Faculty and Staff
Kristin Miscavage, of Palo Alto, July 16, at 56, of ovarian cancer. During more than 30 years of filling numerous jobs at the University, she won an “Amy” in 1992 and an Amy Blue Award in 2007 for her dedication and passion to her work, notably her task of training and supporting computer users of the University’s student information system from 1989-2000. She also worked in the Registrar’s Office in several roles during the late 1980s and again in this decade as an institutional research analyst. She graduated from UC-Santa Cruz. She was a volunteer docent at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Her father, Carl T. Running, MBA ’47, was a Stanford associate professor of business law who died when she was eight months old. Her mother, Ruth Running, who worked in the Stanford library system for 20 years, preceded her in death by three weeks. She is survived by her husband of 27 years, Lee.
Ruth B. Running, of Palo Alto, June 25, at 95. She worked for more than 20 years for the University libraries. She was born in Shanghai, China. Her family moved to Pennsylvania when she was a teenager and she graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Randolph Mason College in Virginia. She earned a master’s degree at the U. of Minnesota. Her husband, Carl T. Running, a Stanford Business Law professor, died in 1952, and her daughter, Kristin Miscavage, died July 16. Survivors: three sisters.
Katherine Wolff, of Palo Alto, June 11, at 53. She was an administrative assistant for the Stanford baseball and women’s volleyball programs for 21 years, beginning with the Cardinal’s most recent two NCAA baseball titles, operating the offices and interacting with coaches and players. Survivors include two sisters.
1920s
Pauline Hoffmann Herd, ’26 (undergraduate law), of Brooklyn, N.Y., June 13, at 102. She was active in Cap & Gown. After receiving a doctorate of law from USC, she became one of the first women sworn into the California Bar. She maintained a probate practice in Philadelphia in the 1930s and became a homemaker after her family moved to Brooklyn in the 1940s. She continued to perform pro bono work and mentor law students, particularly women, and supervised USC students in a new legal-aid program. She was active in her church and several other New York-area organizations, including the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Her husband, J. Victor Herd, predeceased her. Survivors: two daughters, Pauline and Victoria.
1930s
Gordon Kelley, ’31 (social science, social thought), of Fort Smith, Ark., May 23, at 99. She served in the American Red Cross during and after World War II before returning to Fort Smith in 1950 to join the family’s Kelley Realty Co., over which she presided from 1970 to 1996. She supported hospitals and museums and helped establish three endowments in her name at the U. of Arkansas-Fort Smith. Survivors include a nephew.
Alice Brett Stearns, ’32 (French), of Santa Barbara, Calif., September 26, 2007, at 96. She was a member of Delta Gamma sorority. She earned a teaching credential from San Jose State U. and taught school in Hillsborough, Calif., in 1933 and 1934. After, she raised three children. She also designed and managed the construction of one home and the remodel of another. Her husband, Charles, ’30, JD ’33, died in 1999. Survivors: two sons, Brett, JD ’66, and Geoffrey, ’68; one daughter, Jeanne Chase, ’72, JD ’79; six grandchildren; a brother, William Brett, ’38; and a sister, Zilah Brett Brye, ’40.
Harold E. Pearson, ’33 (bacteriology), MD ’38, of Lubbock, Texas, June 22, at 97. After earning his master’s in public health at Harvard in 1941, he spent his career as a researcher and teacher specializing in pathology. Although he was based from 1949 to 1976 at USC, where he became a professor of microbiology and was chair of USC’s department of public health, he worked in many other locations. His research fellowships included the Rockefeller Foundation Influenza Lab in Berkeley, in 1940; a Guggenheim Fellowship, which supported research at the Institut Pasteur in Paris in 1956; and a grant to consult with China’s medical board in 1964. He also was a visiting professor of public health at Keio U. in Tokyo in 1965. He supervised several pathology and training programs at Los Angeles County Hospital. He published more than 100 articles on his research related to numerous infectious diseases and public health concerns. He spent much of his retirement as a gentleman farmer in the Texas Hill Country, near Fredericksburg. He was predeceased by his first wife, of 38 years, Catherine (Guerard, ’33, MD ’38), and a son, John. Survivors: his wife of 15 years, Mary Lou; two sons, David and Gregory; one daughter, Leslie; and three grandchildren.
Glenn C. Waterman, ’33, MS ’50 (geology), of Bainbridge Island, Wash., July 10, at 96. He was a member of Sigma Chi fraternity. He retired from the Anaconda Mining company in 1974 after 40 years as a geologist, work that took him to many countries and led to numerous published articles. After moving to the Seattle area in 1985, he wrote 12 books filled with family history. He was preceded in death by his wife of 53 years, Judy. Survivors: two sons, Glenn and Gary; six grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.
Frances Burks Newman, ’35, MA ’36 (psychology), of Orinda, Calif., June 11, at 94. She worked at the Institute of Child Welfare at UC-Berkeley after leaving Stanford. In Berkeley she met Frank C. Newman, a law student who later became a California Supreme Court justice, and they married in 1940. She became a paralegal in 1971 and developed and taught a course for that field at City College of San Francisco. Frank died in 1996. After she retired in 1998, she remained a staunch supporter of Human Rights Advocates, which her husband had helped found, and she remained active in choral groups, including Berkeley’s University Chorus. Survivors: her daughter, Holly.
John M. Flaherty, ’37 (economics), of Beaverton, Ore., June 8, at 95. He was active in Delta Upsilon fraternity. He was co-owner of a shelving manufacturing firm and lived in Whittier, Calif., for many years before moving to Oregon in 2004. He was predeceased by his wife, Betty, a son, John, and a daughter, Michaele. Survivors: four grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren.
John Thomas O’Brien, ’37 (pre-clinical medical science), of San Jose, April 22, at 95. He studied at the Hopkins Marine Station and was a member of Zeta Psi fraternity. He attended Santa Clara U. before Stanford. He received his MD from the U. of Tennessee-Memphis in 1942 and served in the Army as a physician during World War II. He was a physician and surgeon at several South Bay hospitals and opened the Willow Glen Medical Center in San Jose in the late 1940s. He was a member of La Rinconada Country Club for more than 50 years. His wife of 52 years, Rosemary, died in 1995. Survivors: three daughters, Kathleen Balestrini, Mary Kelley Colla and Jeannie O’Brien-Coker; five sons, John Thomas III, Michael, Timothy, William and Terrence; 15 grandchildren; and nine great-grandchildren.
