City Health Department and as a New York University School of Medicine assistant professor. She held leadership posts at the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Dental Research, including chief of the microbial receptors and pathogenesis section in the microbial-ecology laboratory. Before retiring in 2005, Sandberg directed the Center for Integrative Craniofacial Research and received several NIH achievement awards. Survivors include four nieces.
Stanley Beck, MBA’65, died February 12 in Lebanon, IN. He was 76. As an Abbott Laboratories research pharmacist, he authored patents, including one for injectable Heparin, used to stop blood clotting. Beck later was promoted to vice president of marketing. In 2006 he was honored as a Purdue University distinguished alumnus. He is survived by his wife, Charlotte; two daughters; a son; two granddaughters; and a step-grandson.
Melvin “Mel” Silberman, AB’65, PhD’68, an educational psychologist, died of lung cancer February 20 in Princeton, NJ. He was 67. Silberman taught for 41 years at Temple University, winning the Great Teacher Award in 2000 and retiring professor emeritus. He is survived by his wife, Shoshana Silberman, MST’65; a daughter; two sons; a brother; and six grandchildren.
John Edward Hellman, AB’68, died January 7 of lymphoma and lung cancer in Piedmont, CA. He was 63. Hellman did graduate studies in psychology at Toronto’s York University before working for the East Bay Regional Park District. A KCSM radio volunteer, he played the alto saxophone. He is survived by his wife, Marlene (Hevia) Hellman, AB’69; a son; a stepdaughter; and a brother.
Linda M. White, AM’69, died of complications from breast cancer February 26 in Chicago. She was 67. White worked for nearly 30 years with the Social Security Administration and then was named international president of Alpha Kappa Alpha, the oldest black sorority in the United States. Serving in the role for four years, she spearheaded a traveling exhibit for the sorority’s centennial and secured a $1.5 million federal grant to launch a reading tutoring initiative. Survivors include a sister.
1970s
Dan R. Aronson, AM’65, PhD’70, died of brain cancer February 26 in Wayland, MA. He was 69. Aronson taught developmental anthropology at McGill University and spent two years in Africa with the U.S. Agency for International Development before joining the World Bank in 1993. He was the lead social scientist in the bank’s social-development department, retiring in 2003. Survivors include a daughter, two sons, two brothers, and eight grandchildren.
Barbara Ann Scharrer Heinze, SM’71, died December 9 after a long illness in Cary, NC. She was 67. A martial-arts champion, she studied judo in Chicago and Japan, receiving a black belt and winning the U.S. Judo Federation National Championship. In 1987 Heinze published a collection of personal essays. She served as adviser to the Cincinnati School Board and as church council secretary at a Lutheran church in Erie, PA. She is survived by her husband, Richard; a daughter; two sons; a stepdaughter; two stepsons; four brothers; a sister; and three grandchildren.
Harry Singletary, AM’71, the first African American to head the Florida prison system, died of cancer January 29 in Tallahassee, FL. He was 63. Singletary was an administrator in the Illinois correctional system before returning to his native Florida. In 1991 the governor appointed him to head the Department of Corrections, and he later taught at an alternative school for Tallahassee teens. He is survived by his wife, Vivian; a daughter; and two sons.
Thomas James “Tucker” Coffey, PhD’78, died January 19 in San Francisco. He was 74. Coffey taught in several San Francisco public schools during his career. Active in local organizations, he helped with relief efforts after the city’s 1989 earthquake. Survivors include two brothers and a sister.
1980s
Elizabeth Kutyla-Miner, AB’84, JD’87, died of ovarian cancer December 21 in Chicago. She was 47. Kutyla-Miner worked at two major Chicago law firms before being named associate general counsel and then general counsel of Barton Brands. During her 14 years at Barton, she oversaw several successful acquisitions. A longtime member of the University Club of Chicago, she sat on the organization’s board and was a supporter of the Windy City Open. Kutyla-Miner retired in 2006. She is survived by her husband, Scott; her parents; two brothers; and two sisters.
Mary A. Cook, AB’85, died of cancer January 18 in Pasadena, CA. She was 47. A marketing researcher who specialized in consumer packaged goods, Cook began her career at Sheldon I. Dorenfest and Associates. She worked at other firms before holding marketing-research directorships at Disney, Nestle, and Neutrogena. In 2000 she started market-research company Cook Insight Solutions. Survivors include a son, her mother, two brothers, and a sister.
2000s
Grant Folland, JD’08, died February 20 in a snowmobile accident at Lake Tomahawk, WI. He was 29. A litigation associate at Jenner & Block in Chicago, Folland was a member of the Illinois Bar and the Lesbian and Gay Bar Association of Chicago. Before law school he interned for the Washington Office on Latin America and at the U.S. State Department with the U.S. Mission to the Organization of American States. He was an extern at the National Immigrant Justice Center. Survivors include his parents, grandparents, and a brother.
2010s
Faith Fufang Dremmer, U-High Class of 2010, died March 24 in a biking accident in southern Illinois. Dremmer, 17, was cycling with Kaia Tammen and Julia Baird, both U-High Class of 2010, when they were hit by a minivan that veered into their lane. The other two bikers were seriously injured. An athlete, Dremmer participated in tennis and soccer and served as a peer leader for younger students on community-service issues. Active in math and science clubs, she planned to pursue the subjects in college. She is survived by her mother.