Deaths

 

 


Trustees and Friends

Edward “Ed” McCormick Blair, trustee emeritus, died December 22 in Lake Bluff, IL. He was 95. A WW II veteran, he joined William Blair & Company in 1946, becoming a partner four years later. In 1961 he succeeded his father as managing partner, a post he held until 1977. Blair was a life trustee at Chicago institutions such as the Art Institute of Chicago and Rush University Medical Center, and he was also a life member of the University’s Chicago Booth Council. Survivors include two sons, a brother, five grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren.

 

Faculty and Staff

Eugene Goldwasser, SB’43, PhD’50, the Alice Hogge and Arthur A. Baer professor emeritus of biochemistry and molecular biology, died December 17 in Chicago. He was 88. Goldwasser isolated and purified erythropoietin (EPO), a hormone that stimulates red-blood-cell production. The discovery paved the way for pharmaceutical companies to genetically engineer EPO to treat anemia in dialysis and cancer patients. A WW II veteran, Goldwasser worked as a government researcher before joining the University’s Argonne Cancer Research Hospital. Named a full professor in 1963, he was twice chair of the biochemistry and molecular-biology department; he also chaired the Committee on Developmental Biology for more than a decade. A 1966 Guggenheim fellow and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he received a 2004 Maclean Faculty Award. Goldwasser is survived by his second wife, Deone Jackman; three sons, Thomas Goldwasser, U-High’69, Matt Goldwasser, U-High’71, and James Goldwasser, U-High’76; a stepdaughter; stepson Thomas Jackman, U-High’84; and seven grandchildren.

Yi-chuang Lu, AM’42, PhD’50, a research associate in psychiatry, died December 25 in Chicago. She was 97. A social worker in Peking Union Medical College’s neuropsychology department and at the Peiping Psychopathic Hospital, Lu came to Chicago in the 1940s. After a stint at the University of Utah, in 1955 she returned to Chicago with her husband Tang Tsou, AM’45, PhD’51, and worked for the Illinois State Department of Mental Health, rising to director of sociological research on schizophrenia. In 1968 she joined the University’s psychiatry department, retiring in 1988. Her husband, a professor emeritus in political science, died in 1999. Survivors include two sisters.

Mary Kight Redfield, AB’53, AM’55, died November 12 in Wallingford, CT. She was 78. In 1987 Redfield joined Chicago’s department of pathology as secretary, remaining until her 2003 retirement. Survivors include daughter Emily Redfield, U-High’87; a son; and sister Martha Kight Smith, AB’61, AM’62, PhD’73.

Irving Spergel, the George Herbert Jones professor emeritus in the School of Social Service Administration, died December 3 in Chicago. He was 86. A WW II veteran, Spergel joined the Chicago faculty in 1960. A leading expert in street-gang violence, he introduced a neighborhood-focused intervention model now used by the US Department of Justice. When implemented in Chicago’s Little Village in the 1990s, Spergel’s program led to a 40 percent reduction in serious gang violence. Survivors include his wife, Annot; three sons, Mark Spergel, AB’75, Barry Spergel, U-High’68, AM’75, and Daniel Spergel, U-High’81; two brothers; and two granddaughters.

 

1920s

Esther Sider Shlensky, PhB’24, died November 21. She was 106. Shlensky worked briefly as a social worker at the Michael Reese Hospital Dispensary before her marriage to Harry Shlensky. A lifelong member of Hadassah and Hyde Park’s Congregation Rodfei Zedek, she was the only member of her class to attend its 81st reunion in 2005. Survivors include two daughters; four grandchildren, including Janet Elizabeth Blum, MBA’92, AM’92; and eight great-grandchildren.

 

1930s

Walter Albert Lurie, PhD’35, died January 16, 2010, in Mamaroneck, NY. He was 97. A social psychologist, he was a supervisor at Chicago’s Jewish Vocational Service before moving to New York, where he worked in Jewish and interfaith community relations, including roles as director of large-city budgeting for the Council of Jewish Federations and of program assessment for the National Community Relations Advisory Council. Survivors include a daughter, a sister, three grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.

