1947
Nicholas A. Giosa, physician, Wethersfield, Conn., on June 29, 2024. A graduate of Stuyvesant H.S., Giosa majored in electrical engineering but left one semester before graduation to join the Navy, where he became an electronics technician. After the war, he pursued a career in medicine and after graduation enrolled at Boston University Medical School. Following 12 years as a general practitioner in Hartford, Giosa was accepted into the anesthesia residency program at Hartford Hospital. He was there for 35 years, becoming the first staff anesthesiologist to specialize in pediatrics, with a focus on premature infants, and was known for identifying an allergic reaction to anesthesia medication called malignant hyperthermia. Outside of work, Giosa’s passion was writing poetry. His poems were published in
Columbia magazine, the
Connecticut Journal of Medicine and two books:
Words, Wounds and Wonder (1996) and
This Sliding Light of Day (2015)
. Giosa was predeceased by his wife, Louise; daughter, Lisa; brother, Salvatore; and sister, Mary Pascale. He is survived by his sons, Mark (Diana), Eric (Suzanne) and Paul (Lona); eight grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
1952
G. Howard Hansen, insurance adviser, Port Saint Lucie, Fla., on April 14, 2024. Hansen attended Carson Hall Military Academy and Bullis Preparatory, which both shaped and prepared him for his two years of service in the Navy. He then matriculated at the College, where he played football — “6.2 yards per carry” — and holds the carry record to date. He was a 2016 inductee to the Columbia University Athletics Hall of Fame. Hansen found success as an insurance adviser, which provided him and his wife of 37 years, Dianne, the opportunity for many adventures around the world. He was predeceased by his brothers, Jack and Richard, and sister, Katherine Ciesinski. In addition to his wife, Hansen is survived by his brother-in-law, Tom Larsen; sons, Mark (Jane), Eric, and Russell Tabor (Janice Toledo); daughters, Terri Gomez (Herman) and Sandy Kruger (Jim); seven grandchildren; four great-grandchildren; and pets, Jake and Trouble.
James P. Santos, engineer and business owner, Exeter, N.H., on Sept. 16, 2024. Born on April 15, 1931, Santos rowed crew at Columbia. After graduating from the College, he studied engineering at Lehigh. Santos enjoyed a diverse and mostly self-employed career as an engineer, consultant, inventor and small business owner. Later in life he was a ski instructor at Stowe Mountain Resort, a place he fell in love with during the 1950s. Santos married Ruth Stearns in 1966 and they made a new home in Vermont in 1993, where he returned to stone carving, a craft he had studied in his 20s. He treasured the outdoors and embraced policies to protect it to the very end. In addition to his wife, Santos is survived by his children, Barbara and Peter.
1953
David A. Nass Sr., engineering contractor, Columbia, S.C., on Sept. 1, 2024. Born on May 30, 1931, in Pittsburgh and raised in Greentree, Pa., Nass was in the 3-2 program at Columbia, played football for the Lions, was a Nacom and earned a B.S. in mechanical engineering in 1954. He was an engineering contractor on HVAC and building systems with the Nass Corp. and later Wolff Munier. Nass married his high school sweetheart, Henrietta Corrine Bowden, and they raised four children in Pittsburgh, South Plantation, Fla., and Ramsey, N.J. In retirement they settled in Columbia, S.C., where Nass was an avid golfer and a passionate Pittsburgh Steelers fan. He was predeceased by his wife of 65 years; a sister, Jean; brother, Arthur Jr.; and son, David Jr. He is survived by a daughter, Beth Ann Benjamin (Michael); sons, Daniel (Elizabeth) and Dean; five grandchildren; and one great-grandchild.
Nicholas Wolfson, law professor, Annapolis, Md., on Aug. 14, 2024. Raised in Brooklyn, N.Y., Wolfson was a graduate of Stuyvesant H.S., on the staff of Spectator and a Sachem, and a graduate of Harvard Law. After serving in the Army, he worked for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, where he was an assistant director, before joining the faculty of the UConn School of Law in 1972. Wolfson taught courses on freedom of speech, securities regulation and corporate law for 27 years. An expert in economics and the First Amendment, he retired in 1999 as the George and Helen England Professor of Law. He was a member of the prestigious American Law Institute and the author of several books, including Huckleberry Finn: Antidote to Hate (2003), Hate Speech, Sex Speech, Free Speech (1997), Corporate First Amendment Rights and the SEC (1990) and The Modern Corporation: Free Markets vs. Regulation (1984). Wolfson, who was predeceased by his first wife, of 42 years, Judith, is survived by his second wife, of 17 years, Anne; daughter, Amy (Andrew Futterman); son, Noah (Dorothea); and five grandchildren.
