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OBITUARIES

[Corrections: In the May issue, the obituary for Lloyd M. Moglen ’60 contained several errors: his date of death was August 2, 2002; he was born in 1938; and his radio talk show was on KQED. CCT apologizes for these mistakes.]

1929

John W. Marchetti '29

John W. Marchetti, retired engineer, Cherry Hill, N.J., on March 28, 2003. Marchetti was enrolled in a six-year program that provided liberal arts as well as graduate electrical engineering education. He was at the College from 1925–27, where he earned an A.B., and then was in the electrical engineering department from 1928–31, receiving a B.S. in 1930 and an E.E. in 1931. He began his career at Camp Evans, N.J., as a pioneer in the development of early radar systems. Working in his lab, Marchetti created prototype radars, including the one used to detect the attack on Pearl Harbor. He also developed a mortar locator used to intercept enemy fire. Marchetti served in the Navy, the Army Signal Corps and the Air Force, from which he retired as a lieutenant colonel, serving in England and France during WWII. Among his military honors was the Order of the British Empire. Following the war, Marchetti moved to Massachusetts to assume the post of founding technical director of the Air Force Cambridge Research Center. There, he was responsible for the center’s three divisions: electronics, geophysics and atomic warfare. Later, Marchetti developed the prototype for the electronically steerable array radar system. In 1962, he founded a research engineering company and worked on defense systems and high-speed rail technology. The latter work brought him back to New Jersey, where he retired about 10 years ago. Marchetti held numerous patents. In 1999, he received the Normandy Medal from the Federation of French War Veterans. Marchetti is survived by his daughter, Nina M. Archabal, and her husband, John; son, John J. Jr. and his wife, Joyce; sister, Josephine; two grandsons; and one great-grandson. His wife, Santina (neé Giuffre), predeceased him. Donations may be made in Marchetti’s memory to Samaritan Hospice, 5 Eves Dr., Ste 300, Marlton, NJ 08053.

Alan F. Perl, retired lawyer, Sarasota, Fla., on December 7, 2002. Perl was born on May 3, 1909, in New York City, and grew up in Brooklyn. Following graduation from the Law School in 1931, he practiced law during the Great Depression, working in New York City and then in White Plains. In 1935, with the passage of the Wagner Labor Act, he joined the National Labor Relations Bureau as a regional attorney. During his time with the NLRB, he successfully tried a long series of cases against major national corporations, which secured the rights of working men and women to organize and bargain collectively in order to receive a living wage and humane working conditions. Among his opponents were Ford, Pittsburgh Plate Glass, General Electric, Shell Oil and The New York Times. This body of work established many of the legal rights of workers that most now take for granted. Perl rose in the ranks of the NLRB to become regional director of its New York office. In 1945, Rexford Tugwell, then governor of Puerto Rico and one of Perl’s former law professors at Columbia, asked him to assist the Puerto Rican government in writing the labor laws for the island and assist in getting them passed in the legislature. These laws formed a major basis for “Operation Bootstrap,” which succeeded in greatly strengthening Puerto Rico’s economy. For the next 30 years, Perl served as an adviser on legal matters to Puerto Rico’s labor secretary and was responsible for negotiating the contracts for Puerto Rican agricultural workers who picked fruits and vegetables throughout the eastern coastal states. These contracts assured adequate work, decent wages, workman’s compensation coverage and acceptable living conditions for the workers and remain a model for many other migrant worker programs. In 1947, with the passage of the Taft-Hartley Bill, Perl left the NLRB in protest, feeling that many of the rights that he had helped to secure would be undermined. Joining with Jerome Sturm, he was a founding partner in the law firm of Sturm and Perl, specializing in labor law. Perl retired in 1976 and ultimately moved to Sarasota to enjoy fishing, golf and a warmer climate. He was a loyal son of Columbia and spoke warmly of his days as an undergraduate. A member of AEPi, many of his fraternity members became lifelong friends. His wife of 49 years, Florence, died in 1984. He is survived by his son, Daniel ’63; daughter, Emily Perl Kingsley; three grandchildren; and one great-grandchild.

1934

Edward J. Finn, Asheville, N.C., on February 21, 2003. Finn received a second bachelor’s degree, from the School of Architecture, in 1937. Formerly of Horse Shoe, N.C., and Oradell, N.J., he was predeceased by his wife, Alice Laird Van Varick. He is survived by his daughter, Kathleen Finn Evascu; son, Edward Van Varick Finn ’69, ’72L; two granddaughters; brother, William Stephen Finn; and Georgette Kohlrieser. Finn requested that donations be made to the Class of 1934 in his honor.

