◆ Virginia Potts Clark (’ 45 MSPH), 88, of Durham;
Oct. 21, 2011. Clark was a public health educator,
working for public and private institutions. She was a
research associate at UNC. Active in her church, she
was on the board of trustees and president of the
women’s association. ◆ William Douglas Conrad
(’ 43, ’ 47 AB), 89, of Winston-Salem; Oct. 15, 2011.
Conrad was a chemical salesman with Reichhold
Chemical Co. In WWII, he was a chemical weapons
specialist in the Army Air Corps. He was a direct
descendent of William Richardson Davie, regarded
as the father of The University of North Carolina and
one of the state’s most distinguished citizens. At
UNC, he belonged to Lambda Chi Alpha. ◆ Samuel
Preston Craighill Jr. (’ 44), 88, of Lynchburg, Va.; Oct.
20, 2011. Craighill was an executive in the shoe
industry. In WWII, he was skipper of a Navy amphibi-
ous landing craft and, in the Korean War, was com-
mander of a Navy attack cargo ship. ◆ Bernard
West Dark (’ 49 BSCOM), 86, of Charlotte; Oct. 9,
2011. Dark, a tax auditor, retired from the N.C.
Department of Revenue. In WWII, he served in the
Army and received two Purple Hearts. ◆ Charles L.
Donnell (’ 47 BSCOM), 89, of Black Mountain; Oct.
20, 2011. Donnell retired as a senior pastor of a
Presbyterian church. In retirement, he served 13
churches as interim pastor. In WWII, he was in the
Army Air Forces as a fighter pilot instructor and
bomber command pilot. At UNC, he was on the men’s
track and field team. ◆ Hugh Martin Efird (’ 49
BSCOM), 87, of Marshville; Oct. 2, 2011. Efird was
president of a manufacturing company and former
vice president of Efird’s department store. He was a
radar operator in the Navy in WWII, receiving a
Presidential Unit Citation with Battle Star. At UNC, he
belonged to Sigma Alpha Epsilon. ◆ George
Anderson Foote (’ 42 AB, ’ 47 MA), 90, of Towson,
Md.; Nov. 15, 2011. Foote was professor emeritus
of history at Goucher College. He served in the Navy
in WWII. At UNC, he belonged to Kappa Alpha Order.
◆ Billings Sibley Fuess Jr. (’ 49 ABJO), 83, of
Summit, N.J.; Oct. 15, 2011. Fuess retired as cre-
ative director and president of his own advertising
agency. In his career of more than 50 years, he cre-
ated numerous slogans, such as “Hershey’s, the
great American chocolate bar” and “Nationwide is
on your side.” He was inducted into the N.C.
Advertising Hall of Fame at UNC. As a student, he
belonged to Chi Psi and was on The Daily Tar Heel
staff. ◆ Katherine McMillan Fulton (’ 49 AB), 83, of
Laurinburg; Nov. 1, 2011. Fulton retired as a sixth-
grade teacher. ◆ Catherine Lee “Kitty” Gilsdorf (’ 43
AB), 92, of Roanoke, Va.; Nov. 20, 2011. Gilsdorf
served on the board of directors of the Virginia
Federation of Garden Clubs Inc. and was a nationally
accredited flower show judge and an accredited mas-
ter judge. ◆ Leonard Sheppard Green (’ 48), 91, of
Greensboro; Oct. 20, 2011. Green taught for 30
years, including in the Mecklenburg County and
Greensboro schools. He taught science and
coached football and basketball in Department of
Defense Dependents Schools in Europe. In WWII, he
was in the Navy. At UNC, he was a Golden Gloves
boxing champion and boxed at the ’ 47 Sugar Bowl.
◆ Norma Rollins Green (’ 46 AB), 88, of Greenville,
S.C.; Nov. 4, 2011. Green taught reading at high
schools in South Carolina. Earlier, she and her hus-
band managed a dude ranch in the Pecos Wilderness
in New Mexico. ◆ Ralph Oliver Griffin (’ 43), 90, of
March Air Reserve Base, Calif.; March 8, 2011.
Griffin was a 30-year career Air Force officer who
An obituary for Norman Sper Jr. (’ 50 AB) in the
January/February Review incorrectly credited
him with introducing stadium card displays to
UNC football games. Charlie Nelson (’ 42 ABJO),
co-head cheerleader, had produced card dis-
plays for football games beginning in 1940. The
Review has reported that incorrect information
about card displays at Carolina before, in its
September/October 2002 issue; a letter Nelson
wrote then for the March/April 2003 Review cor-
recting the mistake and outlining other cheer-
leading innovations during his tenure is at
alumni.unc.edu/go/nelsonletter.
Correction
retired as a colonel. He served as a pilot, missile
manager and commander, among many other duties.
He joined the Army Air Forces in WWII and was shot
down in Europe, becoming a German prisoner of
war. For his duties in the Korean War, he received the
Legion of Merit. ◆ Betty Bowers Guignard (’ 47 AB),
85, of Davidson; Oct. 12, 2011. Guignard was a
piano teacher, church organist, pianist and choir
director. She was president of the Charlotte
Democratic Women’s Club. ◆ Alice Kerr Hayes (’ 40
AB), 93, of Fairfax, Va.; Sept. 30, 2011. Hayes lived
in East Dennis, Mass., for many years. During the
New Deal administration, she was an executive secretary. ◆ Jack Leachen Hernig (’ 49), 85, of Waxhaw;
April 14, 2011. Hernig was personnel manager of an
engineering company. In retirement, he became a
potter. He was active in his church, president of the
Chamber of Commerce and a member of the
Monroe city school board. He was in the Army Air
Corps in WWII. ◆ Carl Jennings Hinson (’ 49, ’ 50
BSCOM), 86, of Charlotte; Oct. 3, 2011. Hinson
Virginia Potts Clark (’ 45 MSPH), 88, of Durham;
Oct. 21, 2011. Details, ’40s Class Notes. ◆ Dr.
