In Memoriam

Mary Mix McDonald ’46, New Berlin, N.Y., Dec. 12, 2017, at age 92.

Ms. McDonald became the first Republican woman elected to the Cook County Board of Commissioners in 1974. When she stepped down from the board after two decades, she was lauded for writing legislation that served as national models, including ordinances that raised the drinking age from 18 to 21 and made parents responsible for teen vandalism and teenage drinking in the home.

Ms. McDonald also chaired the county board’s Chicago Botanic Garden committee and in 1994 joined the garden’s board. She helped raise funds to annex a 100-acre oak woodland, which was named in her honor in 1996.

Ms. McDonald is survived by her children, Elizabeth, Sandra and Gerald; four grandchildren; two great-grandchildren; and two brothers, B. John Mix Jr. ’53, ’56 JD and Joseph Mix.

Norbert L. Gold ’46, Winnetka, Ill., Nov. 13, 2017, at age 93.

When Mr. Gold was diagnosed as a Type 1 diabetic at age 16, his doctors did not think he would live past age 30. But Mr. Gold mastered his health by watching his diet and taking his insulin. He lived with diabetes for 77 years. In 2004 Eli Lilly honored him for being a diabetic on insulin therapy for more than seven decades.

After studying English and history at Northwestern, Mr. Gold earned a law degree from John Marshall Law School before embarking on a career as an attorney and real estate appraiser. As an attorney for the Illinois Highway Department, he bought farmland for the construction of Interstate 55. Mr. Gold then joined Litton Industries as an attorney and director. He purchased and sold more than 100 properties in the Midwest area.

Mr. Gold established his own real estate appraisal and brokerage firm. He appraised more than 20,000 properties and served as an expert witness on property values in county courts and federal bankruptcy courts.

He is survived by his wife, Mary Lou Bilder; three children, Carolyn, Tom and Bill; a stepdaughter, Marina; and seven grandchildren.

Raymond Simon ’42 MS of New Hartford, N.Y., Nov. 7, at age 102. Known as the “father of public relations education,” Mr. Simon earned international recognition as a pioneering public relations educator and textbook author.

After serving in the U.S. Army Signal Corps during World War II, the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications graduate was hired by Syracuse University to develop one of the first undergraduate programs in public relations at Utica College, then a Syracuse satellite campus, where he established one of the first chapters of the Public Relations Student Society of America. He wrote three textbooks on teaching public relations and several public relations handbooks.

He was the first member of the Utica College faculty to receive the Distinguished Teacher Award and he remains the only faculty member to receive it twice. Mr. Simon, who retired in 1985, was also named among the 20th century’s 100 most influential people in public relations by PRWeek. The Public Relations Society of America honored him with its 1975 Outstanding Educator Award.

The alumni-funded Raymond Simon Institute for Public Relations at Utica College has awarded more than $250,000 in scholarships and awards and funds faculty projects and student activities. The Raymond Simon Convergence Media Center, which opened in honor of Mr. Simon’s 90th birthday in 2005, is home to Utica College’s public relations and journalism programs.  

Mr. Simon is survived by his wife Lyn; two daughters, Melissa and Brooke; and a grandson, Daniel.

Photo courtesy of Utica College

C. Knight Aldrich ’40 MD, Charlottesville, Va., Nov. 3, 2017, at age 103.

A pioneer in integrating psychiatry into general medical practice, Dr. Aldrich became the first chair of the psychiatry department at the University of Chicago in 1955. He advocated for prioritizing psychiatric training in the medical school’s curriculum and revolutionized how mental illness is taught to medical students.

After nine years at the University of Chicago, he took a break from academia to care for psychiatric patients at mental health centers in New Jersey and Virginia. He later taught psychiatry and family medicine for several years at the University of Virginia.

Dr. Aldrich is survived by his daughter, Carol; his son, Robert; eight grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

Photo courtesy of the University of Chicago

Gerald O. McDonald ’43, ’47 MD, ’48 GME, McLean, Va., Oct. 12, 2017, at age 94.

After serving as a captain in the U.S. Army Medical Corps, Dr. McDonald worked as a surgeon with the Veterans Administration in Chicago until 1984, when he became deputy director of surgical services at the VA in Washington, D.C. He developed instruments used for abdominal surgery and in the late 1950s worked on groundbreaking cancer research that led to the development of chemotherapy.

During the Chicago Blackhawks renaissance in the 1960s, Dr. McDonald served as the team physician, a gig he landed after providing emergency care for an injured player. He also helped treat an injured policeman during the 1968 Democratic Convention riots in Grant Park.

Dr. McDonald is survived by his wife of 33 years, Irma; their two sons, Nuri and Sushil; their grandchildren, Jaden and Parker; his children, Elizabeth, Sandra and Gerald; his four grandchildren; and his two great-grandchildren.

William C. Jakes ’44, ’47 MA, ’49 PhD, Stowe, Vt., Sept. 30, 2017, at age 95. Known for his lifetime commitment to the communication sciences, Mr. Jakes is credited with laying down the basic physical and systemic principles that helped make possible the mobile cellular systems.

After graduating from Northwestern, Mr. Jakes served in the U.S. Navy aboard the USS Boxer. After completing his doctorate, he joined the AT&T Bell Labs, where he spent a decade researching microwave antennas and propagation. He designed and operated Bell Labs’ station for participation in Project Echo, the first successful satellite communication experiment bouncing microwaves from coast to coast off an orbiting 100-foot diameter balloon.  

In the following years, Mr. Jakes became a department head charged with studying mobile radio. He led research propagation, antennas and systems to characterize and with the hostile mobile radio environment.

In 1987 he was co-recipient of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Alexander Graham Bell Medal, along with Richard Frenkiel and Joe Engel, for their fundamental contributions to the theory, design and deployment of cellular mobile communications systems.

Mr. Jakes is survived by his wife, Mary; his children, Robert and Elizabeth; and three grandchildren, Andrew, Emma and Hannah.