Trustee

James S. Crown, LLD’11, died June 25 following an accident in Woody Creek, CO. He was 70. A member of the University of Chicago Board of Trustees since 1988, Crown led the board as chair from 2003 to 2009, playing a critical role in UChicago’s completion of a $2.4 billion capital campaign—the largest in its history at the time. Crown previously served as chair of the Medical Center Board and vice chair of the University Board. In 2021 he and his family made a landmark gift to the School of Social Service Administration, which was renamed the Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice in recognition of their support. Crown’s philanthropy benefited many areas across the University, including College scholarships, the Urban Education Institute, the Humanities Division, and UChicago Medicine—part of the Crowns’ philanthropic legacy throughout the city of Chicago. After earning his JD from Stanford University, Crown pursued a successful career in business, holding leadership positions at General Dynamics Corporation, Sara Lee, JPMorgan Chase, and Henry Crown and Company. He received an honorary degree from the University of Chicago in 2011. He is survived by his wife, Paula; four children; his parents; six siblings; and two grandchildren.

Faculty and staff

Robert E. Lucas Jr., AB’59, PhD’64, the John Dewey Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus in Economics and the College, died May 15 in Chicago. He was 85. A 1995 Nobel laureate in economic sciences, Lucas was best known for his hypothesis of rational expectations, which maintains that consumers and businesses base their actions on past experiences—with the result, he argued, that the outcomes of government interventions in fiscal policy may not be as predictable as was long assumed. Lucas earned a bachelor’s degree in history, pivoting to economics after receiving financial support to complete doctoral work under Milton Friedman, AM’33. He taught for more than a decade at what is today Carnegie Mellon University before returning to UChicago as a professor in 1975. Survivors include his partner, Nancy L. Stokey, the Frederick Henry Prince Distinguished Service Professor in Economics and the College; sons Stephen Lucas, LAB’78, MBA’94, and Joseph Lucas, LAB’84; a sister; a brother; and five grandchildren.

Roman L. Weil, the V. Duane Rath Professor Emeritus of Accounting, died February 1 in Chicago. He was 82. In 1965 Weil joined the Graduate School of Business (now Chicago Booth) faculty after undergraduate studies at Yale and doctoral studies in economics at Carnegie Mellon University. Known for his challenging introductory accounting class, Weil authored and coauthored numerous textbooks, including Accounting: The Language of Business (1974), now in its 11th edition. He developed the Fisher-Weil duration, a complex measure of bond duration, and taught and advocated for financial literacy for members of corporate boards. Cofounder of the Directors’ Consortium, an executive education program for corporate directors, he was a consultant to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, US Treasury, and Financial Accounting Standards Board. He is survived by three children and eight grandchildren, including Charlie Weil (Class of 2026).

Robert J. Zimmer, chancellor emeritus and 13th president of the University of Chicago, died May 23 in Chicago. He was 75. During his presidency from 2006 to 2021, Zimmer led the University in making strategic investments to increase its eminence and impact, including establishing what is now the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering; opening global centers in Beijing, Delhi, and Hong Kong; and expanding the College and its accessibility, opportunities in the arts, and civic engagement initiatives. Appointing the University’s Committee on Freedom of Expression in 2014, Zimmer gained an international reputation for his powerful advocacy of free expression in the pursuit of higher learning and inspired other institutions to adopt the Committee’s Chicago Principles. Born in New York City, he earned degrees in mathematics from Brandeis and Harvard Universities. Following two years on the faculty of the US Naval Academy, he became an L. E. Dickson Instructor of Mathematics at UChicago, where he would spend the rest of his career, with the exception of four years as provost at Brown University (2002–06). Alongside his groundbreaking work in ergodic theory and other areas of geometry, he served as chair of the Department of Mathematics, deputy provost, and vice president for research and for Argonne National Laboratory. In 2021 Zimmer underwent surgery to remove a malignant brain tumor and transitioned to the role of chancellor, becoming chancellor emeritus the following year. Survivors include his wife, Shadi Bartsch-Zimmer, director of the Institute on the Formation of Knowledge and the Helen A. Regenstein Distinguished Service Professor in Classics, and his sons David Zimmer, LAB’00; Benjamin Zimmer, LAB’03; and Alex Zimmer, LAB’09, from his previous marriage to Terese Schwartzman. (See also “Robert J. Zimmer | 1947–2023.”)

