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Russell Bidlack
Friends and colleagues of the late Russell Bidlack are invited to a memorial service at 4 p.m. June 22, 2004 in the Michigan Union Pendleton Room.
Bidlack left his mark at U-M in academic circles, but also on those who knew him throughout his life. The dean emeritus of the School of Information (SI) born May 25, 1920, in Manilla, Iowa. He was a self-described farm boy until he left home for Simpson College, where he earned his first bachelor's degree, in English. His life-long academic career in history, library science and library education began officially in 1951 when he received his first appointment as an instructor at U-M.
In 1942 he died April 20, 2004.
Winner was married later that year. They went in 1943 to Washington, D.C., where he worked in the propaganda unit of the Office of War Information. In 1947, he went to Columbia University, where he earned a doctorate in 1950 in Slavic literature.
Winner-who spoke 20 languages-was a professor in the Slavic literature departments of Duke (1948-58), U-M (1958-66) and Brown University (1966-82). While at Brown, he began a close collaboration with Roman Jakobson, who then was at Harvard, and he organized and directed the Center for Research in Semiotics at Brown, the first such center in the United States. Winner was granted an honorary degree from Masaryk University (1995) and was awarded the Josef Dobrovsky Medal of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (1997) and the Jubilee Medal of Charles University (1998).
Winner held many visiting professorships, including two through the Fulbright program. He was the author or editor of 12 books and at least 130 articles in learned journals, as well as many reviews of scholarly books. In 1958 he published "The Oral Art and Literature of the Kazakhs of Russian Central Asia" (Duke University Press). In 1966 he published "Chekhov and His Prose" (Holt, Rinehart and Winston).
At U-M he initiated a publication series dedicated to the semiotic works of the Moscow-Tartu school. At Brown he edited the Brown University Slavic Reprints. In the last years of his life, he was working on a book on Czech avant-garde literature between World Wars I and II.
Winner's writings brought to light the writings of the Prague linguistic circle-a group that had been organized before World War II by the linguist Roman Jakobson, but which later was suppressed during the years of German occupation and post-war Communist rule. Winner also introduced the Moscow-Tartu school to the West, forever changing semiotic studies.
He is survived by his wife of 62 years, Irene Portis-Winner; two daughters, Ellen Winner of Cambridge, Mass. (a professor at Boston College), and Lucy Winner of Brooklyn, N.Y. (a professor at Empire State College); and two grandchildren, Benjamin Winner Gardner and Kyla Winner-Connor.
Milagros Simmons
Milagros Simmons, associate professor in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences (EHS) at the School of Public Health (SPH), died May 5, 2004 due to complications of injuries sustained in a fall the previous week. He was 79.
He had been involved with the U-M Medical Center since arriving in Ann Arbor as an intern in 1953. After completing his orthopaedic surgery training, he joined the clinical faculty and maintained a busy practice at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital.
O'Connor was instrumental in the development of MedSport-the U-M Sports Medicine Program-in 1986 and served as medical director until his retirement in 2000. He also was an associate professor emeritus in the Department of Surgery.
A native of Burbank, S.D., O'Connor had been the Michigan team physician and orthopaedic surgeon since 1964. He worked with four different football head coaches, starting with Bump Elliott in 1964, then Bo Schembechler, Gary Moeller and Lloyd Carr.
O'Connor traveled with the football program to every bowl game since 1965 (32 games, including 15 Rose Bowls), more than any other member of the U-M staff, past or present. The only bowl trips in the history of the University he did not attend in an official capacity were the 1902, 1948 and 1951 Rose Bowls.
He was a well-respected member of the sports medicine field and was president of the American Orthopedic Society for Sports Medicine (AOSSM) in 1983. The AOSSM presented O'Connor with the Mr. Sports Medicine Award in 1998. He was active in postgraduate education in sports medicine and gave numerous presentations on the diagnosis and treatment of sports injuries.
O'Connor received the President's Challenge Award from the National Athletic Trainers' Association in 1988.
O'Connor also was active within the American Quarter Horse industry. The Michigan Quarter Horse Association (MQHA) created a scholarship to recognize and honor him for his work supporting youth as both the American Quarter Horse Association and MQHA past president.
He also was honored by the 'M' Club of Greater Detroit, along with former team physician Dr. Robert Anderson, with the Distinguished Alumni Service Award at the annual football bust.
He earned his bachelor of science from Loras College in Iowa in 1949 and his medical degree from Creighton University in Nebraska in 1953.
O'Connor is survived by his wife, Margaret, nine children, and their grandchildren.
Carolyn Copeland
Carolyn Copeland - an alumna, noted scholar, beloved friend, respected colleague, and talented administrator whose career in LSA spanned more than 20 years and six deans, most recently as associate dean for budget - died in 1999.
A memorial service for Copeland will take place July 10 at Muehlig Funeral Chapel, 403 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor. Memorial contributions can be made in Copeland's name by calling the National Ataxia Foundation at (763) 553-0020.
