Celebrating the Life and Memoir of Peter Lindenfeld at NWPL on July 18, 2026

Join Norman Williams Public Library and Yankee Bookshop on July 18 to celebrate the late Peter Lindenfeld’s memoir, A Century in the Making. Discover an extraordinary 100-year journey from a WWII Vienna refugee to a renowned Rutgers physicist, author, and activist.

After 100 years of fully engaged and varied pursuits, father, friend, colleague, physics education advocate, musician, author, creative, and fellow social justice warrior, Peter Lindenfeld died. But to his credit he left us not only with his imprint, but his memoir as well. Only days before he died, he held his published hard copy book in his hands: A Century in the Making, published by Catalyst Press.

Below is a copy of Peter's obituary from the Princeton town newspaper and a fuller description of his book. A Century in the Making is Peter's own account of an immigrant who struggled, we'd say successfully, to assimilate into a new and often baffling culture while holding his old world sensibilities close. What he never lost was his empathy for those who struggle to be accepted and don't come with the advantages afforded the wealthy and well connected.

He listened, and he championed the causes of students and faculty members in whom he saw promise but none of the foundational advantages that seemed to come easily to others. He regularly invited immigrants to join our dinner table for American holidays and at any other times. He encouraged young blood to take over leadership positions at work and in his civic pursuits. He wore his form of social democracy and inclusive responsibility on his sleeve—and we are all richer for it.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

The stable atmosphere of Peter Lindenfeld’s childhood in Vienna is destroyed by the Anschluss, the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany, and the young boy and his mother flee to North America.

As you know by now, Peter Lindenfeld— author, physicist, and Princeton Community Democratic organizer, of the Stonebridge community in Skillman and of Princeton where he resided for 65 years, died peacefully at the age of 100 on November 21, 2025.

Peter's memoir was just published, A Century in the Making: A Hundred-Year Journey from Refugee to American. He worked on it until his final days and held the first printed copy in his hands a few days before he died.

The volume flows back and forth through time and place, spanning the globe, starting with Peter's pre-World War II boyhood in Vienna, but its focus is on Peter's life in America.

He observes, "In America, even those who do not follow the usual and generally accepted path can sometimes flourish. One can go through life in steps that do not follow a set, predictable pattern, in spite of the pervasive, and usually inflexible, bureaucracies. The system is often chaotic. It works well for some, but it can also work badly, especially for those with no help or role model who flounder as they try to navigate it." Peter's experience as a refugee shaped his life. It informed the awareness of others that he brought to everyday interactions—and to the many lasting relationships he made as a teacher, a friend, and a partner.

The name "Peter Lindenfeld" is also on the spines of physics books, and he can tell us stories about discoveries in superconductivity, nuclear fusion, and gamma rays. He also tells us about war and peace and life and love, relationships, raising kids, breakups and makeups, stories about family, stories about communication, and stories about finding a place in the world.

Peter says, "I am not afraid of death, and the awareness of its approach hasn't kept me from continuing my activities. I would like to finish these remembrances. And continue, as long as I can, to observe, and to participate."

Please find the full description below along with photos from the book and more information about Peter. Get your copy here.

DESCRIPTION

The stable atmosphere of Peter Lindenfeld's childhood in Vienna is destroyed by the Anschluss, the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany, and the young boy and his mother flee to North America.

This forced exodus leads him to Vancouver, then New York, and finally, the academic world in New Jersey. Molded by his original Austrian-Jewish culture and carved by his new environment as an immigrant, Peter, a physicist, crosses paths with Jewish social societies and scientists shaping the new atomic world.

Through the microcosm of one man's life, Peter unfolds the story of immigration, assimilation, destruction and rebirth of home and relationships in post war North America.

EXCERPTS FROM A CENTURY IN THE MAKING

I don’t think of myself as a Holocaust survivor. I was not deported or detained. I did not suffer. I was carried along by the tide of events. Some of the members of my family died, some that I didn’t know, and some that were very close, including my cousin Erika, my grandmother, and members of my father’s family, including his sisters Ilon and Rosa. I did not find out about their fates until much later. My childhood in Vienna, from 1925 to 1938, followed a pattern toward a future that seemed predestined. The four years of elementary school, followed by the beginning years of Gymnasium, represented a program whose outlines seemed to be clear, leading to a professional life that in spirit if not in detail would parallel that of my parents. I was not a rebel. I tried to do what was expected of me. As a somewhat subdued and introverted only child, I felt secure in my progress along the only path that I knew, toward a time that was unknown, but not unexpected. (34)

I started to write about Time when I was in the hospital for a week with an infection triggered by a virus outbreak where we live. The doctor, Hatim Youssef, who came greeted me with “I was in your physics class as a pre-med, and you marked my life.” He had failed the first test but liked the class and decided to take it more seriously. Here he was, one of the most liked and admired physicians in the hospital. A great illustration of magical time for me, and a time of breaking out of the ordinary with decisions toward the future for him.