Claudia “Muggs” Traudt, AM’81, instructor in the Graham School’s Basic Program of Liberal Education, died February 11 in Chicago. She was 72. With a BFA from Saint Mary’s College in Notre Dame, IN, Traudt earned a master’s degree from the John U. Nef Committee on Social Thought and conducted dissertation research on Shakespeare, Joyce, and Yeats. Joining the Graham School faculty in 1982, Traudt taught there for the next four decades, leading courses on writers and thinkers including Plato, Virginia Woolf, and Toni Morrison. She received the Excellence in Teaching Award for the Basic Program in 2006. She also taught in the arts and humanities at Columbia College Chicago and led discussions at the Chicago Humanities Festival. In her free time, she enjoyed making art and sailing. Survivors include her two brothers.

Cornell H. Fleischer, the Kanuni Süleyman Professor of Ottoman and Modern Turkish Studies in the Departments of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and History, died April 21 in Chicago. He was 72. A scholar of Ottoman history and the greater Islamic world, Fleischer earned his PhD in Near Eastern studies from Princeton. In 1986 he published Bureaucrat and Intellectual in the Ottoman Empire: The Historian Mustafa Âli (1541–1600), a book credited with revolutionizing the field. Fleischer received a MacArthur Fellowship in 1988 and joined the UChicago faculty in 1993. Known for the cultural context he brought to his scholarship and for his exceptional command of the Ottoman language, modern Turkish, Arabic, and Persian, he was recognized with the 2010 Faculty Award for Excellence in Graduate Teaching. Survivors include his daughter.

1940s

Harry M. Markowitz, PhB’47, AM’50, PhD’55, died June 22 in San Diego. He was 95. In his doctoral dissertation, Markowitz developed what would become modern portfolio theory, applying mathematical models to investment strategy to quantify the benefits of diversification—work recognized with the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1990. He went on to do pioneering work in behavioral finance, studying how people make choices in the real world, and he developed the Simscript language, which supports computer simulations of factory, transportation, and communication systems. Markowitz’s career included positions at the RAND Corporation; General Electric; IBM; Rutgers University; Baruch College; and the University of California, San Diego. He is survived by four children, one stepchild, 13 grandchildren, and many great-grandchildren.

Alice Werder Bares, AB’49, died September 21 in Ellicottville, NY. She was 93. After college Bares returned to the Cleveland area, where she became a silk-screen artist and later ran a small hand tool business. She and her husband relocated to Ellicottville in 2002 after years of spending weekends there with family. Bares traveled widely, often on horseback riding trips, and rode almost daily until she was 92. She is survived by four children and eight grandchildren.

Robert Owen Johnston, AM’49, died April 13 in Richmond, VA. He was 103. After getting his master’s degree in political science at UChicago, he earned degrees at the US War College and the Virginia Theological Seminary. A veteran of World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War, Johnston retired from the US Air Force in 1968. In 1971 Johnston was ordained as an Episcopal priest and served parishes in Virginia, Central and South America, and the Caribbean. He is survived by six children, four grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.

1950s

John B. Goodenough, SM’50, PhD’52, died June 25 in Austin, TX. He was 100. A WWII veteran, Goodenough entered UChicago determined to create something that would help people. In his 24 years at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Lincoln Laboratory, he laid the groundwork for random-access memory in digital computers. In 1976 Goodenough joined the University of Oxford as a professor and the head of the Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory. There, he developed the lithium-ion battery, which would make mobile electronics and electric vehicles possible. He joined the University of Texas at Austin in 1986. Goodenough received the National Medal of Science in 2011 and a Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2019. His wife, Irene Wiseman Goodenough, EX’49, died in 2016. He is survived by a half-sister and a half-brother.