1958
Ira S. Carlin, attorney, Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., on May 15, 2024. Born in Boston and raised in Plymouth, Mass., Carlin joined the track team at Columbia, where he joked about being the smallest shot putter in the Ivy League. Because of his participation in ROTC, after graduation he served for two years aboard an aircraft carrier in the Western Pacific. Carlin graduated from the Law School in 1964 and moved to Los Angeles to practice, first with a small firm and then on his own for 11 years. During this time he married Jane, and they had two children. The family moved to San Diego in 1977, settling in Rancho Santa Fe as Carlin opened a law practice in Escondido. The Carlins were patrons of the arts and had a profound interest in American art of the mid-19th century. This interest took Carlin and his wife on many trips across the country with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and with similar-minded friends, all focused on the thought-provoking artists and artwork of this mid-century period. Carlin is survived by his wife; daughter, Betsy (Carlos Fernandes); son, David (Michael Calhoun); and one grandson.
1959
Lowell A. Goldsmith, physician and professor, Durham, N.C., on July 10, 2024. Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., on March 29, 1938, Goldsmith graduated from SUNY-Downstate Medical School and specialized in dermatology. After a residency at Harvard, he became a tenured faculty member at Duke. Goldsmith then was chair of dermatology, chair of medicine and dean of the medical school at Rochester, where he was earned an M.P.H. Goldsmith returned to North Carolina after his retirement, following 21 years at Rochester, and became an emeritus faculty member at UNC-Chapel Hill as well as at Rochester. He was a cofounder of Visual DX, a company that sprung from his medical innovations at Rochester along with technological insights at Kodak. Goldsmith was a world traveler who loved art, culture, music and conversation. He is survived by his wife of 64 years, Carol; brother, Seth; and daughters, Meredith and Eileen.
Paul D. Lenner, telecommunications executive, New York City, on Aug. 10, 2024. Born on Oct. 14, 1938, to Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, Lenner was raised in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn, playing stickball and rooting for the Dodgers. He graduated from Erasmus Hall H.S. in Brooklyn and was in the 3-2 program at Columbia, earning a B.S. in electrical engineering in 1960. After military service, Lenner spent 40 years in the telecommunications industry. He was active in New York City community affairs and was a dedicated volunteer with the Central Park Conservancy for more than 20 years. Lenner is survived by his children, Julie, Steven, Michael and Robin; their partners and spouses, Edward Waszak, Kelly Morishita and Liddell Shannon; and two grandchildren.
1961
Arthur E. Schwimmer, attorney, Los Angeles, on Jan. 11, 2024. A 1964 graduate of Brooklyn Law, Schwimmer was a highly respected appellate attorney who was licensed to practice in California and New York, at the Supreme Courts of California and New York, at the U.S. Customs Court and at the Supreme Court of the United States. He was an avid exerciser, a crossword aficionado, a
Jeopardy! enthusiast, an English and language grammarian and a skilled pianist who loved classical music. Schwimmer is survived by his wife, Arlene NRS’61; their children, David and Elinor; and grandchildren.
Adolf F.J. “Fred” Toborg, teacher and soccer coach, New York City, on March 2, 2024. A graduate of Erasmus Hall H.S. in Brooklyn, Toborg followed in his brother Alfred ’54’s footsteps to the College. Soccer was his passion and he played the sport in high school, college and the Navy, where he organized a team aboard the U.S.S. Boxer that played throughout the Caribbean. Toborg earned a master’s in physical education from Teachers College in 1968, which led to coaching soccer at Birch Wathen Lenox and at Trinity School in New York City, where he worked for 30 years. Toborg’s wife of 54 years, Barbara, died on June 11, 2024. He is survived by his daughter, Lili NRS’99 (Clayton Cargill); son, Michael (Katrin Heinzmann); and four grandchildren.
