More news of Yale people

Dan Renzetti

Tony Reno. View full image

Dan Renzetti

Tony Reno. View full image

Dustin Lin

Lesley Rosenthal. View full image

Dustin Lin

Lesley Rosenthal. View full image

Remembered

Tony Reno, the Joel E. Smilow ’54 Head Coach of Football from 2012 to 2026, died of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease on October 2 at his home in Sturbridge, Masachusetts. He was 52 years old. Over 13 seasons, Reno led the Bulldogs to five Ivy League titles, their first postseason appearance, and seven wins over Harvard. He stepped down in February of this year, citing health issues. A remembrance will appear in our next issue.

Author John Crowley, a lecturer in the Yale English department from 1993 to 2018, died on August 9 at his home in Conway, Massachusetts. He was 83. Acclaimed by critics for a body of work that included historical fiction, fantasy, and screenwriting, Crowley was best known for his 1981 novel Little, Big, which Yale professor Harold Bloom ’55PhD called a “neglected masterpiece.” He taught fiction writing, fantasy, and screenwriting.

Robert Wheeler ’55PhD, the Harold Hodgkinson Professor Emeritus of Engineering and Applied Physics and professor of physics at Yale, died on May 31 in Guilford, Connecticut. He was 97. Over a 40-year career at Yale beginning in 1957, Wheeler conducted research in solid-state physics and microelectronics and chaired the engineering and applied science department. After a 1974 trip to China, he developed an interest in Asian porcelain and ceramics, collecting pieces himself and helping to document items in the collection of the Peabody Museum. 

Honored

Four alumni of the Graduate School were honored in October with the Wilbur Cross Medal, given annually by the school and its alumni association for outstanding achievements in their fields. The medalists are Carol Carter ’72PhD (microbiology), an HIV researcher and professor at Stony Brook University; James Dieterich ’68PhD (geology/geophysics), a professor emeritus at the University of California, Riverside, who studies earthquakes; Amy Richlin ’78PhD (classics), a scholar of ancient Rome and professor emerita at UCLA; and James A. Robinson ’93PhD (economics), a Nobel Prize–winning economist and professor at the University of Chicago. 

The Yale Alumni Association will honor three alumni in November with its Public Service Award. The honorees are S. Zelda Roland ’08, ’16PhD, founding director of the Yale Prison Education Initiative at Dwight Hall and director of the University of New Haven Prison Education Program; Alaaddin Ibrahimy ’26PhD, who has led community health initiatives for refugees in the New Haven area through the organization Elena’s Light; and Irene Kim ’26, founder of the Justice Education Project, a legal reform group, and Project RESTOR, a reentry program for women.

Appointed

Lesley Rosenthal has been appointed secretary of the university, effective December 1. Rosenthal, a Harvard-educated attorney, comes to the job from the Juilliard School, where she has been chief operating officer and corporate secretary since 2018. Since 2012, Kimberly Goff-Crews ’83, ’86JD, has served as both secretary and vice president of the university; she will now focus solely on her portfolio as vice president for university life.

Katrina Spencer started in September as Yale’s vice president for finance, chief financial officer, and treasurer. Spencer has spent 20 years in higher education, most recently at Rice University, where she was chief financial officer. She succeeds Stephen Murphy ’87.