This article is from the archives of the UB Reporter.
Our Colleagues

Obituaries

Published: August 16, 2012

  • Robert H. Stern, a founding member of the Department of Political Science, died of cancer June 26 in Hospice Buffalo. He was 91.

    Stern served UB as faculty member, department chair and university ombudsman. He also became involved in numerous metropolitan initiatives and boards.

    Born in Herkimer, N.Y., Stern received his BA from Syracuse University and earned MA, MPA and PhD degrees from Harvard after serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II.

    He joined the UB faculty in 1950 as a member of the combined Department of History and Government, teaching “Introduction to American Government,” the basic course in any political science department, as well as public administration and constitutional law.

    His doctoral dissertation, published in 1979, dealt with the Federal Communications Commission’s regulation of television—a 1950 analysis that remains the authoritative study of this period.

    He himself regularly appeared on television in the 1950s and 1960s as a panelist and some-time moderator of the University of Buffalo roundtable on WBEN-TV.

    Throughout his long career, Stern maintained an interest and involvement in more effective governance. He consulted with a variety of state and local governmental bodies, among them the Legislative Committee on Constitutional Revision and Simplification, and the Niagara Frontier Port Authority, for which he co-authored a 1967 monograph.

    Active in community affairs, he was a trustee of the United Way and as president of the Urban League from 1962-63, as well as serving as president of the SUNY Buffalo chapter of AAUP from 1974-76.

    Stern retired from the UB faculty in 1985.

    Fellow UB constitutional law specialist Charles Lamb praised Stern as “a modest, quiet man, but one who frequently had a strong influence on students and faculty alike. When Bob spoke, others listened—and learned. His students will carry his lessons throughout their days; his colleagues will always remember him respect and fondness.”

    Stern’s mentorship to countless UB students through several decades was recognized in 1986 with the establishment of the annual Robert H Stern Prize for undergraduate excellence in political science.

    His often professorial demeanor frequently gave way to convivial repartee with friends and family—this was frequently in evidence at the many gatherings of a UB wine tasting club of which he was a founding member more than 40 years ago, and was active in until earlier this year.

    Stern is survived by his wife of 61 years, Madeleine Stern, a retired member of the UB Libraries staff.

    Contributions in Stern’s name may be made to the UB Foundation or to other charities of one’s choice.

  • A memorial service will be held at noon on Sept. 8 in the University Presbyterian Church, 3330 Main St., Buffalo, for Thomas J. Bardos, emeritus professor of medicinal chemistry, who died on May 15. Bardos, who was involved in cancer chemotherapy research for more than 50 years, was 96.

    During his 33-year career at UB, Bardos co-authored more than 200 peer-reviewed chapters, papers and patents on cancer chemotherapy, including pioneering work on “anti-metabolite” chemotherapeutic drugs, chemically modified DNA as cancer therapeutics, anti-cancer drugs containing two different chemotherapeutic agents in a single molecule that he called “dual antagonists,” and anti-cancer and anti-viral RNA therapeutics that he named “anti-templates.”

    Bardos retired from UB in 1993, but continued some aspects of his research until shortly before his death.