53
Mr. Ortiz’s collection was exhibited at
the Hermitage in 1993, at the Royal
Academy in London in 1994, and the
Altes Museum in Berlin in 1996. With so
many exquisite pieces from across so
many civilizations, the public displays
showed the enormous impact of his life’s
work. In 2004, he wrote in an article, “I
believe that it is very important that
younger generations be encouraged to
become involved in the past and not
just look at it, if they do, from a remote
(digital) distance which will inevitably
lead to neglect and destruction. The
young need to relate to their roots, they
need role models to help answer Gauguin’s
questions, ‘Who are we? Where have we
come from? And where are we going?’
Mr. Ortiz leaves his wife of 50 years,
Catherine; his children, Georges, Oliver,
Nicolas, and Graziella; and seven grand-
children.
1948
Peter Hoadley Sellers
a pioneering
mathematician
and DNA re-
searcher at
Rockefeller
University, died
at his home in
Philadelphia on
November 15,
2014, after a
battle with cancer. He was 84.
Dr. Sellers was born on September 12,
1930, in Philadelphia to Therese T. and
Lester H. Sellers. He hailed from a family
replete with generations of accomplished
scientists, engineers, and inventors. Dr.
Sellers prepared for SPS at the Haverford
School in Haverford, Pa., entering the
School as a Third Former in the fall of
1944. Dr. Sellers enjoyed great success
in the classroom and also participated
in the Art Association, the Outing Club,
the Yearbook, Le Cercle Fran
ç
ais, and the
Forestry Club. He served as treasurer
of the French Club and was a dorm
supervisor. He played club hockey with
Old Hundred and enjoyed alpine skiing on
the trails he and his friends constructed
on Prospect Hill. He was a member of the
1948 SPS ski team. At graduation, he was
awarded the Joseph Howland Coit Medal
for the best solution of original exercises
in plane geometry and the John Hargate
Medal for attaining the highest rank in
mathematics.
Dr. Sellers attended the University of
Pennsylvania, earning a B.A. in mathe-
matics in 1953 and a Ph.D. in mathematics
in 1965. He and his wife, Lucy Bell, spent
two years teaching in East Africa, while
he worked on his doctoral dissertation,
during which time the third of their four
children was born in Nairobi. He served
as head of the Mathematics Department
at the Kangaru School in Embu, Kenya.
Dr. Sellers spent a postdoctoral year
at the Johnson Foundation for Medical
Research, after which he began a 48-year
tenure as a senior research scientist at
Rockefeller University. In the 1970s and
80s, Dr. Sellers developed techniques for
recognizing patterns in DNA sequencing,
and his work led to the development of
BLAST, a widely used computerized DNA
and protein database search program.
In a notice to the
New York Times,
Rockefeller University remembered Dr.
Sellers as “a true Renaissance man, with
a broad range of scientific and cultural
interests and the rare ability to draw
cogent connections across disciplines.”
An accomplished sailor, Dr. Sellers had
a passion for the sea and built the
Lucy
Bell
, a 38-foot wooden sloop named for
his wife, which he launched on their 25th
wedding anniversary. The two spent their
summers in Mt. Desert Island, Maine,
and sailed the vessel on Penobscot Bay
for more than 30 years.
Dr. Sellers served as curator of the
Merrill W. Chase Historic Scientific
Instrument Collection at Rockefeller
University and as a longtime trustee
at the College of the Atlantic in Bar
Harbor, Maine. He was also active with
the Nicholas Newlin Foundation that
works to preserve the Newlin Grist Mill
and surrounding land in Glen Mills, Pa.
Dr. Sellers is survived by his wife,
Lucy; his son, Mortimer; his daughters,
Therese, Wanja, and Lucy Bell; and two
sisters, Therese Parrish and Anne
Henderson. He was predeceased in
February 2014 by his brother, Nicholas
Sellers ’49.
1948
William Lloyd Standish IV
a federal judge
in Pennsyl-
vania, one of the
founders of the
National Hockey
League’s Pitts-
burgh Penguins,
and a loving
family man,
who served
his community actively and faithfully
throughout his life, died on January 1,
2015, at his home in Sewickley, Pa. He
was 84.
Born on February 16, 1930, he was the
first son of Eleanor McCargo and William
L. Standish. Judge Standish grew up in
Pittsburgh with his younger brother,
Peter ’50. Together the boys enjoyed bird
hunting, especially pheasants. The family
had strong roots in Sewickley and both
boys attended the Sewickley Academy
before Judge Standish enrolled at St. Paul’s
as a Second Former in the Fall of 1943.
At SPS, he competed in boxing, football,
hockey, and track, captaining the Del-
phian football team in 1947 and 1948.
He won the Hart Boxing Belt and
served as team captain. Although he was
offered a chance to compete in Golden
Gloves bouts, his mother did not want
him to get hurt. He was a member of
the Missionary Society, the Acolyte Guild,
and the Dramatic Club, served as a
supervisor in Simpson, and was a Sixth
Form councilor.
Judge Standish earned his B.A. in
philosophy from Yale in 1953 and his
LL.B. from the University of Virginia
School of Law in 1956. He was hired by
Reed Smith Shaw and McClay, working
his way up from law clerk in 1956 to
general partner in 1964. He was nomi-
nated in 1979 to fill a vacancy on the
