In Memoriam

John “Mac” McQuown ’57, Sonoma, Calif., Oct. 22, 2024, at age 90. A Wall Street innovator, McQuown helped create the first equity index funds in 1971 while working at Wells Fargo Bank in San Francisco. Index funds, which were developed by applying data analysis to the stock market, revolutionized investing, such that Bloomberg Markets magazine called McQuown “one of the architects of the modern investing system.” Though he started out studying mechanical engineering at Northwestern, a corporate finance class changed McQuown’s trajectory. After graduating and serving two years in the U.S. Navy, McQuown earned his MBA from Harvard Business School and began working on Wall Street with Smith Barney & Co. He developed more than a dozen companies and co-founded Wells Fargo Investment Advisors, now part of the asset management firm BlackRock. After moving to Sonoma County, Calif., in 1995, he and his wife, Leslie, established Stone Edge Farm Estate Vineyards & Winery. The farm earned the 2017 California Governor’s Environmental and Economic Leadership Award for its energy-efficient operation. Committed to sustainability, the McQuowns established the John A. and Leslie W. McQuown Fund for Climate Technology Assessment at Northwestern and the John and Leslie McQuown Fund for Finite Earth. They also supported the Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems and helped establish the Julio M. Ottino Professorship in the McCormick School of Engineering, in honor of the longtime dean of the school. McQuown delivered the 2015 McCormick convocation speech and received the Northwestern Alumni Medal in 2017. In addition to his wife, he is survived by his son, Morgan.

Read more about McQuown and his Northwestern legacy.

Photo by Jim Prisching

James Jerger ’51, ’52 MA, ’54 PhD, Lake Oswego, Ore., July 24, 2024, at age 96. A pioneer of modern audiology, Jerger joined the Northwestern faculty after earning his doctorate in 1954 and became director of the Audiology Research Laboratory while still in his 20s. He left Northwestern in 1961 and spent several years as director of research at the Houston Speech and Hearing Center before becoming a professor of audiology and director of the Division of Audiology and Speech Pathology at the Baylor College of Medicine. He spent 30 years at Baylor, building the audiology program. After retiring from Baylor in 1997, he was a Distinguished Scholar in Residence at the University of Texas at Dallas. In 1988 Jerger founded the American Academy of Audiology and created the Journal of the American Academy of Audiology, for which he served as editor in chief for more than 25 years. He received the American Audiology Society’s Raymond Carhart Memorial Award, which is named for longtime Northwestern professor and audiology program head Raymond Carhart ’34 MA/MS, ’36 PhD. Jerger also received the American Auditory Society’s Lifetime Achievement Award and the first Lifetime Career Research Award from the American Academy of Audiology, which was later named the James Jerger Award for Research in Audiology in his honor. He is survived by his wife, Susan, and three sons. 

Hazel Marie Hitson Weidman ’51, Hope, Maine, April 22, 2024, at age 100. Weidman served during World War II as part of the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service program. As a flight instructor, she taught U.S. Navy pilots to fly by instruments, radio navigation and celestial navigation. Weidman graduated cum laude from Northwestern in 1951 under the GI Bill. She was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and majored in anthropology, then went on to earn a doctorate in social relations from Harvard University. Weidman was a pioneer in the field of medical anthropology, teaching at the College of William and Mary and the University of Miami, where she helped establish and directed the medical school’s Office of Transcultural Education and Research. She helped organize the Society for Medical Anthropology within the American Anthropological Association. The society’s Hazel Weidman Award for Exemplary Service honors her legacy. Weidman is survived by her son, Charles; grandchildren Shani, Liana and Farin; nieces Karen, Leslie and Anny; and nephews Bruce and Brian. 

