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OBITUARIES

1931

Joseph M. Miller Sr., retired physician, Glen Arm, Md., on August 9, 2003. Miller was born and raised in Yonkers, N.Y. After graduating from P&S in 1935, he completed his internship at St. John’s Riverside Hospital in New York. Miller was a surgical resident at the Mayo Clinic from 1936–40. During World War II, he headed an Army field hospital unit in Okinawa and later Korea, and at the time of his discharge in 1946 had attained the rank of major. For 25 years, Miller was chief of surgery at Fort Howard — from 1946 until the surgical program ended in 1971 — and in 1963, he started one of the first intensive care units in the area. In 1971, he became director of medical education at the former Provident Hospital, later Liberty Medical Center, where he established the physician’s assistant training program. Miller was a teacher at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and the Meharry Medical College in Nashville. He retired in 1987. A prolific contributor to medical journals — he wrote 562 articles — Miller contributed frequently to The Sun, writing widely on medical issues. He also was an avid collector of American stamps from the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. Miller was married for 53 years to the former Mary Alice Case, who died in 1993. He was an elder of Sparrows Point Presbyterian Church and since 1969 had been a member of Havenwood Presbyterian Church in Timonium, Md. Miller is survived by his sons, Joseph M. Jr., K. Scott and John M.; daughter, Dorcas S.; and seven grandchildren.

1933

Robert C. Shriver, retired banker, educator and philanthropic fund raiser, Mechanicsburg, Pa., on April 3, 2003. Shriver was born on September 20, 1911, in New York City. He began at Lafayette before transferring to Columbia, where he was a member of Phi Kappa Psi. A WWII veteran, Shriver served as a finance officer with the Army in North Africa, Italy and southern France and received his “Ruptured Duck” as a second lieutenant. He earned the American Campaign, WWII Victory and Good Conduct medals as well as the Europe-Africa-Middle East Campaign Medal with two bronze battle stars and the Certificate of Thanks from the Republic of France. Shriver retired in 1971 as senior v.p. and treasurer of the United States Trust Co., New York City (now a subsidiary of The Charles Schwab Corp.). He also worked with the Tucson Indian Training School, the Institute of International Finance at NYU and the Bank of Manhattan. Shriver served for many years as a member of the board of directors of Union Theological Seminary and as a member and chairman of the board of trustees of the First Presbyterian Church. He was on the board of directors of the Presbyterian Progress Foundation and chaired the Parents Fundraising Committee of the Friends Seminary Building Fund. He also served as financial adviser to the board of directors of the Hampton Institute in Virginia. During his frequent travels there with its presidents, Shriver refused to accede to segregationist accommodations policies and practices. Subsequent to his retirement, Shriver moved to south central Pennsylvania, where he taught finance at Elizabethtown College, Lebanon Valley College and Penn State, Harrisburg. Shriver was a founding member of the board of governors/board of directors of the Union Mills, Md. (Shriver Family) Homestead Foundation and was board member emeritus. He was a longtime member of the Maryland Historical Society as well as the Shriver family genealogist, self-publishing in 1976 an updated edition of the 1888 family history. Shriver was a member of the Mechanicsburg Presbyterian Church, the Foreign Policy Association of Harrisburg and the West Shore Men’s Garden Club. He is survived by his wife of 66 years, Dallas Wing Laurier Shriver; and son, Stephen.

1942

Thomas R. Monahan, retired educator, Southington, Conn., on July 2, 2003. Born on June 12, 1918, in Bristol, Monahan lived there most of his life before moving to Southington. An Army veteran of World-War II, Monahan received a master’s degree from Teachers College in 1948 and his sixth-year certificate from the University of Hartford. He was a biology teacher and director of athletics and physical education for the Bristol Board of Education prior to his retirement in 1979. Monahan was a charter member and former president of the Connecticut High School Coaches Association and National High School Athletic Coaches Association. He was inducted into both associations’ halls of fame as well as the Bristol Sports Hall of Fame. Among his many honors was the Connecticut Sports Writers’ Alliance Gold Key Award given to him in 1984. He was an active member for many years and past president of the Bristol Kiwanis Club and served as a parks commissioner in Bristol. Monahan is survived by his wife, Rose (Fegan) Monahan; five daughters and four sons-in-law, Maureen and J. Lawrence Mills, Christine and Kenneth Williamson, Sheila and Frank Moffett, Geraldine Monahan, and Theresa and Richard Hammond; brother, Edward; eight grandchildren; a great-grandchild; and several nieces and nephews. He was predeceased by two brothers, Paul and John; and two sisters, Elizabeth Hart and Jane Barry.

