OBITUARIES
Compiled by Lisa Palladino

1931

Edmond Lipton M.D., retired psychiatrist, Brooklyn, N.Y., on May 28, 2002. Lipton was born in Brooklyn on November 16, 1910, and earned his medical degree from P&S in 1935; he was the second-youngest in his class. While at the College, where he was Phi Beta Kappa, Lipton played the violin and managed the orchestra. He also studied the viola, thanks to a Columbia scholarship. Later in life, Lipton played the piano and was active, non-professionally, in a number of orchestras and musical groups, including the Borough Park Y in Brooklyn. After earning his degrees, Lipton interned at Kings County Hospital and later went into private practice, though he did pro bono work as well as some work with the Brooklyn Jewish Hospital. He also taught at Downstate Medical Center, with a focus on group therapy. Lipton retired in 1993. He is survived by his wife of 39 years, Mildred, a clinical psychologist; children from a previous marriage, Dr. Richard Lipton ’64 P&S, ’95 PH and Judith Hawkins; sister, Adele Janovsky; nephews, Andrew Janovsky ’64 and Peter Janovsky ’68; and four grandchildren.

1934

Bernard Bloom, business executive, West Orange, N.J., on July 1, 2002. Bloom was born in Brooklyn and lived in Newark and Maplewood before moving to West Orange 17 years ago. He earned a degree in economics from the College, where he resumed studies after his retirement. During World War II, Bloom served in the Pacific as field director for the American Red Cross. Bloom was the CEO of JB Papers in Union, N.J., before retiring in 1994. He was president of the Paper Merchants Association of New York and director of the National Paper Trade Association. Bloom endowed a graduate scholarship at the College’s Center for Israel and Jewish Studies as well as an undergraduate scholarship for the Sight-Impaired Student Gift Fund. He was a member of the 1754 Society and a founding member of the John Jay Associates. Bloom also served on the board of trustees of the Jewish Community Center/Metrowest and had been president of the Jewish Family Services and The Jewish News. He was a 75-year member of Temple B’Nai Abraham, Livingston, N.J., as well as a member of its Men’s Club. Bloom and his wife created a Scholar in Residence program at the temple in 2001. Bloom is survived by his wife, the former Muriel Singer; sons, Jonathan and James; daughter, Jane B. Marantz; brothers, Abraham and Cyrus; sister, Jean Gonchar; and five grandchildren.

Francis J. O’Connell, labor law attorney, Cutchogue, N.Y., on March 10, 2002. O’Connell was born on March 19, 1913, and was raised in the upstate town of Fort Edward. O’Connell earned a law degree from Fordham, where he met his wife of 64 years, Adelaide. He earned another degree in juridical science at Brooklyn Law School, where he graduated summa cum laude while practicing law. In 1942, O’Connell joined Allied Chemical. During his time there, he was across the table from John L. Lewis, president of the United Mine Workers of America, over the issue of a single, industry-wide contract for the company’s 103 plants. O’Connell considered his negotiations on this issue a major triumph, though they never did submit to industry-wide bargaining. O’Connell belonged to a number of labor relations organizations, including the Public Employment Relations Boards of New York State and Nassau and Suffolk counties. He also served as chairman of the Nassau County labor and arbitration committee and attended international labor conferences. He was honored in 1988 by the Nassau County Bar Association for 50 years of service. O’Connell retired in 1970 but returned to private practice a few months later. He was known for his talents as a short-story writer and writer/director of amateur musical productions. According to a letter that CCT received from his wife, O’Connell “looked forward to receiving Columbia College Today and read it through with great interest. His love for and loyalty to Columbia had always been very strong.” O’Connell is survived by his wife, Adelaide; son, Chris; daughter, Mary Gaynor Lavonas; brother, John; sister, Mary Murray; five grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.

1936

Robert E. Dorfman, economist, Belmont, Mass., on June 24, 2002. Dorfman was a Harvard economist who did pioneering research in linear programming, a method of describing production, and environmental economics. He earned a master’s in economics from GSAS in 1937. A statistician for the federal government from 1939–43, Dorfman served as an operations analyst for the U.S. Army Air Force during World War II. He later earned a Ph.D. in economics from UC Berkeley, where he taught economics until 1955, when he moved to Harvard. Known to colleagues for his elegant writing, collaborator Robert M. Solow said that a 1943 Dorfman paper, “The Detection of Defective Members of Large Populations,” remains a benchmark in the profession. Dorfman also did work in environmental economics, especially regarding natural resources in the Middle East. Later in his career, he turned his attention to economic history, focusing on the theory of capital and its antecedents. He retired in 1987. Dorfman is survived by his wife, Nancy; one son; one daughter; and two grandchildren.

