Deaths
Faculty and Staff
June Bennett, CER'10, secretary and receptionist for the UChicago Medical Center's development office, died of a brain aneurysm March 25 in Chicago. She was 55. A University employee for 22 years, Bennett recently completed a creative-writing certificate. She is survived by her husband, Vernon Leo Towle, Chicago professor of neurology, surgery, pediatrics, and psychiatry; a daughter; and a sister.
Patrick Billingsley, professor emeritus in statistics and mathematics, died April 22 in Chicago. He was 85. Billingsley, who wrote the text Probability and Measure, joined Chicago in 1958 and retired in 1994. A Guggenheim fellow and recipient of the Mathematical Association of America's 1974 Lester R. Ford award for mathematical exposition, Billingsley also was an actor, appearing in Somewhere in Time (1980) and The Untouchables (1987). His wife, Ruth (Thomas) Billingsley, U-High'39, died in 2000. He is survived by his companion, Florence G. Weisblatt, AM'77, CER'84; four daughters, including Frances "Franny" Billingsley, U-High'71, Patricia "Patty" Billingsley, U-High'74, and Martha "Marty" Billingsley, U-High'77; a son; and 12 grandchildren.
Alice W. Chandler, of Chicago, the office manager in the president's and provost's offices, died May 12. She was 93. Starting her 77-year career at the University of Chicago at age 16, she worked with faculty members, including anthropologist W. Lloyd Warner and social psychologist Norman M. Bradburn, AB'52. Chandler was also a departmental counselor in the Committee on Human Development. In 1975 she joined the president's and provost's offices, where she stayed for 36 years and worked with five presidents. The University's annual staff service recognition ceremony has been renamed the Alice W. Chandler Staff Service Recognition Ceremony in her honor. Chandler is survived by her son and a sister.
Charles Montgomery Gray, professor emeritus of history, died April 22 in Chicago. He was 82. Gray, a legal historian, wrote the four-volume collection Jurisdiction in Early Modern English Law. A Guggenheim fellow, he joined the Chicago faculty in 1960 and spent 1974 to 1978 at Yale, where his wife, U of C president emerita Hanna H. Gray, was then provost. Returning to the University as a professor of history, he won a 1992 Quantrell Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. He is survived by his wife and a sister.
1930s
Muriel M. Shishkoff, AB'36, a teacher, died April 19 in Portland, OR. She was 94. Shishkoff taught elementary school before joining the US Navy as a WAVE lieutenant during WW II. In 1970 she cofounded the Women's Opportunity Center in Southern California and worked for many years in the University of California, Irvine, admissions office. Shishkoff wrote two books on education access. She is survived by her husband, Nicholas; a daughter; and a son.
Leonore (Markson) Dembowitz, AB'37, died April 9 in Lenox, MA. She was 94. A social worker, she was active in her local Jewish community. Survivors include two sons and five grandchildren, including Adam Dembowitz, AB'04, and Lauren (Turken) Dembowitz, AB'07.
Leo Rangell, MD'37, died May 28 in Los Angeles. He was 97. A practicing psychoanalyst since the 1940s, Rangell fought for this method of treating emotional distress even as new schools of thought became popular in the late 1960s. A clinical professor emeritus of psychiatry at the University of California's Los Angeles and San Francisco campuses, Rangell published nine books, including The Mind of Watergate: An Exploration of the Compromise of Integrity (W. W. Norton & Co, 1980). Twice president of the American Psychoanalytic Association and the International Psychoanalytic Association, Rangell won a 1987 Biological Sciences Division Distinguished Service Award. After heart bypass surgery in 1995, Rangell developed musical hallucinations, hearing songs that no one else heard, which he blogged about on the Huffington Post. He is survived by two daughters, a son, and a sister.
1940s
Norman Kogan, AB'40, PhD'49, a political scientist, died February 26 in Storrs, CT. He was 91. A WW II veteran, Kogan joined the University of Connecticut faculty in 1949 and retired in 1988. An Italian-government expert, he received the title Knight in the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic and a career achievement award from the Conference Group on Italian Politics and Society. He is survived by his wife, Meryl; two sons; and two grandsons.
