Dr Kurt H Stern obituary
26 December 1926 鈥� 5 August 2023
Born in Vienna, Austria on 26 December 1926, Kurt Heinz Stern lived in Takoma Park, Maryland since 1964, where he died on August 5, 2023.
The Nazi annexation of Austria led to his family’s move to the United States in November 1939. They settled in New Jersey where cousins they never met sponsored them. Graduating high school at age 16, Kurt completed 2 ½ years at Drew University before being drafted by the Army in April 1945. When his fluency in German was discovered, Kurt was sent to Germany. After serving as an interpreter for a CIC officer, Kurt was made a special Agent in CIC and transferred to the 3rd Army Headquarters in Heidelberg. While there he took a music course in Medieval Composition. When discharged, Kurt returned to Drew, graduating in 1948 with a B.S. in chemistry. In 1950 he received his MS degree in physical chemistry from the University of Michigan. In 1951, the paper describing research he did at Ann Arbor received the Turner Prize, an award for the best paper in the Electrochemical Society Journal by authors under 30. He received his PhD from Clark University in 1953, where for a time he sublet an apartment from the artist Leonard Baskin.
Kurt taught chemistry and conducted research (US Airforce and NSF sponsored) at the University of Arkansas, primarily in non-aqueous and molten salt electrochemistry for seven years. A sabbatical at NBS (now NIST) led to a permanent position there. He was a Project Leader in High Temperature Electrochemistry and was the coordinator for the National Standard Data Reference System established by NBS in 1963. A reduced budget appropriation led the Chief of the Electricity Division to eliminate the entire electrochemistry section in 1968. As a result, Kurt spent three months on an NSF program, teaching modern methods to Indian college teachers of chemistry in Nagpur, India. Kurt next accepted a position at the Naval Research Laboratory to set up a new program in molten electrochemistry including study of the electrodeposition of refractory compounds, such as carbides and silicides, from molten salts. At NRL he received a publications award twice, and was an NRL exchange scientist at the Materials Lab in Melbourne, Australia. His international reputation resulted in invitations to lecture at the Universities of Milan, Bologna, Ferrara, Pisa, Bari and Leeds, and in 1964 he gave a 2-week lecture tour in Romania, sponsored by the Romanian Government. He holds three patents.
For 25 years concurrent with his research, he taught Physical Chemistry at the NIH graduate school. He was both secretary and President of the Washington Academy of Science and Chairman of the National Capital Chapter of the Electrochemical Society, and a recipient in 1971 of the Society’s William Blum Award. He is a member of Sigma Xi, the American Chemical Society, the Electrochemical Society, the 欧美AV, and a fellow of AAAS and the Washington Academy of Sciences. Kurt has published over 100 papers and monographs, including some on the Liesegang phenomenon, and since his retirement, he has edited and authored several chapters in Metallurgical and Ceramic Protective Coatings (1996, Chapman and Hall) and written High Temperature Properties and Thermal Decomposition of Inorganic Salts with Oxyanions (2001, CRC Press).
As a composer, he has written more than 100 works for chamber ensembles, piano solo, choral and solo voice, and a Cantata, The Wanderer, for baritone, chorus, portative organ and medieval harp. Most of these works have been performed by professional musicians in the Washington area. A collection of some works, Chamber Music for Flute and Friends, was published by Bielizna Press.
His deep interest in travel and the outdoors, which his wife shared, has included visiting all 50 states in the U.S., rafting the Colorado River, extensive backpacking, and climbing Mt. Rainier, Longs Peak, Mt. Whitney and many of Colorado’s 14,000 ft. peaks as well as the Gross Glockner in Austria. On his trips to all seven continents, Kurt has visited Machu Picchu, Antarctica and trekked in New Zealand and in the Himalayas in Nepal. Kurt and Faith also enjoyed skiing, bicycling, and canoeing.
Kurt married Faith Elaine Bueltmann (Dr. Faith Stern) in 1960. They have two children: Dr. Karen R. Stern (husband, Dr. Bret Leslie) of Vienna, VA and Alan J. Stern (wife, Diana Ngo) of Gaithersburg, MD.
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