Faculty and staff

Elizabeth Serson Johnson of Chicago died July 19. She was 95. A onetime journalist for the Ottawa Journal, Johnson was an editor of Cambridge University Press’s Collected Writings of John Maynard Keynes (1978). Her first husband, economist Harry Gordon Johnson, was on the UChicago faculty for more than two decades. After he suffered a stroke in 1973, Johnson devoted herself to his care until his death four years later. She then worked at the University of Chicago Press as an economics editor until 1983, marrying UChicago physicist John A. Simpson in 1980. Simpson died in 2000. Johnson is survived by a daughter, a son, and two grandsons. 

Elizabeth “Rose” Waltz, a nurse at the University of Chicago Medicine for more than 30 years, died May 8 in Hyde Park. She was 80. In retirement Waltz volunteered as a nurse at the Interlochen Arts Camp. She is survived by three daughters, one son, and eight grandchildren.

1920s

Florence Petzel, LAB’27, PhB’31, AM’34, died August 16 in Anderson, SC. She was 106. Petzel became an assistant professor of textiles at Ohio State University in 1938 and later held professorships at the University of Alabama, Oregon State University, the University of Texas, and Texas Tech University. She was the author of Textiles of Ancient Mesopotamia, Persia, and Egypt (1967) and several scholarly articles on the properties and history of fabrics. She is survived by two nephews. 

1930s

John G. Morris, LAB’33, AB’37, died July 28 in Paris. He was 100. A celebrated photo editor, Morris oversaw the publication of some of the 20th century’s most iconic images. During World War II he edited Robert Capa’s photos of D-Day for Life magazine and later embedded himself with American troops in Normandy. At the New York Times, he urged the publication of Nick Ut’s photo of a girl running from a napalm bombing during the Vietnam War; the photo later won a Pulitzer Prize. He received the French Legion of Honor in 2009 and the International Center of Photography’s Infinity Award in 2010. Morris is survived by his partner, Patricia Trocmé; four sons; and four grandchildren. 

Arthur O. Kane, AB’37, JD’39, died October 6, 2016, in Chicago. He was 98. In 1965, after working at his father’s law practice for more than a decade, Kane founded a firm specializing in workers’ compensation and occupational disease issues. He later served as president of the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Lawyers Association and chair of the Chicago Bar Association’s committee on workers’ compensation. Philanthropic support from Kane and his wife, Esther, established the Law School’s Arthur Kane Center for Clinical Legal Education and endowed faculty positions in constitutional and administrative law. Kane’s wife, Esther, died on June 27, 2017. He is survived by a daughter; son James Allan Steinback, MBA’70; four grandsons; and six great-grandchildren.

1940s

William Henry Grede, AB’42, of Palos Park, IL, died July 29. He was 96. Grede was awarded a Purple Heart for his service as a bombardier and navigator in World War II. He owned a floral delivery business before becoming a high school teacher and then dean of instructional television at Chicago’s Public Broadcasting Service affiliate WTTW, where he was a pioneer of offering college accredited course broadcasts. Grede served on the school board in Palos Park and developed a scholarship for police cadets interested in studying criminal justice. He is survived by a son, a granddaughter, and a great-granddaughter. 

Minnie H. Steinberg, SB’44, PhD’50, died June 13 in Evanston, IL. She was 97. As a graduate student in anatomy, Steinberg studied the effects of radiation exposure on lab animals. Impressed by her diligence, one of her professors recommended her for a Manhattan Project team conducting related research. After World War II she worked alongside her physician husband assisting with minor surgeries and serving as his receptionist. Steinberg is survived by two sons, 13 grandchildren, and 38 great-grandchildren.

Roslyne Sterne (née Gross), EX’44, died June 23 in Palo Alto, CA. She was 91. During a long and varied career, she worked in advertising and as a model and singer. Publisher of Dance Magazine from 1985 to 1997, Stern was also a founding member of the political organization Emily’s List. She is survived by her husband, Robert; a daughter; and one granddaughter.

Nina Kreloff Kans, AB’46, died March 7 in Rockville, MD. She was 89. Kans taught piano at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago. Her husband, Nels F. Kans, EX’53, died in 2006. She is survived by two sons, Jonathan A. Kans, AB’79, SM’81, PhD’86, and Joshua S. Kans, AB’85; a brother; and a grandson.  

