PASSINGS: Edward G. ‘Ted’ Jones, David Baldus, Kathryn Tucker Windham

Edward G. ‘Ted’ Jones

Scientist studied brain anatomy, schizophrenia

Dr. Edward G. “Ted” Jones, 72, a former UC Irvine neuroscientist who was an expert on brain anatomy and the causes of schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders, collapsed and died of a heart attack at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center on June 6 while attending a scientific conference.

Jones retired in 2009 as director of the UC Davis Center for Neuroscience but remained a professor in the Department of Physiology and Membrane Biology.

His studies showed that seemingly minute abnormalities in human brains can cause chemical imbalances and lead to schizophrenia and other long-term nervous disorders. His research formed a basis for understanding recovery of function after strokes or cerebral trauma.

Jones was born March 26, 1939, in Upper Hutt, Wellington, New Zealand. He earned a medical degree from University of Otago in New Zealand and a doctorate in neuroanatomy from the University of Oxford in England.

He built his reputation as a top neuroanatomist in academic posts in New Zealand and at Oxford, Washington University in St. Louis and UC Irvine (where he taught from 1984 to 1988). After leading brain research at RIKEN science institute in Japan, he joined UC Davis in 1998.

Jones belonged to a group of scientists working on the international Human Brain Project. A former president of the international Society for Neuroscience, he was a member of the National Academy of Sciences.

Jones and his wife of 48 years, Elizabeth, lived in Winters, west of Sacramento, where they cultivated a small vineyard and olive grove, and in Laguna Beach.

David Baldus

Law professor researched death penalty

David Baldus, 75, a University of Iowa law professor who was nationally recognized for his research on the death penalty, died Monday at his Iowa City home. He had colon cancer.

Baldus had been at the university since 1969. He taught criminal law, anti-discrimination law, capital punishment and federal criminal law and was working on research until a few weeks ago.

One of Baldus’ more well-known studies, conducted with two colleagues in the early 1980s, examined the presence of racial discrimination in death penalty sentencing.

The study analyzed more than 2,000 murder cases in Georgia in the 1970s and found that defendants accused of killing white people were 4.3 times more likely to receive the death penalty than ones accused of killing black people.

The study also showed that black defendants were 1.7 times more likely than white defendants to receive the death penalty.

Baldus received his bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College, a master’s from the University of Pittsburgh and law degrees from Yale Law School. He had a private law practice in Pittsburgh before joining the Iowa faculty.

Kathryn Tucker Windham

Storyteller, author and reporter

Kathryn Tucker Windham, 93, a master storyteller and author who worked as a police reporter at a time when there were few women doing so, died Sunday at her home in Selma, Ala. She had had a variety of illnesses recently, her daughter Dilcy Hilley said.

According to a biography from the Alabama Department of Archives and History, Windham wrote two dozen books, many of them ghost stories. In the early 1940s, she worked for the Alabama Journal and was one of the first female reporters to cover the police beat on a major daily newspaper in the South.

From the 1950s to early 1970s, she worked for the Selma Times-Journal, where she won several awards for her columns and photography.

She also regularly contributed to National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered” in the 1980s.

-- Los Angeles Times wire reports

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