[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 78 (Friday, June 16, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1171]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   TRIBUTE TO WALTER MEYERHOF, PH.D.

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. ANNA G. ESHOO

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, June 15, 2006

  Ms. ESHOO. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life of Dr. Walter 
Meyerhof who died on May 27, 2006, at the age of 84 of complications 
from Parkinson's disease.
  Walter E. Meyerhof was Professor Emeritus of Physics at Stanford 
University. He was born in Kiel, Germany, in 1922, the same year that 
his father, Otto Meyerhof, won a Nobel Prize in Medicine. His mother, 
Hedwig Schallenberg, was a painter.
  Dr. Meyerhof's parents were Jewish but raised their three children as 
Lutherans in an attempt to protect them from burgeoning Nazism. Despite 
this ruse, the family suffered from anti-Semitism and was ultimately 
helped to flee Vichy France by ``the American Schindler'', Varian Fry. 
Fry, a non-Jew who went to France to operate a rescue network, saved at 
least 2,000 people. In 1992, Meyerhof established and directed a 
foundation to honor the memory of Varian Fry. His film about Fry was 
narrated by Meryl Streep and distributed to more than 35,000 schools.
  Dr. Meyerhof earned his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of 
Pennsylvania. At age 24 he married Miriam Rubin, who had worked at a 
child-care center directed by Anna Freud. In 1949 he began his 
distinguished 43-year career as a Professor of Physics at Stanford 
University.
  Dr. Meyerhof was instrumental in the construction of the Stanford 
Linear Accelerator. He was awarded the Lloyd Dinkelspiel Teaching 
Award, the Tenured Faculty Development Award and was given an Honorary 
Doctorate by the University of Frankfort in 1980. He was named U.S. 
Senior Scientist by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in 1980-1981.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in extending our sympathy 
to Mrs. Meyerhof and the entire Meyerhof family. Dr. Walter Meyerhof 
was a national treasure, who loved his community and his country and 
served them exceedingly well. He will always be missed and never 
forgotten.

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