Edwin Masanori Uyeki, SM’51, PhD’53, of McKinleyville, CA, died October 15. He was 94. As an adolescent during World War II, Uyeki was incarcerated with his family in internment camps in Washington State and Idaho. Excelling in his studies, he attended Kenyon College on a scholarship after leaving the camp. With a doctorate in pharmacology from UChicago, Uyeki worked as a cellular research scientist, first at General Electric Company and then as a professor of pharmacology at the University of Kansas Medical Center. For decades he spearheaded work on drug toxicity and the effects of insecticides on embryo development. Uyeki was a dedicated sports fan and was active in the Unitarian Fellowship in McKinleyville. He is survived by his wife, Aiko Harada Uyeki, AB’50; three children; and four grandchildren.

Sanford B. Krantz, AB’54, SB’56, MD’59, of Nashville, TN, died April 13. He was 89. An emeritus professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University, Krantz was an internationally recognized authority on hematology and erythropoietin. He began his professional career at the University of Chicago medical center and joined the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in 1970 as an associate professor and chief of hematology at the Nashville Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Krantz authored more than 200 publications and received numerous awards, honors, and federal research grants. He is survived by his wife, Sandra R. Krantz, AB’59; a daughter; two sons; a sister; and two grandsons.

Glenda E. McNeill, AM’56, of Columbia, MD, died October 7. She was 94. After completing her undergraduate studies in economics at Howard University, McNeill earned a master’s degree in social work from what is today the Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice. She became an associate professor of social work at Catholic University and Hood College and maintained a private practice in Columbia until retiring in 1994. She is survived by two daughters, a sister, a brother, and four grandchildren.

Joseph Gorsic, PhD’57, of Elmhurst, IL, died September 13. He was 98. Born on a family farm in Slovenia, Gorsic escaped the oppressive Communist regime after World War II and made his way to Vienna, where he studied agricultural engineering. Immigrating to the Chicago area, he worked on a dairy farm for a candy company before resuming his studies in botany and genetics, first at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and later at UChicago. During his 31-year career at Elmhurst College (now Elmhurst University), Gorsic studied plant genetics. He returned often to Slovenia with family. He is survived by his wife, Franciska; six children; a brother; and 10 grandchildren.

Herbert Patrick Sullivan, DB’57, died June 6, 2022, in Austin, TX. He was 90. After his divinity studies, Sullivan completed a PhD at Durham University in England and was ordained as a priest in the Episcopal Church. He taught at Duke University and Vassar College—also serving as dean at the latter—focusing on India and its religious history and rites. After receiving two honorary doctorates and retiring from academia, Sullivan worked in the Texas Attorney General’s Office and wrote child protection and personal privacy legislation that became state law. Survivors include his husband, James Cowden; two children; and two sisters.

Carl Edward Krog, AB’58, AM’60, of Marinette, WI, died February 13. He was 86. Krog was a lifelong educator who taught history and geography at the secondary and college levels. He spent most of his career at the Marinette campus of the University of Wisconsin–Green Bay, retiring as associate professor emeritus of history in 1995. He researched and wrote on a variety of topics, including Upper Great Lakes history, the Herbert Hoover era, and the French defeat in Vietnam. Survivors include his wife, Marianne; three children; a sister; and eight grandchildren.

Katherine Radosh, AB’58, died March 11, 2022, in Jacksonville, FL. She was 84. Before joining the State Department, where she wrote essential programs for State mainframe computers, Radosh held positions with the Navy and the Defense Intelligence Agency. She later earned a master’s degree from American University and worked for the Foreign Service in Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Haiti, and Japan, advancing to the service’s senior ranks. Radosh served in the Florida Coast Guard Auxiliary for 15 years, and she and her husband enjoyed sailing their catamaran up and down the East Coast and to the Bahamas. Survivors include her husband, Burnett Radosh, AB’53; two sons; grandchildren; and great-grandchildren.

Dena Rose Fox Yver, EX’59, of New Orleans, died August 31, 2022. She was 84. A native of New York City, she attended the Walden School before pursuing studies in the College. With her husband, Raúl Enrique Yver, AM’67, PhD’71, Yver spent time in Cuba, Argentina, and Chile. After her husband’s death in 1972, she worked in a research lab at the University of Maryland, and then for 33 years at the National Institutes of Health in a diabetes research lab. Yver played oboe in a Washington, DC, community orchestra and, later in life, took up the viola. Receiving a black belt in Tae Kwon Do at age 60, she practiced Tai Chi and yoga and was a tireless supporter of voter registration. She is survived by her daughter.

