Obituaries

Louis H. VanDernoot-Age 104,on July 12,2017,formerly of Southbridge,MA.Born in Malden, MA. Beloved husband of the late Ruth(Sax) VanDernoot. Devoted father of Richard VanDernoot and his wife Polly, and the late Edward VanDernoot and his surviving wife Carol. Dear grandfather of Joshua VanDernoot and his wife Kathleen, Nicole Hirsch and her husband Jared, and Kathy Hoover and her husband Jon Jacobson. Cherished great-grandfather of Brody and Kolby VanDernoot, Ty, Hunter and Lola Hirsch, Lauren, Katlyn and Carolyn Hoover, and the late Blake VanDernoot. Services and memorial observance private. In lieu of flowers remembrances may be made to Dana Farber Cancer Institute,P.O. Box 849168,Boston,MA 02284.

Emmanuel Moiseevich Lipmanov was born on October 17, 1924, in Zhitomir in the Republic of Ukraine in the former Soviet Union. Both his parents were teachers, and his father Moshe (Moisei Abramovich) made a successful career as a secondary school principal, and was decorated with the Order of Lenin as a prominent educator. At the beginning of the Second World War, at the end of June 1941, the family evacuated first to a small village near Stalingrad, and then to the South Asian republic of Kirghizstan. As a child in the 1920s, Emmanuel was afflicted with scarlet fever which caused a severe inflammatory process in his bones and joints. These ailments left him handicapped for life, with major deformities in his limbs and movement impairment.

Emmanuel Lipmanov graduated from high school with a Gold Medal, the highest honor in Soviet secondary education. In 1949, he graduated with highest honors from Leningrad (now, St. Petersburg) State University, with joint BS and MS in Physics. In 1951, he married Revekka Nachumovna Kaganovich, a native of Gorky (now, Nizhny Novgorod), Russia, who was a graduate of the University of Leningrad with a major in Classics and a minor in German. They had two children, son Boris born in 1952, and daughter Janna born in 1953.

In 1952, Lipmanov defended his PhD dissertation on “Radioactive phenomena in the decay of µ–meson.” While still a graduate student in Leningrad, Lipmanov started publishing innovative papers in the field of neutrino research. In 1952-56, he taught physics at the Novozybkov Teachers’ College, then from 1956 till 1970 at the Stalingrad (now, Volgograd) Pedagogical Institute. While there, he widely published in the leading periodicals in theoretical physics, and achieved particular prominence for the following three ideas he developed.

First, in 1959, he published a new classification of leptons containing two types of neutrino, electron neutrino and muon neutrino; he then proposed, simultaneously with Bruno Pontecorovo, a design of an experiment to differentiate the two neutrinos. The key presupposition of Lipmanov, that of the impossibility of interactions between the two types of neutrino, was successfully tested three years later at the Brookhaven National Laboratory’s particle accelerator in the United States.

Second, in a series of papers published in 1961-64, Lipmanov first proposed the existence of a new type of heavy lepton. This hypothesis was supported by theoretical work of Y.B. Zeldovich and L.B. Okun. In 1975, this new particle named t-lepton (tau-lepton) was discovered experimentally at the Stanford Linear Accelerator in the US. For this discovery, Martin Pearl of Stanford University was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1995. In his Nobel Lecture, he spoke of the pioneering work of Lipmanov and of his calculations of the main channel of t-lepton decay. Dr. Pearl cited Lipmanov’s work as a precursor to the discovery of t-lepton.

Lipmanov’s third fundamental idea was developed in his publications of 1967-68. It was a model of disrupted, but restored at high energies, left-right mirror symmetry of weak interactions in elementary particles. The symmetry disruption is due to the mass difference in vector bosons connected to the weak (V-A) and (V+A) currents. Since the early 21st century, such models based on left-right symmetry disruptions are considered as the most probable natural extension of the Standard Model of the electroweak interactions of elementary particles.

Lipmanov defended his second Doctoral Dissertation in 1965 at the Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, Russia. It was titled “Studies in the Theory of Weak Interactions of the Elementary Particles.” Following this dissertation, Lipmanov was awarded the lifetime rank of Professor of Theoretical Physics. In Volgograd, he started developing a school of thought in particle physics and raised a cohort of talented young scientists.