William Muir Taliaferro, AB’37, died December 26 in Loveland, CO. He was 95. Taliaferro worked for 45 years at a building-products company, starting as a salesman and retiring as a district manager. In 1953 he and his wife, Anne, settled in Grosse Point, MI, where they raised their family. The couple moved to Loveland in 2001. Survivors include two daughters, two brothers, five grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren.

Michael M. Dolnick, AB’38, AM’39, died October 27 in Chicago. He was 94. A WW II veteran, he worked in vocational rehabilitation, first with Easter Seals in Chicago and then with the US Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, where he was a deputy director in the Rehabilitation Services Administration. He retired in 1980. A lifetime member of the American Numismatic Association and president of the Chicago Coin Club, Dolnick wrote several articles on coin collecting. He is survived by his wife, Sylvia; son William “Bill” Dolnick, AM’75; and three grandchildren.

Betty Joseph, AB’39, died February 21, 2009, in Chicago. She was 91. Joseph taught in the Chicago Public Schools and, in retirement, was a coordinator of the Hello Israel program. Survivors include a daughter; two brothers, including Jack Linn, AB’42; and three grandchildren.

David S. Logan, AB’39, JD’41, died January 22 in Chicago. He was 93. An attorney who later became managing partner of Chicago-based Mercury Investments, Logan believed deeply in the role of journalism to safeguard the public interest. With his wife, Reva Logan, X’43, he founded the Reva and David Logan Foundation, which helped fund the nonprofit Center for Investigative Reporting; the PBS series Frontline and the Ken Burns documentary series Jazz; and the annual Logan Symposium for reporters and journalism students. The foundation also endowed a chair in investigative reporting at the University of California, Berkeley. For nearly 30 years, Logan served on the Illinois Arts Council, leading its budget and arts-in-education committees and receiving the first Governor’s Special Recognition Award for Distinguished Service in Education and the Arts. His support also extended to the University of Chicago: he received a 1994 Public Service Award from the Alumni Association, and in 2007 Logan and his family gave the University $35 million to support the creative and performing arts. The Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts is slated to open in spring 2012. He is survived by his wife, three sons, nine grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.

Margaret E. (Brown) Vartanoff, AB’39, died November 13 in Rockville, MD. She was 95. As a cartographer for the Army Map Service during WW II, she married expatriate Georgian prince Michael Vartanoff, her supervisor. She later worked in the Montgomery County Public Libraries and in retirement volunteered as an English coach and Smithsonian Institution docent. Survivors include two daughters, a son, and a grandson.

 

1940s

Neil Heller, AB’40, died September 2 in Juno Beach, FL. He was 91. A WW II veteran, he worked in sales at Chicago-Latrobe Machine Tool Company before moving to Baltimore. Heller spent most of his career in sales, retiring in 1990 as an agent for the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States. He is survived by his wife, Miriam; two daughters; a son; and a brother.

Theo Taylor Carlson, AM’41, died December 5 in Denver. She was 97. Chief social worker at the Bismarck, ND, state psychiatric clinic, Carlson later was a hospital social worker at St. Alexius Medical Center. Her husband, Reuben Carlson, AM’47, died in 1993. Survivors include two daughters, two sons, a foster daughter, and six grandchildren.

Leonard George Ginger, SM’41, a chemist, died November 24 in Glenview, IL. He was 92. After work on the Manhattan Project and producing antimalaria drugs for WW II soldiers, in 1949 he joined Baxter Healthcare, rising to vice president of research and development before retiring in 1974. Survivors include three daughters; three sons; three brothers, including Roger D. Ginger, PhB’48, SM’52; seven grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.

Elizabeth Barickman Reifsnyder, AB’43, died November 4 in Austin, TX. She was 88. After serving with the Navy WAVES during WW II, Reifsnyder moved to Terre Haute, IN, with her husband, Henry G. Reifsnyder, AM’47, PhD’58. In 1968 she received an MBA from Indiana State University, where she later taught finance and was named head of accounting. She also taught at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College. Retiring in 1997, Reifsnyder was a lifelong tennis player. Her husband died in 1980. Survivors include three sons; brother Robert I. Barickman Jr., SB’41, MD’44; and six grandchildren.

