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See below for the names of Brooklyn College alumni who have passed away.
If you know of Brooklyn College alumni who have recently passed away, contact us at 718.951.5065 or use the Class Notes form.
January–October 2024
Alfred Alberts, who discovered the chemical compound that led to the first approved cholesterol-lowering statin in the United States, passed away in Colorado on June 16 at the age of 87.
Alberts was born in Manhattan but attended school in Brooklyn, first at Erasmus Hall, then at Brooklyn College, where he earned a bachelor of science degree in 1953.
He was accepted into a Ph.D. program at the University of Kansas, then transferred to a similar program at the University of Maryland, where he studied cell biology. Beset by financial pressures, Alberts left the university before finishing his dissertation and took a job at the National Institutes of Health, where he met P. Roy Vagelos, a key mentor. He followed Vagelos to the pharmaceutical firm Merck, where he was tasked with finding a drug to lower cholesterol. Since the mid-1960s, cardiologists and scientists had sought a drug to lower cholesterol, dieting and exercise having been only moderately effective. Alberts’ discovery in 1987 of the compounds that would lead to the creation of lovastatin and simvastatin would revolutionize cardiac medicine.
“Another major contribution of Al to the Merck scientific community was his mentoring of younger biochemists who became important scientists under his guidance,” Vagelos told the British medical journal The Lancet. “He loved science and he brought optimism and excitement to his colleagues for many years.”
Vera Katz, a legendary figure in Oregon politics, passed away from complications from kidney disease and leukemia on December 11, 2017, at her home in southwest Portland. She was 84. She began her political career stuffing envelopes for Robert F. Kennedy’s 1968 presidential campaign. Four years later, she won her first election to the Oregon Legislature. She was ahead of the curve in advocating for gun control and equal rights for women, the LGBTQ community, and migrants. Katz also spearheaded an overhaul of Oregon’s education system. She ascended to the role of speaker of the Oregon House of Representatives, one of only two women in America at the time to hold such a post. She served as mayor of Portland from 1993 to 2005 and led the city to its stature as one of the most environment-friendly and livable cities in the United States.
Katz was born Vera Pistrak to Russian parents in Düsseldorf, Germany, in 1933. Her parents had escaped their homeland during the rise of the Bolsheviks, and Germany during the rise of Hitler. She attended Julia Richman High School in Manhattan and Brooklyn College, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in political science in 1955 and did graduate work in sociology. She also studied dance with renowned modern dancer and choreographer Martha Graham. Katz is survived by her son, journalist Jesse Katz; grandson, Max Katz; sister, Zena Linden; and former husband, artist Mel Katz.
Fred Bass passed away in January of 2018 at his home in Manhattan; he was 89. As owner of the iconic Strand bookstore in New York City, Bass was one of the most influential figures on the New York City literary scene.
Bass was born in Manhattan in 1928, the year his father, Benjamin, a Lithuanian immigrant, opened the Strand on Fourth Avenue between 10th and 11th Streets in what was a booksellers’ row of small shops stretching from Astor Place to Union Square. Fred began working at the store when he was 13. He graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx, and earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Brooklyn College in 1949.
After a two-year stint in the Army, he returned home and took over management of the bookshop in 1956, moving it to its current location on Broadway and 12th Street, and overseeing a rapid expansion. Prospective employees were famously required to pass a test created by Bass, matching 10 titles with their authors, and answering one trick question. The store’s inventory grew in the 1990s, proving the store’s tagline of housing over 18 miles of books. Bass continued to work at the shop until his retirement in 2017. Today, the Strand remains a favorite destination for bibliophiles.
Randy Weston, who received an Honorary Doctorate in Music in 2006, passed away on September 1 at his home in Brooklyn. He was 92. Weston was a profoundly influential jazz pianist, composer, and educator. He was born in Brooklyn on April 6, 1926, and grew up in the borough. He served in World War II in a segregated unit, and upon returning took over the operations of his father’s restaurant, Trios, which quickly became a meeting place for many of the preeminent musicians who lived in the area, such as Thelonious Monk and Max Roach.
On behalf of the United Nations, Weston visited Africa frequently in the early 1960s, and settled in Morocco in 1968, living there for five years, first in Rabat and then in Tangier. He opened a club, the African Rhythms Cultural Center, which fostered exchanges between American musicians and their African counterparts. He became particularly intrigued by the traditions of the Gnawa people and integrated their music into his performances. A master of interpreting the repertoire of Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk, he wrote several jazz standards such as “Hi Fly,” “Little Niles,” and “Marrakech Blues.”
In 2001, the National Endowment for the Arts named him a Jazz Master, one of the highest honors it confers upon musicians. For many people, the connections between jazz and African music are an academic exercise; for Weston they were a lifelong spiritual quest, and he invited everyone to come along with him and explore.
Carlos Russell, dean, School of Contemporary Studies