In Memoriam

Howard Geltzer ’58, ’59 MS, Los Angeles, Jan. 7, 2025, at age 88. Geltzer was the mastermind behind the successful marketing campaign for the Sony Walkman, which launched in 1979 and sold far  better than Sony had expected. After that campaign, Sony moved all its publicity business to Geltzer & Co., the New York City–based public relations firm launched by Geltzer and his wife, Sheila. Their other clients included Black+Decker, Dow Chemical, Samsung and Toshiba. After Geltzer & Co. was acquired by Publicis Groupe in 2000, Geltzer pursued a second career as an adjunct instructor of management communication at New York University Stern School of Business and the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business. A longtime member of the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications Board of Advisers, Geltzer was inducted into the Medill Hall of Achievement in 2014. He is survived by his sons, Jeremy and Gabriel; and a grandson, Jackson. 

Patrick Quinn, Lake Geneva, Wis., Jan. 3, 2025, at age 82. Quinn was known for collecting historical mementos that comprise Northwestern University Archives — from the Leopold and Loeb ransom notes to the diaries of prominent Northwestern faculty. Quinn dropped out of the University of Wisconsin–Madison in the ’60s to participate in the Civil Rights Movement in the South. In March 1965 he gave a speech following Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma, Ala., and joined the group that marched for voting rights from Selma to Montgomery, Ala. Quinn worked as an archivist for 42 years, first at the State Historical Society of Wisconsin and then as the assistant university archivist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. In 1974 he became the University Archivist at Northwestern, where he spent the next 34 years until his retirement in 2008. (See “Keeper of the Past.”)  Current University Historian Kevin Leonard ’77, ’82 MA fondly recalls meeting Quinn in 1976, during Leonard’s first visit to the archives: “While I had not inaugurated a visit to Northwestern’s University Archives in search of employment, within 15 minutes of beginning a conversation with Patrick, I became a signed, sealed and paid member of the department’s staff. Patrick put me to work organizing archival collections … And I loved it. For all intents and purposes, because of Patrick, I’ve been reading other people’s mail ever since.” Quinn is survived by his wife, Mary; daughters Abra and Rachel; and granddaughters Ruby and Rosie. Read more about Patrick Quinn. 

Sir J. Fraser Stoddart, Evanston, Dec. 30, 2024, at age 82. A Board of Trustees Professor at Northwestern, Stoddart was a trailblazer in nanoscience and organic chemistry. In 2016 Stoddart received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, along with Jean-Pierre Sauvage and Bernard L. Feringa, for their work with molecular machines. Stoddart’s contributions included his 1991 groundbreaking invention of rotaxanes (mechanically interlocked molecules). His work is foundational to the field of molecular nanotechnology, which has implications in industries ranging from information technology to health care. In 2007 he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II. Throughout his career Stoddart published more than 1,300 scientific papers and trained more than 500 graduate and postdoctoral students. Stoddart joined the Northwestern faculty in 2008 as Board of Trustees Professor of Chemistry. In 2023 he became the Chair Professor of Chemistry at the University of Hong Kong. At that time, he donated hundreds of boxes of his professional papers to Northwestern University Archives. He is survived by daughters Fiona and Alison and five grandchildren.

Photo Credit: Jim Prisching

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. 

Joel Flaum ’63 JD, ’64 LLM, Chicago, Dec. 4, 2024, at age 88. Flaum spent nearly 50 years as a federal judge in Chicago. After working briefly in private practice, Flaum became an assistant state’s attorney in Cook County, Ill. He co-founded and was associate director of the police legal adviser program at what is now Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, where he was a lecturer in the late 1960s. At age 33 Flaum became the youngest person to head the Illinois attorney general’s Chicago office. He served as first assistant U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois for three years. President Gerald Ford nominated him to a federal district judgeship in 1974, making Flaum the nation’s youngest federal judge. He was appointed to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 1983 and served for 37 years, including as chief judge from 2000 to 2006. In November 2024 Flaum received the Edward J. Devitt Distinguished Service to Justice Award at the U.S. Supreme Court. He is survived by his wife, Delilah; children Jonathan Flaum ’93 JD and Alison Flaum, a clinical professor at the Law School; and four grandchildren.   

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