In Memoriam

Jerome “Jay” Singer ’53 MS, Berkeley, Calif., July 30, at age 97. A pioneering physicist, Singer helped develop the technology for MRI scanners. During 25 years at the University of California, Berkeley, Singer created a device to measure blood flow in mice and then in human fingers and arms. He was nominated for a Nobel Prize for his work, and 2003 Nobel winner Paul C. Lauterbur credited Singer for creating “an early predecessor to MRI” in his acceptance speech. Singer, who taught and conducted research in electrical engineering and computer science and biophysics at UC Berkeley, came to higher education after working as a furrier, an electrician and machinist. He spent a few months at Boeing, where he unsuccessfully tried to make jetliners quieter. Singer, who founded or co-founded several high-tech software and MRI technology companies, is survived by his two children, Martha and Sam; and four grandchildren.

Lois Kroeber Wille ’53, ’54 MS, ’90 H, Chicago, July 23, at age 87. A fearless investigative journalist and editorial writer, Wille earned two Pulitzer Prizes during her 34-year newspaper career at Chicago’s three major dailies. She joined the Chicago Daily News in 1956 as an assistant to the fashion editor and eventually became one of two female news reporters at the paper. Her five-part series on the city’s policy of denying low-income women access to birth control earned the paper the 1963 Pulitzer Prize for public service. When the paper folded in 1978, she joined the Chicago Sun-Times and led its editorial page. Six years later she left for the Chicago Tribune and went on to win the 1989 Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing. She retired in 1991. Wille, a former managing editor of the Daily Northwestern, also wrote two books about Chicago. She is survived by her husband, Wayne Wille ’52, ’53 MS; and two nephews. Photo: Chicago Tribune/TCA

Georgie Anne “Gee Gee” Geyer ’56, ’93 H, May 15, 2019, Washington D.C., at age 84. A  foreign correspondent and columnist, Geyer covered international politics and interviewed some of the most controversial world leaders, from Fidel Castro to Saddam Hussein. Geyer started her career at the Southtown Economist and later worked at the Chicago Daily News. She moved to Washington, D.C., in the mid-1970s to write a column for the Los Angeles Times before joining Universal Press Syndicate in 1980. She focused on international affairs in a column that was published in more than 120 newspapers. Geyer, who spoke Spanish, German, Russian and Portuguese, published 10 books, including Buying the Night Flight: The Autobiography of a Woman Foreign Correspondent (1983). She was a frequent guest on weekly political news programs. In 1997 Geyer was inducted into the inaugural class of the Medill Hall of Achievement. Photo courtesy of Northwestern University Archives

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.