In Memoriam

Donald Herman ’49 - Herman, 93 passed away on November 26, 2020, following complications from a stroke. He was born on February 8, 1927, in Detroit, Michigan. He served in the United States Navy from 1945-46 during WWII. Don worked for the State Department for many years overseas in Germany. He returned to the states living in Encinitas, California, where he worked for the San Onofre Nuclear Plant.

Milton Berrey ’52 - On September 25, 2020, Berrey passed away at the age of 98. Milton served as a US Navy SeaBee during World War II and was involved in campaigns in Bougainville and Guadalcanal. He began his career as Winthrop Manager for Sterling Drug International and his final assignment before moving to the New York Office was as Regional VicePresident for South America. In his last year, he loved driving to the ferry dock outside of Seattle.

Toby R. Madison ’52

Robert Williamson ’52 - Williamson was born on July 22, 1927, in Merrill, Iowa. He passed on to the next life to be with his wife Virginia on March 12, 2020. He enlisted in the Navy in 1945 and served on the USS Wisconsin until 1946. Following his marriage to Virginia in 1954, they moved to Mexico City with General Electric. They spent 15 years there where all three of their daughters were born. Although he faced many physical challenges following a stroke in 2008, he maintained a positive attitude and a smile on his face.

Roy Barrett ’54 - Barrett passed away at the age of 93 on November 6, 2020. Roy entered World War II as a paratrooper. He met the one and only love of his life, Ruth Redd. They moved to Philadelphia for a job in insurance. He started a number of companies, selling everything from wigs to horses. He developed the Tutor Time Childcare/Learning Centers, which are still in operation in the United States and Asia today. He was famous for his storytelling and followed the motto: "Never let the facts get in the way of a good story."

Patrick Powell ’55 - Powell, 90, died on February 26, 2020. He married his wife, Anne Martha Hooker on May 2, 1953, the beginning of a 56-year union. After graduating from Pomona, he was drafted by the US Army and stationed in Germany. In 1961, Mr. Powell became a school administrator at La Puente. In 1967 the family moved home to Claremont, where the children grew up and he would live for 53 years. Harry J. Kratoville Jr. ’56 - Kratoville passed away on January 6, 2020.

Harry was born on November 1, 1930, in Greenport NY. Harry proudly served our country in the Korean War from 1953-1955 as a Lieutenant tank commander in the Marine Corps. Harry first worked at Graflex Inc. in Rochester and then at Labelon Corporation in Canandaigua. Harry met the love of his life, Grace Smith, while they were in college and together celebrated 65 years of marriage.

William L. Rodgers ’56 - Rodgers passed away February 20, 2021 at the age of 93 in York, Pennsylvania. Rodgers, a senior agricultural officer, worked for USAID from 1966-1982, heading agricultural programs in Peru and Brazil and later working in Washington, DC, where he was responsible for the agency’s agribusiness and rural development projects. After retiring from USAID, he worked as a consultant and project manager for USAID projects in Ecuador, Bolivia, and Guatemala. Prior to joining USAID, Rodgers was the deputy director of the Peace Corps program in Colombia from 1963 to 1966, during which he helped manage a team of over 700 volunteers. Born in New York City in 1928, Rodgers grew up in California and Connecticut. Upon graduating from high school in 1946, he enlisted in the Marine Corps. After being discharged, he earned a BS in Animal Science at the University of Connecticut. While there, he met and married Maria Arce Fernandez, a young Chilean student studying at Connecticut College in New London. The couple settled in Connecticut while Rodgers worked for Swift and Company but they later moved to Phoenix, Arizona, where he attended the Thunderbird School of Global Management. With his business degree, he took a job with the American Foreign Power company in Santiago, Chile, in 1956. In 1961, Rodgers moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico where he set up a cattle feeding business. He ran the business until mid-1963, when he joined the Peace Corps. A man of many interests who read voraciously, especially biographies and history books, he enjoyed talking about current events and international affairs.

Peter Roman ’56 - Roman was born on June 26, 1927 in the former Yugoslavia, now Serbia. On August 31, 2020, he died peacefully in Millbrae, California. He immigrated to the United States, where he joined the army and fought in the Korean War. Peter was a pioneer in his field, driving the establishment of many Levi Strauss factories throughout the world, including its first production plant behind the Iron Curtain. Postretirement, Peter founded Production Consultants International and volunteered for the International Executive Service Corp. He spoke eight languages, collected fine art and unique cultural artifacts throughout his many world travels.

Wilbur “Bill” Davidson ’57 - Davidson passed away on October 13, 2020. Born in Alliance, Ohio, Bill served in the army. As a sales representative, Bill worked for Goodyear for two years in Ethiopia with a wide territory encompassing Saudi Arabia, Somalia, and Yemen. Bill later established Bridgestone’s dealerships throughout the southeast U.S. and founded Florida Bandag, a commercial retread tire company.

