Bernard Eckstein Collection Addenda

Hans Bernhard Eckstein was born on December 19, 1923 in Ulm, Germany, the eldest son of Hugo Eckstein and his wife Hedwig née Pressburger. Their second son, Otto, was born in 1927. Hugo Eckstein was head of the Malzfabrik Winkler, a factory in Ulm that produced malt and grain products. Hans and Otto Eckstein attended the Realgymnasium Ulm. In 1937 Hans had to leave the school due to being Jewish, as did his brother in 1938.

Hugo Eckstein's sister Fanny had married Max Oettinger, who lived in London (they later changed their surname to Osborne). After Hans and Otto were forced to leave school their parents sent them to their aunt and uncle in England, who enrolled them in the Bunce Court School (also known as New Herrlingen), a school largely attended by German-Jewish refugee children in Kent, England. In Ulm, Hugo Eckstein was forced to sell his factory and applied for American visas for the family. In November 1938 he was arrested; in April 1939 Hugo and Hedwig left Germany to join the family in England to wait for their visas to America, which were sponsored by a cousin of Max Oettinger, with financial assistance sent to them by Hugo's brother Albert Eckstein, a physician who had gone with his wife Erna to Ankara, Turkey.

The Eckstein family left England on December 16, 1939, sailing to New York, and first settled in the Elmhurst neighborhood of Queens, New York, where Hans—now known as Bernard Hans Eckstein—attended Newtown High School. At first the family had a difficult time supporting themselves: Hedwig Eckstein found work cleaning offices and Bernard and Otto sold magazines; eventually Hugo Eckstein found work as an elevator operator. In 1940 the family moved to the Jackson Heights neighborhood of Queens, and Bernard found work after school at a grocery store. In 1941 Bernard graduated from high school and found work as a lab technician. His employer offered to pay for Bernard to study chemistry in evening classes at New York University.

In 1942 Bernard Eckstein volunteered for the military and began active duty on March 20, 1943. The following August he became an American citizen. In the army he became part of the 528th Field Artillery Battalion, arriving in France in February 1945. While in occupied Germany he visited Ulm, which had been heavily damaged during the war. In August 1945 his unit returned home; by February 1946 he was separated from the army. His brother Otto joined the army a few days after Bernard's return home.

After the war Bernard studied chemistry at Princeton University, where he also once had a meeting with Albert Einstein, another former resident of Ulm. He attended graduate studies at Cornell University, receiving his doctorate in chemistry in 1953. In 1957 Bernard joined Union Carbide's research laboratory, Parma Technical Center in Parma, Ohio; he remained with Parma until his retirement in 1986. His work from 1957-1960 was a joint project with the Polaroid Corporation to develop a high intensity bulb for use in automobile headlights, film projectors, and stadium lighting. From 1960-1966 he worked to develop a process for the electrodisposition of refractory metals from molten fluoride baths. Thereafter his work primarily related to aspects of the carbon fibers and composites industry.

In 1958 Bernard Eckstein married Sheila Rubin, who he had met via his brother's fiancée. The couple lived in Cleveland, Ohio.

Like his brother, Otto Eckstein also attended Princeton University after his military service, where he studied economics. He later attended Harvard University, where he became a professor of economics for 33 years. In 1959 he was technical director of the Joint Economic Committee of Congress; from 1964-1966 he was a member of President Lyndon Johnson's Council of Economic Advisers. From 1959-1980 he wrote several economic reports for the U.S. Congress on such topics as employment, price levels and inflation, and tax policy. In 1968 he helped found Data Resources, Inc., which became the largest economic consulting firm in the United States.

Bernard Eckstein visited his birthplace of Ulm several times, including at the invitation of the city in 1997 and in 2012, when the city's new synagogue was dedicated.

Bernard Eckstein died in Ohio on November 27, 2017 at the age of 93.