Sheldon P. Riley, ’37 (economics), of Santa Barbara, Calif., July 3, at 92. He was a member of Phi Delta Theta fraternity. He was working at an insurance company in Honolulu when he became one of the first World War II draftees, and he was in Honolulu when Pearl Harbor was attacked in 1941. He spent five years in Army counter-intelligence. After the war he married Dorothy (Dodge, ’43), and they settled in the Los Angeles area as he became president of R.L. Kautz & Co., which pioneered self-insurance. After retiring to Santa Barbara in 1976, he served on the board of the Boys Club and was active in fund-raising for the Thacher School in Ojai, Calif. He was preceded in death by a daughter, Joan, ’71. Survivors: his wife; one son, James; one daughter, Robin R. Martin; six grandchildren; two great-grandchildren; and a sister, Barbara Riley DeGroot, ’40.
Helen “Betty” Davis McKenna, ’39 (speech and drama), of Greenbrae, Calif., June 11, at 90. She married George McKenna, ’38, and, after interruptions for his service in World War II and the Korean War, they settled in the Bay Area, primarily Marin County, where she raised two children. She was active in Hospice of Marin County. George preceded her in death. Survivors: one son, James; one daughter, Jayne Baiyor; and two granddaughters.
1940s
Leonard Moskovitz, ’40 (political science), of San Mateo, June 25, at 90. He served in the Army Air Corps during World War II. He joined his twin brother, Alfred “Ollie,” ’40, in founding Moskovitz Realty in San Francisco and later started Burlingame Investment Co. In 1954, he was kidnapped in San Francisco and held for ransom (his father, Maurice, was founder of Rochester Big & Tall clothiers), a crime for which two men were subsequently imprisoned for life. In 1965 he and Ollie were jointly named Burlingame’s Man of the Year by the Rotary Club. He also was chair of several civic and charitable organizations. He was predeceased by his wife of 57 years, Lesley, and by his brother. Survivors: his wife of three years, Claire; two sons, Mike and David; two stepchildren, Joanie Crombie and Jack Barry; and five grandchildren.
Marjorie Hovey Kinder, ’41 (communication), of Sunnyvale, May 23, at 87. She entered the University at age 15 and worked on the Daily as a pioneering sportswriter, often using the byline Mike Hovey. She was Sunday editor of the Daily during her senior year. She worked at newspapers throughout California, including Vallejo, El Centro (her hometown), San Francisco and Sacramento. She was the public relations director for the Fremont Unified School District for 20 years. She was predeceased by her husband of 59 years, Bob. Survivors: her two sons, Bob and Chris; and four grandchildren.
John F. “Jack” Shaw, ’41 (economics), of Palm Desert, Calif., May 30, at 89. He was a member of Theta Delta Chi fraternity. He served with the Marine Corps during World War II. He had come to the Bay Area in 1937 from Mitchell, S.D., to work for Shaw’s Candy, owned by his brother, and spent his career helping the company expand to more than 40 stores. He retired in 1979 when the company was reorganized, and moved to Southern California in the mid-1980s. His wife, Leota, died in 1984. Survivors: his wife of 23 years, Ramona; a daughter, Melinda Terry; two sons, Kenneth and Douglas; and five grandchildren.
Louise Purwin Zobel, ’43, MA ’76 (communication), of Cupertino, June 9, at 86. She worked at the Daily and worked for United Press during World War II. In 1943 she married and settled first in San Francisco and then Palo Alto to raise her four children. She returned to Stanford to earn her master’s degree and became a noted travel writer whose book The Travel Writer’s Handbook was published in 1980. She taught writing classes, primarily at Foothill and De Anza Colleges but also at Stanford, and wrote hundreds of articles that were published in periodicals. She and her husband served frequently as cruise lecturers. She was a volunteer with several academic and civic organizations. She was predeceased by her husband of 55 years, Jerome. Survivors: three daughters, Lenore “Lennie” Harris, ’67, Audrey Dollinger, and Jan; one son, Bob; and seven grandchildren.
Robert H. Brown, ’44, of Sonoma, Calif., June 15, at 86, of heart disease. After entering the University on a tennis scholarship and studying at Hopkins Marine Station, he served in the Navy during World War II and then became an insurance agent, running his own agency from 1955 until 2000. He was director of the California Independent Agents and Brokers board of directors. He was president of several Sonoma Valley civic organizations and was an American Legion post commander. He also announced high school football. Survivors: his wife of 57 years, Aileen; a daughter, Shelley; a son, Barry; and two granddaughters.
Harold Robert “Bob” Trafton, ’44 (social science, social thought), of Burlingame, June 7, at 85. He served in the Navy during World War II and became the commanding officer of an underwater demolition team that was a forerunner of the Navy SEALs. He was awarded the Silver Star, two Bronze Stars and other commendations. He then joined the family farming business in Watsonville, Calif. He was president of the Pajaro Valley Chamber of Commerce and the local school board and was a member of several civic organizations. His wife of 61 years, Jean (Claussen, ’45), died in 2007. Survivors: two daughters, Barbara Ingram and Kathleen, ’78, MA ’80; a son, Richard; and two grandsons.
Richard R. Ambrose, ’45, of Tucson, Ariz., June 12, at 84. He was a member of the soccer team and of Beta Theta Pi fraternity. He served in the Army Air Corps during World War II and helped relocate concentration camp survivors afterward. He then returned home to Kansas, where he became a cattle rancher. He owned several dairy companies in Manhattan, Kan. He and his second wife, Orlain, retired to Tucson, where he was active at the Tucson Country Club. She preceded him in death, as did his daughter Dena. Survivors: one son, Rick; one daughter, Bryanne Hamilton; five grandchildren; and one great-granddaughter.