1939

Myron C. Patterson, physician, New York City, on February 8, 2003. A 1943 graduate of P&S, Patterson was an attending physician at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center cardiology staff for more than 50 years as well as associate clinical professor of medicine at P&S. He was committed to the education of physicians in the diagnosis and treatment of heart disease. Patterson is survived by his wife of 60 years, Michaeleen (O’Rourke); daughter, Anne Baier, and son-in-law, J. Cletus; daughter; Linda Kocsis, and son-in-law, William; and eight grandchildren. Contributions may be made to the Myron C. Patterson Heart Fund, Roosevelt Hospital, 1000 Tenth Ave., New York, NY 10019.

1941

Samuel W. “Chips” Hughes

Samuel W. “Chips” Hughes, businessman, Saddle River, N.J., on June 9, 2003. Hughes was born in the Bronx to Irish immigrants and attended DeWitt Clinton H.S. While at the College, Hughes was president of the Blue Key Society in his junior and senior years, v.p. of Beta Theta Pi, a member of the King’s Crown Advisory Board and a member of the Sachems Honor Society. He narrowly lost the “Student Who Had Done the Most for the College” election to Joseph Coffee ’41. Hughes was elected into Who’s Who in American Colleges and Universities and played varsity baseball. Volunteering for military service, Hughes was commissioned as a Navy pilot and rose in rank to become a lieutenant senior grade, flying antisubmarine warfare dirigibles. He escorted the convoy that carried President Roosevelt to the historic Yalta meeting. After the war, Hughes joined with home furnishing legends Charles Eames and Herman Miller and also held senior executive positions with Hess Goldsmith, Burlington Industries and Bedford Weaving. He was instrumental in introducing plastic sheeting for upholstery, in making modern furniture available to the mass market and in developing fiberglass for the curtain and drapery market. Hughes served on many collegiate, community and church boards and headed several. He earned the nickname “Chips” at the poker table. Hughes is survived by his wife of 60 years, Dorothy Runals Hughes ’42 Business; sons, Terry and Brian ’68; daughter, Kathy; sister, Elizabeth Waller; and five grandchildren. Donations in Hughes’ memory may be made to the Blair Fund, Office of Development, PO Box 600, Blairstown, NJ 07825.

Vernon W. Hughes, retired physicist, New Haven, Conn., on March 25, 2003. Hughes was a Yale physicist whose investigation of muons — rare and relatively heavy cousins of electrons — poked holes in standard subatomic theory and provided evidence for the existence of previously undetected matter. Hughes was born in Kankakee, Ill. While at Columbia, he was a student of Nobel Prize-winning physicist Isidor Isaac Rabi and graduated with honors in mathematics and physics. He received a master’s and Ph.D. from GSAS, the latter in physics in 1950. During WWII, Hughes worked at MIT’s radiation laboratory, helping develop radar. In 1954, he joined the Yale faculty and played a major role five years later in originating the use of polarized beams in high-energy accelerators. Hughes continued to work on the mechanics of the proton as leader of a research team at CERN, the European particle physics laboratory near Geneva. His investigations there contributed to the understanding that protons have gluons as well as quarks, and that both of them contribute to protons’ spin. Hughes began his study of muons in 1960. He developed increasingly precise techniques for measuring their properties, culminating in an experiment at Brookhaven National Laboratory to assess their response to powerful magnetic fields. Hughes’s experiment showed muons moving in unexpected ways, suggesting that other, unknown particles exist in the subatomic world. Announced in February 2001, the results of the experiment were seen by some physicists as evidence supporting a theory called supersymmetry, which assumes the existence of new particles, known as supersymmetric partners, for each of the known particles. Hughes retired from Yale in 1991 as one of its prestigious Sterling professors. His first wife, Inge, died in 1979. He is survived by their sons, Gareth and Emlyn; his second wife, Miriam; and four grandchildren.

1943

Joseph T. Carty, Tequesta, Fla., on April 9, 2003. Carty was elected president of his class and resigned in 1943 to join the Army, prior to his graduation ceremony. He received his diploma by mail. Carty received the Alumni Medal in 1982. Among his survivors are his wife, Merry; daughter, Barbara Bodine; and granddaughter, Blair Bodine ’06, who, according to her mother, “entered her Columbia experience with a deep reverence and respect for the community, kinship and friendship that endures with love and loyalty.”

1947

Bernard Steinberger, retired physician, Highland Beach, Fla., on April 8, 2003. Steinberger was born on October 22, 1924, in Brooklyn. A WWII veteran, he was a 2nd lieutenant in the Air Force. Steinberger graduated from P&S and SUNY Downstate Medical Center in 1951. From 1951–52, he interned at Jewish Hospital in Brooklyn. From 1952–55, he was a resident OB/GYN at Maimonides Medical Center, also in Brooklyn. Steinberger retired in 1990 from Maimonides Medical Center and St. John’s Hospital (Far Rockaway, N.Y.). He is survived by his wife, Sandy Berkowitz-Steinberger; sons, Robert, Carl, Joshua and Paul; two grandchildren; stepchildren, Jill and Jay Glasser, David Forrest and Glen Berkowitz; and three stepgrandchildren. His brother, Marvin, predeceased him. Memorial donations may be made to The Dr. Bernard Steinberger National Fragile-X-Foundation, 4408 Intracoastal Dr., Highland Beach, FL 33487.

