In memoriam: Gerhard (Gerry) Neubeck
It is with great sadness that we say goodbye to our dear friend, colleague, and mentor Professor Emeritus Gerhard (Gerry) Neubeck (Family Social Science). Gerry began his professional career at the University in 1948 after already experiencing a lifetime of fortune and tumult.
As a Jewish teenager from Dortmund, Germany, Gerry nearly qualified for the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games in the 3000m run. Soon after, he realized he had to leave his home country. After immigrating to the United States with his wife Ruth in the late 1930s, Gerry became one of the nation’s foremost leaders in the fields of human sexuality and marriage and family therapy (MFT). He served terms as president both of the National Council on Family Relations (NCFR) and the American Association of Marriage and Family Counselors (AAMFT). After graduating from Columbia University, he went on to accomplish a number of ‘firsts’ in his field. In the 1960s he taught the first college course on human sexuality.
Profiled in Look magazine, this course gained Gerry scores of attention for his work. He is credited for being the first to use group sessions for marriage therapy and also was the first to pen a book on the topic of extramarital affairs. In 1972 he joined the Department of Family Social Science, where for many years he ran the marriage and family therapy (MFT) program. Over the course of his tenure, Gerry was pivotal in training countless MFT experts including David Olson and Jim Maddock.
After retiring in 1986, Gerry and his wife Ruth spent much of their time keeping busy with their long-time hobbies. Gerry was a prolific writer of poetry and Ruth a potter (they were dubbed the “Poet and the Potter"). Some of Gerry’s poetry has been published and crossed over into the academic world to appear in textbooks focusing on family relations.
Since his retirement, Gerry has remained a regular around the department. He read his poetry at everything from new graduate student welcoming functions to faculty retirement parties. Gerry said during a 2004 interview: “Family social science has always stood on the strength of great faculty. Not only the talent of the faculty—including multiple NCFR and AAMFT presidents—but also the intimacy. The faculty has always been very close.� Gerry will be greatly missed.
Excerpt from Gerry’s poem "Affairs of the Heart", published in 1998:
I want to find me
that I lost long, long ago
when I was a child
in a world that was all grown up.
It would be nice indeed.
To become acquainted again
With that me, the me of my youth.
Comments
Gerry was a most remarkable man--creative, loving, a wonderful listener, courageous, talented at knowing and also at knowing what he didn't know. He was an important pioneer in the fields of marriage and family therapy, the study of sex, and sex education. He had a lovely laugh. He was a good and caring person in all sorts of settings. He was important to the development of my department, Family Social Science, and important in my own life. I will miss him.
Posted by: Paul Rosenblatt | February 1, 2008 09:12 AM