Faculty and staff

George Haley, professor emeritus of Spanish literature, died June 6 in Chicago. He was 96. A specialist in 16th- and 17th-century Spanish and Portuguese literature, Haley was renowned for his scholarship on Miguel de Cervantes’s Don Quixote and the poetry and prose of Vicente Espinel. An expert on Spanish and Luso-Brazilian culture, he brought authors’ social and personal backgrounds to bear on his readings of literary texts. With degrees from Oberlin College and Brown, Haley taught in UChicago’s Department of Romance Languages and Literatures from 1959 to 1996 and served as chair for three years. He received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1962 and the UChicago Excellence in Graduate Teaching and Mentoring Award in 1995. Survivors include a sister and a brother.

George Bakris, AM’75, professor of medicine in the Section of Endocrinology and director of the Comprehensive Hypertension Center, died June 15 in Munster, IN. He was 72. An expert on hypertension and diabetic kidney disease, Bakris published more than 500 peer-reviewed studies and guidelines. He attended what is now the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science and did his residency and a research fellowship at the Mayo Clinic School of Graduate Medical Education. He then completed fellowships in nephrology and clinical pharmacology at UChicago. He spent over a decade at Rush University Medical Center as vice chair of the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine and joined the UChicago faculty in 2006. His numerous honors include the National Kidney Foundation of Illinois Lifetime Service and Achievement Award and the Donald F. Steiner Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Treatment of Diabetic Nephropathy. He is survived by his wife, Demetria; two children; and his grandchildren.

David B. Rowley, of Porter Beach, IN, professor emeritus in the Department of the Geophysical Sciences, died May 30. He was 70. Rowley, whose parents were the accomplished UChicago scientists Janet D. Rowley, LAB’42, PhB’45, SB’46, MD’48, and Donald A. Rowley, SB’45, SM’50, MD’50, graduated from Denison University and earned a PhD in geology from University at Albany, SUNY. He joined UChicago’s geophysical sciences faculty in 1993 and served as department chair and editor of the Journal of Geology. Rowley studied the deep history and constant motion of Earth’s tectonic plates. For his contributions to the fields of paleogeography, paleoaltimetry, and tectonics, he was named a fellow of the American Geophysical Union in 2018. He enjoyed sailing and time at the Indiana Dunes. He is survived by his wife, Nancy; three children, including Gia Rowley, LAB’12, and Jason Rowley, LAB’08, AB’16; a stepdaughter, Molly Petchenik, LAB’12; and a brother, Roger Rowley, LAB’81.

1940s

Guillermo “Guillo” Mateo, SB’45, MD’48, died December 6, in Newburyport, MA. He was 102. After serving in the US Air Force during the Korean War, Mateo settled in St. Paul, MN, and built a private medical practice, treating patients regardless of their ability to pay. His wife, Grace “Bunnie” Mateo, SM’45, who died in 2012, joined the practice as a nurse practitioner, and later the couple taught in the University of Minnesota’s nurse practitioner program. Retiring to Tega Cay, SC, Mateo enjoyed skiing and played tennis into his 90s. He is survived by a daughter; two sons, including John Mateo, AB’81; and three grandchildren.

Abe Krash, AB’46, JD’49, of Chevy Chase, MD, died July 6. He was 97. As a UChicago undergraduate, he served as editor of the Maroon, having edited his high school paper and worked as a freelance writer and sports editor at a local paper in his hometown of Cheyenne, WY. Setting aside these early journalistic ambitions, Krash attended the Law School immediately after graduating. Later, as a junior partner at the law firm Arnold, Fortas & Porter, he provided research and helped draft a brief leading to the US Supreme Court’s landmark 1963 decision in Gideon v. Wainwright, which established the constitutional right to counsel in criminal cases. Krash remained at the firm, which became Arnold & Porter, for more than 30 years after Gideon; he also taught at the law schools of Georgetown University and Yale. Survivors include his wife, Joan; two daughters; four grandchildren, including Rachel Freeman, AB’08, and Francesca Freeman, AB’16; and two great-grandchildren.

June Biber Freeman, PhB’47, SB’49, died July 4 in Scottsdale, AZ. She was 95. A New Jersey native, Freeman studied psychology before marrying and moving to Arkansas in 1950 to raise a family. Living in Pine Bluff and later Little Rock, she championed art and architecture, leading an effort to turn an old fire station into an arts and science center and creating a mobile art gallery to serve rural areas. In recognition of her community service, Freeman was inducted into the Arkansas Women’s Hall of Fame in 2017. Her husband, Edmond Wroe Freeman III, EX’51, died in 2021. She is survived by four children, a sister, six grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.

