11:41 a.m., Aug. 8, 2007--Marvin B. Sussman, Unidel Professor Emeritus of Human Behavior at the University of Delaware, died Aug. 5, at the age of 88.

“Marvin Sussman was a true interdisciplinary scholar with an irrepressible intellectual curiosity and a remarkably broad vision of academic possibilities,” UD Provost Dan Rich said. “His research inspired a generation of scholars in family studies and many related fields. At UD, he will be remembered fondly by the many colleagues for whom he was a mentor and advocate. In his lifestyle as in his work, he was fiercely independent but also dedicated to helping others.”

Dr. Sussman was a prolific writer and lecturer in the area of individual and family studies, and was on the leading edge of many fields of study in sociology. He authored, co-authored, edited or co-edited 53 monographs and books, authored 118 chapters in books and monographs, and published 120 articles dealing with the family, community, rehabilitation, organizations, sociology of medicine and aging. He was the founding editor of, Marriage and Family Review.

He traveled to more than 40 countries around the world to develop cross-national research in the field.

Dr. Sussman also was a University benefactor. Before he retired in 1988, he established the Marvin B. Sussman Asklepios Book Fund in the Morris Library. Named after the Greek god of healing, the Asklepios fund provided for the purchase of interdisciplinary books that link the social, behavioral and humanity sciences with the natural and physical sciences, using a holistic approach. In the mid-1990s, he established a Sussman Challenge Gift to raise funds to support library activities.

Dr. Sussman joined the University of Delaware faculty in 1979 after having taught four years at the Bowman Gray School of Medicine at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., where he was professor of sociology and chairperson of the Department of Medical Social Sciences.

Previously, he was the Selah Chamberlain Professor of Sociology from 1955-72 and director of the Institute on Family and Bureaucratic Society from 1969-75 at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland; visiting assistant professor of sociology from 1954-55 at the University of Chicago; and assistant professor of sociology from 1951-54 at Union College in Schenectady, N.Y.

Dr. Sussman was a member of the Sociological Research Association, American Sociological Association, International Sociology Association, National Council on Family Relations, National Rehabilitation Association, International Union of Family Organizations, Society for the Study of Social Problems, American Public Health Association, American Statistical Behavioral Science and Medical Education and Groves Conference on Marriage and the Family, and he was an honorary affiliate of the American Association of Marriage and Family Counselors.

Dr. Sussman served terms as president of the Society for the Study of Social Problems, the Ohio Valley Sociological Society and the Ohio Council on Family Relations.

He was a consultant and program development specialist for several federal agencies, and was editor, associate editor and member of the editorial board of such publications as Journal of Marriage and the Family, Journal of Family History, Journal of Marriage and Family Counseling and Marriage and Family Review.

Dr. Sussman received the Ernest W. Burgess Award presented by the National Council on Family Relations in 1980 and the Distinguished Scholar Award in 1985 and the Lee Founders Award in 1992, both presented by the Society for the Study of Social Problems. He was elected to The National Senior Citizen Hall of Fame in 1986.

Dr. Sussman was born Oct. 27, 1918, in New York. He received a bachelor's degree from New York University in 1941, a master's degree from George Williams College in 1943, a master's degree from Yale University in 1949 and a doctorate from Yale in 1951.

Of Dr. Sussman, Bill Cohen, publisher and editor-in-chief of The Haworth Press, said, “Marvin was one of the 'greats' of marriage and family studies who joined with Haworth Press, Inc., when it was in its infancy. One of his more unusual projects with Haworth was a special issue of the journal Marriage and Family Review consisting of articles rejected by other marriage and family journals. He provided his own content re-analysis and commentary, giving voice to authors who were muted for what he thought were 'lamebrain' editorial reasons. When I think of him, I think of simple words: honor, duty, loyalty, kindness.”