The New York Times - USA (2020-10-10)

THE NEW YORK TIMES OBITUARIESSATURDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2020 Y B11

When William H. Danforth was
12, his self-made grandfather
handed him a pair of scissors and
told him to cut out the word “im-
possible” from his dictionary. He
wanted his grandchildren to feel
that they could change the world,
as long as they gave back.
Young Bill absorbed the lesson.
He went on to become chancellor
of Washington University in St.
Louis, overseeing its blossoming
from a commuter campus into a
national research institution, and
helped found a plant science cen-
ter to fight world hunger.
(His three siblings also re-
ceived their grandfather’s mes-
sage: John became a three-term
United States senator from Mis-
souri; Donald Jr. was a business
executive who served as board
chairman of the American Youth
Foundation and helped build the
Brain Injury Association of Mis-
souri; and Dorothy Danforth
Miller was a philanthropist.)
During Dr. Danforth’s 24-year
tenure at Washington University,
which started in 1971, people asso-
ciated with the university won 10
Nobel Prizes and two Pulitzer
Prizes. Two faculty members be-
came the nation’s poet laureates.
He established 70 endowed pro-
fessorships, constructed dozens
of buildings and tripled the num-
ber of student scholarships. The
endowment grew to $1.72 billion,
the seventh-largest in the country
at the time. A highly selective uni-
versity, it now stands at No. 16 in
the U.S. News & World Report
rankings of the nation’s best col-
leges.
Dr. Danforth died on Sept. 16 at
his home in Ladue, Mo. a suburb
of St. Louis. He was 94. His son,
David, said the cause was compli-
cations of a fall.
Dr. Danforth was more than a
leading educator; he was also a
major philanthropist. As presi-
dent of the Danforth Foundation,
the family philanthropy founded
in 1927, he funneled hundreds of

millions of dollars in grants to thousands of recipients, many of them organizations in the St. Lou- is region. He also used the foundation’s money to support the university he led, leveraging those gifts to raise more dollars through highly successful fund-raising drives. Over its eight decades, the Dan- forth Foundation awarded more than $1.2 billion in grants. Dr. Dan- forth was its president from 1965 to 1997. It closed in 2011. On campus, he mingled with

students, earning praise for his open-door policy and his modesty. (He refused the perk of a reserved parking space.) As a boy, he had loved the ritual of bedtime stories — not children’s books but the works of James Thurber and other sophisticated humorists. Dr. Danforth carried on this tradition at the university, holding story time for students in their dormito- ries. They called him “Uncle Bill” and “Chan Dan,” affectionate nicknames he liked and adopted. A respected administrator, Dr.

Danforth was asked by President George H.W. Bush to become di- rector of the National Institutes of Health in 1989. But Dr. Danforth turned down the offer after he was asked in interviews for the job about his views on abortion; he considered that to be an inappro- priate ideological litmus test, he said. After he retired as chancellor in 1995, he and several colleagues planned a new scientific facility with an outsize goal: to develop disease-resistant crops that could help end world hunger and at the same time make St. Louis the Sili- con Valley of plant science. That facility became the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, named for Dr. Danforth’s father. Dr. Danforth was its chairman from 1998 to 2013. “When we started, I dreamed, perhaps romantically, that our center would be part of a major human adventure in the 21st cen- tury,” Dr. Danforth said in a speech there. “I believe if we edu- cate ourselves and put our confi- dence in human intelligence and in science, we can add another positive chapter to our human story.” William Henry Danforth II was born on April 10, 1926, in St. Louis. His mother, Dorothy (Claggett) Danforth, was a homemaker. His father was the chief executive of Ralston Purina. Bill’s grandfather, the industrialist William Henry Danforth, for whom Bill was named, had established an animal feed business in 1894 in St. Louis that was a forerunner of the company; it became a powerful eco- nomic engine in the region. His grandfather was a guiding light for the family. He helped found the American Youth Foun- dation, whose motto, “Aspire No- bly, Adventure Daringly, Serve Humbly,” also captured the Dan- forth family ethos. “I’m not sure he could have imagined how it would steer my father’s life,” David Danforth said by phone text.

Bill Danforth majored in biol- ogy at Princeton, graduating in

While studying at Harvard
Medical School, he met Elizabeth
Gray, an economics major at
Wellesley College who was also
from St. Louis, and they married
in 1950. He graduated from medi-

cal school in 1951 and served in the Navy during the Korean War, working as a doctor on destroy- ers. In addition to his son, David, Dr. Danforth is survived by two daughters, Maebelle Danforth and Elizabeth Danforth; his brother John, the former senator; 13 grandchildren; and eight great- grandchildren. His wife died in 2005, and another daughter, Cyn-

thia Danforth Prather, died in

His brother Donald Jr. died in
2001, and his sister, Dorothy Dan-
forth Miller, died in 2013.
Dr. Danforth returned to St.
Louis after the Korean War and, in
1957, became an instructor at
Washington University School of
Medicine, specializing in cardiolo-
gy. He also conducted research in
the laboratory of the Nobel laure-
ates Carl and Gerty Cori, who
studied body metabolism. In 1965
Dr. Danforth was named presi-
dent of the medical school, and in
1971 he became chancellor of the
university.
The university renamed its Hill-
top campus the Danforth Campus
in 2006. And the Danforth Plant
Science Center became one of the
nation’s most technologically ad-
vanced bioscience organizations.
“I think of him as a hero because
he could have done something
else,” Getu Beyene Duguma, the
senior manager for regulatory sci-
ence at the center, said in a video
tribute to Dr. Danforth. “But he
chose to help other people
through his visions and through
his purposeful life.”

