By Dawn Levy

Dr. Meyerhof

Walter E. Meyerhof, Stanford professor emeritus of physics, died May 27 in a Los Altos nursing home of complications from Parkinson’s disease. He was 84.

Dr. Meyerhof was a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Physical Society.

“He established nuclear physics research at Stanford in the early 1960s,” said Professor Blas Cabrera, a graduate student under Dr. Meyerhof. “As I heard about his younger years, it brought into perspective his enormous compassion and support for any students having difficulties.”

Dr. Meyerhof was born in Kiel, Germany, April 22, 1922. That year his father, Otto, won a Nobel Prize in medicine. His mother, Hedwig Schallenberg, was a painter.

Although Jewish, his parents raised their three children Lutheran to try to protect them from anti-Semitism. In his autobiography, “In the Shadow of Love: Stories from My Life” (Fithian Press, 2002), Dr. Meyerhof said “blending” didn’t work.

Dr. Meyerhof fled Nazi Germany with help from Varian Fry, a Harvard-educated, Gentile journalist who ran a rescue network. After settling in the United States, he earned his doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania in 1946 and married Miriam Ruben.

Stanford professors Felix Bloch (Nobel Prize winner in physics, 1952) and Leonard Schiff (Gravity Probe B project) recruited Dr. Meyerof to the Farm in 1949. He became a full professor in 1959 and wrote two textbooks, “Elements of Nuclear Physics” and “Relativistic Atomic Collisions” with Jörg Eichler.

“I remember him best when, in the late 1950s, friction arose between senior members of the Physics Department and myself and others planning for the new SLAC (Stanford Linear Accelerator Center) or Project M laboratory,” recalled SLAC founding director W.K.H. “Pief” Panofsky. “Meyerhof was unfailing in the search for common ground to make the new monster project possible without impacting the traditions of the Physics Department,” he said.

In the early 1970s, when students wanted an astronomical observatory, Dr. Meyerhof suggested they build one. They succeeded with Dr. Meyerhof as their faculty adviser, which earned him a Dinkelspiel Award for outstanding service to undergraduate education.

Dr. Meyerhof was chairman of the Physics Department from 1970 to 1977. “Walter was a real gentleman and scholar,” wrote Nobel laureate Steve Chu, former chairman. “In all my interactions (he) always acted in the best interests of the entire Physics Department.”

After retiring in 1992, Dr. Meyerhof established a foundation to honor the man who saved his life. He produced a film on Fry, “Assignment: Rescue,” narrated by Meryl Streep, and distributed it to more than 35,000 schools to demonstrate “the power of one.”

“Walter was an amazingly compassionate person,” said Esther Wojcicki, director of education for the Varian Fry Foundation and wife of current Physics Department chairman Stan Wojcicki. “It was an honor to work with him on this project.”

While president of the Ravenswood PTA, Dr. Meyerhof suggested a film, “All My Students,” to train teachers how to be sensitive to the needs of African-American students.

Dr. Meyerhof is survived by his wife of 59 years, Miriam, of Menlo Park; sons Michael of Menlo Park and David of Burbank; sister Bettina Emerson of Seattle; and grandson Dr. Matthew Meyerhof of Santa Barbara.

Plans for a memorial service are pending.