OBITUARIES
Compiled by Lisa Palladino

1924

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Abner W. Feinberg, attorney, Scottsdale, Ariz., on November 8, 2001. Feinberg graduated from NYU Law School in 1928 and spent 70 of his 96 years ardently involved with the legal profession — 50 in active practice and 20 as a special student at Arizona State University College of Law, which he attended after retiring to Arizona at 77. While at ASU, he also took classes in philosophy, religion and Native American studies. Feinberg specialized in corporate, banking and life insurance law in Jersey City, N.J., while living in South Orange, prior to his move west. He was active in local affairs, including Temple Israel and Jewish community groups, New Jersey Bar Association committees and numerous charitable organizations. Feinberg had two happy relationships: his wife, Jeanette, who died in 1984; and later, Ruth Einhorn. According to his daughter-in-law, Judith Feinberg, who is married to his son, Jack, “[Abner]… was a student all of his life, and was very appreciative to Columbia College for giving him an excellent start on his lifelong quest for knowledge.” Feinberg also is survived by his daughter, Ellen.

1930

William Y. Pryor, retired attorney, Essex, N.J., on June 14, 2002. Pryor was born on October 24, 1908, in Newark, N.J. He earned a degree from the Law School in 1932 and then earned a J.D. from NYU in 1934. He was admitted to the New Jersey Bar in 1935 and was later admitted to practice before the Supreme Court. He was a member of the Verona, N.J., Board of Education from 1939–41. Pryor served as a sergeant in the Army from 1941–45 and was a special agent for the Counter Intelligence Corps in San Francisco. After the war, he received the Royal Yugoslav War Medal for Allied Service, which was bestowed upon him by the late deposed King Peter II, whom he knew personally. Pryor also was decorated with the Grand Croix of the Order of the Temple. He practiced law in Newark from 1935–59 and then practiced in Montclair until his retirement in 1972. He served on myriad committees and was a member of numerous civic groups and organizations, including the Society of Colonial Wars in New Jersey, where he served as governor. He later joined the New York Society, where he was a council member, and was a 32nd degree mason with the Scottish and York rites. Pryor enjoyed hiking, mountain climbing, archeology, swimming and skating, and was a genealogy buff. He married Marianna Love Brand in 1944 and is survived by their two children, Ann Love and William Brand, as well as two grandchildren. 1933

David A. Kosh, Bethesda, Md., on December 27, 2001. Kosh entered the College with the Class of 1933, but received his civil engineering degree from the Engineering School in 1934. While at Columbia, he was elected to Sigma Xi. Kosh worked for the Tennesee Valley Authority as a designer on Norris Dam, and upon his return to New York, studied economics at the New School for Social Research and earned an M.B.A. in 1941 from NYU while teaching at Boys High School in Brooklyn. In 1942, he began work for the Office of Price Control and then became assistant to the administrator of the General Services Administration, where he designed the first inter-agency telephone system for the government. In 1952, Kosh left government to open his own consulting practice in public utility regulation. The vast majority of his clients were the regulatory commissions, representing the consumer interest. Kosh was considered one of the country’s leading experts on cost of capital and fair rate of return, and he lectured extensively on these topics. He was a member of the Cosmos Club in Washington, D.C., and a variety of professional engineering and economic associations. In his retirement, he turned to travel and the arts; he was an accomplished silversmith and painter. His wife of 63 years, Zelda Horner Kosh, predeceased him by seven weeks. He is survived by his daughters, Jennifer Stern and Diane Rogell; five grandchildren; and one great-granddaughter.

