George K. Levinger

1927 - 2017
George K. Levinger died on July 3, 2017 in Amherst, Massachusetts-following the death of his beloved wife Ann just 12 days before.

George was born on February 5, 1927 to a Jewish family in Berlin, Germany. In 1935, his family fled the Nazi regime, first moving to Switzerland and then to London. The family finally entered the United States after a long and winding immigration process, landing on Ellis Island in 1941. At 16 George enrolled at Columbia University, where he placed sixth in the 1944 National Amateur Chess Tournament. He was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1945 and served in the Army Counterintelligence Corps in Japan.

Soon after his return to New York, he embarked on graduate studies in Psychology. He studied Clinical Psychology first at Columbia University and then at the University of California, Berkeley, where he received his Master's degree in 1951. He then transferred to the Social Psychology program at the University of Michigan, earning his Ph.D. in 1955.

George met Ann Cotton in California in 1950 at the Lisle Fellowship. They married on June 14, 1952.

After their marriage, they lived in Ann Arbor while George completed his doctoral studies. George was an Assistant Professor at the Bryn Mawr College School of Social Work and Social Research. In 1960, the family moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where George was an Associate Professor of Social Research at Western Reserve University. In 1965, George became an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Promoted to Full Professor in 1967, he remained at UMass until his retirement in 1992. 

George did pioneering research on interpersonal attraction and close relationships, publishing dozens of articles and co-editing or co-authoring three influential books: Close Relationships: Perspectives on the Meaning of Intimacy, Divorce and Separation: Context, Causes, and Consequences, and Close Relationships. He also served as editor of The Journal of Social Issues from 1984 to 1987. George and Ann used their own relationship as a case study for their 2003 jointly authored article "Winds of Time and Place: How Context Has Affected a 50-Year Marriage."

After retirement, George participated in the Quaker Alternatives to Violence Project, teaching conflict resolution skills to prison inmates. As members of the Mount Toby Friends Meeting in Leverett, MA for 52 years, their kindness and wisdom inspired generations of younger Quakers and other friends.

George and Ann are survived by their four sons and their spouses: Bill and Tracy, Westminster, MA; Jim and Leah, Concord, MA; Matthew and Cristin, Rockville, MD; and David and Angela, Santa Rosa, CA; along with eight grandchildren; Ann's two sisters Jane and Nancy and their families in California and Oregon, and George's brother Bernie and his family in Colorado. 

A joint memorial service for Ann and George will be held on Saturday, September 9 at 2:00 p.m. at Wesley United Methodist Church at 98 North Maple Street in Hadley, MA. Contributions in their memory may be made to the American Friends Service Committee.