Marianna Tax Choldin, LAB’59, AB’62, AM’67, PhD’79, of Evanston, IL, died July 1. She was 81. Daughter of the influential UChicago anthropologist Sol Tax, PhD’35, Choldin was the Mortenson Distinguished Professor Emerita at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Her research focused on censorship in imperial and Soviet Russia and the post-Soviet states. Having joined the UIUC faculty in 1969 as a professor of library administration, in 1991 Choldin became founding director of the Mortenson Center for International Library Programs, a position she held until her retirement in 2002. She received a Pushkin Medal from the Russian government in 2000 for her contributions to Russian culture and education, and in 2001 she was the first recipient of the University of Illinois’s Sheth Distinguished Faculty Award for International Achievement. In 2011 she received the Robert B. Downs Intellectual Freedom Award from the UIUC School of Information Sciences as well as the Public Service Award from the UChicago Alumni Association. She is survived by her husband, Harvey Choldin, AB’60, AM’63, PhD’65; two daughters, Kate Tax Choldin, AB’86, and Mary Tax Choldin, AB’86; her sister, Susan Tax Freeman, LAB’54, AB’58; and four grandchildren.

1960s

Lee (Parsons) Brozen, AB’61, MBA’62, died March 1 in Nice, France. She was 85. While raising her family in Chicago, Brozen was active in the Arts Club and the Quadrangle Players. She spent summers and, later, winters in France for 55 years and throughout her life was committed to the libertarian movement. Her husband, Yale Brozen, AB’39, PhD’42, a professor of business economics at UChicago, died in 1998. She is survived by two sons, Yale Brozen II, LAB’81, and Reed Brozen, LAB’84, MD’92, and one granddaughter.

Richard “Dick” Lee Wheeden, SM’62, PhD’65, died April 9, 2020, in St. Michaels, MD. He was 79. A harmonic analyst, he completed doctoral work on hypersingular integrals under Antoni Zygmund. Wheeden joined the faculty of Rutgers University in 1967, where he did foundational work on weighted norm inequalities and degenerate elliptic equations. He retired in 2016 as distinguished professor emeritus, moving to the Eastern Shore of his native Maryland. He enjoyed his membership with the Wye Fellows of the Aspen Institute, volunteered on several projects for his homeowners’ association, and loved being outdoors. Survivors include his wife, Sharon; a daughter; a son; a sister; and five grandchildren.

Gerald S. Witherspoon, JD’62, died February 1, 2022, in San Francisco. He was 88. Witherspoon’s early career included serving, at 31, as Vermont’s youngest tax commissioner and later as president of Goddard College. He became a visiting professor at Dartmouth and taught at Hastings School of Law and the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law. Moving to private practice at a law firm he cofounded, Witherspoon dedicated much of his time to pro bono work, especially during the AIDS crisis. Survivors include four children, four grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.

Francis J. Lumia, AB’63, MD’67, of Allentown, NJ, died September 20. He was 81. From 1977 to 2006, Lumia was a cardiologist at Deborah Heart and Lung Center in Burlington County, NJ, where he codirected the nuclear medicine department and served as assistant chair of cardiology. He held leadership positions in the Medical Society of New Jersey and Burlington County Medicine Society, and he was an art enthusiast and painter. Lumia is survived by his wife, Carolyn; a daughter; and a son.

George H. Thomson, PhD’63, died March 1 in Fort Collins, CO. He was 87. Following his graduate studies in physical chemistry, Thomson taught in the chemistry department at General Motors Institute (now Kettering Institute) before becoming a senior engineering analyst for Phillips Petroleum Company in Oklahoma. He went on to serve as technical director of one of the design groups of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) before retiring to Santa Fe, NM, and, later, to Fort Collins. Thomson was active in the American Chemical Society and the AIChE. Survivors include his wife, Jane, and two daughters.

