Edwin Fabricius, Sports Information

Edwin S. Fabricius, C’55, former director of sports information in the department of athletics at Penn, died on November 13 as the result of a stroke. He was 82 years old.

Mr. Fabricius graduated from the College of Arts & Sciences at Penn, where he was a member of Delta Tau Delta. He also served in the US Marine Corps. In 1961, he became Penn’s director of sports information, a position he held through the mid-1970s. He also established the Sports Hall of Fame (Almanac April 9, 1996). Among many other accomplishments, he was director of communications for the US Tennis Association, a member of the Philadelphia Sports Writer’s Association and a consultant to the US Olympic and Special Olympic Committees.

Mr. Fabricius is survived by his wife, Patricia; his children, Stephen (Charlene), Kenneth (Denise), Nancy (Kenneth) and David (Elizabeth); his grandchildren, Melissa, Andrew, Michael, Julianna and Anjolie; and his great-grandchildren, Aleisa, Stephen, James and Judy.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to the American Diabetes Association, 1701 N. Beauregard St. Alexandria, VA 22311.

Harry Gaber, Wharton

Harry Gaber, a retired associate director at the Wharton School, died on October 27. He was 92 years old.

Mr. Gaber joined the Wharton Dean’s Office as an administrative assistant in 1961. In 1969, he was promoted to business administrator. In 1975, he took on a new role as personnel and auxiliary facilities coordinator within Wharton Executive Education. In 1978, he became associate director of Executive Education. He retired in 1990 after 29 years of service.

Mr. Gaber is survived by nieces and nephews. Donations in his memory may be made to the Pennsylvania SPCA, 350 E. Erie Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19134 (http://www.pspca.org).

Eugene R. Nixon, Chemistry

Eugene Nixon, professor emeritus of chemistry, died on January 10, 2015. He was 95 years old.

Dr. Nixon was born in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan and graduated from Alma College in 1941. He began his graduate studies in chemistry at Brown University. After four years on the Manhattan Project, he returned to earn his PhD in 1947. He spent two years on the Brown faculty before joining the chemistry department at Penn in 1949.

Dr. Nixon was a member of the chemistry faculty at Penn for 37 years. During his tenure, he taught chemistry to hundreds of students, both graduate and undergraduate, and supervised the dissertations of 29 PhD candidates. He published approximately 100 scientific papers on his research, which primarily focused on several kinds of spectroscopy and the study of the interactions between radiation and chemical systems.

During his tenure at Penn, he also served as vice dean of the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, acting chairman of chemistry and director of the Laboratory for Research on the Structure of Matter (LRSM). He achieved the rank of full professor in 1969, and retired in 1986. He was a member of the American Chemical Society for 72 years.

Dr. Nixon is survived by two daughters, Cynthia DuBose and Emily Blum, four grandchildren and two great grandchildren.