William H. Danforth, Who Transformed Washington University, Is Dead at 94

William H. Danforth in 2009. During his tenure, he earned the affection of students for his open-door policy and his modesty.

WILLIAM ZBAREN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Brookings Hall at Washington University in St. Louis. Dr. Dan- forth’s legacy included an endowment that grew to $1.72 billion.

ROBERT COHEN/ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS

By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE

Turning a commuter

campus in St. Louis

into a national

research institution.

Always wearing her signature
sun hat and large bangle brace-
lets, Soraya Santiago Solla would
bristle when constantly asked
about the dreaded “t-word.”
She knew she was a trailblazer,
revered in some circles for being
the first person in Puerto Rico to
change the gender originally des-
ignated on a birth certificate. But
she would not accept being called
“transsexual.” She was a woman,
her documents proved it, and that
was that.
“I don’t permit anyone here in
Puerto Rico or anywhere to tell

me that I am transsexual,” Ms.
Santiago, a beautician, said in
“Mala Mala,” a 2014 documentary
film about the transgender com-
munity in Puerto Rico. “If I have
my papers, recognized as female,
why the hell do they have to say I
am transsexual? What is that?
Sometimes I don’t even know
what that is, and nor am I inter-
ested.”
Ms. Santiago died on Sept. 22 at
her home in Carolina, a city on
Puerto Rico’s northern coast out-
side San Juan. She was 72. Cancer
had spread throughout her body,
but the cause was respiratory fail-
ure, said her sister and only imme-
diate survivor, Carmen Santiago
Solla.
Ms. Santiago was born on Dec.
6, 1947, in San Juan to Alicia Solla,
a hotel housekeeper, and Ramón
Santiago Berrios, a government
tax agency official. Her parents
thought it odd that their son, from
the age of 2, urinated crouching
down instead of standing and
tried to beat that behavior out of
the child, as she recalled in a 2014
memoir. Her father, eager to
change his effeminate child’s

ways, would drag the child to box- ing matches. “She was between 15 and 17 years old when she said, ‘I’m leav- ing, I can’t continue with this,’ ” her sister recalled in a phone interview. Ms. Santiago moved to New York and found acceptance in its gay community, hanging out at one of its gathering spots, the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Vil- lage, before it became the scene of the famous uprising in 1969 that effectively kicked off the gay- rights movement. She was fre- quently interviewed about the protests, though she was not there. In New York, Ms. Santiago was determined to undergo sex-reassignment surgery and, at 28, did so in 1975 after her mother gave her $3,000 to cover the cost. Her identity now medically official, she moved back home, where she was believed to be the first person in Puerto Rico to publicly acknowledge having undergone the surgery. Doing so took some bravery on an island where there had been little tolerance for transgender people. Indeed, dozens of transgender people have been victims of violence in the past dec- ade, and six transgender women have been murdered there this year alone. Shortly after her return, Ms. Santiago petitioned a court to legally change not just her name — she chose Bárbara — but also her gender on her birth certificate. “I remember telling her, ‘OK, show me your records,’ ” said Ana Delia Sánchez Crespo, who at the time was the administrator of the courthouse in Carolina, outside San Juan. “Nobody opposed it.” A gynecologist testified on Ms. San- tiago’s behalf. She officially became Bárbara Santiago Solla in 1976, although she was more commonly known as Soraya. In court, Ms. Sánchez had re- cused herself from the case because Ms. Santiago was her hair- dresser and friend. “She was a leader,” Ms. Sánchez said. “She wanted everyone to have equal rights, civil rights — all

their rights — and she did it.” For decades, Ms. Santiago owned Soraya Hair Design, a pop- ular salon for politically-con- nected upper-class women. She hobnobbed with powerful people and became an idol in the transgender community, even though she rejected being associated with the term “L.G.B.T.Q.,” explaining that she identified as a heterosex- ual woman. She sold the salon a few years ago because of financial and health troubles. In 1986, Ms. Santiago married a man from Santo Domingo, in the Dominican Republic, Héctor Mejía Santana, and used her birth certificate to petition immigration services to allow him to take up residence with her in Puerto Rico. Some officials questioned whether someone who was legally born male should be allowed to sponsor another man’s immigration application, but she won that battle, too.

