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2021: Stanford remembers

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Members of the Stanford community remember those who have passed away in 2021.

December

Birt Harvey, MD, professor emeritus of pediatrics, died Dec. 20 in Palo Alto.

Aristides “Aris” Burton Demetrios, sculptor of White Memorial Fountain, a campus landmark popularly known as “The Claw,” died Dec. 12 in Santa Barbara, California.

Charles R. “Chuck” Steele, professor emeritus of mechanical engineering, a master modeler of the mechanics of physical structures whose expertise stretched from missiles to the inner ear, died Dec. 9 in Redwood City.

Daniel DeBra, PhD ’62, the Edward C. Wells Professor in the School of Engineering, Emeritus, and professor emeritus of aeronautics and astronautics, an expert in precision control systems of aircraft, satellites, and spacecraft, particularly the “drag-free” satellites that were essential to the success of the NASA-funded Gravity Probe-B experiment designed to test Einstein’s theories around relativity, time and space, died Dec. 3 in Los Altos.

November

Bruce Krempetz, who began working at Stanford Public Events in 1974 as a stage technician and retired as director of Stanford Events Operations in 2003, died Nov. 30 at Stanford.

Steven Coutre, MD ’86, PD ’89, a professor of hematology at Stanford School of Medicine, known for his research on chronic lymphocytic leukemia, died Nov. 9 in Palo Alto.

James Fries, AB ’60, MD, professor emeritus of immunology and rheumatology, a proponent of healthy aging and a pioneer in using computer databases to conduct epidemiological studies, died Nov. 7 in Boulder, Colorado.

George Hardin Brown, professor emeritus of English, a renowned scholar of the Venerable Bede and of early English and Anglo-Latin literary and religious cultures, died Nov. 6 in Sacramento.

October

Douglass J. Wilde, professor emeritus of mechanical engineering, an expert in industrial optimization and the psychological underpinnings of exceptional teams, died Oct. 28 at Stanford.

Theodore “Ted” H. Geballe, the Theodore and Sydney Rosenberg Professor in Applied Physics, Emeritus, in the School of Humanities and Sciences and professor emeritus of materials science and engineering in the School of Engineering, a pioneer in the fields of applied physics, materials research and superconductivity, died Oct. 24.

Jennifer Kelsey, PhD, the former head of the Division of Epidemiology at Stanford Medicine, died Oct. 13 in Connecticut

September

Angelo Codevilla, a former senior research fellow at the Hoover Institution and a charter member of its Military History Working Group, died Sept. 21.

Charles O. Frake, AB ’51, professor emeritus of anthropology, whose research interests included cognition and language in cultural contexts, maritime anthropology, and ethnology and linguistics in Southeast Asia, and who taught at Stanford from 1960 to 1989, died Sept. 16 in Williamsville, New York.

David Glen, AB ’64, a former development officer responsible for many transformative gifts to Stanford over his 35-year career, died Sept. 13 in Mountain View.

August

Paul Johnson, AB ’53, MBA ’58, associate dean for finance and administration, emeritus, at Stanford Graduate School of Business, who worked at the GSB from 1958 until his retirement in 1996, died Aug. 25, in Portland, Oregon.

Jacob Meisel, coterminal student in electrical engineering, died Aug. 2 in Palo Alto.

July

Albert Bandura, the David Starr Jordan Professor of Social Science in Psychology, Emeritus, the world-renowned social cognitive psychologist whose Bobo Doll experiments and theory of social learning transformed the field of psychology, died July 26 at Stanford.

Steven Weinberg, Nobel Prize-winning theoretical physicist who was a visiting professor in the Stanford Department of Physics in 1976-77,  died July 23 in Austin, Texas.

Wally Goodwin, head coach of Stanford Golf from 1987 to 2000, who revived a struggling program and returned it to national prominence, died July 19 in Hailey, Idaho.

Van A. Harvey, the George Edwin Burnell Professor of Religious Studies, Emeritus, a leading scholar of religious thought who helped shape the Department of Religious Studies at Stanford, died July 11 in Palo Alto.

Barry Hinman, who began his career at Stanford Libraries in 1980 and retired in July 2007 from the Department of Special Collections and University Archives as Special Collections Librarian for Cataloging Emeritus, died July 8.