Thomas Marschak, LAB’45, PhB’47, died January 31 in Oakland, CA. He was 93. An economist who earned his PhD at Stanford, Marschak was a faculty member at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, for almost 60 years. His research centered on the design of efficient organizations and the ways information technology, data science, and data use drive enterprise value. The recipient of Fulbright-Hays, Guggenheim, and Ford Foundation research awards, Marschak was also an elected fellow of the Econometric Society. He is survived by his wife, Merideth; four children; and two grandchildren.

1950s

Bernard Lashinsky, AB’50, AM’53, died May 26 in Naples, FL. He was 92. After studying economics and serving in the US Army, Lashinsky worked at Standard Oil Company of Indiana (later Amoco). He then joined Inland Steel Industries, where he spent 29 years, ultimately as chief economist. Lashinsky was a member of the National Association for Business Economics and the National Business Economics Issues Council. He is survived by two daughters; a son; a sister; a grandchild; and his partner, Iris Shur.

Tsung-Dao “T.D.” Lee, PhD’50, died August 4 in San Francisco. He was 97. Lee was only 31 when he and Chen Ning Yang, PhD’48, shared the 1957 Nobel Prize for Physics for proving that subatomic particles are not always symmetrical, a finding that overturned the law of conservation of parity. They were the first Chinese-born Nobel laureates. Lee taught himself physics after the Second Sino-Japanese War forced him out of high school. He completed two years of college in China before coming to UChicago as a doctoral student under Enrico Fermi’s direction. Lee went on to work at Yerkes Observatory; the University of California, Berkeley; and the Institute for Advanced Study before joining Columbia University’s faculty in 1953, where he remained until his 2012 retirement. He developed the Lee Model and the Kinoshita-Lee-Nauenberg theorem and contributed to research on black holes and dark matter. His many honors include the Albert Einstein Award in Science; a minor planet also bears his name. He is survived by two sons, James Lee, AM’75, and Stephen Lee, PhD’86; a sister; a brother; seven grandchildren; and a great-grandchild.

John Sever, LAB’48, AB’51, of Rockville, MD, died April 25. He was 92. With his MD and PhD from Northwestern, Sever focused his career on curing and preventing infectious diseases in children. Moving to Maryland, he served as a captain in the US Public Health Service, worked for 28 years at the National Institutes of Health, was chair of Children’s National Medical Center, and taught at George Washington University’s medical school. Sever was active in his church and in many medical societies, and he championed Rotary International’s efforts to eradicate polio. He is survived by his wife, Gerane Sever, AB’51; three daughters; and seven grandchildren.

Marc Nerlove, LAB’49, AB’52, of Wilmette, IL, died July 10. He was 90. An economist, Nerlove developed pioneering econometric models that continue to be used in global supply studies, influencing agriculture and resource economics in the United States and beyond. With his PhD from Johns Hopkins University, Nerlove taught at Stanford, Yale, UChicago, Northwestern, and the University of Maryland, among other institutions. His many honors include the 1969 John Bates Clark Medal, membership in the National Academy of Sciences, and recognition as a distinguished fellow of the American Economic Association. He is survived by his wife, Anke Meyer; two daughters; a sister, Sara Nerlove Walters, LAB’58; four grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.

Burnett H. Radosh, AB’53, died March 26 in Arlington, VA. He was 88. Radosh, a graduate of New York University School of Law, served as a lawyer and judge in the US Army and completed two tours of duty in Vietnam. After retiring from the military in 1979 as a colonel, he joined the Coast Guard Auxiliary in Florida, serving for 15 years. He shared a love of sailing with his wife, Katherine Radosh, AB’58, who died in 2022. Survivors include two sons and a brother.

Peter Pesch, SB’55, SM’56, PhD’60, died July 16 in Cleveland. He was 90. For 37 years Pesch was a professor of astronomy at Case Western Reserve University, serving for a time as department chair. He also was a longtime volunteer with and supporter of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, where he organized special sessions in the museum’s planetarium for his introductory astronomy students. He is survived by his wife, Donna; two daughters, a stepdaughter; a sister; a brother; four grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.