J. Ernest Wilkins Jr., SB'40, SM'41, PhD'42, a physicist and mathematician, died May 1 in Fountain Hills, AZ. He was 87. After earning his doctorate at age 19, Wilkins worked on the Manhattan Project, discovering a principle of nuclear reactor physics known as the Wilkins effect. He later worked in the private sector on atomic energy projects and held distinguished fellowships at Argonne and at Howard and Clark Atlanta Universities. The second African American elected to the National Academy of Engineering, he won the University Alumni Association's 1997 Professional Achievement Award and the National Association of Mathematics' Lifetime Achievement Award. Survivors include a daughter, a son, three grandchildren, and two great-granddaughters.
Mary Frances (Rowe) Eagle, AB'41, died January 31 in Concord, MA. She was 91. Eagle taught in Evanston, IL, elementary schools before tutoring pregnant teens. She was a founding member of the Lake Shore Unitarian Universalist Society in Winnetka, IL, and chaired its program committee. Her husband, Edward Eagle, PhD'40, died in 1988. She is survived by two daughters, including Margaret Eagle, AB'71, AM'74, PhD'81; a son; a sister; and two grandchildren.
Joshua Z. Holland, SB'41, X'42, a meteorologist, died May 6 in Washington, DC. He was 89. Holland headed the Atomic Energy Commission's fallout-studies branch, did research at the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, and taught at the University of Maryland. An American Meteorological Society fellow, he won a 1974 Department of Commerce Gold Medal. Also a painter, Holland sold several pieces to the Arts Commission of the District of Columbia. He is survived by his wife, Sandra; two daughters; a stepdaughter; a stepson; three sisters, including Ruth (Holland) Waddell, AB'44; two grandsons; and five step-grandchildren.
Edwin Zebroski, SB'41, a nuclear engineer, died October 19 in Los Altos, CA. He was 89. Zebroski was manager of engineering at the research institute SRI International before joining GE as a project manager. A member of the National Academy of Engineering, he helped launch Atlanta's Institute of Nuclear Power Operations and Palo Alto's Electric Power Research Institute, where he served as chief nuclear scientist. He is survived by his wife, Gisela; three daughters; six grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.
Victor Blanco, SB'42, X'43, an astronomer, died March 8 near Vero Beach, FL. He was 92. A WW II veteran, Blanco taught at Case Western Reserve University and worked at the US Naval Observatory before directing the Chilean cosmic research facility Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory during 14 years of turbulent politics in the country. Among his accomplishments at the observatory was creating what was then the largest telescope in the Southern hemisphere, at 158 inches in diameter. He is survived by his wife, Betty; a son; a stepdaughter; a stepson; and three grandchildren.
Louise Gaines Daugherty, AB'42, MAT'47, died March 7 in Chicago. She was 94. Daugherty taught developmentally disabled students in Chicago elementary schools before becoming the city's youngest principal, at Edmund Burke Elementary, in 1948. She went on to become assistant superintendent for special education at Chicago Public Schools, spearheading an initiative to better educate disabled CPS students. Her husband, William A. Daugherty, AM'44, died in 1980.
Robert W. Keyes, SB'42, SM'49, PhD'53, a physicist, died in April 2010 in Westchester County, NY. He was 88. A WW II veteran, Keyes was a staff member at the Westinghouse Research Laboratory in Pittsburgh and then joined the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, NY, where he retired as research staff member emeritus. He won several awards, including an IBM Invention Achievement Award for eight issued patents and a 1976 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers W. R. G. Baker Award. Survivors include his wife, Sophie; a daughter; a son; a brother; and sister Florence K. Foss, AB'50.
Robert William Godwin Langdon, SB'44, MD'45, PhD'53, a biochemist, died March 19 in Woodlands, TX. He was 88. Langdon's doctoral research on cholesterol paved the way for developing statin drugs used to treat cardiac disease. A professor of physiological chemistry at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, he was later rotating department chair at the University of Virginia. After retiring, he moved to Glen Rose, TX, to run his family's farm. Survivors include three daughters, a son, five grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.