June

Paul Auerbach, MD, professor emeritus of emergency medicine, one of the founders of wilderness medicine and an expert in disaster medicine, who also researched and advocated for sports head injury prevention and wrote about climate change and its effect on health, died June 24 in Los Altos.

Jochen Wohlfeil, a lecturer in German who over more than 30 years taught the language to an estimated 1,500 Stanford students in the Bing Overseas Studies Program in Berlin, died June 1 in Berlin.

May

Richard Arthur Greene, adjunct clinical professor of pediatrics who practiced pediatrics and pediatric cardiology at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation for 48 years, and who also served as president of medical staff and on the board of directors at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, died May 21 in Larkspur, California.

Lee D. Ross, the Stanford Federal Credit Union Professor and professor of psychology, world-renowned for his work on biases in decision-making, died May 14 in Palo Alto.

Laure Aurelian, PhD, senior advisor in the School of Medicine Office of Faculty Development and Diversity, who mentored countless Stanford faculty, died May 5.

April

Mae Sato, document control administrator for Gravity Probe B, died April 30 in Mountain View.

Marjorie Chauvel, lecturer in harp for over 45 years in the Department of Music, died April 25 in Los Altos.

Karolyn “Kay” Gaskin, who had a 35-year career with Stanford, retiring in the mid-1990s as a manager in the food service department, and who was a passionate follower of Cardinal Football, died April 23 in Rocklin, California.

Bill Busse, AB ’52, AM ’53, an architect who was the lead designer for Tresidder Memorial Union and who designed other significant buildings on campus, died April 19 in Palo Alto.

The Rev. Russell J. Roide, S.J., who served as director of campus ministries at Stanford from 1984 to 1992, died April 13 in Los Gatos.

Robert “Robby” Beyers, BS ’80, MS ’82, PhD ’89, a materials scientist and patent attorney well known on campus as the unofficial photographer of the incomparable Leland Stanford Junior University Marching Band, died April 12 in Menlo Park.

Jack Remington, MD, professor emeritus of infectious diseases at Stanford Medicine, who devised a test that saved babies’ lives by showing whether they needed immediate treatment for a parasitic disease called toxoplasmosis, died April 8 in Menlo Park.

Dion Aragon, who worked in the Preservation department at Stanford University Libraries over two decades as a specialist in binding and finishing, died April 7.

P. Herbert Leiderman, MD, professor emeritus of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, who led groundbreaking research into infant and child development that helped changed the way the world viewed newborns, died April 1.

March

Gerald Dorfman, senior fellow emeritus and a former associate director for research at the Hoover Institution, and a retired courtesy professor of political science at Stanford University, an authority on British and European politics, including the European Union, died March 15.

Robert “Buzz” Baldwin, PhD, professor emeritus of biochemistry and a founding member of the department at Stanford University School of Medicine, died March 6 in Portola Valley.

Marion Lewenstein, teaching professor emerita of communication, academic secretary of the Faculty Senate from 1991 to 1994, and one of the first journalists to cover what would become known as Silicon Valley, died March 6 in Palo Alto.

February

Ernlé William Dyer Young, PhD, professor emeritus of medicine and co-founder of the Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics, died Feb. 14 in Ashland, Oregon.

George Shultz, the Thomas W. and Susan B. Ford Distinguished Fellow at the Hoover Institution and professor emeritus at Stanford Graduate School of Business who served three American presidents and played a pivotal role in shaping economic and foreign policy in the late 20th century, died Feb. 6 at Stanford.

Rose Wong, student at the School of Medicine, died Feb. 2 at Stanford.

January

Merritt Ruhlen, PhD ’73, a linguist who worked on the classification of languages and was a lecturer in anthropological sciences and in human biology, died Jan. 29 in Palo Alto.

David Katzenstein, MD, professor emeritus of infectious diseases and global health, who spurred advances in diagnosing, treating and preventing AIDS, died Jan. 25 in Harare, Zimbabwe.

Deborah Rhode, the Ernest W. McFarland Professor of Law, director of the Center on the Legal Profession and an expert on legal ethics, died Jan. 8.