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Richard E. Berendzen

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Richard Berendzen
PhD
Berendzen in 1972
Born
Richard Earl Berendzen

(1938-09-06)September 6, 1938
Walters, Oklahoma, U.S.
DiedNovember 3, 2022(2022-11-03) (aged 84)
Arlington, Virginia, U.S.
Alma materMIT, Harvard
Spouses
Barbara Edwards
​
(div. 1960)​
Gail Edgar
​
(m. 1964)​
Children2
Scientific career
Fields
Institutions
Doctoral advisorWilliam Liller

Richard Earl Berendzen (September 6, 1938 – November 3, 2022) was an American scientist, professor, and president of American University, specializing in astronomy. His resignation in 1990 came following formal charges of making indecent phone calls to households in the Fairfax area over the course of several weeks that year. In 1992, he returned to American University as a full-time physics professor until his retirement in 2006.

Early life

Berendzen was born in Walters, Oklahoma on September 6, 1938. In 1942, Berendzen and his parents, Earl and June Berendzen, moved to Portland, Oregon, where Berendzen developed rheumatic fever and asthma at a young age, which confined him to his room.[1][2][3]

In 1945, the family relocated to Dallas, Texas where Earl managed a hardware store. Richard Berendzen remained ill and bedridden for three more years and began spending time stargazing on his lawn.[2][1]

In 1946, Berendzen began attending school for the first time as a second grader.[2] His mother's mental health began to deteriorate, and "she was wildly unpredictable. Labels like manic, paranoid, delusional, and psychotic came years later. Sometimes she would be furious for no apparent reason; then, in a snap, she could suddenly become incredibly loving, supportive, and fun.”[citation needed] Berendzen began experiencing sexual abuse in his home at this time.[4]

Education

Berendzen attended Southern Methodist University where he pursued a physics degree. He transferred to MIT after his sophomore year[2][5] and received a Bachelor of Science degree in 1961.[3] Berendzen continued to Harvard as a graduate student where he served as a teaching assistant for both William Liller and Carl Sagan. He graduated in 1967 with a master's degree and a joint PhD in astronomy and education.[2][5][6]

Career

Berendzen joined the physics and astronomy faculty at Boston University and became the chair of the astronomy department in 1971.[6] In 1974, he was hired as the dean of the college of arts and sciences at American University in Washington, D.C. [2][5][6] American University appointed him as provost in 1976,[3] and in 1980 he became the university's eleventh president.[2][6] During his 10-year tenure as president, Berendzen and his wife Gail averaged eleven Washington social functions every week and the university's endowment tripled in size.[7][1]

As president, Berendzen secured a $5 million donation from Saudi businessman Adnan Khashoggi toward the Adnan Khashoggi Sports and Convocation Center and named Kashoggi to the university's board of trustees.[7] Khashoggi's donation, and the building's subsequent naming, elicited limited protests from some American University students and former faculty who were concerned about Khashoggi's role in the Iran-Contra Affair.[8] Kashoggi was removed from the board in 1989 after facing charges of racketeering, fraud and obstruction of justice pertaining to his dealings in the Philippines.[9] [10]

In addition to his responsibilities at American University, Berendzen chaired the commission on the Budget and Financial Priorities of the District of Columbia[11][when?] and the American Council on Education's Committee on Foreign Student Policy.[12][when?] He was also an original member of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal.[13]

Berendzen at the Life Beyond Earth and the Mind of Man panel, November 1972

He served on the board of the Planetary Society[14] and the advisory board for the National Center for the Survivors of Child Abuse.[15] He was a consultant to NASA,[16] served on NASA's Exploration Advisory Task Force[17] and Selection Panel for the Teacher-in-Space Program,[18] has served as Director of NASA's Space Grant Consortium for Washington, D.C..[14], and has testified about space and education before the United States Congress.[19]

Under the auspices of the New York Academy of Sciences and the American Astronomical Society, Berendzen organized and chaired a major international conference, titled "Education in and History of Modern Astronomy."[20] He organized and chaired two other key conferences: "Life Beyond Earth and the Mind of Man" (at Boston University) in 1973 and "Space 2000" (at American University) in 1999.[21][22] Proceedings from the Boston University was included in Who's Out There?, a 1975 television program narrated by Orson Welles.[23][24]

