In Memoriam

GRETCHEN L. ANDEEL FS ’92, former student (fs), university friend and teacher who co-founded, along with Jeanine Phillips ’78, Wichita’s Fundamental Learning Center in 2001 to provide training and resources for teachers to more effectively help students with dyslexia learn to read, July 4, 2023, Wichita.

CHRISTOPHER G. COSTELLO ’77, business administration graduate, banker and lawyer, July 13, 2023, Marion, Kan. After graduating from Washburn University School of Law in 1982, he practiced law and was president and CEO of Tampa State Bank, which serves the Marion and Tampa, Kan., communities.

DIANA L. (DAY) DAWKINS ’94, legal secretary and assistant at Wichita-based Dennis Phelps Attorney at Law for 20 years, June 27, 2023, Derby, Kan.

CAROL S. (DEWEY) HODGE ’64/76, homemaker and retired social worker for the State of Texas, July 10, 2022, Temple, Texas.

U.S. AIR FORCE VETERAN AND BANKER BRADFORD HALL

Bradford Hall ’59 was born in Wichita, attended Wichita public schools and earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Wichita. He joined the U.S. Air Force in 1951 and was assigned to a fighter squadron flying F-86 Sabre jets. His last assignment was as commanding officer of the England AFB Instrument Flying School. After beginning his business career in 1955 at the Union National Bank of Wichita, he joined Security Pacific National Bank in 1964 in Los Angeles. He later served as vice president of corporate finance for the investment firm Glore Forgan Staats, senior vice president of Shareholders Asset Management Co., and senior vice president of Trust Company of the West. In 1977, he became a partner at the San Francisco investment counsel firm Wentworth, Hauser and Violich, where he worked for 35 years until his retirement in 2012. In 1999, he raised the founding donations for a community health program in Laikipia, Kenya. He was a past member of the WSU Foundation’s national advisory council and investment committee. He died Jan. 6, 2024 in San Francisco.

POLITICAL ANALYST AND PROFESSOR MELVIN A. KAHN

Mel Kahn, professor of political science emeritus at Wichita State, was well-known for engaging students by dressing up as historical characters – Alexander Hamilton and Plato, for example. He began teaching at WSU in 1970 and garnered many accolades and awards, including the 2018 Marquis Who’s Who Lifetime Achievement Award, the WSU Mortar Board Teaching Recognition Award in 2012, the WSU Academy of Excellence Teaching Award in 2007, the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education’s Carnegie Foundation Kansas Professor of the Year in 1989, and the Kansas Board of Regents’ Award for Excellence in Teaching, WSU, in 1982. The author of The Politics of American Labor: The Indiana Microcosm (1970) and The Winning Ticket: Daley, The Machine, and Illinois Politics (1984), he was a political analyst for scores of media outlets dating back to 1985 and including, from 1988 to 2008, NPR’s Wichita affiliate KMUW. Professor Kahn died Sept. 18, 2023 in Wichita.

NANCY G. (LEBLOND) KNAPP ’88, wife, mother, grandmother, avid fan of Wichita State Shockers men’s basketball and devoted supporter of the arts, especially of local music and theater organizations, Sept. 14, 2023, Wichita.

HAZEL B. (BUCHTER) LINDER FS ’83, homemaker, university friend, graduate of Northwestern Oklahoma Teachers College in Alva, Okla., and former elementary school teacher in Elida, N.M., June 23, 2023, Wichita.

DENISE L. (LAIRD) DEAN SPARACINO ’93, wife, mother, stepmother and grandmother whose professional work was in real estate and nursing, Aug. 31, 2023, Wichita.

LORI A. (RUNTY) SUPINIE, university friend, former CPA and president and CEO of Wichita-based Senseney Music, July 12, 2023, Wichita. A past president of the Retail Print Music Dealers Association and member of the National Association for School Music Dealers, Supinie also was principal bassoonist with the Senseney Music Community Band.

TIMOTHY “TIM” J. TIERNEY SR. ’62/65, husband, father, grandfather and retired mechanical engineer who worked at Beech Aircraft and the Coleman Co. in Wichita before relocating to the Kansas City area and working in the oil refining business, Oct. 4, 2023, Leawood, Kan.

ROGER C. TURNER ’66, mechanical engineer, patent and corporate counsel attorney at GE, BASF Video, Mitsubishi Electronics, Pfizer and ITT and Vietnam War veteran who served in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as second lieutenant at Ft. Benning, Ga., first lieutenant and company second in command with the 25th Infantry Division in Vietnam and captain and R&D project officer at Ft. Ord, Calif., May 1, 2023, Newport Beach, Calif.

BEATRICE “LOU” M. VANDEMEER ’82/86, homemaker and advocate of education who earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and a master’s degree in history from Wichita State, where a memorial has been established with the history department, June 27, 2023, Wichita.

ANITA M. (RISDON) MCCOSKEY WILLIAMS ’84/86, retired speech-language pathologist who worked for the Southeast Kansas Special Education Cooperative in Pittsburg, Kan., and the Columbus, Kan., public school district, May 2, 2023, Corpus Christi, Texas. As a WSU student, she was recognized as the 1984 National Student Speech Language Hearing Association (NSSLHA) Outstanding Undergraduate Clinician of the Year.

PATRICK C. WILSON FS ’98, Wichita State track and field assistant coach, who during his 16 years working with WSU pole vaulters coached six NCAA All-Americans, seven conference champions and 18 all-conference athletes; former pole vaulting coach at Friends University and head pole vault coach for Wichita Public Schools, Aug. 27, 2023, Leon, Kan. Prior to coaching, he pole vaulted for the Shockers from 1994 to 1998.

I. WAYNE WOOLSEY HN ’18, honorary graduate (hn) and university friend, U.S. Air Force veteran, geologist and owner of Woolsey Companies, specializing in oil and natural gas exploration and production, Nov. 27, 2023, Wichita. In 2018, he and his wife gave $12 million to Wichita State, with $10 million designated for the construction of Wayne and Kay Woolsey Hall, new home of the Barton School of Business, and $2 million to WSU’s petroleum geology program.

M. NORMAN “NORM” ZRUBEK ’62, U.S. Army veteran and aeronautical engineer who worked for aircraft manufacturing companies The Martin Company and Boeing before joining the National Center for Atmospheric Research, from which he retired in 1999, Sept. 22, 2023, Boulder, Colo.