Obituaries

M. Alan Permutt, MD, professor of medicine and of cell biology and physiology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, died of cancer Sunday, June 10, 2012, in St. Louis. He was 72.

A memorial service in honor of Michael J. Welch, PhD, who was a faculty member for more than four decades at Washington University in St. Louis, will be held at 3 p.m. June 4 in Graham Chapel.

Michael J. Welch, PhD, a pioneering radiochemist who was the author of more than 550 papers on the use of radioactive drugs in diagnosis and treatment of disease, died Sunday, May 6, 2012. He was 72.

Burton M. Wheeler, PhD, professor emeritus of English and of religious studies, both in Arts & Sciences, and a beloved teacher and former dean of the College of Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, died Friday, Feb. 17, at his home in Warson Woods, Mo., after a long battle with cancer. He would have turned 85 March 12.

Vicki Kunkler, director of publications and communications at the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology (MIR) at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, died Saturday, Feb. 11, 2012, of cancer. She was 64.

Betty Birnbaum Hearsh, assistant in dress design in 1951 and instructor in design, art and fashion from 1964-1976, died Dec. 23, 2011. She was 84.

Phillip Todd Chazen, a business development specialist in the Career Center at Washington University in St. Louis, died Jan. 26. He was 37.

Ann Behan Rehme, academic adviser at the Sever Institute in the School of Engineering & Applied Science, died Dec. 30, 2011, of pancreatic cancer. She was 60.

Richard Stang, PhD, professor emeritus of English in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, died Dec. 14, 2011, of pancreatic cancer. He was 86. Stang specialized in 19th-century English literature, particularly the Victorian period.

Bill Vann, lecturer in graphic illustration from 1978-1982, died suddenly in his sleep at his home in Webster Groves, Mo., Dec. 5, 2011. He was 71.