William Self, AB’43, died November 15 in Los Angeles. He was 89. A TV producer who oversaw such 20th Century Fox Television successes as Daniel Boone, Peyton Place, Batman, and M*A*S*H, Self began his career as an advertising copywriter. An aspiring actor, he snagged small roles in Adam’s Rib and other films before moving behind the camera to produce The Schlitz Playhouse of Stars TV series. In 1959 he joined Fox and later became president. Joining CBS in 1977 as president of theatrical film production, Self won four prime-time Emmy Awards for the 1982 Civil War drama The Blue and the Gray. He later formed William Self Productions, where he created dramas for the Hallmark Hall of Fame. His wife, Margaret Flynn Self, X’42, died in 2007. Survivors include a daughter, a son, a sister, four grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren.

Charles Barlow, SB’45, MD’47, died December 11 in Cohasset, MA. He was 87. A pediatric neurologist, Barlow did groundbreaking research on children’s brain development, studying how blood and fluids move through the brain. The Korean War Navy veteran was an associate professor at Chicago before moving to Harvard Medical School in 1963 as a neurology professor and neurologist in chief at Boston Children’s Hospital. There he established one of the earliest training programs in pediatric neurology and the hospital’s mental-retardation-research program, which he directed for 20 years. The hospital later created the Charles F. Barlow chair in his honor. Continuing to teach after his 1990 retirement, he was the author of two clinical texts. He received a lifetime achievement award from the Child Neurology Society and two distinguished service awards from the University of Chicago Biological Sciences Division. Survivors include two daughters, a brother, a sister, and two grandchildren.

Betty Alexander Hanna, SM’45, died November 17 in Chino Hills, CA. She was 88. Hanna taught mathematics briefly at the University of Minnesota before marrying and raising a family. She later taught and tutored high-school math. She is survived by her husband, Edward; a daughter; and son Charles Clark Hanna, SM’71, PhD’74.

John T. Horton, U-High’43, PhB’46, died November 30 in Naperville, IL. He was 82. President of CBI Industries, Horton also founded start-up businesses in the United States and in Canada. He is survived by his wife, Jane; four sons, including John-Mark Horton, AB’86; a daughter; and a stepdaughter.

Morris L. Cohen, AB’47, a law professor and librarian, died December 18 in New Haven, CT. He was 83. After earning a Columbia University law degree, Cohen directed law libraries at the former University of Buffalo, the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard, and Yale, helping to bring the latter two into the digital age. In 1991 he became a professor emeritus and professional lecturer at Yale. Cohen wrote widely on legal history, including a six-volume Bibliography of Early American Law (1998), and he donated his collection of children’s law books to Yale in 2009. He is survived by his wife, Gloria; a daughter; a son; and a granddaughter.

Phyllis (Noskin) Kadish, AM’47, died November 25 in Austin, TX. She was 86. After marrying Herbert S. Kadish, AB’46, in 1948, she moved to Dallas and started a family. The couple later returned to the Midwest, and Kadish spent 14 years as a secretary at Evanston Township High School. In 1983 she and her husband relocated to Austin, where Kadish joined the University of Texas School of Law staff. She is survived by her husband, four sons, five grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.

John R. Kimball, SB’47, MD’49, died September 23 in Mission Viejo, CA. He was 85. An Army and Navy veteran, Kimball ran an internal-medicine private practice in Anaheim, CA. He is survived by his wife, Billie; a daughter; two sons; and four grandchildren.

Clyde G. Miller, SB’47, MD’51, a psychiatrist, died November 2 in Mountain View, CA. He was 87. A WW II veteran, Miller led community mental-health efforts in several California counties. He is survived by his wife, Gail; a daughter; three sons; a sister; and three granddaughters.

Virginia (Bosch) Potter, AM’47, died November 10 in Syracuse, NY. She was 89. While teaching at the University of Rochester, Potter wrote grant proposals for postwar government science research. Moving to Harvard, she wrote speeches for the university president. Potter then joined the University of Wisconsin as assistant to the president. She also owned Xanadu Travel Agency in Chicago. Survivors include a brother.

