Lawrence E. Gelfand

GELFAND, SHAPIRO, IFLAND, LANG, FORCHHEIMER, MANNING, SILVERMAN

Posted By: Tara (email)
Date: 12/13/2010 at 13:20:58

Lawrence E. Gelfand (Larry), 84, passed away in Irvine, California, November 30 of heart failure. He was a resident at Oaknoll. Professor-Emeritus in the Department of History at the University of Iowa, he joined the UI faculty in 1962, after teaching at the Universities of Hawaii, Washington, and Wyoming. He retired in 1994.

He was born in Cleveland, Ohio on June 20, 1926, the son of Maurice and Rachel (Shapiro) Gelfand. A graduate of Adelbert College, (Case) Western Reserve University he received his AB and 1949 and MA in 1950. He was awarded his PhD from the University of Washington in 1958. He married Miriam Ifland
June 14,1953 in Seattle.

He served in the U.S. Army in the Pacific Theatre from 1944-46 and received a Purple Heart for his service.

From 1987-88 he served as the Mary Ball Washington Professor of American History and Fulbright Scholar, University College, Dublin. He lectured in Germany, the Netherlands and Israel. He was also the recipient of a Rockefeller Foundation Research Grant. The author and editor of a number of books, journals, many scholarly articles and reviews, he served on many editorial boards, and juries for book awards in his field. From 1980-84 he was President and on the Council of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR). Established by SHAFR, the annual Lawrence Gelfand-Armin Rappaport Dissertation Fellowship honors their contributions to the organization and the study and publication of diplomatic history.

Together with Prof. Ellis Hawley, he was a co-founding member of the Advisory Committee of the Center for the Study of the Recent History of the United States, a group of regional institutions that supported public programming of American history. He held lifetime memberships in the Organization of American Historians and the American Historical Association. His University service included serving as Chair of the Department of History; President of the Faculty Council & Senate; Chair of the Editorial Board, UI Press. He was involved in the Iowa City Foreign Relations Council and a member of Friends of the Library, UI Libraries.

He represented the President of the University of Iowa on the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library Board for many years and was appointed by the Governor to serve on the Iowa State Historical Society in the early 1970s.

Larry loved his family, libraries, music, movies, reading, travel, nature, working out, food and dining.

Survived by his wife, Miriam; his daughter, Julia (David Lang) of Irvine, CA, sons, Daniel of Los Angeles, and Ronald (Jean) of Aurora, CO; and grandson, Benjamin; two sisters, Betty Forchheimer of Beachwood, OH and Eileen Manning of Langley, BC, Canada. He was preceded in death by his parents, sister, Sonia Silverman and one niece.

In lieu of flowers, contributions can be made to the History Department Gift Fund, UI Foundation, 1 West Park Rd, Iowa City, IA 52246, Congregation Agudas Achim or to a charity of your choice.