Deaths
Trustees and Friends
Norman Barker Jr., AB’47, MBA’53, a University trustee emeritus, died September 11 in Los Angeles. He was 88. A Navy veteran, Barker was an executive with First Interstate Bank of California. Joining the bank in 1957, when it was United California Bank, he became CEO in 1971, led the mid-1970s construction of the bank’s 62-story headquarters, and retired in 1985. Trustee or director of several organizations, including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Barker received the 1978 Chicago Booth Distinguished Alumnus Award and was a life member of the Chicago Booth Council. He is survived by his wife, Susan; a daughter; three sons, including Peter Barker, MBA’71, and Michael Barker, MBA’84; eight grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
Arthur M. Brazier, an advocate for the Woodlawn community, died October 22 in Chicago. He was 89. A WW II veteran, for almost 50 years Brazier served as pastor of the Apostolic Church of God. He partnered with local organizations and institutions, including the University, to improve South Side education, safety, and housing. Founding president of the Woodlawn Organization, he was the first senior fellow of the Local Initiatives Support Corporation. He is survived by his wife, Esther; three daughters; a son; seven grandchildren; and 11 great-grandchildren.
Faculty and Staff
Alexander Gottschalk, U-High’48, former professor of radiology and department chair, died October 5 in Okemos, MI. He was 78. In the 1960s Gottschalk helped create the University’s first nuclear-medicine section, which he led as chief. He also served as director of the Argonne Cancer Research Hospital before teaching at Yale and Michigan State universities. He received gold medals from the Association of University Radiologists (1987) and the Radiological Society of North America (2004). He is survived by his wife, Jane Gottschalk, U-High’48, AB’52; two daughters, including Amy Gottschalk, AB’87; a son; and five grandchildren.
Friedrich Katz, the Morton D. Hull distinguished service professor emeritus of Latin American history, died October 16 in Philadelphia. He was 83. Recipient of Mexico’s highest foreign-civilian honor, the Order of the Aztec Eagle, Katz served 40 years on the Chicago faculty. His books, such as The Secret War in Mexico: Europe, the United States, and the Mexican Revolution (1981), changed how scholars regard Mexican history, and his 1998 work The Life and Times of Pancho Villa won the Beveridge Award and the Bolton-Johnson Prize for Latin America history. Chicago’s Katz Center for Mexican Studies is named in his honor. Upon his death, the Mexican government established the Cátedra Cultura de México–Katz program to bring Mexican researchers and artists to the University. He is survived by his wife, Jana; daughter Jacqueline Ross, U-High’80, AB’84, JD’89; son Leo Katz, U-High’74, AB’79, AM’82, JD’82; and four grandchildren.
Partha Niyogi, the Louis Block professor in computer science and statistics, died of brain cancer October 1 in Chicago. He was 43. An expert in machine cognition and learning, he worked on the technical staff at Bell Laboratories before joining Chicago in 2000. Author of two books, including The Computational Nature of Language Learning and Evolution (2006), Niyogi also developed geometrically based methods to identify hidden patterns in data. He is survived by his wife, Parvati Krishnamurty, an economist at the University’s National Opinion Research Center; twin sons; his parents; and a brother.
Reinhard Oehme, professor emeritus of physics, died this past fall in Chicago. He was 82. Known for his ideas about the violation of symmetry in physics—1957 Nobel Prize in Physics winners Chen Ning Yang, PhD’48, and Tsung-Dao Lee, PhD’50, credited him with providing insight into their research—Oehme joined Chicago’s Enrico Fermi Institute as a research associate in 1954. Four years later he joined Chicago’s physics department, where he remained until his 1998 retirement. A 1963 Guggenheim fellow, Oehme also won a 1974 Humboldt Award.
Leigh Van Valen, professor emeritus in the Department of Ecology and Evolution, died October 16 in Chicago. He was 75. A founder of the field of paleobiology, Van Valen joined Chicago in 1967. Known for his Red Queen hypothesis (named after a Lewis Carroll character), which states that species and lineages must constantly evolve to avoid extinction, Van Valen was vice president of the Society for the Study of Evolution and the American Society of Naturalists. He also founded and edited two academic journals, Evolutionary Monographs and Evolutionary Theory. He is survived by his wife, Virginia Maiorana, and daughter Katrina Van Valen, U-High’85.
