Obituaries

A memorial service in honor of Necita Roa, MD, will take place at 8:30 a.m. Sept. 15 in Graham Chapel on the Danforth Campus. Roa was associate professor emerita of anesthesiology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. She died in May at age 74.

J. Russell Little, MD, professor emeritus of medicine, died Aug. 18 in St. Louis following a long illness. He was 87. Little was on the faculty at the School of Medicine from 1964 to 2005.

Victoria (Vicky) Witte, a 22-year veteran of Washington University Libraries, died Aug. 8, 2018, at her home in Webster Groves, Mo. She was 83.

Joseph J. Billadello, MD, professor of medicine and director of the Adult Congenital Heart Disease Center at the School of Medicine, died Aug. 8 in St. Louis following a long battle with multiple myeloma. He was 65.

John O. Holloszy, MD, whose research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis led to advances in the understanding of the body’s response to exercise, died July 18, 2018, at a nursing home in Town and Country, Mo., following a long battle with kidney disease. He was 85.

Zishan (Simoner) Zhao, a rising junior in the College of Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, died June 2, 2018, from injuries after being hit by a car while attempting to cross a street in Wilmington, N.C. He was 19.

Owen J. Sexton, professor emeritus of biology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, died May 31 at his home in St. Louis County from complications of dementia, which he had battled for years. He was 91. Sexton was a key advocate for the purchase of the 2,000-acre Tyson Research Center property in 1963.

Jared Crane, a senior studying architecture in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis, died May 20 following a two-year battle with cancer. He was 22.

Peter Riesenberg, professor emeritus of history at Washington University in St. Louis, died in his sleep May 14, 2018, in Maine. He was 92. A beloved member of the faculty from 1960 until his retirement in 1993, Riesenberg was the mainstay of “History 101,” the history of Western civilization, for generations of students.

Gerry Rohde, stockroom manager and laboratory safety officer in the Department of Biology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, has died. He was 55. Outside of the biology department, Rohde also was known across the region as the evening host of St. Louis Public Radio.