1952

Frederic G. Sibley '52

Frederic G. Sibley, retired advertising executive, Greenwich, Conn., on March 12, 2003. Sibley was born on November 6, 1928, in Dorchester, Mass. He was a descendent of Edward Fuller, who came over on the Mayflower, and was the 10th generation grandson of Roger Williams, founder of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantation. Sibley was a direct descendent of John Sibley, who came from England in 1629 in Winthrop’s Fleet. He attended Mary E. Wells H.S. in Southbridge, Mass., and Suffield Academy, graduating in 1948, before attending the College, where he was a member of Sigma Chi fraternity. Sibley joined the advertising staff of The Wall Street Journal in New York in 1953 and was promoted and transferred to Atlanta, Cleveland and Chicago, returning to the New York office in 1966. He lived in Greenwich since that time. Sibley served as the advertising director of Barron’s and the National Observer and, in 1974, was named special projects manager for The Wall Street Journal’s advertising sales department. He retired in 1992, only to return as the archives consultant for Dow Jones & Co., until his heart condition sidelined him in 1996. Sibley was a member of the Greenwich RTM for more than 25 years, as well as the selectman’s parking committee, the appointments committee and Using Senior Energy. He was a justice of the peace for the Town of Greenwich and performed many marriages. He also was a member of the board of directors of the YMCA Camp Woodstock in upstate Connecticut, where he was a camper and counselor for many years. Sibley is survived by his wife of 50 years, the former Doris Paul; son, Frederic G. Jr.; daughters, Persis Merritt, Sarah Jura, Perrin Galli and Justine Tully; and nine grandchildren. Memorial donations may be made to Camp Woodstock, 42 Camp Rd.,
Woodstock Valley, CT 06282.

Charles A. Steers, retired financial officer, Naples, Fla., on March 28, 2003. Born in 1930 in Portland, Ore., Steers and his wife of 52 years, Betty, graduated from Ponce de Leon H.S. in Coral Gables, Fla. After the College, Steers joined General Electric, where he worked in corporate finance for 36 years until his retirement in 1988. He and Betty moved from Essex, Conn., to Naples in 1994. Always active in a variety of volunteer positions, Steers was a past president of the Friends of the Library of Collier County. Survivors include his wife; daughters, Chris Barette, Carol Lane and Cather Jenks; and four grandchildren.

1953

Richard A. Givens, attorney, Flushing, N.Y., on February 7, 2003. Born in New York City on June 16, 1932, Givens earned an M.S. in economics from the University of Wisconsin in 1954 and an L.L.B. from the Law School in 1959, where he tied with Ruth Bader Ginsberg for first place in their class. He was admitted to the New York bar the same year. Givens served in the Army from 1954–56. Among his professional appointments were U.S. District Court (southern and eastern districts), N.Y., 1960; U.S. Court of Appeals (2nd circuit), 1962; U.S. Supreme Court, 1966; U.S. Court Claims, 1980; and the U.S. Court of Appeals (4th circuit), 1981. Givens was an associate with Hughes, Hubbard & Reed in New York City from 1959–61; an assistant U.S. attorney in the southern district of New York, 1961–71; and regional director of the FTC, New York City, from 1971–77. He also served as counsel for Botein, Hays & Skylar, New York City, from 1977–89; was law clerk to Hon. Vincent L. Broderick, U.S. District Court (southern district) N.Y., White Plains, 1992–95; and law secretary to Hon. Jay Gold, acting Supreme Ct. Justice, 1995–96. Givens was chairman of the program on drafting documents in plain language, 1981, and authored Manual of Federal Practice (5th ed., 1998); Advocacy: The Art of Pleading a Cause (3rd edition, 1992); Legal Strategies for Industrial Innovation, which won the “Best Law Book of 1982” award from the Association of American Publications (1982); and Antitrust: An Economic Approach (1983). He also contributed to professional journals and was a member of the ABA, New York State Bar Association and Association of the Bar of the City of New York. Givens is survived by his wife, Janet Eaton, whom he married in 1957; and daughters, Susan Ruth and Jane Lucile.

1943

George O. Rudkin Jr., chemist, Chadds Ford, Pa., on February 10, 2003. Rudkin was born in New York City and received a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University in 1946. He became associate director of the product development department for ICI United States in Wilmington, Del. His wife of 58 years, Helene ’45 Barnard, said in a note to CCT: “[George] was always most appreciative of his Columbia University education and training under Professor Nelson of the chemistry department.” In addition to his wife, Rudkin is survived by his daughters, Mary Ellen, Christine Louise, Noreen Anne and Amy Josephine; son, George Henry; 10 grandchildren; great-granddaughter; and brother, Robert. Donations may be made to a charity of the donor’s choice.

