1953

Emery C. Herman Jr., of Cooperstown, New York, died Feb. 26, 2022, at the age of 92. Originally from La Grange, Georgia, Herman worked at the National Institutes of Health before moving to Cooperstown to become a research physician in bone marrow transplantation at Bassett Hospital. He later moved to clinical internal medicine at Bassett. Actively involved in the greater Cooperstown community, Herman served on the Village Board of Trustees and as mayor from 1970 to 1972.

1956

R. Patterson Russell, of Center Sandwich, New Hampshire, who specialized in nephrology, died April 5, 2022. He was 91. After graduating from the school of medicine, he completed a fellowship in Oxford, England, and then practiced as a nephrologist and taught at Johns Hopkins and Good Samaritan Hospital. After retiring to New Hampshire, he enjoyed hiking, and climbed the 48 peaks over 4,000 feet in the White Mountains five times.

1972

Elihu Estey, of Seattle, whose many contributions to research changed practice in acute myeloid leukemia, died Oct. 8, 2021. He was 75. He began his career at MD Anderson Cancer Center with mentor Emil Freireich and briefly worked at the National Cancer Institute with Richard Simon. In 2008, Estey relocated to Seattle to direct the AML clinical research program and was a professor in the Division of Hematology at the University of Washington and in the clinical research division of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

1973

Frank Meronk Jr., an ophthalmic plastic surgeon and writer, died June 18, 2021, at his home in Santa Barbara, California, of cholangiocarcinoma. He was 73. After graduating from Johns Hopkins, he interned at UCLA and then completed his residency in ophthalmology at the University of Washington and a fellowship in plastic and reconstructive surgery at the University of Arizona. He was at the forefront of the development of modern fat-grafting techniques and an authority on treating eyelid and orbital hollowness. During the early years of the internet, he authored an extensive and well-known educational website for patients that championed tissue-sparing methods for a safer and more natural surgical outcome. Simultaneously, he was also writing quirky literary fiction that explored the vagaries of human nature. His work includes numerous novellas and a final lengthy book on memory and its loss.

Former faculty, fellows and house staff

Grange S. Coffin (HS, pediatrics, 1950–1951, 1953–1954), of Berkeley, California, a pediatric researcher, died Jan. 4, 2022. He was 98. For decades, he worked as an associate professor of pediatrics at University of California, San Francisco and as a pediatrician at the Sonoma Developmental Center, while also maintaining a private practice. In 1962, he discovered a synthesis of drugs to treat bacterial infections, which was later marketed as Bactrim and is now considered an “essential medicine” by the World Health Organization. He received international recognition for his work discovering and describing Coffin–Siris syndrome and Coffin–Lowry syndrome.

Harry H. Stone (fellow, surgery, 1955–1956), a renowned surgeon and researcher, died April 7, 2022, at his home in Atlanta, Georgia. He was 92. After graduating from medical school at Emory University, he completed his surgical training at Johns Hopkins, Grady Hospital in Atlanta and the Hospital for Sick Children, University of London. He then joined the Emory faculty, where he also directed the Surgical Bacteriology Laboratory, the Grady burn unit, Grady pediatric surgery and the Grady trauma service for many years. He conducted numerous burn studies and investigations of surgical infections, and was instrumental in developing an organ transplantation program at Emory, which led to Georgia’s first kidney transplant in 1966. Later, he became chair of the Division of General Surgery at the University of Maryland, where he also served as the surgical residency program director. He held teaching positions at Cleveland Integrated Surgical Residency Program, the University of Arizona Medical School and the University of South Carolina Medical School.

Clark Bublitz, Ph.D. (faculty, biochemistry, 1957–1959), of Denver, Colorado, died Feb. 25, 2022. He was 94. After earning his doctorate in biochemistry at the University of Chicago, he completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Max Planck Institute in Germany. He taught at Johns Hopkins and St. Louis University before accepting a position at the University of Colorado Medical Center in Denver, Colorado, where he continued until his retirement.

