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In Memoriam: January 2024
We are deeply saddened to share that Interlochen Center for the Arts President Emeritus Dean Boal (ICA St 89-94) passed away on Nov. 14, 2023. A gifted pianist, educator, and public radio leader, Boal championed the growth of Interlochen Public Radio and oversaw the creation of the Sasaki Associates Campus Master Plan, which guided three decades of construction projects and infrastructure improvements at Interlochen.
Rudean Fairman (AS 47) of Grand Rapids, Michigan, passed away on Nov. 27, 2023.
Joel Spiegelman (IAC/NMC 49) of Princeton, New Jersey, passed away on Nov. 13, 2023.
Jane Leiner Jones (IAC/NMC 49-50) of Scottsdale, Arizona, passed away on Nov. 29, 2023.
Ninion Landy (IAC/NMC 49-51, IAC St 52) of Runnells, Iowa, passed away on July 25, 2023.
Patricia Byrne (IAC/NMC 50-51, IAC St 64-66) of Birmingham, Alabama, passed away on Jan. 2, 2023.
Judith Leece (AS 52-53) of Northport, Michigan, passed away on Dec. 18, 2023.
Donna Jean Martin (IAC/NMC 54-57, 59; UNIV 61) of Los Altos, California, passed away on Oct. 8, 2023.
Frank Tesinsky (IAC/NMC 58) of Chicago, Illinois, passed away on Nov. 9, 2023.
Thomas Bletcher, Jr. (IAC St 61) of Ann Arbor, Michigan, passed away on Feb. 6, 2023.
Charla Johansen Pierce (IAA Fac 64-65) of Marengo, Illinois, passed away on Jan. 1, 2024.
Ellen Alterman (IAC/NMC 65, IAA 65-66) of Durango, Colorado, passed away on Dec. 7, 2023.
Robert Classens, Jr. (IAA St 66-71) of Interlochen, Michigan, passed away on Oct. 21, 2023.
Timothy Luckey (IAA 73-74) of Traverse City, Michigan, passed away on Jan. 9, 2024.
Caryn Wilson (IAA 73-74) of Three Rivers, Michigan, passed away on Nov. 21, 2023.
Julia Lieblich (IAC/NMC 73, IAA 73-76) passed away on Nov. 23, 2023. An award-winning journalist and author specializing in human rights and religion, Lieblich’s news and feature stories and op-eds appeared in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, Miami Herald, Time, Life, Ms., Fortune, Harvard Business Review, Harvard Divinity Bulletin, and Agni literary review, among others. Lieblich's first book, Sisters: Lives of Devotion and Defiance, about how obedient nuns evolved into radical sisters, stemmed from a cover story she wrote for The New York Times Magazine. Her book, Wounded I Am More Awake: Finding Meaning After Terror, co-authored with Esad Boskailo, tells the story of a Bosnian concentration camp survivor who becomes a psychiatrist in the United States helping survivors heal from the trauma of war.
Andrew Boyd (IAA 83-85) of Houston, Texas, passed away on Jan. 14, 2024.
Dr. Paul Morris (ICA St 83-94) of Interlochen, Michigan, passed away on Dec. 8, 2023.
Shanda Lowery-Sachs (IAC/NMC 85, IAA 87-90, IAC St 91) of Huntington Woods, Michigan, passed away on Nov. 15, 2023. A gifted violist, Lowery-Sachs joined the Detroit Symphony Orchestra viola section in 2001. During her 22-year career with the orchestra, Lowery-Sachs was part of the ensemble’s 2001 European tour, performed on the 2013 Carnegie Hall concert, and participated in several residencies at Interlochen Arts Camp.
Bradley Creswell (IAC Fac 87-04) of Huxley, Iowa, passed away on Dec. 4, 2023.
Patricia McMahon-Eichenlaub (IAC St 99) of Northport, Michigan, passed away on Dec. 19, 2023.
Ema Gross (IAC 01) of Leawood, Kansas, passed away on Jan. 11, 2024.
Victoria Baldwin (IAA 10-11, IAC St 18-19) of Augusta, Michigan, passed away on Dec. 30, 2023.
Sophia Sorensen Jones (IAC 14-19) of Chicago, Illinois, passed away on Nov. 29, 2023.
Michaella Barton (IAC Fac 21-22) of Grand Rapids, Michigan, passed away on Nov. 11, 2023.
