Arthur S. Obermayer

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Arthur Obermayer (2009)

Arthur S. Obermayer (* 17th July 1931 in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania ; † 10. January 2016 in Dedham , Massachusetts ) was an American chemist, entrepreneur, genealogist and founder of in Berlin awarded Obermayer German Jewish History Award .

Career

Obermayer studied chemistry and received a doctorate from MIT . The Moleculon Research Corporation , which he founded but has since been sold , became known in the early 1980s through a successful patent suit for the Rubik's Cube , as its employee Larry D. Nichols had applied for a patent on the basic design two years earlier. In 1976, the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, which Obermayer helped to develop, was adapted by the Congress of the United States to promote business start-ups .

Since Obermayer's grandparents came from Germany, u. a. from Kriegshaber (Augsburg) and Fürth , he began to be very interested in researching their origins and history. During stays in Germany, Obermayer got to know people who volunteered to preserve Jewish sites (e.g. cemeteries) in their homeland.

Obermayer German Jewish History Award

Since 2000, the Obermayer Foundation , which he founded, has presented the German Jewish History Award , which benefits non-Jewish Germans who contribute to the remembrance or preservation of Jewish heritage in Germany through their research work or through their practical actions. The award is presented every year on the commemoration day of the victims of National Socialism in the Berlin House of Representatives . In the meantime, more than seventy winners have been honored, including the initiator of the so-called Stolpersteine Gunter Demnig , Joachim Hahn (pastor) , editor of the website Alemannia Judaica , the genealogist Rolf Hofmann (Harburg Project) and the former editor-in-chief of the Augsburger Allgemeine and book author Gernot Römer .

Also in 2000, with Arthur Obermayer's significant support, the Jewish Museum opened in Creglingen , the birthplace of his maternal grandfather Joseph Sinsheimer, which has since become a respected institution.

In September 2007 Arthur Obermayer was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit on ribbon for his services to the understanding between Jews and Germans . In 2009 he received the Arno Heyn Memorial Book Prize from the American Chemical Society .

Gravestone of Obermayer's paternal great-grandfather Heinrich at the Jewish cemetery in Kriegshaber with the motto: " Pride in Ancestry transcends Holocaust, War and Time "

Arthur Obermayer was married to Judith Hirschfield since 1963 and has three children and numerous grandchildren. His older brother is the publicist and author Herman Obermayer (* 1924), known a. a. for a biography of his friend William H. Rehnquist , who was Chairman of the United States Supreme Court from 1985 to 2005.

literature

  • Herman J. Obermayer: Soldiering for Freedom: A GI's Account of World War II . 2005, ISBN 1-58544-406-5 .
  • Herman J. Obermayer: Rehnquist: A Personal Portrait of the Distinguished Chief Justice of the United States . 2009, ISBN 1-4391-4082-0 .
  • Kenneth Libo, Michael Feldberg: The Obermayers: A History of a Jewish Family in Germany and America, 1618–2009 . ISBN 0-615-38841-8 .
  • Horst F. Rupp : dispute over the Jewish museum . Würzburg 2004, ISBN 3-8260-2966-6 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ US philanthropist Arthur Obermayer Dies at 84
personal data
SURNAME Obermayer, Arthur S.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American chemist, entrepreneur, genealogist
DATE OF BIRTH July 17, 1931
PLACE OF BIRTH Philadelphia , Pennsylvania
DATE OF DEATH January 10, 2016
Place of death Dedham , Massachusetts