2023: Stanford remembers
Members of the Stanford community remember those who have passed away in 2023.
September
Victor Fuchs, the Henry J. Kaiser, Jr. Professor, Emeritus, and pioneer of health care economics, died Sept. 16 at Stanford.
Ferid Murad, MD, PhD, a Nobel Prize-winning scientist, pharmacologist, and physician who made groundbreaking discoveries in the field of cardiovascular medicine, and former professor at the School of Medicine (1981-88), died Sept. 4 in Menlo Park.
August
Joan Wrenn, PhD ’71, who initially worked as a researcher in developmental biology at Stanford before turning her passion for education into a second career by working in the guidance department at Palo Alto High School, died Aug. 17 in Palo Alto.
Andy Doty, director of community relations, emeritus, who worked for 30 years in university and community affairs, died Aug. 12 in Palo Alto.
Walter Bortz II, MD, retired professor of medicine, physician at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation, and author, died Aug. 5 in Portola Valley.
Charles J. Ogletree Jr., BA ’75, MA ’75, prominent civil rights lawyer, Harvard law professor, and former member of the Stanford University Board of Trustees, died Aug. 4 in Odenton, Maryland.
Walter Falcon, the Helen C. Farnsworth Professor of International Agricultural Policy, Emeritus, former deputy director of the Center on Food Security and the Environment and former director of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, died Aug. 2 in Marion, Iowa.
July
Noreen Eldredge, PhD ’51, former research associate at the university who later had her own company, NT Biochemical Services Inc., and served in a managerial capacity at MAST Immunosystems Inc. until her retirement, died July 28 in South Jordan, Utah.
John Glynn, MBA ’70, founder of Glynn Capital Management and lecturer in management at the Graduate School of Business, died July 26 in Boston.
Relly Davidson, longtime administrative assistant at the Knight Journalism Fellowships program and before that at News & Publications, died July 9 in Davis, California.
Henry “Hank” W. Parker, professor emeritus of civil and environmental engineering, a veteran of mid-century highway and dam projects recruited to Stanford to provide graduate education in construction engineering and management, died July 7 in Hanover, New Hampshire.
June
Marian Rae Moomey Gex, retired school psychologist and widow of SLAC librarian Robert C. Gex, died June 23 in Palo Alto.
Richard Jaffe, MD, PhD, a professor of anesthesiology, perioperative and pain medicine and the chief of neuroanesthesia at Stanford School of Medicine, died June 12 at Stanford.
Judy Kennedy, founder of Families in Transition in East Palo Alto and wife of history Professor David Kennedy, died June 5 in Palo Alto.
Perry McCarty, the Silas H. Palmer Professor in Civil Engineering, Emeritus, environmental engineer who launched the field of environmental biotechnology, died June 4 at Stanford.
May
Stanley Wojcicki, professor emeritus of physics, a leading figure in the field of experimental particle physics, died May 31 in Los Altos.
Robert J. “Bob” Madix, the Charles Lee Powell Professor, Emeritus, in the School of Engineering, an expert in the surface chemistry of catalysis, died May 25 in Palo Alto.
Tze Leung Lai, the Ray Lyman Wilbur Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences, a professor of statistics and, by courtesy, of biomedical data science in the School of Medicine, whose pioneering work in areas such as sequential analysis and “multi-armed bandits” continues to inspire work today, died May 21 at Stanford.
Joan Hancock, educator and artist, widow of Stanford cardiologist Bill Hancock, died May 14 in Palo Alto.
Lyman P. “Van” Van Slyke, professor emeritus of history and pioneering scholar of 20th-century Chinese history, died May 13.
Marshall S. “Mike” Smith, a former dean at Stanford Graduate School of Education who held influential roles in education policy during four presidential administrations, died May 1 in Palo Alto.
April
David Henry Breaux, BA ’95, widely known in Davis as the “Compassion Guy,” the driving force behind the creation of the Compassion Corner Earthbench in a park downtown, died April 27 in Davis, California.
John Raisian, an economist who as the Tad and Dianne Taube Director of the Hoover Institution from 1990 until his retirement in 2015 strengthened the public policy research center and its relationship with the university, died April 24 in Nashville, Tennessee.
