In memoriam
Recent Division of the Social Sciences obituaries.

Friedrich Katz, 19272010

Friedrich Katz, recognized as the foremost scholar of Mexican history in his time, died on October 16 in Philadelphia. Katz was a professor of history at the University for four decades. John Coatsworth, a longtime colleague of Katz's at UChicago, said, "Katz's work, more than that of any other historian, succeeded for the first time in inserting Mexico's revolution into global historiography." An interview with Katz appeared in the fall 2008/winter 2009 edition of DialogoRead the complete obituaryIn memoriam gifts to the Katz Center for Mexican Studies can be made online or directed to: Office of the Dean, Social Sciences Division, 1126 East 59th Street, Suite #110, Chicago, IL 60637.  

Barry D. Karl, AM'51, 19272010

Barry Karl, the Norman and Edna Freehling Professor Emeritus in History, died on July 7 at the University of Chicago Medical Center. Karl was an authority on the origins of the modern foundation. "Barry Karl was the first major scholar to recognize the role of philanthropy in partnering with government to provide the planning needed by a modern state in a manner consistent with the 'weak state' tradition of the United States," said Karl's former research partner Stanley Katz. "His insight has been the basis for mainstream scholarship on American philanthropy ever since." Read the complete obituary.  

Phillips Talbot, PhD'54, 19152010

Phillips Talbot, an American diplomat who helped mediate crises in South Asia and the Middle East during the Cold War, died on October 1. Talbot received a degree in international relations from the University. The New York Times published an obituary.    

 

Sophie Bloom, AM'60, 19182010

Sophie Bloom died on May 21. She was the wife of the late UChicago education professor Benjamin S. Bloom, PhD'43. Sophie Bloom was born in Detroit, the youngest of five children. While pursuing graduate studies in education at the University, she met Benjamin Bloom. The couple married on July 7, 1940, in Chicago. In addition to their love of family, they shared a passion for education, a delight in foreign travel, and an enthusiasm for reading as well as attending concerts, movies, and plays. In 1960 Bloom earned her AM from the University and then became the reading coordinator for the Chicago Board of Education, District 10, while also publishing Peer and Cross-Age Tutoring in the Schools (National Institute of Education, 1976). After her retirement from the school district, she worked as a tutor and ESL teacher.

 

Marshall Barron Clinard, PhD'41, 19112010

Marshall Barron Clinard died at St. Vincent's Hospital in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on May 30. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Marshall attended Governor Dummer Academy and Stanford University before earning a PhD in sociology at Chicago. Between 1941 and 1945, he worked as chief criminal statistician for the U.S. Census Bureau and in the enforcement department of the Office of Price Administration. He then taught at the University of Iowa, Vanderbilt University, and for 34 years at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he received numerous teaching awards. In 1957 he published Sociology of Deviant Behavior (Rinehart), a textbook now in its 14th edition and still widely used. Clinard also wrote ten other books and more than 40 articles. While at UW–Madison, he worked in Sweden as a Fulbright research professor studying prisons and in India on urban community development. He also taught at Makerere University in Uganda under a Rockefeller Foundation Grant and studied crime in Switzerland under a National Science Foundation Grant. 

 

Walter W. Glaeser, X'40, 19092010

Walter Glaeser was born in Alma, Wisconsin. After graduating from Seymour High School, Glaeser and his family moved west to Yakima, Washington. There he found jobs, including nailing boxes for fruit shipments and harvesting wheat, until he qualified for in-state requirements to enter the University of Washington. He then earned a master's degree at Northwestern and spent the next five years teaching. During his studies toward a PhD at Chicago, Glaeser kept the books for a co-op housed in the Frank Lloyd Wright Robie House. When World War II interrupted, he became part of the War Production Board and a commissioned officer in the U.S. Naval Reserves. Upon his discharge, Glaeser entered the business world, taking positions at Dun and Bradstreet, Mohawk Carpet Company, and J. Walter Thompson.