Jeremiah Silverman

1920 - 2013

Jeremiah Nordau Silverman, 93, passed away Friday, April 26, 2013. Funeral: Private in Greenwood Memorial Park. Memorials: Humane Society of North Texas, 1840 E. Lancaster Ave., Fort Worth, Texas 76103. Jerry was born April 18, 1920, in NYC to Herman Silverman, an attorney, and Zara Gabriel Silverman. He graduated summa cum laude from Yale University in 1941 with a B.S. in chemistry before entering the army in 1942. Jerry served as an officer in the 634th Tank Destroyer Battalion attached to the 1st Infantry Division. He participated in all campaigns in Europe, including Normandy, northern France, Belgium, and the Rhineland in Germany and served as well in military government. He was awarded the Bronze Star. In 1947, he left the army to join a civilian organization to aid refugees in various German cities. Jerry was given a predoctoral fellowship at the University of Berne in Switzerland and in 1956 earned his Ph.D. in physics and chemistry, graduating summa cum laude. He came to Texas, where from 1956 to 1960 he had a postdoctoral research fellowship at the University of Texas and was professor of physics and chemistry. He worked at the Bureau of Standards in Washington, D.C., from 1960-1963, then moved to Fort Worth to work in the theoretical physics department at General Dynamics. Here he met the love of his life, Genene Myers, whom he married in 1964. He loved to tell the story of how they met and he was a devoted husband for 48 years until Jean's recent death. Jerry and Jean moved to Europe in 1969 where he worked at various research institutes and universities in Germany, France, Greece, Iran, Scotland and England. He had a fellowship at Oxford and was an editor of the Chemical and Physics Letters while in Cambridge. Jerry's research was in developing a new method for determining the crystal structure of chemical compounds involving a combination of perturbation theory and the variational principle. Jerry and Jean returned to Fort Worth in 1992 to retire. Jerry was a voracious reader, and spoke several languages fluently, including German, French and Greek. He loved poetry, art, classical music, history, politics, and his dogs, Prince and Duke. Jerry was preceded in death by his wife, Jean. Survivors: Stepdaughter, Denise Reynolds and her son, Ian.