Mary Ellen Doughty Tambini, AB’64, AM’70, died March 21 in Ferrara, Italy. She was 80. Originally from Iowa, she met her late husband, Luigi Tambini, PhD’67, at UChicago. The couple later moved to Italy, where she earned a master’s degree at the University of Ferrara. Living in that town for 57 years, Tambini was involved in women’s rights movements and enjoyed politics, reading, and travel. She is survived by two daughters, including Anna Tambini, EX’91; six siblings; and three grandchildren.

Maurice “Jerry” Frank, SB’65, died February 13 in Evanston, IL. He was 80. Frank studied mathematics in the College and at Illinois Institute of Technology, where he earned his PhD. He taught at the Universities of Massachusetts and Wisconsin and later returned to IIT to join the mathematics faculty and serve as department chair. With his wife, Patricia Frank, EX’64, he loved classical music and supported emerging performers at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. He is survived by his wife, two children, and three grandchildren.

Rolf Otto Stadheim, JD’66, died April 29 in Scottsdale, AZ. He was 82. A lifelong Chicago-area resident, Stadheim graduated from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. After law school he built a successful patent law practice, Stadheim & Grear, with offices in Chicago’s Wrigley Building. He is survived by his wife, Kathy; four daughters; two stepchildren; three siblings; 11 grandchildren; and two step-grandchildren.

Albert M. Tannler, DB’66, died February 24, 2022, in Pittsburgh. He was 81. While studying at the Divinity School, Tannler worked as an archive research specialist in the University Library and later in the marketing department at Sargent & Lundy, a Chicago architecture and engineering services firm. Moving to Pittsburgh in 1991, he became director of historical collections at the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation. Over 28 years, he oversaw the foundation’s two libraries and authored books, guidebooks, and essays on the city’s architectural heritage.

Hans G. Spalteholz, AM’69, died April 21 in Lake Oswego, OR. He was 92. Spalteholz was a professor emeritus of English and theology at Concordia University in Portland, OR, where he taught from 1957 to 1998 and received an honorary doctorate. He also completed degrees at Concordia College, Concordia Seminary, and Columbia University. In Portland he served as assistant pastor of St. Michael’s Lutheran Church and as the German-speaking pastor at Zion Lutheran Church. He taught high school, edited books, and served on the board of Holden Village, a Lutheran-based wilderness community. Survivors include his wife, Christa, and two sisters.

1970s

Mary “Jeanne” Kenna, MFA’71, of Pleasant Prairie, WI, died November 21. She was 89. As a young mother of five, Kenna earned her BFA at the Art Institute of Chicago, studying under Ray Yoshida. Her work was featured in one-woman shows and at galleries in Chicago and New York. Later she served in Malawi and Liberia as a Peace Corps volunteer and worked as a real estate agent, community college English instructor, graphic designer, AIDS care volunteer, and registered nurse. In retirement Kenna returned to her passion for art. She is survived by five children, a brother, 13 grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.

Frank P. Jasek IV, MBA’72, of Willowbrook, IL, died April 27. He was 77. After studying chemical engineering at Purdue University and business at UChicago, Jasek became a certified public accountant and certified financial planner. His professional career included roles at Corn Products (now Ingredion), Acme Resin, and IBM before retirement in 2009. Jasek was an active member of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Darien, IL, for 44 years. He is survived by his wife, Cheska; two children; four siblings; and seven grandchildren.

Uzi Yaari, PhD’72, died December 18 in Bala Cynwyd, PA. He was 83. Born on a kibbutz in British Mandate Palestine, Yaari studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem before pursuing his PhD in corporate finance and public policy at Chicago Booth. He dedicated himself to research and teaching over a 40-year academic career, ultimately as a professor of finance at Rutgers University. He is survived by his wife, Evelyn; four children; two sisters; three brothers; and seven grandchildren.

Millicent Marr Watkins Conley, MST’73, PhD’05, died February 7 in Chicago. She was 80. Conley had a lifelong commitment to education. Graduating from Chicago Teachers College in 1963, she taught third grade in the Chicago Public Schools (CPS). She held positions at Governors State, Northwestern, and DePaul Universities and retired from CPS as a reading and literacy specialist in 2012. A dedicated member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority, she also served as president of the education honor society Pi Lambda Theta. Survivors include extended family.

