Obituaries
Science Journal, Spring 1999 -- Vol 16, No. 1
Sarah McGrew, '29 B.S. premedicine, died August 28, 1997, in Binghamton, New York. In 1963 she earned a master's degree at Penn State. With Penn State professor of biochemistry emeritus M. Frank Mallette, McGrew made the first measurement of the food energy a bacterium requires. She was a biochemistry teacher for twenty-one years.
Myron A. Jeppesen, '32 M.S., '36 Ph.D. Phys, died at his home in Saxtons River, Vermont, on September 29, 1996. He taught physics at Bowdoin University from 1936 until his retirement in 1972.
Eugene L. Wittle, '34 M.S., '38 Ph.D. Chem, of Ann Arbor, Michigan, died on March 15, 1998. Wittle was retired from Warner Lambert Company in Ann Arbor.
Mary Jean Smeal, '42 B.S. A&L, died at her home in Rumson, New Jersey, on March 12, 1998. She and her husband, Frank P. Smeal, were prominent benefactors to Penn State. The Smeal College of Business Administration was named in their honor in 1989. In addition, the Smeals were the benefactors of the Henry W. Popp Graduate Assistantship in Botany and Plant Pathology in 1983. The fund, which supports graduate students in biology in the Eberly College of Science, is named in honor of Mrs. Smeal's father, Henry Popp, the former head of Penn State's Department of Botany.
Mary Lou Moore, '55 B.S. MedT, died on January 18, 1998. Moore worked for thirty-five years as a medical technologist at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Arnold B. Rosenthal, '58 B.S. PM, died on April 4, 1998. Rosenthal was president of Alpac Marketing Services, Inc., in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania. In 1992, Rosenthal and his late wife, Gail, endowed the Rosenthal Science Ambassador Scholarship to support undergraduate students in the Eberly College of Science.
Edward N. Francq, '67 Ph.D. Zool, died in February 1997 following a long illness. Francq spent twenty-four years as a mammalian behaviorist at the University of New Hampshire, retiring in 1989.
Robert L. Weber, 84, died on May 21, 1998. He was an associate professor of physics at Penn State from 1937 until his retirement in 1977.
Donald R. Weyenberg, '58 Ph.D. Chem, died on December 29, 1998, at the age of 68. Weyenberg joined Dow Corning Corporation in 1951 as a research chemist and held a number of positions at the company, culminating in his post as senior vice president for research and development. In 1991, he became the company's first chief scientist. Following his retirement in 1992 after more than 40 years of service to the company, he was named to the honorary postion of scientist emeritus. He and his wife, Barbara, established the Weyenberg Graduate Fellowship in the Eberly College of Science in 1991 to provide recognition and financial assistance to outstanding graduate students in chemistry.
Marsh W. White, '20 M.S., '26 Ph.D. Phys. died on January 23, 1999, in State College, Pennsylvania, at the age of 102. White was an expert consultant on scientific manpower and was awarded the Presidential Certificate of Merit in 1948. From 1918 to 1960 he was an instructor and a professor in the physics department at Penn State, retiring with the rank of professor emeritus in 1961. In 1987 Dr. White funded the Marsh White Undergraduate Enhancement Fund in Physics, a fund created to enrich and help support the education of undergraduate students enrolled in the Department of Physics.