Obituaries | Faculty

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.

Stephen Crites, Hedding Professor of Moral Science and Professor of Philosophy, Emeritus, died Sept. 13, 2007, at the age of 76.

A graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University, he majored in philosophy and concentrated in music. He then attended Yale, earning a Bachelor of Divinity degree and a PhD in philosophical theology. An ordained Methodist minister, he served as pastor of Grace Methodist Church in Stonington, Conn., and later as Wesleyan’s chaplain. He also taught at Yale Divinity School and at Colgate University.

Professor Crites joined the Wesleyan Religion Department faculty in 1961, later moving to the Philosophy Department. He was a much-loved faculty member who taught courses in the Philosophy of Religion and related fields, focusing on 19th-century European philosophy and religious thought, with a special interest in Hegel and Kierkegaard.

“Stephen Crites was an inspiring teacher, a thoughtful, engaged scholar, and a passionate and caring member of the campus community,” noted Wesleyan President Michael S. Roth ’78. “I remember Stephen vividly from my student days,” Roth added, “and have met many alumni over the years whose lives were enriched by his devotion to teaching and to finding connections between narrative and experience, between faith and philosophy.”

A widely published scholar and editor of several journals, his books include Dialectic and Gospel in the Development of Hegel’s Thinking: From the Early Writings through the Phenomenology of Spirit (Penn. State University Press, 1998). A gifted musician and singer, he performed a varied repertoire of works.

After 40 years of service, Prof. Crites retired from Wesleyan in 2001. In addition to his wife, Ann, he is survived by his four daughters, four stepchildren, and eight grandchildren.

A memorial service was held this fall at the Wesleyan Chapel.

PHILIPPA M. COUGHLAN, 75, a clinical psychologist who was the founder and for nearly 40 years the director of Wesleyan’s Office of Behavioral Health for Students (OBHS), died Mar. 17, 2011, after a brief illness. A graduate of Boston University, she received a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she worked with Carl Rogers. At Wisconsin, she was a principal in the post-Vatican II transformation of the University Catholic Center. Following an NIMH post-doctoral fellowship at the Wisconsin Psychiatric Institute, she was appointed to the faculty in the University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate school before joining the Department of Psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine. While there she was invited by Wesleyan to become head of the mental health service. Many generations of students benefited from her professional skills, diligent work, and caring support. She was a pioneer in the field of behavioral health for college students and spent a lifetime making a positive difference in young people’s lives. She held a Diplomate in clinical psychology and was a member of the American Psychological Association, the National Register of Health Service Providers in Psychology, the Society for Psychotherapy Research, and the Association of Social Psychiatry. For eight years she served as the chair of the Connecticut Board of Mental Health and Addiction Services and as a Governor’s appointee to the Community Mental Health Strategy Board. Her publications were in psychotherapy, instrumentation (process and outcome), mental retardation, and sexual violence. She is survived by her husband Neil and son John, daughter-in-law Karen and grandson Patrick, brother-in-law Paul, sister-in-law Tina, and nieces Nicole and Monica.

ROBERT E. BROWN, a distinguished ethnomusicologist who taught at Wesleyan from 1962 to 1971, died Nov. 29, 2005. He was 78. A U.S. Navy veteran of World War II, he attended Ithaca College, Cornell University and the University of California at Los Angeles. He reportedly coined the term ‘world music’, by which he meant study based on the presence of living musicians so that students have direct contact with master musicians. An expert in the music of India and Indonesia, he founded the nonprofit Center for World Music and was a pioneer in making the music of Indonesia available internationally. He also established a music school and research center in Payangan, Bali, to which students, teachers and performers come from all over the world.