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Memorial
Noah Sherman
LSA Minutes
LSA Minutes
Noah Sherman
1921 – 2006
Professor Emeritus Noah Sherman passed away on June 11, 2006. Dr. Sherman was born in New York City on June 24, 1921 and received his B.S. from the City College of New York in 1948. He subsequently moved to Ann Arbor and obtained his Ph.D. in Physics at the University of Michigan in 1952 with a specialty in Experimental Cosmic Ray Physics. He was appointed Instructor in Physics from 1952 to 1953. He then switched to Theoretical Physics, with an appointment at the Livermore Laboratory of the University of California, where he worked with Dr. Edward Teller’s group.
Professor Sherman returned to the University of Michigan as Assistant Professor of Physics in 1956. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 1961 and then to Professor in 1966. He was active in the development of, and intensely interested in, a wide variety of new teaching techniques for general physics courses. In particular, he focused on computer based methods and self-paced methods. He participated in the Academic Year Institutes held for high school physics teachers at the University and served as a liaison between the Department of Physics and the Center for Learning and Teaching.
His service to the University included membership in the Senate Advisory Committee on University Affairs (SACUA) and assistance on a committee that led to the establishment of the Residential College. He took a sabbatical leave from 1963-65 to work at the New University of Sussex in England and then another during the winter term of 1969 for work at the University of California at Berkeley.
Professor Sherman always had a desire to serve society in a more personal way. When he retired in 1978 and moved to Berkeley, he went to law school in order to further causes in which he believed. A measure of his success during this part of his career was his receipt of the State Bar’s 1997 President’s Pro Bono Service Award. He was presented with the award for providing free legal help to individuals threatened with the loss of their Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits.
Dr. Noah Sherman is survived by his wife Pauline, a retired Professor of Engineering from the University of Michigan and the University of California at Berkeley.
-- Wayne Hazen, Department of Physics