1930s
Dorothy Ellen (Craig) Collins, AM’37, died February 21, 2010, in Bloomington, IN. She was 97. A longtime Indiana University employee who won the institution’s President’s Medal for Excellence in 1990, Collins held research positions at the school’s Kinsey Institute and the Bureau of Institutional Research. As a board member for the Monroe County United Way and president of several local philanthropic organizations, she won the 1975 Indiana Governor’s Award for Volunteer Service. She is survived by a son.
Ralph F. Leach, AB’38, died October 3 in Fort Lauderdale, FL. He was 93. A WW II veteran, Leach was an investment analyst in Chicago and Phoenix before joining the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve Board as chief of the government finance section in 1950. Three years later he was named treasurer of the Guaranty Trust Company, and in 1959 he joined the Morgan Guaranty Trust Company. Leach chaired the executive committee of J. P. Morgan and Morgan Guaranty Trust until his 1977 retirement. He sat on the boards of many organizations, including the Juilliard School, which honored him with its President’s Medal in 2009. He is survived by his wife, Harriet; a daughter; two sons; seven grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.
Richard M. Adams, SB’39, SM’48, died October 10 in Laramie, WY. He was 93. A longtime Argonne National Laboratory scientist, Adams worked with Enrico Fermi on the first nuclear reactor. He rose to Argonne assistant director, retiring in 1984. Survivors include his wife, Andi Berry; daughter Victoria “Tori” Adams, U-High’69; and son Richard Merritt Adams, U-High’75.
Saul “Solly” Sherman, X’39, died October 10 in Chicago. He was 93. The oldest living former Chicago Bear at the time of his death, Sherman played two seasons as a quarterback and defensive back, competing in the 1940 Pro Bowl, which the Bears won 73–0 over the Washington Redskins. Sherman later joined Allied Products, his family’s machine-tool business, and led the company to Fortune 500 status. Survivors include a daughter, a son, four grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.
1940s
Polly Kivlan O’Grady, AB’40, died July 22 in Oakland, CA. She was 92. O’Grady was an executive secretary for Abbott Laboratories while raising her children in Des Plaines, IL. A painter and photographer, she exhibited her work in Illinois and California, where she retired in 1984. Survivors include two daughters, four sons, and ten grandchildren, including Claire O’Grady, ’13.
Lorenz F. Koerber Jr., LLB’42, died October 22 in Northbrook, IL. He was 89. A WW II veteran, after the war Koerber joined then-fledging law firm McDermott, Will & Emery. A corporate attorney, he helped build the firm’s international presence, retiring in 1983. He also was secretary of the United Way/Crusade of Mercy of Chicago for 25 years. He is survived by his wife, Margareta “Margie” Koerber, AB’42; two daughters; two sons, including Peter L. Koerber, JD’72; four brothers; a sister; and eight grandchildren.
Marvin N. Lesht, AB’42, died September 13 in Highland Park, IL. He was 88. A WW II veteran, Lesht began his federal service career at the Fifth Army headquarters, then located in Hyde Park. He went on to the Department of Agriculture, retiring in 1983 as director of personnel for the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Midwest region. He is survived by his wife, Florine; two sons, including Barry Lesht, SM’73, AM’73, PhD’77, MBA’99; two daughters; a sister; and eight grandchildren, including Alison Lesht, U-High’01, and Deanna Lesht, U-High’03.
Ruth (Kraft) Hamburger, AM’43, died October 3 in Bloomington, IN. She was 94. A social worker, she worked with veterans at Walter Reed Army Medical Center during WW II and later moved to Rochester, NY, where she was a psychiatric social worker. She went on to work in local public schools and at the Rochester Mental Health Center. Survivors include three sons, including John Hamburger, AB’70, and seven grandchildren.
