Physicist, Holocaust survivor who taught at Carnegie Mellon
Frederick Reif spent much of his childhood in fear and most of his adult life conquering the effects of it.
A survivor of the Holocaust, Mr. Reif and his family were persecuted by the Nazis and spent several terrifying years evading capture through Europe before finally making it to the United States in 1941.
AHarvard-educated physicist, Mr. Reif went on to have a brilliant career as a successful and admired educator, author and researcher at Carnegie Mellon University and other institutions.
But Mr. Reif — a self-professed “pessimist who loved optimists” — also was open about the struggles he faced in coming to terms with his early life, which included losing his father to suicide and most of his extended family in the Holocaust.
Mr. Reif, 92 — who moved from his longtime home in Fox Chapel to Lincoln, Mass., a year ago — died of heart failure Aug. 11.
The son of Jewish immigrants from Poland, Mr. Reif’s early childhood in Vienna, Austria, was idyllic.
He was a talented young student who showed a penchant for the violin before his studies were interrupted by conflict and war, which came with the rise of the Nazi regime.
As the persecution of Jews became untenable, especially after the November 1938 Kristallnacht pogrom, his family’sway of life changed.
Mr. Reif’s father, a local dentist, killed himself after he was forced to close his practice and was not permitted to work under Nazi rule.
The family secured passage on the SS St. Louis to Cuba, where they, along with more than 900 other Jewish refugees, hoped to eventually make it to America. But the ship was turned away in Cuba and forced to return to Europe, where the passengers were divided among several countries.
Mr. Reif and his family were sent to live in Loudon, France, which soon fell to the Nazis just as the family was aboutto secure U.S. visas.
Supported by international Jewish aid, Mr. Reif and his family relocated to Limoges, in the south of France, where he was able to return to some normalcy by learning French, attending an academic high school and resuming his beloved violin classes.
“Itwas probably the happiest year of my childhood, believe it or not,” said Mr. Reif, who shared his recollections in a video he made in 1997 for the Holocaust Center of GreaterPittsburgh.
But day-to-day life was still harrowing, and the family had to be careful to disguise their heritage by never speaking German. As the only member of his family who could speak fluent French, Mr. Reif took on an adult role, making decisions for the family at age 12.
By November 1941, the family was able to secure American visas, threading their way carefully through Spain and Portugal before setting sail for New York.
Mr. Reif, his mother and younger sister lived with relatives in Brooklyn, where he graduated from Erasmus High School before being offered a scholarship to Columbia University.
His education was interrupted briefly when he was drafted into the Army during his first year of college. Mr. Reif was sent to Yale University to learn Japanese and served about 15 months during the final days of World War II.
Although he was no longer in danger, Mr. Reif spent much of his adult life locked in survival mode, unable to enjoy the lighter things in life, like sports, cars or other things that his peers were interested in.
“I was always very pessimistic about life,” he said in the video. “Somehow, I don’t quite feel like other people. I think I felt lonely ... for most of my life, sometimes excruciatingly so.”
His nephew Damon Lehrer, of Lexington, Mass., said he remembered his uncle as a serious man who loved seeing other people laugh and enjoy life. “When we were kids, he would do some funny things like tickling us,” he said. “He loved to get us to laugh like crazy.”
Mr. Reif was immediately drawn to his wife, Laura Ott Reif, when they met at a dance, Mr. Lehrer said.
“He told me that he remembered seeing her and thinking, ‘That’s the most lively girl in the room, and I’ve got to talk to her,’” his nephew said. “He always sought out sociable and bubbly, because it was the opposite to his own demeanor. I think he was seekingbalance.”
Mr. Reif resumed his studies after serving in the military and graduated from Columbia with a bachelor’s degree in 1948, followed by a doctorate in physics from Harvard University five years later.
He taught physics at the University of Chicago from 1953 to 1960 and at the University of California, Berkeley, where he also taught education,from 1960 to 1989.
Mr. Reif was a professor of physics and psychology at CMU from 1989 to 2000 and wrote several textbooks over the years, which are still being used, his nephew said.
Along with his significant contributions to the field of physics, Mr. Reif began researching and teaching education, and was especially focused on the cognitive process behind learning.
His work eventually propelled him to pen his final book, “Applying cognitive science to education: Thinking and learning in scientific domains,” which was published in2008 by the MIT Press.
Mr. Reif, who was honored in 1994 with the Robert A. Millikan Medal, for his notable and intellectually creative contributions to the teaching of physics, used the challenges he’d faced to inspire himself to make as many contributions to the world as he could, Mr. Lehrer said. “He was a person who had dealt with a lot of trauma and found a way through work and deep cognitive thinking and intellectual investigations to stay above that trauma,” his nephew said. “I think that’s partly what drove him.”
Along with his wife, Mr. Reif is survived by his sister, Liane Reif-Lehrer, of Dedham, Mass., and his niece Erica Lehrer, of Montreal, Canada.
Plans for a memorial service will be announced soon.
To watch Mr. Reif’s video about escaping the Holocaust, go to: www.youtube.com/ w at ch?v=X Wk 6 ll cED Z E.