Adrian Kuyper, JD’55, of Laguna Beach, CA, died October 24, 2023. He was 95. A Swarthmore College graduate and US Army veteran, Kuyper became an editor of the University of Chicago Law Review. He began his legal career at the County Counsel’s Office in Orange County, CA, and served for 26 years as the County Counsel before retiring in 1991. Survivors include his wife, Elaine.

Alex Hassilev, EX’56, died April 21 in Burbank, CA. He was 91. Hassilev was the last original member of the Limeliters, a 1960s folk trio. Born in Paris to Jewish immigrants from Russia, Hassilev was fluent in five languages and played banjo and guitar. A decade before the band rose to fame, Hassilev had transferred to UChicago from Harvard, but he gave up academic pursuits to study acting and join the New York City folk scene. When the Limeliters broke up in 1965, Hassilev worked as a record producer; he later reconvened the band with old and new performers. He is survived by his wife, Gladys; a son; two grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

1960s

Iván Argüelles, AB’61, died April 28 in Berkeley, CA. He was 85. Argüelles studied classics in the College and later worked as a librarian at the New York Public Library and the University of California, Berkeley. From the late 1970s onward, he published many books of poetry, moving from early forms influenced by the Beat and Surrealist movements to epic-length poems. His published works include The Invention of Spain (1978); Divine, Comedy, The (2009); and The Death of Stalin (2010), which won the Before Columbus Foundation’s 2011 American Book Award. He is survived by his wife, Marilla Argüelles, AB’65 (Class of 1964); two sons, including Alexander Argüelles, AM’88, PhD’94; and two grandchildren.

Rodney W. Napier, AM’61, of Philadelphia, died April 6. He was 87. Napier graduated from Carleton College and served in the US Marine Corps Reserve before obtaining his master’s in education at UChicago and doctorate in behavioral studies at the University of Wisconsin. He taught at Temple University until 1977, then launched a management consulting firm. Joining the University of Pennsylvania faculty in 1995, Napier cofounded its graduate program in organizational consulting and executive coaching. Survivors include three daughters, a sister, and three granddaughters.

David Soukup, JD’61, died December 16, in Silverdale, WA. He was 90. In 1976 Soukup was a judge in Seattle when he created what would become Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA), now a national organization that provides volunteer advocates to represent the interests of abused or neglected children in court. Soukup was a US Army veteran and former prosecutor who served as a judge until 1983; after stepping down from the bench, he practiced arbitration and mediation law and remained an active CASA board member. He is survived by his wife, Beth Waid; six children; a stepdaughter; and a brother.

Ellen R. Walters, SB’61, AM’73, of Vineland, NJ, died June 11. She was 83. Walters, who completed a bachelor’s degree in biology and a master’s in social work, became a supervisor for the southern district of New Jersey’s Division of Developmental Disabilities in the state’s Department of Human Services. Her many passions included reading, rock ’n’ roll music, environmental preservation, and travel. Survivors include two sisters.

Nathan Hare, AM’57, PhD’62, died June 10 in San Francisco. He was 91. A sociologist, Hare taught at Howard University and what is now San Francisco State University, where he helped lead a faculty and student strike that sparked the creation of the country’s first Black studies program in 1969. When the university later fired him for political reasons, Hare cofounded the Black Scholar, an interdisciplinary journal, and launched the Black Think Tank, a consulting firm, with his wife, psychologist Julia Reed Hare. Earning a second doctorate from the California School of Professional Psychology, Hare then worked as a clinical psychologist and continued to publish articles as well as books.

Stephen R. Webb, SM’60, PhD’62, died June 18 in Mission Viejo, CA. He was 85. Trained in mathematics and statistics, Webb moved to California to pursue a career in aerospace, where he held scientific and management positions at Rocketdyne, McDonnell Douglas Aeronautics, and Teledyne Brown Engineering. As an independent space systems analyst, he won contracts to evaluate the NORAD missile warning system and develop the OSCAR antisatellite mission effectiveness model, among other projects. Webb was active in the Orange County Ski Club and sang with the Pacific Chorale. He is survived by a daughter, a son, two sisters, four grandchildren, and a great-grandchild.