1964
Michael Lerner, activist and rabbi, Berkeley, Calif., on August 28, 2024. Born on Feb. 11, 1943, in Newark, N.J., Lerner majored in clinical and social psychology and earned a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley in 1972 and the Wright Institute in Berkeley in 1977. He was chair of Students for a Democratic Society at Berkeley and, while teaching at the University of Washington, founded the Seattle Liberation Front to protest the Vietnam War. A committed activist who worked tirelessly for social change, Lerner in 1986 was founder and editor of
Tikkun: A Bimonthly Jewish Critique of Politics, Culture and Society. The magazine was a rival of the conservative Jewish magazine
Commentary and in the 1990s was a leading voice for American Jews critical of Israel’s policies toward Palestinians. It no longer appeared in print after 2019 and ceased publication in April 2024. Lerner taught at Trinity (Conn.) College, UC Berkeley and Cal State-Sonoma, was dean of the Graduate School of Psychology at New College of California and was the author of 10 books and four anthologies. Lerner’s marriages to Nan Fink and Deborah Kohn ended in divorce, and he was separated from his third wife, Cat Zavis. Lerner is survived by a son, Akiba; and two grandchildren.
Jack H. Porter Jr., development officer and marketer, Larchmont, N.Y., on Sept. 26, 2024. Born in Evanston, Ill., on Nov. 20, 1942, Porter met his wife, Toni BC’65, GSAS’67 (née Brown), in the hallway of a walk-up building on West 114th Street, across from Butler Library, where his fourth-floor apartment was directly above hers. He remained in the same apartment as he attended the Business School, graduating in 1966; he was then a marketing manager at Lever Brothers before spending more than two decades as a development officer at the Business School. Boating was Porter’s passion and he owned numerous boats, enjoying many family outings. After contracting Parkinson’s disease he gave up big boats and owned an Apreamare, a gozzo that he fell in love with during trips to Italy. He carried his love of boating into the Long Island Sound Swim Across America, of which he was the Boating Committee Chair for 12 years. Porter also loved cars, particularly his Mini Cooper, and was proud to be the oldest student (then 68) at the Skip Barber Racing School. In addition to his wife of 58 years, Porter is survived by a daughter, Elisabeth ’91 (Bill Goldstein); son, Geoffrey (Ada Porter); four grandsons; brother, David; and brother-in-law, Ken Brown (Claire).
Alex H. Ray, physician and scientist, Newton, Mass., on June 28, 2024. Ray graduated from Bronx Science H.S. and studied at Johns Hopkins, where he earned a Ph.D. in immunology. After postdoc work in Scandinavia and Texas, Ray earned an M.D. from Texas-Galveston. He lived most of his adult life in the Boston area, where he practiced allergy medicine. Ray is survived by his wife, Ellen Light GSAPP’76; and children, Aliza and Eric.
Steven A. Sindell, attorney, Cleveland, on Oct. 3, 2024. Born on May 4, 1942, Sindell studied abroad in France at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Bordeaux and at the famed Sorbonne Université before earning a J.D. from UC Berkeley Law. His legal career began in California and continued in Ohio as a litigator with principal interest in civil rights and constitutional law. Sindell represented 12 of the 13 victims of the Kent State shooting in state and federal litigation throughout the 1970s, culminating in a unanimous 8–0 victory before the U.S. Supreme Court that established the right to sue public officials for violations of civil rights. Throughout his 50-year career, Sindell was committed to social justice and equitable access to legal representation for all. He was a partner at Sindell and Sindell with his father, and later with Sindell Lowe Guidubaldi & Sucher. After meeting his wife, Rachel, they went into practice together as Sindell & Sindell, focusing on healthcare providers. Sindell was predeceased by his wife in March 2024; he is survived by his children, Jessica (Peter), Daniel (Eliana), David (Hiroku) and Deborah; sisters, Carol and Linda; and three grandchildren.
publishing and public relations executive, Pierstown, N.Y., on Feb. 16, 2024. Willis, who grew up in Little Rock, Ark., majored in history and was on the staff of WKCR. He was for many years a senior executive in book publishing, notably as associate publisher and director of subsidiary rights at E.P. Dutton and Co., before becoming, in 1995, the director of press and public relations at Glimmerglass Opera in Cooperstown, N.Y. Willis and Bill Oliver ’64, GSAS’65 became opera fans as first-year roommates in Carman Hall, and discovered Glimmerglass Opera through friends who summered in the Cooperstown area, at a time when the company was still performing in the local high school. Willis and Oliver, who became Glimmerglass’ first development director in 1994, bought a summer home in Pierston and the two worked at the opera until their retirement in 2004. They were married on Sept. 17, 2011. Willis is survived by Oliver, who had been director of development at the College and worked in alumni relations for the University before joining Glimmerglass.
