In Memoriam

Robert “Russ” Bensley ’51, ’52 MS, Flossmoor, Ill., Aug. 9, 2022, at age 92. A longtime television news producer, Bensley wrote and anchored the late-night news broadcast for WBBM-TV in Chicago and then made his national TV news debut doing “man on the street” interviews after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The CBS network brought Bensley to New York, where he became producer, and then executive producer, of the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite. In 1968 Bensley traveled with a news crew to cover the Vietnam War. While there, he was shot and evacuated to a hospital that was then bombed. Bensley won the first of four Emmy Awards in 1971, for his work on the documentary The World of Charlie Company. After his time on the evening news, Bensley covered special events, including presidential conventions and elections, space shuttle launches and royal weddings. He later became executive producer of On the Road with Charles Kuralt. Bensley retired from CBS in 1985 and took up horse farming in southwest Michigan. He celebrated his 84th birthday by jumping out of an airplane. Bensley is survived by his children Skip, Robin and Vicki; his grandchildren, CJ, Sabrina, Jordan, Sarah, Andrew and Ryan; and his twin brother, Edward.

James Turner ’68 MA, Ithaca, N.Y., Aug. 6, 2022, at age 82. A skilled organizer, civil rights activist and scholar of Africana studies, Turner played an instrumental role in helping Northwestern create a more equitable, enriching environment for Black students. On May 3, 1968, just one month after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., Turner led 120 Northwestern students in a peaceful, 38-hour sit-in at the Bursar’s Office to protest the racism Black students faced on campus. Turner served as a lead negotiator in the protest, which resulted in the University agreeing to eight concrete actions to improve the Black student experience, including the creation of The Black House and an expansion of the curriculum to include Black studies, among other improvements. Turner was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1940 and grew up in Harlem, listening to Malcolm X, reading W.E.B. Du Bois and keenly learning about the Black liberation struggle in the U.S. He enrolled at Northwestern as a graduate student in sociology and worked as a graduate assistant in the University’s African Studies Center. Intent on improving the Black student experience at Northwestern, Turner founded the African American Student Union, which raised funds to assist Black student activists in the South. After graduating with his master’s degree from Northwestern, Turner earned a PhD from the Union Graduate School in Cincinnati. In 1969 he moved to Ithaca and joined Cornell University as founding director of the Africana Studies and Research Center at a time when the university had very few Black tenured professors and no African American studies curriculum. Turner, who coined the term “Africana studies” to embrace a more comprehensive study of the African diaspora and its resulting cultures and histories, served as director of the center until 1986 and also taught as a professor of African and African American politics and social policy at Cornell for many years. He later returned as director of the center from 1996 to 2001. Turner was an active global citizen as well. He served as co-chair of the International Congress of Africanists in Ethiopia in 1973 and chair of the North American delegation to the Sixth Pan African Congress in 1974. He was a national organizer for the Southern African Liberation Support Committee and also helped found the African American lobbying organization TransAfrica in 1977. Turner is survived by his wife, Janice, and his three children, Hassan, Sekai and Tshaka. Read a more detailed remembrance of Turner’s legacy here.

James Norton Krebs ’45, Marblehead, Mass., July 20, 2022, at age 98. A pioneering engineer for General Electric (GE), Krebs worked on the high-bypass turbofan, the fuel-efficient engine that powers many jets today. Krebs began working as a GE test engineer in 1946. As GE’s vice president for military programs from 1978 to 1985, Krebs led development of the jet engine used in F-110 fighters and B-1 and B-2 bombers. In 1982 he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering. Krebs retired from GE in 1985, and seven years later he received the Reed Aeronautics Award, the highest honor granted by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, for his work on the high-bypass turbofan. Born in Minnesota, Krebs developed an avid interest in photography at a young age. He later published multiple books of photography documenting his global travels while working for GE. While he was an undergraduate at Northwestern, Krebs met his future wife, Margie “Mitch” Mitcheson ’52, in a first-year English course. They married in 1945, shortly after Krebs graduated with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and joined the U.S. Naval Reserve. He briefly served during World War II. Krebs funded the James N. and Margie M. Krebs professorships at the McCormick School of Engineering to honor outstanding teaching on engineering and the environment. He donated a number of artworks from his personal collection to Northwestern’s Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art. After his first wife passed, Krebs married a childhood friend, Mimi May Nolte McClellan, in 2006. McClellan died in 2019. Krebs is survived by his sister, Carolyn Dukes; children Leslie, David, Stephen and Mark; and six grandchildren.