Warren Winiarski, AM’62, died June 7 in Napa, CA. He was 95. Winiarski was the founder and longtime owner of Stags’ Leap Wine Cellars—a Napa Valley start-up whose 1973 cabernet sauvignon won a blind tasting in Paris, giving a surprise boost to the California wine industry. At UChicago Winiarski had studied political science, but he moved to Napa in 1964 to learn wine making. After 37 years at Stags’ Leap, he sold the winery in 2007. He served his undergraduate alma mater, St. John’s College, as a trustee, donor, and summer humanities teacher. His wife, Barbara Winiarski, EX’59, died in 2021. Survivors include three children and six grandchildren.

Jay Ross, AB’67, MFA’69, of Rochester, NY, died April 10. She was 78. Ross, who also attended Whitman College, studied art and made ceramics at UChicago. Settling in Rochester with her family, she worked at a local art and craft gallery and created jewelry and ceramics. She later completed an associate’s degree in wetlands conservation, served in the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, and was a longtime community, school, and public library volunteer. She is survived by her husband, Dan Ross, AM’67, PhD’72; four children; 11 grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

Robert Schweizer, MBA’67, of Northville, MI, died May 27. He was 95. Schweizer was awarded the Korean Service Medal, United Nations Medal, and National Defense Medal for his US Army service in Korea. Known for his love of antiquing and hosting memorable dinner parties, he owned a German restaurant where he delighted in cooking for family and friends and sharing his passion for food and hospitality. He is survived by extended family.

Michael C. Jensen, MBA’64, PhD’68, died April 2 in Sarasota, FL. He was 84. Jensen funded his graduate education by working night shifts at the Chicago Tribune, and earned his MBA in finance and his doctorate in economics. As an economist at the University of Rochester and Harvard Business School, he advocated for the use of stock options, golden parachutes, and leveraged buyouts as tools for transforming firms. Jensen cofounded the Journal of Financial Economics and published widely on corporate finance and organizational strategy; he later cofounded the Erhard-Jensen Ontological/Phenomenological Initiative, a leadership training course. Survivors include two daughters, a sister, and four grandchildren.

1970s

Jay Paul VanSant, AB’71, died June 14 in Canby, OR. He was 75. Early in his career VanSant cofounded Dharma Brothers, a screen-printing company, but he later earned a mathematics degree at Portland State University and transitioned to software engineering, focusing on quality assurance. VanSant worked at Mentor Graphics, ParcPlace Systems, Northwest Evaluation Association, and other software firms. His lifelong Zen practice shaped his philosophy and approach to life; for more than 30 years, he was a dedicated member of the Dharma Rain Zen Center, where he taught meditation. He is survived by his wife, Barbara Tracy; and three daughters, including Janine Tracy VanSant, AB’99.

Randall Roger Scott, MBA’72, of Washington Township, OH, died September 22, 2023. He was 76. Scott served as CEO and chair of Scott Industrial Systems in Dayton, OH, a family business that designs and sells fluid power systems. A graduate of Brigham Young University, he held leadership, teaching, and volunteer roles in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He is survived by his wife, Raquelle; five children; a brother; and seven grandchildren.

Peter Benno Gillis, AB’73, AM’80, died June 20 in Albany, NY. He was 71. Gillis, a lifelong comics reader, took a leave of absence from his graduate studies in medieval German literature to become a comics writer. He penned many issues of Micronauts, What If? and Dr. Strange for Marvel Comics; cocreated the series Shatter and Warp for First Comics and Strikeforce: Morituri for Marvel; and wrote Tailgunner Jo for DC Comics. His best-selling graphic novel adaptation of Peter Beagle’s fantasy novel The Last Unicorn: A Fantastic Tale (1968) was published in 2011. Survivors include a sister and a brother.

Gary Lynn Garrison, AM’75, died May 4 in Sarasota, FL. He was 79. A University of Kansas graduate, Garrison was a Peace Corps volunteer and trainer in Tunisia and Yemen before working briefly at the Ford Foundation in Egypt. Having completed French, history, international relations, and comparative education degrees, as well as a yearlong Arabic studies program, he moved to Washington, DC, where he administered the US State Department’s Fulbright Senior Scholar Program for the Middle East and North Africa for more than 33 years. After retiring he lived in Morocco, India, and Jordan before settling in Sarasota. He is survived by his wife, Lucy Lauretta Melbourne; three daughters; a stepson; and four grandchildren.