Sidney J. Silberman, retired attorney and philanthropist, White Plains, N.Y., on August 29, 2003. Born in Des Moines, Iowa, Silberman served in the Navy during World War II aboard the battleship Nevada. He earned a degree from the Law School in 1947 and worked at Proskauer Rose Goetz & Mendelsohn from 1947–52. From 1952 until his retirement in 1992, Silberman was a partner in Kaye Scholer LLP, previously known as Kaye, Scholer, Fierman, Hays & Handler. He was the firm’s CEO from 1977–80. Silberman was chairman of the lawyers’ division of the UJA-Federation of New York in 1979–80 and president of the Associated Y.M.-Y.W.H.A.s of Greater New York from 1970–73.

1943

Alfred T. Felsberg, retired executive, Naples, Fla., on April 17, 2003. Felsberg attended Bard College, then graduated from the College and attended the Law School. He served with the 3rd, 5th and 7th Fleets in the South Pacific from 1943–46 and reached the rank of lieutenant S.G. From 1947–84, he worked in every branch of what then was called the “Bell System.” He started his career with New Jersey Bell in 1947 as a traffic manager and ended it heading and opening the AT&T exhibit at Walt Disney World’s EPCOT center in Florida, retiring in 1984. Felsberg was a member of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church and held multiple subscription series of the Naples Philharmonic Center of the Arts. He was a former member of the Mendham Golf and Tennis Club, Mendham, N.J.; Rotary Club of Summit, N.J.; Columbia/Princeton Club; and Naples Men’s Club. He was a past chairman of the Collier County historic and Archaeological Preservation Board. He also served as a small claims mediator of the 20th Judicial Circuit in Collier County and was a Radio Reading Service reader on WGCU-FM and WMKO-FM. Felsberg had been a resident of Naples and Bonita Springs since 1983, coming from Mendham, N.J. He and his wife, Isobelle, who died on February 3, 2003, were the first homeowners in Lely Barefoot Beach before moving to the Marbella in Naples. Felsberg is survived by his brother and sister-in-law, Robert I. and Beverly Felsberg; sister-in-law, Patricia Stahl; nephew, Robert W. Felsberg; and niece, Nancy Baker.

1947

Louis R. Marmora, retired educator, Mamaroneck, N.Y., on August 21, 2002. Marmora was born on March 28, 1922, in Gioi Cilento, Italy. The youngest of nine, he emigrated with his family at 6, settling in Jersey City, N.J. He moved to Mamaroneck in 1958. Marmora earned a master’s from the University and also attended Middlebury College and the Universidad de Madrid. He volunteered for the Armed Forces during World War II, serving four years, including two in the China-India-Burma theater. Marmora began his teaching career at Benjamin Franklin H.S. in Manhattan. He later taught at Columbia Grammar School; Jersey City Junior College; SUNY Purchase; and Marymount College in Tarrytown, N.Y. As a faculty member of Mamaroneck H.S. for 36 years, he taught Spanish, Italian, French and Latin. Marmora was a popular teacher in the adult education program of the Mamaroneck School System for many years, including after his official retirement in 1992. He was active in the Mamaroneck Teacher’s Association throughout his tenure. Marmora is survived by his wife, Victoria; sons, Paul and Stephen; daughters, Veronica and Christina; four grandchildren; brothers, Joseph and Frank; and sister, Mary Capetola. Another son, Mark, died in 1995.

1948

Vincent J. Freda, physician, Alpine N.J., on May 7, 2003. Freda was born in New Haven and earned his medical degree from NYU’s School of Medicine. He spent his entire career at what is now Columbia-Presbyterian. Freda was a member of the Columbia community for more than five decades, first as a student and then as a respected member of the teaching faculty from the 1960s to the 1990s. He was named clinical professor emeritus of obstetrics and gynecology and honored with a fellowship in his name for perinatalogy research in 2000. A former Air Force flight surgeon who turned to obstetrics, Freda was one of the first doctors in the country to perform amniocentesis and was at the forefront of fetal surgery. He also helped to develop a vaccine to prevent a disease that killed thousands of babies each year. The vaccine, now known as Rhogam, allows women who have Rh-negative blood to deliver healthy babies. In 1963, in a Columbia laboratory, Freda and Dr. John G. Gorman discovered that if an Rh-negative woman was given an injection of the substance that causes Rh disease, her body would not attack the fetus’s blood cells. The findings were especially important to women who had already given birth because Rh problems are often minimal with the first baby but worsen with subsequent ones as the mother develops higher levels of the dangerous antibodies earlier in pregnancy. Freda shared the 1980 Lasker Award for medical research with Gorman and three others who had roles in identifying and treating the Rh factor. Pregnant mothers now routinely get an Rh blood test as part of their prenatal care. Freda established a pioneering clinic for Rh-negative mothers in the United States and became a leader in fetal medicine. His first operation on a fetus, at 27 weeks, involved a blood transfusion needed because of Rh incompatibility. A research fellowship and a symposium have been created in his honor at P&S. Freda is survived by his wife, Carol Ury; daughter, Pamela; sons, Andrew and Bradley; and three grandchildren. Donations may be sent to the Vincent Freda Fellowship Fund in Perinatalogy at the Sloane Hospital for Women, c/o Chairman, Department of Ob/Gyn, 622 W. 168th St., 16th Fl., New York, NY 10032.