Martin Aliker ’54, ’58 DDS, Kampala, Uganda, April 15, 2024, at age 95. A skilled dental surgeon, businessman and higher education administrator, Aliker founded the first private, African-owned dental practice in Kampala. He attended Northwestern on scholarship, then received a Fulbright Award to complete his doctorate in dental surgery. After establishing his practice, he served as a senior presidential adviser and foreign affairs minister in President Yoweri Museveni’s administration in Uganda. Aliker was on the board of directors of nearly 40 companies, including Coca-Cola. He became the founding chancellor of Gulu University from 2004 through 2014 and later served as chancellor of Victoria University in Kampala. A generous Northwestern benefactor, Aliker donated an operatory to the Northwestern University Dental School and spoke at the Dental School’s Convocation in 1993, the same year his son, Okello Aliker ’93 DDS, graduated. Martin Aliker is survived by his son and his wife, Camille.  

Henry Wadsworth McGee Jr. ’54, Seattle, March 17, 2024, at age 91. A distinguished law professor, civil rights activist and housing advocate, McGee worked as a government prosecutor, private firm litigator and regional director of the U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity’s Legal Services Program. McGee earned his law degree from DePaul University in 1957. As a National Lawyers Guild volunteer, he traveled to Mississippi in 1964 to defend Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee members who were arrested for assisting with Black voter registration. Part of a pioneering cohort of Black law professors, McGee held tenured and emeritus positions at the University of California at Los Angeles School of Law and the Seattle University School of Law. He received two Fulbright Fellowships, was a visiting fellow at Oxford University and served as a fellow of the Mexican Academy of Private International and Comparative Law. An accomplished violinist, McGee played with the Seattle Philharmonic Orchestra and other community music groups. He was a board member of the Seattle Low Income Housing Institute, the Museum Development Board for the Seattle Art Museum and other organizations. He is survived by his wife, Victoria; sons Henry, P. Byron, Kevin, Gregory and Erik; daughters by marriage Kristin and Melanie; nephews Paul and Alan; and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Pierson “Sandy” Grieve ’50, Naples, Fla., Feb. 24, 2024, at age 96. A Minnesota businessman and civic leader, Grieve began his career at Caterpillar Tractor and worked as a management consultant for A.T. Kearney, Rap-In-Wax and AP Parts. Grieve later became CEO of Economics Laboratory, now known as Ecolab, a sanitization and cleaning products company. During his tenure, sales grew from under $500 million to over $2 billion. Grieve chaired the Minnesota Metropolitan Airport Commission and headed the Minnesota Business Partnership. He received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor in 2004, the Kappa Sigma Man of the Year award in 1997 and the University of Minnesota’s Regents Award. Grieve enlisted in the U.S. Navy after high school and served at the Naval Station Great Lakes in northern Illinois before majoring in business at Northwestern. He served on a Kellogg School of Management advisory council, among other roles. Grieve is survived by his children Peggy, Scott and Bruce; five grandchildren; and a great-grandson. He was preceded in death by his wife of more than 60 years, Florence Brogan Grieve ’51.

Image Credit: Courtesy of Ecolab

Kenneth Cornwall ’58, Alameda, Calif., Nov. 4, 2023, at age 93. A scenic painter, designer and technical director at Cahn Auditorium for 40 years, Cornwall was known by the Northwestern community as an all-around tech wizard with an encyclopedic knowledge of theater. After earning his bachelor’s degree in communications, he returned to Northwestern as technical director and became a mentor to generations of theater and music students. By the time he retired in 2000, Cornwall had contributed to nearly 50 Waa-Mu Shows — as an undergraduate student and staff member. With a sharp eye for set-building, prop selection and theater upkeep, he meticulously maintained Cahn Auditorium, as well as Guild Lounge, an event space in Scott Hall where he built original display cases using leftover wood from Cahn stage sets. Cornwall was honored with a Waa-Mu Wall of Fame plaque in the Cahn Auditorium lobby. The Ken Cornwall Award — a Waa-Mu Show award presented annually by Northwestern’s theater department — honors students who show excellence in technical theater. Cornwall is survived by his husband of 25 years, Kenneth Walsh.