In MEMORIAM

William Fowler BA’50 PhD’54, a composer and founder of the University of Utah’s jazz major and guitar programs, died February 27 at Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital in Valencia, Calif., surrounded by his sons. He was 91.

William Lambourne Fowler was born July 4, 1917. During the Great Depression of 1929, young Bill Fowler taught himself to play blues harmonica, dirt-band mandolin, Dixieland tenor banjo, and finally jazz guitar. At 25, after induction into the U.S. Army during WWII, he put together a nonofficial battalion marching band,. In 1944, Fowler married Beatrice Cottam, the daughter of University Botany Professor Dr. Walter P. Cottam. At war’s end, Fowler enrolled as a music major at the University of Utah. He studied there for seven years, broken only by intensive periods at the American Conservatory in Chicago and at the Eastman School of Music.

While beginning his 20-year stint teaching at the University of Utah, Fowler stayed active in classical composing. He designed the first college guitar degree program in the United States, which led to an invitation from Andres Segovia to study the Segovia techniques and teaching methods at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, Italy.

While at the U, Fowler also headed combos around town; wrote and narrated a popular multimedia History of Jazz lecture; directed the Western Division of the National Stage Band Camps; and produced the Intermountain Jazz Festival and the clinics at the Mobile Festival. Along with C. Richard Evans, he co-invented the first Piezo-electric guitar pickup for Star Valley Electronics. Unsatisfied with strictly traditional music theory and wanting to prepare students for the real world, Fowler initiated the jazz major at the U of U.

Bill was preceded in death by his wife, Bea. He is survived by his sons, Bruce, Steve, Thomas, Walter, and Edward; 10 grandchildren; and two great-grand children. The Fowler family invites friends to visit Bill’s Memorial Web site, http://memorialwebsites.legacy.com/billfowler/Subpage.aspx?mod=1, and leave their thoughts, condolences, and memories.

Edited from the online memorial.

Willem Kolff, M.D., former University of Utah medical pioneer who invented kidney dialysis and helped design the first artificial heart to be used in a human, died Feb. 11 in a Philadelphia care center of causes incident to age. He was 97.

Known in medical circles as “the father of artificial organs,” many Utahns remember Dr. Kolff as one of a team of surgeons who made headlines worldwide when they implanted the artificial heart into Seattle dentist Barney Clark at University Hospital in 1982.

Clark lived for four months, then died with the heart still functioning. The feat put the U at the forefront of artificial organ research and made Dr. Kolff and his team international medical celebrities.

The scope of Dr. Kolff’s medical accomplishments included rigging the prototype for what would become the world’s first kidney dialysis machine from sausage casings and an automobile water pump part as a young doctor in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands during World War II. His work eventually grew in scope and size to include bits of the artificial heart, artificial sight, artificial kidneys and placentas, and the wearable artificial lung.

Dr. Kolff published numerous books, more than 600 papers and articles, was inducted into the Inventors’ Hall of Fame in 1985, and received hundreds of awards during his lifetime. In 1990, Life Magazine named him one of the 100 most important Americans of the 20th century.

In September 2002, Dr. Kolff received the Albert Lasker Award for Clinical Medical Research—considered to be the highest honor in American medicine—for his development of kidney dialysis. The nominating committee noted the invention “changed kidney failure from a fatal to a treatable disease, prolonging the useful lives of millions of patients.”

Willem Johan “Pim” Kolff was born in Leiden, The Netherlands, on Feb. 14, 1911, the eldest son of a doctor who ran a TB sanatorium in nearby Beekbergen. The young Willem often accompanied his father to work and soon became fascinated with medicine. He received an M.D. at the University of Leyden Medical School in Holland, and a Ph.D. (summa cum laude) at the University of Groningen, Holland, as well as several honorary medical degrees. Kolff married Janke Huidekoper in 1937. Willem and Janke moved with their five children to the United States in 1950. He became a U.S. citizen in 1956.

