Obituary of Moses Greenfield (1915-2012)

Dr. Moses A. Greenfield, a professor emeritus in the David Geffen School of Medicine and co-founder of the biomedical physics graduate program at UCLA, died July 27 in New York. He was 97. Greenfield co-founded UCLA’s medical physics graduate program in 1960. Now called the biomedical physics interdepartmental graduate program, it consists of the departments of radiological sciences, radiation oncology and molecular and medical pharmacology. But many family members, friends and colleagues of the renowned physicist remember him as a “perfect gentleman.”

"(Greenfield) was an old-school gentleman,” said Loretta Brookes, who worked with Greenfield as the student affairs officer for UCLA’s biomedical physics graduate program until 2001. “He never talked down to anybody and listened to everyone’s input – administrators, faculty and students.” After starting at UCLA in 1948 as an associate professor in the radiological sciences department, Greenfield served as director of the interdepartmental graduate program until he retired in 1982, only to be reappointed to the position when there was a vacancy 10 years later.

During Greenfield’s more than 20 years as director of the biomedical physics graduate program, he made an effort to get to know the 40-some graduate students who were in the program at any given time, said Peter Rosemark, who graduated from the biomedical physics graduate program in 1982. "(Greenfield) created an atmosphere – a family atmosphere,” said Rosemark, now a radiation physicist at Torrance Memorial Medical Center. “He encouraged us to all be friends with each other and the classmates that I had then, I’m still friends with now, so many years later.”

Even after he retired around 2001, Greenfield just couldn’t seem to stay away from UCLA. The professor emeritus kept his office, which still contains his research documents, books and materials, in the Center for Health Sciences building in the Geffen School of Medicine, said Terry Moore, student affairs officer of the biomedical physics interdepartmental graduate program. He would return to campus frequently to tend to his office, write letters of recommendation and catch up with colleagues at the Faculty Center, Moore said. Often times, Greenfield would ask Moore to help him with some of his tasks, and eventually she said she became somewhat of an unofficial assistant to Greenfield. Greenfield made an impression on those around him with his intelligence, but more than that, his personality was what set him apart from others, Brookes said.

“He was very polite and respectful, so you never wanted to say no to him,” Moore said. “He was just a different kind of person. You don’t see very many of those people in the world anymore.” After seeing Moore’s then middle school-aged son, Dustin, play his jazz bass at one of the graduate program’s annual holiday parties, Greenfield and his wife started attending more of his performances, Moore said. The couple even gave money to Moore’s family to help send Dustin, the now-professional 23-year-old jazz musician, to the Reno Jazz Festival one year, Moore said.

“He was very cheerful to the end,” said Thomas Sargent, Greenfield’s son-in-law and an economics professor at New York University. “The core of my father-in-law was he was a very happy man.” Greenfield was born on March 8, 1915 in Brooklyn, New York. Before coming to UCLA in 1948, Greenfield worked as a research physicist for the United States Navy and North American Aviation, a U.S. aerospace manufacturer.

Greenfield is survived by his two children, Carolyn Greenfield Sargent and Richard Greenfield; and five grandchildren. Greenfield’s friends and family members will hold a private memorial service today. Donations can be made to the Greenfield Memorial Fund, which awards a $1,000 scholarship to an outstanding graduate student in the biomedical physics program each year.

http://www.dailybruin.com/article/2012/08/moses-a-greenfield-co-founder-of-uclas-biomedical-physics-graduate-program-dies-at-97