In Memoriam

Ralla Klepak ’57, ’59 MS, Chicago, April 25, 2019, age 82. A powerful advocate, Klepak worked with clients from the Chicago LGBTQ community throughout the 1960s and ’70s. She represented gay clients in entrapment and public indecency trials and defended gay bars in liquor license confiscation cases. She represented gay partners in same-sex adoption and estate cases, offered services for transgender clients in changing birth certificates and legal names, defended gay service members in court-martial cases and provided estate planning for those dying from AIDS. Klepak drew up the charter and did pro bono work for the gay rights organization Mattachine Midwest. In 2017 she was inducted into the Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame as a Friend of the Community. Klepak also campaigned with Sister Margaret Traxler for women’s rights in the 1960s. Klepak taught at Chicago-Kent College of Law. Photo by Israel Wright

Robert J. “Bud” Korengold ’51, March 15, 2019, Vernon, France, at age 89. After four years in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War and a stint with the Army Times, Korengold worked for United Press International as a Paris and London correspondent and bureau chief in Geneva and Moscow, where he met American defector Lee Harvey Oswald in 1959. After a Nieman Fellowship in 1964, Korengold returned to Moscow as Newsweek’s bureau chief, a role he later held in London. He joined the U.S. Information Agency in 1973 and worked as a public affairs counselor at U.S. embassies in Europe. He was the White House coordinator of public diplomacy for President Ronald Reagan’s meeting with Mikhail Gorbachev at the 1985 Geneva Summit. Korengold was inducted into the Medill Hall of Achievement in 2006. He is survived by his wife, Christine; sons Kevin and Emlyn; and four grandchildren.

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.

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

Richard Elden ’56, Chicago, July 13, 2018, at age 84. Born and raised in Chicago by parents connected to the Esquire Inc. media empire, Elden began his career in journalism. He was a staff writer for the Daily Northwestern and in 1953 joined six other college reporters on a rare reporting tour of the Soviet Union. The experience led him to positions at International News Service and later the Chicago Sun-Times, where he worked as a business reporter. In his early 30s, Elden reinvented himself, earning an MBA at the University of Chicago and later founding Grosvenor Partners (now CGM Grosvenor), an asset management company, in 1971 with $500,000 in capital. During his three decades at the helm of Grosvenor — a period that spanned almost the entire history of the hedge fund industry — he created the first fund of funds in the U.S. and pioneered the diversification strategies that form the basis of modern portfolio theory. He also worked with some of the world’s most prominent investors and managers, including Carl Icahn and Julian Robertson. Elden retired in 2005. In addition to his work at Grosvenor, he served on the investment committee of the Field Museum and was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Mr. Elden is survived by his wife of 57 years, Gail; his daughter, Cindy; his son, Thomas; and his sister, Joan Feitler.