Volume 25 · Number 3 · Spring 2008
In Memoriam
Felix Battistella
Lois O'Grady
Felix Battistella, M.D. ’85, a professor and chief of trauma and emergency surgery at UC Davis Medical Center known for his skill and compassion, died from cancer in January at his home. He was 48. He joined the faculty in 1991 after completing his residency in the surgery department. He received teaching and physician honors from medical students, surgery residents and nurses. He became director of the department’s residency program and also served in 2004–06 as hospital chief of staff. More . . .
Daniel Brower
As a historian, Daniel Brower was an expert on modern Russia, but he introduced thousands of students to the world. In addition to teaching courses on Russian history, Dr. Brower developed and taught a popular undergraduate course, “World History of the 20th Century.” His textbook The World in the Twentieth Century: From Empires to Nations, first published in 1988, is in its sixth edition. A faculty member during 1968–2006, he died in February 2007 at age 71. He wrote a number of books, most of them about Russian history. More . . .
Frank Child, chair of the economics department during 1963–80 and leader of the grassroots movement to establish the city of Davis’ bike paths — the first in the nation — died in January in Santa Cruz of congestive heart failure. He was 86. He left UC Davis in 1983 to become dean of social sciences at UC Santa Cruz, where he retired in 1987.
Lois O’Grady, who joined the School of Medicine in 1967 as one of the original faculty members and its first female teacher, died at her Sacramento home last December at age 71. In 1972, her colleagues honored her with a Distinguished Teaching Award. As associate dean of student affairs in 1976–79, she led efforts to revise admissions policies after the U.S. Supreme Court threw out racial quotas in the landmark Allan Bakke case. An expert on breast cancer, she served as chief of staff for the UC Davis Medical Center in 1989–90. More . . .
Lindy Kumagai was chair of a School of Medicine task force on opportunities for disadvantaged students in the 1970s when a white applicant named Allan Bakke was twice denied admission, and he was closely involved in the resultant Supreme Court case, helping build an argument that diversity was a compelling interest in higher education. Longtime medical director of the Paul Hom Asian Clinic in Sacramento, he received a Special Recognition Award for lifetime contributions to minority students in medicine from the American Association of Medical Colleges in 2004. He died last November at age 80.
Allen "Jerry" Marr
Allen “Jerry” Marr, a professor emeritus of micro-biology who served as dean of graduate studies and research in 1969–89, died of cancer in January at age 78. He joined the faculty in 1952. “He was the architect of graduate education on this campus,” said Douglas Minnis, who served as associate dean of graduate studies under Dr. Marr. More . . .
Arnold “Rosy” Rosenwald ’30, a pioneering Co-operative Extension poultry pathologist emeritus who mentored countless veterinarians and poultry producers worldwide during a career that spanned more than 70 years, died in January in Davis at age 98. Based at UC Davis in 1950–77, he helped establish professional groups and conferences, and received numerous awards for his contributions. More . . .
George York II, Ph.D. ’60, a Cooperative Extension food bacteriologist who advised commercial and home canners on safe methods of preserving food, died in January of pneumonia at a Davis hospital. He was 82. An authority on botulism and other food-borne infections, he was based at UC Davis his entire 1960–93 career.