In memoriam

Lewis C. Solmon, former dean of UCLA's Graduate School of Education & Information Studies (GSE&IS), died Dec. 17 in his Westwood home following a stroke. He was 65.

Solmon was dean of GSE&IS from 1985 to 1991. He left UCLA to become founding president of the Milken Institute, a Santa Monica-based economic think tank whose mission is to improve the economic conditions of people in the U.S. and around the world.

Born in Toronto in 1942, Solmon earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Toronto in 1964. He later received his master's degree in 1967 and his doctorate in 1968 from the University of Chicago. He went on to teach economics at Purdue University and the City University of New York. In 1974, he joined UCLA's Higher Education Research Institute as executive officer.

Solmon joined the Milken Family Foundation in 1997 to focus on education. Eight years later, he became president of the foundation's National Institute for Excellence in Teaching, a nonprofit organization devoted to improving the teaching profession and raising student achievement.

He helped establish a program practiced in 180 schools throughout the country that enables teachers to advance professionally and increase their salaries if they improve their teaching skills. The program encourages teachers to assume greater job responsibilities and to demonstrate their effectiveness through student learning.

An expert on higher education, Solmon helped edit the Economics of Education Review and wrote more than two dozen books and monographs on education. He also contributed various newspaper opinion pieces.

Solmon testified before many state and federal education panels and advised Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jeb Bush, former governor of Florida, on education matters.

He is survived by his wife, Vicki; his mother; his brother; two children; and six grandchildren.

Andrew George (Vukich) Warner, former accountant in the UCLA Athletics Department, died Dec. 9 at St. John's Health Center in Santa Monica from a massive stroke. He was 81.

Prior to his employment at UCLA, Warner entered the U.S. Merchant Marines after graduating from high school in Spokane, Wash. He served aboard ship with his uncle, Henry Cruz. After his service he attended Washington State University, graduating in 1951 with a degree in business administration.

That same year, he joined the U.S. Army and served as a radio operator in the 2nd Signal Co., 2nd Infantry Division, in Korea. He was awarded the Korean Service Medal and the U.N. Service Medal. After his discharge in 1953, Warner joined VFW Post 2805 in Canoga Park.

After leaving the Army, he worked as an accountant for IBM in San Francisco for five years before being transferred to Los Angeles. In 1960, Warner was hired at UCLA as an accountant for the Athletics Department and worked there until his retirement in 1980.

An avid ballroom dancer, Warner met Mary Ann Cronin, a widow and UCLA employee, at a dance in Los Angeles. The couple married in 1972. They both enjoyed dancing and traveling to Las Vegas, Mexico, the Caribbean and Hawaii. They purchased a condo in Brentwood in 1978, where Warner continued to live after his wife's death in 2000.

Warner is survived by his stepdaughter, Kathleen (Cronin) Johnson; two granddaughters, Celeste and Nicole; stepson Steven Cronin; grandson Eric; and several nieces and nephews.

Warner loved Hawaii and left instructions for the inurnment of his ashes at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu.