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Obituaries
Louis H. Swartz, associate professor emeritus in the UB Law School and the School of Social Work, died June 9 in Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital. He was 84.
Swartz was internationally renowned for his expertise in the area of law and human sexuality, especially in regard to gender changing and legal recognition. He published numerous scholarly papers and articles on the topic.
Born in Manhattan, he attended Cooper Union Engineering School and Harvard University, then served in the Army infantry during World War II. After his discharge, he studied history at Oberlin College and earned his law degree from Cornell University in 1950.
He worked as an associate attorney in New York City, earning his master’s degree in law from Columbia University in 1957. Twenty years later, he received his doctorate in sociology from Columbia. He also earned a nursing degree cum laude from UB in 1983.
Before coming to UB in 1966, he was a professor of law and social work at Rutgers University and a law professor at Columbia. He served for two years as a research sociologist at St. Luke’s Hospital in New York City and was a special consultant to the American Law Institute Penal Code Project at Columbia.
At UB, Swartz was a key figure in the design and coordination of a dual degree program with the schools of Law and Social Work. He was co-chair of a symposium on matrimonial law at UB. He also was a member of the advisory committee for the Erie County Department of Social Services Adoption/Mental Health Roundtable Project.
A member of the UB Faculty Senate from 1997 to 2003, he served for four years on the Senate’s Executive Committee. He retired in 2006 and was among 12 retired professors honored by the UB Law School last month.
Swartz also was a member of the American Sociological Association, Eastern Sociology Society, the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association, the International Academy of Sex Research, the Polanyi Society and the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality. The Erotic Heritage Museum in Las Vegas includes him in its Hall of Heroes.
Services were held on June 19.
John F. Gaeta, UB professor emeritus of pathology and urology, died June 20 in Ithaca. He was 76.
A native of Malaga, Spain, Gaeta graduated from the medical school at the University of Granada, Spain, and did his residency in pathology from 1960-63 at the Pathology Institute at Victoria General Hospital, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia.
He continued his pathology residency from 1964-66 at Roswell Park Cancer Institute and joined the staff as a research cancer pathologist in 1967. He served as associate chief pathologist from 1969-75, when he became head of surgical pathology at Buffalo General Hospital, a post he held until 1982. He served as the director for the Tissue Pathology Laboratory at Buffalo General from 1982-85. In 1985, he returned to RPCI and served as the chief of pathology until 1990 and as an attending pathologist from 1990-97.
He joined the UB faculty in 1970 as an assistant clinical professor in the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. In 1975, he also became associate professor of pathology and in 1982 associate professor of urology. He was promoted to professor of pathology in 1980 and to professor of urology in 1986.
He retired from UB in 1997.
He published more than 58 articles and 10 book chapters. He was passionate about teaching and won numerous teaching awards at the medical school.
Gaeta was president of the Western New York Society of Pathologists from 1978-79.
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