Gerry Hurst, Jr., Wharton

Ernest Gerald (Gerry) Hurst, Jr., emeritus professor of operations & information management at Wharton, passed away suddenly in Quito, Ecuador on January 15, at the age of 76.

Originally from Hillsboro, Illinois, Dr. Hurst earned his BS, MS and PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and held a two-year faculty appointment at the European Institute for Advanced Studies in Management in Brussels.

Before coming to Wharton, Dr. Hurst started a management science group in the Power Transmission Division of the General Electric Company.

He came to Wharton in 1969  where he was one of the founders of the decision sciences department, now operations & information management, and became the first chairman of that department in 1975. Dr. Hurst had many roles at Wharton, including the director of the Executive MBA Program and the first assistant dean for International Affairs. His research and teaching interests spanned the department’s mission and included the translation of newly-developed techniques into tools useable on real management problems. During his career, he published numerous research papers focusing on information systems’ support for management decision-making.

After becoming emeritus in 1996, Dr. Hurst co-founded GHR Systems, Inc., a leading third-party provider of software and information services in the mortgage and consumer banking industry, where he served as president, CFO, vice chairman and director. He also served on the boards of a number of startup technology companies.

He is survived by his wife, Siri Hurst; brother, John T.; sisters, Susan Kershaw and Sara Hurst-Dodd; sons, John W. and David T.; stepson, Aram Yardumian; and grandsons, Trey Wilder Hurst and Alexander Hurst.

Donations may be made to the Bryn Athyn College Business Program, P.O. Box 708, Bryn Athyn, PA 19001, www.brynathyn.edu/give

Karen Murphy, CCEB

Karen Murphy, former Penn administrator, died January 8 at age 61 after a long battle with frontotemporal degeneration, a form of dementia.

Ms. Murphy was born at the Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri. The oldest of six children, she grew up throughout the US and Japan. In 1971, she graduated from Riverview High School in Sarasota, FL.
Ms. Murphy’s early career was in decorative hardware and interior design. She worked for West End Hardware before taking a job at the Marketplace Design Center in Philadelphia.

In the mid-1990s, Ms. Murphy was hired by the University of Pennsylvania, where she worked in administrative positions in the Center for Clinical Epidemiology & Biostatistics. She studied liberal arts at Penn and was an active member of the Penn & Pencil Club. She retired in 2012.

In 2011, Ms. Murphy donated a kidney to her son-in-law, James Rowan. “It was one of the proudest, most gratifying moments of her life,” said daughter Theressa Creighton. Ms. Murphy’s final act was the donation of her brain and spinal cord to Penn’s Frontotemporal Degeneration Center in the hope of finding a cure or treatment.

Ms. Murphy is survived by her partner, Paul; a daughter, Theressa Creighton; a grandson; two brothers; two sisters; and nieces and nephews.

Donations may be made to the Penn Frontotemporal Degeneration Center via http://ftd.med.upenn.edu/gifts or to the National Kidney Foundation via www.kidney.org/support

David White, Chemistry

David White, emeritus professor and former chair of chemistry in the School of Arts & Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania, passed away January 30 at the age of 90.

Dr. White was born January 14, 1925 in Ukraine, USSR. He received his BS in 1944 from McGill University and his PhD in 1947 from the University of Toronto in Canada.

In 1947, he came to the US where he had a position at the Ohio State University as a postdoctoral fellow and later as assistant director, then director of the Cryogenic Laboratory.

Dr. White was one of the leading scientists in the area of hydrogen and its isotopes, with the Department of the Navy supporting much of his research in the 1940s. He witnessed the first hydrogen bomb explosion and designed the expansion engine for liquefying gases, giving the patent to Air Products.

Dr. White was appointed professor and chairman of Penn’s chemistry department in 1966. He helped build a chemistry department that attracted world-class faculty including Nobel award winners (Almanac October 17, 2000). He later became the director of Penn’s Laboratory for Research on the Structure of Matter (LRSM) in 1981.

Dr. White was involved in many professional societies and boards, such as the National Research Council Board on Science and Technology for International Development and various panels of the National Science Foundation.

Dr. White is survived by his children, Sharon, Jacqueline (David) Kaplan and Edward (Barbara Sprague); sister, Rose Yasin; and ten grandchildren, Emily, Michael, Aaron, Ali, Jacob, Joshua, Jonathan, Rachel, Leah and Joseph.

Donations may be made in Dr. White’s memory to the department of chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania: https://giving.apps.upenn.edu/giving/jsp/fastdo?program=SAS&fund=630006

The department is planning a memorial.