Resignation from American University

In March 1990, daycare owner Susan Allen received a phone call from a man claiming to be a gynecologist and inquiring about her sexual habits. Allen reported the call to her husband, a Fairfax County law enforcement officer, and continued to engage with the caller for several weeks while police monitored the communication via call tracing and tape recordings. Allen described the calls as "filthy beyond your most horrible nightmares."[2][25]

Police traced the calls to American University and Berendzen's private phone line.[25] Among other things, Berendzen asked those he called whether they had sex with children, claimed he kept a 4-year-old sex slave in his basement, and made repeated references to child pornography and purchasing child sex slaves at auction.[26] On April 7, the board of trustees confronted Berendzen, who resigned on April 8 and was admitted to Johns Hopkins, where he was treated with several therapies addressing his childhood abuse.[27][28] On April 10, Berendzen issued a public statement citing "exhaustion" as the reason behind his decision to step down.[1][3][29]

Aftermath

Berendzen was charged with two misdemeanor counts of making indecent calls.[29] He pleaded guilty to both and his jail time was suspended on the condition that he continue receiving psychiatric treatment for the next year.[30][31] Once the case became public, more than two dozen other daycare providers in the Fairfax area reported to police that they had also received obscene calls.[1]

In the summer of 1990, Allen filed a $11 million lawsuit against Berendzen and American University.[32] The case was settled for an undisclosed sum.[33]

In 1992, Berendzen returned to American University as a full-time physics professor and served in that role until he retired in August 2006.[31][34]

Accomplishments

Berendzen received a honorary doctorate degrees from Seton Hall University[35] and the University of Columbo[36] in 1985, and from the University of Maryland in 1990.[37]

Personal life

Berendzen met his first wife, Barbara Edwards, at Woodrow Wilson High School, and their first daughter, Deborah, was born during Berendzen's first year at SMU.[2]. In 1960, while Berendzen was at MIT, Barbara returned to Dallas with Deborah and the couple divorced.[5][2] Berendzen married Gail Edgar, who he met at Harvard, in 1964 [2] and the couple had a daughter named Natasha.[38]

