Obituaries

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.

Leon E. Ashford, an early advocate for first-generation and Black students at Washington University in St. Louis, died March 28, 2020. He was 90. Ashford worked for the university for 39 years, retiring in 1995 as director of Student Educational Services, a precursor to The Learning Center. 

Momoko Oyama, a Washington University graduate on the verge of beginning her third year of medical school at the university, died Sunday, June 14, 2020, at her campus apartment in St. Louis. The cause of death is not yet known. Oyama, who had planned to become a neonatologist, was 24.

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.

Paul J. Landgraf, a veteran employee of Washington University in St. Louis, died Tuesday, May 19, 2020. He had suffered a fall earlier in the month at his home. He was 73. Landgraf was known across campus for his warm personality, eagerness to lend a hand and commitment to the health and safety of all who worked or studied at and visited Washington University.

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.