M. Steven Piver (HS, otolaryngology, 1962–1963), of Buffalo, New York, who established the Gilda Radner Registry for Ovarian Cancer and worked to identify specific genes that cause ovarian cancer, died May 7, 2022. He was 87. Piver joined the Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center’s gynecologic oncology department in 1971, becoming chief in 1984 and serving until 1998. Renowned as one of the nation’s top cancer surgeons, his research led to more than 400 articles and eight textbooks. Following Gilda Radner’s death in 1989, Piver collaborated with her husband, actor and comedian Gene Wilder, on Gilda’s Disease, a book that advocated for the detection and treatment of ovarian cancer.

Charles N. Still (HS, neurology, 1960–1963; fellow, neurology, 1962–1963), of Lexington, South Carolina, whose career as a neurologist spanned more than four decades, died March 24, 2022. He was 92. After training at Johns Hopkins and Harvard, he returned to his home state of South Carolina to serve as a neurologist in the Department of Mental Health and the William S. Hall Psychiatric Institute. Later, he became a staff neurologist at the Dorn Veterans Affairs Medical Center while also serving as a professor of neuropsychiatry and behavioral science at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine in Columbia, reaching emeritus status.

Arthur E. Cocco (fellow, gastroenterology, 1963–1965; faculty, gastroenterology, 1965–2007), died Feb. 11, 2022, at his home on St. Simon’s Island, Georgia. He was 90. After he completed his training in gastroenterology at Johns Hopkins, he opened a private practice in Baltimore and became an assistant professor of gastroenterology at Johns Hopkins. Over the course of his career, he also served at St. Joseph Hospital as the head of the Department of Medicine, chief of gastroenterology and director of the Digestive Disease Center.

Rona Rosenbaum (senior administrative staff, 1964–1987), of Lutherville, Maryland, an advocate for people with Parkinson’s disease, died Feb. 2, 2022, of complications of lung cancer. She was 89. She was a longtime computer programmer and faculty member at Johns Hopkins. Working alongside pioneering pediatric epidemiologist Janet Hardy, she ran the statistical analysis component of a long-term study of teenage mothers and their children. In 2014, at the age of 82, she founded the nonprofit Maryland Association for Parkinson’s Support and served as its president and chair of the board.

John H. Mitchell (HS, internal medicine, 1966–1969), of Naples, Florida, who specialized in occupational medicine, died Feb. 27, 2022. He was 82. An expert on preventive medicine, he served as the medical director of the Amoco Corporation for many years.

William A. Alonso (HS, otolaryngology, 1970), of Tampa, Florida, who was an otolaryngological surgeon, died April 20, 2022. He was 83. Originally from San Juan, Puerto Rico, he completed his training in otolaryngology at Johns Hopkins and at Temple University. After serving in the Navy, he opened a private practice in Tampa and became a professor at the University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine.

Angeliki Georgopoulos (fellow, physiology, 1974; fellow, endocrinology, 1976–1978; fellow, pediatric neonatology, 1978–1979; faculty, endocrinology, 1989–1991), who specialized in endocrinology and focused on diabetes, atherosclerosis and women’s health, died of cardiac arrest Dec. 14, 2021, at her home in Los Angeles. She was 79. She served in multiple roles as a clinician and researcher at Johns Hopkins from 1976 to 1991, eventually becoming an associate professor of medicine. In the late 1970s, she was one of the first in the country to apply insulin pump treatment to patients with diabetes. In 1991, she joined the staff at the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Medical Center, where she helped to establish the Women’s Healthy Brain Project, and was a professor of medicine at the University of Minnesota Medical School.

