JUSTINE JACOBY COOK, 53, a former casting director and production manager, died Nov. 7, 2013. She worked as a casting director for film and television in Hollywood and later as a production manager for the Marat Daukayev School of Ballet in Los Angeles. Her husband, Douglas Cook, and two children survive.
PETER W. WEISMILLER, an ethnomusicologist and guitar teacher, died Jan. 14, 2014. He was 63. After receiving his degree cum laude and with honors, he moved to Seattle in 1979 for the master’s program in ethnomusicology at the University of Washington. He taught humanities for many years at the Northwest School in Seattle and helped organize programs of Asian music in the Seattle area. One brother, three sisters, and nine nieces and nephews survive.
CHARLES M. RAFFEL, 63, longtime professor of Jewish philosophy at Yeshiva University Stern College for Women, died Apr. 19, 2014. He was known as the mainstay of the school’s Jewish philosophy program, as well as a beloved colleague and teacher. Among those who survive are his wife, Rivka Raffel, two children, two brothers, and two cousins, Dr. Richard B. Parad ’77, and Rebecca E. Parad ’09.
EDWARD D. OHLBAUM, professor of law at Temple University, known in the legal community as a pioneer in trial advocacy, and the author of a treatise on evidence, died Mar. 13, 2014. He was 64. After receiving his degree cum laude and with several prizes, he received a master’s degree in Religion from Wesleyan and then his law degree from Temple University. He spent seven years with the public defender’s office in Philadelphia and then worked for Temple University’s office of university counsel, from which he joined the law school faculty. He created a trial advocacy program there and taught students how to represent their clients skillfully, zealously, and with complete integrity. In 1994 he was named the inaugural Jack E. Feinberg Professor of Litigation. His advocacy programs won awards from the American College of Trial Lawyers and the Committee on Professionalism of the American Bar Association. The author of three books and numerous articles, he traveled widely to speak on evidence and advocacy at key international and domestic conferences. He was also deeply committed to the Support Center for Child Advocates and to his synagogue. His wife, Karyn L. Scher, his son, and his sister survive.
PAUL F. MACRI, an attorney and founding member of the Maine Music Society, died Apr. 9, 2014, at age 65. He received his law degree from the University of Maine School of Law, where he was an editor of the Maine Law Review. After law school he clerked for the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. For many years he was a partner in Berman and Simmons in Lewiston, Maine. He was a fellow of the Maine Bar Foundation, the Maine Board of Bar Examiners, the State Court Library Committee, and a trustee of the Androscoggin County Law Library. In 2005 he became only the third Maine lawyer to be inducted into the American Academy of Appellate Attorneys. For a number of years he wrote a legal column for the Sun Journal newspaper. Music was also his passion, and he sang with the Androscoggin Chorale as well as with the a cappella group Top Forty. Survivors include his wife, Joan McKenty Macri; his daughter, Anne Macri ’02; his son; one grandson; his mother and stepfather; two siblings; an aunt; several nieces, including Elena M. Schilder ’07; and a large extended family.
G. BRADLEY RAINER, 66, a lawyer and teacher at Temple University School of Law, died Mar. 5, 2014. He received his law degree from Temple University. In 1976 he opened his own law firm until he joined Hecker, McGinnis, Rainer & Brown in Philadelphia, where he was a partner and then managing partner. He later was a partner in Rubin Quinn Moss Heaney & Patterson, and then in Eckell Sparks before joining Reger Rizzo & Darnall. His specialty was estate and trust work, although he also practiced business law in the six years he was with Reger Rizzo. At Temple, he taught courses in transactional practice, or the legal questions facing business entities, and in continuing legal education, and he was considered an expert in matters of legal ethics. He was a founding member and a president of the board of A Better Chance, which fosters educational opportunities for young people of color in Lower Merion, and he also helped to lead other agencies that work with at-risk children and victims of sexual abuse. Among those who survive are his wife, Joan Klamkin Rainer, two children, his mother, two brothers, and three sisters.
JOHN F. HOLLENBACH, a builder and architect in Vermont’s Champlain Valley, died Apr. 4, 2014, at age 68. He was a member of Beta Theta Pi and received a master’s degree in architecture from Harvard University. He moved to Vermont as a landscape architect in 1973, and then started work as a builder in 1974. From the 1970s through the 1990s, he used his building and design skills on both residential and commercial projects, working on hundreds of buildings in the Champlain Valley. In 2000, he and his wife moved to Bangladesh where he renovated and expanded the American International School. In 2006, they moved to Cairo, where he headed the design and construction of a new campus for Cairo American College, a K-12 school. During 2011and 2012 he worked for the International School of Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, overseeing the development of a new campus. His wife, Beth Phillips, survives, as do two children, his sister, and three nieces.
GEORGE L. SMITH JR., M.D., a cardiologist, co-owner of the restaurant John Ash and Co., and one of the founders of Viking River Cruises, died Apr. 15, 2014. He was 71. A member of the Commons Club, he received his medical degree from the University of Tennessee. He served in the U.S. Army medical corps in Vietnam before completing his training with a cardiology fellowship in San Francisco. He settled in Santa Rosa, Calif., in 1975, when heart patients had to travel to San Francisco for surgery, and he worked to make heart surgery available in Santa Rosa. A founding member of Cardiology Associates in Santa Rosa and of Northern California Medical Associates, he retired from full-time clinical work two years ago but remained involved in medical administration, teaching residents and system reorganization at Sutter Hospital. He was also a member of the Board of Directors of the California Chapter of the American College of Cardiology and chair of the political action committee, as well as a member of the Board of Overseers at the Hoover Institution. He was a founder of the Sonoma Country Day School. Dr. Nancy Doyle, from whom he was divorced but with whom he remained close, survives, as do his two children, two sisters, and a brother.
DEREK L. TATTERSALL, 72, a retired advisory programmer for the IBM Corporation, died Jan. 17, 2014. He was a member of Beta Theta Pi and received a master’s degree from the Carnegie Institute of Technology. He worked for IBM for 30 years. Among those who survive are his wife, Aimee Butcher Tattersall, two children, his brother, and many nieces and nephews.
C. LEIGH TRAVIS, an artist, musician, advocate, writer, and legal assistant, died Nov. 28, 2013. He was 74. A member of Psi Upsilon, he received his master’s degree from Wesleyan in 1963. He was the son of Clayton V. Travis of the class of 1928. After earning a PhD at the University of Michigan in English literature he taught there and at Eastern Michigan University and numerous community colleges. He spent the latter half of his life helping families resolve custody issues. An early advocate for Father’s Rights, he helped to change the local and national court system to recognize both parents as viable caregivers. In addition to the two academic texts he prepared as part of his graduate work that provided detailed psychoanalytic interpretations of the works of D.H. Lawrence, he wrote a novel, Gauntlet, as well as a collection of short stories. As a pianist and musician he led different jazz groups and also led the Ann Arbor Federation of Musicians for years. His artwork included illustrations and contributions to periodicals, as well as freelance work for different organizations. Survivors include his son, (Quentin) Brent Travis ’92; eight grandchildren; his daughter-in-law, Lori Beth Hendin Travis ’92; and two sisters.
