Frederick B. Chary Ph.D.

1939 - 2020

Frederick B. Chary, Ph.D, Professor Emeritus at Indiana University Northwest, died Sat., Nov. 14, 2020 of complications from Covid-19. He was born Aug. 18, 1939 in Philadelphia, PA, to Herman and Norma (Silver) Chary, both deceased. He was proud father to David Chary (Melissa), EllaRose Chary (Leah), and the late Michael A. Chary. He is also survived by his wife, Diane (Kubiak) Chary at home in Valparaiso, IN. Additionally, he leaves behind his sister Eileen Singer (Albert) of Philadelphia, PA and their children and grandchildren.

A scholar of international repute, Chary documented the saving of the Bulgarian Jews during WWII in The Bulgarian Jews and the Final Solution. The book remains the definitive study of how the Bulgarian people, under the nose of a Nazi regime, used their political skills to halt the deportation of their Jewish citizens, who were loaded on a train headed for the death camps. Chary lectured internationally on the topic, interviewed survivors for Steven Spielberg's Shoah Project, and always credited the Bulgarian people, not their King, for stopping the train.

Chary was one in the first cadre of Fulbright researchers tapped to go behind the Iron Curtain in an exchange of scholars during the Cold War. He was a proud alumnus of the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Pittsburgh and Central High School in Philadelphia. He was past president and sponsor of the Bulgarian Studies Association, served as guest lecturer at the U.S. State Department's Foreign Service Institute, and for his merits on Bulgarian and Jewish studies was decorated by the Bulgarian National Assembly. In recent years, he served as a board member of the Indiana Jewish Historical Society and published his memoir Chutzpah and Naïveté: An American Graduate Student Bursts Through The Iron Curtain To Do Research In Bulgaria.

Chary loved: his wife and family; the Bulgarian people; his Phillies, Eagles, and Flyers; a lively conversation at Temple Israel in Gary; old movies, Broadway musicals, chess, his colleagues at IUN; his fellow union members (American Federation of Teachers) and his in-laws. He was grateful for Roxanne's friends, caregiver Romona Sutton, the doctors who prescribed his care and the nurses who were with him up to his last day in isolation-heroes all.

Students will remember his starting class with his favorite question: "How do you know what you know?"

A private funeral will be held on Tuesday November 17 at 12 Noon Central Time, but may be viewed online ("like" the page to view) at https://www.facebook.com/burns.funeralhome.9/. The family will sit Shiva online via Zoom on Tuesday November 17th at 6 PM (CST) and Thursday, November 19th at 7 PM (CST), friends and colleagues are invited to join and share memories. Email templeisraelmiller@gmail.com for Zoom instructions. Memorials may be made to the Education Fund of Temple Israel, 601 Montgomery Street, Gary, IN, 46403 or to the Jewish Federation of Northwest Indiana's Food Pantry, 585 Progress Ave., Munster, IN, 46321.