The University Record, September 24, 1997
Najaf Gholizadeh Gangei
Najaf Gholizadeh Gangei, health science research associate at the Kresge Hearing Research Institute, died Aug. 19 from pancreatic cancer.
Born in Tabriz, Iran, on Dec. 31, 1929, he received his medical degree from the University of Tehran and completed a four-year residency in ophthalmology there, followed by another in otorhinolaryngology at Tabriz. He was on the Tabriz faculty for 10 years before completing two years of residency in otolaryngology at Case Western Reserve University. He returned to Tabriz as chief of otorhinolaryngology in 1972-86.
He published translations of three successive editions of DeWeese and Saunders’ Textbook of Otolaryngology into Persian, as well as two volumes of his own, Noses and Sinuses: I. Anatomy and Noses and Sinuses: II. Surgery.
Joseph E. Hawkins, professor emeritus of otolaryngology, noted that while in Tabriz, Gholizadeh Gangei “despite the marked displeasure of his medical colleagues, increased the number of residents in his department from one to four per year, thus providing well-trained specialists even for small towns in Iran.”
“During the war with Iraq,” Hawkins says, “Gholizadeh Gangei spent two days each week providing free treatment for the ears, noses, throats and eyes of wounded soldiers. Finally, however, shocked by the execution of one of his closest friends who was a member of the Baha’i faith, he left the Ayatollah’s Iran with his wife, Parvin Shakui Gholizadeh, who had received an appointment at the U-M in neuropathology, and their daughter Neda, who later received a master’s degree in information technology from the U-M.
“Dr. Gholizadeh,” Hawkins says, “accepted an appointment at the Kresge Hearing Research Institute, and through his skill and knowledge as a histopathologist of the inner ear for some 11 years, made major contributions to its research programs.”
Lyle M. Nelson
Lyle M. Nelson, former U-M vice president for university relations, died of heart failure Sept. 5 in Stanford, Calif. He was 79.
Nelson left the U-M in l961 to join Stanford University as director of university relations. He created the John S. Knight fellowship for professional journalists at Stanford and served as its director in 1969-85. He also was the Thomas M. Storke Distinguished Professor of Communication and head of the communication department there.
He was well known as both a professor of journalism and an expert on the uses of television for educational purposes.
He came to Ann Arbor in 1953 as assistant to the president and general secretary of the corporation of the Educational Television and Radio Center, which evolved into the Public Broadcasting Service.
In 1957 he assumed the position as director of university relations at the U-M and became vice president for university relations in 1960.
Nelson was born Feb. 28, 19l8, in Yamhill, Ore., and graduated from the University of Oregon.
Memorial services are pending. Memorial contributions may be made to the Lyle and Corrine Nelson International Journalism Fellowship in the Knight Journalism Program at Stanford.
