Faculty

Yale Brozen, AB’39, PhD’42, a professor emeritus of business economics, died March 4 in San Diego. He was 80. Joining the GSB faculty in 1957, Brozen helped develop the Chicago School of Economics. During his 30-year tenure, he did research in applied economics, microeconomics, industrial organization, and technology. Brozen also directed the GSB’s programs in applied economics and research and development administration. A consultant to the Department of Justice’s antitrust division, the National Science Foundation, and corporations such as General Motors and AT&T, Brozen also served on President Ronald Reagan’s transition team. He is survived by his wife, Katherine; two sons, Reed Brozen, U-High’84, MD’92, and Yale Brozen II, U-High’81; and a sister.

Alberto P. Calderón, PhD’50, a University professor emeritus in mathematics, died April 16. He was 77. Known for his work in mathematical analysis, Calderón joined the U of C faculty in 1959. With mentor Antoni Zygmund, he formulated the Calderón-Zygmund theory, positing that singular integrals are actually finite when analyzed correctly. Calderón later showed how singular integrals could offer new ways to study partial differential equations. A member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Calderon received the 1991 National Medal of Science, the 1989 Wolf Prize, and the 1989 Steele Prize from the American Mathematical Society. He is survived by his wife, Alexandra; and two children, including Mary J. Calderón, AM’76, PhD’82.

Alton A. Linford, AM’38, PhD’47, a professor emeritus and former dean of the SSA, died April 18 in Bellflower, CA, at age 89. While dean (1956–1969), Linford helped stabilize the school’s financial situation, increase student enrollment, create a more diverse curriculum, and revive the SSA Alumni Association. Survivors include his wife, Marie; three children, including Ann Linford Roeseler, U-High’64; and 11 grandchildren.

Viola C. Manderfeld, AM’34, a professor emerita in Germanic studies, died March 25 in Rochester, MN. She was 95. An expert in language pedagogy and methodology, Manderfeld joined the faculty in 1937 and participated in the U.S. Army’s U of C–based language-training program during WWII. Manderfeld tried to strengthen ties between the U of C and Germany by establishing the Manderfeld Fund, which supports work in Germanic studies, and the Gardner Fund, which supports University High School students in the school’s German-exchange program. Manderfeld received a Quantrell Award in 1958 and retired in 1968.

Rachel B. Marks, AM’44, PhD’50, the Samuel Deutsch professor emerita in the SSA, died April 13 in Williamsburg, VA. Marks was a Chicago social worker and taught at the Universities of Indiana and Illinois before joining the U of C in 1952. Editor of The Social Service Review, Marks was a Fulbright professor in Colombia and a consultant on Peruvian and Greek social-work education. Survivors include two sisters-in-law; three nieces; and two nephews.

Valerio Valeri, an anthropology professor and expert on Hawaii and Indonesia, died of cancer April 25 in Santa Monica, CA, at age 53. A scholar of political systems, kinship and marriage, and anthropological theory, Valeri conducted field work in Indonesia, Micronesia, Malaysia, and Hawaii. His book Kingship and Sacrifice: Ritual and Society in Ancient Hawaii has been lauded as one of the best Western studies of comparative theology. Two collections of his essays and two books on the Huaulu people of Indonesia will be published posthumously. He is survived by his wife, Janet; a son; two daughters; his mother; and a sister.

Ruth House Webber, a professor emerita of romance languages and literatures, died January 13 in Berkeley, CA. She was 78. An expert in Spanish medieval and Renaissance literature, especially traditional poetry, she taught at Roose-velt University, Oakland City College, and the Berkeley public schools before joining the U of C in 1958. The associate chair of the department and director of the undergraduate program (1965–69), she retired in 1981.

1920's

Henry S. Commager, PhB’23, AM’24, PhD’28, a historian and author, died March 2. He was 95. Commager taught history and American studies for 36 years at Amherst College, 18 at Columbia University, and 12 at New York University. His essays appeared in newspapers, journals, and magazines, while his numerous books include The Growth of the American Republic, The American Mind, and The Empire of Reason: How Europe Imagined and America Realized the Enlightenment. Commager stood against McCarthyism and opposed the Vietnam War. A member of the National Academy of Arts and Letters, he received its Gold Medal for History in 1972. Survivors include his wife, Mary; two daughters; and five grandchildren.

Eloise Parsons Baker, PhD’23, MD’24, a gynecologist and activist, died February 25 in Neponset, IL. She was 102. One of five women to graduate from Rush Medical College in 1925, Baker completed a surgery fellowship at the Mayo Clinic and then settled in Chicago, practicing as an obstetrician and gynecologist for 40 years. In 1971, Baker moved to Neponset, where she led a campaign to close a local nuclear waste dump. Among survivors are two sons, including William H. Baker, MD’62; and six grandchildren.

