Obituaries

Debbie Zielinski, a secretary in the School of Nursing, died of cancer Dec. 20. She was 63.

Robert E. Baier, UB Distinguished Professor and an internationally known biomedical engineer and biosurface chemist, died March 2 in Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital, Amherst, after a yearlong illness. He was 79.

Eugene R. Mindell, professor emeritus and founder and the inaugural chair of the Department of Orthopaedics at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, died Feb. 15 in his home in Canterbury Woods, Amherst. He was 96.

Melvin J. Tucker, professor emeritus of English, died Feb. 15 in Hospice Buffalo. He was 87.

Frina Arschanska Boldt, associate professor emeritus of music, died Jan. 31. She was 89.

Richard Gonsalves, professor emeritus of physics, died Dec. 19 after an illness of several months.

John William Ellison, associate professor emeritus of information and library studies and a pioneer in the field of distance learning, died Sept. 11 in hospice care in Charlotte, N.C., after a three-month battle with non-Hodgkin Lymphoma. He was 76.

Norman Solkoff, SUNY Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus and a longtime faculty member in the Department of Psychiatry, died July 26 in London, England. He was 85.

Edward P. Furlani, UB engineering professor and fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, whose pioneering work in microfluidics, inkjet systems, optoelectronics and other fields is recognized worldwide, died suddenly July 3. He was 65.

Malcolm J. Slakter a longtime faculty member in the Graduate School of Education, died June 12 at home in Honolulu. He was 89.

Thomas J. Shuell, professor emeritus of counseling, school and educational psychology in the Graduate School of Education, died June 21 in Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center. He was 80.

Ann Triggle, a retired clinical instructor in the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences and wife of former pharmacy dean David Triggle, died April 26 in Sarasota, Fla., where she and her husband had moved after retiring. She was 83.

UB lost one of its most loyal supporters on Wednesday with the passing of Dr. Edmond J. Gicewicz. He was 89.

Frank Cozzarelli, a longtime faculty member in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, died Jan. 25 in his North Buffalo home after a period of declining health. He was 84.

George Hochfield, professor emeritus of English and one of five UB faculty members embroiled in a landmark battle over academic freedom in the 1960s, died Jan. 17 in Oakland, California. He was 91.

Georg G. Iggers, a SUNY Distinguished Professor Emeritus and internationally renowned historian and civil rights advocate, died Nov. 26 in Canterbury Woods, Amherst, of complications from a cerebral hemorrhage. He was 90.

Elizabeth “Betty” Capaldi Phillips, who became the highest-ranking woman in the history of UB when she was named provost in 2000, died Sept. 23 at her home in Gainesville, Florida, after battling brain cancer for the past year. She was 72.

Jan Per Roalsvig, a retired associate professor of physics whose UB career spanned 35 years, died Aug. 16 in Buffalo after a short illness. He was 89.

Gerhard Levy, SUNY Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Pharmaceutical Sciences and a pioneer in drug development, died Aug. 3 in Sarasota, Florida. He was 89.