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Gerhard Neubeck

Gerhard Neubeck

Gerhard Neubeck was NCFR's 35th President from 1977-78. He was a professor of Family Social Science at the University of Minnesota.
Born in Germany, Neubeck was a German Jewish athlete who was a denied a spot on the 1936 German Olympics team. In the run-up to the 1936 Olympics, Hitler feared the United States wouldn't allow its athletes to participate if Jews weren't allowed to compete. So the Nazis put on a charade, allowing Jewish athletes such as Neubeck, a runner, to train in a segregated Olympic facility. Days before the games, all were told they weren't good enough to compete. On Nov. 9, 1938, Neubeck was beaten senseless by Nazi thugs. It was Kristallnacht, the infamous "Night of the Broken Glass" when Nazi storm troopers attacked thousands of Jewish businesses, synagogues and homes across Germany. The Neubecks' apartment was demolished and his father was beaten as well. Neubeck and his parents fled to the Netherlands, and then to the United States in 1940.
In the United States, he earned a degree in personnel and guidance and a master's in psychology. In 1946, he moved to the Twin Cities, where he worked for a social service agency and as a University of Minnesota instructor. He earned a doctorate in education at New York's Columbia University, returning to the University of Minnesota in 1953 as a marriage and student counselor.
Neubeck retired from the university in the mid-1980s. In retirement, he enjoyed playing tennis and squash and riding his bicycle. His first home in the United States was Brooklyn, and he remained a Dodgers fan. And he especially liked to write poetry for family and friends. Neubeck died at his St. Paul home on Jan. 28, 2008.

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