1966
Howard N. Machtinger, teacher, Durham, N.C., on July 6, 2024. Machtinger, who played tennis for the Lions, was a public high school teacher and director of a teacher training program at UNC Chapel Hill, a social justice organizer who mentored many young activists and a steadfast friend to many throughout his life. He is survived by his wife, Trude Bennett BC’67; and daughter, Anzia Machtinger Bennett.
1969
Eric D. Witkin, attorney, Harrison, N.Y., on Oct. 7, 2024. Born on May 14, 1948, and raised in Perth Amboy, N.J., Witkin graduated from Harvard Law and had a successful law career in New York City, most recently as special counsel at Littler Mendelson. For more than 35 years, Witkin successfully represented management in employment litigation before federal and state courts and administrative agencies, including the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the New York State Division of Human Rights, focusing on the defense of discrimination claims arising under Title VII and New York State and City Human Rights Law. He defended employers and individual managers in single plaintiff and large class actions involving the full range of employment law issues, and also had major responsibility in cases notable for the novelty of the legal theories advanced and the degree of risk entailed. Witkin was an active and passionate alumnus whose voice was at the forefront advocating for the strength of the College and its central place within the University. A Nacom, he was president of the Columbia College Alumni Association Board of Directors, a Class Agent, an Alumni Representative Committee interviewer and a Reunion Committee member, and received a Columbia Alumni Medal in 1982. Witkin is survived by his mother, Norma; wife, Regina Bilotta Witkin; daughter, Sarah ’09; son, Daniel (Coco); siblings Jane and Marc; and two grandchildren.
1973
James P. Perkoski, attorney, North Attleboro, Mass., on April 28, 2024. After majoring in political science and economics and playing football for the Lions, Perkoski attended Suffolk Law School at night while teaching at his alma mater, Bishop Feehan H.S. Four years later, he earned a J.D. and began a law career that spanned more than 40 years. Perkoski was a special assistant district attorney before opening his own office in 1993 and practicing privately for 20 years. In 2013, he accepted a position as the assistant clerk magistrate for the Attleboro District Court; he served in that role until retirement in January 2024. Perkoski had a lifelong passion for history and military affairs, loved politics, enjoyed debating his children and was active in community affairs. He is survived by his wife, Maureen, with whom he shared nearly 50 years of marriage; brother, John; children, Carey, Jared and Evan, and their partners, Joe, Laura and Damian; and six grandchildren.
Harlan L. Rips, optical business owner, Omaha, Neb., on Sept. 26, 2024. Born in Omaha, Rips graduated from Omaha Central H.S. After graduation, he returned to Omaha to work in the family business, Commercial Optical Co., which he headed. Rips delighted in his lifelong friendships, some of which extended to grade school and summer camp as well as at the College. He is survived by his wife, Jane; daughters, Sara and Anne; brothers, Lance (Julie Johnson), Michael (Sheila Berger) and Bruce.
1988
John A. Oswald, journalist, Freeport, N.Y., on Oct. 14, 2024. Oswald grew up in Freeport, where in high school he ran the student newspaper, was on student council and played in the concert band. At the College, he studied political science, was a Sachem, was
Spectator’s 111th managing editor and played sousaphone in the Marching Band. After graduation, Oswald worked for the
Jersey Journal for eight years; he was managing editor for two years. He later reported and edited for the
New York Post and the
New York Daily News, where he was news editor for four years and oversaw features for one year. He also worked at
The Forward, PBS NewsHour and NBC News. Oswald was an inspiration to other journalists and a loyal friend and colleague, known for his cutting wit. As president of Freeport H.S.’ Class of 1984, Oswald had helped organize its reunions. The class established a scholarship fund for its 40th; memorial donations in Oswald’s name
may be made here, or mail a check made out to “Freeport High School Class of 1984 Community Foundation, Inc.” to 70 Grove St., Unit 3E, Freeport, NY 11520.
2005
Burke J. O’Donnell, hotel industry manager, Portland, Maine, on Sept. 18, 2024. O’Donnell worked in the financial services industry (Blackrock, Pimco, Bank of America) prior to settling in Portland. An avid outdoorsman, he spent much of his last 15 years there. His ashes were spread in a favorite swimming and surfing area by his parents, Joe ’64 and Barbara. O’Donnell also is survived by his siblings, Mark ’92, GSAS’93, Kerry and Scott, and sister-in-law, MaryBeth.
— Alex Sachare ’71