Elliot M. “Mitch” Schrero, AB’44, AM’45, PhD’54, died August 9 in Englewood, NJ. He was 88. Schrero worked as creative director at New York advertising agencies SCI and McCann-Erickson. Switching to academia, he became an English professor at Rider University. Schrero is survived by his wife, Ruth; two daughters; his brother Stanley Allan Schrero, AB’50; and two grandchildren.
Paul Francke Jr., MD’46, a radiologist, died October 21 in Charleston, WV. He was 88. A WW II veteran, he practiced medicine for more than four decades and was professor of radiology at the Charleston division of the West Virginia University School of Medicine and at Marshall University’s medical school. He is survived by his wife, Ardath; four daughters; a son; 13 grandchildren, including Paul Francke IV, AB’03; and two great-grandchildren.
James Borowitz, U-High’44, PhB’48, died July 31 in Wilmington, DE. He was 81. Borowitz worked for his family’s Bradley Manufacturing Company, in Arthur Andersen LLP’s troubled-company practice, and as an executive-in-residence at DePaul University. Survivors include his wife, Dolores; two daughters; brother Albert I. Borowitz, U-High’45; and three grandchildren.
Edward L. Henry, AM’48, MBA’48, PhD’55, died September 30 in Roseville, MN. He was 89. A WW II veteran, Henry was on the political-science faculty at St. John’s University in Collegeville, MN, for 19 years before becoming the school’s vice president. Author of several books on city government, Henry was the mayor of St. Cloud, MN, for seven years. He went on to serve as president at three institutions before becoming the first lay president of Saint Mary’s College in Notre Dame, IN, in 1972. He is survived by his wife, Elizabeth Anne; five daughters; four sons; two brothers; and seven grandchildren.
William M. Birenbaum, JD’49, died October 4 in Brooklyn, NY. He was 87. Birenbaum was an administrator at the University of Chicago and at Wayne State University before joining the New School for Social Research in 1961, where he became dean. Author of two books on higher education, he also served as provost of Long Island University and president of Staten Island Community College. In 1976 Birenbaum was named president of Antioch College, then on the verge of bankruptcy. Under his leadership, the school streamlined its operations to regain solvency. He is survived by his wife, Helen (Bloch) Birenbaum, AB’50; a daughter; a son; a brother; a sister; and four grandchildren.
Watts S. Humphrey, SB’49, MBA’51, died October 28 in Sarasota, FL. He was 83. Often called the “father of software quality,” Humphrey helped to shape the software-engineering process. In 1986, after three decades at IBM as programming director and vice president of technical development, he joined the Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute. There he launched the Software Process Program, an approach to developing and releasing software that has influenced best practices in the field. Holder of five patents, Humphrey received the 2005 National Technology Medal. Survivors include his wife, Barbara; four daughters; three sons; a brother; three sisters; and 11 grandchildren.
1950s
Robert Grier Clarke Jr., JD’52, died October 23 in Charleston, WV. He was 88. A WW II veteran, Clarke practiced law before becoming corporate secretary at Ohio Valley Electric Corporation and then secretary vice president at Cosco Inc. In 1982 he and his wife, Elizabeth, joined the Peace Corps and moved to Fiji. He later served as a Corps country director in the Federated States of Micronesia. Moving to Charleston, he worked part time for government agencies. He is survived by his wife; son Gregory Dresel Clarke, AB’80; three sisters; and two granddaughters, including Rachel Clarke, AB’10.
Charles M. Jacobs, AB’53, JD’56, died October 25 in Boston, MA. He was 77. After several different careers, in the 1970s Jacobs established the Quality Review Center at the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospitals. Principal author of Measuring the Quality of Patient Care: The Rationale for Outcome Audit (1976), Jacobs founded InterQual, a health-care system of clinical data now used in most U.S. hospitals, and cofounded MediQual, a method of gauging treatments’ effectiveness. Recipient of a Founder’s Award from the American College of Utilization Review Physicians for his contributions to health-care quality, he was named the 1988 Man of the Year by the American Medical Association’s American Medical News. Jacobs, a founder of the Compass Players while at the University, coproduced an opera, Madame White Snake, conceived by his wife, Cerise, as a birthday gift to Jacobs. The show premiered in February 2010. He is survived by his wife, two daughters, a son, a brother, and a grandson.
