Brandeis Magazine

Bernard Siegel ’60, of Philadelphia, a criminal lawyer and educator, died on Jan. 17 of pancreatic cancer. After establishing a law practice in Philadelphia in 1986, he represented clients charged with robbery, rape, homicide, corruption and embezzlement, and was involved in several high-profile cases. In 1997, Bernard represented a man wrongly accused in the “Center City jogger” murder trial, winning his acquittal after less than three hours of jury deliberations. He was a defense lawyer and an assistant district attorney in Erie, Pa., before becoming a special prosecutor in the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office in Philadelphia in 1977. From 1978-85, he was an assistant district attorney and deputy in charge of investigations. He also served as an adjunct professor of law at La Salle University and taught advanced criminal-trial advocacy at Temple University’s Beasley School of Law. He is survived by two children, Jonathan and Sharon; two brothers, including Richard ’69; and two granddaughters. Katherine Egan ’60 of Stockport, England, died of lung cancer on Nov. 1, 2011. Neil Kotler ’62 of Arlington, Va., a longtime employee of the Smithsonian Institution who co-authored a leading book on museum marketing, died on Jan. 13 from pneumonia, a complication of leukemia. After graduation, he spent two years in the Peace Corps in Ethiopia. He earned a master’s degree at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Ph.D. in political science at the University of Chicago. Neil later taught at Dartmouth and the University of Texas at Austin. For many years, he served as a legislative director in the U.S. Congress. He spent the majority of his career at the Smithsonian Institution, where he worked as a program specialist in the Office of Interdisciplinary Studies, managing the Smithsonian Advisory Council and leading executive searches. He co-authored “Museum Marketing and Strategy” and gave many lectures on the topic throughout the world. He leaves his wife, Wendy; a daughter, Jena; two brothers, Philip and Milton; and two grandchildren. Rebecca Taylor Stoloff ’63 of Philadelphia, a conservationist who was president of the Reading Terminal Market Preservation Fund for nearly 20 years and a board member of the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia, died of cancer on Jan. 14. In the late 1960s and early ’70s, she was among those who helped kill plans for the city’s Crosstown Expressway. She served as president of the Society Hill Civic Association from 1980-91 and was its vice president from 2007-10. She is survived by her son, Andrew; a brother; and two grandchildren. Her husband, Milton, died in 1992. Noel Brawn, M.A.’65, Ph.D.’68, of Ballwin, Mo., who worked in the pharmaceutical industry for many years, died on Dec. 8, 2011. After earning his master’s and doctorate in organic chemistry from Brandeis, he relocated to St. Louis. He leaves his wife, Bettina, M.A.’71. George Saitoti ’67, who grew up as a Masai cattle herder and rose to become a World Bank official and a leading politician in his native Kenya, died June 10 when the police helicopter in which he was traveling crashed in a forest near Nairobi. He was 66. George, Kenya’s internal security minister and a leading candidate in next year’s presidential elections, died along with five other people. The Kenyan government declared three days of mourning for the crash victims. At Brandeis, George studied economics and math as a Wien Scholar and was a track-and-field star, ranking as one of New England’s best in the high jump. In 1988, he was one of the first winners of the Alumni Achievement Award, the highest honor Brandeis bestows upon its graduates. After graduating from Brandeis, George moved to England to pursue advanced degrees in math. He earned a master’s degree from the University of Sussex and a doctorate from the University of Warwick. George served as head of the mathematics department at the University of Nairobi and founded the African Mathematical Union, which he led from 1976-79. He was executive chair of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in 1990-91. He joined Kenya’s Parliament and served as minister for finance from 1983-89. He was vice president for 13 years and also held the positions of minister for education, minister for provincial administration and acting minister for foreign affairs. Rogers Johnson, Ph.D.’68, of Shrewsbury, Mass., a professor emeritus at the College of the Holy Cross who served as chair of the school’s sociology department, died on Jan. 17 after a short illness. Rogers graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and served in World War II. He later worked at the Red Cross, where he aided in two major disasters and developed a deeper yearning to help those less fortunate, become a voice for the underdog and study the science of people. He leaves his children, Anne and Sarah, and six grandchildren.