Virginia Lee Hobbs Carpenter, ’45 (political science), of Los Angeles, June 1, at 83. She was active in Cap & Gown. She married William Carpenter, ’45, and ended a budding journalism career to raise a family. She was an active supporter of Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Survivors: her husband; one daughter, Amy; and one son, Peter.
Wesley Raymond Nowell, ’45, MA ’48, PhD ’51 (biological sciences), of Marina, Calif., June 12, 2007, at 83. He worked on the Daily. He served in the Army Air Force during World War II. He received the Bronze Star and the Air Medal. He was re-commissioned as an entomologist in the Air Force Medical Service, specializing in insect eradication and disease control. He was an expert on dixids, a mosquito-like insect. He was a champion marksman shooting pistols. He was predeceased by his wife of 52 years, Maria (Rael, ’45), and a son, Wayne. Survivors: two sons, George, ’70, JD ’78, and Lawrence; one daughter, Roxanne Timmerman; nine grandchildren; and a sister.
Donald Eugene Stout, ’45 (international relations), of San Antonio, January 10, at 84. He was a brigadier general in the Air Force and was a command pilot who retired as commander of the 47th Air Division. He was a graduate of the National War College and earned a master’s at George Washington U. in 1966. In retirement he was district coordinator of the American Association of Retired Persons’ Tax-Aide program, helping provide tax counseling and preparation services to low- and middle-income San Antonio residents. He also was active at Christ the King Lutheran Church. Survivors: his wife of 64 years, Margery; one son, Donald Jr.; one daughter, Susan Garnatz; two granddaughters; and two great-grandchildren.
Elia Austin Long, ’46 (political science), of Honolulu, June 6, at 84, of cancer. He was a member of Chi Psi fraternity. He served in the Marine Corps during World War II. After graduating in 1948, he returned to his hometown, Honolulu, and co-founded a real estate title company. He was a leader of Friends of Iolani Palace for many years, and coordinated its acquisition of several artifacts, such as the loan of the Hawaiian royal crowns, scepter and sword of state from the Bishop Museum, and he was a member of several other civic organizations. Survivors: his wife of 58 years, Betty (Barlow, ’48); a son, Elia, two daughters, Lisa McNamarra and Leslie Sorensen; and six grandchildren.
Exilda “Teddy” Fitch Burch, ’47 (social science, social thought), of San Mateo, July 5, at 83. She studied in the University’s speech & drama master’s program, but art was her life-long passion, as she joined many painting groups and attended several art schools in the Bay Area, as well as the Chicago Art Institute and the Silvermine Guild Arts Center in Connecticut. Survivors: her husband of 58 years, Clyde, ’46; four children, Clyde, John, Robin and Thomas; three grandchildren; one great-grandchild; and a brother.
Robert Arthur Berry, ’48 (economics), of Phoenix, July 14, at 84. He was a member of Phi Kappa Psi fraternity. He served in the Army Air Corps as a fighter pilot during World War II. He was shot down over Germany, spent six months as a prisoner of war and received a Purple Heart. After earning an MBA from Harvard, he spent 40 years as an executive in the retail apparel industry, as vice president of Neiman-Marcus, president and CEO of Joseph Magnin, Inc., president of Wamsutta Mills/Home Products and president and CEO of Gucci Shops, Inc. He was predeceased by a son, Robert Jr. Survivors: his wife, Kay; two daughters, Debbie Springer and Linda; and two grandchildren.
Robert Charles Lobdell, ’48 (economics), JD ’50, of Menlo Park, July 7, at 82, of complications from a bacterial infection. He was a member of Beta Theta Pi fraternity and participated in the Law Review. He served in the Army Air Forces. As general counsel at the Los Angeles Times and the Times Mirror Corp., where he worked from 1965 to 1986, he gained recognition as a leading First Amendment attorney. His best-known case freed a Times reporter from 46 days in jail after the reporter refused to reveal his sources for a story about serial killer Charles Manson. Another case upheld the newspaper’s contention that it has a right to control content of advertisements it publishes. After retiring from the Times, he served on the boards of the Long Beach Museum of Art, St. Luke’s Episcopal Church and other organizations. He also enrolled at Cal State-Long Beach, which led to his becoming fluent in Italian and spending a year in Florence. He was a member of Stanford Associates, and won an award of merit in 1976 and a Governors’ Award in 1989. Survivors: his wife of 55 years, Nancy; children Terri, ’75, JD ’79, Jim, ’84, MA ’86, John and William, ’82; and 11 grandchildren.
Dale Harbour Champion, ’49 (political science), of San Francisco, July 24, at 81. After serving in the Coast Guard, attending UCLA and graduating from Stanford—where he worked on the Daily and participated in student drama—he was a reporter at the San Francisco Chronicle from 1956 to 1989. He specialized in environmental issues, such as oil spills and protection of the mission blue butterfly on the Bay Area’s San Bruno Mountain, and he continued to write about such issues after retiring from daily journalism. Survivors include two sisters.
Douglas Lee Peterson, ’49, MA ’52, PhD ’57 (English), of Okemos, Mich., June 27, at 84, of a stroke. After serving in the Army during World War II and pitching for Santa Clara U.’s baseball team for two years, he transferred to Stanford. In addition to earning three degrees on the Farm, he returned in 1967 as a visiting professor of English. He taught at the U. of Texas-Austin and U. of Washington before becoming a member of the Department of English at Cal State-Hayward (now CSU-East Bay) in 1960. He chaired the department from 1971 to 1977. He chaired the English department at the U. of Mississippi before moving to Michigan State U., where he later was named professor emeritus. He specialized in literature of the English Renaissance, and his many published writings included two books, The English Lyric from Wyatt to Donne: A History of the Plain and Eloquent Styles, and Time, Tide and Tempest: A Study of Shakespeare’s Romances. Among his honors won was a Fulbright scholarship to Finland. He performed as a jazz trumpeter for several bands and played competitive tennis, including recently. Survivors: his wife, Kathy; three daughters, Kristin, Erin and Lisa; a son, Douglas; and six grandchildren.