Anne Hutchinson Sharp, U-High'40, SB'44, died May 8 in Alexandria, VA. She was 87. A longtime employee and volunteer at Arlington Hospital, Sharp served as the hospital's first patient representative. Survivors include two daughters; a son; sister Judith Powell, U-High'44; seven grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
Rita Marie Silveri, AB'44, died May 3 in Maywood, IL. She was 89. An English professor at Chicago's Wright Junior College (now Wilbur Wright College) for almost 20 years, Silveri chaired the faculty council of the Cook County College Teachers Union. Survivors include two brothers and a sister.
Alfred Bodian, AB'47, died February 25 in Washington, DC. He was 87. A WW II veteran who did post-war military intelligence in Japan, Bodian later joined the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations in Washington, spending two decades in its Naval Intelligence Division. He retired in 1972. Bodian collected Japanese ceramics and donated pieces to the Library of Congress and to the Art Institute of Chicago. Survivors include five nieces and nephews.
Barzillai Cheskis, SB'47, SM'48, died November 28 in New Haven, CT. He was 86. A WW II veteran, Cheskis grew up working at his parents' pharmacy in Chicago's Logan Square neighborhood and eventually owned his own pharmacy at North Avenue and Austin Street. He is survived by three daughters, eight grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.
Nancy G. Linton, PhB'47, died April 28 in Washington, DC. She was 83. Linton was a public-health nurse before becoming campaign coordinator for Marion Barry's first school board and mayoral races in the 1960s. She later earned her real-estate license, serving on the boards of the Northwest Washington Fair Housing Association and Washington's Historic Preservation Review Board and working for Merrill Lynch Realty for 12 years. She is survived by her husband, Ron, and two daughters.
Muriel E. Nelson, AM'47, died March 23 in Oakland, CA. She was 94. After Red Cross service during WW II, Nelson practiced family social work in Oakland, CA. In retirement, Nelson taught smoking-cessation and adult-literacy courses. Survivors include nieces and nephews.
Anne "Annie" Endicott (Russell) Ricks, PhB'47, died May 22 in Chevy Chase, MD. She was 84. After earning a master's degree in urban planning from Hunter College, Ricks moved with her family to Afghanistan, where she did research for her thesis on women in Kabul. She later worked for New York City's District Council 37 of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, testifying. Her husband, David Ricks, AB'48, PhD'56, died in 2004. She is survived by three daughters, two sons, a sister, 13 grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren
David Lee Jickling, AB'48, AM'51, PhD'53, a foreign-service official, died April 2 in Philadelphia. He was 83. A WW II veteran, Jickling developed and coordinated grant-funded projects in Guatemala, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Vietnam, and Washington, DC. After retiring from the State Department in 1978, he taught at Michigan universities and trained young foreign-service professionals. For nearly two decades, Jickling was a docent for the National Postal Museum. He is survived by his wife, Cynthia; two daughters; three sons; and 13 grandchildren.
Lyman S. Prater, MBA'48, died March 3 in Toledo, OH. He was 89. A WW II and Korea veteran, Prater was an accountant for Kroger and Ohio Plate Glass, where he was controller and assistant treasurer. He was on the board of the National Association of Accountants' Toledo chapter and spent a year as president. A Naval reservist, Prater retired as a lieutenant commander in the 1980s. Survivors include two daughters, a son, a brother, six grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.
Aaron Asher, AB'49, AM'52, an editor and publisher, died March 18, 2008, in New York. He was 78. During his 55-year career, Asher worked with Saul Bellow, X'39; Arthur Miller; and Philip Roth, AM'55. Known for bringing foreign authors Milan Kundera and Carlos Fuentes to American attention, he was publisher of HarperCollins imprint Aaron Asher Books. Survivors include his wife, Linda; two daughters, including Abigail Asher, AB'86; sister Miriam (Asher) Kohn, AB'53, AB'55, AM'57; and four grandchildren.