1938

Wesley R. Burt D.D.S., retired, Venice, Fla., on May 22, 2002. Burt received his D.D.S. from the School of Dental & Oral Surgery in 1941. He served in the armed forces in the Pacific for four years. A life member of the American College of Dentists and the New York Academy of Dentistry and a fellow of the International College of Dentists and the New York County Dental Society, Burt retired in 1981 after 40 years of practice in New York City. Burt was a life member of the Psi Omega Fraternity and served as grand master of its New York Alumni Chapter from 1958–60. He lived in Florida for the past 14 years. Survivors include his wife, Jeanne.

John MacCrate Jr., Naples, Fla., real estate professional, on June 7, 2002. MacCrate was born in Brooklyn, N.Y. A first tenor who found his voice singing Gilbert and Sullivan operettas at his parents’ piano on Sunday evenings, he managed the Glee Club at the College. After a stint in the Merchant Marines, MacCrate sold insurance door-to-door for the Atlantic Mutual Insurance Co. and eventually opened his own insurance business. He married Jane Scott in 1939 and had three children. Even at his busiest, he found time for music, building his real estate career between his performances with a barber shop quartet and church choir. “If he’d had the choice, he would have been a professional singer,” said his brother, Robert. MacCrate founded the Red Tie Barbershop Quartet with his friends, and the quartet performed on Long Island in the 1940s and ’50s. He also sang in the choir of the Brookville Reform Church. Meanwhile, his insurance sales mushroomed and he added real estate to his business, building one of the largest agencies on the north shore of Nassau County. He founded and was president of John MacCrate Jr. Inc., MacCrate Realty Ltd. and MacCrate Associates Inc. MacCrate served as the president of the Long Island Chapter of the Society of Real Estate Appraisers in 1975–76, was chairman of the Sea Cliff Village Planning Board and sat on the Manhasset Real Estate Board as well as a host of other civic organizations. Still, from opera in the car to ballads in the kitchen, “Anytime he got the chance,” his second wife, Shirley, said, “he’d sing.” After his first marriage ended, MacCrate met Shirley Hedger in the summer of 1958. A New York Telephone Co. sales representative, she visited MacCrate’s home on a sales call, and he asked her to the movies. They wed that November. In the 1980s and ’90s, MacCrate gradually sold his business interests to Daniel Gale, who formed Daniel Gale MacCrate Real Estate. MacCrate is survived by his wife; one brother; sons, John III and James Robert; daughter, Judith Stephens; nine grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

Gilbert W. Suojanen, retired businessman, Clearwater, Fla., on May 20, 2002. Suojanen was born on October 1, 1916, in Greenwich, Conn., and graduated from Greenwich High School in 1934. He and his late brother, Charles, were business partners in Suojanen Sons Plumbing and Heating before retirement to Venice, Fla., in 1979. During his six decades as a Greenwich resident, Suojanen was an active member of St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, a justice of the peace, a member of the Greenwich Library Board and a representative town government delegate. He enjoyed a lengthy association with the Byram Rotary Club, serving as president during the 50th anniversary year, 1954–55. His wife, Viola (McFadzean) Suojanen, predeceased him by four years. He moved to Clearwater two years ago to be closer to his son, Don. In addition to his son, Suojanen is survived by his daughter, Lynn S. King; three grandchildren; and a great-granddaughter.

1939

Frank D. Robinson, financial executive, Dana Point, Calif., on June 1, 2002. Robinson was born on January 3, 1917, in Ulverston, England, and emigrated to the United States in 1923. After graduating from the College, he earned a degree from the Business School in 1940. Robinson began his career as an accountant at Westinghouse, and in 1953, joined Diebold in Canton, Ohio, where he served as treasurer, vice president, and, from 1979 until his retirement in 1982, president. Robinson was a member of Diebold’s board of directors for 23 years and served for many years on the boards of directors of Blue Shield of Ohio and Aultman Hospital of Canton. He retired to Sarasota, Fla., before moving to Dana Point in 1998; he was active on the governing bodies of his retirement communities in both cities. Robinson’s first wife, the former Grace Dillon, predeceased him. He is survived by his second wife, the former Leslie Williams; daughters, Jeanne Noble and Carolyn Nesselroth; four grandchildren; and one great-grandchild.

