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.