Edward B. Clark (fellow, pediatric cardiology, 1974–1976; HS, pediatrics, 1976; faculty, pediatrics, 1985–1987), of Salt Lake City, Utah, whose career as a pediatric cardiologist spanned clinical work, research and health care administration, died March 8, 2022. He was 77. After holding positions at the universities of Iowa and Nebraska, Johns Hopkins, and the University of Rochester, he joined the University of Utah, where he worked for 26 years, first as chairman of pediatrics and the chief medical officer of Primary Children’s Medical Center, and later as president of the University of Utah Medical Group and associate vice president of clinical affairs for the health sciences. He is known for developing Clark’s Classification of Congenital Heart Disease, which remains a standard clinical diagnostic tool.

Terry J. Sprinkle Sr., Ph.D. (fellow, neurology, 1974–1978), of Warrenton, Georgia, died March 18, 2022. He was 79. He became a professor in the Department of Neurology at the Medical College of Georgia and also worked extensively with the Veterans Administration Hospital for many years.

Howard C. Joondeph (fellow, ophthalmology, 1975), of Rochester, Michigan, an ophthalmologist who had a particular interest in treating diabetic eye disease and age-related macular degeneration, died May 4, 2022. He was 82. He maintained an ophthalmology practice in Detroit and became chief of ophthalmology at St. John Hospital, and also served on the teaching faculty at the Kresge Eye Institute, Wayne State University.

Rene S. Orquiza (fellow, radiology, 1978), of San José, California, a radiologist, died April 15, 2022. He was 77. After serving as director of the Division of Nuclear Medicine at the University of Florida Hospital, he relocated to San José, where he practiced for many years.

Paul A. Murray, Ph.D. (faculty, anesthesiology and critical care medicine, 1981–1994), of Amelia Island, Florida, whose career in academic medicine spanned 40 years, died April 25, 2022. He was 73. After earning his doctorate in human physiology from the University of Michigan, he completed a fellowship at Harvard School of Medicine, and then became an associate professor of anesthesiology at Johns Hopkins. In 1994, he joined the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine, where he was the endowed chairman of the Center for Anesthesiology Research and professor of biomedical engineering.

Michael E. McIvor (HS, internal medicine, 1982; faculty, internal medicine, 1985; fellow, cardiovascular medicine, 1987–1989), of Key West, Florida, died Jan. 30, 2022. He was 67. His clinical research led to countless articles and abstracts in medical journals, as well as a book for physicians, with accompanying patient guide, on heart failure management. He was also a clinical cardiologist and international lecturer. McIvor founded the Keys Heart Center in 2013.

Thomas Chih Cheng Peng (HS, obstetrics and gynecology, 1983–1987; fellow, obstetrics and gynecology, 1987–1989), of Tainan, Taiwan, died March 30, 2022. He was 67. From 1989 until 2016, he worked at the Medical College of Virginia, where he was a beloved member of the faculty.

Allen R. Walker (fellow, pediatrics, 1985–1989; faculty, pediatrics, 1988–2012), of Hanover, Pennsylvania, who was director of the Division of Pediatric Emergency Medicine at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center from 2003 to 2011, died July 16, 2021. He was 75. In addition to serving as director at the Children’s Center, he became an advocate for children in Maryland, working closely with Maryland Child Protective Services and the judicial system to ensure the safety of youth.

Mary J. Bullock (faculty, rehabilitative medicine, 1980–1998), of Columbus, Ohio, died April 18, 2022. She was 90. After earning her bachelor’s degree at Western Michigan University, she worked as an occupational therapist at a cerebral palsy clinic in Charleston, West Virginia, and at the state rehabilitation center in Institute, West Virginia, before coming to The Johns Hopkins Hospital, where she served as chief of occupational therapy for many years.

Alfred Kronthal (faculty, ophthalmology, 1993–2010), of Baltimore, died May 16, 2022. He was 86. He maintained a private ophthalmology practice in Baltimore for many years and loved mentoring residents and fellows at the Wilmer Eye Institute and Sinai Hospital.

For a more complete listing of alumni obituaries, visit:
www.hopkinsmedicine.org/som/alumni/in-memoriam/obituaries.html