Obituaries

James “Jim” Clark Ballard, a former senior lecturer and director of the Engineering Communication Center in the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, died Sept. 29 in St. Louis following a sudden cardiac arrest. He was 79.

Stuart A. Kornfeld, MD, the David C. and Betty Farrell Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Medicine at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, died Sunday, Aug. 17, 2025, in St. Louis from complications of Parkinson’s disease. He was 88.

William H. Webster, an honorary emeritus trustee at Washington University in St. Louis, died Friday, Aug. 8, 2025, in Warrenton, Va. He was 101. 

Gary Wihl, the Hortense and Tobias Lewin Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Humanities, died July 17 in Clayton, Mo., after battling Parkinson’s disease. He was 72. Wihl served as dean of Arts & Sciences from 2009 to 2012.

Sandra Geary, a teacher of applied music and collaborative pianist in the Department of Music in Arts & Sciences, died June 23 following a short illness. She was 59.

Arthur L. Prensky, MD, a professor emeritus of neurology at WashU Medicine, died June 16 after a short illness. He was 94. Prensky was a world authority in metabolic disorders, headache and neurodevelopment.

Frank A. Podosek, a professor emeritus of earth, environmental and planetary sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, died June 8 in Florida. He was 83 years old.

John Gleaves, a professor emeritus at the McKelvey School of Engineering, died June 2. He was 79.

James Poag, a professor emeritus and former chair of the Department in Germanic Languages and Literatures in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, died May 25. He was 90.

Jeremy Goldbach, a nationally recognized scholar on LGBTQ+ mental health and the inaugural Masters & Johnson Distinguished Professor in Sexual Health and Education at the Brown School, died Saturday, June 7, 2025, of cancer. He was 42.