Edward William Davidian (’ 63 AB, ’ 68 MD), 71, of
Chapel Hill; Oct. 5, 2011. Details, ’ 63 Class Notes.
◆ Audrey Donnan Evarts (’ 50 AB), 82, of Durham;
Oct. 20, 2011. Details, ’50s Class Notes. ◆ Doina
Gradina Farkas, 69, of Jacksonville, Fla.; Nov. 10,
2011. As a librarian, Farkas had an administrative
position at UNC’s law library, worked at other university libraries and was fluent in four languages.
Born in Romania, she escaped the then-commu-nist country and immigrated to New York. ◆
Charles David Gasswint Jr., 73, of Mankato,
Minn.; Oct. 5, 2011. Gasswint was a visiting lecturer at UNC in the early ’70s, teaching abnormal
psychology. ◆ Sylvia Perloff Gelblum, 85, of
Chapel Hill; Oct. 24, 2011. Gelblum worked at the
Carolina Population Center for a number of years.
She was on the boards of the N.C. ACLU, Chapel
Hill Women’s Health Collective and Planned
Parenthood. She was a docent at the Ackland Art
Museum. ◆ Dr. William Davis Huffines (’ 50, ’ 51
BSMED; ’ 55 MD), 84, of Chapel Hill; Oct. 17, 2011.
Details, ’50s Class Notes. ◆ Samuel Kaplan, 94, of
Marshfield, Wis.; Oct. 10, 2010. A mathematician,
Kaplan became an adjunct faculty member at UNC
after he retired to Chapel Hill. He served in the
Army Signal Corps in WWII. ◆ Mary Ellen Hogan
Kepley, 81, of Chapel Hill; Nov. 16, 2011. Kepley
retired after 37 years as UNC’s associate vice
40s
retired as an account representative. He was in the
Army Air Forces in WWII. He was a member of Delta
Sigma Pi at UNC. ◆ Albert Parham James (’ 47
BSCOM), 91, of Durham; Nov. 5, 2011. James retired
as an accountant with American Suppliers. He was a
volunteer with Urban Ministries and coached youth
baseball and basketball. In WWII, he was a radio
operator with the Navy. ◆ Edwin Samuel James (’ 47
AB), 89, of Rock Hill, S.C.; Nov. 25, 2011. James
retired from Mobil Chemical Corp. In his career, he
lived and worked on six of the seven continents. In
WWII, he was a counterintelligence agent with the
Army and was a plane-spotter with a guerrilla unit. At
UNC, he belonged to Alpha Tau Omega. ◆ W. Lee
Mack (’ 40, ’ 49 MA), 92, of Vancouver, Wash.; Nov. 22,
2011. Mack retired as a music teacher and director
of musical groups at Clark College. He played clarinet
and saxophone with several big bands of the ’30s,
including joining and managing Barney Rapp’s New
Englanders, which performed on the Delta Queen
steamboat on the Mississippi River. At UNC, he
belonged to Phi Mu Alpha. ◆ John Chetwood Mahler
(’ 41 AB), 92, of Raleigh; Oct. 12, 2011. Mahler retired
as district marketing manager for a construction
company. He was an Army Air Corps navigator in
WWII and received the Purple Heart and Air Medal
with three Oak Leaf Clusters. ◆ William Roberts
McKenzie Sr. (’ 45 BSCOM), 89, of High Point; Oct.
31, 2011. McKenzie retired as director of sales for
a division of Valspar Corp. His many community
activities included serving as chair of United Way and
board member of the Salvation Army and the High
Point YMCA. His activities at UNC included Kappa
Sigma and Order of the Grail. ◆ Bennett Kirkman
McKinnon (’ 43 ABJO), 89, of Birmingham, Ala.; Oct.
22, 2011. McKinnon retired as president of WSGN
radio station and vice president of Southern
Broadcasting Co. In retirement, he was executive
president of finance. She
was involved in her church,
volunteering daily in retirement. ◆ Harry A. Nurkin,
67, of Charlotte; Oct. 13,
2011. Nurkin was an
adjunct professor in UNC
medical school’s department of social and administrative medicine and a research fellow at the
Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research.
He was former president and CEO of the Carolinas
Medical Center and the Carolinas Health Care
System. He served on a number of educational
boards and received many honors and awards. ◆
Dr. Silvia Perez-Spiess, 60, of Great Barrington,
Mass.; Nov. 13, 2011. Perez-Spiess, who specialized in pediatric dentistry, was an adjunct professor at UNC’s dental school. ◆ Willodeen Goodwin
Wagner-Moore, 80, of Pittsboro; Oct. 13, 2011.
Wagner-Moore retired from UNC Hospitals. She
was the first female deacon in her church. ◆ Lucy
Alston Walters, 86, of North Augusta, S.C.; Oct.
21, 2011. Walters worked in UNC’s chemistry
department early in her career. She was active in
her church as president of the women’s board and
a member of the board of trustees. ◆ Dr. T.
Franklin Williams (’ 42 BSCH), 89, of Rochester,
N. Y.; Nov. 25, 2011. Details, ’40s Class Notes. ◆
Arnold Lee Wright (’ 54 AB, ’ 62 MA), 79, of
Louisburg; Oct. 9, 2011. Details, ’50s Class Notes.
faculty
and staff
obituaries
