The Yale Alumni Magazine is owned and operated by Yale Alumni Publications, Inc., a nonprofit corporation independent of Yale University.

The content of the magazine and its website is the responsibility of the editors and does not necessarily reflect the views of Yale or its officers.

Comment on this article

Remembered
July/August 2005
by Mark Alden Branch ’86

Had it not been for the AIDS crisis, history would remember biology professor Alvin Novick as an expert on echolocation in bats. Novick, who died on April 10 of prostate cancer in New Haven at the age of 79, devoted the first half of his career to bats and the intricacies of their sonar systems, writing a popular book (The World of Bats) and an Encyclopedia Britannica article on the creatures.

But in 1982, when AIDS was becoming an international epidemic, Novick closed his laboratory and devoted much of his time to activism and advocacy. “In the mid-1980s, when there was great fear of the disease and discrimination and stigmatization were rampant, Al Novick was an early, passionate, and brave advocate for those infected with or at risk for HIV,” recalls former dean of epidemiology and public health Michael Merson.

Novick, who was also a physician, served as president of the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association. He edited the AIDS and Public Policy Journal and was a consultant to several federal agencies. Locally, he helped to found AIDS Project New Haven and the city’s pioneering needle exchange program.

A native of Queens, Novick served in World War II and was a prisoner of war in Germany. He graduated from Harvard College and Harvard Medical School. In 1957 he came to Yale, where he taught until shortly before his death. His courses, including one titled “AIDS and Society,” were perennially popular with undergraduates, scientist and non-scientist alike.

Novick’s partner, William Sabella, died of complications from AIDS in 1992.

Jacques Guicharnaud, the Benjamin F. Barge Professor Emeritus of French, died on March 5 at his home in New Haven. He was 80 years old. Guicharnaud, who taught at Yale from 1950 until his retirement in 1997, was an authority on French theater. As a student in postwar Paris, he was part of a circle of intellectuals that included Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus, who knew him as le jeunet (“the young one”).

Andrew Kroon, a 24-year-old senior in Berkeley College who was active in campus environmental groups, died in his apartment on April 16. Yale College dean Peter Salovey told the Yale Daily News that the death was accidental. Kroon chaired the Yale Student Environmental Coalition as a sophomore and coauthored a proposal to increase energy efficiency at Yale. He was a son of Richard E. Kroon '64.

Benjamin Mordecai, a Broadway producer who was also associate dean of the School of Drama, died of cancer on May 8 in New Haven. He was 60 years old. As managing director of the Yale Repertory Theater from 1982 to 1993, Mordecai took five of August Wilson’s plays to Broadway, including Fences, for which he won a Tony Award as producer. At Yale, Mordecai chaired the theater management program after leaving the Rep.

Dick R. Wittink, a professor at the School of Management who studied consumer behavior, died on June 4 at his home in North Haven. Wittink, who was 59, is believed to have had a diabetic seizure while swimming in his pool. A native of the Netherlands, Wittink joined the SOM faculty in 1998. Last year, he cofounded the Yale Center for Customer Insights and helped create a new executive MBA program focused on health care.

Honored

Gregory A. Margulis, the Erastus L. DeForest Professor of Mathematics, has been awarded the 2005 Wolf Prize in Mathematics for his analytical contributions to algebra and math theory. Margulis received the $100,000 award from Israeli president Moshe Katzav in Jerusalem in May. Born and educated in Russia, Margulis began his career at Moscow State University and came to Yale in 1991.

Stepping down

Robert Blocker, dean of the School of Music since 1995, has resigned to become provost and vice president of Southern Methodist University. In announcing Blocker’s departure, President Rick Levin said he has “worked to strengthen every aspect of the school,” including admissions, faculty appointments, fund-raising, and facilities. Thomas Duffy, the school’s deputy dean, is serving as interim dean.  

©1992–2012, Yale Alumni Publications, Inc. All rights reserved.

Yale Alumni Magazine, P.O. Box 1905, New Haven, CT 06509-1905, USA. yam@yale.edu