In Memoriam

Denise M. Stillman ’99 KSM, Nov. 7, 2018, at age 46. Mrs. Stillman enjoyed a two-decade career in marketing, during which she received the Public Relations Society of America’s MacEachern Award and numerous Silver and Gold Trumpets from the Publicity Club of Chicago. In 2012 she decided to leave that behind to start her own business, Go the Distance Baseball. With help from investors including Hall of Famer Wade Boggs and actor Matthew Perry, she purchased the 193-acre farm and baseball diamond used in Field of Dreams. Preserving the iconic field, surrounded by cornfields in Dyersville, Iowa, was just a small part of Mrs. Stillman’s dream to create a baseball mecca akin to Cooperstown in New York. Plans for All-Star Ballpark Heaven include team lodging and 24 baseball and softball diamonds. (See Denise Miarecki Stillman: Baseball Heaven.) Mrs. Stillman is survived by her husband, Tom Mietzel; a daughter, Claire; a son, John; and sisters Debra Vera and Abby Shelton. Photo by Dave Kettering/The Telegraph Herald in Dubuque, Iowa

Thomas H. Hooper ’58 MA/MS, Grantville, Ga., Oct. 19, 2018, at age 85. As a news anchor and consumer watchdog for WITI-TV, Hooper earned the trust of the Milwaukee community. Hooper pioneered the “Contact 6” consumer protection segment, during which Hooper strived to solve problems that viewers sent in to the show. The station sometimes received hundreds of letters each week with viewer appeals for help. Hooper’s work led to changes in several Wisconsin laws, including statutes dealing with children who had been abused. Hooper was involved in Habitat for Humanity and the Make-A-Wish Foundation and hosted the Muscular Dystrophy Association’s annual telethon. In 2010, the Midwest Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Science gave Hooper a Wisconsin Silver Circle Award, which honors longtime TV personalities who have had an impact on their local community through television programs. Hooper is survived by his wife, Peggy; his two sons, Scott and Jay; and three grandchildren. Photo courtesy of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

William J. “Bill” Froehlig ’50, ’65 MA/MS, Tallahassee, Fla., Sept. 29, 2018, age 92. For more than four decades, Froehlig — better known as “The Sandwichman” — wheeled his 100-pound cart, filled with nearly 20 different kinds of sandwiches, through the Evanston campus, providing late-night meals to hungry students. After serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II, Froehlig graduated from Northwestern. He used the money he earned from selling sandwiches to support his family and put himself through graduate school. However, after teaching math and science in Chicago for five years, Froehlig began selling sandwiches full time. He and his wife, Donna, spent up to five hours each day making the sandwiches that Froehlig, often accompanied by his German shepherd, Champ, would deliver, sometimes until 2 in the morning. He retired in 1988 and later moved to Tallahassee. In addition to his wife, Froehlig is survived by five children, John, Sally, Lisa, Jane and David; six grand­children; two great-grandchildren; and a brother, Richard.

Marcia Lipetz ’80 PhD, Evanston, Sept. 11, 2018, age 71. Known for her commitment to civil rights, Lipetz helped create and guide some of Chicago’s most important LGBTQ organizations. She served as the first full-time executive director of the AIDS Foundation of Chicago as the crisis unfolded in the 1980s and helped to establish the Center on Halstead, the largest LGBTQ social service agency in the Midwest. Lipetz also contributed to educational and outreach efforts related to HIV and co-chaired (with Fred Eychaner ’66) a local American Civil Liberties Union task force that led to the organization’s AIDS and Civil Liberties Project. She earned her doctorate in sociology from Northwestern and later taught at the University. In 2009 Lipetz was inducted into the Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame. She is survived by her wife, Lynda Crawford, and a sister, Judith Graham. Photo by Hal Baim, courtesy of Windy City Times 

Constance Lorraine Hairston Morton ’42 MA/MS, ’08 H, Sept. 8, 2018, Evanston, age 99. A civil rights champion and a longtime educator, Morton became the first African American mayor of Evanston in 1993. She served four terms, retiring in 2009 as the city’s longest-­serving mayor. After a brief stint in Tuskegee, Ala., Morton and her husband, James T. Morton Jr. ’35 MA/MS, ’42 PhD returned to Evanston in 1953. A public school teacher, Morton broke the color ­barrier at Nichols Middle School in 1957, when she became the first African American to teach at a ­majority-white Evanston school. After 36 years in District 65 schools, Morton was elected alderman for Evanston’s 5th Ward in 1982. Evanston’s city hall was renamed the Lorraine H. Morton Civic Center in her honor. In 2014 Morton donated her public papers to Northwestern University Archives. Morton, who died just three months before her 100th birthday, is survived by her daughter, Elizabeth Morton Brasher; and two granddaughters, Elizabeth and Constance. Photo courtesy of University Archives

Kuldip Nayar ’52 MS, Aug. 23, 2018, New Delhi, age 95. An esteemed journalist and activist, Nayar was a staunch supporter of press freedom, democracy and human rights. He studied journal­ism at Northwestern, then went on to lead various Indian newspapers, including the Indian Express and the Statesman. In the 1970s Nayar was jailed for protesting “the Emergency,” a 21-month period during which Prime Minister Indira Gandhi curbed civil liberties, imprisoned political opponents and enacted widespread censorship. Nayar also worked to improve relations between India and Pakistan throughout his life. In the 1990s Nayar served as the High Commissioner of India to the United Kingdom and was nominated to Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian parliament, in 1997. He is survived by his wife, Bharti; two sons, Sudhir and Rajiv; three grandchildren, Kanika, Mandira and Kartik; and three great-grandchildren. Photo by Jaskirat Singh

For more information on Nayar, see the Guardian's obituary. 

P. Sterling Stuckey ’55, ’68 MA ’73 PhD, Riverside, Calif., Aug. 15, 2018, age 86. An acclaimed scholar, Stuckey transformed the field of African American history, reimagining the consequences of American slavery. His best-known work, Slave Culture: Nationalist Theory and the Foundations of Black America (1987), helped to inspire a generation of scholars. Born in Memphis, Stuckey worked as a civil rights organizer for the Congress of Racial Equality in Chicago during the 1960s and began his doctoral work at Northwestern shortly after the Freedom Summer in 1964. He started teaching history at Northwestern in 1970 and moved to the University of California, Riverside, in 1989. He held the UC Presidential Chair and taught courses in modern U.S. history before retiring in 2004. Stuckey is survived by his wife, Harriette; a daughter, Lisa Dembling; a son, Cabral Wiley-Stuckey; a granddaughter; and a great-granddaughter. Photo by Benoit Malphettes