Deborah Morrow Vaughan, AM’73, died January 20 in Evanston, IL. She was 75. Vaughan’s 40-year career in librarianship began at the Municipal Reference Library in Chicago City Hall. From 1984 to 2000, she directed the library of the Chicago-based advertising agency Leo Burnett Worldwide. After posts at the Northwestern University Library and the Skokie Public Library, she served as director of the Chicago History Museum’s Research Center from 2004 until retiring in 2012. Vaughan is survived by her husband, James, who worked for more than three decades on the UChicago Library staff, and their son, Will Vaughan, SB’11.

Mark Walsh, MBA’73, died June 20, 2021, in Toronto. He was 73. Walsh grew up in England and studied at the London School of Economics. He attended Chicago Booth before moving to Canada, where he was assistant controller at Imperial Oil, the Canadian arm of Exxon Mobil. He had a second career at CPA Canada, a professional organization for accountants, and volunteered with organizations such as Jewish Family and Child Service and Kerry’s Place, an Ontario charity serving people with autism. He is survived by his wife, Sue; two children; a sister; and seven grandchildren.

George Washington Jones Jr., AB’75, died March 30 in Olney, MD, of complications from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. He was 69. A Yale Law School graduate, Jones practiced at the Washington, DC, office of O’Melveny and Myers before joining the US Department of Justice as an assistant to the solicitor general, where he argued cases before the US Supreme Court. Joining Sidley Austin in 1983, Jones became a partner and remained at the firm until retiring in 2018. He held leadership roles with the DC Bar, ultimately serving as its president, and was on the American Bar Association Legal Ethics Committee. He is survived by his wife, Loretta; four children; and five grandchildren.

Staughton Lynd, JD’76, died November 17 in Warren, OH. He was 92. Educated at Harvard and Columbia Universities, Lynd became a historian and an activist. In the 1960s, while teaching at Spelman College and later Yale University, he organized Freedom Summer education programs in Mississippi; led antiwar protests in Washington, DC; and traveled with other American radicals to meet with Communist leaders in North Vietnam. Thereafter blacklisted from academic jobs, Lynd earned a law degree and worked as a labor organizer in the industrial Midwest. He wrote more than 20 books and pamphlets, mostly on labor organizing and prison reform. Survivors include his wife, Alice; two daughters; one son; seven grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.

John E. Duslack, AB’78, of Willow Springs, IL, died April 28. He was 74. A longtime employee of Commonwealth Edison/Exelon, he served as president of the Data Processing Management Association (today the Association of Information Technology Professionals). At UChicago, he was a member of Zeta Beta Tau fraternity. Survivors include two brothers.

Nancy A. Lieberman, JD’79, died April 12 in New York City of complications from pneumonia. She was 66. The valedictorian of her University of Rochester class, Lieberman entered law school at age 19, clerked for a federal judge in New Orleans, and earned an LLM in tax law at New York University. She practiced for more than 40 years at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, where she was a mergers and acquisitions specialist and the youngest partner in the firm’s history. When a 2007 skiing accident left her a quadriplegic, she cofounded New Yorkers to Cure Paralysis and, in retirement, taught at Columbia Law School. Survivors include her husband, Mark Ellman; a son; a sister; and a brother.

1980s

Samuel Curtis Batsell III, JD’80, AM’80, of Arlington, VA, died November 28. He was 68. Batsell earned a joint degree in law and public policy following undergraduate studies at Loyola University Chicago. He practiced law at Isham, Lincoln & Beale in Chicago before moving to California, where first he taught legal writing at the University of California, Berkeley, Law School and later developed a specialty in bankruptcy law. In Washington, DC, he worked as a bankruptcy attorney for the federal government at the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, retiring in 2018. He was active in the Republican Party. He is survived by two brothers.

Samuel Adam Abrash, AB’81, of Richmond, VA, died February 15. He was 65. With a PhD in chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley, Abrash taught and mentored students for more than 30 years at the University of Richmond. Learning acoustic guitar later in life, he played folk songs for residents at local assisted living facilities. He is survived by his wife, Katherine Whitney; a daughter; a son; a sister; and a brother.