1940

Robert S. Ames, retired, Providence, R.I., on May 12, 2002. Ames was born on January 23, 1919, in New York City. He received a second bachelor’s degree from the Engineering School, in mechanical engineering, in 1941, and a master’s in 1942, also from the Engineering School. Later, Ames earned a second master’s, in industrial management, as an early Sloan Fellow at MIT’s Business School in 1954. He went to work for Goodyear Aerospace in Akron, Ohio, where he stayed for 18 years, working on the development of plastics and acrylics for airplane canopies and radar covers critical to World War II fighter aircraft. Ames became known as a leader in the technology of aircraft plastics and served from 1952–56 on a subcommittee of NACA (now NASA) and on an advisory board of the National Academy of Science. After leaving Goodyear, he worked for RCA in Camden, N.J., and Bell Aerospace in Buffalo. Bell, a Textron subsidiary, was a prime supplier of helicopters for the Vietnam War and was also involved in space technology. In 1969, Ames was transferred to Textron’s headquarters in Providence as a group officer, later becoming senior vice president and then executive vice president in charge of divisions totaling more than $1 billion in annual sales. He was an associate fellow of the American Institute of Astronautics and Aeronautics, chairman of the National Security Industrial Association in 1982, and chairman of the board of the Aerospace Industries Association in 1983. Ames was executive vice president for aerospace at Textron Inc. when he retired in 1984. Always patriotic, Ames was an inveterate traveler, a bibliophile, a classic-car collector, a passionate believer in the value of education, a baseball and football fan from the sandlots to the pros. During his business travels, he became a denizen of secondhand and antique bookstores and put together noteworthy collections of books on aeronautics and the early narratives of travel in the American West. He donated the aeronautic collection to the New England Air Museum in Windsor Locks, Conn., and he and his wife gave the Western collection to the Special Collections of the John Hay Library at Brown. Ames was vice chairman of the Friends of the Library at Brown for 20 years, and shortly before his death was named to receive the William Williams Award for his support of the university library. He also was a former chairman of the building committee at the Athenaeum in Providence, a former member of the Hope Club, Turks Head Club and Brown Faculty Club in Providence, and a member of the MIT Faculty Club in Cambridge, Mass. In addition to the Western collection, his “signal contribution” to Brown, according to Samuel Streit, associate university librarian for special collections, was that “he was instrumental in the negotiations that led to the gift of the Gorham Silver Co. archives to Brown.” Gorham was a Textron subsidiary. Those archives are now heavily used by scholars and collectors. Ames is survived by his wife, Margaret (Grossman) Ames, to whom he had been married for 58 years; daughters, Linda Cassady and Elizabeth Ames; son, David; and a granddaughter.

1944

William E. Drenner, retired banker, Forth Worth, on April 15, 2002. Drenner was born on April 30, 1923, in the Mound Valley Community of Labette County, Kan., and grew up in Kansas and Tennessee. While at the College, he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He served in the Navy during World War II and married Johnnie Overfelt in 1947. After graduation, Drenner worked in the livestock and meatpacking industry, buying cattle in Argentina, Alabama and Tennessee. Later, he embarked on a three-decade–long career in banking, working in Tennessee, Kansas, Arkansas and Texas. Drenner’s passion was his family’s genealogy, however, and his collection of family documents spanning eight generations is housed in the Spencer Library at the University of Kansas. Drenner is survived by his wife; sons Ray, and his wife, Pam and Stephen, and his wife, Lauren; four grandchildren; sister, Phyllis Pope, and her husband, Ben; and several sisters-in-law, nieces and nephews.

Edward H. Kerner, emeritus professor, Newark, Del., on February 11, 2002. Kerner was born in New York City on April 22, 1924, and earned a Ph.D. in physics from Cornell in 1950. He was interested in theoretical physics and studied and contributed significant research results in biophysics, relativity, gravity and the foundations of quantum mechanics. Kerner recently had published an article and was working on others in the area of uniform field theory (how particles and waves interact at a subatomic level). Kerner taught at the University of Delaware for 37 years in the Department of Physics and Astronomy. He retired in 1999, and is survived by his wife, Barbara; brother, George; son, Benjamin; and daughter, Winifred. Another son, Jeffrey, predeceased him.