Harlan H. Hatcher, X’25, the eighth president of the University of Michigan, died February 25, in Ann Arbor, MI. He was 99. During Hatcher’s presidency (1951–1967), he oversaw an enrollment increase of 20,000 students, a fourfold budget increase to $186 million, and the construction of several campus buildings, including one for the School of Music and an undergraduate library. Hatcher also helped develop satellite campuses in Flint and Dearborn. Before coming to Michigan, he was dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and a vice president at Ohio State University. Hatcher also wrote three novels and several books on the history of the Great Lakes region. He is survived by his wife, Anne; a daughter; a son; and four grandchildren.

Lucy Lamon Merriam, PhB’26, died December 19 at age 93 in San Rafael, CA. Merriam taught high-school Latin in Chicago before moving to Omaha, NE, where she volunteered with the parks and recreation program, the Joslyn Art Museum, the Child Welfare Association, and the Junior League. In the 1960s, she was secretary-treasurer of the Board of Regents at the University of Omaha, now the University of Nebraska at Omaha. After moving to San Francisco in 1972, she was active in music and arts organizations. Among survivors are a son and a granddaughter.

1930's

Frances R. Brown, AM’30, a retired associate professor of English at Longwood College in Farmville, VA, died February 7. She was 90. Brown taught English and music history before retiring from Longwood in 1973 as associate dean of students. She participated in the St. Francis Episcopal Church as a lay reader, vestry member, and chorister.

Julian J. Jackson, PhB’31, founder of a public-relations firm that he managed for nearly 60 years and former president of the U of C Alumni Association, died March 1 at age 89. One of the first publicity firms in Chicago, the Julian J. Jackson Agency represented clients such as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Brookfield Zoo, and the Chicago Historical Society. Jackson founded the Chicago Publicity Club and was a member and former president of the Chicago Literary Club. He is survived by his cousin, Arthur Loewy, SB’40, SM’42, MD’43.

Albert T. Bilgray, PhB’32, rabbi of Temple Emanu-El in Tucson, AZ, died March 19 at age 87. Rabbi of the congregation since 1947, Bilgray helped build a new temple, worked for desegregation in Tuscon public schools, was on the board of the Tucson Medical Center, and was a charter member of Tucson’s Commission on Human Relations. He also taught Hebrew at the University of Arizona (1950–1978), initiating degree programs in religious studies, Hebrew language and literature, and Judaic studies. Among survivors are his wife, Clara, and a son.

John Coltman II, PhB’33, died December 18 at age 86. Coltman worked in sales management at Continental Oil (now Conoco) until his retirement to Delray Beach, FL. He is survived by two daughters.

William H. Hoster, Jr., PhB’33, a steel-industry executive who specialized in the manufacture and fabrication of reinforcing bars, died March 1 at age 85. Hoster was president and/or general manager of 10 different companies, many in Oklahoma. Most recently, Hoster served on the board of directors of Tulsa REBAR, Inc., and operated his own companies, Hoster Steel Co. and Hoster Steel Corp., in Oklahoma City. He also belonged to the Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce and the Association of Iron and Steel Engineers. Survivors include his wife, Eleanor; two sons; one daughter; and 11 grandchildren

Noah B. Levin, SB’33, MD’37, a family physician and retired internist who specialized in diabetes, died March 11. He was 86. Levin worked in the clinics at Michael Reese and Mt. Sinai Hospitals, supporting a program that brought doctors to the bedsides of elderly citizens on Chicago’s South Side. During WWII, Levin was a lead medical officer for the Office of Strategic Services in India, Burma, and China. Levin founded the South Side Center of the Jewish Community Centers of Chicago and was president of Sinai Temple. He is survived by his wife, Amy Henschel Levin, X’42; two sons; a daughter, Susan Levin Mason, AM’81; and five grandchildren.

Charles E. Redfield, SB’35, AM’40, a businessman and former professor, died January 18, 1997, in Juno Beach, FL, at the age of 83. Redfield, who taught at New York University and the University of Pittsburgh, left teaching for management in 1960. He directed the Pioneer Fund, became a partner of Blair and Co., and later started his own investment advisory firm. The Redfield Foundation, which he established in 1954, focused on medical research, foreign students, and criminal science. Redfield also volunteered at a local hospice and belonged to civic organizations in Cleveland and Florida. He is survived by his wife, Margaret; one daughter; and two grandchildren, including Marina L. Peterson, AB’98.

