Brief Lives

What kinds of experience tie in with the dreams set forth? For all that one writes and writes and talks and talks, the life of an individual is largely hidden from view. The best that one can do is to exhibit the broad sweep of their professional engagement.

The contributors will forgive me if they have not been displayed with all their ribbons flying.



Alfred J. Ayer (1910-1989). M.A. 1936. Knighted 1970. Professor of Logic, Oxford. Author: Language, Truth, and Logic, The Central Questions of Philosophy.

Philip J. Davis (1923-2018). Born Lawrence, Mass. B.S. Harvard 1943. Ph.D. Harvard 1950. Professor of Applied Mathematics, Brown University. Author: Interpolation and Approximation, The Schwartz Function, The Mathematical Experience (with Reuben Hersh).

Louis Finkelstein (1895-1991). Born Cincinatti, Ohio. B.A. City College of New York 1915. Ph.D. Columbia 1918. Rabbi Jewish Theological Seminary 1919. Professor, President, and Chancellor, Jewish Theological Seminary. Author: Jewish Self-Government in the Middle Ages, The Pharisees, Akiba: Scholar, Saint, and Martyr.

Michael O. Finkelstein (b. 1933). Born New York City, 1933. B.A. Harvard 1955. Partner Barrett, Smith, Schapiro, and Simon, New York City. Author: Statistics for Lawyers.

Kinereth Gensler (1922-2005). B.A. University of Chicago 1943. M.A. Columbia 1946. Poet and Teacher. Author: Someone is Human, The Poetry Connection

Abbott Gleason (1938-2015). Born Cambridge Mass. B.A. Harvard 1961. Ph.D. Harvard 1969. Professor of History, Brown University. Author: European and Muscovite: Ivan Kireevsky and the Origins of Slavophilism, Ideology and Radical Consciousness in Russia 1855-1870.

James Goodwin (b. 1945) Born Washington D.C. 1945. B.A. Amherst 1967. M.D. Harvard 1971. Professor of Medicine, University of New Mexico. Director of the Sealy Center on Aging, University of Texas Medical Branch.

Jean Goodwin. (b. 1945). Born Texas. B.A. Radcliffe 1967. M.D. Harvard 1971. Psychiatrist, Albequerque, N.M. and Galveston, Texas.

Myron Kaufmann (1921-2010). Born Boston, Mass. B.A. Harvard 1943. Novelist. Author: Remember Me to God, Thy Daughter's Nakedness.

Joseph Kestin (1913-1993). Born Warsaw, Poland. Ph.D. University of London 1945. Professor of Engineering, Brown University. Author: Thermodynamics of Stress and Strain, Classical, Irreversible, and Statistical Thermodynamics.

Hildegard (Hilde) Jordan Lewis (1915-2010). Born Koblenz, Germany. Master of Social Work, Columbia University. Social worker, San Francisco.

John McNamee (b. 1914) Born Omagh, Ireland. B.S. National University, Ireland, 1942. Ph.D. University of London 1949. Executive Director, Canadian Mathematical Congress.

David A. Park (1919-2012). Born New York City 1919. B.A. Harvard 1941. Ph.D. University of Michigan 1950. Professor of Physics, Williams College. Author. Quantum Theory, Strong Interactions.

Alan Perlis (1922-1990). Born Pittsburgh, Penn. B.S. Carnegie Tech 1943. Ph.D. MIT 1947. Professor of Computer Science, Yale. Turing Award, 1966. Author: Introduction to Computer Science.

Jerome Spingarn (1914-2005). B.A. Dartmouth. 1935. J.D. Columbia 1939. Senior Counselor National Planning Association, Washington D.C.

George Wald (1906-1997). Born New York City 1906. B.S. N.Y.U. 1927. Ph.D. Columbia co-recipient Nobel Prize Physiology and Medicine 1967. Professor of Biology, Harvard. Author: General Education in a Free Society, Twenty-Six Afternoons of Biology.

Peter Wegner (1932-2017). Born Leningrad. B.S. Imperial College 1953. Post-Graduate Diploma, Cambridge, 1954. Awarded Ph.D. University of London 1968. Professor of Computer Science, Brown. Author: Programming Languages, Information Structures, and Machine Organization,, Introduction to System Programming.

Adam Yarmolinsky (1922-2000). B.A. Harvard 1943. LL.B. Yale 1948. Counselor, United States Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. Author: Recognition of Excellence, The Military Establishment.