William “Bill” Kells, SM’71, PhD’76, died June 2 in Kimberly, ID. He was 76. During the 1980s, Kells worked as an experimental physicist in locations including Fermilab in suburban Chicago and CERN in Switzerland. He later helped build a guidance tool for the 200-inch Hale Telescope in California and became a senior research scientist at Caltech. Kells contributed to scientific discoveries at Caltech’s Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) and Advanced LIGO until retiring in 2015. Survivors include his wife, May; a daughter; a son; a sister; a brother; and two grandchildren.

Michael Sugrue, AB’79, of Naples, FL, died January 16, of complications from cancer. He was 66. Trained as a historian at UChicago and Columbia University, Sugrue became a lecturer and fellow at Princeton. In 1992 he was hired to record audio and video talks on topics from Stoic philosophy to Foucault for “Great Minds of the Western Intellectual Tradition,” an educational series marketed by the Teaching Company. Thirty years later, Sugrue—who taught at Ave Maria University from 2004 until his retirement nearly two decades later—uploaded the videos to YouTube, where they have garnered millions of views. He is survived by three daughters; a sister; and a brother, Christopher Sugrue, AB’92, AM’92.

1980s

Gary Gagliardi, AB’81, of Greenwood, IN, died May 26 of pancreatic cancer. He was 65. Pursuing his dream of becoming a physician, Gagliardi graduated from the University of Michigan Medical School in 1985 and completed his residency in internal medicine at Indiana University Indianapolis. After working at Johnson Memorial Health in Franklin, IN, he continued his career at Richard L. Roudebush Veterans’ Administration Medical Center in Indianapolis. Survivors include his mother and two sisters.

Joel Riff, JD’82, died June 16 in New York City. He was 73. Riff, a University of Michigan graduate, spent a year on Kibbutz Ketura in Israel before beginning his career as a software engineer. After earning his JD, he worked for more than 30 years as a lawyer in Silicon Valley, practicing at GCA Law Partners and Fenwick & West, where he chaired the licensing and online commerce group. In 2016 he returned to Chicago, and later moved to New York to be closer to family. Survivors include two sons, a brother, and two grandchildren.

Robert Mark “Bob” Rosenberg, AM’82, of Fort Lauderdale, FL, died September 10, 2023. He was 72. With his undergraduate business degree and graduate studies in political science, Rosenberg initially worked as a regulator with the State of Florida. In 1989 he joined what is now the National Pest Management Association as a lobbyist, serving as its director of government affairs and CEO before retiring in 2016. Rosenberg was also a longtime member of the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Pesticide Program Dialogue Committee. He is survived by his husband, Chuck Laster, and a sister.

1990s

Elizabeth Freeman, AM’91, PhD’96, of San Francisco, died of cancer on June 2. She was 57. Freeman taught at Sarah Lawrence College before becoming an English professor at the University of California, Davis, in 2000. A specialist in American literature and gender, queer, and sexuality studies, she authored three books: The Wedding Complex (2002), Time Binds (2010), and Beside You in Time (2019), a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award. She published numerous scholarly articles and served for six years as coeditor of GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies. Survivors include her partner, Candace Moore, and a son.

2010s

Seong Hyeok Moon, AM’04, PhD’14, died June 18 in Seoul, South Korea, of a heart attack. He was 50. An economist, Moon had been active in the Institute of Economic Research at Seoul National University. With UChicago economist James Heckman and others, he coauthored a widely cited 2009 paper showing the high return on investment for quality preschool programs. Moon’s research interests included empirical labor economics and micro-econometrics, with a focus on skill formation, intergenerational transmission, and early childhood intervention. He is survived by his mother and three sisters.

2020s

Lewis “Alan” Longino, AM’24, died July 8 in Biloxi, MS, of cancer. He was 36. A PhD candidate in art history, Longino studied postwar Japanese conceptual art and global contemporary art. With a bachelor’s degree in French and art history from the University of Mississippi and a master’s in fine arts from Hunter College, he worked in art galleries in New York City and Cologne, Germany. At UChicago he curated four exhibitions in Cobb Hall, published in art journals, and co-coordinated the Visual and Material Perspectives on East Asia workshop. He is survived by his parents.

To request an obituary for a faculty member, staff member, or former student, please send a previously published obituary or a note that includes their accomplishments, surviving family members, and significant facts care of the Alumni News Editor, The University of Chicago Magazine, 5235 South Harper Court, Chicago, IL 60615, or by email: uchicago-magazine@uchicago.edu.