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Obituaries
Leon E. Farhi, SUNY Distinguished Professor
Services were held on Sunday in Temple Beth Zion, Buffalo, for Leon E. Farhi, SUNY Distinguished Professor on the Department of Physiology and Biophysics who died on July 9 in the Cleveland Clinic while undergoing surgery for a heart infection. He was 79.
A UB faculty member since 1958, Farhi studied physiological problems of human lung gas exchange and the human circulatory system. He was instrumental in developing new approaches for measuring cardiac output and distribution of respiratory gases within the lung and tissues of the human body.
He ran the Themis Project, a Defense Department-funded study that assessed the effect of different environments on breathing. Interested in how deep-sea diving and high- and low-gravity environments affected respiration, he conducted experiments for NASA with astronauts on Spacelab missions, as well as in the human centrifuge in UB's Center for Research and Education in Special Environments.
Born in Cairo and raised in Lebanon and Italy, Farhi moved to Israel in 1947 to fight for the Israeli underground. He received his medical degree in 1947 from the Université St. Joseph in Beirut and completed his medical training in Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem.
A pulmonologist, he came to the United States in 1952 to treat tuberculosis patients at Saranac Lake. After serving postdoctoral fellowships at Johns Hopkins University and the University of Rochester, he joined the UB faculty as an assistant professor. Farhi rose through the ranks at UB, being promoted to full professor in 1966 and serving as department chair from 1982-91. He was promoted to the rank of Distinguished Professor—the highest rank in the SUNY system—in 1989.
Farhi received numerous honors and awards over the course of his career, including the Stockton Kimball Award from the UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, a Humboldt Fellowship and a fellowship in the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering.
Among his survivors is a son, Eli R. Farhi, associate professor of clinical medicine in the Department of Medicine in the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.
Trees may be planted in Farhi's memory in care of The Jewish National Fund, 42 E. 69th St., New York, N.Y., 10021, 1-888-563-0099 or www.jnftrees.com.
Thomas D. Hill Sr., industrial engineering lecturer
Services were held on July 6 for Thomas D. Hill Sr., a retired lecturer in the Department of Industrial Engineering who died on July 3 following a tractor accident at his farm in the Town of Salem in Washington County. He was 68.
A native of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Hill was a descendant of Pilgrims arriving on the Mayflower, as well as a Revolutionary War veteran. He earned a bachelor's degree in aeronautical engineering from the University of Colorado in 1956.
He joined the Air Force and served in Vietnam as a navigator. He received a master's degree from the Air Force Institute of Technology in 1965 and retired from service as a lieutenant colonel in 1977. During his military service, he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and Air Medal with oak leaf clusters.
Following his military career, Hill joined Xerox Corp. in Rochester as an engineer-manager, earning a doctorate in industrial engineering from UB in 1994.
He then became a lecturer in the Department of Industrial Engineering at UB, teaching an introductory course in computer programming and a course in statistical methods for engineers, as well as supervising an industrial engineering internship program.
He was honored three times as Teacher of the Year by the student chapter of the Institute of Industrial Engineers before retiring to his farm in Salem in 2002.
Maryanne Mather, dental research coordinator
Funeral services were held on July 7 for Maryanne L. Mather, a research coordinator in the Department of Periodontics and Endodontics in the School of Dental Medicine who died unexpectedly on July 3 in her Town of Tonawanda home. She was 58.
Born in Buffalo, Mather graduated from Bennett High School and UB, where she earned a bachelor's degree in medical technology.
She joined the UB Department of Periodontics in 1967 and served as clinical research coordinator in the Center for Dental Studies, where she supervises clinical projects and taught laboratory techniques to students and visiting professors in the department. She participated in and co-authored numerous scientific papers on research conducted in the department.
Mather was a past president and a former board member of the Niagara Frontier Society of Medical Technology. She received the SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Professional Service in 1997. She also was a member and a former warden of St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church, where she sang in the choir.
Mather is survived by a sister, Janet J. Mather, director of social sciences services in the Office of Student Advisement and Services in the College of Arts and Sciences.