Andy Rothman, AB’82, died March 13 in New York City, of cancer. He was 62. Rothman studied political science in the College and worked for the student radio station WHPK. With his encyclopedic sports knowledge, he became UChicago’s sports information director. During his 40-year journalism career at CBS News and CNBC, he won Emmy and Gracie Awards as a producer for the CBS Early Show. Outside of work, Rothman was an athlete, world traveler, March Madness enthusiast, and Bruce Springsteen fan. He is survived by his wife, Amanda Ingersoll-Rothman, and a brother.

Mark Elliott Furlane, MBA’82, died April 27 in Baltimore. He was 73. After graduating from Central College in 1971, Furlane served in the US Marine Corps for over a decade; while serving, he also graduated from George Washington University Law School. In Chicago he became a partner at Gardner Carton & Douglas and ran the firm’s pro bono program for 20 years. He worked with local nonprofits—Erie Neighborhood House, the Center for Disability and Elder Law, and Thresholds—and, at the time of his death, served as counsel at Berger, Newmark & Fenchel PC. Survivors include his wife, Susan Keegan; two children; four siblings; and two grandchildren.

Michael Joseph Kotze, AB’86, of Frankfort, IL, died February 1. He was 59. For more than 20 years, Kotze was the business manager at Music Theater Works on Chicago’s North Shore. He wrote, directed, and performed in musicals, operas, and plays in Chicagoland and throughout the Midwest. Immersed in the arts, film, and literature, Kotze was also an accomplished home cook. Survivors include his wife, Ann; two sons; a sister; and a brother.

J. Lee Kreader, PhD’88, died February 26 in Los Angeles. He was 77. Kreader earned degrees from the College of Wooster and the University of Pennsylvania, focusing his doctoral studies on the history of social reform. He became an administrator with the Illinois Department of Human Services, developing and coordinating childcare programs. In 1998 Kreader joined the National Center for Children in Poverty at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, where he helped lead a hub for childcare research before retiring in 2014. Survivors include his life partner, Kay Hendon; a daughter; a son; five siblings; a granddaughter; and his former wife, Barbara Skalinder, CER’11.

1990s

Donna (Bost) Graham, AM’90, of Chicago, died November 28. She was 92. Residing in Chicago for much of her life, Graham earned a degree in social work from the Crown Family School. A Francophile and cyclist, she traveled the world on her bicycle, leading trips in Spain and France and—by way of a three-week ride down the Eastern Seaboard—fundraising for audiological research. Her husband, Harold Graham, EX’39, died in 2001. She is survived by three children and four grandchildren.

Christopher Wayne Workman, AM’98, died April 28 in Normal, IL. He was 55. With his master’s in social work, Workman was involved with Project Oz, supporting youth in McLean County, IL, as well as the Illinois Teen Institute. Working in child and family services for the State of Kentucky, he was honored as a Kentucky Colonel, a title bestowed by the state’s governor. Most recently Workman served as chief executive officer of the PATH Crisis Center in Bloomington, IL, overseeing the expansion of crisis services in partnership with the State of Illinois. Survivors include his mother, a sister, and a brother.

2000s

John Henricksen, MBA’02, died February 2 in Scottsdale, AZ. He was 48. After undergraduate studies at the University of Iowa, Henricksen pursued a finance career in Chicago. He and his wife, Lisa, also lived in London before settling in the Phoenix area, where most recently he was chief financial officer of Easy Ice. An athlete who competed in 25 marathons and three Ironman triathlons, he is survived by his wife, two sons, his mother, and two brothers.

2010s

Eric Donald Mortenson, PhD’12, of Minneapolis, died January 31. He was 44. After studying biology at Westmont College, Mortenson moved to Seattle and cofounded Bellevue Healthcare. With his doctorate in immunology, he worked as an executive medical science liaison with Bristol Myers Squibb, enjoying travel, photography, music, and the outdoors in his free time. Survivors include his parents, two sisters, and a brother.

Updated 09.27.2023 to note that Marianna Tax Choldin’s (LAB’59, AB’62, AM’67, PhD’79) father was the influential UChicago anthropologist Sol Tax, PhD’35.