1943

Paul C. Guth, attorney, New Canaan, Conn., on May 7, 2002. Born in Vienna, Austria, in 1922, Guth earned a degree from the Law School in 1945. He served in the U.S. Army in Europe and was a partner in Lauterstein & Lauterstein in New York City from 1952–81. He joined Kelley Drye & Warren, also in New York, in 1981 and remained there until his death. Guth was a director of the Robert Lehman Foundation, Victoria Home and others. He is survived by his wife, the former Joan Totman; brother, Francis, and his wife; two nieces; a grandniece; a grandnephew; and a great-grandniece.

1949

Daniel Kahn M.D., retired physician, Meriden, Conn., on May 5, 2002. Kahn was born on December 14, 1927, in Brooklyn, N.Y. From 1945–46, he served in the U.S. Army Intelligence Division. He earned an M.D. in 1953 from the State University of N.Y. Downstate Medical Center. After a three-year internal medicine and cardiology fellowship at Yale New Haven Hospital and the West Haven V.A., Kahn opened his own office in Meriden, where he practiced internal medicine and cardiology from 1957 until his retirement in 1992. He was an associate member of the Meriden-Wallingford Chapter of Hadassah and a member of Temple B’nai Abraham, where he served on the board of directors. He is survived by his wife of almost 50 years, the former Ruth E. Pollock; sons, Dr. Steven and his wife, Pam, Andrew and his wife, Paula, Dr. Benjamin and his wife, Ziza, and Robert Jensen; daughters, Julie Liseo and Amy Jensen; 10 grandchildren; a twin sister, Lois Blatt; a niece; a nephew; and several cousins.

Arthur S. Pearson, marketing professional, Westport, Conn., on December 20, 2001. Pearson’s long and distinguished career included positions at Nabisco, the Clairol Division of Bristol Myers and General Foods. In 1985, he established his own management consulting firm and worked extensively with Capital Cities/ABC. Pearson is survived by his partner of 15 years, Shelley Finn; four children; six grandchildren; and one great-grandchild.

1966

Robert T. Mathis, investment banker, Greenwich, Conn., on February 5, 2002. Born on August 9, 1943, Mathis grew up in Rye, N.Y., and graduated from Harvard Business School. He served in the Vietnam War as a U.S. Army Ranger and later worked at Blyth Eastman Dillon and Co. as well as Paine Webber. Mathis founded a Greenwich-based oil exploration firm, Harris Energy, and later helped found Genome Dynamics, a Maryland-based company engaged in the mapping of the human genome. He served as a Christ Church Greenwich missionary to the Diocese of Mount Kilimanjaro and designed a primary health care project in Arusha, Tanzania, that still is in use. Mathis is survived by his daughters, Liliana, Bronwyn and Kane; their mother, Laurelle Sheedy Mathis; and a niece.

1992

Jeffrey E. Kantrowitz, freelance journalist, Boston, on May 27, 2001. Born in Brookline, Mass., Kantrowitz began contributing to newspapers while in high school. He continued his writing career at the College, and his writing abilities earned him a William Randolph Hearst Foundation fellowship, a summer internship at The Boston Globe and a Pulliam Fellowship at the Arizona Republic. He was a regular contributor to The Boston Globe and other publications and was a freelance journalist for The New York Times. Kantrowitz wrote mostly about travel and food and was well-known for his “Cheap Eats” column in Boston Magazine. He also explored ways to find discount airfare and all aspects of courier flights. Even after Kantrowitz became ill, in 1997, he continued to write about the growth of Boston’s immigrant communities, and conducted his interviews in Spanish or Haitian creole. He was a founder of the organization that represented Boston Globe freelancers and was a regional delegate to the National Writers Union. He argued to protect freelance writers’ control of electronic and other secondary uses of their work. Kantrowitz is survived by his partner, Maria Gjonaj; parents, Paul P&S ’58 and Judy; brother, Steve; and sister, Amy.

2000

Alison K. Ahern, New York City, on June 9, 2002. Formerly of Needham, Mass., and Bridgton, Maine, Ahern graduated from Needham High School in 1996. She was a three-sport captain while in high school and was captain of the women’s soccer team at Columbia. Ahern worked for the Hudson Hotel in Manhattan. She is survived by her parents, John F. “Jack” and Kathleen F. (Sullivan); brother, John J. “JJ”; sister, Heather A. and her husband, David Huish; grandmother, Dorothy F. Ahern; two nieces; and several aunts, uncles and cousins. Donations may be made to the Alison K. Ahern Memorial Fund, c/o William F. Brooks, Esq., 210 Broadway, Ste 102, Lynnfield, MA 01940.

[ other deaths reported ]