Ned Allen Flanders, AM'47, PhD'49, of Oakland, CA, died May 29. He was 93. A WW II veteran, Flanders taught on the educational-psychology faculties of the University of Minnesota, the University of Michigan, Mills College, and the University of California, Berkeley. The recipient of two Fulbright scholarships, Flanders was a fellow at Stanford's Center for Advanced Studies of the Behavioral Sciences and received the Trustees' Citation of the University of California. He is survived by his wife, Mary; two daughters; four granddaughters; and four great-grandchildren.
1950s
Laurence Berns, AB'50, PhD'57, a political philosopher, died March 3 in Annapolis, MD. He was 82. Berns taught at St. John's College for nearly 40 years before retiring in 1999. He is survived by his wife, Gisela; a daughter; a brother; and a grandson.
John Franklin "Jack" Johnson, MBA'50, died January 28 in Mt. Lebanon, PA. He was 86. A WW II veteran, Johnson was sales director at Pittsburgh's William Penn Hotel and a project supervisor in U.S. Steel's conferences and meetings group. Johnson is survived by his wife, Audrey; three sons; seven grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.
Gordon C. McKeague, PhB'50, SB'56, MBA'56, died March 24 in Galena, IL. He was 84. A WW II veteran, McKeague was a retired Army Reserves major general and recipient of the Legion of Merit. He spent 32 years at Standard Oil of Illinois, which became Amoco Corporation, where he was president of Amoco Technology and then director of corporate development. In 2009 McKeague endowed the University Library's Robert I. and Mary Clark McKeague Memorial Fund and donated thousands of first-edition books to the Library's collection, in honor of his parents. He is survived by his wife, Marea; three daughters; a son; a brother; 11 grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.
Clark Bouton, AB'52, AM'54, PhD'59, died February 22 in Denver. He was 79. During his 52-year career, Bouton taught political and social theory at the University of Colorado Boulder and the University of the District of Columbia. He created the Cooperative Learning Project to train teachers in alternative teaching methods to reach nontraditional students. After retiring, Bouton volunteered with the Colorado Progressive Coalition, leading community forums on health care across the state. He is survived by his wife, Clara "Denny" McGihon, U-High'44; two sons; a stepdaughter; two stepsons; and three grandchildren.
Paul R. Diesing, AM'48, PhD'52, died May 1 in Bradenton, FL. He was 88. A WW II veteran, he taught philosophy at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and at the University at Buffalo, the State University of New York. Diesing played viola in community string quartets. He is survived by his wife, Eleanor (Zuckman) Diesing, AB'47, AM'52; two daughters; two sons; five grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
Janice Lynn, AB'52, PhD'59, died February 18 in Los Angeles. She was 78. Lynn was a clinical psychologist and civil-rights activist in Detroit for nearly three decades before moving to Los Angeles in 1987. There she was a social worker at the Hollywood Senior Center and the Motion Picture and Television Fund hospital until her 1994 retirement. Survivors include a daughter, a son, two brothers, and a sister.
Florie Brettler Goldhammer, X'53, an attorney, died February 27 in Pittsburgh. She was 77. Pennsylvania's first female bar examiner, Goldhammer divided her career between private practice and working for local and state courts. She was predeceased by her husband, Robert G. Goldhammer, AB'56. Survivors include two daughters, a brother, and two grandchildren.
Herbert S. Heavenrich, MBA'53, of Key Biscayne, FL, and Milwaukee, died February 23. He was 88. Heavenrich was the city of Milwaukee's chief economist and urban-planning director before joining consultancy Anderson Roethle as head of mergers and acquisitions for 20 years. In 1952 he published a book on prefabricated housing in Great Britain and later helped create Our Space, a Milwaukee community mental-health facility. He is survived by his wife, Jill; three daughters; two sons; and 12 grandchildren.