Alex Booth, PhB’46, died August 17 in Stuart, FL. He was 93. He completed his UChicago degree in one year before returning home to Kenova, WV, to run his family’s coal business. Within five years, the Booth Coal Company had become a multimillion- dollar corporation. Alongside his work there and at the Wise County Coal Corporation, he founded the Booth Scholars Program, which provides scholarships, computers, and travel opportunities to young people in Kenova, and the Booth Leadership Initiative, in support of theological education for pastors in sub-Saharan Africa. He also served as a trustee of the Huntington (WV) Museum of Art. Booth is survived by his wife, Katherine, and two stepdaughters.

Priscilla Utne, PhB’46, died March 26 in West Chester, PA. She was 92. A classroom and special education teacher and administrator at a New Jersey public school for 24 years, Utne was committed to social justice, the environment, and education. During the summers she taught art at children’s camps. Utne is survived by a daughter; a son; a granddaughter; a grandson; and a great-grandson.

Emilie Elaine Cooper Boguchwal, AB’47, died August 8 in Ridgecrest, CA. She was 92. After the outbreak of World War II, she moved to Washington, DC, where she worked in the War Department. Boguchwal was a writer and editor at the Naval Ordinance Test Station in China Lake, CA, for nearly 50 years. In retirement she volunteered at the Ridgecrest City Information Desk and the Ridgecrest Senior Center. She is survived by two daughters, a son, and three grandchildren.

Robert Thomas Hennemeyer, PhB’47, AM’50, died August 21 in Washington, DC. He was 91. Hennemeyer received the French Legion of Honor for his military service during World War II. In 1952 he joined the US Department of State as a foreign service officer. Over his 35-year career, Hennemeyer served in England, Norway, Tanzania, and Germany, where he was twice consul general. From 1984 to 1986, he was the ambassador to Gambia. In retirement Hennemeyer worked to advance social justice through his efforts with the US Catholic Bishops Conference, the Woodstock Theological Center, and the Catholic Diocese of Venice, Florida. He is survived by his wife, Joan; one daughter; two sons; a sister; and four grandchildren.

1950s

Robert Ginsburg, SM’50, PhD’53, of Miami, died July 9. He was 92. During his 60-year career as a geologist—beginning and ending at the University of Miami, with a 16-year interlude at Shell Development and then Johns Hopkins—he studied sea-floor deposits off the coast of Florida, identifying a coral reef nearly three million years old and discovering a mile-deep underwater trench. Ginsburg also started initiatives to collect better baseline data on coral reefs, allowing more accurate measures of the oceans’ health. He is survived by his partner,
Leonore Bernard. 

Leroy Ecklund, AB’51, died July 23 in Madison, WI. He was 87. A graduate of Northwestern Medical School, Ecklund served as a captain in the Air Force and a staff psychiatrist at an Air Force hospital in Elmendorf, AK. He later worked as the director of the Mendota Mental Health Institute in Madison, where he created a program for deaf individuals with mental health issues. He is survived by his longtime partner, Gary Gill; three daughters; one son; two granddaughters; and two grandsons.

Keith Conners, AB’53, died July 5 in Durham, NC. A Rhodes Scholar who then trained as a clinical psychologist, in the 1960s he developed a 39-item questionnaire, the Conners Rating Scale, that became the standard tool to diagnose what is now called attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children. Later studies by Conners prompted the widespread replacement of tranquilizers with stimulants such as Ritalin and Dexedrine as the standard treatment for ADHD. He is survived by his wife, Carolyn; a sister; four daughters; two sons; four grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

Jack Nadler, AM’54, of Montclair, NJ, died December 16, 2014. He was 85. Nadler worked in military research at Bell Labs and as a corporate researcher for AT&T before becoming a stockbroker. He is survived by his wife, Rita K. Nadler, JD’55; a daughter; two sons; and six grandchildren.

Frank Wellington Lehn, EX’54, died July 2 in Louisville, KY. He was 85. Lehn estimated that he treated 780,000 patients during more than 40 years practicing internal medicine with a focus on rheumatology. Honored as a Kentucky Colonel—the state’s highest title of honor—he enjoyed camping, skiing, foxhunting, and steeplechase racing. Lehn is survived by his wife, Valla; three daughters; two sons; a brother; a stepdaughter; nine grandchildren; and 11 great-grandchildren. 

James Wesley Haritage, AM’56, died August 2 in Dakota Dunes, SD. He was 92. A veteran of World War II, Haritage served as the head of social services at the Mental Health Institute in Cherokee, IA, until his retirement in 1992. He is survived by two daughters, a granddaughter, and a grandson.