* * * * *

I have now passed my 100th birthday and people sometimes remark on that. I answer that I am very fortunate and take no credit for it. I say that such matters are decided under higher authority, in an office to which I have no access.

ABOUT PETER LINDENFELD

Peter Lindenfeld was born in Vienna and as a small child fled the Nazi annexation of Austria with his mother. He turned 100 years old in March 2025, editing and revising this book right up to his hundredth birthday. Retired from a storied academic career in physics at Rutgers University, Peter lived with his partner Mary Clurman at the Stonebridge retirement community near his home of 65 years in Princeton, and he died in November, 2025.

OBITUARY OF PETER LINDENFELD

Peter Lindenfeld, 100, of the Stonebridge community in Skillman, New Jersey, and of Princeton where he resided for 65 years, died peacefully on November 21, 2025 while holding the hands of his children, Tom and Naomi. Born on March 10, 1925 in Vienna, Austria, Peter was the son of Bela and Elda (nee Lachs) Lindenfeld who were Austrian physicians. Peter was a retired professor emeritus of physics at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, having taught there for over 45 years.

Peter and his parents were driven from Austria by the German annexation of March 1938. Shortly thereafter he spent time at the Sanitorium des Enfants in Switzerland while recovering from tuberculosis, then went with his mother in England. They made their way to the Sooke Harbor House on Vancouver Island courtesy of a Canadian agricultural visa. Peter went to high school in Vancouver and to the University of British Columbia where he earned a Bachelors and Masters in Engineering. Peter came to the United States to attend graduate school at Columbia University where he earned his Doctorate in Physics.

While studying at Columbia, Peter lived at International House and became an observer of the lively New York City art scene of the early 1950s. At a John Cage "happening" at the Eighth Street Club he met his future wife Lore Kadden, a textile artist and graduate of the avant garde Black Mountain College in North Carolina. Peter and Lore married May 31, 1953. Lore Lindenfeld died in 2010.

Peter became a full professor at Rutgers University in 1966 and retired in 1999. His research focus was on solid state superconductivity. However, his real passion was for making physics accessible to non-physics majors.

Peter's sabbaticals included time at Oxford in England, Tirupati in India, University of Paris D'Orsay, and at Kyoto University in Japan. He was a fellow of the American Physical Society and a member of the American Association of Physics Teachers/AAPT. He received the 1988 Warren I. Sussman Award for Excellence in Teaching at Rutgers. In 1989 the American Association of Physics Teachers awarded him the Robert A. Millikan award for "notable and creative contributions to the teaching of physics." In 2001, Rutgers created an endowed chair in his name in Experimental Condensed-Matter Physics. In 2011 Rutgers University Press published Physics, The First Science, which Peter co-wrote with Suzanne White Brahmia.

In the 1960s, Peter and Lore sent their children to the Quaker Farm and Wilderness Camps in Plymouth Union, Vermont. They fell in love with the area and bought a modest, three-room cottage in nearby Barnard where they spent their summers walking along Bowman Road, visiting the Barnard General Store, and swimming in Silver Lake.

Peter was informed and devoted to the traditions and culture of his Jewish faith, yet he also enjoyed a wider philosophical worldview.

Peter was a social human being to the core, taking real interest in the lives of others, bringing his subtle and gentle sense of humor to the task, and keeping the focus on others. He supported Lore in her textile industry career and her later weaving and teaching career. He enthusiastically followed Tom's career as a political consultant. He championed Naomi's work as a potter and ceramics teacher.

Peter was active in many social justice causes. He was a founding member of the Princeton Community Democratic Organization, and remained its secretary for decades.

During the last 15 years, he shared his active life with his partner, Mary Clurman, who died this past August. He also quickly engaged in the Stonebridge community in the last two and a half years which celebrated him at his 100th birthday party this past March.

Peter was a collector of pre-Columbian, Ashanti, and other art, collected ancient Arabic and Judaic coins, was a music appreciator and played recorder with the Princeton Recorder Society. Peter spoke German, French, English, Hebrew, Arabic, Japanese, and some Russian. Peter and Lore were so intrigued with Japanese culture that they visited there several times. He loved photography, mycology, book making, origami, officiating weddings, and collecting and keeping in touch with his many friends.

Peter is survived by his son Tom and his partner Becky Leise of Princeton, New Jersey, his daughter Naomi and her husband Michael Bosworth of Brattleboro, Vermont, and his grandson Sam Lindenfeld of Brooklyn, New York.

Peter's memoir was just published: A Century in the Making – A Hundred-Year Journey from Refugee to American by Flare Books. He worked on it until his final days.

A memorial service will be held on January 17, 2026 at 10:30 a.m. in the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Princeton, 50 Cherry Hill Road. All who knew Peter and his family are invited. To offer condolences, visit thekimblefuneralhome.com. To make contributions in Peter's honor, please consider either the Princeton Community Democratic Organization princetondempsit.wixsite.com or Sustainable Princeton at sustainableprinceton.org to honor his support for the Guyot Walk restoration project.