Michael Radock
Michael Radock, vice president for university relations and professor of journalism from 1961-81, died Dec. 15 at age 87 in the Glacier Hills Nursing Center in Ann Arbor.
Radock was born July 17, 1917, in Belle Vernon, Penn. In 1942, he graduated magna cum laude from Westminster College in Pennsylvania. He held a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University with further graduate study at Case Western Reserve University.
He worked for various newspapers in the Pittsburgh/western Pennsylvania area, and radio news in Canton, Ohio. He later served on the faculties of Westminster College, Kent State University and the University of Wyoming. For nine years, he was on the corporate public relations staff at Ford Motor Co.’s World Headquarters in Dearborn.
After retiring from Michigan in 1981, Radock was the senior vice president for university relations and development and a professor of journalism at the University of Southern California. From 1983-93, he was vice president for resource development at the Aspen Institute in New York City, and adviser to the president at the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation in Flint.
He was appointed by President Gerald Ford to the Board of Foreign Scholarships, which supervises the Fulbright Exchange Program. He also served as chairman of the White House Initiative Science and Technology Advisory Committee on Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
Radock was a trustee of the Michigan Historical Center Foundation, the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation, and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. In 1980, he received the Distinguished Service Award for leadership in institutional advancement for minority colleges and universities.
Radock was preceded in death by his wife, Helen Hower Radock, who died in 2001. They were married Sept. 2, 1944. Together they enjoyed traveling on every continent and participated actively in many local arts and civic organizations. They were members of the First Presbyterian Church of Ann Arbor.
Survivors include two sons and one daughter-in-law, Robert Radock of Orlando, Fla. and William and Isabelle of Cincinnati; two grandsons, Brian and Scotty Radock of Orlando; brothers Richard, Steven and Charles; and sisters Sophie and Paulette.
Friends will be received from 7-9 p.m. Dec. 18 and from 2-4 and 7-9 p.m. Dec. 19 in the Ferguson Funeral Home Inc. and Cremation Service, 700 Broad Avenue, Belle Vernon, Penn., where funeral services will be held on at 11 a.m. Dec. 20. Interment will follow in Belle Vernon Cemetery.
Memorial contributions may be made to Westminster College, Development Office, New Wilmington, PA 16172.
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