The University of Chicago Magazine June 1996
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What's the news? We are always eager to receive your news at the Magazine, care of the Class News Editor, University of Chicago Magazine, 5757 Woodlawn Ave., Chicago, IL 60637, or by E-mail: uchicago-magazine@uchicago.edu.
To write us with your news directly, click here for our e-mail form: uchicago-magazine@uchicago.edu.
No engagements, please. Items may be edited for space. For that reason, starting with the February/96 issue we no longer list all of the U of C alumni present at a wedding, but only those alumni who are relatives or were members of the wedding party. As news is published in the order in which it arrives, it may not appear immediately.
Please specify the year under which you would like your news to appear. Otherwise, we will list: (1) all former undergraduates (including those who later received graduate degrees) by the year of their undergraduate degree, and (2) all former students who received only graduate degrees by the year of their final degree.
Within Class News:
Erminnie H. Bartelmez, AM'40, ended up in Germanics but also studied Russian at the U of C. Long retired from Case Western Reserve University, she tutors German at the local high school, teaches Russian in their adult-education program, and enjoys retirement. Elizabeth Zimmerman Burkhart, PhD'40, 88, enjoys music, her home on a mountain, and ornithology. Philip R. Lawrence, AB'40, LLB'42, see 1943, Lawrence M. Seiver. Bundhit Kantabutra, MBA'40, received Thailand's Information Technology Award for his pioneering work in the field. Kantabutra, who brought the first computer into Thailand in 1963, was presented with the award in August 1995 by Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn. Mary Nims Nieman, SB'40, writes, "I have a letter from A. A. Stagg dated Aug. 22, 1936. It is addressed to a young student entering the College of the Pacific. In it Mr. Stagg gives advice as to travel arrangements, campus attire, and other suggestions."41
Kathryn Beck Brandon, MD'41, has retired to do pediatric consultations and charity work in Salt Lake City, UT. Richard W. Lounsbury, SB'41, writes, "After 46 years of teaching and two retirements, I'm an old professor emeritus and still cranking along." Blake S. Talbot, MD'41, retired since 1986, still travels and has enjoyed good health.42
Bradley H. Patterson, AB'42, AM'43, represents the middle Atlantic states on the national board of trustees of the Unitarian Universalist Assocation. Joanne Kuper Zimmerman, AB'42, had her story "Belongings" published in the December issue of Skylark. Her story "Last Laugh" was included in the anthology Family: The Possibility of Tradition (Pig Iron Press).43
Barbara Reece Anderson, PhB'43, SB'44, took an Elderhostel trip on a 101-foot schooner in the San Juan Islands. "We 'elders' pulled anchor and sails-up and down-cleaned, polished, cooked-and had a wonderful adventure," she writes. Frank R. Johnson, SB'43, earned his M.D. from Northwestern in 1947 and was in the Navy from 1949 through 1955. For the next 13 years he was a general surgeon, followed by 14 years as a pediatric surgeon. Before retiring in 1987, Johnson spent four years as a medical administrator. Igor L. Kosin, PhD'43, has been retired from Washington State University since 1977. Shirley DoBos Patterson, SB'43, is a trustee of the River Road Unitarian Church in Bethesda, MD. Helen Quinsenberry Ratzer, X'43, see 1949, Earl M. Ratzer. Harry V. Roberts, AB'43, MBA'47, PhD'55, and June Hoover Roberts, SB'44, celebrated their 52nd anniversary in November. Lawrence M. Seiver, AB'43, moved to the San Francisco Bay area and regularly lunches with U of C alumni, including Philip R. Lawrence, AB'40, LLB'42; James A. Blumberg, PhB'43, JD'52; and Edward A. Friend, AB'43. Seiver hopes to continue interviewing for the Alumni Schools Committee. Geraldine Willens Sobel, AB'43, reports that her eldest son, Stephen, was described in an August issue of Newsweek as one of the fathers of the Internet. "I struggle to understand him," she adds. Both he and his brother, David, are on the Internet standards committee. Sobel sees and hears from Catharine Hopkins Ruml, PhB'43, AM'46, and David Ruml, X'43, CLA'56. Mary Colley Stierer, PhB'43, edited A Citizens Guide to Local Government in Rensselaer County, published this past fall by the League of Women Voters of Rensselaer County, NY. Emilie Rashevsky Strand, AA'43, AB'44, is enjoying retirement and traveling. In October she viewed the total eclipse in Thailand and her husband, Kaj, formerly at Yerkes, attended a binary star conference there. Margaret ("Peg") Ponder Strong, AB'43, is president of the central Arizona chapter of The Friendship Force, an international organization that schedules home visits in groups. In April and May 1995, Shirlee Heda Taraki, AB'43, AM'47, traveled alone to the British Isles, France, Italy, Greece, Turkey, and the Middle East to see the sights and visit relatives and friends. "Here in Evanston, I teach ESL to new immigrants and present a biweekly program called 'Shirlee and Friends' at a nursing home," Taraki writes. She encourages old U of C friends to contact her.44
