DEATHS

Mrs. Englander

Joan (Jenkins) Englander, a research specialist in the department of biochemistry and biophysics, unexpectedly died in her sleep on Saturday, June 17 at the age of 69. Mrs. Englander began working at Penn in 1967 as a nurse technician. For almost 40 years she worked in the research laboratory together with her husband, Dr. Walter Englander. Her work encompassed numerous physical studies on the structure, internal dynamics and regulatory functions of protein and nucleic acid molecules. She played a formative role in the development and application of hydrogen exchange methodologies that are now used for investigations of this kind in laboratories throughout the world. She directed an NIH grant for 35 years.

"Mrs. Englander was well known and admired for her warm and generous spirit, her unpretentiousness, her sense of humor, and her ability to face life honestly, as well as for her extraordinary laboratory skills. She was respected and loved by faculty, staff, friends, and by many of the graduate students who passed through the department over the years," said Ruth Keris, academic adiminstrator of biochemistry and biophysics.

In addition to her husband of 46 years, she is survived by her three children: a son, David, a daughter, Dr. Sarah Englander (a research specialist in the department of radiology), a daughter, Rebecca Johnson, and four grandchildren.

Donations may be made in her name to the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation, 225 City Ave., Suite 104, Bala Cynwyd, PA 19004.

Dr. Flexner

Dr. Josefa Barba Flexner died on June 25 at the age of 97. She had lived at the Fountains at Logan Square East for the last three years.

She was born in Barcelona, Spain, and came to the U.S. during the Spanish Civil War. She studied pharmacy/pharmacology and received a Ph.D. in 1927. She was awarded a Spanish Government scholarship in 1928 to study at the Pharmacological Laboratories of the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain. In 1930, she received a scholarship from the Patxot Foundation in Barcelona to go to Johns Hopkins. In 1938, in the midst of the unrest of the Spanish Civil War, she walked over the Pyrenee Mountains to meet Louis Flexner who had traveled from the US. They were married by the mayor of a tiny village and managed to sail back to the States after several unsuccessful attempts to find a ship. She joined the research efforts of her husband, who was a world expert on memory, first at Johns Hopkins University, then at the Carnegie Institute and in 1951 at Penn, where her husband took the position of professor and chair of anatomy at Penn's School of Medicine (Almanac May 21, 1996).

"She was a woman of great beauty in her youth. She had charm and great strength and determination throughout her life and gave unassuming and constant support to the efforts and career of her husband working every day until 1996 when he died and she dissolved the laboratory" said Dr. James Sprague, emeritus professor of anatomy. She was quoted in Penn's Institute of Aging Newsletter in 1991: "I don't change. I don't age. I'll be 87 in April but in a way I am crystallized. I have no reason to change: I go to the University, I do my job, I am satisfied with the things I do. We must use our imagination to spend that between birth and death to do the thing that is most satisfying for us. And if possible to give satisfaction to the people around us." She is survived by a nephew Don Eduardo Barba of Barcelona, Spain.

Dr. Halbfass

Dr. Wilhelm Halbfass, professor of Indian Philosophy in Asian and Middle Eastern Studies and South Asia Regional Studies, died May 25 after suffering a brain hemorrhage and lapsing into a coma on May 23. Dr. Halbfass was 60 years old. His research revolved around historical studies on the theory of karma and rebirth; ethics and ritualism in the Indian tradition; development of intellectual relations between India and the West. He was also preparing a textbook on Indian thought.

He had been on the faculty at Penn since 1973 when he came as a visiting lecturer and then became an associate professor the following year. He was promoted to full professor in 1982. In 1997 his work was recognized by 25 colleagues and former students in the book Beyond Orientalism: The Work of Wilhelm Halbfass and its Impact on Indian and Cross-Cultural Studies, edited by E. Franco and K. Preisendanz (Amsterdam and Atlanta, Rodopi).

He is survived by his wife, Helga; two daughters; his parents and a brother.

Dr. Kety

Dr. Seymour Solomon Kety, a renowned psychiatrist and a former Penn faculty member, died on May 25, at the age of 84.

Dr. Kety graduated from Penn in 1936 and earned his medical degree from the School of Medicine in 1940. He taught at Penn from 1943-61-initially in pharmacology, but later in clinical psychology, before moving to Harvard where he retired as emeritus professor of neuroscience in 1983.

In the 1960s, he left Penn to join the National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH) in Washington. There Dr. Kety provided the first strong evidence that schizophrenia was a disease with genetic links. He also discovered, in the late 1940s and early 1950s, the first quantitative technique for measuring blood flow in the living brain, a method that led to the development of scanning technologies. Last year, Dr. Kety was awarded the prestigious Lasker Award for special achievement in medical science for those achievements. The Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation also cited him for his "visionary leadership in mental health that ushered psychiatry into the era" (Almanac September 28, 1999).

He is survived by his wife, Josephine; children Lawrence and Roberta; and two grandchildren.

Mr. Molloy

Albert G. Molloy, Jr., the retired coach of men's squash and tennis teams died on June 23 at age 72.

