In Memoriam

Steven Albini ’85, Chicago, May 7, 2024, at age 61. A legendary indie rock and post-punk performer and studio engineer, Albini was a Chicago music scene fixture. He fronted the bands Big Black and Shellac before becoming a sought-after sound engineer. He recorded many well-known albums, including Nirvana’s In Utero, Pixies’ Surfer Rosa and PJ Harvey’s Rid of Me, and founded the Chicago recording studio Electrical Audio in 1997. He was a longtime critic of exploitation in the music industry, refusing to accept royalties from record companies for his work. Albini first ventured into Chicago’s music scene while at Northwestern, where he wrote music criticism, worked at local record stores and recorded the first Big Black EP, Lungs (1982), using borrowed equipment. While on campus, he studied painting with art theory and practice professor Ed Paschke and contributed to both The Daily Northwestern and Rubber Teeth, a now-defunct student-run humor magazine. Later in life, Albini became a champion poker player, winning nearly $200,000 at the World Series of Poker in 2022. He is survived by his wife, filmmaker Heather Whinna; and his mother, Gina.

Click here to read a tribute to Albini by Zeki Hirsch ’24.

Photo Credit: Getty/Matt Winkelmeyer

Patricia M. Logue ’86 JD, Chicago, Feb. 23, 2024, at age 64. Logue spent her law career advocating for LGBTQ+ justice. She opened the Midwest regional office of Lambda Legal as its managing attorney in 1993 and spent 14 years with the organization. As part of Lambda Legal’s team, she won several landmark cases, including Nabozny v. Podelsny, which held that schools have an obligation to protect students from anti-gay harassment, and Lawrence v. Texas, which struck down sodomy laws nationwide. She argued on behalf of military service members who were discharged for violating the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, as well as those banned from service for being transgender or living with HIV. She also argued a series of cases ensuring legal protections for LGBTQ+ parents. In 2007 Logue joined the Circuit Court of Cook County as an associate judge, serving in the domestic relations division. Logue earned several awards for her work and was inducted into Chicago’s LGBT Hall of Fame in 2003. She is survived by her wife, Marcia Festen; daughters Ruby and Ella; a granddaughter, Hazel; siblings Elizabeth, Anne Martha, Michael and Tim; and many nieces and nephews.

Dan L. Burk ’87 MS, Irvine, Calif., Feb. 4, 2024, at age 61. An expert in technology law, including intellectual property, gene patenting, digital copyright and more, Burk was a founding faculty member of the University of California, Irvine, School of Law (UCI Law), where he was Distinguished and Chancellor’s Professor of Law and faculty director of the AI Global Public Policy Institute. Burk studied molecular biology and biochemistry at Northwestern and became interested in the intersection of law and science after learning of the first criminal conviction in the U.S. based on DNA profiling evidence, in 1987. He received two Fulbright Scholarships, in 2011 and 2017, and he was selected for a Leverhulme visitorship to the London School of Economics and Political Science in 2015. Burk taught intellectual property law at Bocconi University in Milan, the University of Toronto, Sciences Po in Paris, the University of Haifa and Humboldt University of Berlin. Before joining UCI Law, Burk taught at the University of Minnesota Law School and Seton Hall University School of Law. Burk is survived by his wife, Laurie, and his daughter, Rayne.  

Photo Credit: UCI Law 

John Kezdy ’88, Highland Park, Ill., Aug. 26, 2023, at age 64. Kezdy was best known as the vocalist of the Chicago punk rock band the Effigies. Born in Belgium, Kezdy moved to Evanston with his family when he was 3 years old. He attended Evanston Township High School and then the University of Wisconsin–Madison, but he left in 1980, after one year, to join the Effigies, one of Chicago’s first punk bands. Kezdy enrolled at Northwestern and graduated in 1988 with a bachelor’s degree in English. The Effigies broke up in 1990, and Kezdy earned his law degree from DePaul University in 1991. He spent several years as a prosecutor in Kankakee, Ill., and went on to work in the Illinois attorney general’s office. Kezdy revived the Effigies in 2004, and the band released two albums and an EP. Kezdy was among those injured in the mass shooting during Highland Park’s Independence Day Parade in 2022. He is survived by his wife, Erica; children Lena and Lucas; and a brother, Andre. 

Ivan Menezes ’85 MBA, London, June 7, 2023, at age 63. The longtime chief executive of Diageo, Menezes helped grow the company into a global frontrunner in the alcoholic beverage industry. Born in India, Menezes worked for Whirlpool, Booz Allen Hamilton and Nestlé before joining Diageo at the time of its founding in 1997. He became Diageo’s CEO in 2013. He had planned to retire from that role at the end of June 2023. Under Menezes’ leadership, Diageo expanded its portfolio — which contains more than 200 brands, including Guinness, Smirnoff, Johnnie Walker and Captain Morgan. Menezes is credited with cutting Diageo’s carbon emissions in half. He also worked to improve diversity and inclusion, hiring women and ethnically diverse executives into leadership roles. The company ranks No. 2 globally in gender equality, according to Equileap’s 2023 Gender Equality Report. Menezes also chaired Movement to Work, a collaboration among United Kingdom businesses, government, labor unions and charities that aims to provide job opportunities for young people (ages 16 to 30) who are facing barriers to employment. He was a member of the Kellogg School of Management’s Global Advisory Board. Menezes — a citizen of the U.K., U.S. and India — was knighted in January by King Charles III for his business achievements and commitment to gender and racial equality. He is survived by his wife, Shibani; a daughter, Rohini ’10, ’17 MBA; a son, Nikhil; two brothers; and one sister. 

Photo Credit: Diageo

Edmund W. Chang ’80, West Newton, Mass., Aug. 18, 2022, at age 64. Whether it was work, independent projects, design competitions or teaching, Chang never lost his passion for architecture and design. After graduating from Northwestern with a degree in American studies, he worked as a designer for an architectural firm before attending the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. He later moved to Los Angeles and worked as an architect while also teaching at the University of Southern California. In 1990 he and his then partner, former Harvard classmate Roger Sherman, won a design competition for the West Hollywood Civic Center in Los Angeles. In 1992 he started Chang and Sylligardos Architects with his wife, Susan Sylligardos. They relocated to the Boston area and worked on residential and institutional projects for Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In Newton, Mass., Chang designed City Hall’s Millennium Park and worked on an urban design committee for the area. Chang, who retired in 2021, is survived by his wife; his son, Alexander; his mother, Edith; his sister, Phyllis; and his brother, Laurence.

Valerie Boyd ’85, Atlanta, Feb. 12, 2022, at age 58. An associate professor at the Grady College of Journalism at the University of Georgia, Boyd wrote the well-regarded biography Wrapped in Rainbows: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston. Boyd first discovered the Harlem Renaissance writer’s work in an African American studies class at Northwestern. She spent several years as arts editor for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution before she began teaching in 2004. Boyd was named the Charlayne Hunter-Gault Distinguished Writer in Residence at the Grady College in 2007 and was director of the Giving Voice to the Voiceless Program. In 2017 she received a Governor’s Award for the Arts and Humanities, and later this year she will be inducted into Georgia Writers Hall of Fame. Her most recent book project, Gathering Blossoms Under Fire, The Journals of Alice Walker 1965–2000, will be published this year. Her anthology Bigger Than Bravery: Black Writers on the Pandemic, Shutdown and Uprising of 2020 is also scheduled for publication. She is survived by two brothers. 

Photo Credit: Atlanta Journal-Constitution