Romeyn Taylor, AM’56, PhD’60, of Minneapolis, died June 4. He was 91. During World War II he served in the American Field Service as an ambulance driver with the British Army. Taylor was a professor of Chinese history at the University of Minnesota for 34 years. He was politically active and volunteered with homeless families in Minneapolis. He is survived by three daughters; two sons; a sister; five granddaughters; and three grandsons.

Philip Szanto, SB’57, AB’57, died May 26 in North Chicago, IL. He was 81. Szanto served as a US Army pathologist before practicing at Munster (IN) Community Hospital from 1973 until 1981, when he became a professor of pathology at Chicago Medical School of Rosalind Franklin University. Coauthor of a widely used textbook, BRS Pathology (1993), he retired in 2011. Szanto is survived by his wife, Anna; a daughter, Judith Szanto Kutin, SM’01; a son, Michael Szanto, SM’01; a brother; and three grandchildren. 

James S. Chase, LAB’47, AM’57, PhD’62, died July 31 in Fayetteville, AR. He was 85. A US Army veteran who served in the Korean War, Chase began his career as a scholar of American political history at the University of Texas at Austin. In 1968 he moved to the University of Arkansas, where he remained until his retirement more than 30 years later. Chase wrote The Emergence of the Presidential Nominating Convention, 1789–1832 (1973) and founded the Ozark Historical Review. He is survived by his sister and brother.

Robert Zaas, MD’57, of Cleveland, died August 5. He was 86. A former Naval doctor, Zaas served aboard the USS Yorktown from 1958 to 1961. After returning to his hometown of Cleveland, he established a private practice as an orthopedic surgeon. An accomplished flutist and lover of classical music, he enjoyed attending concerts, hiking, and rooting for Cleveland sports teams. He is survived by his daughter and three grandchildren. 

Herma Hill Kay, JD’59, died June 10 in San Francisco. She was 82. The second woman on the faculty and the first woman dean of the law school at the University of California, Berkeley, Kay was an expert on sex-based discrimination and an advocate for gender equality. She helped write California’s no-fault divorce law in 1969 and the Uniform Marriage and Divorce Act, a template no-fault divorce law for states to adopt. Kay is survived by three sons; four grandchildren; and two step-grandchildren.

1960s

Charles F. Lanman Jr., AB’60, died May 10 in Wauwatosa, WI. He was 78. Lanman was a public information officer in the US Bureau of Mines for 25 years; after earning a computer science degree in 1990, he worked for a number of software development firms, becoming a programmer for several tech companies supporting national security and civil defense needs, and retired in 2007. Lanman is survived by his wife, Nancy; a daughter; a son; and
six grandchildren.

Bernard Pomerance, AB’62, died August 26 in Galisteo, NM. He was 76. Pomerance won the 1979 Tony Award for best play for The Elephant Man. Since its original two-year run on Broadway, the play has received several revivals, most recently in 2014 with actor Bradley Cooper in the starring role. Pomerance’s other plays include Quantrill in Lawrence (1981) and Melons (1985). He was a cofounder of London’s Foco Novo Theatre Company. He is survived by a daughter, a son, a brother, and two grandchildren.

Robert G. Faris, MBA’64, of Westfield, NJ, died August 21. He was 79. Faris’s career in business included posts at Inland Steel, Standard Oil of Indiana, and McKinsey & Company. In 1971 he became president and senior partner of the venture capital firm Alan Patricof Associates (now Apax Partners). Faris was a cofounder of the Polish-American Freedom Foundation and received two major honors from the president of Poland for his work promoting economic cooperation between Poland and the United States. He is survived by his wife, a daughter, a son, a sister, two brothers, and five grandchildren.

Jonathan D. Lewis, AB’65, died June 5 in Chicago. He was 73. A psychiatrist who specialized in post-traumatic stress disorder, Lewis treated hundreds of refugees from conflicts all over the world, including many survivors of the Vietnam War and the Bosnian War. Later in life he published an edited volume of essays and a children’s book. Lewis is survived by his wife, Betty de Visé; a stepson; and two grandchildren.  

Katharine Hull, AM’65, died June 25 in Calabasas, CA. She was 87. Hull studied in the Graduate Library School and later worked in library services at Rye Country Day School and for the publisher Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. She enjoyed reading, writing, volunteering, the arts, and travel. Hull is survived by her sister, three sons, and nine grandchildren. 