Richard H. Schutte, ’49 (education), of Santa Barbara, Calif., May 22, at 81. He played varsity basketball, having previously been captain of the varsity team at The Citadel in South Carolina, and was a member of Kappa Sigma fraternity. After serving in the Air Force and the Merchant Marines during the Korean War and working at a Seattle radio station, he moved to San Francisco and remained visible in University and Bay Area sports circles for many years afterward while working as a radio sales manager and later in the securities industry. He was president of The Guardsmen and founded their annual Big Game luncheon. He also was president of San Francisco Giants and San Francisco 49ers booster groups and was known as “The Mayor of Montgomery Street.” He was a longtime board member of the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame. He became a fixture at the San Francisco Golf Club and participated regularly at Bing Crosby’s “Clambake” on the Monterey (Calif.) Peninsula. He moved to Santa Barbara to become an investment counselor in 1993 and was active in several causes there. Survivors: his wife of 42 years, Robin; two daughters, Megan Walton and Susan Gruetzemacher; one son, Will; and six grandchildren.
1950s
Richard E. Halnan III, ’50 (education), of Phoenix, June 3, at 85. After his graduation from high school in 1940, he held several jobs in Phoenix before serving in the Merchant Marines from 1943 to 1946; his rank was lieutenant junior grade during World War II. He and his wife, Helen (Holmquist, MA ’50), were married in 1945. They returned to Phoenix in 1957, and he obtained a master’s from Arizona State U. in 1961 and spent 20 years on the Central High School faculty, several of them as president of the Classroom Teachers Association. He remained active in labor relations after his retirement and volunteered at the Phoenix Museum of History. Survivors: his wife of 62 years; a daughter, Nancy; and a son, Charles.
Jean Blaine Julien, ’50 (education), of Turlock, Calif., March 10, at 79, of Alzheimer’s disease. She married in 1948 and raised her family in Turlock. She was a group leader in Bible Study Fellowship and a scouting den mother, and she helped with several other community family activities. Survivors: her husband, Robert, ’47, MA ’48, MD ’54; three daughters, Ellen Bracamonte, Sarah Anderson and Catherine; two sons, Eric and Robert; and nine grandchildren.
Lee White Lynch, ’51 (political science), of Los Altos, June 1, at 78. She spent a year at the U. of Arizona before transferring to Stanford, where she participated in student drama. While working at American President Lines in San Francisco, she met her future husband, Robert Lynch, in 1953 and they moved to Los Altos in 1954. He died in 1965. She obtained a master’s in librarianship from San Jose State U. in 1974 and was securities adviser for ESL Inc. for 20 years. She was mayor of Los Altos in 1973-74 and also served on its city council and planning commission. She was a member of numerous political, civic and educational organizations. She received an Alumni Association five-year service pin in 1999. Survivors: one son, Michael; one daughter, Victoria Odden; four grandchildren; two great-grandchildren; and a sister.
Douglas B. McLellan, ’51 (economics), of San Francisco, July 20, at 77, after heart surgery. He played rugby and was a member of Delta Upsilon fraternity. After earning a law degree from UC-Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School of Law in 1954, he served in the Army and then worked in San Francisco for Wulff Hansen in investments, the Crocker Bank and the Union Bank. He was active with The Guardsmen and was their president in 1968, was an Old Guard member of the Bohemian Club, and served on the board of Town School for more than 10 years. He was a member of several other clubs, including the San Francisco Golf Club. He was awarded an Alumni Association five-year service pin in 1977. Survivors: his wife of 52 years, Callie; three children, Bruce, Callie V and Mark; and five grandchildren.
Howard Lawrence “Larry” Wenrick, ’51, MS ’52 (civil engineering), of Woodside, April 21, at 80. He was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He served in the Army and then worked in his family’s engineering underground pipeline construction company, Wenrick & Associates in San Mateo and later Menlo Park. He played tournament bridge, was a deacon at the Woodside Village Church and was a charter member of the Woodside/Portola Valley Rotary Club. He was preceded in death by his wife of 50 years, Johanna (Barnett, ’53). Survivors: a daughter, Martha Greenough; a son, David; three grandchildren; and a brother, Ernest, ’48.
Roscoe S. Wilkey, ’51 (economics), JD ’54, of Encinitas, Calif., July 11, at 80. He earned his bachelor’s degree from California Maritime Academy in 1948. He was a yell leader at Stanford and was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. He was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. In law school he was chair of the Moot Court Board and president of the Phi Delta Phi law fraternity. He became a partner at a San Diego law firm, and was president of the Barristers Club in 1961. In 1970 he was appointed Judge of the Superior Court of San Diego, serving until 1979, and subsequently served as an arbitrator in Superior Court cases; he also continued to practice as an attorney. He served twice as president of the board of the San Diego downtown YMCA, on several boards in Encinitas and was a deacon of the Village Community Presbyterian Church in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif. He received an Alumni Association five-year service pin in 1998. Survivors: his wife of 11 years, Norada; one daughter, Linda; one son, David; and two grandsons.
Charles Hale Champion, ’52 (English), of Cambridge, Mass., April 23, at 85, of cancer. He served in the Army during World War II. After graduating from Stanford, he worked as a political reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle. He then became press secretary to California Gov. Edmund G. “Pat” Brown from 1958 to 1966 and was chief of staff to Michael Dukakis when the former Massachusetts governor was the Democratic Party nominee for president in 1988. In between those roles, he taught at Harvard and became executive dean of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, ran the Boston Redevelopment Authority (overseeing the upgrade of Quincy Market), was undersecretary of Health, Education and Welfare in the Carter Administration and was a vice president in the administration of the U. of Minnesota. He was chair of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation from 1990 to 1992 and taught at Harvard until 1995. He, his wife and daughter were kidnapped from their Sacramento home in 1965 and released two days later in Tonopah, Nev., after he sustained a minor wound in an exchange of gunfire at a gas station in Tonopah. His wife, Maria Ozine (Tifft, MA ’52), survived him but died June 12. Survivors: one son, Thomas; one daughter, Katherine Murphy; three grandchildren; and a sister.
