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Dr. Major McKinley Ash
Dr. Major McKinley Ash, considered a world leader and icon in dentistry, Born in Bellaire, Mich. April 7, 1921, to Major McKinley and Marguerite (Early) Ash, he grew up in Miami, Fla.
Ash received his electrical engineering degree at the Illinois Institute of Technology in 1942 and a certification in physics a year later from the University of Chicago.
During World War II he became certified in radar technology from the U.S. Army Institute, repairing radar damaged on the war front. He was wounded seriously during the Battle of the Bulge and was awarded the Silver Star, Purple Heart and the Croix de Guerre.
Following rehabilitation in Georgia and Florida, he resumed his education at Michigan State University, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry. There he met Fayola Foltz and they were died April 24, 2007 in Ann Arbor from complications from Hodgkins lymphoma.
Warner was the third director of the Bentley Library and a professor of history at the University, a position he held throughout a career focused on the administration of educational and cultural institutions.
In each position Warner held, he had an uncanny sense of working through a single key challenge that in every case led to the transformation of the institutions he served, colleagues say.
Warner was married in 1954. Warner pursued advanced studies in history at U-M, receiving his doctorate degree in 1958.
In 1966 he was named third director of the Michigan Historical Collections. Warner determined the future of the collections depended on having a separate building that would give the program identity. He worked to raise private funding and with help from Mrs. Alvin Bentley of Owosso, Mich. and others, funding was obtained and in 1973 the Bentley Library building was realized. The new building significantly increased the profile of the collection on campus and in the nation.
The Bentley Library in 1963 had begun collecting the papers of Gerald Ford, and with the congressman’s elevation to the presidency in 1974, Warner began working to secure the Ford library for U-M. Observing the opposition to presidential libraries planned at other Universities, Warner proposed that the library be divided into two structures. A museum would be built in Grand Rapids and a library containing the presidential papers would be built in Ann Arbor where they could be integrated into academic programs. The plan was accepted and realized in 1980.
In 1980, President Jimmy Carter, appointed Warner as sixth Archivist of the United States. Warner faced lingering issues regarding ownership of the Nixon Tapes along with budgetary and administrative challenges. He advocated that the National Archives needed to be an independent government agency. Though he could not lead the movement to separate it from the General Services Administration, he encouraged work to achieve that end and on April 1, 1985 President Reagan signed a bill that removed the National Archives from the GSA and established it as a separate agency.
Warner returned to U-M to become dean of the School of Library Science. He saw the school would need to adapt to advances in technology and to adopt a more interdisciplinary approach, expand its scope, and forge strategic connections with other units of the University. He was instrumental in positioning the school to meet these challenges, and in realizing the vision that eventually transformed it into the School of Information.
Warner’s wife Jane died April 19, 2007.
Crane’s early work on nuclear physics and the physics of accelerators culminated in the invention of the race track synchrotron, a design emulated by almost every particle accelerator since 1950. His pioneering measurements on the gyro-magnetic ratio of the free electron are a cornerstone of quantum electrodynamics. His analyses of helical structures in molecules continue to be significant in genetic research.
Crane was married Florence Rohmer LeBaron in 1932. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree and in 1934 his doctorate degree, cum laude, from the California Institute of Technology.
Crane was a member of the U-M physics department from 1934 until his retirement in 1978 and served as department chairman from 1964-72. During World War II, Crane worked as a research associate on radar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and as a physicist on the proximity fuse at the Carnegie Institution of Washington. He served as the director of proximity fuse research at U-M and as director of the atomic research project for the Manhattan District. He also was consultant for the National Defense Research Commission and Office of Scientific Research and Development.
Crane was a member of the National Academy of Sciences. He earned awards and served in key roles for professional groups including service as president of the Midwestern Universities Research Association from 1957-1960, as president of the American Association of Physics Teachers in 1965; and as chairman of the board of governors for the American Institute of Physics from 1971-75.
Crane was a columnist for The Physics Teacher, writing on how things work. That led to a book and best seller for the American Institute of Physics, and for the Hands-On-Museum in Ann Arbor.
His hobbies included building and using ham radio equipment, traveling, hiking, camping, raising orchids and cacti, photography, fly fishing, writing, teaching, volunteering and building exhibits for the Hands On Museum. He also supported technical education at Washtenaw Community College. Crane’s wife Florence died in 1960.
Survivors include: daughter Carol Kitchens (Fred), of Chelsea; and son George Crane (Ann) of Los Altos, Calif.; and five grand children-Fred Kitchens, Anne Kitchens, Susan Kitchens Wolding, James Crane and Beth Crane-Tarcea.
Contributions in Crane’s honor may be made to the U-M Physics Department H. R. Crane Fellowship, or the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation.
Leonard Eron
Leonard Eron, who conducted four decades of research about the development of aggression and violence in children - including early studies on television's influence on these behaviors - died of congestive heart failure at his home in Lindenhurst, Ill., the New York Times reported.
Eron and colleague L. Rowell Huesmann, the Amos Tversky Collegiate Professor of Communication Studies and Psychology, was known for his distinguished work on child violence, including the longitudinal Columbia County Study.
For the study that began in 1960, 856 subjects living in the New York county were tracked, beginning at age 8, then at age 18, and again as they approached age 50. The findings indicated that the amount of violence children watch on television when they are young predicts how violently they behaved in adulthood.
Eron started at U-M in 1992 as an adjunct research scientist at ISR and as adjunct professor of psychology. He served as associate dean for research at the School of Social Work from 2002-03.
"Len Eron was a very special friend of mine and a dear colleague to many here and around the world. He will be deeply missed," said Paula Allen-Meares, dean and the Norma Radin Collegiate Professor of Social Work and professor of education.
Eron received numerous commendations for outstanding performance throughout his career. He advised and served on key review panels and as principal reviewer on major research committees. He received his bachelor's and master's degrees in psychology from Columbia University in 1942 and 1946. He served in the U.S. Army in North Africa and Italy for four years until 1945.
"The experience of fighting and living through the Second World War ... was formative in his interest in aggression and violence," Huesmann told the Los Angeles Times in a recent interview.
Eron earned his doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of Wisconsin in 1949. He was the chief psychologist at Yale University from 1948-55 and worked as a research associate there from 1956-60.
From 1950-62, he was a lecturer at Smith College School of Social Work. He was the chief psychologist and director of research at the Rip Van Winkle Clinic and Foundation in New York from 1955-62 and was a professor at the University of Iowa from 1962-69.
He transferred to the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1969 as a professor of psychology and research professor of the social sciences, retiring in 1990 as a professor emeritus.
He is survived by his wife, Madeline Marcus; a daughter, Barbara, of Lindenhurst, Ill.; a son, Don, of Boulder, Colo.; and two grandchildren.
William Root
William Root, 87, a pioneer in the field of statistical communication and information theory, died April 23, 1998. He is survived by his children Wendy Cate and William Root Jr., and eight grandchildren.
