Obituaries
Posted April 12, 2000
Memorial for Professor Bernard Nietschmann
The Department of Geography will hold a Campus Memorial for Professor Barney Nietschmann, who passed away January 22, on Sunday, May 7, 2:00 p.m., in the Great Hall of the Faculty Club.
Joseph Hodges
Professor Emeritus Joseph L. Hodges Jr. died March 1. He was 78.
Born in 1922 in Shreveport, Louisiana, Hodges grew up in Phoenix, Arizona. In 1942 he received his A.B. from the University of California and in 1948 he received his Ph.D., also from UC.
Hodges served as an operations analyst in the U.S. Air Force for two years before joining the faculty in 1946. From 1957 until his death he was a professor of statistics.
Among his honors and awards, Hodges was a named a fellow of Institute of Mathematical Statistics in 1950; a Guggenheim fellow, 1956-57; president, WNAR Region, Biometric Society, 1958-60; editor of Annals of Mathematical Statistics, 1966; and research professor, Miller Foundation, 1969-70. He retired from Berkeley in 1991.
Hodges is survived by his wife, Theodora, and their five children.
Information on a memorial service will be posted, when it becomes available, on the Web at (www.stat.berkeley.edu).
William Shack
William Alfred Shack, professor emeritus of anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley, and dean emeritus of the graduate division, died Friday (March 31) after a courageous battle with cancer. He was 76.
A prominent scholar of African cultures, Shack was known internationally for his pioneering fieldwork on the Gurage people of Ethiopia and for a series of books on African society. But he was best known on campus for his even-handed, creative stewardship of several administrative posts, including six years (1979-85) as dean of UC Berkeley's Graduate Division.
"He was a scholar and a gentleman, one of the leading anthropologists of Africa and a man dedicated to public service," said Paul Rabinow, chairman of the Department of Anthropology.
Shack's public service achievements extended far beyond the campus. As dean of the Graduate Division, he established a student exchange program with several French universities that won him a high honor, the Chevalier L'Ordre National Du Merite, from France in 1987. Earlier in his career, Shack established a department of sociology and anthropology at Haile Sellassie 1 University in Ethiopia.
In 1991, UC Berkeley conferred its highest honor, the Berkeley Citation, on Shack, in recognition of his multiple contributions. In addition to his top-ranking position as graduate dean, Shack chaired the anthropology department and was faculty assistant to the vice chancellor on affirmative action.
Shack retired that year after 21 years on the faculty, and "there was no one on campus with a greater number of friends among faculty and administrators," said Elizabeth Colson, professor emeritus of anthropology and Shack's long-time friend.
Born in Chicago, Shack served in the South Pacific during World War II and later completed a bachelor's degree at the Art Institute of Chicago, followed by a master's degree in anthropology at the University of Chicago.
Following pre-doctoral work in Ethiopia, where he became interested in the never-before-studied Gurage culture, Shack entered the London School of Economics, where he completed a Ph.D. in 1961. He held academic positions at the University of Chicago and the University of Illinois before coming to UC Berkeley as professor in 1970.
Shack is survived by his wife, Dorothy Nash Shack of Berkeley; a son, Hailu Araya Shack of San Francisco; a nephew, Charles Vessels of Garden Grove, Calif.; and a niece, Frances Mode of Chicago.
Memorial services will be held Thursday, April 6, at 5 p.m. in the Great Hall of the Faculty Club on campus. Contributions can be sent to the William A. Shack Memorial Fund at the UC Berkeley Foundation, 2440 Bancroft Way, Berkeley, 94720.
April 12-18, 2000
(Volume 28, Number 28)
Copyright 2000, The Regents of the University of
California.
Produced and maintained by the Office
of Public Affairs
at UC
Berkeley.
Comments? E-mail berkeleyan@pa.urel.berkeley.edu.