Dr. Robert L. Gluckstern, a physicist and educator who served as chancellor of the University of Maryland, College Park, died of lymphoma Wednesday at his Baltimore home. He was 84.
Born in Atlantic City, N.J., and raised in Brooklyn, N.Y., Dr. Gluckstern graduated from Boys High School at 16. He was captain of the math team and could regularly be found tackling math problems and theorems, said Elizabeth M. Nuss, his wife of 23 years.
He sent one such theorem to Albert Einstein, said his son, Steven M. Gluckstern. Einstein wrote back, he said, expressing his pleasure in the theorem and noting that, while he didn't remember seeing it before, he doubted it had "escaped the attention of former generations."
In 1944, Dr. Gluckstern completed a degree in electrical engineering at City College of New York. After serving in the Navy for two years, he earned his doctorate in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1948. He was a professor at Yale University for more than a decade.
Dr. Gluckstern became chancellor of the University of Maryland in 1975 after serving as vice chancellor for academic affairs and provost at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, where he had also been head of the physics and astronomy department.
As chancellor, he sought to boost the university's academic quality by raising entrance standards and striving for salary equity for female faculty. He also kept his hand in the classroom while he was chancellor, working as a teaching assistant in the physics and math departments.
"He was just a good and gentle man who will be missed greatly," University President C.D. Mote Jr. said a statement, noting Dr. Gluckstern's efforts to create opportunities for minorities and to establish the Banneker Scholarship program, which provides merit awards.
In 1982, Dr. Gluckstern resigned as chancellor to return to teaching and research in physics. He retired from teaching in 1997, when he was named a professor emeritus in physics and president emeritus.
His research and service continued. He worked as a senior research scientist until 2005 and as a volunteer tutor for undergraduate students at Slawsky Clinic, a physics department program that seeks to improve students' problem-solving skills.
He "was one of those awesome physicists who had a pure and deep understanding of the material," said Drew Baden, who chairs Maryland's physics department, in a note to faculty. "We will miss him ... his good nature, his perspective, his brilliance, and his friendship."
