Robert Levit Obituary

Robert Jules Levit, Ph.D. Died at his home in Oakland, CA with his wife and children on Thursday May 13, 2010 after a brief illness. He was born on August, 17, 1916 in San Francisco. After graduating from Lowell High School, he attended Stanford, Cal Tech (at which he earned BS and MS degrees in Mathematics), Occidental (at which he earned a General Secondary Teaching Credential for Mathematics and Physics), and UC Berkeley (at which he earned a PhD in Mathematics). He served in the US Navy from 1942 to 1945, reaching the rank of Lieutenant Commander. He was awarded the Legion of Merit by the Secretary of Defense for materially aiding in the successful prosecution of the war for the analysis, design and development of cryptographic technologies and tools used to secure and protect Naval communications. After the War, he taught at the Univ. of Georgia as an Assoc. Professor of Mathematics, at MIT as an Assistant Prof. of Math, and at Cal State U, San Francisco first as an Asst. Prof., then as a full Prof. During the mid-1960s, he served as the founding Director of the SF State Computer Center. He retired in 1972, Professor Emeritus of Mathematics. He is survived by his wife of 55 years, Gianna "Jean" Levit, his three children, Manette (Levit) Gerstle, Arthur Levit, and Miles Levit, as well as twenty-two grandchildren, great grandchildren and great great-grandchildren. In deference to his own wishes, no funeral or memorial service will be held.

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Published by San Francisco Chronicle on May 30, 2010.

Memories and Condolences
for Robert Levit

8 Entries

Herbert Weiner

June 28, 2010

Bob served his country well in the Second World War as a Navy cryptographer, and was awarded the Legion of Merit. He fought two enemies--fascism and anti-Semitism which greatly affected Jewish service men and women, despite their acknowledged contributions and sacrifice.
My memories of him are as someone who was not the least bit arrogant, despite his accomplishments and intellectual ability as a mathematician.
He and my mother, Olga were the best of relatives and friends.
My father, a physician and fan of Bob and his relatives, delivered his son, Arthur.
One of my regrets is that, as someone interested in secret codes, I did not learn the basics of cryptography from him.
I have donated a brick in his name to the Marine Corps Heritage Museum and his name was mentioned for the Kaddish in my synagogue.
May his memory be a blessing.

June 14, 2010

Dr. Art Levit.

I'm Frank Sheehan, acting as a substitute messenger. A former student of mine and your Dad's heard of his death and sent a letter to me to forward to your family. Knowing that you have been in contact with Newman Fisher, another colleague of ours, I contacted him to do the honor. Unfortunately, Newman has just returned from France and is busy with jet lag and other bits of business, so he gave me your address and the privilege of sending the message on to you.

So, enclosed are the letter from the student, Dave Walden, and a copy of an e-mail he sent to me that reinforced the depth of his gratitude for your Dad's support.

Below are copies of a notice that Newman Fisher sent to the Mathematics Department faculty and part of a message that I sent to Dave Walden:

Robert J. Levit, Emeritus Professor of Mathematics, died several weeks ago. There was no funeral only a family gathering. Bob was in his early9Q'$..

June 14, 2010

If you are in contact with Professor Levit's family (or there is an appropriate person in the math department who should receive this message), please pass this message along to them.

Professor Levit was important to me during my two years of study at San Francisco State College (1962-1964). Itook his numerical analysis course (Milne's book was the text book) and the course's computer project introduced me to the IBM 1620 in the computer center. I also, in effect, worked for Professor Levit in my senior year when I was a staff assistant in the computer center.

Although Professor Levit had many students (and many much better students than I was), he always was aware of what I was doing, and he had me do a very interesting programming project as a member of the computer center staff (my first significant program).

When I was looking for work after graduation, Professor Levit served as one of my faculty references. The resulting job offer from MIT's Lincoln Laboratory was the making of my career as it took me to Cambridge, Massachusetts, the sphere of MIT computer activities, and eventually to Bolt Beranek and Newman (BBN) where I became an initial member of BBN's small development team for the ARPANET (the precursor of the Internet).

I only saw Professor Levit once after I graduated, when I visited the campus a few years later. I was gratified that Professor Levit remembered me and showed interest in my computer work in Cambridge.

I was also gratified the evening that Stan Mazor and I joined the San Francisco Alumni State Hall of Fame when Professor Sheehan told me that, although Professor Levit was unable to attend the ceremony, he remembered us, was pleased with our success, and sent his best wishes.

Professor Levit was among the three people who meant the most to me and my future career during my time at San Francisco (the others being Frank Sheehan and Frank Williams of the business department). But for Professor Levit's help, my life surely would have been much different.

My sincere condolences to Professor Levit's family and to his math family at San Francisco State.

Dave Walden, Bachelor's in Mathematics, 1964.

June 14, 2010

100 Bay Place, Apt. 1902 Oakland, Ca 94610
September 21. 2006

Dear Frank,

Thanks for your letter with the latest about Stan Mazor. To fill in some details you may or may not be familiar with, in 1961 S.F. State acquired an IBM1620 electronic computer. It took up a whole room and had a gigantic memory of 2000 decimal digits, later enlarged to 4000! Because of my experience with IBM I was put in charge. My student assistant was Sagherian. I don’t know if you remember him. He was from Armenia, was extremely polite, and was always impeccably dressed in a three-piece suit.

I first met Stan when he came by to apply for a position in the computer center. He introduced himself by explaining that his wife Maureen was the best friend of my cousin Arlene. When Sagherian left, in the absence of any other qualified applicants, I called him, gave him a 1620 manual, and told him to familiarize himself with it. He became an expert in the 1620 and did a great job helping students with their programs. During that time he took some of your courses and was very enthusiastic about them.

After graduation, he went to Fairchild which morphed into Intel.
There he conceived the idea of putting the entire 1620 instruction set on a single chip to create the first microprocessor. We at S.F. State can take some pride in the fact that the first desk-size electronic computer was based on our machine. If Stan is one the fathers of the electronic computer, what does that make us, grandfathers? I still see Stan from time to time at the weddings of Arlene’s numerous children but have not had the opportunity to chat about old times. Maybe on the next such occasion I can get him to tell me all about his French chateau.

Hearing about your trip to Tahoe struck a familiar chord. Summers while in high school and college I went to a boys’ camp situated where the Tahoe airport is now. There are so many beautiful places in the area, Echo Lakes, Desolation Valley, Lake of the Woods; but the view from the top of Tallac cannot be surpassed.

Jean and I are fortunate enough to have retained our good health into our nineties.
Hope you and Bea are feeling fine too.

Best regards to you and Bea,

June 14, 2010

Robert Gerstle

May 31, 2010

Granda you will be missed.

Robert Gerstle

May 31, 2010

Grandpa you will be missed, your legacy has just begun.

Miles Levit

May 30, 2010

Dad, I never stopped learning from you, and you never stopped surprising me. You helped me to see and understand my opportunities without trying to push me down any particular path. thanks for everything you gave me. You'll always be with me.

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