Obituaries

Roger Jay Phillips, professor emeritus of earth and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences and former director of the McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, died Nov. 19 in Longmont, Colo., after suffering from complications of Parkinson’s disease. He was 80.

Karen Seibert, a deeply respected leader in pharmacology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, died Monday, Nov. 9, 2020, at her home in Chesterfield, Mo., after a battle with a cancer. She was 61.

Sherri Stichling, payroll and accounts specialist at the Brown School, died of pancreatic cancer Sept. 30, 2020. She was 60.

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.

Mel F. Brown, a former member of the Washington University in St. Louis Board of Trustees, died Sept. 1, 2020. He was 85. Brown was an active, longtime university volunteer. In addition to being a trustee, he served as chair of the Alumni Board of Governors and as president of the William Greenleaf Eliot Society.

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.

Natalie Sorenson, a first-year student at the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, died May 5, 2020. She died as a result of emotional challenges during lockdown for COVID-19. Natalie Sorenson was 18.

Genevieve “Jane” Reuter Hitzeman, who with her late husband, Herbert F. Hitzeman Jr., was a longtime supporter of Washington University in St. Louis, died Saturday, July 11, 2020, at Brookdale West County Senior Living in Ballwin, Mo. She was 89.

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.