In Memory

2026: Stanford remembers

Members of the Stanford community remember those who have passed away in 2026.

March

Charlotte Derksen, head of the Stanford Earth Sciences library from 1980 until 2004, died March 22 in Seattle.

Paul Ehrlich, Bing Professor of Population Studies, Emeritus, and professor emeritus of biology, an eminent evolutionary and population biologist and environmentalist, widely known for his best-selling book The Population Bomb, died March 13 in Palo Alto.

February

Iris Cantor, collector and philanthropist who with her husband, B. Gerald Cantor, enabled Stanford’s Rodin collection and museum renovation, died Feb. 22 in Palm Beach, Florida.

Robert J. Herfkens, MD, professor emeritus of radiology who modernized imaging at Stanford Medicine and helped establish MRI as a cardiac diagnostic tool, died Feb. 22.

Joan Fletcher Lane, special assistant to three Stanford presidents, a generous volunteer and benefactor, died Feb. 19.

Jorge Ruffinelli, professor emeritus of Iberian and Latin American cultures, died Feb. 4.

January

David Abernethy, professor emeritus of political science, a specialist in sub-Saharan Africa who received many awards for excellence in teaching and extensive university service, died Jan. 30.

Mark Marquess, BA ’69, one of college baseball’s legendary head coaches and a man whose name is synonymous with Stanford baseball, died Jan. 30.

Bowen Hadley “Buzz” McCoy, BA ’58, investment banker and business ethicist who made the founding gift for the McCoy Family Center for Ethics in Society, died Jan. 25 in Los Angeles.

Donald John Roberts, the John H. Scully Professor of Economics, Strategic Management and International Business, Emeritus, whose work brought game theory to management practices in firms around the world, died Jan. 23.

José Cuéllar, aka Dr. Loco of Dr. Loco’s Rockin’ Jalapeño Band, professor emeritus of Chicano studies at San Francisco State University, who in the 1980s taught Chicano studies at Stanford and served as senior ethnogerontologist at the School of Medicine, died Jan. 21 in San Francisco.

Barbara Jean Celone, who retired in 2006 as head of the Cubberley Education Library after 25 years at Stanford, died Jan. 17.

Joseph “Joe” Leggette Jr., a media technician at Green Library for over 40 years before he retired, died Jan. 13.

Allen Steward Hammond IV, professor of law at Santa Clara University and husband of Linda Darling-Hammond, professor emerita at Stanford Graduate School of Education, died Jan. 11.

Frederick S. Hillier, professor emeritus of operations research in Stanford Engineering’s Department of Management Science and Engineering, whose textbooks introduced the field to generations of learners worldwide, died Jan. 9.

Charles Erwin “Charlie” Clark, MS ’72, PhD ’80, passionate follower of Stanford Baseball and a former volunteer at the Cantor Arts Center who helped found Decision Focus Inc. and later worked with Electric Power Research Inc., died Jan. 8 in Madison, Wisconsin.