Joan J. “Jackie” Zilbach, PhB’46, SB’47, a psychoanalyst, died November 1 in Yarmouth, ME. She was 83. One of four women in her Boston University School of Medicine class, Zilbach founded a family-therapy program at Boston’s Judge Baker Guidance Center, where she advocated that young children be included in psychoanalytic treatment, a controversial view she also espoused in her 1986 book, Young Children in Family Therapy. Former president of the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, Zilbach was an early faculty member at Fielding Graduate University in Santa Barbara, CA. Survivors include three daughters, a son, and three grandchildren.

Max Kurz, AM’48, a social worker, died November 27 in Waukesha, WI. He was 93. After fleeing Nazi-occupied Austria, Kurz first worked in New York’s garment industry and then served as a US Army medic. He later became a psychiatric social worker for the Veterans Administration and helped found the Waukesha County Child Guidance Clinic. In 1955 he joined the University of Wisconsin–Madison social-work faculty, moving to the Milwaukee campus a year later. There he rose to dean of the School of Social Welfare. He is survived by his wife, Kathe “Kay”; two sons; and grandchildren.

William Hohri, AB’49, died November 12 in Pacific Palisades, CA. He was 83. As a teenager during WW II, he was sent to a Japanese American internment camp. Years later, while working as a computer programmer, he helped to found the National Council for Japanese American Redress and became lead plaintiff in a $25 billion class-action lawsuit against the federal government. Although the Supreme Court dismissed the legal case, his efforts led to a 1988 presidential apology and $20,000 in redress payments for each camp survivor. Hohri wrote a novel and two nonfiction books about wartime internment. He is survived by his wife, Yoriko; two daughters, including Sylvia M. Hohri, AB’77; two brothers, including Sohei Hohri, PhB’49; three grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

Lewis M. Killian, PhD’49, a sociologist, died November 20 in Pensacola, FL. He was 91. A WW II veteran, Killian began his teaching career at Florida State University in 1952, rising to department chair before joining the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1969. A Guggenheim fellow, he retired from UMass as professor emeritus in 1985. Killian served as president of the Southern Sociological Society, consulted to the Attorney General of Florida, and was appointed to a statewide Human Rights Advocacy Committee. Killian wrote five books on race relations, including Black and White: Reflections of a White Southern Sociologist (General Hall, 1994). He is survived by his wife, Katharine; a daughter; two sons; seven grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren.

Phyllis Eileen Omlid, AM’49, died November 1 in Bismarck, ND. She was 92. She was a social worker at the Ramsey County (MN) Welfare Board and then became a supervisor with the Minnesota Public Welfare Department and a fellow of the American Association on Mental Deficiency. She later joined Bismarck’s Memorial Mental Health and Retardation Center, where she helped create a professional licensure system for the state’s social workers. Retiring in 1991, Omlid was honored as the National Association of Social Workers’ 1994 North Dakota Social Worker of the Year. Survivors include a daughter.

 

1950s

Christopher Joel Cadbury, AM’51, died October 1 in Rhinebeck, NY. He was 89. Cadbury was a clinical psychologist at Hudson River Psychiatric Center in Poughkeepsie, NY, until his 1990 retirement. A part-time farmer, he enjoyed spending time at his family’s camp in the Adirondacks. He is survived by his wife, Mary Foster Cadbury, AM’57; a daughter; and two grandsons.

James Weldon Crawford, MD’54, PhD’61, died September 18, 2009, in Evanston, IL. He was 81. After completing neurophysiology and neuroendocrinology fellowships at Chicago and the National Institute of Neurological Disease and Blindness, Crawford spent the next 40 years in patient care. As a department chair at Ravenswood Hospital, he founded one of the country’s first community mental-health centers. He was also a professor at the University of Illinois and at Rush University and was a medical consultant for People to People Ambassador Programs in China, Russia, and Kenya. He is survived by his wife, Susan Y. Crawford, AM’55, PhD’70; a son; and two grandchildren.

