Arthur Kinoy, a law professor and veteran civil rights lawyer, died on Sept. 19 of a heart attack. He was 82.
Kinoy graduated from Harvard University and served in the U.S. Army in north Africa and Italy during World War II. When he returned to the states, he received his law degree from Columbia University and set out to establish voting privileges, integration and civil rights for African-Americans.
In 1965, Kinoy was investigated by the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee for representing the International Workers Order and the United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers Union of America, both of which the government considered to be fronts for the Communist Party. When he was called to testify before the House Committee on Un-American Activities, Kinoy caused such a ruckus that he was ejected from the hearing room and convicted of disorderly conduct. Three years later, the U.S. Court of Appeals overturned the conviction.
Known as “The People’s Lawyer,” Kinoy worked on the appeal of the 1950s espionage trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, and on the trial of the Chicago Seven, a group of anti-war activists who were charged with conspiring to incite riots at the 1968 Democratic Convention. He also co-founded the Center for Constitutional Rights, an organization dedicated to using the law to advance human rights and fight oppression.
In 1972, Kinoy argued before the U.S. Supreme Court that President Richard Nixon’s use of wiretaps was a violation of constitutional protections against unreasonable searches. He won that case and four others before the highest court in the land.
For more than a quarter of a century, Kinoy taught at Rutgers University Law School. An autographed copy of his memoirs, “Rights on Trial: The Odyssey of a People’s Lawyer,” is available in the Rutgers Law Library.
Categotry Archives: Education
Gordon Mitchell
Gordon Mitchell, a bodybuilder who appeared in more than 200 B-movies, died on Sept. 20 from a heart attack. He was 80.
Born Charles Pendleton, Mitchell served in the U.S. Army Air Corp during World War II, taking part in the Battle of the Bulge and the liberation of Buchenwald. After he returned to the states, he became a high school teacher and bodybuilder.
His handsome physique caught the eye of actress Mae West, who hired him to work on her all-male chorus line, the Mae West Revue. That job opened the doors to roles in films like “Man With the Golden Arm” and “The Ten Commandments.”
In 1961, Mitchell moved to Italy to star in “Atlas in the Land of the Cyclops.” Because of his muscular form, he spent the next 30 years appearing in Italian and American sword-and-sandal films, mythic features, spaghetti westerns and martial arts movies.
Errol Hill
Errol Gaston Hill, an actor, playwright and director who became the first African American to earn tenure at Dartmouth College, died on Sept. 15 of cancer. He was 82.
A native of Trinidad, Hill received his early theater training in England and obtained degrees from the University of London, the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and Yale University. In the early 1960s, he worked as an announcer for the BBC, and as an actor and creative arts teacher in the West Indies before moving to the U.S.
In 1968, he joined the Dartmouth faculty. During his 35 years with the school, Hill taught a portfolio of 13 different theatre courses, and ran the Summer Repertory Program for six seasons. Through his scholarly writings, Hill developed an international reputation as an expert in African American Caribbean theatre. He also wrote 11 plays and produced/directed 120 performances in the U.S., England and Nigeria.
Hill was honored in 1991 with the Presidential Medal from Dartmouth for outstanding leadership and achievement. Five years later, he received the Robert Lewis Medal for Lifetime Achievement in Theater Research from Kent State University.
Dr. Chris Gillin
Categories: Education, Medicine, Scientists
Dr. J. Christian Gillin, a psychiatrist with a specialty in sleep and mood disorders, died on Sept. 13 from esophageal cancer. He was 65.
Gillin was only 18 years old when he accompanied his anthropologist father to a mental hospital. There he observed a catatonic patient who inspired him to study psychiatric medicine.
He graduated cum laude from Harvard University and earned his medical degree at Case Western Reserve School of Medicine. From 1971 to 1982, Gillin conducted sleep research at the Intramural Research Program of the National Institute of Mental Health. He then became a professor of psychiatry at the University of California San Diego, where he continued his study of how sleep abnormalities were associated with depression, recovery and abstinence in patients with alcoholism.
He was the former president of the Sleep Research Society, the Society for Light Treatment and Biological Rhythms and the West Coast College of Biological Psychiatry. The founding editor of Neuropsychopharmacology, the journal of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, Gillin wrote more than 500 scientific articles and co-authored the book, “Human Sleep and Its Disorders.”
In 2001, Gillin was awarded the Distinguished Scientist Award from the Sleep Research Society, and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.
Sister Daniel Stefani
Categories: Education
Sister Daniel Stefani, a Roman Catholic nun who aided thousands of homeless children, died on Sept. 8 from complications of the West Nile virus, bacterial influenza and meningitis. She was 80.
Helen Stefani joined the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth, Kan., in 1942, and took the name Sister Daniel. She worked as a teacher and a principal then joined the Mount St. Vincent Children’s Home, one of Denver’s three Catholic orphanages. Determined to stay at the forefront of child care issues, Stefani earned a degree in social work from the University of Denver.
She spent 32 years at Mount St. Vincent, educating the homeless and troubled youths left in her care. In 1996, she received the Civis Princeps, or “first citizen” award, from Regis University.