Dr. Kolff’s first work on the artificial heart began in 1957 at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. In 1967, he became head of the division of artificial organs at the University of Utah and director of the Institute of Biomedical Engineering. Dr. Kolff officially resigned his position at the U in 1983, but he remained as acting director of the U institute until his 65th birthday in February 1986.

Dr. Kolff was an active advocate for abortion rights and against nuclear weapons, and enjoyed nature and art. He donated his papers to the University of Utah, giving the school a collection that provides a history of his inventions as well as glimpses into his personal life.

Dr. Willem Kolff is survived by his five children, 12 grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren. (He and Janke divorced in 2000.) Dr. Kolff requested that his body be cremated.

Edited from a memoriam published 2/11/09 in the Deseret News.

Larry H. Miller, philanthropist and owner of the Utah Jazz and more than 80 other ventures, died Feb. 20 after a long and difficult struggle to overcome the debilitating effects of Type II diabetes. He was 64.

Lawrence Horne Miller was born April 26, 1944, in Salt Lake City to Mary Lorille Horne and Howard Hanley West. Larry’s parents divorced when he was very young and his mother married Frank Miller, who adopted him. Larry forged many lifelong friendships growing up in the Capitol Hill area. He attended Lafayette Elementary School and Horace Mann Junior High School before graduating from West High School in 1962. Although he only attended the University of Utah briefly, Larry became an advocate of higher education and has provided hundreds of scholarships to deserving young people. He was recognized with the U of U Alumni Association’s Honorary Alumnus Award, among its highest honors, in 2005.

Larry’s fierce competitive spirit first manifest itself during his childhood as he became a top-notch marble shooter and state marble champion at the age of 10. Later, Larry became a world-class fast-pitch softball pitcher and was inducted into the ISC Softball Hall of Fame and the Utah Athletes’ Association Hall of Fame.

Larry applied his competitive spirit and work ethic to great entrepreneurial success with the Larry H. Miller Group. Through the years, Larry amassed more than 80 businesses and properties in the western United States, including the Utah Jazz, EnergySolutions Arena, the Salt Lake Bees, Miller Motorsports Park, Megaplex Theatres, and 39 automobile dealerships. He also developed vast real estate holdings including commercial and agricultural properties.

On March 25, 1965 Larry married the love of his life and his soul mate, Gail Saxton. Their marriage was later solemnized in the Salt Lake LDS Temple. Larry wore many hats, but the one that he enjoyed most was that of family man. He especially loved spending quality time with his children and grandchildren fishing at his ranch in Idaho.

A devout member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Larry relied on his faith to guide him through life. He held many positions of trust in his Ward and Stake, but his favorite calling involved teaching, training and shaping the lives of the youth he worked with. Larry viewed himself as a steward, and felt it his responsibility to do as much good as his assets would allow. He coined and lived by the phrase “Go about doing good until there’s too much good in the world.“ Of his many philanthropic endeavors, the Joseph Smith Papers project was one of the dearest to his heart.

Larry also had a great love for automobiles, particularly Shelby Cobras and GT40s. He created an unparalleled collection, most of which are housed in the auto museum at Miller Motorsports park.

Larry Miller was preceded in death by his father, Howard West, and stepfather, Frank Miller. He is survived by his wife, Gail; their five children, Greg (Heidi) Miller, Roger Miller, Steve (Jenny) Miller, Karen (Adam) Williams, and Bryan (Heather) Miller; 21 grandchildren; one great-grandchild; his mother, Mary Lorille Horne Miller; siblings Judy Miller, Tom (Rhonda) Miller, and Charlene (Bruce) Mitchell; and many nieces, nephews, and cousins. Interment is at the Salt Lake City Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to Larry H. Miller Charities, for the benefit of women and children with an emphasis on health and education, at 301 W. South Temple, Attn: Karol Elkington, or at any Zions Bank location. Online condolences may be left at www.larkincares.com.

Edited from the notice published in The Salt Lake Tribune from 2/24 - 2/27/2009 and other sources.

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