Wylie F.L. Tuttle, real estate developer, Rock Hall, Md., on April 5, 2002. A native New Yorker, Tuttle was a Navy pilot in the Pacific Theater during World War II. After the war, he joined the New York real estate firm then known as Brown, Wheelock, Harris & Stevens. Tuttle was a founder and the first president of the Young Men’s Real Estate Association. He and Arthur Collins formed Collins Tuttle & Company in 1954. Tuttle was president of the firm from 1958 until his death. Along with a Collins Tuttle associate, Herbert Papock, Tuttle played a major role in the construction of what was in 1972 the tallest office building in Europe, the Tour Montparnasse in Paris. Tuttle enlisted French co-promoters and a syndicate of 17 insurance companies and seven banks in the $140-million multiple-building project. As the construction of the buildings progressed, Tuttle and Papock sold office space to future occupants. After the complex was finished, they managed it until all its space was sold and then turned it over to French real estate people. When the Montparnasse tower was topped off in early 1972, it was 680 feet tall. Tuttle and Papock also were involved in the construction of major buildings in Chicago, St. Louis and elsewhere, and developed shopping centers and office buildings around the United States. Tuttle is survived by his wife, the former Janet Alexandra Scott; and a daughter, Amanda.

1948

Joel A. Yancey, Santa Fe, N.M., on August 29, 2001. Yancey majored in chemistry at the College, then earned a Ph.D. in physical chemistry at MIT. His first job was with Godfrey L. Cabot, Inc., almost next door to MIT, and later in Billerica, Mass., at Cabot Corp. After the first few years, Yancey worked in chromatography, then a new field of analytical chemistry. He went on to Ciba-Geigy, Analabs, and finally Sohio, which was acquired by British Petroleum, now BP Amoco. According to a letter sent to CCT by his wife, Marianne, Yancey valued his liberal arts courses at Columbia, especially combined Humanities and German. She noted that he spoke very good German after only 11–2 years of study (and many weekly meetings of the German Club at a nearby beer cellar). She also commented that he reminisced fondly about his stage crew days with The Varsity Show. Yancey suffered from progressive supranuclear palsy for at least 10 years before his death, and probably much longer due to a lack of a diagnosis, according to his wife. He lost his ability to speak or make any sound, then his balance, his mobility, normal eyesight and swallowing reflexes. Even after complete loss of speech, Yancey used the computer to write a paper on mineralogy, his last hobby. When he could no longer manipulate the keys, he used a handheld word processor to write messages to his wife, store clerks and friends. Yancey, remarkably, did not lose his awareness, his comprehension or his memory until the last two months of his life. He and his wife retired to Santa Fe, N.M., in 1996, putting them much closer than their previous home, Cleveland, to their daughter in Truchas, N.M., as well as their son and grandson in Dallas and daughter and two granddaughters in Colorado.

1964

Kenneth A. Bruce M.D., physician, Syracuse, N.Y., on January 8, 2002. Born in Yonkers, N.Y., Bruce graduated from Albany Medical College. He practiced psychiatry in the Syracuse area and was a member of the Onondaga County Medical Society, the American Psychiatric Association and Schola Cantorum. He is survived by his wife of 32 years, Sandra; son, Adam; daughter, Diana Lombard; and brother, Donald.

1966

Joseph J. Cody Jr., executive seminar leader, Glen Ridge, N.J., on March 10, 2002. Cody was a running back while at the College and became one of the legends of the famed Old Blue Rugby Football Club. Hours after his death, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame of his high school alma mater, Bergen Catholic in Oradell, N.J. Cody was a three-year letterman on the Columbia football teams best known for All-American quarterback Archie Roberts. The starting fullback in 1964, Cody rushed 35 times for 133 yards and caught seven passes for 67 yards. His average of 3.8 yards per carry was the best on the team. After earning his degree in English, Cody joined the faculty at the Horace Mann School in the Bronx, where he taught history and social studies for 15 years. Cody left Horace Mann in 1982 and entered the business world, first in financial positions and later as an executive seminar leader for The Executive Committee, training business leaders in management techniques. He also served as a conference keynote speaker for groups ranging from the newspaper business to pharmaceutical firms. He specialized in conflict resolution. Cody ran three New York City marathons and co-authored Road Runners Guide to New York City. He was a mainstay of the Old Blue rugby team, and one of the club’s highest honors, the Joe Cody Spirit of the Old Blue Award, is named for him. The award is presented to “an Old Blue who has demonstrated the Old Blue Spirit by putting team and teammates ahead of self.” Cody also served as his class’ CCT Class Notes correspondent earlier this year. He is survived by his wife, Molly; son, Kevin; daughters, Catherine and Sarah; brother; and sister.