Berendzen died of a respiratory ailment at his Arlington, Virginia, home on November 3, 2022. He was 84.[39]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Hewitt, Bill; Clifford, Garry. "A University President Tumbles from Grace Following Charges That He Made Obscene Phone Calls". People. Archived from the original on 15 November 2017. Retrieved 15 November 2017.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Carlson, Peter. "It All Adds Up To a Lot of Pain". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 15 November 2017. Retrieved 15 November 2017.
  3. ^ a b c d Twomey, Steven; Sanchez, Rene (29 April 1990). "An Academic Star Felled by a Scandalous Revelation". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 15 November 2017. Retrieved 15 November 2017.
  4. ^ Berendzen, Richard (1993). Come Here: A Man Overcomes the Tragic Aftermath of Childhood Sexual Abuse. Villard Books. ISBN 067941777X. Retrieved 27 December 2020.
  5. ^ a b c d Kastor, Elizabeth. "AU Out There! University President Richard Berendzen". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 15 November 2017. Retrieved 15 November 2017.
  6. ^ a b c d Borstel, Hallie; Duval, Lauren; Johnson, Jordan; McElrath, Susan; Orphanides, Nicole; Rhodes, Sidney; Rossettie, Brianna; Sellar, Caitlyn; Shore, Leah. "American University History: AU Chancellors and Presidents the Last 35 Years". Archived from the original on 11 January 2018. Retrieved 11 Jan 2018.
  7. ^ a b Barbara Gamarekian (11 December 1985). "How Powerful is as Powerful Does". New York Times. Archived from the original on 20 January 2018.
  8. ^ Dunham, Will (8 February 1987). "American University defends gift from arms dealer". Retrieved 19 Jan 2018.
  9. ^ Youssef M. Ibrahaim (19 April 1989). "Khashoggi Seized by Swiss Officials". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 20 December 2017.
  10. ^ Larry Van Dyne (1 July 2001). "Chasing Money: Getting Big Donations Is the Name of the Game at Museums, Hospitals, and Charities. The Tricks Are Very Creative, and the Gifts Are Really Big". Washingtonian. Archived from the original on 19 January 2018.
  11. ^ Michael Janofsky (30 May 1994). "Washington's Decline Is the Issue". New York Times. Retrieved 5 Feb 2018.
  12. ^ Jane N. Danto (10 Jan 1982). "Flood of Foreign Students is Only Beginning". New York Times. Retrieved 5 Feb 2018.
  13. ^ "Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal". Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology. The Gale Group Inc. 2001. Archived from the original on 19 January 2018.
  14. ^ a b "Richard Berendzen". Archived from the original on 11 January 2018. Retrieved 10 Jan 2018.
  15. ^ Dawidoff, Robert (24 October 1993). "Undoing the Damage of Incest: COME HERE: A Man Overcomes the Tragic Aftermath of Childhood Sexual Abuse". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 16 November 2017. Retrieved 15 November 2017.
  16. ^ Jon Bowen (12 July 1999). "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Aliens -UFOS". Salon.com. Retrieved 5 Feb 2018.
  17. ^ Lee Bowman (28 Jan 2004). "What's in the stars for NASA? Observers Ponder". Archived from the original on 5 February 2018.
  18. ^ Andrew Trotter (19 May 2004). "NASA Picks Three Teachers for Educator-AStronaught Roles". Education Week. Archived from the original on 5 February 2018.
  19. ^ Richard Berendzen (19 Sep 1978). "The Case for SETI". Archived from the original on 5 February 2018. Retrieved 4 Feb 2018.
  20. ^ "International Conference on Education in and History of Modern Astronomy Part II". Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 198. Aug 1974.
  21. ^ Richard Berendzen, ed. (20 Nov 1972). Life Beyond Earth and the Mind of Man (PDF). Symposium Proceedings. NASA Scientific and Technical Information Office, Washington D.C.
  22. ^ Blaine Friedlander (2 Mar 1999). "Where We've Been". The Washington Post. Retrieved 5 Feb 2018.
  23. ^ "Video Transcript for Archival Research Catalog (ARC) Identifier 649442" (PDF). National Archives and Records Administration. Retrieved 5 Feb 2018.
  24. ^ Amelia Crater (6 Jan 2011). "1975 NASA film on Search for ET Should Top Holiday Viewing list". Archived from the original on 5 February 2018.
  25. ^ a b Patricia Davis (25 Apr 1990). "Obscene Phone Calls Are Traced to AU President". The Washington Post. Retrieved 5 Feb 2018.
  26. ^ Bauers, Sandy. "Obscene Phone Calls And Bitter Allegations Richard Berendzen's Appearance Left Many In The Audience With Mixed Feelings". Philly.com. Archived from the original on 2015-12-23.
  27. ^ Pope, Kenneth (Sep 1995). "What Psychologists Better Know About Recovered Memories: Research, Lawsuits, and the Pivotal Experiment". Clinical Psychology. 2 (3): 304–315. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2850.1995.tb00046.x. Archived from the original on 27 October 2016. Retrieved 10 Jan 2018.
  28. ^ "False Memory Syndrome Foundation Newsletter". 4 (5). 2 May 1995. Archived from the original on 6 February 2018. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  29. ^ a b Keith Harriston; Patricia Davis (12 May 1990). "Berendzen Charged in Phone Case". Washington Post.
  30. ^ Womack, Anita. "Former American University President Pleads Guilty to Making Obscene Calls". AP News. Associated Press. Archived from the original on 27 December 2020. Retrieved 27 December 2020.
  31. ^ a b Baer, Susan. "Pact with AU puts Berendzen on faculty in '92". Baltimore Sun. Archived from the original on 11 January 2018. Retrieved 11 Jan 2018.
  32. ^ "University Ex-Head Sued over Sex Calls". Los Angeles Times. Associated Press. 4 August 1990. Archived from the original on 6 February 2018.
  33. ^ David Ellis (4 October 1993). "Primal Scream". Archived from the original on 6 February 2018.
  34. ^ Baer, Susan (25 December 1991). "Richard Berendzen returns to American University One-time president to teach astronomy". Baltimore Sun. Archived from the original on 27 December 2020. Retrieved 27 December 2020.
  35. ^ "Honorary Degree Recipients". Archived from the original on 9 August 2010.
  36. ^ "Honorary Degrees". Archived from the original on 19 June 2013.
  37. ^ "University of Maryland Honorary Degree Search". University System of Maryland. Archived from the original on 28 December 2020. Retrieved 28 December 2020.
  38. ^ "Kirkus Review: Is my armor straight? A year in the life of a university president". 20 Jan 1985. Archived from the original on 6 February 2018.
  39. ^ Smith, Harrison. "Richard Berendzen, AU president who resigned in scandal, dies at 84". The Washington Post. Retrieved March 27, 2023.

Richard E. Berendzen at IMDb

Preceded by President, American University
1980-1991 		Succeeded by
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