KUDOS

Ronald Mito, professor of clinical dentistry and associate dean of clinical dental sciences, has been selected as the UCLA Dental Alumnus of the Year. He also recently attended his formal convocation for diplomate status as a Fellow in the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. Mito was one of 10 American dentists to be elected Fellows without examination because of their contributions and leadership in the care of special needs patients.... Arthur Geoffrion, James A. Collins Professor of Management at The Anderson School, is the 2002 recipient of the Harold Larnder Prize. The award, given annually by the Canadian Operational Research Society, recognizes an individual who has achieved international distinction in operational research.... The Department of Information Studies in the Graduate School of Education & Information Studies is one of seven recipients of a grant from the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services. The $196,055 grant will fund PRAXIS, a one-year program to prepare librarians of culturally diverse backgrounds for doctoral studies by training them in research, information technology and policy.

ACCOLADES

Kathryn A. Atchison, professor of public health and community dentistry and associate dean for research and knowledge management at the School of Dentistry, has been selected by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as a recipient of a 2003 DHHS Primary Health Care Policy Fellowship. She will integrate the research findings from her fellowship to work with policy makers, dental educators and practitioners to increase access to dental primary care services.... The UCLA Library has appointed Amos Lakos as head of reference and instructional services at the Charles E. Young Research Library. Prior to coming to UCLA, Lakos was senior liaison librarian in information services and resources at the Dana Porter Library at the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.... David Aboody, associate
professor of accounting, is the first recipient of PricewaterhouseCoopers’ newly endowed Faculty Fellowship in Accounting at The Anderson School. Aboody was chosen for his outstanding scholarship and his enthusiasm for teaching in the undergraduate accounting program.

IN MEMORIAM

Edgar L. Brokaw Jr., a retired professor of theater, film and television at UCLA, died of a heart attack Dec. 9 at a Santa Monica nursing home. Brokaw, who had been battling Alzheimer’s disease, was 85.
Born in New York City, Brokaw served in the Army Signal Corps in India and Burma (now Myanmar). After the war, he attended UCLA on the GI Bill, earning a bachelor’s degree in 1952. He stayed on in the theater and film department as a lecturer before moving to New York City in 1954 to work for a film company. He later started his own company, Studio Films, making more than 75 shorts, documentaries and commercials. He returned to UCLA in 1961 to resume his teaching career.
Brokaw retired in 1988 at the age of 71. In retirement, he collected rare books and traveled extensively.

Gerald Lamb, 35, resident director of Hedrick Hall, died Dec. 31 in Tijuana, Mexico. Because Lamb died under suspicious circumstances, Tijuana police are investigating his death. UCLA’s Office of Residential Life reported Lamb missing after he did not show up for work on Jan. 3.
Lamb began his career at UCLA in January 1996 as a resident director for Dykstra Hall and Delta Terrace before assuming his most recent position. He ran the summer session program in Rieber Hall and Saxon Suites and co-taught a Sept. 11 seminar called “Fictions of Terror vs. Real Terror” with English Professor Frederick Burwick. A memorial service for Lamb was held on Jan. 13 in the Covel Commons Grand Horizon Room.

Douglas A. Martin, 55, a leading pioneer of the disability rights and independent living movements, died Jan. 3. He died in his sleep shortly after his respirator malfunctioned, according to family members.
Martin, who earned a doctorate in urban planning at UCLA, advocated tirelessly for the rights of people with disabilities. During his tenure, UCLA added access ramps, handrails and curb ramps in inaccessible areas and improved accommodations for students with learning disabilities.
A Nebraska native, Martin was a wheelchair-user who contracted polio at the age of 5. He initially planned to enroll at the University of Nebraska but was denied admission because he failed the required physical examination. It was at that point that he decided to pursue his education at UCLA and dedicate his life to improving the rights of people with disabilities.
Martin worked as a state buildings standards commissioner and also was Southern California chairperson of Californians for Strong Access in the 1970s. He was instrumental in creating California’s seminal accessibility requirements and developing and promulgating Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.
In 1971, Martin was the first person with a significant disability to be named a UCLA Chancellor’s Fellow, and in 1972 was the first to be named a UCLA Chancellor’s Teaching Assistant. He co-founded the UCLA Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on Disability in 1983 and worked as Special Assistant to the UCLA Chancellor from 1989 to 2002.
A memorial service and campus commemoration are pending, and his family and colleagues also plan to establish a scholarship for students with disabilities in his honor.

William George McMillan, professor emeritus of chemistry who worked on the Manhattan Project, died Nov. 25 in West Los Angeles of a heart attack. He was 83.
Educated at Montebello High School and at UCLA, McMillan earned a doctorate in chemical physics at Columbia University. He went on to complete a fellowship at the University of Chicago, where he received a Guggenheim Foundation grant. During his graduate program at Columbia and in Chicago, he worked with Enrico Fermi and Edward Teller on the Manhattan Project, which developed the atomic bomb.
McMillan returned to Los Angeles in 1946 and began teaching chemistry at UCLA while working as a research physicist with the Rand Corp. in Santa Monica. He served as a science adviser to the military in Vietnam in 1966 and 1967, and at UCLA established defense science seminars, bringing together leaders from the military, science and government to identify and resolve problems.
After retiring from UCLA, McMillan founded McMillan Science Associates, a research firm based in Westwood.