Donald Emmet Champion ’58 - Passed away on April 8, 2020. Barton Hartzell ‘59 - Hartzell was born in Yakima, Washington on September 10, 1929, and passed away of natural causes on September 20, 2020. He enlisted in the Air Force during the Korean War. He made his way to Medellin, Colombia, in 1960 where he met the love of his life, Luz Elena. The two married in 1961, and they returned to the Puget Sound area where Barton began a 28-year career with Boeing.

Alexander Douglas “Doug” McEachron ’59 - McEachron was born on April 16, 1932, in Cambridge, New York, and passed away on December 22, 2018. Doug served in the Army where he was trained as a Special Agent in Counter-Intelligence and selected to work at the Pentagon. Doug’s education continued at Thunderbird where he met his life partner Marjorie. Doug returned to Goodyear Tire, working nearly 28 years in International Operations. He and Marjorie began their family and life adventure together living in Puerto Rico, New Zealand, Australia, Thailand, Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, and Guatemala.

Thomas Mcginnis ’59 - McGinnis was born on January 22, 1933, and passed away in his home state of Oregon on July 21, 2020. Maggie (his wife) and Tom were "Snow-Birds." They enjoyed escaping the cold Oregon winters and traveling south to their home in Tucson, AZ. A true Irishman at heart, Tom and Maggie were famous for their annual St. Patrick’s Day soirées where you could find Tom, the life of the party, wearing a Kelly-green bow tie and holding an Irish whiskey.

Craig Starkey ’60 – Starkey passed away the last week of January 2020.

Horace Bowman ’61- Bowman concluded his 91year adventure on earth on June 21, 2020. He was commissioned upon graduation in 1950 and served in the Army, including a 1.5-year deployment to the Korean War as an Interrogation Officer. Readjusting to civilian life in the late 1950s was a challenge but eventually led him to Thunderbird, where he harnessed his love for travel to begin a career in international business. During a flight to Japan, he wooed a flight attendant named Yasuko; she became his life partner in 1969 when they married in Tokyo. His entrepreneurship led him and his family to a peripatetic life living in Japan, California, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, Missouri, Greece, and Cyprus, among others, but he always returned to the state he considered home: Virginia.

William Wrobel ’62 - Wrobel was born on February 9, 1932 in Chicago, Illinois. On August 6, 2020, Bill died at 88 years old. In 1953, Bill was stationed in West Germany as part of the post-World War II occupation forces. In 1958, Bill met Edna Wrobel who would become his wife. In 1968, Bill accepted a position with Perkins Engines as Head of Marketing for Latin American, moving him and his family to Sao Paulo, Brazil. In 1971, Bill and his family settled in Crystal Lake, where he resided for the next 40 years. Ultimately, Bill would own and run his company DriRite East Corp., a manufacturing and packaging facility of raw chemicals.

Richard Bell ’64 - Bell passed away on November 13, 2020, just before his 85th birthday following a prolonged illness. He served in the Army during the Korean War. For most of his career, Dick worked for the Agency for International Development at the U.S. Department of State and for the U.S. Department of Commerce as an International Trade Specialist. He retired in Fernandina Beach.

William “Bill” Gleason ’66 - Gleason was born on October 14, 1939, in Marblehead, Massachusetts. In 1962, Bill enlisted in the US Army Counter-Intelligence Corps and was posted in Bangkok, Thailand for three years during the early Vietnam conflict. There he performed intelligence gathering in Laos and Cambodia via parachute, while ostensibly teaching English in Bangkok. Upon completion of his military service, he returned to the US and attended Thunderbird. In 1966, Bill was hired by Crown Zellerbach Corporation and soon transferred to their export division in San Juan, Puerto Rico. This started Bill’s global travels that took him to six of the seven continents. Bill’s love for international travel adventures continued right up to his death, having just visited the Seychelles, his 179th country. Bill died on February 28, 2020.

David G. Fisher ’67 - Fisher passed away in April 2020, at the age of 100 years old. After leaving the Air Force in the 1960s, Fisher attended Thunderbird. He moved to Japan and became a respected English language teacher. He was one of the oldest, if not the oldest, American military veterans in Japan.

Joseph Segura ’67 – Segura passed away on July 10, 2020. Tony was born May 21, 1942, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Tony had a successful career as V.P. of Daniels Insurance in Santa Fe. He married Susan Williams Segura and they shared 40 wonderful years of marriage. Tony was an avid skier, fly fisherman, former marathon runner, and gym rat.

Harald Biedermann ’68 - Biedermann passed in July 2020 in a car accident.