Byron M. Noone, Garden City, N.Y., on June 22, 2002. Born and raised in Montclair, N.J., Noone graduated from Montclair Academy. He earned an M.A. from Teachers College in 1967 and completed coursework toward an Ed.D. in applied linguistics at CUNY’s graduate center that focused on transformational grammar. He married Lana Solinsky, a classical musician, and the couple moved to Hempstead, Long Island, where they resided for six years before settling in Garden City, where they lived for the past 27 years. Noone taught in various colleges across the years, the last of which was Business Informatics College in Valley Stream, N.Y. He also was a published poet — his works were included in a national anthology — and he edited portions of the soon-to-be-published Voices From Vietnam, by Charlene Edwards. He was working on an autobiography at the time of his death. Noone ran in the Long Island Marathon and other local races. At St. Joseph’s Church in Garden City, he served as a lector, sang in the choir and participated in the Men’s Prayer Group. He is survived by Lana, his wife of 33 years; daughter, Jennifer ’99 Social Work; son, Jason; and sister, Pat Rom. Another daughter, Heather Constance, predeceased him in 1975.

1970

William D. Wazevich, financial v.p., Strongsville, Ohio, on March 3, 2002. Classmates will remember Wazevich as one of Columbia’s finest pass receivers, a favorite target of quarterback great Marty Domres, who later played in the NFL. Wazevich caught 45 passes for 593 yards in 1967; in his varsity career he caught 102 passes for 1,336 yards, then an Ivy League record. His 214 receiving yards against Princeton in 1967 still is a Columbia record. Following graduation, Wazevich signed as a free agent with the Cleveland Browns and played in several preseason games before being cut. He still had a career in sports, however, serving 31 years as a high school basketball official for boys’ and girls’ games. He frequently worked district and regional tournaments and was selected by area coaches to officiate in three state tournaments. Wazevich’s “other” career was as a v.p. of Merrill Lynch. He is survived by his wife, Patricia; son, Mark; daughter, Erin Trem; parents; and two brothers.

1999

Brooke B. Heins, assistant comptroller, Queens, N.Y., on July 5, 2002. Heins received a B.S. in economics and environmental science and was pursuing her M.B.A. at Baruch College in New York City while working full-time for Modo Eyewear, a fashion eyewear company in Soho. As an undergraduate, Heins developed her expertise in environmental science by conducting research at the University’s Biosphere 2 Center in Arizona. Throughout her two semesters there, she studied the Earth’s physical and biological processes. Working closely with her classmates and University faculty, Heins’ research sought to shed light on how the Earth’s ecosystems react to higher concentrations of carbon dioxide. In addition to the academic demands of the Biosphere 2 program, Heins enjoyed its physical challenges, which included hiking through the Grand Canyon and other areas of the Arizona desert landscape. Heins was a member of the women’s tennis team under the direction of head coach Rob Kresberg, who said of her, “As a new coach to Columbia at the time, it was a pleasure to have such an unselfish, respectful and truly gracious young woman on my team.” Heins is survived by her parents, Robert and Kathleen; and eight siblings, Christian, Jaime, Kristie, Ashley, Missy, Bobby, Mandy and Alex. A scholarship has been established in her name that will be granted on an annual basis to a college-bound senior scholar-athlete from Bellport High School, where Heins graduated in 1995 as an honors scholar, accomplished flutist and captain of the varsity tennis team. Contributions may be made to The Brooke Heins Memorial Scholarship Fund, 32 N. Brewster Ln, Bellport, NY 11713.