Leo Sartori

Leo Sartori, physicist, arms control advocate, and beloved husband, father, grandfather, brother, and uncle, died on March 6, 2025, at his home in Newton, MA. He was 95.

He was born Leo Schnaidscher on December 9, 1929, in Milan, Italy, to Elvira and Moishe Schnaidscher (later Michele Sartori), Russian Jews who had met at medical school in Bologna and remained in Italy to practice dentistry. After Mussolini’s government passed laws targeting Jews in 1938, the family - which by then included Leo’s younger sister Elena - fled, first to England and then, in 1940, to the United States. They eventually settled in New York City, where Leo attended Stuyvesant High School, from which he graduated at the age of 15. At the age of 16, he entered MIT, from which he earned both a bachelor's degree and a PhD in theoretical physics. While a graduate student, he spent a year in Italy on a Fulbright Fellowship.

After receiving his PhD, Sartori worked as an editor at the journal Physical Review, followed by positions at Princeton University, Rutgers University, and MIT. While at Rutgers, he met Eva Martin, then a student at Bryn Mawr College; they married in December 1961. They have two daughters, Anne and Jennifer.

In 1965, Sartori published his first book, "The Classical Atom," based on the earlier work of Francis Friedman.

In the mid-1960s, Sartori began a long-term interest in arms control. In the midst of the Cold War, together with like-minded colleagues from MIT and Harvard, he helped to organize a group called the Union of Concerned Scientists (now a large-scale organization) to educate themselves about the ongoing nuclear arms race. He helped to author influential pamphlets and journal articles about ABMs (Anti-Ballistic Missiles) and MIRVs (Multiple Independently Targetable Re-entry Vehicles).

In 1972, the Sartori family moved to Lincoln, Nebraska, where Leo became chair of the physics department at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Beginning in 1978, he spent three years at the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency in Washington, DC. While at ACDA, he participated in the final phase of the SALT II negotiations with the Soviet Union in Geneva.

In 1981, the family returned to Nebraska. Sartori now divided his time between the physics department and the political science department, where he taught courses in nuclear strategy and arms control. In 1996, he published his second book, "Understanding Relativity: A Simplified Approach to Einstein’s Theories," a popular book in which he explained special relativity using only high-school algebra.

In 1999, after they retired from the University of Nebraska, Leo and Eva moved to the Pioneer Valley of Massachusetts, where they built a house, enjoyed the area’s natural beauty, and became involved with the Five College Learning in Retirement program. Leo continued his interest in adult education when they moved to Lasell Village in Newton, Massachusetts, in 2013, teaching courses on a wide range of topics, including relativity, famous trials in US history, George Bernard Shaw, and word games.

An accomplished scholar, teacher, and public servant, Sartori was also an extremely loving person whose face lit up when family and friends entered the room until the very end. He was a playful person who loved games of all sorts, particularly bridge, tennis, Anagrams, and poker with his grandchildren. He was a lover of nature and particularly enjoyed hiking anywhere and swimming on Cape Cod. He was a classical music enthusiast and especially loved chamber music and opera. And he was fond of athletics, an eager tennis player into his early eighties and a visitor to the gym into his mid-nineties.

Sartori is survived by his wife of 63 years, Eva Sartori, as well as his daughters Anne and Jenny, sons-in-law Jonathan Parker and Barry Gilbert, and grandchildren Julian, Asher, and Celia.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in Leo’s memory to the Union of Concerned Scientists, www.ucs.org or HIAS, www.hias.org