T. Richard Marquardt, MD’37, a family physician, died March 17 at age 86. A native of Lombard, IL, Marquardt practiced medicine there for nearly 40 years, serving on the staff and the governing board at Elmhurst Hospital. During WWII, Marquardt was the only flight surgeon in Europe to fly a combat mission in a fighter aircraft. He belonged to the Lombard Historical Society, the American Legion, and the American Medical Association. Survivors include two daughters and five grandchildren.

Virginia Crosley Seidman, AB’38, AM’49, an editor at the Northwestern University and University of Chicago Presses, died February 16. She was 81. A resident of Evanston, IL, Seidman joined Northwestern’s press in 1968, then moved to the U of C Press in 1974, retiring in 1986. Seidman edited such scholars as Jacques Derrida, the late Divinity School professor Mircea Eliade, and English professor emeritus Wayne C. Booth, AM’47, PhD’50. She also edited many translations of Greek classics. She is survived by a daughter; a son; five grandchildren; and a brother.

1940's

Marshall W. Wiley, PhB’43, JD’48, MBA’49, a lawyer and former ambassador to Oman, died January 31 at age 72. Wiley joined the Foreign Service in 1958 and served in Yemen, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Egypt, and Saudia Arabia. In 1978, he became the ambassador to Oman. Wiley retired in 1981 and practiced law with Sidley & Austin in Washington, DC, for the next ten years. He was president of the United States–Iraq Business Forum from 1985 to 1990. He is survived by his wife, Marjorie; two sons, including Steven R. Wiley, SB’86; and a daughter.

Robert T. Blackburn, SB’47, SM’48, PhD’53, a professor emeritus in the University of Michigan’s Center for the Study of Higher Education, died March 1. He was 74. Blackburn was a U of C research associate in the early 1950s, then became associate professor of physical science at San Francisco State University. He also taught and was dean of the faculty at Shimer College, joining the University of Michigan in 1966 and retiring in 1997. Blackburn won the research award of the Association for the Study of Higher Education and cowrote the book Faculty at Work (Johns Hopkins University Press). He is survived by his wife, Mary Jane; three sons; a grandson; and a brother.

Daniel L. Harper, PhB’48, a designer and art director, died November 11 at age 73. The WWII veteran began his career as an artist at Esquire, later working as an art director at several advertising agencies in Chicago, including Dan Harper & Associates. He is survived by his wife, Joan; three daughters; two grandchildren; and two brothers.

1950's

Richard G. Kenyon, AB’59, a hardware retailer and poet, died March 10 of emphysema and lung cancer. He was 60. After graduate work in the philosophy of science, Kenyon moved to Sausalito, CA, where he worked for Waterstreet Hardware. He continued to study the philosophy of science and also wrote poetry and created art in pen, pastel, and tempera. Among survivors are his son; his daughter; two sisters, Barbara J. Whitmore, AM’47, and Judith Kenyon Kirscht, AB’53; and a brother.

Wendy Savin Mesnikoff, AM’57, an activist and environmentalist, died March 10 of leukemia and Parkinson’s disease. She was 67. In the 1970s, Mesnikoff was a naturalist at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx. A resident of Hastings-on-Hudson, NY, Mesnikoff worked on numerous committees for the development and preservation of the environmental future of the town and its waterfront. She founded the political New Hastings Party to further her advocacy. She is survived by her husband, Alvin M. Mesnikoff, MD’54; two daughters; one son; and four grandchildren.

1960's

John B. Mullen, MBA’62, a manufacturing engineering consultant, died October 8. He was 81. Mullen began his career as a chemical engineer in battery development, took part in research to develop proximity fuses for anti-aircraft shells during WWII, and then consulted, retiring in 1996. As a 22-year member of the Cuba Township Board of Trustees, he headed environmental-preservation efforts in the Barrington, IL, area. He is survived by his wife, Jeannette; a son; two sisters; and two grandsons.

Rose Steinberg Stamler, AM’62, a professor emerita of preventive medicine at Northwestern University Medical School, died February 28 at age 75. Stamler joined the Northwestern faculty in 1972, researching heart disease and its prevention. With her husband, Stamler conducted a 20-year study of 39,000 Chicago workers, proving that lifestyle changes can lessen the chance of heart disease. She also helped conduct international seminars in heart-disease prevention. Before joining Northwestern, Stamler organized screenings for chronic disease risk factors in public-housing residents with the Chicago Health Department. She is survived by her husband, Jeremiah; a son; and a sister.