Robert Halonen, MBA’66, died August 13 in Cincinnati. He was 77. A onetime professor of economics, finance, and health care administration at the University of Arizona and Virginia Commonwealth University, Halonen later worked in health care, managing the financial operations of Trihealth, the Bethesda Foundation, Georgetown University Medical Center, and Charleston (WV) Area Medical Center. Halonen served on the boards of Lighthouse Youth Services and Hospice of Cincinnati, among other organizations. He is survived by his wife, Susan; one daughter; three sons; and three grandchildren.

Sigmund Dragastin, PhD’68, of Sunny Isles Beach, FL, died March 2. He was 84. Dragastin served as a Catholic priest before completing his sociology doctorate. The author of Adolescence in the Life Cycle (1975), he spent 22 years as an administrator at the National Institutes of Health. 

George R. Yates Jr., AB’69, SM’84, of Chicago, died June 4. He was 73. An Air Force veteran, Yates worked as a computer programmer and systems architect for institutions including UChicago and Northwestern University. He returned to the University midcareer to study mathematics and neurobiology. Yates is survived by his wife, Kathy Yates, AM’74, and one son, George Yates III, LAB’08.

1970s

Donald Paton, MBA’71, died April 30 in Warwick, RI. He was 75. Paton earned an engineering degree from Cambridge University before emigrating to the United States, where he worked for General Electric. Following a long career in the planning, purchasing, and management of power plants, in retirement he enjoyed refurbishing his antique car, playing golf, sailing, and traveling. He is survived by his wife, Stephanie Paton, AM’71; a daughter; a son; and two grandsons.

Richard Beinecke, AM’73, died of a heart attack June 19 in Boston. He was 68. A manager for community health centers who contributed to mental health legislation for the Department of Health and Human Services, he later researched and taught on mental and public health at Suffolk University’s Sawyer Business School in Boston. An avid kayaker and fisherman, Beinecke wrote a guidebook to the Mystic River. He is survived by his longtime partner, Carol Philipps; two daughters; two sisters; and a brother.

Lloyd C. Engelbrecht, PhD’73, died December 31, 2016, in Cincinnati. He was 89. An antiwar activist and World War II veteran, Engelbrecht was proud he never fired a shot during his military career. He studied the history of culture at UChicago and became a professor of art history at the University of Cincinnati, publishing books on the Bauhaus movement and the architect Henry Trost. He is survived by two sisters; two daughters; one granddaughter; and three grandsons.

Eugene Gaer, EX’73, of New York City, died July 7 in New York. His 39 years as a litigator were preceded by a stint teaching history at West Liberty University and Roosevelt University in the 1960s and ’70s. He joined Rosenman Colin Freund Lewis & Cohen in 1978 after graduating from Columbia Law School. Gaer became general counsel at FOJP Service Corporation in 1987 and opened his own practice in the 1990s. He is survived by his brother.

Benjamin Gerald McArthur, AM’74, PhD’79, of Collegedale, TN, died April 10. He was 66. After earning his PhD, McArthur joined Southern Adventist University in Collegedale, teaching history there until 2017, save a stint from 2009 to 2012 as vice president for academics at Southwestern Adventist University in Keene, TX. McArthur is survived by his wife, Caroline; a daughter; a son, UChicago doctoral student Robert McArthur, AM’17; two sisters; three brothers; and two grandchildren.

Hollie Mottus Bendewald, AB’75, died April 2, 2016, of cancer. She was 63. Bendewald received an MBA from the University of Virginia Darden School of Business and served as an executive at banks including Citi and Chemical. She also worked as a consultant at Ernst & Young. She is survived by her sister and brother.

Gina Sosinsky, AB’76, died September 4, 2015, from complications related to a bone marrow transplant. She was 60. Sosinsky received her PhD in biophysics from the University of California, Berkeley, and joined the faculty of the University of California, San Diego, in 1995. A scholar of microscopic imaging, she served as assistant director of the National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research at UC San Diego and taught courses on light and electron microscopy. She is survived by her husband, John Badger, and three sons.

John Yoder, MBA’76, of Harpers Ferry, WV, died June 9. He was 66. A district court judge in his native Kansas from 1976 to 1980, Yoder was appointed director of the Justice Department’s asset forfeiture office by President Ronald Reagan. He was elected to West Virginia’s state senate in 1992 and again in 2004. In 2008 he launched his successful campaign for a seat on the 23rd Judicial Circuit, where he served until his death. He is survived by two sisters and two brothers.