In 1970, Lipmanov moved to Yaroslavl, where he founded a department of Theoretical Physics at the newly established University of Yaroslavl. He became the department’s founding chair, and continued extensive research as well as teaching. Among his graduate students from Volgograd and Yaroslavl were several talented scientists who later became internationally recognized leaders in the field.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, due to increased anti-Semitism, Professor Lipmanov’s children emigrated from the Soviet Union, and as a result, Lipmanov was subjected to persecution and organized harassment. He was demoted from the chairmanship of his department but remained a rank-and-file professor until his retirement in 1987. In 1989, he and his wife emigrated from the Soviet Union in order to be near their children. They came to the US as refugees, and settled in Boston, MA where their daughter Janna, a neuroscientist at Brandeis University, and her family resided. Lipmanov never stopped working and published important papers in leading international journals as well as on the Internet as preprints. His latest ideas dealt with the search for formulas describing the neutrino masses. Overall, he had authored over 100 seminal papers in theoretical physics.

Years after the fall of the Soviet Union, Professor Lipmanov was finally recognized in his native country. The school of scientific thought in particle physics created by Professor Lipmanov was declared in 2003 as the best among the peripheral (not located in a capital city) scientific schools by the Russian President, Vladimir Putin. In October 2004, to commemorate his 80th birthday, his former students organized a symposium in his honor at the University of Yaroslavl and published a Festschrift, “Leptons: Jubilee Collection of Articles devoted to the 80th Birthday of Professor E.M. Lipmanov.”

Emmanuel Lipmanov continued his work in theoretical physics into his nineties, till the very end, publishing his papers on the Internet preprint sites, and occasionally, in peer reviewed journals. His latest work was on electroweak interactions for neutrino mass ratios, and he started developing an insight into its’ cosmological implications.

Emmanuel Lipmanov was predeceased by his son Boris who died in 2014, and his wife Revekka who passed away in 2015. He is survived by his daughter Janna (and Edward) Kaplan of Newton MA, and their children: Emmanuel’s grandson Aaron Kaplan and Será Godfrey-Kaplan and her son Zeppelin Godfrey-Grantz of Newton MA; granddaughter Sima Kaplan of Philadelphia; and step-grandson Jeremy Kaplan with his wife Rebecca Ballantine and their children, Lhakyi, Eli, Dechen, Bella, and Cassie, of Brooklyn NY.

Rosen- Edith (Shwom), born in Plymouth MA in 1920, passed away at home in Chicago, IL on July 7,2017. Beloved wife for 63 years of the late Samuel Rosen, Edith moved to Chicago in 2007 shortly after his passing. She continued her active lifestyle at Brookdale Senior Living, reading to children with WITS, singing in the Brookdale Chorus, baking brownies and strudel for her many new friends and exercising regularly. She is remembered as the loving mother of Paula Dahari and Janet (Larry) Eaton, and the proud grandmother of Daniel Ellis Dahari and Justin Ross (Dominique Sorresso) Eaton. Service in the Chapel at Sharon Memorial Park, 40 Dedham Street, Sharon, on Tuesday, July 11, 2017 at 12 Noon. Memorial contributions may be made to JourneyCare, www. journeycare.org/donate.

Checkoway- Norman, of Framingham, formerly of Haverhill, on July 7, 2017. Beloved husband of Barbara E. (Snider) Checkoway. Devoted father of Steven (Elisa), Nelson (Paula), and Martin (Donna). Dear grandfather of Emily, Michael, Laura, Spencer, Eva, Daniel and the late Chloe. Loving Brother of Naftali. Graveside service at Children of Israel Cemetery, 324 Middle Road, Haverhill, on Monday, July 10, 2017 at 11 am. Memorial observance will be at his residence from 6-9 pm on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Remembrances may be made to Jewish War Veterans of the U.S.A., 1811 R Street NW, Washington, DC 20009.

Gerstl- Jeffrey D., of Franklin, formerly of Framingham and Hull, on July 3, 2017. Beloved husband of Sheila (Chonin) Gerstl. Dear son of the late Sam Gerstl and Ruth (Stein) Gerstl. Devoted father of Brian Gerstl and Robert Gerstl. Dear grandfather of Cody Gerstl. Loving brother of Mark Gerstl, Cindy Gerstl and her wife Julie Kern, and the late Paul Gerstl. Jeff was a wonderful uncle, cousin and friend to all who loved him. Graveside service at Sharon Memorial Park, 40 Dedham St., Sharon, on Friday, July 7, 2017 at 12:45 pm. Please gather at the rear of the Administration Building. Memorial observance will be at his late residence throughout the weekend. Remembrances may be made to the American Diabetes Association, 330 Congress St., Boston,MA  02110.

