Volume 30 · Number 4 · Summer 2013
In Memoriam
Faculty
Robert Ball ’55, who as a longtime UC Davis employee worked to ensure that growers receive best quality seeds and other agricultural products, died in March. An U.S. Air Force veteran, he was 82. He was the manager of the California Crop Improvement Association and assistant director of Foundation Seed and Plant Materials Service. He played a major role in planning UC Davis’ seed research center. In 1985, he received the Academic Federation’s James H. Meyer Distinguished Achievement Award. He is survived by a sister; six children, including daughter Jan ’77, M.D. ’88; and 11 grandchildren.
Gerald Orlob, a professor emeritus of civil and environmental engineering and a world authority on water quality modeling, died in March in Poulso, Wash. He was 88. A faculty member during 1968–1991, he was elected to the National Academy of Engineers in 1992. In 2002, he and his wife endowed the Gerald T. and Lillian P. Orlob Professorship in Water Resources Engineering
John Tanno, an associate university librarian during 2002–06 and an accomplished classical guitarist, died in February at his Sacramento home. He was 73. He also wrote columns for Guitar Review and Soundboard.
Robert Thornton, who taught biology, botany and plant physiology courses to undergraduates for 34 years, died at his Davis home in March after a six-month battle with cancer. He was 75. He received the Academic Senate Distinguished Teaching Award in 1975. He was co-author of a widely used plant biology textbook. He retired in 2001. He is survived by his wife, Lorna (Cowling) ’67; two children; four grandchildren; a sister; and a brother.
Earl Wolfman Jr., the first chair of the Department of Surgery who helped lay the groundwork that began the School of Medicine, died in March in Elk Grove at age 86. He joined UC Davis in 1966 as founding associate dean of the School of Medicine, working closely with Dean John Tupper to recruit faculty, develop curriculum and designing and obtaining building space. He retired in 1991, but remained involved in campus and medical center affairs. He and his late wife, Lois, made gifts to the university to establish an endowed surgery professorship. He received the 2012 CAAA Distinguished Friend of the University Award. He is survived by daughters Nancy Bacon and Carol Anne Edgar; son David ’75; a sister; and six grandchildren.
Friends
Luree (Beard) Shontz, of Davis — a longtime UC Davis supporter and wife of the late former UC administrator Howard Shontz ’41, M.ed. ’58 — died in March at age 92. During World War II, she served in the Army Nurse Corps. She served on the UC Davis Foundation board, was active in the Prytanean Women’s Honor Society and the International House, and was a supporter of the UC Davis Annual Fund and the UC Davis Bodega Marine Laboratory in Bodega Bay and other university initiatives. Survivors include a daughter, Robin Murphy; sons, Brian ’74, and David; six grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.