1972

Gerrit Henry, art critic and poet, New York City, on May 1, 2003. Henry attended Long Island public schools prior to attending the College. As an undergraduate, he worked at the information desk of the Museum of Modern Art, and he was recruited by poet John Ashbery, then an editor at Art News magazine, to write art reviews. Henry graduated with an English degree; he studied poetry with the late Kenneth Koch. Henry was best known for his widely published writings on art, in which he tended to favor contemporary combinations of traditional representation and modernist abstraction. Henry became contributing editor for Art News and wrote reviews for Art in America magazine. His writings also appeared in The Village Voice, People, Art International, Spectator, The New Republic and The New York Times. He also wrote many essays in exhibition catalogs. An accomplished poet, Henry’s witty, confessional poetry, often written in couplets, was influenced by the songs of Cole Porter and Steven Sondheim. His books of poetry include The Mirrored Clubs of Hell: Poems by Gerrit Henry (Little, Brown & Co., 1991) and Poems and Ballads (Dolphin, 1998). He also wrote a book on realist painter Janet Fish, Janet Fish: A Monograph (Burton & Skira, 1987). Henry had a brief career as a cabaret singer and songwriter in the 1970s. He is survived by his mother, Mary Jane Henry; and sister, Janice Henry, who said of him, “Gerrit valued his years at Columbia and was proud of the fact that he was an alumnus of the College.”

Paul F. Wotman, attorney, San Francisco, on December 25, 2000. A native of Great Neck, N.Y., Wotman was a pioneering gay-rights attorney. He first broke ground in anti-discrimination law as a student at UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School of Law, where he led the newly-founded Gay Law Students Association in a suit against Pacific Telephone, which led to a landmark state Supreme Court ruling in 1979 protecting openly gay and lesbian employees from job discrimination on the grounds that their sexual orientation was a form of political expression. Fourteen years later, after then-Gov. Pete Wilson signed California’s first law banning employment discrimination because of sexual orientation, Wotman rushed to the courthouse with several damage suits on the day the law took effect. A 1991 case led to a $5.3 million damage award, then the largest-ever for a gay-rights employment case. Wotman also filed some of the first suits alleging same-sex sexual harassment and numerous suits alleging job discrimination based on HIV infection. In the mid-1980s, Wotman served as chairman of the Alliance, a San Francisco gay political action committee, and was on the board of Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom. He started his private law practice in 1982 after working as a lawyer for the state Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and, according to his office, represented more than 2,200 clients in discrimination suits in the past 15 years. Wotman is survived by his partner, Danny Scheie; parents, Robert and Anita Wotman; and brothers, David and Daniel. Contributions in Wotman’s name may be made to the Human Rights Campaign, 919 18th St. N.W., Ste 800, Washington, DC 20006, or the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, 6030 Wilshire Blvd., Ste 200, Los Angeles, CA 90036.

1985

Andrew Kosoresow '85

Andrew Kosoresow, professor, New York City, on June 1, 2003. Kosoresow was an assistant professor of computer science at the Engineering School. He joined Columbia’s faculty in 1997 after teaching at the University of New Mexico and Stanford, from which he received his Ph.D. His major research areas were combinatorial algorithms, artificial intelligence, distributed and parallel computing, and graph theory. In 1998, Kosoresow helped revive the Columbia chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery, a group that organizes events and provides pre-professional support for students interested in computer science. In 2001, he received the Kim Award for Faculty Involvement from the Engineering School. Kosoresow was a well-liked instructor and a skilled administrator, serving as the assistant department chairman for undergraduate education for computer science. But he was perhaps best known as a mentor, adviser and friend to countless undergraduates and graduates in a department of 500 students. “He would always give time to a student,” said Professor of Computer Science Alfred Aho, the department chairman. “Many faculty are just too busy to drop everything to pay attention to a student, but he would always give time.” Kosoresow’s dedication to undergraduates extended to his substantial work on behalf of the department’s TAs, to whom he was responsible for assigning to classes. Kosoresow also taught a class, Computer Science Education, which instructed TAs in how to effectively teach computer science. Former students recalled that he had a habit of wearing shorts even in the winter, that he sometimes threw candy or brownies (for brownie points) at students when they got a correct answer, and that, on exams, he often gave extra credit questions such as, “What cartoon character do I look like?” or trivia from Ghostbusters. The computer science department is planning a second memorial service — one was held in the spring — for Kosoresow this fall. He is survived by his mother, Claudia Kosoresow.

L.P.

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