Robert O. Gregory, ’52 (geography), MBA ’57, of Alamo, Calif., July 29, at 78. He was a member of Kappa Alpha fraternity and played trumpet in the Band. He served as a captain in the Marine Corp during the Korean War. He was with the JC Penney Co. for 35 years and was an executive with United Way in the East Bay. In retirement he lived several months each year in Hawaii, where he counted migrating humpback whales for the National Marine Sanctuary. He was active in the Diablo Valley Stanford Alumni Club. Survivors: his wife of 52 years, Suzanne; two daughters, Karen Anderson and Diane Baskin; one son, Scott; four grandchildren; and a brother.
Susanne Alter Wolf, ’52 (speech & drama), of Los Angeles, June 4, at 78. After performing in many plays at Stanford, she continued acting in Southern California, primarily in television ads, including voiceovers. Survivors: her husband of 53 years, Bennett; one daughter, Terry; two sons, David and Brian; four grandchildren; and a sister, Betty Alter Dasteel, ’44.
John S. Mumma, ’54 (architecture), June 12, at 76. He was a member of Phi Gamma Delta fraternity. He also was active in ROTC officer training and was in the Air Force for 10 years after graduation, reaching the rank of captain and serving as a navigation officer. He settled in New Jersey, working as a purchasing agent for Prudential Insurance until the mid 1970s and as purchasing manager for Picatinny Arsenal, a military research and manufacturing facility, until 1995. He then established a limousine service. Survivors: his second wife of 33 years, Donna Gae; four sons, Dwayne, Doug, Derrick and Daniel Smith; three daughters, Ann Golden, Judy Bocchino and Karen Brennan; 16 grandchildren; a brother; and his former wife Carol Ann Gould Smith, ’55.
Bernard B. Gragg Jr., ’55 (physics), MS ’61, PhD ’64 (electrical engineering), of Santa Barbara, Calif., October 11, 2007, at 73, of cancer. He entered Stanford on a Navy ROTC scholarship and spent the first half of his career as a Navy pilot, stationed primarily in Pensacola, Fla., and Corpus Christi, Texas. He then applied his knowledge of advanced defense technologies at General Research Corp. in Santa Barbara and as one of the founders of Toyon Research Corp. (his freshman dorm was Toyon Hall), where he was an executive for several years and was on the board of directors until early 2007. He was instrumental in the publication of many technical reports. He was a jazz pianist with several bands who appeared many times at the Stanford Summer Jazz Symposium. He was preceded in death by a daughter, Lisette Walsh. Survivors: a daughter, Denise; four grandsons; two sisters; his longtime friend Candace White; and his former wife, Jeanne (La Brucherie, ’54, MA ’55).
Donald Glenn Seydel, ’56 (economics), of Carmel, Calif., May 23, at 76. His military service during the Korean War interrupted his Stanford education. After he graduated from Stanford, he earned an MBA from Harvard. After running a restaurant for a couple of years, he opened The Peppercorn chain of cookware stores and ran them until he retired in 1996. He was an officer in the Carmel-By-The-Sea Kiwanis club and served on the board of the Cypress Fire District. Survivors: his wife of three years, Judith; two sons, Sam and Jon; a sister; and his former wife, Norma Hovey Davis, ’51.
E. Timothy Gorham, ’57 (mechanical engineering), of Winnetka, Ill., July 24, at 73. He was a member of Chi Psi fraternity. After spending three quarters in the University’s mechanical engineering master’s program, he returned to his hometown of Winnetka. He owned several businesses in Chicago’s North Shore suburbs, including two conveyor system companies and a European-style inn and restaurant in Evanston, Ill. He was active in several North Shore recreation organizations, Sacred Heart Church, the American Diabetes Association and several other causes, and was a principal organizer of alumni activities at his former secondary school, North Shore Country Day School. Survivors: his wife, Barbara; children Jon Shere, Brooke Moore, Timothy Jr. and Whitney; three grandchildren; and a brother.
Robert Shirley, ’58 (biological sciences), MA ’60 (anthropology), of Toronto, July 23, at 71. He was professor emeritus of anthropology at the U. of Toronto, where he had joined the faculty in the mid-1960s. Survivors include his partner of 23 years, Newton Moraes; a brother; and a sister.
Irvin Nikolai, ’59, MA ’61 (education), of Forest Grove, Ore., June 2, at 71. He was a member of the football team and one of the nation’s leading pass receivers, who was involved in one of the most controversial plays in Big Game history in 1958 when his apparent catch for a two-point conversion was ruled out of bounds and Cal won 16-15. He was a member of Zeta Psi fraternity. He earned a PhD in education from Arizona State U. in 1969 and was superintendent of school districts in San Luis Obispo, Calif., and Lincoln City and Forest Grove, Ore. Although he retired in 1996, he was interim superintendent in La Grande, Ore., at the time of his death. Survivors: his wife, Lucille “Lu” (Craig, ’62, MA ’63); his children, P. Craig and Meta N. Jocque; and two grandchildren.
1960s
Thornton E. “Thorny” Robison, ’64 (international relations), of Oaxaca, Mexico, May 18, at 65, in an automobile accident. He was a member of Chi Psi fraternity and worked as a hasher. He participated in Officer Candidate School and was a volunteer at Ravenswood. He served in the Navy during the Vietnam War and earned a law degree from UC-Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School of Law in 1970. He practiced law in San Francisco and Arizona and also taught at the U. of Arizona-Tucson. In 1992, he and his second wife, Jane, moved to Oaxaca, where they ran a prominent bed and breakfast, Casa Colonial. In addition to formulating and leading tours for guests and other visitors, he helped the expatriate community organize churches and other cultural centers. He recently had been president of the Oaxaca Lending Library Foundation. Survivors: his wife, Jane; three children, Amanda Barr, Chris and Jean; his father, Henry Edwin, ’34, MBA ’36; a sister, Margaret “Mimi” McCarty, ’76; and his former wife, Christine (Coffey, ’64).
