Alumni Obituaries

service, he attained the rank of captain, served one year in Vietnam, and was awarded the Bronze Star and Army Commendation medals. He completed his college education at West Virginia University and received his B.S. in broadcast journalism, magna cum laude, in 1972. His early career was in cable television programming and management. For 15 years, he served as the director of information services for Robinson & McElwee PLLC, his brother’s law firm. But Higgins found his true calling when he was ordained to the priesthood in the Episcopal Church. He served churches in West Virginia from 2006 until his death. He is survived by his wife, Gail, and his sons, Michael and Christopher.

Kyle St. Claire died March 26 from idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. He was 77. St. Claire attended Episcopal Theological School, Yale Divinity School, and Temple University. He was ordained a deacon in 1971 and became a priest in 1972. Most of his active ministry was in the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania, and his longest tenure was at St. Philip’s Episcopal Church, in New Hope, Pennsylvania, where he served from 1983 to 2005. During his career, St. Claire counseled people with alcohol and substance use disorders and conducted many weekend retreats in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. As part of the Diocesan Council, he was active on the Diocesan Addictions and Recovery committee. While he was chair, the group won an award from the Recovery Ministries of the Episcopal Church for its innovative parish programs. St. Claire is survived by his wife, Teresa; his children, Anne and Elbert; his brothers-in-law, Mark Whidden ’68 and Paul Whidden ’72; and four grandchildren.

program in Bangor, Maine. He is survived by his wife, Joyce; his children, Margot and Owen Newkirk ’02; and four grandsons.

70 John Rogers died March 23. He was 74 years old. After college, Rogers attended the University of Wisconsin, where he received a master’s degree in environmental decision-making in 1976 and a master’s in statistics in 1983. For 34 years he worked as a statistician analyzing environmental data at Westat, an employee-owned corporation that provides research services to government agencies, businesses, and foundations. Rogers had expertise in environmental survey measurement error and he developed a methodology for correcting the bias that can result. His extensive work for the Environmental Protection Agency on correcting this measurement bias enabled improvements in clean water regulations. It helped the Department of Housing and Urban Development to better estimate the extent of lead hazards in housing. Outside of his work, Rogers was an avid sailor. He is survived by his wife, Susan Berman.

starting and operating two small businesses. Reilly and his wife retired early from their jobs in order to travel and explore the world together, visiting 48 different countries. Also after retirement, Reilly’s lifelong interest in trains led him to his post as executive director of a nonprofit being formed to include a museum on the estate of Tom Marshall, founder and manager of the Wilmington & Western tourist railroad. The museum would hold the world’s foremost collection of operating Stanley steam cars. Reilly served in that position for two years and stayed on the organization’s board until his death. He is survived by his wife, Barbara.

7 7 Matthew Simon died April 4. He was 68. Simon received his MBA from Cornell University and went on to become an English and Latin teacher. Most recently, he worked at the Baldwin School in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Simon is survived by his wife, Mary Sue; his children, Kathleen Jones and Christine Brister; and two grandchildren.

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Arthur Newkirk died Feb. 9, age 76, of pancreatic cancer. He served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Korea, teaching earth science laboratories at a teacher’s college. When he returned to the U.S., Newkirk attended Upstate Medical University and became a family medicine doctor. In addition to more than 30 years as a physician, Newkirk also taught the next generation of doctors at a residency

72 Robert Ingram died Feb. 5 at age 73. An accomplished biochemist, over the years, Ingram worked for Sidney Kimmel Medical College (formerly Jefferson Medical College) at Thomas Jefferson University, Fels Research Institute, Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University, and he was a senior visiting research associate in the department of molecular biology at Princeton University for 27 years. He contributed to 26 published scientific papers in many journals. When he wasn’t working, Ingram could often be found attending St. Francis in the Fields Episcopal Church in Malvern, Pennsylvania, reading, and gardening. He is survived by his brother, Bill Ingram ’70.

74 Robert Reilly died from cancer on Dec. 30 at the age of 70. With his technical and interpersonal skills, Reilly enjoyed a long career as a consultant in software development for large banks— Wells Fargo was his primary client. He also followed his entrepreneurial interests,

Rob Fisher died Feb. 7 at age 69, following complications after open-heart surgery. He had a lifelong interest in science and in serving his country, both of which he pursued in his career. While working at General Electric Aerospace in the early 1980s, Fisher earned his master of science in engineering at the University of Pennsylvania. He went on to develop large-scale database solutions for the pharmaceutical and other industries. In 2006, Fisher joined Lockheed Martin, where he worked on large database systems architecture and maintenance solutions for the intelligence community. He loved his work, and lived the maxim that “The Mission Comes First.”

Fisher married for the second time in the mid-aughts, and enjoyed many years of golf, boating, and fishing with his wife and her children and their families. He also loved dogs, and was lucky to have many wonderful canines in his life. Fisher is survived by his first wife, Dianne Coady BMC ’82, and his second wife, Cindi DeAlba Camarda, as well as Cindi’s children, Amanda, Dennis, and Daniel, and their children.

This 1952 chemistry class relied on the lecture method during an era when Haverford had just three chemistry professors. Today, the Department of Chemistry has nine faculty members, as well as several visiting professors and four staff members who provide laboratory and research support.

Students in Visiting Assistant Professor of Chemistry Samuel Shepard’s “Lab in Chemical Structure and Reactivity”—better known as “Chemistry Superlab”—conduct UV/visibility spectroscopy experiments.