VCU News Center

News: In Memoriam

Morton B. Gulak, Retired Urban Planning Professor, Dies at age 73

Gulak had retired from VCU’s urban and regional planning and urban studies and geography programs in 2010, following a career that lasted nearly four decades. (3/13/12)

VCU Student Advocate Dies

Cheryl Chesney-Walker, former executive director of the Office of Special Services for Students at VCU, died on Jan. 23 in Powhatan. (2/6/12)

John E. Jones, Former VP of Health Sciences, Dies at 81

Jones’ leadership in strategic planning during the 1990s helped lead to the establishment of the VCU Health System in 2000. His work significantly enhanced academic programs and research in health sciences and secured the future of the patient care mission at VCU. (12/9/11)

Edgar E. MacDonald, VCU Senior Cabell Scholar, Dies at 94

MacDonald specialized in Virginia history and literature and wrote extensively about Southern writers. (9/12/11)

Dr. Baruj Benacerraf, MCV Alumnus and Nobel Prize Winner, Dies

Baruj Benacerraf, M.D., a 1945 graduate of the Medical College of Virginia, which would later become the VCU School of Medicine, and a recipient of the Nobel Prize in medicine, died of pneumonia last Tuesday in his home in Boston at 90. (8/9/11)

Paul B. Ferrara, distinguished professor in forensic science, dies at age 68

(6/1/11)

George T. Crutchfield, Retired Director of the School of Mass Communications, Dies at Age 77

George T. Crutchfield, retired director of Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of Mass Communications and founder of the Virginia Communications Hall of Fame, died Tuesday, March 15, from congestive heart failure and its complications. He was 77. (3/16/11)

Nobel Laureate John Fenn, VCU Professor of Chemistry, Dies at 93

Virginia Commonwealth University chemistry professor John B. Fenn, Ph.D., who in 2002 was awarded the Nobel Prize for his revolutionary research on analyzing biomolecules, died today. He was 93. (12/10/10)

Retired VCU Professor Paul M. Umberger Dies

Paul Mitchell Umberger, who taught mathematics, calculus and economics at Virginia Commonwealth University for three decades, died Wednesday at the age of 79. (7/29/10)

Melanie Njeri Jackson, Ph.D., Special Assistant to the Provost for Diversity, Dies at Age 60

Jackson joined the faculty at VCU in 1990, became chair of the department of African American studies in 1998 and was appointed as special assistant to the provost for diversity in July 2007. (7/27/10)