The University of Kansas

Marie Arnett
Marie Arnett, 78, died June 10 at the Eudora Nursing Center. She had worked as a baker for Naismith Hall and Watkins Hospital at KU until retiring in 1986. She married Lewis Arnett in 1939 in Fredonia. He died in 1988. Survivors include three sons, Carl and Bob Arnett, both of Lawrence, and Alvin Nelson, St. Charles, Mo.; five grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. The family suggests memorials to Douglas County Visiting Nurses or Lawrence Humane Society, sent in care of Rumsey-Yost Funeral Home.

Dean Bottorff
Dean Bottorff, 78, died June 7 at a Laguna Hills, Calif., nursing home. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, he was athletic department equipment manager for KU. He is survived by his wife of 54 years, Yvonne; three daughters, Stephanie Franca of Riverside, Jody of Laguna Niguel and Dana of Massachusetts; four grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

Dr. Lewis L. Coriell
Dr. Lewis L. Coriell, a scientist and physician who founded the Camden-based Coriell Institute for Medical Research and whose pioneering work in growing human cells enabled Jonas Salk to develop a polio vaccine, died June 19 of cancer. It was his 90th birthday. Coriell earned his doctorate in 1940 and his M.D. in 1942 from KU.
He was chosen by the National Poliomyelitis Foundation to evaluate the Salk polio virus vaccine clinical trials in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia. The success of the program led to the release of the Salk vaccine nationwide.
The cell culture collections that he initiated during research grew into the world’s largest collections of human cells for study.

David Noel Erwin
David Noel Erwin, 55, an award-winning scientist and expert in the field of bioelectromagnetics, died June 1. He worked for two years as an instructor in the department of physiology at the KU Medical Center.
In 1975, he obtained a doctorate in physiology and biophysics from the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center in Oklahoma City. His early research was on radiation science.
For more than 15 years, he conducted research on microwave biological effects.
Five years ago, Erwin attained the civil service equivalent of general officer rank in the Senior Executive Service. The service is composed of civilian men and women who administer public programs at the highest levels of the federal government.
Erwin is survived by his wife, Kathy Cooke; two daughters, Shannon Erwin and Kerry Buttress, both of Tulsa, Okla.; and his mother, Emily Margaret Erwin of Oklahoma City.

Helen Evelyn Homolka
Helen Evelyn Homolka, 91, died June 21 at her home. She worked for KU Food Services for 10 years after earning a degree in dietetics from KU. Survivors include a nephew and a niece. The family suggests memorials to Claflin Scholarship Fund, directed to future KU students, sent in care of Nicholson-Ricke Funeral Home, 415 Main, Hoisington, KS 67544.

Richard Dyer MacCann
Richard Dyer MacCann, 80, died June 28 at Greenwood Manor, Iowa City, Iowa. He was a professor of film at KU from 1965 to 1969. He married Donnarae Thompson Oct. 12, 1957. She survives of the home. The family suggests memorials in his name to the Christian Science Monitor, P.O. Box 98, Boston, MA 02117-0098 or to the KU Department of Theatre and Film.

John Hamlin Petefish
John Hamlin Petefish, 59, Lawrence, died June 20 at Lawrence Memorial Hospital. He was a custodial worker in student housing at KU from 1993 to 1997. He is survived by a daughter, Marci Petefish, Kansas City, Mo.

Carmen Purcell
Carmen Luisa Ferrer Purcell died July 6 at Lawrence Memorial Hospital. She was the retired personnel director for the housing department at KU. She married John W. Purcell Jr. on May 18, 1944, in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico. He survives of the home. Other survivors include two daughters, Patricia Lee Purcell-Wilson, Fairfax, Va., and Carmen Milagros Dessault, Athens, Tenn.; a son, John W. Purcell III, Lawrence; three grandchildren, two step-grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren. The family suggests memorials to the KU Medical Center ALS Clinic, sent in care of Warren-McElwain Mortuary.

Bobby G. Roberts
Bobby G. Roberts, 69, Lawrence, died May 29 at his home. He worked as a steamfitter for KU. He married Shirley Anderson May 31, 1951. She survives of the home. Other survivors include three daughters, Jeanne Michel, Christy Jones and Cindy Roberts, all of Lawrence; and four grandchildren. The family suggests memorials to Hospice Care of Douglas County, sent in care of Warren-McElwain Mortuary.

Randy Russell
Randy Lee Russell, 38, Lawrence, died July 8 in an automobile accident in Jefferson County. He worked for the landscape shop of Facilities Operations for the past 20 years. He married Vanessa McTaggert. They later divorced. He then married Jeannie Fuller Hamlin on March 10, 2001. She survives of the home. Other survivors include his three sons, Jason, Bradley and Joshua, all of Lawrence. The family suggests memorials to the Educational Fund for Randy’s Children, sent in care of Warren-McElwain Mortuary.
Chancellor Hemenway issued a statement expressing his and KU’s deepest sympathies to Randy Russell’s friends and family. “Our hearts go out to Jeannie, his wife, who is an employee of Student Housing, and to his children.”

Virginia Imogene Stone
Virginia Imogene Stone, 91, Eudora, died June 20 at Lawrence Memorial Hospital. She worked at KU as the director of Joseph R. Pearson Residence Hall. She married Clayton L. Stone on Aug. 12, 1935. He died in 1977. Survivors include a son, Darryl Stone, Lawrence; a daughter, Darleene Stone Overstreet, Moscow, Idaho; six grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren. A daughter, Donnis Reinken, died in 1993. The family suggests memorials to Eudora Nursing Center, sent in care of Rumsey-Yost Funeral Home.

John C. Wright
Former KU professor John C. Wright, 68, was killed in a two-car accident July 9 near Brainerd, Minn. Another man died in the crash; a Lawrence man, Paul Jefferson, 41, was injured.
Wright is survived by his wife, former KU professor Aletha Huston. She was in Texas at the time of the accident. Wright and Huston were prominent researchers and co-directors of the Center for Research on the Influences of Television on Children. They left KU in 1996 after more than 20 years and joined the faculty at the University of Texas-Austin, where CRITC is now based.
“John Wright was a distinguished member of the KU community for many years,” said Provost David Shulenburger. “His friends and colleagues here are stunned and saddened by news of his death. We grieve, as well, for Professor Aletha Huston, who was John’s partner in every respect, and whose loss is so great.”