Ilma Stein Levine

Fitchburg - Ilma Stein Levine, a longtime resident of Brooktondale, NY, died peacefully on March 11, 2024, her 95th birthday, in Fitchburg, Wisconsin. Her family was by her side.

Ilma was the only child of a New York City couple who married late in life - a subway engineer who had emigrated from Russia and an American-born science teacher. She grew up in Brooklyn and the Bronx during the Great Depression, spending summers on a small farm in Putnam County.

After attending Hunter College High School, Ilma won a New York State Regents Scholarship to attend Cornell University. While an undergraduate, she was set up on a blind date with fellow student Gilbert (Gil) Levine by friends who thought they would make a good couple. That prediction turned out to be true: they married shortly after graduation, started referring to themselves jointly as "Gilma," and were inseparable for the following 73 years, until Gil's death in February 2024.

Always fascinated by the physical and natural sciences, Ilma obtained a master's degree in botany at Cornell in 1952. She considered pursuing a doctoral degree, but was dissuaded by her advisor, who predicted she - like many married women of the era - would have children and leave professional life to raise them. She turned instead to teaching middle school science, but was told that she would be fired once she became pregnant. Ilma left the workforce to raise a son and two daughters.

While the children were young, Ilma dedicated herself to the home and to supporting her husband's career in international development. By the late 1960s, however, she was ready to return to her passion for science. Encouraged by Ithaca Central School Principal Beverly Martin, Ilma collaborated with her friend Debbie Levin as volunteers to design and run a "science discovery room." Innovative for the time, the pedagogic approach was hands-on and child-centered, oriented toward stimulating curiosity and experimentation. The discovery room provided opportunities for children in all elementary grades to learn about surface tension by playing with soap bubbles, to engage in chemistry with edible experiments, to discover principles of physics from an annual egg drop contest, and to practice caring for animals by borrowing from a "lending library" of hamsters and guinea pigs.

By 1983, Ilma and Debbie had outgrown the space at Central School and the pair wanted to serve more children and schools in the Ithaca area. They created a volunteer-led and -run nonprofit organization, the Ithaca Sciencenter, and operated it out of a series of borrowed storefronts. With each move, they sought larger and larger spaces to accommodate a growing set of exhibits and outreach programs. They also built up a community of volunteers, many from Cornell University and Ithaca College, who were eager to spark a love of science in children.

In 1991, with momentum growing in Ithaca around the idea of a permanent hands-on science museum for children, Ilma, Debbie, and the rest of the Sciencenter board negotiated with the City of Ithaca to take over land on the city's north side that had been home to an obsolete wastewater treatment plant. They hired the first executive director, Charlie Trautmann, who launched a successful capital campaign to build on the site. Guided by the playground architect Bob Leathers, who engaged children in the design process, more than 2,000 community members from all backgrounds wielded saws and hammers and built the Sciencenter with their own hands. The grand opening took place in May 1993, with Ilma and Debbie cutting the ribbon.

Over the past 30 years, the Sciencenter has thrived, becoming a nationally recognized museum, accredited by the American Alliance of Museums. Realizing the co-founders' vision, it now welcomes 100,000 visitors annually (in a community of 30,000) and serves 1.5 million people worldwide through traveling exhibitions and outreach programs. It has continued to engage community members through volunteer opportunities, as well as construction and mural projects; and it connects members of the local academic institutions, including students, to community service. The Sciencenter is on every list of the "top 10 attractions'' in the Ithaca area, and often number one for children. It also has been the favorite destination for all of Ilma's grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Over the years, Ilma's dedication to community service garnered recognition from the Tompkins County Office for the Aging and from President George H.W. Bush as one of the "Thousand Points of Light." While the Sciencenter absorbed much of her energies, Ilma found time to become a certified mediator working with the Tompkins County Family Court, and to maintain a flourishing garden at the Brooktondale Road home she lived in for more than six decades. Until she and Gil moved to Wisconsin in 2023, she kept the Family Reading Partnership shelves at Brookton's Market stocked with children's books. Ilma was an accomplished home cook and baker, with a razor-sharp wit, a passion for progressive politics, and an unwavering belief in the potential of all children.

Ilma was predeceased by her husband, Gil, and their son, David. She leaves her daughters Susan and Ruth; grandchildren Anna Case-Hofmeister, Katy, Evan, Nathan, and Daniel Hofmeister, and Anna Escuder, Sarah and Eli Goodman; and great-grandchildren Ruby Nave, and Miles and Hugo Hattis.

Please send any contributions in Ilma's name to the Ithaca Sciencenter, the Brooktondale Community Center, and / or the A+ Afterschool Enrichment Program at Beverly J. Martin Elementary School. And remember to take a child out for ice cream!

The Sciencenter will host a celebration of Ilma's life at a later date.