Herbert Kawainui Kane, X'53, an artist, died March 8 in Honolulu. He was 82. Designated a Living Treasure of Hawaii, Kane painted and sculpted Hawaiian stories and historical scenes and figures. His art has appeared on seven US postage stamps and in museums, national parks, and documentaries. In 1973 he cofounded the Polynesian Voyaging Society and designed and built replicas of sailing canoes used by Polynesians more than 1,000 years ago. He is survived by his wife, Deon.
Clement Walbert, AM'53, died March 8 in St. Paul, MN. He was 88. Walbert was a teacher and missionary in Japan for more than 20 years. He later joined Cardiac Pacemaker Inc. as the company's Asia-Pacific manager. He is survived by his wife, Florence (Nordstrom) Walbert, AM'53.
Robert L. Payton, AM'54, a leader in the study of philanthropy, died May 19 in Scottsdale, AZ. He was 84. A WW II veteran, Payton helped to establish philanthropy as a field of academic study. The first full-time professor of philanthropic studies at Indiana University, he was founding director of the school's Center on Philanthropy, where he helped launch the world's first master's program in philanthropic studies. He started his career as a newspaper reporter, becoming editor of the Washington University in St. Louis's alumni magazine in the late 1950s. He rose to become the school's vice chancellor for development before becoming president of C. W. Post College and then Hofstra University. In 1977 Payton was named president of the Exxon Education Foundation. He received the University of Chicago Alumni Association's Alumni Medal in 1988, and in 2008 he published Understanding Philanthropy: Its Meaning and Mission (Indiana University Press) with Michael P. Moody, AM'92. He is survived by a son, a sister, and two grandsons.
Gerald F. Giles, JD'56, died March 5 in Portsmouth, NH. He was 81. The first attorney in New Hampshire to be certified as a trial lawyer by the National Board of Trial Advocacy, Giles ran a private practice before being appointed judge of Rye Municipal Court in 1960. He served as president of the New Hampshire Judges Association and in 2001 received the New Hampshire Bar Association's Justice William A. Grimes Award for Judicial Professionalism. He is survived by his wife, Judith; a daughter; three sons; three stepchildren; a brother; and 12 grandchildren.
1960s
José Argüelles, AB'61, AM'63, PhD'69, died March 23 in Australia. He was 72. A painter, he taught art history at Princeton and at the University of California, Davis, before turning to new-age philosophy. Argüelles pushed for a return to an ancient calendar like that of the Mayans and coordinated Harmonic Convergence, a 1987 event that brought together thousands of participants for the largest simultaneous meditation in history. He is survived by his companion, Stephanie South; a daughter; a brother; a sister; and two grandchildren.
Hans W. Morsbach, MBA'61, owner of Hyde Park's Medici on 57th restaurant and bakery, died May 6 in Chicago. He was 78. Morsbach purchased the original Medici in 1962 for $1,700 and turned it into a thriving neighborhood mainstay. A decade later, he bought a farm in Wisconsin and in 2002 wrote Common Sense Forestry (Chelsea Green), a guide to woodland management. Morsbach also ran Shima Woodcraft, a furniture business that used his farm's wood. In 2008 he opened a second Medici location in Normal, IL. He is survived by his wife, Kathy (Staab) Morsbach, MST'69; daughter Sarah Honaker, U-High'94; a son; and a brother.
Beverly W. Jenkins, AM'62, died February 25 in Tucson, AZ. She was 74. After raising a family, Jenkins became a stockbroker. She was active in local chapters of the American Association of University Women and Altrusa International. Survivors include two daughters, a son, and seven grandchildren.
William Clyde Pendleton, AM'48, PhD'63, died February 25 in Chapel Hill, NC. He was 88. A WW II veteran, Pendleton taught economics at the University of Florida and the University of Pittsburgh before joining the Ford Foundation as a philanthropic program officer. He is survived by his wife, Joyce; two daughters; and two grandsons.