The marriage ended in divorce a few years later. In 2008, Ms. Santiago ran un- successfully for a Municipal As- sembly seat in Carolina as a member of the pro-statehood New Pro- gressive Party, becoming the first openly trans person to run for of- fice on the island. She published her memoir, “Hand Made: Gender Dysphoria, Soraya,” in 2014, attended interna- tional conferences and gave tele-

vision interviews about gender dysphoria, which she described in medical terms that many people in the transgender community considered archaic. “My throat has gotten dry from trying to explain that the only dif- ference between a woman and me, is that one comes straight from the factory and mine was made by hand in the United States of Amer- ica,” she wrote in her book. She was featured in the docu-

mentary “Mala Mala,” which was directed by Antonio Santini and Dan Sickles and had its premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York in 2014. Mr. Santini said that when the film played in Puerto Rico, Ms. Santiago would stand outside the theater with a bag of books to sign and sell. In the film, she and Ivana Fred, a transgender activist, debate what it means to be trans. Ms. Santiago disliked the emphasis transgender women often put on good looks. “Being a woman is something you carry in your heart and soul,” she said. She asserted that some transgender women give up living as females once they gain weight, get old and “are no longer the Barbie they aspired to be.” “So what are you, a beauty queen or a woman?” she asked. Mr. Santini, who was 22 when he began making the movie, said Ms. Santiago understood the im- portance of telling transgender people’s stories. “Puerto Rico is an awfully transphobic and homophobic island,” Mr. Santini said. “She created a beautiful space for herself. Soraya dedicated her life to this.” And despite her illness, she kept on with the business of her life. Last year she received her bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Puerto Rico, and at her death she was working on a second memoir. In an interview this year, she told the CBS News correspondent Da- vid Begnaud, “I have to keep on fighting.”

Soraya Santiago Solla, 72,

A Transgender Trailblazer

Soraya Santiago Solla appear- ing in “Mala Mala,” a 2014 documentary film about the transgender community in Puerto Rico. She left the island for New York as a teenager.

MALA MALA

By FRANCES ROBLES

Returning to Puerto

Rico after undergoing

sex-reassignment

surgery in New York.

Bloch, Joan Clark, Christopher Lindsay, Mary

BLOCH—Joan Fine, of Montclair, NJ, on October 7 at age 84. Survived by hus- bandEugeneBloch;sons Gene Paul Bloch (Jennifer) andJeffrey FrankBloch (Jodi) and grandchildren Anna,John,andJulianna.

CLARK—Christopher Avery.

Passed away on Saturday, September 26, 2020 at the age of 62 years old. Chris was born and raised in New York City,thesecondson of Joseph Sill Clark and Felicia Reed Clark. He loved New York City, and, with a brilliant mind, hard work, and a generous heart, built and led a very full life there. He created a vast ecosystem of fami-

ly, friends, and employees to whom he was very generous, and extremely loyal. Chris had great friends from every stage of his life. He kept them closeandgatheredthem wheneverhecould,which was often, both in the city and at his home on Long Island. He was the most generous host,ensuringthatfriends andfamilywereallwell cared for no matter what the circumstances. At the age of 25 Chris founded Clark Con- struction Corporation.His mission for the company was “to establish the standard of high-end residential construction by which all others will be measured.” Through the years, the company grew and excelled across a broad spec- trum of construction projects, from museum quality classi- cal to cutting edge progres- sive renovations. He was ad- mired by his clients, their ar- chitects, subcontractors and all who became part of his worldcreatingmagnificent living spaces throughout the

city and beyond. He was a formidable force inNew York City, with uniquely great taste that served his projects, his clients, and his family well. Chris was a voracious reader and loved to fish, golf and, especially, cook, often preparing weekendlunch- eons for 20 people or more. Despite his drive and com- mitment to Clark Construc- tion, Chris always put family first. He loved to travel with them, often taking family and good friends on great adven- tures around the globe, as well as gathering them for holidays. Chris was a member of the Maidstone Club in EastHampton,NY(past board member), the Racquet Club and Brook Club in New York City, the Somerset Club in Boston, MA, Lyford Cay Club, New Providence, The Bahamas(servingonthe board of governors). He is survived by his three children, Joseph, Oliver, and Kate, and by his two brothers, Joe and Laurance and his sister, Story, their spouses and their children, histwobeloved dogs, Toasty and Cooper, and many,manyfriends,rela- tives, employees whose lives he touched in ways that few will forget. For all the people who came into his orbit and

never left, his passing has created an unimaginably large void. Chris's favorite place was Tuckernuck Island, Nantucket, Massachusetts. The family requests that, in lieuofflowers,charitable gifts in his memory be sent to The Tuckernuck Land Trust tuckernucklandtrust.org A celebration of his life will be scheduled in New York City when it is safe to do so. For more information, please contact Kate Clark: [email protected] LINDSAY—Mary. The Board andstaffof Planned Parenthood of Greater New York mourn the passing of Mary Lindsay, a fierce champion of our work. Mary dedicated her life to en- suring that all people who needed Planned Parent- hood's services would be able toaccessthemandheld nearly every leadership role across the organization, making impacts that are still being felt today. A dedicated nurse, Mary was an unwaver- ing advocate for the patients we serve. We are indebted to her for her many contribu- tions to our work and she will be greatly missed. Karen Seltzer, Chair Board of Directors; Joy Calloway, Interim CEO

Deaths Deaths Deaths

The New York Times - USA (2020-10-10)

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