Faculty

Bertram Cohler, U-High’57, AB’61

1938–2012 Bertram Cohler, the William Rainey Harper Professor of Comparative Human Development, died May 9. Cohler, a two-time winner of the Quantrell Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, was an expert on family life and transitions. “Bert Cohler was the embodiment of intellectual seriousness and love of assumption-questioning discourse that typifies the University of Chicago. I have long thought that the color of his blood must be maroon,” said Richard Shweder, the William Claude Reavis Distinguished Service Professor of Comparative Human Development. Read the complete obituary.  

 

Joseph Cropsey

1919–2012 Joseph Cropsey, distinguished service professor emeritus of political science, died July 1. A leading figure in political philosophy, Cropsey was remembered particularly for his work on Socrates, Plato, and Adam Smith, as well as his collaboration with UChicago political scientist Leo Strauss. Christopher Colmo, AM’73, PhD’79, political-science chair at Dominican University, said, “What inspired me most about Joseph Cropsey as a teacher was his practice of taking a fresh look at the problem, of asking again, really asking, the questions of which one had already disposed. That, in my eyes, is something to aspire to.” An interview with Cropsey appeared in the Fall/Winter 2007 Dialogo. Read the complete obituary. Watch the Rockefeller Chapel memorial service or make a gift to the memorial fund in Cropsey’s honor.  

Susan Michal Fisher, SB’59

1937–2012 Susan Michal Fisher, former clinical professor of psychiatry and comparative human development, died June 21. She was known for her work to understand and relieve the suffering of others. Fisher, the widow of UChicago humanities and College professor Herman Sinaiko, joined the faculty in 1979 and also held positions at Rush Medical College, Tufts University School of Medicine, and Harvard Medical School. Martha McClintock, the David Lee Shillinglaw Distinguished Service Professor of Psychology, said, “Fisher could ‘see’ people: their character, their foibles, their strengths, pain, motivations, and joys. She was not only a brilliant clinician in the grand psychoanalytic tradition but a beloved teacher and mentor.” Read the complete obituary.

 

Ping-ti Ho

1917–2012 Ping-ti Ho, the James Westfall Thompson Professor Emeritus of History and East Asian Languages and Civilizations, died June 7. Ho published two landmark studies of Chinese culture: The Ladder of Success in Imperial China: Aspects of Social Mobility, 1368-1911 (Da Capo Press, 1976) and The Cradle of the East: An Inquiry into the Indigenous Origins of Techniques and Ideas of Neolithic and Early Historic China, 5000-1000 BC (Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1976). He received honors throughout his career, including election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and honorary doctorates from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Lawrence University, and Denison University. Read the complete obituary.  

Larry Sjaastad, AB’57, AM’58, PhD’61

1934–2012 Larry Sjaastad, professor emeritus of economics and an expert on trade in Latin America, died May 2. Sjaastad made fundamental contributions to economics across a spectrum of topics, including public finance, international economics, and exchange-rate theory. He helped organize the University’s Latin American Workshops and served as a visiting professor at universities in Chile, Colombia, Singapore, Western Australia, and Brazil. “Larry’s teaching and the bonds he made with students have had a huge effect in Latin America,” said Jorge Garcia-Garcia, AM’70, PhD’76 (Economics), a senior evaluation officer with the World Bank. “His students now occupy important positions in government and academia, and, as a result, his ideas have had a larger effect in those countries.” Read the complete obituary.  

Michel-Rolph Trouillot

1949–2012 Michel-Rolph Trouillot, professor of anthropology, died July 5. Trouillot studied the dynamics of power across cultural boundaries and authored several influential books, including Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History (Beacon Press, 1995) and Haiti, State against Nation: The Origins and Legacy of Duvalierism (Monthly Review Press, 1990). The Caribbean Philosophical Association awarded him the 2011 Frantz Fanon Lifetime Achievement Award “for the originality of his interrogations in the human sciences, especially anthropology and history, and his articulation of the importance and challenges of Haiti in contemporary discussions of freedom and reclamations of the past.” Read the complete obituary.  

Alumni

Phillip David Cagan

1927–2012 Phillip David Cagan, AM’51, PhD’54 (Economics), professor emeritus of economics at Columbia University, died June 15. Cagan served as assistant professor in UChicago’s Department of Economics from 1955 to ’58 and then taught at Brown. In 1966 he arrived at Columbia, where he taught for nearly 30 years and served as economics chair for three. Cagan developed economic concepts, including a model of money demand dubbed the “Cagan model,” and published more than 100 books and papers on macroeconomics. Read the complete obituary.  

 

Rheta DeVries

1936–2012 Rheta DeVries, PhD’68 (Psychology), died May 28. DeVries was professor of curriculum and instruction at the University of Northern Iowa. Inspired by the work of Jean Piaget, DeVries researched perspective taking, conceptions of shadow phenomena, Piagetian measures of intelligence, and early childhood education. She was known for establishing the Freeburg Program, a research and experimental constructivist school affiliated with the University of Northern Iowa. Read the complete obituary.  

Edward Goerner

1929–2012 Edward Goerner, AM’57, PhD’59 (Political Science), died October 2. He was professor emeritus of political science at the University of Notre Dame and taught there for more than 50 years. The author of many articles and Peter and Caesar: Political Authority and the Catholic Church (Herder and Herder, 1965), Goerner also taught a popular undergraduate political-theory class. Read the complete obituary.  

Eugene Telser

1926–2012 Eugene Telser, AM’50 (History), died May 22. A Chicago native, Telser served in World War II, earned his master’s degree, and then worked in marketing and survey research for 50 years. After overcoming laryngeal cancer in the early ’90s, he went on to have his bar mitzvah, lead focus groups, mentor other cancer patients, educate children about the consequences of smoking, and win a Toastmasters Club award. Read the complete obituary.