Passings

To share a recent passing of a member of the Pitt community, Please submit a request to the Pittwire editorial staff. Publicly available obituaries of current and former faculty and staff, students, and alumni will be considered for inclusion in Pittwire Passings.

Leon L. Haley Jr.

Haley, a Pitt School of Medicine alumnus who was dean of the University of Florida College of Medicine and CEO of UF Health, Jacksonville, died in a jet ski accident on July 24, 2021, in West Palm Beach. He was the son of Leon L. Haley, a former Pitt senior vice chancellor and dean of the University's Graduate School of Public and International Affairs.

Gerald S. Levey, former chair of Pitt's Department of Medicine

As chair of medicine at the Pitt School of Medicine from 1979 to 1991, Levey oversaw a mammoth reorganization of the school's operations and finances. He recruited distinguished faculty and department chiefs and implemented a physician practice plan. In 1983, Levey was among the founders of what is now known as UPMC.

Frederick S. Humphries, former Florida A&M University president, dies at 85

A champion of historically Black colleges and universities and education for students of color, especially in the sciences, Humphries led FAMU to be the leading producer of Black baccalaureate degree holders during his presidency from 1985 to 2001. Prior to that, he served as president of Tennessee State University (1974 to 1985).

Humphries earned his masters and doctorate degrees in chemistry at Pitt, becoming the first Black person to obtain a PhD from that program. He later served as a Pitt trustee.

Edward "Eddie" Patrick Carmack

Carmack, a six-year Pitt Police Department veteran, died on June 22, 2021, after a three-year battle with cancer. He was 49.

Prior to joining the Pitt Police, where he served as a detective and SWAT team member, Carmack was a police officer for the city of Charleston, SC, and CIA headquarters.

Jerome L. "Jerry" Rosenberg , served for 64 years at Pitt as faculty member and administrator

Rosenberg, who moved from his longtime home in Squirrel Hill to Rockville, Md., four years ago, died on June 12, 2021, of multiple organ failure. He was just eight days shy of becoming a centenarian.

Rosenberg's contributions to Pitt were unparalleled, said Chancellor Emeritus Mark Nordenberg.

“Jerry Rosenberg truly was extraordinary, a person with unbelievable intelligence and a seemingly inexhaustible supply of energy,” said Nordenberg, who served as chancellor from 1995-2014. “He came to Pitt as a chemistry professor and served as dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for 16 years. Then, as he reached what others might have considered to be retirement age, he completely reinvented himself by becoming Pitt’s chief research integrity officer."

Stewart Cole Blasier, founder of Pitt's Latin American Studies Center

Blasier, founder of Pitt's Center for Latin American Studies (CLAS), a pioneering scholar, and a veteran of the U.S. Foreign Service and World War II, died June 6 of a suspected heart attack at his retirement home in Mitchellville, Md. He was 96.

During his 10 years as CLAS director, beginning in 1964, Blasier recruited key faculty members and curated a vast collection of Latin American journals, books and other resources at Pitt, currently numbering more than 380,000 volumes and known as the Eduardo Lozano Latin American Collection. It remains one of the 10 largest such collections in the country.

Blasier authored numerous books and papers and continued teaching political science and international relations at Pitt until 1987, when he became chief of the Hispanic Division of the U.S. Library of Congress.

Nancy Hrinya Tannery

Nancy Hrinya Tannery, a retired assistant provost and former senior associate director of Pitt's Health Sciences Library System who was recognized as Academic Medical Librarian of the Year by the Medical Library Association, died on May 14, 2021. She also held faculty appointments at Pitt's schools of information science and medicine.

Franklin Toker, architectural historian known for scholarship on Pittsburgh, Fallingwater

An architectural historian and archaeologist whose scholarship unearthed revelations about Italy’s Florence Cathedral, Fallingwater and Pittsburgh landmarks, Toker died on April 19, 2021, at his Squirrel Hill home, 10 days shy of his 77th birthday.

For more than 40 years, he taught the history of art and architecture to students at Pitt and Carnegie Mellon University. His two best-known books are “Pittsburgh: An Urban Portrait” and “Fallingwater Rising: Frank Lloyd Wright, E.J. Kaufmann and America’s Most Extraordinary House.”

Larry E. Davis, pioneering dean of the School of Social Work, dies at 74

Larry E. Davis, dean of Pitt’s School of Social Work from 2001 to 2018 and founding director of its Center on Race and Social Problems, died on March 30, 2021.

Under his leadership, the School of Social Work was ranked among the country’s top 10 social work schools by U.S. News & World Report. He recruited faculty members with wide-ranging specialties, made the school’s doctoral program more rigorous and gained a reputation for being the kind of leader who helped others be successful.

Abraham Twerski, Pitt professor emeritus and Gateway Rehabilitation Center founder, dies at 90

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski, a Pitt associate professor emeritus of psychiatry and an international authority on addiction who founded Pittsburgh's Gateway Rehabilitation Center, died from COVID-19 on Jan. 31, 2021, in Israel.