Helen Huus, AM'41, PhD'44, spent Christmas in Israel on an Elderhostel program. June Hoover Roberts, SB'44, see 1943, Harry V. Roberts.45
Jeanne Grant, PhB'45, co-organized the "wartime classes" reunion of South Shore High School in October. The highlight, she reports, was a tour of the old neighborhood and the high school. "You can go home again! (Although you'll find lots of changes!)," she writes-the only flaw was forgetting to put film in her camera. Huston C. Smith, PhD'45, was the subject of a five-part Bill Moyers interview on PBS, beginning in March. His 1958 work, The Religions of Man (revised in 1991 and renamed The World's Religions), has sold more than two-million copies and been translated into many languages. He published The Illustrated World's Religions: A Guide to Our Wisdom Traditions in 1994. Thomas T. Tourlentes, SB'45, MD'47, is retired but "more busy than ever." He serves on many committees and boards and has "some influence on health-care reform issues occasionally. Hoping for more."46
Harley Flanders, SB'46, SM'47, PhD'49, recently published Scientific Pascal 2/e (Birkhauser) and Calculus: A Lab Course with MicroCalc (Springer-Verlag). Sidney I. Lezak, PhB'46, JD'49, and Muriel Deutsch Lezak, PhB'47, AM'49, celebrated the 50th anniversary of their first date ("the Iron Mask Society") in May. Muriel, a professor of neurology, psychiatry, and neurosurgery at Oregon Health Science University, reports that the third edition of her book Neuropsychological Assessment is being advertised as a "bible" by Oxford University Press. Sidney is enjoying a second career as a mediator after 21 years (1961-82) as U.S. attorney for Oregon. 47
Lois Swan Jones, PhB'47, SB'48, SM'54, writes that her video Crucifixion and Resurrection, the second in her Development of Christian Symbolism Series, won the 1995 Catholic Audio Visual Educators fine-arts commendation and was voted festival favorite at the CAVE annual convention. Matthew H. Kulawiec, SB'47, writes, "I walked 129 miles in five days in the rugged mountain region of western Montana in July. It was alongside 330 horseback riders of the Chief Joseph Appaloosa Trail Ride." He's pleased to see the U of C maintaining such high standards of scholarship. Muriel Deutsch Lezak, PhB'47, AM'49, see 1946, Sidney I. Lezak. Robert G. Risinger, AM'47, retired from the University of Maryland as a professor and head of the secondary-education department. A professor emeritus since 1982, he had continued in various capacities, including supervising student teachers, until January 1995. Elaine Mazlish Seaton Wyden, PhB'47, moved to Connecticut and since January 1995 has enjoyed her directorship of the Woodbury Public Library. She had been director of the Bryant Library in Roslyn, NY. Her husband, Peter, writes books. Wyden writes, "Four children and five grandchildren between us (my 2:3 and Peter's 2:2), plus a tiny chalet condominium in the mountains of Switzerland (for summer holidays)-we're busy and happy."48
David L. Jickling, AB'48, AM'51, PhD'53, put together a compilation of reflections on former U of C political-science professor Leonard D. White that were written by his students from the 1940s and 1950s. Carolyn Shadley Litman, PhB'48, writes of her College days, "I can tell you that every woman I knew 'then' had a crush on President Hutchins." She'd like to see more news from friends. Robert B. Stewart, PhB'48, AM'51, retired after 21 years from Prentice Hall Publishing. He had been in educational publishing for 38 years in all. Charlotte Beer Weber, AB'48, writes, "Retirement seems to get better every year. This year I became a certified scuba diver and enjoyed the underwater world near Tahiti and Dominica." She is helping to establish a professional library at the Dallas Arboretum and notes that the Dallas alumni club offers "some really great activities."49
Charles F. Johnson, PhB'49, SB'54, MD'54, is "retired, alive, and thriving." Ramón Méndez-Pérez, MBA'49, and his wife, Luchy, traveled to Tucson, AZ, last year to represent the Puerto Rico Tennis Assocation in the USTA Senior League Tennis 3.0 National competition. On the way there, they stopped in Washington, DC, to visit their son, Ramón, a nephrologist at Alexandria (VA) Hospital. They enjoyed the 6th-birthday party of granddaughter Camila and spending time with twin 4-year-old grandsons Gabriel and Sebastian. Earl M. Ratzer, MBA'49, has been writing the Illinois Precancel News for the past seven years. He describes it as "a 'bully pulpit' to point out the history of towns using precanceled stamps and the firms making the mailings." His wife, Helen Quinsenberry Ratzer, X'43, publishes the Perfins Bulletin for collectors of perfins-stamps with holes punched in them to prevent employee theft. John F. Vickrey, PhB'49, AM'52, retired from Lehigh University in 1995 as a professor of English, specializing in Old English language, literature, and linguistics, as well as the history of the English language.