George Fulton Collins III, ’65 (economics), MBA ’67, MS ’68 (operations research), of Tulsa Okla., July 30, at 65, of leukemia. He was a member of Phi Delta Theta fraternity. He was vice president of Syntex Corp. from 1971 to 1980 and chair and chief executive officer of Liberty Glass from 1980 to 1994. He had been chair and CEO of Collins Investments since 1994, and during most of that time he was also chair of the U. of Tulsa Board of Trustees. During that time, the private university’s endowment doubled, a new administration building was erected and named Collins Hall, and a Fulton and Susie Collins Fitness Center also was built. In May, the university renamed its College of Business Administration for him and presented him with an honorary doctorate. He received a 10-year service pin from the Alumni Association in 1991. Survivors: his wife, Suzanne; a son, George Fulton “Fulty” IV, MBA ’94; three daughters, Carolyn, Suzanne and Catherine; three grandchildren; two brothers; one sister; and his former wife, Barbara Cella Wilsey, ’68.
Peggy Carstensen Stamm, ’67 (economics), of Seattle, June 9, at 63, of cancer. She worked for more than a decade as a computer systems analyst in Boston, Seattle and Atlanta. While raising her three children, she spent nearly 20 years in the restaurant business as co-founder and partner in the Madison Park Café in Seattle. She was a noted tennis player and served on numerous school committees and civic organizations, as well as the National Parents Board of Directors for Stanford, and the board of the Stanford/Washington Alumni Association, for which she received a five-year service pin in 1999. Survivors include her husband of 42 years, Walter, ’67; two daughters, Hillary, ’98, and Lindsay, ’00; and a son, Andrew.
Daniel K. Moore, ’68 (economics), of Visalia, Calif., July 18, at 62, of brain cancer. He was a varsity golfer and was a member of Theta Chi fraternity. He earned an MBA from USC in 1970 and then served as an executive with several companies, including 15 years with Castle & Cook, during which time he lived in San Mateo. Survivors: his wife of 36 years, Lynn; two sons, John Gooch and Jeff; two grandchildren; his mother, Eleanor; three sisters; and a brother.
Pamela McCormick Blecksmith, ’69 (political science), of San Marino, Calif., January 11, at 60, of cancer. She participated in Stanford in Government and after graduation interned for U.S. Rep. Bob Mathias (R-Calif.), ’53, and also worked briefly for Rep. Abner Mikva (D-Ill.) before becoming an aide to Presidents Nixon and Ford at the White House. Her marriage brought her back to San Marino, where she had attended high school. She earned an MBA from UCLA in 1978. While raising three children, she was active in numerous civic organizations and served as a docent at the Huntington Library in Pasadena, Calif. Her son James Patrick “J.P.” was killed in Iraq in 2004. Survivors: her husband of 31 years, Ed Blecksmith; one daughter, Christina McGovern, ’99; one son, Charles; a granddaughter; her mother, Marguerite McCormick; and a brother.
1970s
David Stevens Burton, ’71 (economics), of La Jolla, Calif., in June, at 59, of complications following a stroke. He was a member of Beta Theta Pi fraternity. His career included many years in real estate in La Jolla. He specialized in designing and developing San Diego-area homes. In recent years he had been an investment counselor and was active in several charitable organizations, many of them involving youth activities. Survivors: his wife of 35 years, Sarah; one son, Michael; one daughter, Marjorie Fischer; and a sister.
Michael John Lawson, ’72 (psychology), of Ross, Calif., April 25, at 57, of complications from pancreatic cancer. After graduating Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford, he earned JD in 1975 from UC-Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School of Law, where he was a member of the Law Review. As a trial lawyer, his specialty was commercial litigation. He worked for Steefel, Levitt & Weiss nearly 30 years and became a managing partner before joining Morgan, Lewis and Bockius in San Francisco, where he was a partner, in 2005. He also was a judge pro tem and judicial arbitrator in the San Francisco court system and was a frequent lecturer at law institutes and symposiums. Survivors: his wife of 25 years, Nancy McCarthy; two sons, Derek and Drew; and a sister.
Karen Anne Ames, ’75 (mathematics), of Huntsville, Ala., September 28, 2006, at 52. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa. She earned a PhD in mathematics from Cornell U. and taught there, at Rice U., the U. of Texas-Austin and at Iowa State U. during the 1980s. She was on the mathematics faculty at the U. of Alabama-Huntsville from 1990 until her death, becoming a full professor there in 2002. She had more than 50 published articles and co-authored Non-Standard and Improperly Posed Problems. She was the second woman to attain the Emmy Noether Lectureship at Bryn Mawr College (1998-99). Her interest in attracting students to math, particularly women, has led to a Dr. Karen Ames Fellowship for Women in Mathematics at Alabama-Huntsville. The university also has established a Dr. Karen Ames Lecture Series on Applied Mathematics. Survivors: her parents, William and Theresa Ames; and two sisters.
1980s
William C. Hunter, ’81 (mathematics/computer science), of Kenmore, Wash., April 26, 2005, at 45. He played trombone in the Band and was the intramural horseshoes champion in 1978. After earning a master’s in computer science from UC-Berkeley in 1988, he spent the rest of his life in the Seattle area, working for Microsoft and staying home for a few years to care for his daughters. He was active in religious and civic organizations, including the Attic Learning Community in Woodinville, Wash., which was co-founded by his wife, Elizabeth (Scranton, ’83). Survivors: his wife; two daughters, Laura and Emma; his mother, Chris Hunter; three brothers; and two sisters.
Lynda J. Lombardo, ’82 (biological sciences), of Sacramento, July 6, at 48. She participated in student drama. She earned an MD in 1986 from Saint Louis U. and a master’s of public health in 1998 from the Institute of Occupational and Environmental Health at West Virginia U. Specializing in internal medicine and occupational medicine, she practiced at Children’s Hospital in San Francisco, San Francisco General Hospital, and Catholic Healthcare West in Sacramento. She also was an assistant professor at UC-San Francisco Medical Center. Survivors include her father, Joseph; her stepmother, Grace; and a brother.
