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Deaths |
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October 30, 2012,
Volume 59, No. 10 |
Dr. Brimmer, Wharton
Dr. Andrew F. Brimmer, former assistant professor of finance in the Wharton School, passed away October 7 at age 86.
Dr. Brimmer was a member of the Wharton School faculty from 1961 until 1966. In 1963, President John F. Kennedy appointed Dr. Brimmer deputy assistant secretary of commerce for economic policy and then assistant secretary for economic affairs. In 1966, he was appointed to the Board of Governors for the Federal Reserve System by President Lyndon B. Johnson, becoming the first black member of the Board.
Dr. Brimmer then served on the Wharton School’s Board of Overseers from 1973 until 1974.
Prior to joining the Wharton School, he was an economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York from 1955-1958, where he advised the newly independent Sudanese government on establishing a central bank. He was also a member of the Michigan State University faculty from 1958-1961.
After leaving the Board in 1974, Dr. Brimmer taught at Harvard Business School and started a consulting firm, Brimmer & Co. In the 1990s, Dr. Brimmer was the first chairman of the District of Columbia Financial Control Board.
In 1965, he was cited for excellence during his tenure as assistant secretary and was presented the Arthur S. Flemming Award.
For over 40 years, Dr. Brimmer served on the Board of Trustees of Tuskegee University in Alabama, which named its business school for him.
Born to sharecroppers in Louisiana, Dr. Brimmer received a BA in 1950 and an MA in 1951 from the University of Washington, and a PhD in 1957 from Harvard University. He studied in India as a Fulbright Scholar.
Dr. Brimmer is survived by his wife, Doris; and daughter, Esther.
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Dr. Menocal, Romance Languages
Dr. María Rosa Menocal, former assistant professor of Romance languages in the School of Arts & Sciences, passed away October 15 from melanoma; she was 59.
A native of Havana, Cuba, Dr. Menocal earned a BA in medieval Romance languages in 1973, an MA in French in 1975 and a PhD in Romance philology in 1979, all at the University of Pennsylvania. A year later, she was appointed to the Penn faculty as an assistant professor of Romance languages and also served as acting director of Penn’s Center for Italian Studies.
In 1986, Dr. Menocal joined the faculty at Yale University. She was named the R. Selden Rose Professor of Spanish and Portuguese in 1993, and in 2005, became a Sterling Professor of the Humanities, the highest honor that Yale confers on members of its faculty. She was also the director of Yale’s Whitney Humanities Center from 2001 to 2012. Prior to that, Dr. Menocal served as director of graduate studies and chair of the department of Spanish and Portuguese.
Dr. Menocal focused her research on the literary traditions of the Middle Ages and on the interaction of various religious and cultural groups in medieval Spain. She authored several books including The Ornament of the World: How Muslims, Jews and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain, of which a documentary is under development for public television.
While at Penn, she also served as editor of the journal Hispanic Review.
Dr. Menocal was awarded Mellon and Guggenheim fellowships and in 2011 was named a fellow of the Medieval Academy of America.
Dr. Menocal is survived by her husband, R. Crosby Kemper III; ex-husband, George Calhoun; two children, George “Harry” Calhoun and Margaux Calhoun; one grandchild, George Bishara Calhoun; parents, Enrique and Rosa Menocal; and siblings, Lucia Pernot, Enrique Javier Menocal and Elisa Menocal.
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Mr. Morcom, Athletics
Albert Richmond “Boo” Morcom, Penn’s retired track and field coach, supervisor of athletics and record-setter, passed away October 3 at age 91.
After completing his undergraduate studies at the University of New Hampshire and serving in WWII, Mr. Morcom was appointed Penn’s assistant track and field coach in 1949. Two years later, he was recalled for duty in the Korean War. He returned to Penn in 1952 and spent another three decades here in athletics, coaching at Penn until 1974. He retired in 1983 as supervisor of Penn’s intramural sports, then continued to volunteer coach in New Hampshire at local high schools.
An accomplished athlete, Mr. Morcom was elected into seven halls of fame. He was also the National Champion in pole vaulting and was a member of the 1948 USA Olympic Team that competed in London. In 1956, he was chosen as a coach for the USA Women’s Olympic Track Team that competed in Melbourne, Australia. After retirement, he was awarded the New Hampshire Male Athlete of the Year Trophy.
Mr. Morcom is survived by his son, David, C’68; daughters, Carol and Bonney; seven grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren.
Memorial contributions may be made to the University of New Hampshire Track Team, c/o UNH Foundation, 9 Edgewood Road, Durham, NH 03824. |
Dr. Weiss, Veterinary Medicine
Dr. Leon P. Weiss, professor emeritus of cell biology in the School of Veterinary Medicine, passed away October 16 at age 87.
Born in Brooklyn, Dr. Weiss earned his BS from the College of the City of New York in 1944 and his MD from Long Island College of Medicine in 1948.
After serving in the Army Medical Corps, Dr. Weiss taught on the faculties of Harvard and Johns Hopkins Universities.
Dr. Weiss was appointed to the Penn faculty in 1975 as a professor of cell biology in the department of animal biology. He chaired the department from 1976-1995. He also held a secondary appointment in what is now called the Perelman School of Medicine. In 1982, his chair appointment was endowed and he became the first Grace Lansing Lambert Professor of Cell Biology (Almanac January 17, 1984). That same year, he was awarded the Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching. His home department changed to the department of clinical studies/New Bolton Center in 1999. He became emeritus in 2009.
Dr. Weiss’ major work was experimental electron microscopic/histochemical study of the immunologic/hematopoietic systems, notably spleen, bone marrow and thymus. He also conducted research on malaria, work he continued after retiring from Penn.
Dr. Weiss helped design the medical school curriculum at his alma mater, now the City College of New York, and helped found two programs at Penn—the Center for the Interaction of Animals and Society and the Center for Aquatic Animal Medicine and Pathology.
In addition to teaching, Dr. Weiss was a medical consultant and served on many committees of medical organizations. He held memberships in numerous professional and scientific societies including the American Association of Anatomists, the American Society of Zoology and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He also was a long-standing member of the Corporation of the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Massachusetts.
He held several editorial positions, including serving as editor, in the 1980s, of a leading textbook, Histology, and illustrated many of his own pen-and-ink drawings of cells and tissue structure as seen through an electron microscope.
A memorial service will be held Saturday, November 24, 2 p.m., at 370 Aubrey Rd., in Wynnewood, PA. Another memorial will be held in the summer at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA.
Dr. Weiss is survived by his wife, Ellen; children, Marisa, C’79, M’84, Philip, Stephen, Alice, C’81, V’84, Nathaniel, EAS’89 and Eve; and 12 grandchildren, Adam, Aaron, C’09, Elias, Daniel, Ethan, Henry, Isabel, C’13, Madeleine, Sara, Ella, Owen and Livia. |
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Almanac -
October 30, 2012, Volume 59, No. 10
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