In Memoriam

Raymond Simon ’42 MS of New Hartford, N.Y., Nov. 7, at age 102. Known as the “father of public relations education,” Mr. Simon earned international recognition as a pioneering public relations educator and textbook author.

After serving in the U.S. Army Signal Corps during World War II, the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications graduate was hired by Syracuse University to develop one of the first undergraduate programs in public relations at Utica College, then a Syracuse satellite campus, where he established one of the first chapters of the Public Relations Student Society of America. He wrote three textbooks on teaching public relations and several public relations handbooks.

He was the first member of the Utica College faculty to receive the Distinguished Teacher Award and he remains the only faculty member to receive it twice. Mr. Simon, who retired in 1985, was also named among the 20th century’s 100 most influential people in public relations by PRWeek. The Public Relations Society of America honored him with its 1975 Outstanding Educator Award.

The alumni-funded Raymond Simon Institute for Public Relations at Utica College has awarded more than $250,000 in scholarships and awards and funds faculty projects and student activities. The Raymond Simon Convergence Media Center, which opened in honor of Mr. Simon’s 90th birthday in 2005, is home to Utica College’s public relations and journalism programs.  

Mr. Simon is survived by his wife Lyn; two daughters, Melissa and Brooke; and a grandson, Daniel.

Photo courtesy of Utica College

C. Knight Aldrich ’40 MD, Charlottesville, Va., Nov. 3, 2017, at age 103.

A pioneer in integrating psychiatry into general medical practice, Dr. Aldrich became the first chair of the psychiatry department at the University of Chicago in 1955. He advocated for prioritizing psychiatric training in the medical school’s curriculum and revolutionized how mental illness is taught to medical students.

After nine years at the University of Chicago, he took a break from academia to care for psychiatric patients at mental health centers in New Jersey and Virginia. He later taught psychiatry and family medicine for several years at the University of Virginia.

Dr. Aldrich is survived by his daughter, Carol; his son, Robert; eight grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

Photo courtesy of the University of Chicago

Michele M. Marsh ’76, South Kent, Conn., Oct. 17, 2017, at age 63.

A five-time Emmy Award–winning newscaster, Ms. Marsh enjoyed a more than two-decade run as an anchor on nightly programs on CBS and NBC stations in New York City. 

Ms. Marsh studied theater at Northwestern and participated in the Dolphin Show. After graduating in 1976, she landed her first assignment, at WABI-TV, the CBS affiliate in Bangor, Maine, where Ms. Marsh reported in the field and anchored the late-night newscast. She even ran the teleprompter with her feet while on the air. 

Ms. Marsh moved on to KSAT-TV, the ABC affiliate in San Antonio, and then, in August 1979, to WCBS-TV in New York City. She started as a reporter and quickly became co-anchor of the 11 O’Clock Report. Ms. Marsh, then 25, was the youngest of five women who claimed anchor positions at the five New York TV stations with late-night news programs. 

She worked as an anchor and correspondent for WCBS for 17 years until she was let go in 1996 as part of move to improve sagging ratings. Ms. Marsh quickly joined WNBC, where she anchored until 2003.

The pioneering news anchor won five local Emmy Awards for news programming and helped pave the way for women in television news.

Ms. Marsh is survived by her second husband, P.H. Nargeolet, and a son, John Paschall ’14. 

Photo: Michele Marsh in the WCBS-TV newsroom in New York City in 1980. Photo by Sara Krulwich/The New York Times.

David S. Pemberton ’58, Skokie, Ill., Oct. 17, 2017, at age 80.

A member of the Northwestern Athletic Hall of Fame, Mr. Pemberton was a two-time All-American swimmer and won the 1958 NCAA title in the 200-yard backstroke. He also placed second at the NCAA Championships in the 100 backstroke in 1958 and won the Big Ten title in the 200 backstroke in 1957. (See "Fifty Wildcat Greats," summer 2013.)

Mr. Pemberton went on to a career as a marketing executive at IBM, Telex and Tandem Computers.

He is survived by his wife, Sharee; daughters, Melissa, Linda and Deborah; sons, Greg, David and Matthew; and 10 grandchildren.

Govindasamy “Govin” Reddy ’73 MA, Durban, South Africa, Oct. 13, 2017, at age 74.

An anti-apartheid activist, Mr. Reddy helped transform the broadcast industry in post-apartheid South Africa.

While completing a master’s degree in history at Northwestern, Mr. Reddy studied with professor and activist Dennis Brutus. When Mr. Reddy returned to South Africa as a history professor, he continued his activism.

During a speech at the University of Durban-Westville in 1976, he veered off script, encouraging his students to rise up against the regime. Early the next morning, he was detained and imprisoned for five months.

After his release, he was banned from teaching, so he opened an anti-apartheid bookshop, sneaking books on liberation into the country and mentoring young activists. Eventually, the regime exiled him for nearly a decade.

After the introduction of democracy, Mr. Reddy returned to South Africa to lead the South African Broadcasting Corporation, transitioning it from the propaganda arm of the apartheid regime to an independent and inclusive public broadcaster.

He is survived by his wife, Tessa; his children, Sudeshan, Priya, Micah and Niall; and a granddaughter, Eila.

Photo courtesy of Salzburg Global Seminar

Gerald O. McDonald ’43, ’47 MD, ’48 GME, McLean, Va., Oct. 12, 2017, at age 94.

After serving as a captain in the U.S. Army Medical Corps, Dr. McDonald worked as a surgeon with the Veterans Administration in Chicago until 1984, when he became deputy director of surgical services at the VA in Washington, D.C. He developed instruments used for abdominal surgery and in the late 1950s worked on groundbreaking cancer research that led to the development of chemotherapy.

During the Chicago Blackhawks renaissance in the 1960s, Dr. McDonald served as the team physician, a gig he landed after providing emergency care for an injured player. He also helped treat an injured policeman during the 1968 Democratic Convention riots in Grant Park.

Dr. McDonald is survived by his wife of 33 years, Irma; their two sons, Nuri and Sushil; their grandchildren, Jaden and Parker; his children, Elizabeth, Sandra and Gerald; his four grandchildren; and his two great-grandchildren.

Beatrice “Anne” Arbogast Stanaway ’52, Boulder, Colo., Oct. 5, 2017, at age 86.

A passionate environmentalist and social justice activist, Ms. Stanaway began working in public television after raising four children. She worked at WITF-TV in Hershey, Pa., as an executive producer, writer and reporter. She created social and political segments for a statewide audience and later covered national and international issues in programs that aired nationwide.

Ms. Stanaway held a single-engine and glider-rated pilots license. She helped found a YMCA and helped organize a country juvenile probation system. She fought for environmental causes, organizing opposition to incinerators and nuclear waste dumps in populated areas. She volunteered as a naturalist in Boulder County

For more than 35 years Ms. Stanaway led the Ersa S. and Alfred C. Arbogast Foundation in support of women’s leadership and environmental organizations.

She studied and worked to protect petrogylphs and rock art as president of the advisory board for the Center for the Study of the First Americans. She received two Fulbright Scholarships in Tokyo and Okinawa and a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship at the University of Michigan. Ms. Stanaway earned an Emmy Award nomination for her documentary Closing the Gap: Vietnam, a documentary that introduced Vietnamese refugees to the American public after the fall of Saigon.

Ms. Stanaway is survived by her daughters, Susan and Robin; a son, John; and six grandchildren.