Michael K. Lillian-of Brighton, on July 4, 2017.Beloved companion of Cynthia Segal. Dear brother of Joel Lillian and his wife Hoa Tran, and Joy Niedzwiecki and her late husband Thomas. Dear uncle of Sarah Niedzwiecki. Service is private. In lieu of flowers remembrances may be made to Temple Sinai, 50 Sewall Ave., Brookline,MA 02446.

Age 96, of Brookline, formerly of Chestnut Hill, on July 1, 2017. Beloved husband of the late Selma E. (Wolff) Scher. Devoted father of Melissa Scher, Bill Scher and his wife Debby, and Lauri Chmielewski and her husband Stephen. Loving grandfather of Arielle and Adam Scher and Matthew and Madeline Chmielewski. Dear brother of the late Max, Joseph, and Murray Scher, Sylvia Scharlat, and Ruth Wenger. Graveside service at Sharon Memorial Park, 40 Dedham St., Sharon (gather behind the administration building), Wednesday, July 5, 2017 at 11:45 am. Memorial observance at the Chmielewski home on Wednesday and Thursday 5-8 pm. In lieu of flowers, donations in his memory may be made to Hebrew Senior Life, Development Office, 1200 Centre St., Boston, MA 02131.

On June 30, 2017, Laura Feldman, M.D., of Boston and Vineyard Haven, previously of Brookline and Longmeadow, MA, after a long and courageous battle with pancreatic cancer, at age 70. Beloved wife of Bruce Kinch, devoted mother of Evan Feldman-Boshes, of Cambridge, and Erica Feldman-Boshes of Boston.

Dr. Feldman was born in New York City, and was a proud alumna of the High School of Music and Art. She graduated Cum Laude from Barnard College and earned a MS in Mathematics from Cornell University before receiving her M.D. from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

Dr. Feldman did her residency in Interventional Radiology at Hahnemann Hospital in Philadelphia, and her fellowship in Cardiovascular Radiology at Mass General. She continued her practice at MGH for 5 years before joining the University of Chicago Medical Center as Staff Radiologist. She was Chief of Cardiovascular Radiology at the Boston VA Medical Center for 6 years, subsequently Staff Radiologist at St. Elizabeth’s, Boston, and for 6 years Staff Radiologist at Presbyterian Hospital, Albuquerque, NM. From 2010 to 2016, she was an Interventional Radiologist at Baystate Medical Center, Springfield, MA.

During her career, she held academic appointments at the University of Chicago, Tufts University, Boston University, and Harvard University. She was a Fellow, the Society for Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiology, and a past President of the New England Society for Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiology.

Dr. Feldman was a spirited woman who loved to travel, read ferociously, ate with rapture, and found happiness and contentment on her islands: Manhattan, Martha’s Vineyard, and St. John.  She was a passionate, lifelong advocate for women’s issues. In lieu of flowers, please consider making a donation in her name to Planned Parenthood. Memorial Service will be held at Temple Israel, 477 Longwood Ave., Boston, on Friday, July 7,2017 at 10:00 am.Please park on the Riverway. Following the service a reception will be held at Temple Israel.

Herman, Michael E.-formerly of Newton,MA,presently of Fitzwilliam, NH and Naples, FL,died Friday morning at the home of Cheryl Kottke, his significant other,with her at his side.Son of the late Samuel and Dorothy”Tootsie”Herman, he was predeceased by his wife Meryl Starr Herman. Devoted father of Perry and his wife Jackie, Jennifer and Starr Herman. Dear brother of Bonnie Bycoff, and and Dennis Herman and his wife Cece. Dear uncle of William Herman, Matthew Herman, Seth Herman, Amanda Perrin, Tamra Herman Olsen, Gregory, Kenny, Lorne, and Doug Bycoff  and his fiancé, Jenna Foley. Michael was a graduate of Boston University Business  School in accounting, Suffolk University Law School and Boston University Law School with a Masters degree in Taxation. He served with the 26^th Yankee Division,Mass National Guard. He worked as  CPA/Attorney for more than 45 years with his brother Dennis in the firm of Herman and Herman. He was Treasurer of the YMHA Alumni Association and was a Board member of Camp Kingswood. Graveside service at Sharon Memorial Park,40 Dedham St., Sharon, on Sunday, July 2, 2017 at 10:45 am. Following the service  memorial observance will be at the home of Perry and Jackie Herman until 5:00pm and Monday 10:00am – 3:00pm. Remembrances in his memory may be made to Jewish War Veterans, Newton Post 211, 832 Dedham St.,Newton, MA 02459 .

