In Memoriam: Faculty & Friends
Notices sorted by graduation date
James Cox
1924–2016
Longtime architecture professor James Aubrey Douglas Cox died at his home in Savannah, Georgia, on June 9. He was 92.
Born in Kent, England, in 1924, Cox served in World War II and lived in London and Oxford before coming to the University as a visiting professor for the 1961-62 academic year. He returned to UVA in 1967 as a professor of architecture and soon joined the architectural history program, where he taught until 1990.
“Well known for his charming personality, James A.D. Cox was one of the most popular teachers of architectural history. He attracted students from around the Grounds to his classes,” UVA architecture professor Richard Guy Wilson wrote in an email. “He helped make the University one of the centers for the study of the history of architecture … and he also helped support the arts at the University, especially the Tuesday Evening Concert series, of which he was a founding member.”
“Professor Cox helped students see the world beyond Charlottesville,” Jay Graham (Arch ’69, ’72) told Virginia Magazine in 2013. Graham was a teaching assistant in Cox’s survey course in architectural history. “He incorporated the arts into architectural history. He wove in music and painting—he exposed us to culture.” Cox also traveled internationally with students to expand their understanding of architectural and art history. He was initiated into the Raven Society in 1984.
In 2011, a group of Cox’s former students worked with the School of Architecture to establish the James A.D. Cox Distinguished Lectureship in Architecture, which brings international speakers to Grounds. Cox traveled from Savannah, Georgia, where he moved after retirement, to attend several of the lectures.
Cox is survived by his husband, Ron Melander, as well as three nephews and a niece.
Irving Gottesman of Minneapolis died June 29, 2016. He served in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War. In the 1960s, he conducted a study of schizophrenia in identical twins at Maudsley Hospital in London. His research provided strong evidence for a genetic component to mental illness, but it also conflicted with simple genetic determinism and pointed to the influence of environmental conditions on a patient’s psychological development. Mr. Gottesman was a professor at the University of Minnesota, where he started a training program in behavioral genetics. He also held faculty positions at Harvard University, Washington University in St. Louis and elsewhere. He was professor of psychology at the University of Virginia from 1985 until his retirement in 2001. While at UVA, he published Schizophrenia Genesis: The Origins of Madness and conducted research on crime and juvenile delinquency. In a 1991 interview with the Charlottesville-based newspaper The Daily Progress, he said, “I want people to understand that schizophrenia itself should be thought of in the same way as heart disease or diabetes. It is caused both by lifestyle and genetic composition.” He later returned to the University of Minnesota and retired again in 2012, but he never ceased working, continuing to publish papers and remaining in contact with colleagues around the world. Survivors include his wife and two sons.
Lois Ann Lovern of Charlottesville died July 5, 2016. She began working at the University as administrative assistant to the chair of the physics department in June 1958. In 1974, she moved to the president’s office, where she worked as administrative assistant to three presidents of the University. Among her duties were coordinating travel arrangements for the president and others, serving as liaison to the Retired Faculty Association and polishing the mace carried by the grand marshal during Final Exercises. In 1987, she received the Alumni Association’s Distinguished Service Award, and in 2008, she received the University’s Outstanding Employee Contribution Award. She retired in 2010. An avid reader, Ms. Lovern attended Lifelong Learning courses even in retirement. She named the garden behind Pavilion VIII as her favorite spot on Grounds, saying, “I loved being in Pavilion VIII when it was the president’s office. You felt a part of the Academical Village. I always watched the coming of spring by walking through the gardens at lunchtime.”