Adele Hast

1931 - 2020

Adele Hast, 88, passed away peacefully on May 18, at home, with her husband and two sons at her side. Adele was a research scholar, book editor, and historian. She was a loving wife, mother, and grandmother. Adele Hast was born in Manhattan on December 6, 1931, and grew up in the Bronx, the third of five children of Louis and Kate Krongelb. She attended New York public schools, including Hunter College High School (1949) and Brooklyn College (1953), where she met Malcolm Hast. They were married in their senior year of college. Her father Louis' native tongue was Yiddish and so she spoke it from her earliest years. At age 10, Adele began the formal study of Yiddish at the Workmen's Circle-arguably her first foray into serious academic pursuits. From 1971-1975 she was a research associate for the Atlas of Early American History at the Newberry Library. From 1976-1979 she was the associate director of the Atlas of Great Lakes Indian History, also at the Newberry, an institution she loved dearly, her scholarly home. Adele earned a Ph.D. in Early American History from the University of Iowa in 1979. From 1981-1986 she was the Editor-in-Chief of the Marquis Who's Who books. Later she was Survey Director at the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, followed by a stint as Executive Editor at St. James Press. From 1993-2001 she was Project Director and co-editor of Women Building Chicago 1790-1990: A Biographical Dictionary. Throughout all of this, an abiding passion of hers was Jewish history and culture, and she played a prominent role in the work of the Chicago Jewish Historical Society, including serving terms on its Board of Directors and as President. For many years, Adele conducted research into debts incurred by Americans to British merchants at the time of the Revolutionary War. In 1988, she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (UK). Even into her eighties, she travelled to the Newberry several times a week to continue her research. Adele is survived by Malcolm, her lifelong love and husband of 67 years; by sons David (Diane Rayor) and Howard (JoAnn Olsen); by sister Paula Barrett; and by three grandsons, Daniel, Gabriel, and Julian. Memorial plans are to be determined and will be announced at a later date.