Mr. Molloy joined Penn's Department of Intercollegiate Athletics in 1959, and compiled a record of 215-101 in 31 years as the squash coach, and in his 27 years as tennis coach achieved a record of 219-138. He coached 24 tennis players to either All-America honors or All-Ivy League honors, and three of his squash players won individual national titles. He retired from coaching in 1990.

Mr. Molloy attended Virginia Tech. He served in the Marines during the Korean War and in the early 1950s coached at McGill University. Mr. Molloy authored the Sports Illustrated book on squash. He also made the first instructional movie for the sport. He was runner-up at the U.S. professional Squash Championships in 1955 and 1958. Mr. Molloy was inducted into the National Intercollegiate Hall of Fame in 1990 and the Penn Tennis Hall of Fame in 1997.

He is survived by his wife, Sheila; daughter Nancy and sons Michael and John. Memorial donations can be made to the Molloy Racquets Endowment at the University.

Rev. Morse

Reverend Guy E. Morse, emeritus professor of veterinary medicine, died June 10 at the age of 83. Reverend Morse taught at Penn's large animal facility in New Bolton from 1961 until 1977. He became emeritus professor in 1985. He received his Ph.D. from Cornell University in 1942.

He was ordained a Catholic priest in 1981 and served as pastor of Immaculate Heart of Mary in High Point, NC, until he retired in 1990.

He is survived by his daughters, Nadine M. Noble and Adele M. O'Connell, and son, Alan; a brother and sister; and five grandchildren. Memorial contributions may be made to St. John the Baptist Church, 600 Laurel Ave., Tryon, NC, 28782 or The Teresian House, 200 Washington Ave. Extension, Albany, NY, 12203.

Dr. Overton

Dr. G. Christian Overton, the founding director of the Center for Bioinformatics died on June 1 at the age of 52 from complications arising from cardiomyopathy. Dr. Overton, an internationally recognized pioneer in genomic research, joined Penn in 1991 as a research associate professor of genetics in the School of Medicine. In 1997 he became an associate professor and director of the Center, an interdisciplinary venture between the Schools of Medicine, Arts and Sciences and Engineering and Applied Science. He also held a secondary appointment in the department of computer and information science in SEAS.

Dr. Overton is survived by his wife, Carolyn; two sons, Aaron and Graham, and two daughters, Johanna Hernandez and Natalie Hernandez; his parents, William and Muriel Overton; his brother John Overton and sister Ellen Overton.

In lieu of flowers, the family request that donations be made to: the G. Christian Overton Cardiovascular Research Fund, Medical Center Development, 3535 Market St., Suite 700, Philadelphia, PA, made payable to the Trustees of the University.

Ms. Sengbusch

Melissa Marie Sengbusch died on June 22 of leukemia at age 19. Ms. Sengbusch was a freshman in the School of Nursing. This spring Ms. Sengbusch received a B.S. in Nursing awarded in faculty by the University. Additionally, the Melissa Sengbusch Scholarship has been established in her honor. The scholarship will be awarded each year to an undergraduate nursing student who embodies the values that Melissa showed throughout her time at Penn. In a letter to Ms. Sengbusch advising her of the degree and scholarship, Dr. Lang noted, "You have shown tremendous courage and strength while confronting myriad challenges this year. We are truly blessed to know you and call you an alumna of the School of Nursing."

Ms. Sengbusch is survived by her parents, Lauren and Doug Spiker; brothers Michael, Mark and Matthew Sengbusch; extended family Tanya and Jarrad Michna, Lara Spiker, Ken and Penny Spiker; and her birth father Lee Sengbusch.

Donations may be made to Melissa's Inspiration Scholarship in care of the Board of Trustees, attention: Debbi Yarber-Clarke, Nursing Education Building, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104.

Dr. Shen

Dr. David W. C. Shen, professor emeritus of systems engineering, died of heart failure on June 1 at age 80.

He had earned his B.S. in electrical engineering from National Tsing Hua University in 1938, his Ph.D. from the University of London in 1948, and then held temporary appointments at Adelaide, Illinois and MIT. He joined Penn as assistant professor of electrical engineering in 1957 and eventually retired as professor of systems engineering in December of 1983.

He is survived by a sister in California.

Mr. Wolownik

Stephen M. Wolownik, formerly of the Lippincott Reference staff at Van Pelt Dietrich Library, died on May 18 at age 53.

Mr. Wolownik, a native Philadelphian, earned his B.A. in Russian at Penn in 1968. He studied ethnomusicology at the University of California--Berkeley, where he was a Fulbright Scholar. Mr. Wolownik had a long association with the Penn Libraries. He began as a student worker in the Music Library and later worked in technical processing at Lippincott while he attended Drexel. Earning his Masters Degree in Library Science, Mr. Wolownik became a staff member in 1984 at the Lippincott Reference Desk and remained so until 1996. He left Penn to become the Assistant Director of the Mount Laurel Public Library, a position he held until his death.

He is survived by a brother. Donations can be made to St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church, 817 N. 7th St., Philadelphia, PA 19123.

Almanac, Vol. 47, No. 1, July 18, 2000

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