Lala Rukh, MFA’76, died July 7 in Lahore, Pakistan. She was 69. An artist known for her minimalist drawings and installation pieces, Rukh also taught at Punjab University and the National College of Arts. Her last exhibited work, the visual and sound installation piece Rupak, was shown at the art exhibition Documenta 14 in Athens this year. Rukh was a cofounder of the Women’s Action Forum, a group advocating for the rights of women in Pakistan, and remained active in the WAF throughout her life.

David Herrup, AB’77, died June 18 in Cambridge, MA. He was 62. Herrup was a research physicist at Fermilab before working as a medical physicist in the radiation oncology department at Massachusetts General Hospital and a lecturer at Harvard University. He is survived by his wife, Nicole Jordan; a daughter, Rachel Ming Herrup, AB’17; his mother; and two brothers, Paul Max Herrup, AB’74, and Mark Herrup, AB’80.

Ralph Hoffman, AB’78, died May 24 in Chicago. He was 68. Hoffman was a senior vice president and financial adviser at Merrill Lynch for 38 years. An expert bridge player, he reached the rank of Gold Life Master and was twice named Chicago Bridge Player of the Year. He is survived by his wife, Barbara Ames, and two daughters.

1980s

Wendy Lynne de Monchaux, MBA’86, died September 22 from complications following a seizure. She was 57. At Bear
Stearns, de Monchaux rose through the ranks to become a senior managing director in trading and derivatives and in 1996 became the only woman on the firm’s board of directors. She left Bear Stearns in 2008 to become a stay-at-home parent to her three children. She is survived by her husband, David MacWilliams; two daughters; one son; her mother; and a sister. 

Peter Chines, AB’89, of Silver Spring, MD, died July 10. He was 50. Chines worked for two decades at the National Human Genome Research Institute at the National Institutes of Health, where his work designing complex databases helped advance research on type 2 diabetes and other genetic disorders. He is survived by his wife, Sujata Roy; his parents; a sister; and a brother. 

Dennis Michael Black, JD’89, died July 1 in Santa Fe, NM, after a brief illness. He was 53. Black clerked for US Court of Appeals judge and senior lecturer in law Richard Posner before joining the Washington, DC, law firm Williams & Connolly. He became a partner in 1998, leaving in 2015 to do pro bono work with an LGBTQ youth organization and to cofound a clothes manufacturing company and retail store, among other projects. He is survived by his partner, R. Scott Wallis; his mother; and a brother.

Benjamin Mark Portis, MFA’89, died July 20 in Toronto following a car accident. He was 56. Portis worked as a curator for the Art Gallery of Ontario and the MacLaren Art Centre in Barrie, Ontario, and wrote about visual art and dance for numerous Canadian publications. He is survived by his mother, a sister, and a brother.

1990s

Robert R. Walsh, AM’90, died February 8 in Richmond, VA. He was 73. Walsh studied at the Graduate Library School and worked on library accommodation planning at Harvard University, Queens College in New York, and the Library of Virginia. He lectured widely on library space use and development. He is survived by three sisters and two brothers.

2000s

Terrell “Terry” Iandiorio, JD’05, died August 16 in Nantucket of accidental drowning. He was 46. Before enrolling at the Law School, Iandiaro taught at a school near Johannesburg, South Africa. An attorney at the Boston-based firm Ropes & Gray, he represented clients in the medical device, pharmaceutical, and defense industries. Iandiario received the Denis Maguire Pro Bono Award from the Boston Bar Association for his work with organizations including DotHouse Health. He is survived by his wife, Ann Ward; his father; a daughter; a son; a sister; and two brothers. 

Justin Thomas Anderson, AM’09, died June 27. He was 34. As a high school student, Anderson was a finalist for the Morton Gould Young Composers Award and went on to study Italian and vocal performance at the University of Minnesota. He worked at the Italian consulate in Chicago. Outside of work, Anderson enjoyed gymnastics and played flute in a musical ensemble. He is survived by his parents and a brother.

2010s

Hannah Frank, PhD’16, died August 28 of suspected meningitis. She was 33. A professor of film studies at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington, Frank studied special effects, the history of animation, and Russian and Soviet cinema. She also made experimental animated films. At the time of her death, she was at work on a book about American animated cartoons of the 20th century. She is survived by her husband, Jacob Blecher, AM’08.