Author: Leslie Egbo

Robert Lucid, professor emeritus of English at the University of Pennsylvania died Dec. 12, 2006, at the age of 76. He earned an A.B. from the University of Washington and an A.M. and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. He was an assistant professor of English at Wesleyan from 1959 until 1964. He then joined UPenn’s English department in 1964, where he remained until his retirement in 1996. His research interests focused on Norman Mailer, about whom he had edited two books. Before he passed away, he was in the process of completing Mailer’s authorized biography. Dr. Lucid is survived by his son, John Lucid, a brother and a sister.

STANLEY LEBERGOTT, 91, a retired economist and Chester D. Hubbard Professor of Economics and Social Sciences, Emeritus, whose influential books and articles maintained that consumerism had brought positive changes to the American standard of living, died July 24, 2009. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees, both in economics, from the University of Michigan. Affiliated with the U.S. Department of Labor, the International Labor Office, and the U.S. Bureau of the Budget for 20 years, his early work focused on measures of unemployment, the size and composition of the labor force, wage determination, family income and child welfare. In 1962 he joined the Wesleyan faculty as professor of economics, becoming University Professor in 1970 and retiring in 1995 as professor emeritus. He was a pivotal scholar in his field and a prolific author. In addition to more than 50 articles, his books include: Manpower in Economic Growth: The American Record Since 1800 (McGraw Hill, 1964); Men Without Work (Prentice Hall, 1964); The American Economy: Income, Wealth, and Want (Princeton, 1976); The Americans: An Economic Record (Norton, 1984); Pursuing Happiness: American Consumers in the Twentieth Century (Princeton, 1993); andConsumer Expenditures: New Measures and Old Motives (Princeton, 1996). Wesleyan Professor of Economics, Emeritus, Peter Kilby writes: “The Lebergott scholarly paradigm is a distinctive one. The conventional paradigm entails placing the problem in context, reviewing the ruling interpretations, setting out an appropriately specified model, and concluding with an evaluation of econometric results. Lebergott, by contrast, moves directly to the quiddity of the problem itself. With unusual clarity of vision he isolates three or four key ingredients, and then proceeds with shattering simplicity to conceive a single measure—typically one painstakingly constructed from unconventional sources—that captures the direction and force of the underlying cause. Thus the calculation of two profit rates—on U.S. foreign investment and on the national capital stock—reveals the motive force behind U.S. imperialism at the turn of the century.” Lebergott traced how consumer expenditure has been the means to improved health, reduced drudgery, greater privacy, and to a vast expansion in diversified experience, which lies at the core of human happiness. His son, Steven Lebergott, predeceased him. Survivors include his wife, Ruth Wellington Lebergott MAT ’69; his daughter, Karen Lebergott; and step–grandchildren, including StarRose Keyes–Lebergott ’10 and Sunshine Vogt ’98.

BURTON C. HALLOWELL ’36, former Wesleyan economics professor, died Nov. 21, 2006. (See 1936.)

PAUL HAAKE, Professor of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, Emeritus, died Dec. 3, 2011. He was 79. After receiving bachelor’s and doctoral degrees from Harvard University, he did postdoctoral work at the California Institute of Technology and joined the faculty of UCLA in 1961. He came to Wesleyan in 1968 and during his 25 years as a full-time teacher and scholar at the university contributed to the development of the PhD program in Chemistry and the formation of the Molecular Biology and Biochemistry department. His doctoral research on hydrolysis and isotopic exchange resulted in the 1961 publication of the paper “Hydrolysis and Exchange in Esters of Phosphoric Acid,” a seminal paper in phosphorus chemistry. He taught a popular series of courses for non-science majors and also participated in community issues. In 1975 he was appointed to Connecticut’s Nuclear Power Evaluation Council, a commission concerned with the safety of nuclear power. In 2004, after a dozen years in which he divided his time between teaching at Wesleyan and various other pursuits, he fully retired from Wesleyan.

WALT GROCKOWSKI, retired athletic trainer at Wesleyan, died Oct. 26, 2006. He was a veteran of the U.S. Navy, where he served as a pharmacist?s mate. A graduate of the New Haven College of Physical Therapy, he began his 39-year tenure in the Wesleyan athletic department in 1947 and became the head trainer in 1973. He was one of four athletic trainers for the U.S. Olympic Team during the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo, Japan. He was also active in Middletown athletics, assisting with parks department and American Legion events. He was inducted into the National Athletic Trainers Association Hall of Fame in 1984 and the Middletown Sports Hall of Fame in 1995. He retired from Wesleyan in 1986 but remained active in the community.

WALTER GOTTSCHALK, professor emeritus of mathematics at Wesleyan, died Feb. 15, 2004, of mesenteric ischemia. He was 85. In the early 1940’s, he and his doctoral adviser at the University of Virginia, G. A. Hedlund, introduced the field of topological dynamics: the abstract study of those properties of the set of all solutions of a differential equation that can be determined without solving the equation. In 1955 he and Hedlund published the seminal monograph “Topological Dynamics.” The influence of this work continues and can be seen in areas such as the study of chaotic behavior. He also had a keen interest in the relationship of art and mathematics, particularly in the development of three dimensional objects and sculpture. He showed his constructed polyhedra in a one-man exhibit, “Mathematical Sculpture: Polyhedral Forms” at the Davison Art Center in 1965. He joined the faculty at Wesleyan in 1963 and twice served a term as chairman of the Mathematics Department. He was predeceased by his wife, Margaret Gottschalk. He is survived by a daughter, a son, and four grandchildren.

Norman Joseph Daniels, professor of athletics, emeritus, died May 11, 2009. He was 102 years old. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Michigan, where he was a nine-letter athlete and earned All-American recognition in both basketball and football. He came to Wesleyan in 1934, after two years of teaching and coaching at Hillsdale High School in Michigan. Along with his baseball coaching duties, he also taught classes in aircraft engines and meteorology at the Wesleyan Naval Pre-Flight School throughout World War II. After the war, he was appointed head football coach and led the Cardinal Gridders for 18 years. In his first three seasons, 1946–48, the team had a perfect unbeaten record. During his 39 years at Wesleyan he spent time coaching nearly every sport, until his retirement in 1973. His baseball clubs compiled 247 victories, which included eight “Little Three” titles. His basketball record, 1945–47 was 18 and 8. In eight years as a wrestler mentor, his teams won three “Little Three” championships. Daniels was a member of the American Football Coaches Association, the NCAA Rules Committee, The American Baseball Coaches Association, and the New England Baseball Coaches Association. He was inducted into the College Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974, and in 1948 received the Gold Key Award, presented by the Connecticut Sport Writers’ Association. He was inducted into the Middletown Sports Hall of Fame as a charter member in 1994 and was inducted into the Wesleyan Sports Hall of Fame in 2008. Predeceased by his wife of 66 years, Okla (Climie) Daniels, he is survived by a daughter, a son, 10 grandchildren and 18 great-grandchildren.