J. Randall Forbes, ’83 (human biology), of Carmel, Calif., July 15, at 46, of cancer. He was a member of Phi Delta Theta fraternity and was a Sierra Camp staff member. He spent a year doing laboratory research at Stanford, and then he enrolled at Harvard, where he earned an MD in 1988. After completing an internship in internal medicine at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco and serving a residency in diagnostic radiology and a fellowship in musculoskeletal imaging at the UC-San Francisco Medical Center, he moved to Carmel to become a diagnostic and interventional radiologist and partner at Monterey Peninsula Radiological Medical Group. He pioneered the use of kyphoplasty for the treatment of spinal fractures, which made his department a leading practitioner of the procedure. Survivors: his wife of 19 years, Alexandra; a son, Tucker; a daughter, Maddie; his mother, Janice; and his father, James.
Ruth Leslie Ferziger, ’84 (mathematics, computational sciences), MS ’88 (computer science), of San Jose, July 31, at 46. She was active in student drama and maintained her affiliation with the Stanford Savoyards, as well as participating in productions at West Bay Opera, as both a singer and stage technician. She worked at IBM in San Jose for more than 20 years, receiving several shared patents for her work in technology and software development. She was active in public television, occasionally as a math teacher but also as a videographer, and she recently had been named station manager at KSAR, a community access station in Saratoga, Calif. She was preceded in death by her father, Joel, and a younger sister, Miriam. Survivors: her mother, Harriett; and a sister, Shoshanah Cohen, ’85.
Christopher Joseph Mee, ’84 (economics), of Tigard, Ore., July 10, at 46. He played rugby and was a member of Kappa Sigma fraternity. He was a mortgage broker in the Portland, Ore., area from 1988 until his death. Survivors: a daughter, Georgia; a son, Eric; two sisters; and four brothers.
1990s
Robert Lee Oak, ’91 (biological sciences), of Washington, D.C., June 27, at 38. He participated in the Structured Liberal Education program and the InterVarsity Christian fellowship. He earned a master’s from Georgetown U. in 2001 and an MD from Uniformed Services U. He was a major stationed at Walter Reed Army Medical Center at the time of his death.
Business
Louis G. Lindsey, MBA ’50, of San Rafael, Calif., June 21, at 87. After serving as coxswain of the crew team while earning a degree in business at UC-Berkeley in 1942, and serving in the Army during World War II, he helped revive the Stanford crew program by becoming its coach in the early 1950s. He then coached crew at the U.S. Naval Academy, guiding the 1960 team to a national championship, after which the Midshipmen became the team that represented the United States at the 1960 Olympics in Rome. He continued to coach crew while teaching at Lincoln High in San Francisco and San Francisco City College. He retired in 1986 and moved to Marin County, Calif., coaching various youth teams until 1992 and serving as an adviser and board member to several rowing teams and programs after that. Survivors: his wife, Christine; three sons, Paul, Don and Gordon; three grandsons; and a sister.
Robert Grant Thorp, MBA ’51, of Carmichael, Calif., July 9, at 85. He attended UC-Berkeley, served in the Navy and obtained a degree in business from Linfield College in Oregon before attending Stanford. He worked for Crown Zellerbach and lived in San Francisco before retiring and living 20 years in Redding, Calif., during which time he was an executive for Acro Info Inc. He was a member of the Masonic Lodge of Siskiyou near Redding. He was predeceased by his wife of 59 years, Alma, and a son, Grant. Survivors include two grandsons and a sister.
Education
Marie Tifft Champion, MA ’52, of Cambridge, Mass., June 12, at 81, of Alzheimer’s disease. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Wellesley College. She became a crusader for desegregation in schools as an elected member of the Sacramento City Unified School District Board of Education in the early 1960s. Her husband’s jobs took them to Minneapolis and Washington, D.C., but their primary base was the Boston area, where she was admissions officer at Wheaton College and Harvard U.’s School of Education. She was active in civic affairs and served as a middle school teacher, camp counselor and Cub Scouts den mother. She, her husband and her daughter were kidnapped from their Sacramento home in 1965 and released two days later in Nevada. Her husband, C. Hale Champion, ’52, died in April. Survivors: one daughter, Katherine Murphy; one son, Thomas; three grandchildren; and a brother.
Berthold S. Figur, PhD ’68, of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, May 17, at 92. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the U. of Alberta, and he returned there to spend the final 16 years of his career as director of the Alberta Correspondence School, which provides public education to students in remote or isolated parts of the province. Survivors include a brother and five sisters.
Arthur Lawrence Fogg, MA ’50, of Forest Grove, Ore., June 15, at 93. He had a bachelor’s degree from San Jose State U. He was an elementary school administrator in Los Altos who was immersed in community service most of his life, including Kiwanis clubs and many church groups, and tutored children in reading at elementary schools. He was president of his retirement home and led exercise and discussion groups there. He was preceded in death by his wife of more than 50 years, Beth. Survivors include his children, Lawrence, Raymond and Mary Beth.
William Arnold Schmick, EDD ’70, of Pullman, Wash., June 17, at 75, of cancer. He studied at Washington State College for two years, earned a bachelor’s degree from San Jose State U., served in the Army and earned a teaching certificate from UCLA. He directed an adult education program for the South San Francisco school system and served two years in the Peace Corps in Ethiopia as well as recruiting Peace Corps volunteers in Washington, D.C. He was a public school teacher, principal and administrator until his father needed his help running the family farm in Diamond, Wash., which he ultimately took over. His 1966 marriage to Janice Ong ended in divorce after 14 years. He served as a commissioner in Whitman County, Wash., from 1990 to 1994. Two of his three sons, David and John, were killed in an automobile accident in 1990. Survivors: his second wife, of 12 years, Susan; one son, Dan; one stepdaughter, Erika; one stepson, Fred; seven grandchildren; and a sister.
Engineering
Franklin Otis Booth Jr., Engr. ’48 (electrical engineering), MBA ’48, of Los Angeles, June 15, at 84, of ALS. His investments, beginning in 1963, in the ventures of financier Warren Buffett led to his becoming a billionaire and overshadowed his career as an executive at the Los Angeles Times. He was the great-grandson of the newspaper’s founder, Gen. Harrison Gray Otis. After earning a bachelor’s degree in engineering from the California Institute of Technology in 1944, he spent two years in the Naval Reserve. After Stanford, he spent most of the following 28 years at the Times, where he supervised the production of the newspaper during the 1950s and was a vice president in charge of forest products and commercial printing during the 1960s. During much of that time, the newspaper’s publisher was his cousin, Otis Chandler, ’50. During his early years at the Times, he invested heavily in real estate in his hometown, Pasadena, Calif., with Charles Munger, who is now vice president of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Munger introduced him to Buffett as the magnate was beginning to establish his empire and needed investors. In 1972, he retired from the Times and eventually established a citrus-farming and livestock operation in central California’s San Joaquin Valley. Survivors include his third wife, Lynn; three daughters, Loren Sill, Jenifer and Stephanie; a son, Franklin Otis Booth III; two stepchildren; and 15 grandchildren.