Carl Stegall ’70 - Stegall, 79, passed away on July 6, 2020, from metastatic lung cancer. He began his first career working for the U.S. Forest Service in California and Arizona. He used this new knowledge for a second career in finance, working as a broker for Coldwell Banker in San Francisco. Another of Carl’s careers was in the Army National Guard trained as a medic during the Vietnam War.

Marilyn Ward (née Muessel) ’70 – Ward, 73, was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on April 4, 1947, and passed away on November 27, 2020, at her home in Lakewood, Colorado. Marilyn loved the mountains and the people who lived there.

Ravi Parameswaran ’73 - Parameswaran, 72, was a Professor of Marketing and International Business at Oakland University in Rochester, MI. As a tenured professor, he dedicated his 44-year career to preparing students for a successful career in marketing and marketing research. His research interests included marketing and sustainability issues related to marketing. His industry experience included positions at Ford Motor Company, Carson Roberts, Focus Advertising, India, and Richardson Hindustan. He passed away on October 16, 2020.

Jana Siman ’74 - Siman passed away at her home in Twinsburg, Ohio, on November 8, 2019. Born in Germany on September 7, 1950, she moved to Ohio that year. She studied in South Africa as well as the Beirut College for Women in Lebanon. During her life, she had three careers: international marketing executive, mother, and Adult Practice Nurse Practitioner (APRN). She thrived as a medical professional; especially as a lecturer and preceptor at the Yale School of Nursing. In addition, she volunteered extensively in Ecuador, Uganda, and India.

Gary Martin ’77 - Martin was born on October 9, 1949, in Houston, Texas. Gary was diagnosed with ALS, Lou Gehrig’s Disease, in February of 2018. Gary died at home on October 25. He served aboard diesel submarines in the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War as a Chinese Linguist and cryptanalytic intelligence officer. He was awarded decorations including the Navy Expeditionary Medal and National Defense Medal for his service. It was probably his 40 years as a private pilot, however, that gave him the greatest satisfaction. In 1993, he received a Ph.D. in Educational Administration from Texas A&M. Traveling the world for business and pleasure, visiting all 50 states and dozens of countries on six continents served as his global classroom.

Marcia Soldatos ’78 - Soldatos passed away at her home in Kiawah Island on March 18th, 2020. Beloved wife to her husband Paul, and devoted mother to her daughter Grace, Marcia was the anchor in the family. Altruistic by nature, she demonstrated acts of kindness to those who never knew of her infinite generosity.

Thomas Brennan ’79 - Brennan passed on December 2, 2020, in Vienna, Austria, from COVID-19.

Juanita Ruth One ’79 - One died at her home in Ecuador in February. She wanted us all to know how much she loved her T bird /SMU experience and the people she met through both programs.

Jane Rudov ’85 - Rudov, 62, passed on April 13, 2020. She served as Director of Marketing & Business Development at CJL Engineering where she found tremendous support and friendship in the past year.

Anne Dikeman (née Miller) ’86 - Dikeman, 64, passed on August 1, 2020. Annie was born in Hebron, Nebraska on November 6, 1955. Annie was a talented musician and singer. She taught special education in Vancouver, Washington, and coached at the Special Olympics. She later ran her own import business and sold real estate. She later indulged her love of travel by RV camping through the western US with her husband, friends, and dogs. Annie was a cancer survivor and worked tirelessly for cancer patients.

Hiroki Masuda ’86 - Masuda passed away in January 2021. Mary Sherman ’89 - Sherman passed away on July 30, 2020, after a courageous 20-year battle with Multiple Sclerosis. She spent the last 16 years with her husband, Bret Johnson, living in Omaha and Phoenix and pursuing her passion for rescuing dogs. Upon graduation, Mary started her political career in Arizona which led to her full-time career as a scheduler for United States Senator Bob Kerry. She moved back to Omaha to pursue a Ph.D. She loved the beach and always looked forward to vacations at her favorite destination, Grand Cayman with Bret.

Robert Lerma ’92 - Lerma, 60, passed away September 14, 2020. Steve was born July 29, 1960, in Fort Worth, Texas. His adventurous spirit took him overseas where he met his wife, Marie. Steve loved politics, running for office, and supporting candidates. His entrepreneurial spirit and education led him to work and travel abroad until his illness curtailed his adventures.

Christ Galeotos ’93 -. Galeotos, 56, of Cheyenne, Wyoming passed away March 30, 2020. Chris specialized in finance and international business at Thunderbird. He lived in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Atlanta, Georgia before returning to Cheyenne where he battled multiple sclerosis for over 20 years.

To submit class notes or update your contact information, visit https://thunderbird.asu.edu/ alumni-update or contact the Alumni Engagement team tbirdalumni@thunderbird.asu.edu