Campus & Community

Chancellor Emeritus William H. Danforth, MD, who served as chancellor for 24 of his more than 65 years of service to Washington University in St. Louis, died on Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2020, at his home in Ladue, Mo. He was 94.

Robert L. Williams II, professor emeritus of psychological and brain sciences and founding director of Washington University’s Black Studies program (now the Department of African & African-American Studies) in Arts & Sciences, died Aug. 12, 2020. He was 90.

Cindy Lynn Norman, business office operations supervisor at the Brown School, died in her sleep on July 15, 2020. She was 50. Norman had worked at Washington University for 26 years.

Nancy Rubin, longtime administrative assistant in the Department of Art History & Archaeology in Arts & Sciences, died of cardiac arrest June 27 at St. John’s Mercy Hospital in St. Louis. She was 58.

Denise Saim, a 27-year employee at the McKelvey School of Engineering, died suddenly May 26, 2020, at her home of an apparent heart attack. She was 64.

Barbara Geller, MD, an emerita professor of child psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry at Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis, died Friday, May 8, 2020 in hospice in St. Louis after a brief illness. She was 81.

Helen (Trudi) Spigel Riesenberg, PhD ’69, a former director of student activities and later director of the Assembly Series at Washington University in St. Louis, died Monday, March 30, 2020, at her home in Harpswell, Maine. She was 93.

Anne Tao, a respected businesswoman, philanthropist, community leader and Washington University in St. Louis benefactor, died Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2020, in Franklin, Tenn. She was 98.

Alec Becker, a first-year student in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, died by suicide Thursday, Feb. 6, 2020, in his hometown of Dallas. He was 18. Becker only attended Washington University for the fall semester, but friends and faculty who had the opportunity to know Becker say he was thoughtful, warm and spirited. 

Susan W. Caine, recently retired executive director of development communications at Washington University in St. Louis, died Feb. 2, 2020, following a lengthy struggle against brain cancer. She was 68.