Hewitt David Crane, PhD ’60 (electrical engineering), of Portola Valley, Calif., June 17, at 81, of complications from Alzheimer’s disease. He joined the Stanford Research Institute (SRI International) in 1956 to help with its automation of Bank of America’s check-processing system and spent the rest of his career at SRI. He was considered SRI’s first bioengineer. He earned an undergraduate degree at Columbia U. and joined IBM headquarters in 1949 to help maintain one of its earliest computers, the Selective Sequence Electronic Calculator. He helped revise IBM’s punch-card technology at Princeton U. in the early 1950s, and was designing new data storage technology (magnetic core memories) for the David Sarnoff Research Center when Stanford recruited him. Among his later projects at SRI were the developments of a more accurate eye-tracking technology and a system to enable automatic input of handwritten information to a computer. He also was a co-founder of the internationally prominent Ridge Vineyards in Santa Clara County in 1959, and in recent years he had been working on a manuscript that would demonstrate to the public the measurable impact of various forms of energy consumption, particularly “cubic miles” of oil. Survivors: his wife of 54 years, Suzanne; three sons, Russ, Doug and Dan; and five grandchildren.
Glen A. Myers, MS ’56, PhD ’68 (electrical engineering), of Oro Valley, Ariz., May 28, at 73, of brain cancer. He earned a bachelor’s degree in 1955 from the U. of North Dakota. He spent most of his career teaching electrical engineering at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif., earning several awards of recognition. He retired in 1999. Survivors: his wife, Pat; two daughters, Linda and Janet; one son, Steven; and four grandchildren.
Kim Fay McManus Nelson, MS ’83 (materials science), of Palo Alto, July 21, at 55, of lung cancer. She had been a defects analyst at Applied Materials in Santa Clara for eight years. Before attending Stanford, she earned a bachelor’s degree from San Jose State U. She was active in the Escondido Elementary School PTA and served as its president. She coached youth sports, notably soccer. Survivors: her husband, Richard Nelson; four children, Aaron, Ryan, Kaitlin and Casey; her mother, Dawn Moore; a brother; and a sister.
Michael McCutcheon, MS ’92 (values, technology and society), 55, of Lafayette, Colo., June 14, at 55, in a bicycle accident. He was a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the U. of Colorado with a degree in biology. He was inducted into the National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship. He studied immunology and developmental biology research at Stanford and then worked for Anergen, Inc., in Redwood City as a research scientist in immunology and at Genencor International in Palo Alto in the immunology department before moving to Colorado. He co-authored several articles published in scientific journals. He was a licensed aircraft instrument pilot. He had returned to Colorado after his wife’s death to enjoy the outdoors there, especially on his mountain bike. He was killed when a truck struck his bicycle. He was preceded in death by his wife, Stephanie Daniels. Survivors: his parents, Leonard and Anne McCutcheon; and three sisters.
Humanities and Sciences
Michel R. Barret, Gr. ’58 (economics), of L’Etang la Ville, France, July 5. He spent a year as a foreign student at Stanford. He worked as a bank executive in Paris. Survivors: his wife, Judy (Peden, ’59, MA ’63).
Vahé Aslanian, DMA ’65, of Salinas, Calif., May 15, at 90. He was at the midpoint of his 30 years teaching music at Hartnell Community College in Salinas when he earned his doctorate from Stanford. After retiring from Hartnell in 1980, he established the Monterey Peninsula’s Camerata Singers and directed that group until 1999. He served in the Army during World War II and earned a bachelor’s degree in music from Boston U. in 1950 and a master’s from Claremont U. In 1955 he was one of 12 choral conductors selected from around the world to study at the Berkshire Festival in Tanglewood, Mass., and in 1958 he studied in Italy as a Fulbright scholar, which led to his conducting a performance at Tanglewood in 1958. As founder and director of Hartnell’s Conservatory of Music, he directed a choir and chamber groups and also directed the Salinas Boys Chorus and Hartnell Community Chorus. He was predeceased by a daughter, Victoria. Survivors: his wife of 65 years, Charlotte; a daughter, Cynthia; two sons, Greg and Charles; and seven grandchildren.
Jacob Burbea, PhD ’71 (mathematics), of Pittsburgh, June 3, at 66, of lung disease and rheumatoid arthritis. He was born in Italy, spent his earliest years in a Nazi concentration camp and then grew up in Israel. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Hebrew U. and a master’s at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. He taught at Tel Aviv U. before moving to Penn State U. for two years and then to the U. of Pittsburgh, where he was on the faculty from 1976 until his death. His area of mathematical research was complex analysis. He was noted for making connections between various elements of mathematics. Survivors: his wife, Claire; and two children, Michelle Hoffman and Jonathan.
Law
Kenneth Mona Dickerson, JD ’56, of Belmont, Calif., June 19, at 82, of pneumonia. He joined the Merchant Marines and served in the Navy in World War II. He played football at the U. of Hawaii, where he earned a bachelor’s degree. He trained troops in Hawaii during the Korean War. After Stanford, he joined a San Mateo County law firm now known as Aaronson, Dickerson, Cohn and Lanzone. He specialized in municipal law and was a city attorney in Belmont and Foster City, Calif., for much of his career. He also was a Belmont city councilman and mayor. His participation in civic organizations included presidency of the Lions Club of Belmont and of the Belmont-San Carlos Optimist Club. Survivors: his wife of 49 years, Jan; three daughters, Manuela Sugars, Cristy Middleton and Lori Mayer; and six grandchildren.
