Dear Colleagues,

I share with you sad news from the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in the College of Engineering and Applied Science. Professor Emeritus Leonard Levine passed away on May 25. He was born on July 24, 1932 in Newark, New Jersey, married his sweetheart, Marilyn Gordon, in 1954, and received his PhD in Physics from Syracuse University in 1959.

Len joined UWM’s “Electrical Department” in the College of Applied Science and Engineering (CASE) – the name later changed to CEAS – in the early days of the college. He was a part of a large cohort of new faculty hired in the Sciences and Engineering as members of the Surface Studies Research Lab. Len helped develop and grow the undergraduate Computer Science program in its infancy and later years. He was an admired teacher who taught many CS and programming courses to CEAS majors and students across the campus. He was known for his total dedication to students and for his extraordinary humor, including his inordinate fondness for puns. Len taught many large lectures and supervised hundreds of Teaching Assistants during his tenure at UWM. He was a great mentor to the TAs.

Len served as the Director of the University’s Computer Center (the forerunner of the Computing Services Division) for many years and oversaw the development of early computing resources for the entire campus. In addition to his extensive service to CEAS, Len was also active in UWM’s shared governance (earlier known as faculty governance). He was an active participant in many campuswide committees and was a member of the Faculty Senate. He was a highly visible CEAS member in the campus and his contributions were highly valued.

Importantly, Len wanted to give back. After his retirement in 2000, he and his wife, Marilyn, endowed scholarships to support women students in Mathematics and Computer Science, recognizing that women were underrepresented in those fields.

We share our condolences with Len’s family and the many others whose lives he touched. For additional information, please see Len’s obituary.

Take care,
Johannes

Johannes Britz
Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs