Jerome Danburg

More than anything else, the life of Jerome S Danburg was animated by insatiable curiosity. For more than eighty years Jerry engaged in a perpetual quest to learn more about the world around him and the friends and family who brought him so much happiness. His quest took him from the small red brick triplex on La Branch Street to the storied halls of learning at MIT and then to Berlin, Germany where he met the love of his life, Gudrun Scholz. Years later, Jerry returned to Houston where he and his new family flourished for so many full and happy years. On August 10, 2021, Jerry's quest finally drew to an end, at his home in Bellaire, in the embrace of his beloved Gudrun. From a family of Central and Eastern European immigrants, Jerome was the third of seven children. Academically gifted, he resolved at a young age to excel in everything he did. An early interest in the natural world developed into a passion for scientific discovery. This would become Jerry's religion. When the young Jerry decided to leave Houston for a coveted place at MIT, his mother was perplexed but supportive. 'I remember her looking at me with pride but also surprise' he recalled. 'She was probably thinking "what is he doing?"' The answer was not long in coming. Jerry arrived at MIT feeling, in his words, 'like the king of the world'. Fiercely competitive, he excelled in everything MIT had to offer and before long was looking for new worlds to conquer. Over the summer of 1961 he visited Europe seeking adventure but found so much more. His chance encounter with a young West Berliner named Gudrun transformed his life. As Jerry put it, 'meeting Gudrun put a crack in my motivation for studying physics, a crack as wide as the Grand Canyon'. Jerry had fallen in love. Jerry now began to steer by a new lodestar. In 1965, he and Gudrun were married. Four years later, Aron was born, followed by Andrea, Sylvia and Sonja. Jerry took the greatest of pleasure in his expanding family, especially his eight grandchildren. The youngest would sit rapt as Jerry, an accomplished story teller, would spin ever more outrageous tales. For others, Jerry was a fount of wisdom, patiently explaining complex phenomena in the simplest of terms. Above all, Jerry gloried in all their achievements. He wore a grandfather's pride on his sleeve, the icing on the cake for a life well-lived and a man well-loved. As Jerry, himself, put it in his final months, 'but I really have had the best life possible'. As the mathematician inside of him might have said ... Q.E.D.

Jerome Danburg

December 21, 1940 - August 10, 2021