Linda Wheeler, AB ’66, who for many years worked as a reference librarian in reader services in the Hoover Tower reading room, died April 21 in Stockton, California.
Jonathan San Miguel, doctoral student in physics, died April 16 in Palo Alto.
Marcia Katzman Allen, PhD ’63, who for many years was a lecturer in the Department of Biology, where she ran the undergraduate labs, died April 14 in Palo Alto.
Sharon Bower, MA ’72, president of Confidence Training Inc. and widow of Stanford psychology professor Gordon Bower, died April 9 at Stanford.
March
Gordon Moore, the Intel founder and philanthropist who made numerous transformative gifts across the university over four decades, died March 24 in Waimea, Hawaii.
Jean-Marie Apostolidès, the William H. Bonsall Professor in French, Emeritus, who drew on his knowledge of literature, psychology, and anthropology to investigate an eclectic range of subjects, died March 22 at Stanford.
Robert C. Gregg, dean for religious life from 1987 to 1999 and the Teresa Hihn Moore Professor in Religious Studies, Emeritus, died March 20 in Palo Alto.
William “Bill” Robinson, MD, professor emeritus of infectious diseases, who made fundamental discoveries about hepatitis B, died March 19 in San Mateo.
G. Leonard “Len” Tyler, MS ’64, PhD ’67, professor emeritus of electrical engineering who studied the planets using radio waves, died March 16 in Port Townsend, Washington.
February
John Dorman, MD, director of Stanford’s Cowell Student Health Center from 1973 until his retirement in 2017, died Feb. 26 in Menlo Park.
James Whitlock, MD, professor emeritus of molecular pharmacology at Stanford Medicine who studied dioxin, the toxic chemical in Agent Orange, died Feb. 16 in San Francisco.
Paul Berg, PhD, the Robert W. and Vivian K. Cahill Professor of Cancer Research, Emeritus, a biochemist who won the 1980 Nobel Prize in chemistry for creating the first recombinant DNA molecule, died Feb. 15 at Stanford.
Wilbur Erskine Mattison, MD, clinical faculty emeritus at the School of Medicine and a founder of the Charles Armstrong School for children with dyslexia, died Feb. 9 in Ellijay, Georgia.
Rodger Scott Rickard, AM ’68, EdD ’70, who coached basketball and tennis at Stanford before turning to real estate and who helped launch the Positive Coaching Alliance, died Feb. 8 in Woodside.
January
Bryan Myers, MB ChB, professor emeritus of nephrology who was chief of the division for nearly 20 years at Stanford School of Medicine, died Jan. 27.
Bill Meehan, MBA ’78, longtime lecturer in strategic management at Stanford Graduate School of Business and a prolific volunteer for a host of Stanford organizations, died Jan. 26 in Palo Alto.
Bin Shen, director of the Stanford Medicine cyclotron and radiochemistry facility, died Jan. 25.
Paul David, professor emeritus of economics, best known for his research on technological change and how it affects social and economic behavior, died Jan. 22 in Palo Alto.
Krishna Shenoy, the Hong Seh and Vivian W. M. Lim Professor in the School of Engineering, a professor of electrical engineering and, by courtesy, of bioengineering, of neurobiology, and of neurosurgery, and one of the world’s foremost authorities on how the brain creates movement in the rest of the body, died Jan. 21 in Palo Alto.
Ronald “Ron” Lyon, professor emeritus of applied Earth sciences and a vanguard geologist to use satellites to study mineral formations on Earth, the moon, and Mars, died Jan. 17 at Stanford.
Ira Hall, BS ’66, MBA ’76, a corporate executive who was the first African American and the youngest member to join the Stanford University Board of Trustees, died Jan. 11 in Miami.
Marilyn Hohbach, AB ’51, who in 2006 received a Governors’ Awards for volunteer service to the university and whose generosity through the Harold C. and Marilyn A. Hohbach Foundation funded the creation of Hohbach Hall and endowed the Silicon Valley Archives program at Stanford Libraries, died Jan. 8 in Atherton.
Sally Hines, the first person hired when Niels Riemers created Stanford’s Office of Technology Licensing in 1970 and manager there for 44 years, died Jan. 7.