Edward S. Glavis Jr., MBA’55, a hospital administrator, died October 29, 2009, in Coarsegold, CA. He was 84. Glavis worked at hospitals in Ohio and California before joining Valley Children’s Hospital and Guidance Clinic in Fresno, CA, where he spent 20 years. He is survived by his wife, Judee; two daughters; a son; a sister; three grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.

Gerald C. Hickey, AM’53, PhD’58, an anthropologist, died November 10 in Chicago. He was 84. A WW II veteran and Vietnam scholar, Hickey first traveled to the region as a RAND Corporation researcher in 1956 and later helped with Vietnam War relief missions. Hickey wrote several books, including a two-volume history of the Central Highlands people. Survivors include two brothers and a sister.

Lois Mansfield, AM’58, died November 28 in Pittsburgh. She was 87. After supervising the premature nursery at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Mansfield became nurse coordinator for a state-funded initiative to improve infant survival rates. Returning to Pitt in 1959, Mansfield became a clinical instructor in obstetric nursing and then a clinical specialist at UPMC’s Elizabeth Steel Magee Hospital’s Infant Referral Center. Working with Presbyterian and Catholic mission efforts in China, Mansfield also developed programs to transport critically ill Chinese newborns to specialized hospitals. She retired in the early 1980s. Survivors include a niece.

Courtland H. Peterson, MCL’59, died November 1 in Boulder, CO. He was 80. An Air Force lawyer, Peterson spent 37 years at the University of Colorado Law School, specializing in international law, serving as dean (1973–79), and receiving multiple awards, including a distinguished service award for legal education. Peterson retired from teaching in 1996 but continued to consult for Denver law firms. He is survived by his wife, Sue; two daughters; a son; a half-brother; six grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.

 

1960s

Robert Smith Winegarner, DB’60, died November 7 in Fort Collins, CO. He was 93. A WW II veteran, he served as pastor at Congregational United Church of Christ churches in Illinois, Ohio, and North Dakota. Retiring in 1982, Winegarner served as interim pastor in Cleveland and in Challis, ID. Survivors include four daughters, four sons, two sisters, 18 grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.

Arthur Evans Tashko LeGacy, AB’62, AM’63, PhD’67, a historian, died November 3 in Syracuse, NY. He was 77. An Air Force veteran, he worked in advertising and was an editor for the Chicago Review early in his career. In 1965 he joined Syracuse University’s Maxwell School, where he taught urban history and film for 29 years before retiring professor emeritus. Founder of the Children’s School, the first alternative elementary school in Syracuse, he wrote extensively on architect Frank Lloyd Wright. He is survived by his wife, Maria; a daughter; a son; and a granddaughter.

William F. Siemers, MBA’65, died December 15 in Nashville, TN. He was 93. Ordained in the United Church of Christ, Siemers was a pastor in Illinois, Wisconsin, and North Dakota. He then became CEO of suburban Chicago’s Christ Medical Center and president of the Greater Chicago Ministerial Association of the United Church of Christ. He also was a board member for the Evangelical Hospital Association. When he retired from Christ Medical Center, a hospital chapel was named in his honor. Survivors include a daughter, three sons, four grandchildren, and ten great-grandchildren.

Ara Stephen “Steve” Boyan Jr., PhD’66, a political scientist, died November 7 in Burlington, VT. He was 72. In 1971 Boyan joined the University of Maryland in Baltimore County, where he taught constitutional law and environmental ethics for more than three decades. He also chaired the political-science department and was faculty-senate president. A leader in the ethical culture movement, Boyan was also editor of the six-volume Constitutional Aspects of Watergate, and he sat on the American Civil Liberties Union’s national board. He is survived by his wife, Kitty Stein Boyan, AB’66; son Justin Boyan, SB’91; and two granddaughters.

Peter Marzio, AM’66, PhD’69, died of cancer December 9 in Houston. He was 67. Marzio taught at the University of Maryland before joining the Smithsonian Institution as curator of prints and chair of the cultural-history department. In 1978 he was named director of Washington’s Corcoran Gallery of Art, and in 1982 he moved to Houston’s Museum of Fine Arts. Marzio headed the institution for nearly three decades, more than tripling its permanent collection, adding several buildings, and strengthening the museum’s Latin American and Asian programs. From 1997 to 2000, he chaired the Federal Council on Arts and Humanities. Marzio is survived by his wife, Frances; a daughter; a son; and five grandchildren.

