2020: Stanford remembers
Members of the Stanford community remember those who have passed away in 2020.
December
Anthony Veasna So, BA ’14, author of the short story collection Afterparties, died Dec. 8 in San Francisco.
Norman Abramson, PhD ’58, professor emeritus of electrical engineering at the University of Hawai‘i, who created the Aloha protocol now widely used for nearly all forms of wireless communications and whose work led to the ALOHANET, the first wireless packet network, died Dec. 1 in San Francisco.
William Hancock, MD, professor emeritus of medicine and pioneer in the use and interpretation of electrocardiograms to screen for heart disease, died Dec. 1.
November
Ralph Hester, professor emeritus of French who promoted French studies in interdisciplinary contexts during his 37-year career at Stanford, died Nov. 29 at his campus home.
Carolyn Gibbs, who worked for Stanford University in alternative health care management program areas, died Nov. 29 in Portola Valley.
Edward P. Lazear, the Morris Arnold and Nona Jean Cox Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, the Davies Family Professor of Economics at Stanford Graduate School of Business, and a senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, founder of the field of personnel economics and an adviser to President George W. Bush, died Nov. 23.
Jared “Jerry” Tinklenberg, MD, professor emeritus of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, who founded the Stanford/Veterans Affairs Alzheimer’s Disease Center and researched new medications for dementia while providing mentorship to many, died Nov. 18.
John “Jack” Gurley, AB ’43, PhD ’51, professor emeritus of economics who was known for his work in economic systems, Marxian theory and Soviet and Chinese economics, a member of the 1942 tennis team who helped capture both the men’s singles and doubles national championships, and a legendary teacher who was the first recipient of the Walter J. Gores Award for Excellence in Teaching, died Nov. 15 in Palo Alto.
William J. Lillyman, PhD ’64, former dean of humanities and executive vice chancellor at the University of California, Irvine, died Nov. 6.
Margaret Rowland, who retired from Stanford in 2019 after serving in a variety of administrative positions at Stanford for about 40 years, most of them alongside John Hennessy as he rose from a faculty member in engineering to university president, died Nov. 1 in San Jose.
October
Raymond B. Clayton, professor emeritus of biochemistry, a specialist in the biosynthesis of cholesterol, died Oct. 26 at Stanford.
Carl Thoresen, AM ’60, PhD ’64, professor emeritus of education, a counseling psychologist whose research interests included fitness, health and forgiveness, died Oct. 20.
Jon Kosek, MD, clinical professor emeritus of pathology, who was a staff pathologist at the VA Palo Alto Heath Care System for nearly 45 years, an outdoor enthusiast, avid bicyclist and founder of a Christmas tree farm, died Oct. 16 at Stanford.
John Lind, who was a member of the faculty in chemical engineering from 1965 to 1978, died Oct. 13 in San Francisco.
September
Judith Moss, who earned staff emerita status upon her retirement in 2010 from Training and Organizational Development in Human Resources, where she helped promote and teach organizational principles throughout many university disciplines and departments, and who taught courses on memoir and personal history writing through Stanford Continuing Studies, died Sept. 22 in Palo Alto.
Robert D. Simoni, the Donald Kennedy Chair in the School of Humanities and Sciences, Emeritus, and professor emeritus of biology at Stanford, known for his extraordinary university citizenship, died Sept. 18 in Palo Alto.
James G. Greeno, the Margaret Jacks Professor in Education, Emeritus, a learning sciences scholar who helped develop the theory of situated learning, which emphasizes the influence of social interactions and environment on learning, died Sept. 8 in Pittsburgh.
John Manley, professor emeritus of political science, whose scholarship focused on presidential power, public policy making and the function of Congress and who was known during his 30-year tenure at Stanford for his strong moral principles, interest in class politics and dedication to social justice causes, died Sept. 5.
August
Charles Drekmeier, professor emeritus of political science, a social theorist remembered for his impact on students through his long-running honors seminar, Social Thought and Institutions, died Aug. 25 in Palo Alto.
TJ Cruzada, who worked as the first services supervisor for the David Rumsey Map Center in the Stanford Libraries, overseeing day-to-day operations of the Center and leading its Virtual Reality Program, died Aug. 23.
Makoto Ueda, professor emeritus of Japanese, a noted haiku scholar and translator and critic of Japanese poetry who was instrumental in expanding Stanford’s East Asian studies program, died Aug. 19 in Sunnyvale.
Mark Mancall, professor of history, emeritus, who helped transform undergraduate education by starting the Grove House residential learning project, establishing the Structured Liberal Education program and re-envisioning the Overseas Studies program, died Aug. 18 at Stanford.
Connie Chin, former administrative manager at the Center for East Asian Studies, who spent her 43 years at Stanford before her retirement exemplifying intellectual curiosity, passion for life-long learning and global understanding, died Aug. 6.
Barbara Hastorf, widow of psychology Professor Emeritus Al Hastorf and longtime community volunteer who served as a Stanford Hospital Auxiliary “pink lady” and on the boards of the Committee for Art, Music Guild and Stanford Faculty Wives Club, died Aug. 5.
Paul Seaver, professor emeritus of history, a leading historian of early modern England who also was known for his decades of leadership and commitment to undergraduate education, died Aug. 2.
July
Sanjiv “Sam” Gambhir, MD, PhD, the Virginia and D. K. Ludwig Professor in Cancer Research, director of the Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford and chair of the Department of Radiology, whose pioneering work in molecular imaging focused on early cancer detection, died July 18.