1949

Edwin S. Wiley, Winter Park, Fla., on June 24, 2003. Wiley was born on November 5, 1924, in Paterson, N.J. An Army Air Corps World War II veteran, he received the distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal with Oak Clusters. Wiley served as president of International Veiling Corp. in Clifton, N.J., and as scoutmaster with Boy Scout Troop #160 in Wyckoff, N.J. He served on the Wyckoff Planning Board for eight years and was a member of Grace United Methodist Church in Wyckoff and First United Methodist Church in Winter Park, Fla. Wiley is survived by his wife, Nancy Orup; sons, Edwin and his wife, Sally, and David and his wife, Debbie; six grandchildren and sister, Ruth Wiley Post.

1950

Edward A. Bantel, retired educator, Northport, Mich., on June 22, 2003. Bantel was born on June 30, 1927 in Queens. He was a World War II Army veteran. Bantel taught philosophy and psychology and became a full professor at 33. He was involved in Head Start in the 1960s and founded the DEPTH program in Northport. Bantel served on the President’s Task Force for Education under President Nixon and taught at Columbia, Wayne State University and eventually Oakland University, retiring from that position as professor emeritus. A licensed psychologist, Bantel was proud that he was named a Kentucky Colonel. Survivors include his wife, Claudia Ann Steward, whom he married in 1983; his children and grandchildren, Emily Bantel and Andrew Bantel; Edward A. Bantel and his son; Karen (Steve Geiringer) Bantel and their three children; Ellen (Thane) Ostroth and their three children; John (Allison) Bantel and their two children; and brother, Anton. Memorial contributions may be directed to the Columbia College Fund.

1951

William C. Kuhns, Montecito, Calif., on July 16, 2003. Born in New York on November 18, 1928, Kuhns excelled at I.awrence-
ville (N.J.) prior to graduating from the College, where he was a member of St. A’s. He earned a master’s from SIPA in 1953. Kuhns’ business career began as first v.p. of Chase Manhattan Bank in San Juan. He then worked in commercial finance at Foothill Capital in Los Angeles and later formed his own company, WCK Capital. Kuhns’ final position was chairman of the board of Preferred Business Credit in Pasadena, which he established in 1999 with two partners. Kuhns was an avid gardener, photographer and tennis participant at the Santa Barbara Polo & Racquet Club, as well as an enthusiastic devotee of music, literature, history, world travel, crossword puzzles and his adored Corgi, Foxy. His astute comments on life and the world situation were published in the Op/Ed section of the Santa Barbara News-Press, Montecito Journal and Santa Barbara Independent. He is survived by his wife, Doris Murray Kuhns; sister, Mary Fancher; son by an earlier marriage, William; five children from his marriage to Alice Fenton Kuhns: Rodney, Anthony, Matthew, Victoria Kuhns Vickers and Diana Kuhns Knox; eight grandchildren; and three stepchildren, Natalia Murray Casemore, Julia Murray Portugal and William Murray Jr. Memorial contributions may be made to Hospice Care of Santa Barbara, 222 East Canon Perdido, Santa Barbara, CA 93101.

