Deaths |
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February 19, 2013,
Volume 59, No. 22 |
Dr. McGill, Wharton
Dr. Dan M. McGill, professor emeritus of insurance and risk management in the Wharton School, passed away February 5 at age 93.
Dr. McGill received his BA from Maryville College in Tennessee in 1940, his MA from Vanderbilt University in 1941 and afterward served in the US Army Air Force as a statistical control officer before earning his PhD in economics from the University of Pennsylvania in 1947. He served again in the Air Force as director of finance from 1951-1952.
Prior to joining Penn’s faculty, Dr. McGill was an associate professor at the University of Tennessee, the Julian Price Associate Professor of Life Insurance at the University of North Carolina and a visiting associate professor at Stanford University. In 1952, he was appointed associate professor of insurance in the Wharton School, was promoted to professor in 1956 and was named the Frederick H. Ecker Professor of Life Insurance in 1959. He also served as chair of the department in the 1960s.
In addition to his teaching duties, Dr. McGill served as research director of the Pension Research Council and then as its chairman. He also served as executive director of the S. S. Heubner Foundation, 1954-1974, was chairman of the governing board of the Leonard Davis Institute and chairman of the Graduate Group in Business and Applied Economics. He became emeritus in 1981.
Dr. McGill testified before Congress concerning various matters, held several Presidential appointments and was a noted expert in pensions for different corporations and countries.
He was the recipient of the Elizur Wright Award for outstanding publication in the field of insurance with The Fundamentals of Private Pensions in 1955. He received the Distinguished Alumni Award from Maryville College in 1962 and was the 1973 Employee Benefits Man of the Year according to Pension and Welfare News.
Dr. McGill is survived by his wife, Elaine Kim McGill; his son, Doug; several grandchildren; brother, Marvin McGill; sister, Marcelle Lillard; and several nieces and nephews.
Memorials may be made to Clover Hill Presbyterian Church, PO Box 4877, Maryville, TN 37802.
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Dr. Rosenthal, Wharton
Dr. Isadore "Irv" Rosenthal, a retired senior fellow of the Wharton Risk Management and Decision Processes Center, passed away February 10 at age 87.
In 1984 when the Wharton Risk Center was being established, Dr. Rosenthal was the head of corporate health and safety at Rohm and Haas. Don Felley, then president of Rohm and Haas, was to become the first chairperson of the Risk Center's newly formed Advisory Committee. He indicated that if he were to serve on the Advisory Committee, he wanted Dr. Rosenthal to be his right-hand man, given his keen insights into the health and safety issues facing the chemical industry.
"From the very outset, Irv kept us academics honest by making sure that we understood how our research applied to real world problems. At the same time, Irv had an insatiable thirst for new knowledge and became well-versed in the language of economics, psychology and decision sciences by rubbing elbows with the students and faculty associated with the Risk Center," said Dr. Howard Kunreuther, co-director of the Wharton Risk Management and Decision Processes Center, James G. Dinan Professor and professor of business and public policy and decision sciences.
"Dr. Rosenthal understood the importance of involving the relevant stakeholders concerned with the problems that were being studied. He was instrumental in organizing many meetings, bringing together experts from industry, government, public interest groups and the research community to discuss topics ranging from the epidemiology of health and safety risks to the role of insurance and third-party inspections in dealing with catastrophic accidents. Without his efforts, Congressional legislation and regulations associated with the Clean Air Act Amendments would not have had such a high profile within the chemical industry, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and public interest groups."
After Dr. Rosenthal retired from Rohm and Haas in 1990, he became a senior fellow at the Risk Center, where he threw himself into teaching and research on a full-time basis. He left the Risk Center in 1999 to join the National Chemical Safety and Hazards Investigation Board, a five-year appointment made by President Clinton. In 2004 Dr. Rosenthal returned to the Risk Center to continue his research on approaches for managing environmental, health and safety (EHS) risks.
Dr. Rosenthal continued as an active researcher until his retirement from the Wharton Risk Center in 2011. He proposed processes for verifying the performance of EHS activities in firms and the roles that third parties could play in implementing US Department of Agriculture food safety process management programs. He also interacted with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and EPA on how third party inspections and insurance could help enforce regulations on process safety risks, co-organizing a workshop on this topic in 2010.
"Dr. Rosenthal was instrumental in highlighting ways that research on low-probability, high-consequence events are relevant to the public and private sectors," added Dr. Kunreuther.
A native of New York City, Dr. Rosenthal earned his BA from Purdue University and his MS from New York University. He earned his PhD in physical chemistry from Pennsylvania State University.
Dr. Rosenthal is survived by his daughters, Cindy and Leslie; sons, Richard and Seth; nine stepchildren, Alison, James, Jon, Robert, Joseph, Fred, Elliot, Eric and Mark; four grandchildren, Andrew, Jacob, Ruth and Eli; a sister, Betty Roland; and a brother, Julius Peschansky.
Contributions may be made to Friends of Farmworkers Inc., 42 S. 15th St., Suite 605, Philadelphia, PA 19102.
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Ms. Singh, Nursing Junior
Arya Singh, a junior in the School of Nursing, passed away February 8 from unknown causes; she was 20.
Ms. Singh was a native of Allentown, PA, but was born in India. She graduated from Parkland High School. She was a resident of Rodin College House and a former member of PennHype, a hip hop fusion dance group.
Over the summer, Ms. Singh worked for the Cribs for Kids program at Maternity Care Coalition, where she provided safe sleep education and information on infant care.
She is survived by her parents, Narendra and Sujata Singh; and a sister, Shweta Singh, Nu'08, GNu'12, GrNu'17.
A viewing will be held on Wednesday, February 20, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. at the Jeffrey A. Naugle Funeral & Cremation Service, 135 W. Pumping Station Rd., Quakertown, PA 18951. |
To Report A Death
Almanac appreciates being informed of the deaths of current and former faculty and staff members, students and other members of the University community. Call (215) 898-5274 or email almanac@upenn.edu
However, notices of alumni deaths should be directed to the Alumni Records Office at Room 517, Franklin Building, (215) 898-8136 or email record@ben.dev.upenn.edu
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