Tag: 1981

JAMES S. ROBINSON, an award-winning journalist, died Jan. 13, 2004, of complications from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. He was 44. After graduating from Wesleyan he received a master’s degree from the Columbia University School of Journalism. At the time of his death he was the associate director of the Stanford University News Service and edited the university’s faculty/staff newspaper. Under his editorship the paper won the Gold Medal for Excellence from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) in 2002. He came to Stanford in 1998 following a distinguished career at newspapers including the Springfield (Mass.) Republican and Agence France-Presse. A certified interpreter, he spoke French, Italian and Spanish fluently. Survivors include his partner, Ken Wingard, his parents, a brother, and a nephew and niece.

CHARLES A. MORSS III, M.D., a physician, died Jan. 21, 2008. He was 50. Survivors include his parents, two brothers, and a sister.

It is with great sadness that we report the death of DARIA DONNELLY, Class of 1981. Daria died in Boston, Massachusetts on September 21, 2004, three years after her first symptoms of multiple myeloma, cancer of the bone marrow. She leaves her husband, Steven Weissburg, and two children, Leo and Josephine.

A native of Pittsburgh, she received her elementary and secondary education from Mercy nuns. After majoring in religion at Wesleyan University, Daria taught in an inner-city high school, cooked for a Catholic Worker house in Rochester, NY, and spent a year studying (Hebrew and religion), traveling, and dog-watching in Jerusalem. A love of literature and desire to integrate that with religious studies led Daria to a PhD in English and American Literature from Brandeis University. She studied nineteenth-century American poetry and theodicy under the MacArthur genius grantee Allen Grossman. Teaching (at Boston University), research, and writing followed. In 2000, she joined the staff of Commonwealth Magazine, an independent journal of opinion edited and managed by lay Catholics, as Associate Editor At Large and Poetry Editor.

MICHAEL J. AUGER, an attorney and principal of the Law Offices of Michael J. Auger in Farmington, Conn., died Oct. 26, 2010. He was 51. A member of Chi Psi, he received his law degree from Western New England College. He was an avid sports fan and coached his children’s teams. He is survived by his wife, Deborah Ostroski Auger, his parents, his son and daughter, three sisters, and an extended family.