1952

Richard A. Gardner, psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, Tenafly, N.J., on May 25, 2003. Gardner was born in the Bronx on April 28, 1931. A graduate of SUNY’s Downstate Medical Center, he served in the Army Medical Corps as the director of child psychiatry at an Army hospital in Germany. Gardner developed a theory about parental alienation syndrome, which he said could lead children in high-conflict custody cases to falsely accuse a parent of abuse. Gardner, who testified in more than 400 child custody cases, maintained that children who suffered from parental alienation syndrome had been indoctrinated by a vindictive parent and obsessively denigrated the other parent without cause. In severe cases, he recommended that courts remove children from the homes of the alienating parents and place them in the custody of the parents accused of abuse. His theory provoked vehement opposition from some mental health professionals, child abuse experts and lawyers. Gardner, a professor of child psychiatry at P&S from 1963 until his death, wrote extensively about divorce. His The Boys and Girls Book About Divorce (Bantam Books for Young Readers; reissue, 1985), published in 1970 when divorce was becoming much more common in America and now in its 28th printing, offers children advice on coping with its stresses and tips on handling their parents. In 1973, Gardner created one of the first therapeutic board games, “The Talking, Feeling and Doing Game,” for use in child psychotherapy. In the 1980s, he became increasingly interested in cases of false accusation of sexual abuse, which he considered a product of a deepening national hysteria. He wrote The Parental Alienation Syndrome and the Differentiation Between Fabricated and Genuine Child Sex Abuse in 1987 and Sex-Abuse Hysteria: Salem Witch Trials Revisited in 1991, each self-published. Gardner’s marriage to Lee Gardner ended in divorce. He is survived by his son, Andrew; daughters, Nancy Gardner Rubin and Julie Gardner Mandelcorn; mother, Amelia; eight grandchildren; and partner, Natalie Weiss.

1958

Roger Sacks, dentist, Forest Hills, N.Y., on January 14, 2003. Sacks graduated from Stuyvesant High School in 1954 and earned a degree from SDOS in 1962. A published cartoonist, Sacks was remembered in a New York Times death notice as “a man of honor, great courage and dignity.” He is survived by his wife, Arlene; son, Philip; and nephew, Ethan (Masako) Sacks. He was predeceased by his brother, Elliott; and their parents, Philip and Naomi.

1959

Stanley Aber, real estate developer, New York City, on January 26, 2003. Aber earned a degree from the Business School in 1960 and had his own real estate development firm in New York. While at the College, he was a four-year member of the track team.

1962

John J. Alexander, professor, Cincinnati, on November 15, 2002. Alexander was born on April 13, 1940, in Indianapolis. At the College, he was active in Sigma Nu, Blue Key Society and the Debate Team. He graduated summa cum laude with a degree in chemistry. Alexander began his graduate studies at GSAS in Fall 1962, obtaining M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in 1963 and 1967, respectively. In 1969, after two years of postdoctoral study at Ohio State, Alexander accepted a faculty position at the University of Cincinnati. During his 33-year tenure there, he taught chemistry to some 25,000 undergraduates, supervised the thesis work of more than a dozen graduate students and served as chair of the freshman and inorganic chemistry divisions. In addition to writing more than 40 technical papers in his chosen field, organometallic chemistry, Alexander co-authored an internationally known textbook, Concepts and Models of Inorganic Chemistry. The work passed through several editions and was translated into Spanish and Japanese. The recipient of several teaching and merit awards, Alexander served as chair of the Cincinnati Section of the American Chemical Society in the early ’80s. He remained active until shortly before his death. Alexander is survived by his mother and a younger sister. Friends may contribute to The John J. Alexander Undergraduate Summer Research Fellowship at the University of Cincinnati.

1967

Paul Bernbach, philanthropist and real estate investor, Brooklyn, N.Y., on June 14, 2003. A lifelong resident of Brooklyn, he graduated from Brooklyn Friends School, earned a law degree from Penn and practiced with the Manhattan-based firm of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett in the 1970s. Bernbach was assistant to the office of the president of Joseph E. Seagram & Sons from 1979–81. His father, William Bernbach, who died in 1982, was one of the founders of the advertising agency Doyle Dane Bernbach. Late in 1982, Bernbach was elected a director of what was then called Doyle Dane Bernbach International. He resigned from its board in 1984. Bernbach was a private real estate investor for the rest of his life and was a partner in Bernbach & Plotkin, a private investment company specializing in real estate. A supporter of the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Bernbach was on its board of trustees from 1985 until his death. He also was on the boards of St. Ann’s School and of Packer Collegiate Institute, both in Brooklyn. Bernbach is survived by his wife, Therese; daughters, Elizabeth and Sarah; son, Matthew; and brother, John.

1975

Henry N. Winters, business executive, Franklin, Mich., on August 8, 2003. Winters attended St. Bernard’s School and Phillips Exeter Academy, was a magna cum laude graduate of the College and Phi Beta Kappa, and held a philosophy degree from New College, Oxford. Winters earned his J.D. at Harvard, followed by an L.L.M. from NYU. In New York, he was associated with Cahill, Gordon & Reindel, Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, and Shearman & Sterling. In 1996, he joined the office of tax counsel at Ford Motor Co. in Dearborn, Mich., serving most recently as a director. He is survived by his wife, Liz Foster; daughter, Katie; son, Daniel; brother, George; sister, Charlotte; and father, Robert. Contributions may be made to City Harvest.

L.P.

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