Joan Moffat, AM’53, died September 11 in Dousman, WI. She was 81. Moffat ran a private piano studio for 30 years, taught music for a decade at the University of Wisconsin Center–Marshfield, and offered pedagogy courses for piano teachers through the university’s continuing-education system. She also served on the Wisconsin Music Teachers Association board for seven years. She is survived by her husband, Nelson A. Moffat, MD’55; a daughter; two sons; and two sisters.
Phillips Talbot, PhD’54, a former American ambassador, died October 1 in New York City. He was 95. A WW II veteran, he was a reporter for the Chicago Daily News before becoming assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern and South Asian affairs in 1961. He later served as ambassador to Greece during the political upheaval by army colonel George Papadopoulos. Talbot then spent 11 years as president of the Asia Society, which he helped John D. Rockefeller III to found in 1956. In 2007 he published An American Witness to India’s Partition. Survivors include two daughters and a grandson.
Joseph M. Coogle Jr., MBA’58, died August 9 in Annapolis, MD. He was 77. After serving in the Army, Coogle worked in marketing for the Pillsbury Company. He later joined Ketchum Communications Inc. and retired as an executive vice president and director. In retirement he taught at Robert Morris University, Duquesne University, and the University of Maryland. He is survived by his wife, Maryhelen; two daughters; two sisters; and three grandchildren.
Dan’l Harmon Brush IV, MBA’59, died September 12 in Wilmette, IL. He was 81. An Army veteran, Brush was CEO at brokerage firms Alm Kane Rogers and D. H. Brush & Associates. He also completed several Race to Mackinac sailing competitions. Survivors include two daughters, a son, and a sister.
Bernard J. Mizock, U-High’54, SB’59, SM’63, MD’63, died October 12 in Chicago. He was 72. After serving as an Air Force physician in Fort Worth, TX, Mizock joined the staff of Illinois Masonic Medical Center. He is survived by his wife, Bonnie; a daughter; a son; a sister; and four grandchildren.
Gordon Oliver Roberts, MAT’59, a math instructor, died September 29 in Seattle. He was 85. A WW II veteran, Roberts taught for 30 years at Shoreline High School and Shoreline Community College. He was math-department head at both schools before retiring in 1981. Taking up genealogical research, he found information for about 13,000 relatives and ancestors. Survivors include two daughters, two sons, eight grandchildren, and ten grandchildren.
1960s
Yoa G. Sachs, AM’60, AM’74, died June 22 in Rockport, MA. She was 77. Sachs taught humanities at the City Colleges of Chicago for 30 years. In 2003 she moved to Rockport. Survivors include a brother.
John H. Betjemann, MBA’64, died October 2 in Bradenton, FL. He was 70. After holding leadership positions at Chicago, Boston, and Cleveland hospitals, Betjemann was named president and CEO of Methodist Hospitals in northwest Indiana, where he served for nearly 40 years. He is survived by his wife, Celeste; two daughters, including Julia O’Brien, AM’96; a son; two brothers; a sister; and four grandchildren.
Neil Walsh Allen, U-High’62, AB’69, died of pulmonary fibrosis October 27 in La Porte, IN. He was 65. Allen launched a freelance writing and production company, where he created audiovisual exhibits for the Smithsonian Institution’s Hall of Photography and in 1975 published an essay on photographic theory with Chicago art-history professor Joel Snyder, SB’61, in Critical Inquiry. He later worked at legal publisher Commerce Clearing House, retiring this past summer as a senior public-relations specialist. He is survived by his wife, Roberta Allen, AB’66, AM’70; daughter Jessica Hosford, U-High’93; son Mark Allen, AB’03, JD’09; and his mother.
Caryl Towsley Moy, AM’69, died October 29 in Springfield, IL. She was 78. Moy taught high school before moving to higher education. In 1972 she was named an associate sociology professor at Sangamon State University, retiring distinguished professor emeritus in 1993. She also taught at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine and China’s Sun Yat-sen University. In addition to her teaching duties, Moy ran a marital-therapy private practice. In 2000 she was named a YWCA Woman of Excellence. She is survived by her husband, Richard Moy, AB’53, SB’54, MD’57; two sons; and two grandchildren.
