Obituaries

April E. Cotte, an outdoor educator and advocate for the rights of indigenous people, died Jan. 25, 2018. She was 49. After graduation she worked in the Connecting with Courage program at Outward Bound in Boston and then moved to the Bay Area to work with adolescent girls as the first program director at Girl Ventures in San Francisco. Her association with Outward Bound continued as she facilitated courses in the Chihuahuan Desert, and she became an advocate for the rights of indigenous communities along the U.S. border with Mexico. She divided her time between her home in California and working as a community activist in Texas. At the time of her death, she was also involved with Gaia Girls, a Bay Area organization that provides long-term mentoring for girls through nature-based programs. She is survived by her partner, Brian Young, their 7-year-old son, her mother, and a brother and sister, as well as the countless friends and young people whose lives she enriched.

Lisa S. Chedekel, a journalist and educator, died Jan. 12, 2018. She was 57. After graduating with a degree in English, she worked at the now-defunct New Haven Advocate. Two years later she joined the New Haven Register. In 1992 she moved to the Hartford Courant, and a year later she was a member of a team of Courantreporters who won the Pulitzer Prize for breaking news coverage of the deadly shooting rampage at the Connecticut Lottery Corp. She also traveled to a Mexican sweatshop that produced apparel for the University of Connecticut and revealed that the university’s athletic director and coaches were swapping game tickets for cars with a sponsor. She switched to political coverage in 2000. In 2002 she spent 10 days in Saudi Arabia to gauge the country’s sentiment towards the United States a year after the 9/11 attacks. One of her most championed pieces was “Mentally Unfit, Forced to Fight,” a 2006 investigative series with another Courant staff writer that exposed the military in violation of its own rules by sending mentally ill soldiers to war in Iraq and Afghanistan. The series won many awards and was a finalist for another Pulitzer Prize. In 2008, she left the Courant and began writing for the Boston University School of Public Health and teaching journalism at Northeastern University. Survivors include her wife, Dr. Isabel Morais; two children; and a cousin, Alexander Rosen ’08.

Richard E. Blake, M.D., 67, an obstetrician and gynecologist, died Dec. 20, 2017. He received his medical degree from New York Medical College. A diplomate of the American College of OB/GYN in OB/GYN and reproductive endocrinology/infertility, he was an associate professor in the Department of OB/GYN at Howard University College of Medicine. Among those who survive are his wife, Joanne Blake; three children; one granddaughter; two brothers; his sister; and two cousins, Dianne M. Garrett ’85, and Mario E. Stewart ’88.

David J. Bonanno, longtime editor of the nationally renowned, Philadelphia-based, American Poetry Review, died Dec. 8, 2017, at age 68. He joined the APR, a premier venue for contemporary poetry, in 1973 on the recommendation of Norman O. Brown, the late professor of philosophy, and he continued to serve there as editor until his death. He worked on both the business and editorial sides. He also served on the literary advisory panel of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and as a board member of the Association of Writers & Writing Programs. His daughter, Leidy Sheeder, predeceased him in 2003, and his wife, the poet Kathleen Sheeder, died in 2007. His son and his brother and sister survive.

John P. Barlow, 70, cyberlibertarian activist, cattle ranger and lyricist for the Grateful Dead, died Feb. 7, 2018. A member of Alpha Delta Phi, he received his degree with high honors from the College of Letters. After graduation he lived in India and New York before setting out for California, where he intended to tour with the Grateful Dead. On his way, he stopped at his family’s ranch in Wyoming and in the wake of his father suffering a massive stroke, he decided to stay. He would go on to practice animal husbandry for the next two decades, but remained in close collaboration with members of the Grateful Dead. Songs borne out of his collaboration include “Cassidy,” “Mexicali Blues,” “Black-Throated Wind,” and many more until the Dead disbanded in 1995. In 1990, he and two other cyber-activists founded the Electronic Frontier Foundation. In 1996 he published his futurist-philosophy manifesto that would become his seminal work: “A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace,” which argued for sovereignty on the Internet after Congress had made its first major attempt to regulate pornographic material on the Internet. Throughout his life, he was a prolific writer and was a frequent collaborator for Wired, the New York Times, Nerve, and others. He documented his cyber-spatial journey to Africa in his Wiredpiece entitled “Africa Rising: Everything You Know About Africa Is Wrong.” In 2012, he co-founded the free-speech nonprofit, Freedom of the Press Foundation. Married twice, his first wife was Elaine Parker Barlow, with whom he had three daughters. His second wife, Cynthia Horner, died. He is also survived by a granddaughter.

Peter C. Reed, a corporate executive, died Aug. 10, 2017. He was 72. After receiving his degree cum laude, he received an MBA from the University of Rochester in operations research. A two-time NCAA wrestling champion at Wesleyan, he worked summers as a road construction foreman on the I-87 Northway. As a CFO and CEO, he had a diverse career spanning computers, military equipment, and aerospace. He is survived by his wife, Brona Barnes Reed, two sons, three brothers and sisters, and an extended family.

Kirtland C. Mead, 74, an international management consultant, died Nov. 26, 2017. He was a member of Alpha Delta Phi and received his degree magna cum laude. Elected to both Phi Beta Kappa and to Sigma Xi, he was a Fulbright Scholar and then received a master’s degree from Stanford in physics and a PhD in engineering from MIT. During his varied and successful international management consulting practice, he lived for a time in Paris and in London, and wrote guides to these and other European cities that he shared with friends and family. He was also an expert in European history. Survivors include his wife, Susan Eldredge Mead; two daughters; four grandchildren; two brothers, including his twin; as well as a large extended family.

Michael O. Smith, M.D., a psychiatrist, acupuncturist, addiction specialist and public health planner who was the director of New York City’s Lincoln Hospital Recovery Center from 1974 to 2011 when he retired, died Dec. 24, 2017, at age 75. He was a member of the John Wesley Club. After receiving his degree magna cum laude and with high honors from the College of Letters, he received his medical degree from the University of California Medical School in San Francisco. An associate professor of psychiatry at Cornell Medical School, now Weill Cornell Medicine, he was certified by the American Society of Addiction Medicine. He was internationally known for developing the use of acupuncture in the field of chemical dependency. More than 2,000 treatment programs worldwide use the Lincoln Hospital model. As chairperson of the National Acupuncture Detoxification Association, he provided consultation to city, county, state, federal, and United Nations agencies in more than 100 settings. He was the first person selected for the National Drug Court Hall of Fame. Among those who survive are two daughters, including Joanna S. Smith ’00.

John G. Sommer, 76, the dean of the study abroad program at the School for International Training from 1981-1999, died Nov. 11, 2017. A member of Beta Theta Pi, he received his degree with honors and with distinction in letters. He also received a master’s degree from the Johns Hopkins School for International Studies in 1968. His career, dedicated to advancing international understanding and development, began as a volunteer building schools in South Vietnam. Co-author of the 1969 book, Viet Nam: The Unheard Voices, he chronicled a growing concern about U.S. action in Vietnam during the late ’60s. From 1970-1975 he served with the Ford Foundation in India, and from 1975-1980 in Washington, D.C., where he had senior positions at the Peace Corps and USAID. In 1981 he joined SIT, where under his leadership more than 14,000 students participated in more than 40 countries. In his honor, SIT established a scholarship in his name. He also served as vice president of Eisenhower Fellowships, an exchange program for emerging world leaders, based in Philadelphia. In 2007 he returned to Vermont. In addition to two children and five grandchildren, he leaves his partner, Ann Wright-Parsons; his former wife, Wendy Solmssen Sommer; and his brother.