Herbert Strauss

Herbert Strauss

March 26, 1936 - December 2, 2014

Herbert Strauss was born in 1936 in Aachen, Germany to Joan and Charles Strauss. When life for Jews became treacherous after Kristallnacht in November 1938, the family fled to London with the help of relatives in England. Placed temporarily in an English orphanage, the 3-year–old Herbert almost died of bronchitis before the family was able to get visas for the United States.
He grew up in a small apartment in Kew Gardens, Queens, New York, his father working as a real estate agent, and his mother as a saleswoman in a local shop. Although they were poor, Herb and his younger brother Walter were raised by loving and supportive parents, who put great emphasis on the boys' education.
Herb studied Chemistry at Columbia University in New York City, where he received his BA and PhD. At the midnight Mass at St. Thomas Church in 1957, mutual friends introduced him to a member of the choir, who later became his wife. This Christmas Eve will be the 58th anniversary of his first meeting Carolyn North.
After finishing his PhD in 1960, they enjoyed a happy post-doc year at Oxford, after which Herb joined the Chemistry faculty at the University of California at Berkeley where he spent his entire professional career.
He was internationally known for his studies of the structure and vibrations of chains of carbon atoms, and the rotations and vibrations of molecular hydrogen. His sixty-two PhD students and post-docs have gone on to positions in academia and industry all over the world.
Herb was passionate about science education in high schools and junior colleges, successfully encouraging minority participation in the sciences. He served as Associate Dean for Undergraduate Affairs in the College of Chemistry from 1995 to 2008, and served as Editor of the Annual Reviews of Physical Chemistry from 1976 to 2000. He won numerous awards for his work, including the Berkeley Citation for his distinguished and extraordinary service to the University.
Even during his years of declining health, he continued to be active on campus, teaching his last class after a discouraging visit to the doctor just three weeks before his death.
He and Carolyn raised their 3 children in Berkeley – except for the year they spent in India in1968 – living in an old brown shingle house a short bicycle ride from the campus. Herb on his bike became a neighborhood fixture as he rode back and forth to the University every day for 50 years, before his failing health forced him to take the bus.
He was a devoted husband, father and grandfather, kind and generous to everyone, with a subtle sense of humor. His last joke, one day before he died, was:
"Outside, I have to publish. Inside, I have to …"
He is survived by his wife Carolyn; his brother Walter and wife Phyllis of Newton, MA; his children and their spouses: Michael and Sofia of Princeton, NJ; Rebecca and Susan of Waltham, MA; Ethan and Anne of Madison, WI, and four grandchildren: Alexandro, Camilla, Robert and Elizabeth.
A public memorial will be planned for the spring, near the time of his birthday.
Contributions in Herb's memory can be made to:
The Berkeley Center for Green Chemistry (checks made out to UC Berkeley Foundation) University of California, Hildebrand Hall 237a, Berkeley, CA 94720; or The Green Science Policy Institute, PO Box 5455, Berkeley CA 94705.
Photo credit: Susan Wilson