The University of Chicago Magazine

October 1997

DEATHS

1920-1930's

 

1920s

Dorothy Printup Bryson, X'21, a longtime faculty member, administrator, and community leader at Colorado College, died June 7 at age 102. A teacher of Latin and Greek, she was awarded a doctorate of humane letters from Colorado College in 1989. She served as president of the AAUW and, during WWII, was executive director of the Colorado YMCA/USO. Survivors include two daughters, Joanne and Nancy, and numerous grandchildren.

Julian M. Bruner, SB'22, MD'26, a retired family practitioner and hand surgeon, died June 20 in Des Moines, IA. He was 96. The WWII veteran developed the Bruner table for hand surgery, binoculars for surgical use, and the procedure known as the Bruner zigzag incision, for which he was elected to the Royal College of Surgeons in 1973. He is survived by his wife, Winifred; two daughters; a son; and five grandchildren.

Lester Reinwald, PhB'26, JD'27, a corporate and tax lawyer in Chicago for more than 69 years, died June 9 at age 93. He operated his own firm until 1984, when he joined Altheimer & Gray. Reinwald retired last year. He is survived by his daughter, Lynn.

Robert L. Hunter, JD'27, who until 1980 was a presiding divorce-court judge for the Circuit Court of Cook County, died July 28 at age 98. A partner in the law firm Gregory, Gilruth & Hunter from the 1930s on, Hunter headed both the Better Government Association and the Illinois Civil Service Commission. He ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Chicago in 1951 and, although a longtime Republican, was nominated by the Democratic Central Committee for a judgeship in 1962. Among survivors are two sons, Robert L. Hunter, Jr., SM'65, MD'65, PhD'69, and John C. Hunter, MBA'63; two daughters, including Elizabeth Hunter Jacks, AM'65; and nine grandchildren, including Robert L. Hunter III, X'90.

Elizabeth Linn Murray, X'28, a member of the Chicago Board of Education in the late 1950s and '60s, died June 14 in Washington, DC. She was 88. A grandniece of social reformer Jane Addams and the daughter of the late U of C English professor James Weber Linn, Murray was active in civic causes throughout her life, including the League of Women Voters. She and the late U of C education professor Robert S. Havighurst, X'23, collaborated on a detailed history of the Chicago public schools. Among survivors are three daughters, including Jane Addams Allen, AB'56, MFA'61, and Constance Allen Nathanson, AM'58, PhD'67; a son; and seven grandchildren, including James Weber Linn Allen, AB'84.

Ralph F. Stitt, PhB'28, a retired officer of Hartford Fire Insurance, died June 13. The Sun City, AZ, resident was 91 and is survived by two daughters and five grandchildren.

Isadore Mark Zeligs, PhB'29, of Cincinnati, died July 22. Survivors include his wife, Ruth.

1930s

Stanley Anderson, SB'30, who owned a company that manufactured X-ray equipment, died January 25 in Hopedale, IL. He was 90. Survivors include two sons; two daughters; and 10 grandchildren.

Helen E. Farr, SB'30, a retired elementary school teacher in River Forest, IL, died in July at age 91. She is survived by a sister and two brothers.

V. Lewis Bassie, PhB'31, a professor emeritus of commerce at the University of Illinois, died June 5 at age 89. Before joining the Illinois faculty in 1948, he held several posts as a statistics and economics adviser, including senior economist with the Federal Research Board and, from 1945 to 1948, assistant to Secretary of Commerce Averell Harriman. He is survived by his wife, Janet; a daughter; a son; a sister; and three grandchildren.

Margaret Collins Hodgson, PhB'31, a former kindergarten teacher residing in Lincoln, IL, died April 29 at age 90. Survivors include a son, a daughter, and three grandchildren.

David M. Ritter, SB'33, PhD'37, a professor emeritus of chemistry at the University of Washington and a member of the Manhattan Project team, died July 8 at age 95. The Seattle resident specialized in research on hydrides of boron. Survivors include his wife, Bernice; a son, Daniel B. Ritter, AB'57; a daughter; a brother; and three grandchildren.

James R. Smith, AB'36, a former electronics specialist in the aerospace industry, died July 16 in San Francisco. He was 82. The WWII veteran was also an accomplished pianist. Survivors include his sister, Audrey Smith Thomas, AB'39; and longtime friend Lawrence Wing.

Isadore Rossman, PhD'37, MD'42, a pioneer in the geriatrics field and clinical professor of community medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, died June 3. He was 84. A proponent of home care since the 1940s, he began his career at New York's Montefiore Medical Center, where he founded a home-care program in 1947. Rossman served as medical director at that program's successor, the Home Health Agency, from 1955 until his death.

William Karush, SB'38, SM'39, PhD'42, a research scientist and a professor emeritus of mathematics at California State University, Northridge, died February 22 in Los Angeles. He was 79. Karush was one of 37 Manhattan Project scientists to sign a 1945 petition urging the American government to restrain its use of nuclear weaponry, and he traveled internationally during the cold war as an activist for peaceful resolution to global conflict. Karush worked as a research scientist for Ramo-Wooldridge Corp. (now TRW) before becoming principal scientist at System Development Corp. in Santa Monica, CA, where he later headed system-sciences research. He wrote Webster's New World Dictionary of Mathematics. Survivors include his companion, Hope Wallace; a son; a daughter; a brother; a sister; and three grandchildren.

John Shostrom, AB'38, a retired salesman formerly with Marshall Field's, Brunswick Corp., and Sanford Corp., died July 20 in San Diego. He was 81. The WWII veteran won the 1938 Big Ten tennis singles championship. He is survived by his wife, Mary; three daughters; a son; a brother; and three grandchildren.


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