 

1970s

Stephanie “Moni” Wells Andron, AM’70, died of cancer November 17 in Sunset Valley, TX. She was 69. After working for the International Monetary Fund and UNESCO, Andron founded the Austin, TX, branch of the International Dyslexia Association. She later started a real-estate career, eventually becoming a green-building and design specialist and launching Moni Wells Properties, which she led until 2009. She is survived by her husband, Brad; a daughter; two sons; a stepdaughter; a stepson; two brothers; and four grandchildren.

George Harold Klumpner, AB’70, died in November in Downers Grove, IL. He was 62. A member of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals and the Appellate Lawyers Association of Illinois, Klumpner was also an attorney of the supreme courts of the United States and of the State of Illinois. He is survived by his wife, Ester; a daughter; a son; his parents, George Henry Klumpner, SB’45, MD’48, and Inger (Olson), PhB’46, AM’49; and a brother.

J. Lee Riccardi, AM’70, died of pneumonia July 14 in Boston. He was 64. Riccardi was a tax attorney with the Massachusetts Department of Revenue in the Rulings and Regulations Bureau, focusing on constitutional and sales-tax law. He was also a poet, pianist, and composer. In 2004 he and his husband, Tom Gregg, were among the first gay couples to be legally married in Massachusetts. Survivors include his husband, his stepmother, and a sister.

Leonardo “Pepe” Auernheimer, AM’70, PhD’73, an economist, died December 2 in College Station, TX. He was 74. A native of Argentina, he taught at Brazil’s University of Vicosa before joining the Texas A&M University economics department, where he served four years as department head. A visiting scholar at the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, he advised international organizations in Latin America, the Middle East, and Asia on macroeconomics policy. He is survived by his wife, Christa; a daughter; and three grandchildren.

George Emerson “Skip” Lawrence, AM’75, died suddenly April 25, 2009, in Phoenixville, PA. He was 60. A senior political correspondent and columnist for the Phoenix newspaper, Lawrence volunteered with local groups, including the Main Street Community Development Corporation and Stepping Stone Education Center, as well as national nonprofits. He is survived by his companion, Adrienne Selinger; a daughter; a son; a stepdaughter; a stepson; a brother; a sister; and six grandchildren.

Edward A. Riedinger, AM’69, PhD’78, died November 11 in Columbus, OH. He was 66. In the mid-1970s, Riedinger was the Brazilian president’s private secretary for English correspondence and then worked as an educational advising officer for the Fulbright Commission of Brazil until 1988. A history professor at Ohio State University and head of its Latin American Library Collection, Riedinger wrote several books, including 1988’s Como se faz um presidente (The Making of a President), published on the eve of the first direct, civilian presidential election in Brazil since the 1964 military coup. At the time of his death, he was working on a history of modern Brazilian culture. Survivors include a brother.

 

1980s

Lila Alice (Lobenthal) Gordon, PhD’81, an educator, died of pancreatic cancer August 5 in South Salem, NY. She was 78. Gordon taught at or led several Quaker schools along the East Coast; she was most recently head of Oakwood Friends School in Poughkeepsie, NY. She also consulted to Westchester County schools. Survivors include two children: one son, Michael B. Gordon, and one daughter, Merle Gordon Dowling; two brothers, Joseph S. Lobenthal, AM’52, JD’55, and Richard H. Lobenthal, AB’55; sister-in-law Shirley W. Lobenthal; and three grandchildren.

 

2000s

Marcus Bernard “Marty” Butler III, PhD’03, died November 7 in Marietta, GA. He was 45. Butler earned his MBA from Texas A&M University and studied at Austria’s Johannes Kepler Universität. Recipient of the Arthur Andersen Doctoral Dissertation fellowship, he also won the Emory MBA Program’s Distinguished Educator Award. Survivors include his wife, Robin; a daughter; a son; his mother; and two sisters.

 

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