Liane Reif-Lehrer

Liane Reif-Lehrer scientist, feminist, wife, mother, teacher, poet, ballroom dancer, and longtime Lexington resident, died on November 6, 2019, after an extended battle with Alzh- eimers disease. She was 84. Born to Gerschon Reif, a dentist, and Klara (Chaja Lea) Gottfried Reif, she lived with her older brother Frederich (1927-2019) in Vienna, Austria until 1939. She fled the Nazis with her mother and brother on the ill-fated S.S. St. Louis, which was bound for Cuba with 937 Jewish refugees but forced to return to Europe, where they disembarked in France. In September 1941 they managed to emigrate, sponsored by relatives (the Klinghoffer family) in New York City. She attended Erasmus Hall High School, Barnard College (BA, 1956), and the University of California, Berkeley (PhD, Chemistry, 1960). After a year of round-the-world travel with her husband Sam, and a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard, from 1966-1985 she was Research Scientist at the Mass Eye and Ear Infirmary and the Schepens Eye Research Institute, and a faculty member (1978-1985) and Director of the Office of Academic Affairs (1981-1983) at Harvard Medical School. She then started the consulting firm Erimon Associates, specializing in grant writing, and published Writing a Successful Grant Application. In 1981 she founded the Women in Science Network, to help navigate the challenges of career advancement. She is survived by her husband of 59 years Sherwin (Sam) Lehrer, her children Damon Lehrer of Lexington, MA (wife Aimee LeBrun and grandson Nathan Huckleberry Lebrun Lehrer), and Erica Lehrer of Montreal, QC. A donation in Lianes memory may be made to Cure Alzheimer's Fund at https://curealz.org/giving/ donate/. Liane will be buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery. An informal shiva to remember her will be held at Newbridge-on-the-Charles, Health Center, 7000 Great Meadow Rd., Dedham, on Sunday, November 10, 2019 from 1-5 pm. www. brezniakfuneraldirectors.com.