More news of Yale people

Allie Barton/Yale university

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Appointed

José García-León (left) starts on September 1 as dean of the School of Music. Previously the dean of academic affairs and assessment at the Juilliard School, García-León is a pianist who has performed around the world. He has also done research on tango and flamenco music, among other topics. Before Juilliard, he was a dean and professor of music at the University of New Haven. He succeeds Robert Blocker, who was dean for more than 27 years.
 

Remembered

Terry Holcombe ’64, a former vice president for development and alumni affairs at Yale, died on June 5 in New Haven. He was 81 years old. Holcombe, a native of East Haven, led capital campaigns for the university at financially critical times: first as executive director of the Campaign for Yale ending in 1979, and second as vice president during the “. . . and for Yale” campaign ending in 1997, which raised $1.7 billion—then a record for a university campaign. He served as vice president from 1982 to 1998. “Much that we take for granted now would have been impossible without the contributions made during the Holcombe era,” said President Peter Salovey ’86PhD.

Victor Vroom, the BearingPoint Professor Emeritus of Management and professor of psychology, died on July 26 at the age of 90. Vroom was part of the School of Management from its beginnings as chair of the committee that founded the school in 1976. Born and raised in Quebec, he studied psychology in college and graduate school and eventually focused on organizational psychology. He came to Yale in 1972. “For those of us who were his colleagues,” said SOM professor James Baron, “Victor was and will always be the embodiment of organizational behavior at Yale.”

Mark Ostow

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Regina Starolis, executive assistant to six Yale presidents, died at her home in Middle Haddam, Connecticut, on June 22. She was 80. Born in Queens, Starolis (left) worked for every president from Brewster to Levin, from 1973 to 2013. Despite the rise of the digital age, she kept the president’s schedule in pencil in a paper calendar log until she retired. “She welcomed every person who came to her office, friend or critic, with kindness and decency,” said Henry “Sam” Chauncey Jr. ’57, who hired her when he worked for Brewster. For more on Starolis, see our article from 2013 at https://yalealumnimagazine.org/articles/3736.

Mark Ostow

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Christopher Getman ’64, a longtime supporter of Yale and New Haven, died on July 9. He was 81 years old. Getman (left), a native of Syracuse, New York, played varsity baseball at Yale. He worked as a teacher before returning to Yale in 1970 to work for the Yale Alumni Fund and as an assistant coach for the football and baseball teams. He later became a financial adviser but continued volunteering for Yale in several capacities. His most visible role was as the keeper of Handsome Dan, Yale’s bulldog mascot, through four dogs from 1984 to 2016. He was actively involved in New Haven cultural organizations, and he was chosen for an Elm-Ivy Award in 1992. He also won the athletic department’s George H. W. Bush ’48 Lifetime of Leadership award.