Burton Brody, Professor Emeritus of Physics
In a letter to the Bard community, President Leon Botstein memorialized Professor Brody's life:
I would like to inform the Bard community of the death of Burton ("Burt") Brody, Professor Emeritus of Physics, on Wednesday afternoon. He was 81 and for the past years a resident of The New Jewish Home in New York City. Professor Brody died after a prolonged illness.Burt came to teach at Bard in 1970. He was a graduate of Columbia College and earned his Ph.D. in Experimental Physics at the University of Michigan in 1969. For most of his career, he maintained a presence at Columbia University in the Atomic Physics group as a researcher working with graduate students and designing and developing experimental techniques and equipment. He retired in 2012 after 42 years of teaching.
He was beloved by students and was tireless in helping individual students, both majors and non-majors, with their academic work. At the same time, he was deeply engaged in the intellectual and artistic life of the college. He was a regular member of the French table and deeply interested in the work that students and faculty did in the performing arts: in dance, theater, and music. He was a very familiar figure on the campus. He was upbeat, energetic and enthusiastic. He displayed a rare gift for friendship.
When he came to Bard, he was the second full-time faculty appointment in physics. As the college grew, he was instrumental in guiding the expansion of the Division of Science, Mathematics, and Computing. He recruited the third full-time physicist, Matthew Deady, who retired in 2020 and was among the most influential and committed leaders of the faculty.
Professor Deady kindly permitted me to quote his reflections on Burt as a colleague and friend. Upon learning of Burt’s death, Matthew wrote,
"He came aboard in the days of Bard's poverty, and built up an equipment base by drawing heavily on hand-me-downs from IBM or university labs, and frequent trips to P&T Surplus in Kingston. This was only a feasible approach because Burt could fix anything, using the machine shop that he equipped in the basement of Hegeman and the extensive electronics laboratory he maintained. Countless senior projects in the Science Division were conducted using equipment that Burt assembled and maintained.
Burt conveyed an unbridled enthusiasm in the classroom, infectiously bringing reticent students to find science as fascinating as he did. This was true for students at all levels, but particularly for non-science students in his long-running Light and Color course, for which Burt routinely offered two 32-student sections in a semester. It is entirely appropriate that the primary teaching laboratory for the Physics Program is called the Brody Lab, thanks to a generous gift from Burt after his retirement.
Burt was an avid patron of the arts, and was a constant presence at Bard student events. He had a particular fondness for dance and poetry, as his colleagues in those fields no doubt know. He would recite long sections of Percy Shelley or Dr. Seuss with equal affection.
Burt was very active in various cultural groups, particularly on topics involving historic buildings in the Hudson Valley. He belonged to organizations that gave tours of buildings, and he and his wife Susan owned a colonial era home in Germantown, much of which they restored themselves. Burt was also active in the Hudson Valley Chamber Music Circle.
Burt's wife Susan passed away around the time that Burt retired. Pamela Hull has been his loving partner for the past number of years, and spoke of his joyous personality and love of so many things and people, up until his end.
Most of all, those who knew Burt remember a gentle spirit who always tried to do what he could for the people he cared about, and that was a very wide network of friends. He will be missed."
A memorial service has been scheduled for Sunday, October 29 at 3pm at The New Jewish Home, 120 West 106th Street, in New York City. A burial in the Bard cemetery will be scheduled by his family for sometime approximately 18 months from now.
I want to extend the best wishes of the Bard community to his family and those closest to him and express the community's sadness and gratitude for his service.
Post Date: 10-06-2023