Harry C. Wechsler, 97, of Weston, MA – chemist, business leader, and philanthropist – died June 29, 2017. His career spanned bench research in the nascent plastics industry to the presidencies of Borden Chemical and Beatrice Chemical, Inc.; ownership of the Farboil Company; and the founding of the Institute of Contemporary Affairs and NGO Monitor in Jerusalem. Wechsler was known for his incisive analytical skills, vast store of knowledge and international experience, patrician demeanor, and generosity with both counsel and resources.

Harry Wechsler was born and raised in Iasi, Romania, the oldest son of a wealthy, Jewish textile manufacturer. He attended college in Manchester, England, until forced to leave by the outbreak of World War II. Idealistic and ambitious, and chafing against the anti-semitism of his home country, he emigrated to Palestine in 1940, where he became part of a circle of young leaders active in building the new state of Israel. There he earned a master’s degree in polymer chemistry at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University. He then traveled to the U.S. to get his doctorate in polymer chemistry at Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn (now Polytechnic Institute of New York University). During this time, he led a group of chemists in a clandestine ordnance project designed to assist Israel’s defense by bypassing a mideast arms embargo.

Wechsler’s career then took him to Borden Inc, where he was instrumental in creating the stretchable, clear plastic wrap that has since become ubiquitous in supermarket food packaging. He established Borden as a force in the field of thermoplastics and packaging films, and quickly rose to become president of its chemical division.

In 1972, he moved to Beatrice Companies, Inc, where he developed the Beatrice Chemical Division, eventually acquiring and supervising 23 domestic and international profit centers. Under his management, the Chemical Division grew 15-fold, with activities in ten lines of business, including the manufacture of acrylic and polyurethane polymers, leather finishes, printing inks, compounded engineering plastics, and graphite composites for missiles and the aircraft/aerospace industry.

In 1985, when Beatrice sold its chemical division in a $760,000,000 transaction, Wechsler purchased Farboil, one of its companies. He continued to manage and build Farboil as President and co-owner for 14 years, producing high performance electrical encapsulating compounds, powdered coatings, and other specialty chemical compounds.

After selling Farboil in 1999, Wechsler made his longtime philanthropic work a full-time job. In 2001 he founded the Institute for Contemporary Affairs at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, an international policy forum and think tank addressing Israel’s security challenges. The following year he co-founded NGO Monitor, a watchdog organization working to expose non-governmental organizations that unfairly criticize Israel and distort its human rights record. Both organizations have broad international reach.

Wechsler also raised the funds to endow the Herman F. Mark Chair in Polymer Science at NYU Polytechnic Institute, and was the founding donor of the endowed Wechsler Award for Faculty Excellence at Polytechnic University. He has served on numerous university, business, and civic boards, and was the founding donor of a fellowship in orthopedic tumor research at Massachusetts General Hospital. In all his endeavors, Wechsler was not a passive philanthropist but provided on-going direction and hands-on advice and support.

Throughout his life, Wechsler, who spoke seven languages, maintained a deep familiarity with international developments, keeping abreast of political and economic affairs around the world. He traveled extensively, both as an executive expanding Beatrice Chemical internationally, and as a global citizen. He became a proud and patriotic American, while retaining cultural ties to Europe and remaining passionately devoted to Israel.

As in business, Wechsler had a full family life and was remarkably forward-thinking. Decades before the women’s movement, he encouraged his wife to earn a PhD and become a practicing psychologist, and he later encouraged his three daughters to pursue graduate degrees and establish professional careers. He organized the family’s religious observances; patronized the arts; was the life of every party; and generously dispensed insights, humor, money and advice. He was successful in every dimension of his life.

His survivors include his beloved wife, Ruth Reiser Wechsler, who shared his life for 68 years; three daughters and sons-in-law: Mia Wechsler Doron (Scott) of Durham, NC; Dana Wechsler Linden (Larry) of New York, NY; and Sharon Wechsler Jacques (Michael) of Acton, MA; two nephews, Joav Leventer and Oded Leventer of Tel Aviv, Israel; and five grandchildren: Anna Craig, Nathan Jacques, Tess Linden, Lily Doron, and Maya Linden.

A private, graveside funeral will be followed by a memorial service at a future date.