In Memoriam

John R. Brobeck, Ph.D., M.D. ’43, died of pneumonia on March 6 at a retirement community in Media, Pa. He was 94. Brobeck served on the Yale faculty from 1942 until 1952. Brobeck then chaired the physiology department at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine from 1952 until 1973 and for 10 years served as assistant to the vice president for health affairs. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1975.

Seth D. Charney, M.D. ’69, died at his home in San Francisco on March 8. He was 64. Charney served as a student editor of the Journal of the History of Medicine during his years at Yale. He practiced psychiatry in San Francisco, owned real estate throughout California, and was a lifetime champion of human rights causes.

Edwin L. Child, M.D. ’56, died on February 14 of brain cancer at his home in Manchester, N.H. He was 78. Child was an obstetrician/gynecologist who delivered thousands of babies during his career and made medical mission trips to Liberia, Jamaica, and Kenya.

William F. Collins Jr., M.D. ’47, the Harvey and Kate Cushing Professor Emeritus of Neurosurgery and former chair of surgery, died on June 17 in San Diego. He was 85. Collins accepted the position of professor and chief of neurosurgery at Yale in 1967. In 1970, he was appointed the Harvey and Kate Cushing Professor of Surgery. He remained chief of neurosurgery at the medical school and neurosurgeon in chief at Yale-New Haven Hospital until 1984, when he was appointed chair of the Department of Surgery. He retired as chair in July of 1993 and assumed emeritus status in the Department of Surgery on July 1, 1994.

Lycurgus M. (Bill) Davey, M.D. ’43, died on June 15 in New Haven as a result of injuries from a fall. He was 91. Davey was a clinical professor of neurosurgery who devoted much of his career to clinical teaching and the training of Yale neurosurgical residents. He served as president of the Association of Yale Alumni in Medicine from 1995 to 1997. He read five languages and drew on his classical education as he explored and wrote about the history of medicine, including an article about the Greek inscription above the entrance to Sterling Hall of Medicine. He was an active consultant and clinical professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at Yale from 1951 to the present. His recent awards include the Distinguished Alumni Service Award in 1997 and the Peter Parker Medal in 2003 for outstanding service to the School of Medicine.

William K. Frankenburg, M.D., M.S.P.H., FW ’63, an internationally recognized pioneer in child development and pediatric preventive medicine, died on April 3 of acute myeloid leukemia at his home on Bainbridge Island, Wash. He was 78. In 1967, Frankenburg and his colleague at the University of Colorado, Josiah Dodds, Ph.D., published the Denver Developmental Screening Test, known as the Denver II, which has been used to screen millions of children around the world for developmental delays.

Stuart L. Joslin, M.D. ’43, died on January 25 after a short illness in North Adams, Mass. He was 93. Joslin was one of the founding directors of the Mid-Fairfield Child Guidance Center and chair of the Well Baby Clinic, both in Connecticut, where he practiced pediatrics until his retirement in 1991.

Alan D. Lieberson, J.D., M.D. ’62, died at his home in Westport, Conn., on February 10. He was 71. Lieberson used his knowledge of law and medicine to tackle such medical questions as euthanasia, living wills, and health care rationalization. He was a partner at Internal Medicine of Westport for 15 years and served on the medical ethics committee of Norwalk Hospital.

Daniel L. Macken, Med ’59, M.D., died on March 1 in New York City. He was 75. Macken served as a lieutenant colonel in the Army Medical Corps during the Vietnam War. He was honored by the United States and the Republic of South Vietnam for his wartime medical service. At Columbia University he founded the Medica Foundation to support medical research and activity.

Henry E. Markley, M.D. ’43, died on February 26 in Greenwich, Conn. He was 90. Markley practiced medicine in Greenwich from 1950 until 1979, and in 1955 launched Greenwich Hospital’s Home Care Program for the elderly, sick, people with disabilities, and children with special needs.

Robert W. Ollayos, M.D. ’41, died on February 23 in a nursing facility near St. Louis of complications of Alzheimer disease. He was 92. Ollayos, a flight surgeon in the Army Air Corps during World War II, conducted research that contributed to the development of lifesaving equipment for babies born with Rh-blood type incompatibility.

Vincent Pepe, M.D. ’46, HS ’52, an obstetrician-gynecologist who delivered more than 10,000 babies during 60 years in private practice, died on June 20 of congestive heart failure in Meriden, Conn. He was 87. Pepe, a native of New Haven, began his practice in the Meriden-Wallingford area in 1952. In the 1950s, he helped to forge the use of prenatal folic acid to prevent birth defects and later helped to pioneer work in urological gynecology. He also helped to advance surgical treatments for urinary incontinence for women as well as laparoscopic operative techniques and ultrasound procedures in community-based ob-gyn practice.

Richard C. Petersen, M.D. ’48, died on February 1 at his home in Southbury, Conn. He was 85. In 1955 Petersen opened a pediatric practice in Stratford, Conn., and became a leader in preventive pediatric care.

Samuel M. Rice, M.D. ’49, died on March 3 in Cranberry, Pa. He was 86. After graduating from medical school, Rice returned to the Pittsburgh area and practiced medicine out of his house in Cranberry from 1953 until 2003, making house calls and seeing the same patients for decades.

Micky Ray Riggs, M.D. ’92, died on December 26 in Seattle. He was 52. Riggs was remembered for his insights on topics ranging from global politics to serial killers to SpongeBob SquarePants.

Susan S. Spencer, M.D., professor of neurology and neurosurgery, died suddenly on May 21 in Salt Lake City. She was 60. Spencer was an internationally recognized expert in epilepsy, and particularly in epilepsy surgery. She was the co-director of the Yale Epilepsy Program with her husband, Dennis D. Spencer, M.D., HS ’77, chair of neurosurgery. She came to Yale as a resident in neurology in 1975, following undergraduate and medical school education at the University of Rochester, and joined the faculty in 1980. She soon wrote major papers in epilepsy surgery and published more than 200 original manuscripts and chapters on the subject. Her contributions were recognized by the American Epilepsy Society Clinical Research Award in 2003.

Send obituary notices to Claire M. Bessinger, Yale Medicine Publications, 1 Church Street, Suite 300, New Haven, CT 06510, or via e-mail to claire.bessinger@yale.edu