1970s
Larry George Mendes, AB'71, JD'74, a diplomat and international-affairs expert, died March 23 in New York City. He was 61. Mendes started his career at Newsweek International magazine, where he managed operations in 190 countries. He served as a United Nations diplomat when East Timor first joined the international body in 2002. Mendes was also a conductor and répétiteur who appeared at the Netherlands National Opera and directed and conducted the Chicago premiere of Leonard Bernstein's MASS. Survivors include a brother and a sister.
Lawrence Sipe, AB'71, died March 11 in Philadelphia. He was 61. After 13 years as a professional-development coordinator, Sipe joined the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education, where he was named a professor in 2009. Editor in chief of the journal Children's Literature in Education, he won the National Reading Conference's 2008 Edward B. Fry Book Award for Outstanding Contributions to Literacy Research and Practice for his work Storytime: Young Children's Literary Understanding in the Classroom (Teachers College Press, 2007). Sipe was also an Episcopal priest. He is survived by his mother and a sister.
Eugene B. Moriarty, MBA'73, an engineer, died March 28 in Chicago. He was 72. In 1966 Moriarty joined the Chicago Board of Education and retired 33 years later as the chief engineer at Morgan Park High School. A rugby player with the Chicago Lions Rugby Football Club in the early 1970s, he cofounded the South Side Irish Rugby Football Club. He is survived by his wife, Carol; two daughters; two brothers; and four sisters.
Lois Nyberg Hinds, AM'74, died of pancreatic cancer March 8 in Oak Park, IL. She was 68. Hinds was a director at Chicago law firm Mayer Brown LLP for nearly 30 years, most recently in the conflicts department. She is survived by her husband, Alan Hinds, SM'72; a daughter; two sons, including David Hinds, SB'88; and a granddaughter.
Janice "Jan" Michelle Baum, AM'75, died May 23 in Jensen Beach, FL. She was 61. A Milwaukee resident from 1975 to 2000, Baum worked at the Children's Service Society of Wisconsin. She also served as president of the Milwaukee Ballet Friends and was on the board of the Volunteer Center of Greater Milwaukee. Survivors include her mother, Shirley Baum, AB'44, AM'47, and a sister.
Ruth Glazier Gross, AM'70, PhD'75, a clinical psychologist, died March 2 in Northbrook, IL. She was 88. A WW II Marine Corps veteran, Gross had a private practice for 30 years, She also chaired the Illinois Clinical Psychologists Licensing and Disciplinary Board and supervised students at Northwestern University and at Michael Reese Hospital. Survivors include two daughters, Deborah Goldsmith, U-High'67, and Polly Bruno, U-High'70; a son; two sisters; a grandson; and two step-grandchildren.
D. Brian Heller, AM'64, PhD'75, a medical administrator, died April 1 in Ann Arbor, MI. He was 74. Heller held senior executive roles at Mercy Health System Physician Hospital Organization and at United Health Services. He later provided medical testimony and consulted to hospitals as a principal at Healthcare Quality Support LLC. He is survived by his wife, Rita McClure Cunningham-Heller, AM'78; three daughters, including Alison Auerbach, X'85; and seven grandchildren.
Nancy A. Hardesty, PhD'76, died of pancreatic cancer April 8 in Atlanta. She was 69. In 1974 Hardesty coauthored All We're Meant to Be: A Biblical Approach to Women's Liberation (Word Books), which helped launch the evangelical Christian feminism movement. A religion professor at Clemson University, she was an editor at the Christian Century magazine and helped found Daughters of Sarah, a Christian feminist publication.
Duane Joseph Onomiya, MBA'79, died of cancer April 14 in Napa, CA. He was 56. A banking and finance professional, Onomiya studied antique coins and rocks and minerals. He is survived by a sister.
1990s
Alwyn T. Andrew-Mziray, AB'94, MD'00, IMB'00, a physician, died February 27 in Zanzibar, Tanzania. He was 39. He created an emergency department at Muhimbili National Hospital in Tanzania and cofounded a floating health clinic for underserved individuals in the country. Andrew-Mziray previously worked in health-care banking and was a principal at Bio-Equity Partners, a firm focused on global pandemics. He sat on the board of Operation Smile and was a trustee of two Tanzanian hospitals.