John Gosling, MD, professor emeritus of anatomy, textbook author and authority on neuro-urology, died July 17 in Manchester, England.
John Powers, MBA ’83, former president and CEO of Stanford Management Company (2006–2015), died July 14.
June
Judith Haccou, former senior associate university registrar and director of graduate admissions, who retired from Stanford in October 2019 after spending more than 40 years as a staff member, died in June.
Kenneth Goldsmith, AM ’68, lecturer in music at Stanford 1966–1971, professor of violin for nearly 30 years at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, died June 26.
Lucius J. Barker, the William Bennett Munro Professor of Political Science, Emeritus, who broke through racial barriers to become a leader in constitutional law, civil liberties and African American politics, died June 21 in Menlo Park.
Gordon Bower, the Albert Ray Lang Professor of Psychology, Emeritus, who spent his entire career at Stanford and was awarded the National Medal of Science in 2005 as one of the nation’s most influential experimental psychologists and learning theorists of the 20th century, died June 17 at Stanford.
William Dement, MD, PhD, the Lowell W. and Josephine Q. Berry Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Emeritus, a founder of sleep medicine and legendary teacher whose undergraduate Sleep and Dreams course was taken by some 20,000 students, died June 17.
James Meindl, the John M. Fluke Professor of Electrical Engineering, Emeritus, a towering figure from the earliest days of integrated circuitry, died June 7, in Greensboro, Georgia.
A. Dale Kaiser, the Jack, Lulu and Sam Willson Professor of Biochemistry, Emeritus, and professor emeritus of developmental biology, a founding member of Stanford’s Department of Biochemistry who made fundamental discoveries that were instrumental in ushering in the era of recombinant DNA, or gene-splicing, technology, died June 5 at Stanford.
Chris Lundin, emeritus staff member and Amy J. Blue Award winner in 2002, who started his Stanford career in Information Technology Systems and Services in 1985 and moved through a variety of positions, always in the IT area, until his retirement in December 2019, died June 4 in Palo Alto.
Roland Finston, a health physicist and expert in radionuclide dosimetry in Environmental Health & Safety from 1966 to 1995 and a former president of the Staff Bowling League, died June 3 in Palo Alto.
May
William Brulé Johnson, who spent his entire career at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, working in high-energy physics centered on hadronic spectroscopy with Group B and later focusing on development of scientific computing, died May 31.
Robert K. Jaedicke, the Philip H. Knight Professor and Dean, Emeritus, at Stanford Graduate School of Business, a gifted manager of people and a visionary leader in management who served on the accounting faculty for more than 30 years, and in leadership positions for almost 20 years, died May 24 in Cody, Wyoming.
Richard “Dick” Behrman, MD, pediatrician, educator and pivotal figure at Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health, Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, died May 17 in Santa Barbara, California.
Zach Hoffpauir, BA ’17, assistant football coach at the University of Northern Colorado, a two-sport standout at Stanford who earned All-Pac 12 honors as a safety in football and played two seasons in the Arizona Diamondbacks’ minor league system, died May 14 in Arizona.
Richard Brody, professor emeritus of political science, a leader in the fields of political persuasion, public opinion and voting behavior, died May 11 in Palo Alto.
April
Fuad Shennib, PhD student in marketing at Stanford Graduate School of Business, died April 30 in Oakland, California.
William “Bill” Garrison, retired dean of the University of South Florida (USF) Libraries who spent part of his career at Stanford, died April 28 in Tampa, Florida.
Eavan Boland, the Melvin and Bill Lane Director of the Creative Writing Program and the Bella Mabury and Eloise Mabury Knapp Professor in Humanities, a pioneering figure in Irish poetry who was treasured at Stanford for her transformative teaching, died April 27 in Dublin, Ireland.
Barbara Van Deventer, MA ’80, a social sciences and government documents librarian at the Stanford Libraries from 1976 to 1988, died April 22 in Cayucos, California.
Donald Kennedy, Stanford University President Emeritus; the Bing Professor in Environmental Science, Emeritus; and senior fellow, emeritus, of the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment; a neurobiologist who became the eighth president of Stanford in 1980 and helped set the stage for its transformation into one of the nation’s top research universities during his 12 years in office, died April 21 in Redwood City.
Barbara Babcock, the Judge John Crown Professor of Law, Emerita, a pioneering attorney who was instrumental in the establishment of today’s Public Defender Service before becoming the first woman to serve on the faculty at Stanford Law School, died April 18 at Stanford.
Stuart Macmillan, MS ’80, PhD ’84, a long-time lecturer in sustainable energy technologies at the School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences, as well as an advisor to the Precourt Institute for Energy, died April 9 in Cherry Hills Village, Colorado.
Langston Wesley, an undergraduate student majoring in art practice, died April 4 in San Jose.
March
Chitra Dinakar, MD, clinical professor of medicine at the School of Medicine, and founder of Stanford Health Care’s first allergy, asthma and immunodeficiency clinic for adult patients, died March 27 in Mountain View.
February
R. Gene Brown, a former member of the accounting faculty and dean of admissions at Stanford Graduate School of Business, died Feb. 23.
Leslie Zatz, MD, professor emeritus of radiology at the School of Medicine who envisioned the framework behind some of today’s most advanced practices in radiology and AI-powered diagnostics, died Feb. 21 in Palo Alto.
Athena Milatovich Cherry, PhD, professor of pathology and of pediatrics at the School of Medicine and director of the Cytogenetics Laboratory for over 20 years, died Feb. 4 at Stanford.
January
Eitan Michael Weiner, sophomore planning to major in history, died Jan. 17 at Stanford.