Volume 28 · Number 2 · Winter 2011
In Memoriam
Norman Akesson, an agricultural engineering faculty member from 1947 to 1984 whose research on pesticide drift led to safer methods for applying crop chemicals, died in September in Davis. He was 96. In addition to numerous scientific publications, he co-authored with UC Davis colleague Wesley Yates a 1974 manual, The Use of Aircraft in Agriculture, for the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization.
Harry Colvin Jr., Ph.D. ’57, an animal physiologist who won awards for his teaching and student advising during his 1965–90 tenure, died in October in Davis at age 88. An authority on digestion in cows, sheep and other ruminants, he received Fulbright awards to teach in Yugoslavia and Argentina. Among other honors, he received a campus Magnar Ronning Award for Teaching Excellence, won three outstanding adviser awards and was selected by students as grand marshal of the 1984 Picnic Day Parade. He was a World War II Army veteran who landed at Normandy Beach, participated in the Battle of the Bulge and received the Bronze Star for bravery and the Purple Heart for combat injuries.
Bruce Hackett, a sociologist who studied commune life and energy conservation practices and policies, among other topics, died in August. A resident of Davis, he was 76. He joined the sociology faculty in 1966 and retired in 2002.
Everett “Bill” Jameson Jr., a zoology faculty member during 1948–88 who also raised falcons and wrote a book on Chinese characters, died in August of a suspected heart embolism at his Roseville home. He was 89. An authority on the reproduction, diet, hibernation and parasites of rodents, he received a Guggenheim fellowship in 1958 to study fleas in Japan. Among books he authored, co-authored or edited are: the natural history guide, California Mammals, textbook Patterns of Vertebrate Biology; manuals and histories of falconry in North America and Japan; and A Short Dictionary of Simplified Chinese Characters.
Donald Jasper, former dean of the School of Veterinary Medicine and an authority on milk quality and livestock disease, died in July in Davis at age 91. He joined the nascent veterinary school in 1947, helped develop pathology as a separate discipline at UC Davis and served 1954–62 as the school’s second dean. He retired in 1989. Among his many honors was a 1967 Borden Award from the American Veterinary Medical Association for his research contributions to dairy cattle disease control. In addition to his scholarly publications on milk quality and mastitis, an inflammation of the cow’s udder, he also wrote the 1964 book, A Short History of the School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California.
William Moss, an economics faculty member during 1972–79, died in September 2009 in Arlington, Mass., where he had lived for many years. He most recently worked as a principal for the Brattle Group; he retired in 2003 following his diagnosis of Lou Gehrig’s Disease (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS).
Johannes “John” Stek, Ph.D. ’70, who became a mechanical engineering lecturer after a private-industry career in aerospace turbine design, died in Davis in September at age 95. A native of the Netherlands, he completed his doctorate at UC Davis while working full time at Aerojet. After retiring from there in 1980, he taught classes at California State University, Sacramento, and UC Davis until 1994.