A True Visionary
Applying the academic study of psychology to societal problems is something Hersh Leibowitz feels strongly about. It's one of the reasons why he, his wife Eileen, their two children and grandchildren decided to make a generous contribution to the renovation of the Moore Building, the site of Leibowitz's office for over thirty-three years.
"Our family is very close," explains Eileen Leibowitz. "We all have the same interests at heart—especially when it comes to philanthropy."
And that family has had a forty-two year interest in the Penn State community. 
Eileen and Hersh met in 1948 on a blind date at the University of Pennsylvania. She had just finished college and Hersh had one more year, due to his time in the military service. After graduating in 1948, Hersh went to graduate school at Columbia University in New York, while Eileen, a social worker, stayed in Philadelphia. Quickly tiring of the commute every weekend, they decided to get married the next year. After marriage, Eileen moved to New York City, where she found work as the Medical Social Service Director of Knickerbocker Hospital where her knowledge of Spanish was often called upon. Eileen left the job when she became pregnant.
"We had limited funds but Hersh had the G.I. bill and an assistantship and I loved the idea of being a young mother," Eileen recalls. "I stayed at home, raised my kids and became heavily involved with volunteer work."
And that volunteer work has grown to include a long list of gifts to both town and gown. The couple created a graduate scholarship and lecture series in the Department of Psychology and continues to be strong supporters of the Palmer Museum of Art and the Center for the Performing Arts at the University. Eileen was awarded the Distinguished Service Award from the Center for the Performing Arts in 2003, the same year that the couple was named the Penn State Renaissance Man and Woman of the Year. Eileen currently serves on the board of the Nittany Valley Symphony Guild and the Centre County Community Foundation where the couple has established the Leibowitz Family Fund.
The Leibowitz's son, Michael, says that he and his sister, Margie Milgrub, have always been very proud of his parents' commitment to Penn State and the State College community.
"They have always set an incredible example in their words and deeds which has had a positive impact on our family, and on their friends and colleagues," he stressed. "In the true spirit of the expression, 'They Are Penn State.'"
The close family was further strengthened when Hersh suffered a massive cardiac arrest in March of 1994. The fact that he is still here is pretty remarkable, says Eileen, and it is one of the motivating factors in their latest family generosity.
"We thought this would be a perfect way to honor Hersh on his 80th birthday," says Eileen. "Our children immediately made a generous pledge as did our grandchildren."
Hershel Leibowitz's work brought him to Penn State in 1962, when then-President Eric Walker was increasing the school's national profile by bringing in about twenty very highly regarded professors. Discovering his interest in psychology during his years in the service, Hersh's specialty was sensory psychology, an aspect of the field that studies neurophysiological bases of psychological processes.
"I worked on traffic safety and got involved in cars, trains, and airplanes," he remarks, in a breathtakingly simple description of his work.
In fact, Leibowitz is considered one of the most influential scientists in the past fifty years in the area of experimental psychology, especially as it is influenced by vision. The Evan Pugh Professor Emeritus of psychology and author of 250 publications who retired in 1995 earned international acclaim with his groundbreaking research into, in his words, "why teenagers like to speed and why astronauts get motion sickness." A part of this work, Leibowitz developed a laser system to measure what he calls a person's "dark focus," or the point at which the eye focuses at night.
He is the recipient of countless awards and honors, including an honorary Doctor of Science degree from the State University of New York and the Distinguished Contribution Award for the Application of Psychology from the American Psychological Association. Leibowitz was also presented with the Prentice medal for outstanding service on behalf of the visual welfare of the public by the American Academcy of Optometry.
Besides his teaching and research, Leibowitz served as an expert witness in many accident cases, which helped fuel a strong belief that was ahead of its time.
"Academic research must have real relevance," he insists. "What's the good of applied science if you can't apply it to societal problems?"
The Department of Psychology is focusing more and more on societal issues—with research into psychology and neuroscience, the growing importance of organizational psychology, the roots of terrorism, and more. The Leibowitz gift is critically needed to provide new offices and leading edge research space that will help ensure the department's success.