Allan R. Sampson, founding chair of Pitt's Statistics Department

Sampson, the founding chair of Pitt's Department of Statistics from 1997 to 2000 and an active researcher, teacher and mentor as an emeritus professor, died on Jan. 30, 2021.

Rory A. Cooper, director of Pitt's Human Engineering Research Laboratories, said Sampson also was "a pioneer in the field of accessibility and inclusion for scientists and engineers with disabilities, having led by example as a leading scientist with a disability."

Dick Thornburgh, former Pennsylvania governor and U.S. attorney general and a Pitt alumnus and trustee

More pragmatic engineer than passionate ideologue when it came to politics, Thornburgh—a Pitt Law alumnus—maintained a largely untainted reputation that won the trust both of voters who elected him Pennsylvania’s chief executive from 1979 to 1987 and of multiple presidents who tapped him for key roles before and after his governorship.

Pitt Chancellor Patrick Gallagher said, "Dick Thornburgh stood in rare company as a leader, colleague and friend, and we're indisputably better off—as a university and a society—due to his incomparable integrity, ingenuity and dedication to serving others."

Robert Lee Gale: Pitt professor was prolific biographer of famous authors

Gale's body of work, an astonishing 68 tomes written over the decades, includes critical biographies of literary giants such as Mark Twain, Henry James and Nathaniel Hawthorne.

A World War II veteran, Gale was penning yet another book when he fell Nov. 11—Veterans Day—severely injuring his hip. He died on Nov. 26, 2020, of complications related to his injuries. He was 100.

Anicet Mundundu, African drum master and ethnomusicologist

A respected multi-instrumentalist, scholar and producer, the Congo native died on Nov. 26, 2020, from complications of pneumonia. He was 62.

Mundundu earned his master’s and doctoral degrees in Pitt's ethnomusicology department, where he also taught music fundamentals, piano, world music and music technology, and directed the University's African Drumming Ensemble.

Martin Staniland

Staniland, a professor emeritus in Pitt's Graduate School of Public and International Affairs (GSPIA) who played a central role in building the school and shaping its international affairs and development programs, died on Nov. 26, 2020.

Staniland joined GSPIA in 1984 as an associate professor. He was subsequently promoted to full professor and went on to serve as the school’s interim dean from 1995 to1996, interim associate dean in spring 2012 and the director of the International Affairs Program. He twice received the Joseph Pois Award for Distinguished Service from GSPIA. He retired in April 2018.

David Young Miller

David Young Miller, a faculty member at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs (GSPIA) since 1998 who served in various administrative roles at the school, died Nov. 17, 2020.

He was the founding director of the school's Center for Metropolitan Studies, as well as founding advisor of the Congress of Neighboring Communities (CONNECT), where he spearheaded and championed an award-winning national model of networked approaches to leveraging shared policy and program opportunities and resources between the City of Pittsburgh and more than 35 surrounding municipalities.

Miller served as GSPIA’s interim dean (2006-07) and associate dean (1998-2006) and was co-director of the Center for Public Policy and Management in Skopje, Macedonia (2000-06).

James G. Greeno, distinguished experimental and educational psychologist

James G. Greeno, a leading scholar at Pitt's Learning Research and Development Center (LRDC) and Department of Psychology from 1976 to 1984, died on Sept. 8, 2020, following a prolonged illness. He was 85.

After retiring from Stanford University, Greeno returned to Pitt from 2003 to 2012 as a visiting professor and adjuct professor at the School of Education as well as a center affiliate at LRDC and resident fellow of the Center for Philosophy of Science.

John Najarian, Pioneering Transplant Surgeon, Dies at 92

John S. Najarian, a groundbreaking transplant surgeon who made headlines for taking on difficult cases, died on Aug. 31, 2020, in Stillwater, Minn. He was 92.

Najarian served as an immunology fellow at Pitt from 1960 to 1963.

Demetreus Gore, the 'spark plug' for Pitt basketball in the 1980s, dies at 54

A key figure in Pitt’s rise to national prominence in the late 1980s, Gore died on Aug. 30, 2020, after suffering a heart attack while working out at a gym in the New York area. Current Pitt Men's Basketball Head Coach Jeff Capel tweeted in tribute to Gore, “RIP to a Panther great. Another brother gone too soon!”

William Hayes Thies

Pitt alumnus William Hayes Thies died on Aug. 16, 2020, in Lake Forest, Ill.

After earning his PhD in pharmacology from Pitt's School of Medicine, Thies was a faculty member in the medical schools of Pitt and the University of Illinois before joining the American Heart Association, where he formed a new stroke division that later became the American Stroke Association. He took on senior leadership roles at The Alzheimer's Association National Office starting in 1998. He retired In 2013 from full-time work as the Chief Medical and Scientific Officer. Under his leadership, the Alzheimer’s Association awarded millions of dollars to Pitt that resulted in significant advances in Alzheimer’s research.