Read more about James Norton Krebs from the McCormick School of Engineering.

Kenrad E. Nelson ’58 MD, Mount Washington, Ky., April 21, 2022, at age 89. A former president of the American Epidemiological Society and an expert on emerging diseases, Nelson was known for his research on HIV and hepatitis E. After graduating from the Feinberg School of Medicine, he completed his residency at Cook County Hospital, where he met his wife, Karen Barkas. He worked at the then-new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and taught at the University of Illinois Medical Center and the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health. In 1986 he joined Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where Nelson spent a decade as the director of the Division of Infectious Diseases in the department of epidemiology during the height of the HIV epidemic. He received an honorary doctorate from the king of Thailand, where he helped develop the country’s department of infectious diseases as a visiting researcher and consultant. Nelson was an advocate for the health of gay men during the early years of the HIV epidemic. A civil rights activist, Nelson marched with Martin Luther King Jr. in Cicero, Ill. He is survived by Karen, his wife of 60 years; children Eric, Joel, Elizabeth, Linnea and Tida; and 10 grandchildren.

Photo  Credit: Chris Hartlove/Bloomberg School

Marilyn Klecka Miglin ’62, Chicago, March 14, at age 83. A cosmetics entrepreneur, Miglin was known for her Oak Street store in Chicago and Home Shopping Network (HSN) appearances. Born in Chicago, Miglin grew up dancing ballet. While attending Northwestern on a math scholarship, she continued dancing and participated in the chorus at Chicago’s Chez Paree nightclub, performing alongside Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett and Jimmy Durante. After modeling for Marshall Field & Co., she opened Marilyn Miglin Model Makeup in 1963 and eventually developed her own line of cosmetics and fragrances. In the late 1990s she began appearing as a pitchwoman on HSN for her products. Miglin founded and led the Oak Street Council, and Oak Street was named “Marilyn Miglin Way” in her honor. She also helped burn victims and people with facial disfigurement find makeup options. Her motivational memoir, Best Face Forward, was published in 2001. She is survived by her son, Duke; her daughter, Marlena Miglin ’91; and six grandchildren.

Sanford D. “Sandy” Horwitt ’65, ’70 PhD, Arlington, Va., March 12, at age 79. A talented political adviser, activist and author, Horwitt wrote biographies of significant figures such as Saul Alinsky, Russell D. Feingold and Abner Mikva ’91 H. Horwitt’s career in politics began when he volunteered on Mikva’s 1974 congressional campaign. The two formed a long-lasting friendship. Horwitt served as an aide to Mikva until the Senate confirmed Mikva as a federal appeals court judge in 1979. Horwitt went on to advise several public interest campaigns on Capitol Hill including the National Coalition to Ban Handguns. His 1989 biography Let Them Call Me Rebel: Saul Alinsky: His Life and Legacy became an influential book in the political careers of Barack Obama ’06 H and Hillary Rodham Clinton. Horwitt also contributed to the New York Times Book Review and co-produced the documentary Mikva! Democracy is a Verb. Horwitt attended Northwestern on a baseball scholarship. He played second base and co-captained the varsity team. After graduate school at San Francisco State University, he returned to Northwestern as a graduate teaching assistant in communications. He met his future wife, Joan Engel Horwitt ’67, when she enrolled in his Group Dynamics course. They married in 1970. In addition to his wife of 51 years, Horwitt is survived by his two sons Dusty and Jeff ’00; daughters-in-law Ann and Lauren; and two granddaughters.

Rusty Mae Moore ’63, Feb. 23, Pine Hill, N.Y., at age 80. Fluent in six languages, Moore taught international business for several decades at Hofstra University. Moore directed the Hofstra University Business Research Institute, was a Fulbright fellow in Brazil and taught in Russia and the Netherlands. In the early 1990s Moore transitioned as a trans woman and became a prominent transgender and LGBTQ rights activist. She taught the first gender studies class at Hofstra. Moore and her wife, Chelsea Goodwin, opened up their home in Brooklyn’s Park Slope neighborhood to provide housing to transgender and other LGBTQ people in need of housing, including Sylvia Rivera, an important figure in New York’s transgender history. Moore and Goodwin’s home earned the affectionate nickname “Transy House.” Moore and Goodwin were legally married in 2018 after spending nearly 30 years together. The couple ran a bookstore together in Pine Hill, hosted a radio show and founded a festival for people interested in the science fiction subgenre steampunk. Moore is survived by her wife; her children, Jonica, Amanda and Colin; her sister, Susan; and two grandchildren.

Photo Credit: Jonica Moore