In Memoriam
In memoriam is a page to read featured obituaries of Northwestern alumni, faculty and staff. Visit Remembrances to read memorials of Northwestern community members submitted by their family or peers. Please send obituaries to alums@northwestern.edu.
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Charles Richard “Dick” Kramlich ’57, Oakville, Calif., Feb. 1, 2025, at age 89. A venture capital pioneer, Kramlich became a general partner at Arthur Rock & Co. in 1969. He then co-founded New Enterprise Associates (NEA) in 1977 and helped grow the firm into a Silicon Valley powerhouse, serving as NEA’s managing partner for its first seven funds. Among the earliest investors in Apple, Kramlich and NEA invested in networking and communications equipment manufacturers and software development companies in the 1990s. Kramlich retired from NEA in 2012 but continued to invest in technology and communications, manufacturing, logistics and real estate as CEO of Kramlich Investment Group and co-founder of Green Bay Ventures. A prolific art patron and collector, he and his wife, Pamela, built a media art collection that includes more than 150 video, film and media installation works. In addition to his wife, Kramlich is survived by children Christina, Richard and Mary Donna and many grandchildren.
Roxelyn “Roxy” Miller Pepper ’53, Barrington, Ill., Dec. 12, 2024, at age 92. Pepper, the daughter of J. Roscoe Miller ’30 MD, ’31 GME, Northwestern’s 12th president, was a generous benefactor and loyal supporter of the University. After graduating, Pepper helped her husband, Richard Pepper ’53, expand Pepper Construction into one of the nation’s largest and most respected construction firms. In 1987 the Peppers founded the Pepper Family Foundation, where Roxy served as vice president. The foundation supported many Chicagoland institutions. In 2020 the Peppers endowed the Roxelyn and Richard Pepper Family Chair in Civil and Environmental Engineering at Northwestern. They also created the Pepper Family Foundation Civil Engineering Wing of the Technological Institute. In 2005 they endowed the Roxelyn and Richard Pepper Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at the School of Communication. In July 2024 Pepper established the Pepper Family Community Impact Fund, which benefits faculty, clinicians and students in the Center for Audiology, Speech, Language and Learning. She served on Northwestern’s Board of Trustees from 1985 to 1989. In 2001 she and her husband jointly received the Northwestern Alumni Medal. Pepper is survived by children Stan, Dick, Lisa and Scot; 18 grandchildren; and 22 great-grandchildren. Richard died in 2021. Read more about Pepper’s legacy.
John McKnight ’53, Evanston, Nov. 2, 2024, at age 92. A racial justice advocate, McKnight was professor emeritus of speech and urban affairs at Northwestern. His activism began when, as a student, he opposed segregation and quotas that limited the number of Black and Jewish students at the University. An ROTC scholar, McKnight joined the U.S. Navy after graduating and spent three years in Asia during the Korean War. He then returned to Chicago and worked for the Chicago Commission on Human Relations and the Illinois affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union. After serving as Midwest director of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, he returned to Northwestern in 1969 to help create the Center for Urban Affairs (now the Institute for Policy Research). He wrote several books and co-founded DePaul University’s Asset-Based Community Development Institute with John “Jody” Kretzmann ’85 PhD. McKnight is survived by his wife, Marsha; his son, Jonathon; stepchildren Marc, Stuart, Eric and Scot; seven grandchildren; and three nieces and nephews.
Photo Credit: University Archives/Janet Mesic Mackie
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.