Personal reflections

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(In progress, last changed 6/20/2017)

• Like many UNC SPH students who did not have Bert as a professor in a formal class, I greatly enjoyed knowing Bert and the many deeply meaningful conversations that I had with Bert about the purpose of our work in public health. He had an encyclopedic knowledge of the history of the UNC SPH which helped to ground our collective work in the traditions of scholarship and service established by those who came before us. Bert's wide ranging intellect, thoughtfulness, concern for others and community nurturement will be greatly missed.
  David J. Ballard
• Bert was a selfless mentor and colleague in learning. I know how deeply he touched my life, so I can only imagine the hundreds of other students he influenced and inspired. From him I learned to be careful and thoughtful in research, but to be bold with the questions I asked. He will be missed, but his academic legacy will live on through those of us who were lucky enough to have had him as a teacher, mentor, advisor, and friend.
  Kathy Magruder
• I will quickly pass on an experience I had with Bert. When I was getting ready to enter the job market I asked him for a letter of recommendation. His immediate response set my self-doubt and any insecurities I had at ease. “I’d be honored” he said, with conviction. Now that I am in a position to write letters of recommendation I have stolen that generous line. Bert led with kindness, empathy, and intellectual generosity. He is missed.
  Bobby Schopler
• I know of no other teacher who has as profoundly, positively and consistently nourished as many people in their intellectual, professional and personal lives as Bert did; I can see as I write, Bert's infectious smile as I entered his office for my bi-weekly meetings with him over 35 years ago, hear his exuberant chant: 'Welcome! What am I going to learn from you today?'. What a teacher! When I became Dean, Bert offered with that same confidant enthusiasm, 'You will be a university president one day!'.
  Bert has played a foundational role in my life, and my family's - he and Ellen have been respected, cherished friends, for almost 40 years.
  Heather Munroe Blum
• Bert was a sociologist by training and Jewish by upbringing. He knew suffering from the inside. I chose him to be my mentor after cultivated relationships at Amherst disintegrated unexpectedly. My chosen mentor there did not tell me of his upcoming retirement. I found out and then explored other academic sites including UNC, where I found Bert and chose him as my mentor. Luckily I was admitted to the MPH program there.
  Bert and I were friends. He partied at my home near campus with my folks, students and staff. He pontificated while we others played and ate birthday cake. His room at SPH was usually a mess with too many stacks of papers. He spoke to his classes of students with his eyes looking up and always alight. He loved studying, knowledge and intellectual traditions.
  I am lucky to know him and to have sought him out during his last week. I sense he is at peace and know that he is still loved. May his traditions of the love of learning continue.
  I hope someone at UNC will make an endowed chair for him there. It is a big task. I failed at creating one for another mentor here at UofL SOM DFCM founding Chairman years ago. No blame. I did my best effort.
  Rob Steiner
• Unfortunately I will be chairing a meeting in DC on Tuesday if that is the day of the service. Celia and I had the privilege of visiting Bert and Ellen a few weeks ago. And we are so thankful that he felt well enough to entertain us. I cannot let this occasion pass, however, without sharing with you and the family how much Bert meant to me personally.
  I knew Bert for 40 years. He was my dissertation chair at UNC and I was a student in his classes. Yet this beginning cannot do justice to his influence on my life. Though I am Christian, I have claimed Bert as my Rabbi (and dedicated a book to him as such). He had a deep love and appreciation for the students who studied under him and once a student, always a student of Bert. Bert also had a deep love of learning. In our current world of specialization he was a true Renaissance man. His scope of knowledge and interests ranged over virtually every topic, from the Talmud to Carolina basketball, from Augustine to modern theologians, from classical Greek to modern culture. His specialty was my specialty, social psychiatry. Yet I believe that he loved literature most of all. He participated for years in discussion groups with professors from other disciplines, and as I understand, he read the Iliad each year. I can think of no better conversational partner and I cherish the many luncheons we had together at Red Lobster where we talked about such a range of topics that I always came away stimulated to broaden my knowledge.
  Bert also took great interest in my family. I suspect this derives in large part from the undying love he had for his own family. He cherished his dear wife Ellen who was always there for him. He was so proud of his children. He also followed closely the careers of those around him, always asking, occasionally chiding, and appropriately advising me on decisions I made. He correctly identified my propensity to “always be busy to the point that I could not think deeply”, an observation I suspect he made of many around him. In this hurried world, Bert took time to think, to read, to discuss, to form lasting bonds with his friends, and to support the careers and growth of others.
  Bert strongly identified with his Jewish heritage and he very much experienced the prejudice from the goyim in his community. He stood steadfast and advanced to a distinguished academic career from those humble beginnings in western Virginia. Yet he engaged in a career long dialogue with persons from other faith traditions. We talked frequently about our beliefs and he shared many books with me, books both from a Jewish perspective and a Christian perspective. He not only tolerated persons from different traditions, he engaged with them, yet never forgetting his own heritage and beliefs.
  Yet most of all, Bert was a friend, the kind of friend that is a rarity in today’s world. In my view, if one was a friend of Bert’s, one was a friend for life. And he always had time to spend, an ear to listen and encouragement to give. I will miss him greatly. He suffered much during the latter years of his life, yet he never let that suffering interfere with his desire to reach out to others. He never forgot others and I will never forget him.
  So to you, Ellen, and the entire family I extend my deepest sympathy. Whatever I can do, please let me know. God’s speed.
  Dan Blazer

Additional reflections can be found on the Legacy.com webpage

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