Eric Pfaff, JD’69, an attorney, died of cancer November 10, 2009, in London. He was 68. Pfaff worked in the Chicago and Paris offices of law firm Baker & McKenzie before returning to his native South Africa, where he worked with legal group Webber Wentzel. In 1976 he established the Maitland group in Luxembourg to provide legal and tax-advisory services to clients such as De Beers. Under Pfaff’s leadership, the firm expanded internationally. He is survived by his wife, Susan; a daughter; a son; and a grandson.
1970s
Stephen H. Kliman, SB’71, a cardiologist, died of complications from back surgery October 26 in Beech Grove, IN. He was 60. In 1983 he joined St. Elizabeth Hospital in Lafayette, IN. Five years later he joined Indiana Heart Physicians, now affiliated with St. Francis Hospital. Kliman was a fellow of the American College of Cardiology. He is survived by his wife, Marjorie; two daughters; and a son.
Minna K. Davidson, AM’74, died of breast cancer September 5 in Rockville, MD. She was 57. Trained in modern dance and choreography, Davidson taught dance at colleges in Wisconsin and Michigan before moving to Maryland, where she was named executive director of the Montgomery County Commission on the Arts and Humanities. In the mid-1980s she joined the Montgomery County Council as a staff analyst. She retired this past August. She is survived by her husband, Craig; two daughters; her father; and a brother.
Keith Miller Eastman, MBA’74, died of cancer July 25 in Edina, MN. He was 60. A public accountant, venture capitalist, and entrepreneur, Eastman cofounded Spine-Tech Inc. and served as the medical company’s chief financial officer until its acquisition by Sulzer Medica. Eastman later became chief financial officer of Disc Dynamics. He is survived by his wife, Holly Eastman, MBA’76; two daughters; two sons; his mother; and his sister.
Michael E. Moody, PhD’79, died of cancer January 21, 2010, in Boston. He was 57. After a joint appointment in Washington State University’s genetics and cell biology and pure and applied mathematics departments, in 1994 Moody joined Harvey Mudd College, where he chaired the math department. In 2001 he was named visiting professor at then-new Olin College of Engineering and rose to dean of faculty and professor of mathematics, becoming vice president of academic affairs in July 2007. Moody was honored with an endowed math-lecture series in his name at Harvey Mudd College and an endowed chair in his name at Olin. He is survived by his wife, Joni; daughter Kjersten Moody, AB’98; his father; two sisters; and a grandson.
1980s
David V. Campbell, AB’83, a drummer, died after emergency surgery May 19 in New York City. He was 50. Campbell moved to New York in the 1980s, where he joined the rock band Love Camp 7. He spent more than 20 years playing with the group, recording several albums and touring internationally. Campbell also played with Erica Smith and the 99 Cent Dreams, the Ks, and other bands. He is survived by his wife, Annie.
Daniel R. Gravelyn, JD’85, an antitrust attorney, died of leukemia October 9 in Grand Rapids, MI. He was 51. Gravelyn was a partner at Barnes & Thornburg, where he cochaired the firm’s antitrust and trade-regulation practice group and chaired the Grand Rapids office litigation team. Recognized in 2007–10 editions of The Best Lawyers in America, he was past chair of the Michigan Bar Association Section on Antitrust, Franchising, and Trade Regulation. He is survived by his wife, Karen; a daughter; his parents; three brothers; and a sister.
Richard Nagareda, JD’88, a law professor, died of unknown causes October 8 in Nashville, TN. He was 47. A civil-litigation expert, he wrote Mass Torts in a World of Settlement (2008). In 2001, after practicing in the U.S. Office of Legal Counsel and law firm Shea & Gardner, Nagareda joined the University of Georgia School of Law. He then moved to Vanderbilt University Law School, where he was named director of the Cecil D. Branstetter Litigation and Dispute Resolution Program. He held the three-year Tarkington chair for teaching excellence and was a three-time winner of the student-selected Hall-Hartman Award for Teaching Excellence. He is survived by his wife, Ruth; a son; and his mother.