Herman Maximillian Dolezal

Herman Dolezal, age 84, passed away on Friday, May 17, 2024, while tending to his beloved wife Diane in the hospital. Living through World War II in Europe shaped Herman’s formative years and resulted in a lifetime of irreverent stoicism, but with that came his own paradoxical recipe for happiness, anchored by love for his family.

Herman emigrated to the United States from Austria after World War II with his mother, brother and stepfather in 1957. They were assisted by the Tolstoy Foundation and settled in Valley Cottage, New York. Herman had a passion for science and computers and earned advanced degrees in chemistry, management and computer science from Fordham University and Stevens Institute of Technology. He spent most of his professional career working as a scientist for Ciba-Geigy, General Mills and International Paper doing what he loved most—quietly finding solutions to problems others could not. Later in life, he shared his wealth of knowledge through a career in education, most recently as a professor at Montclair State University.

Herman met the love of his life, Diane Stott Dolezal, while visiting his brother, Hubert. The brothers were listening to opera in Hubert’s apartment and Diane came to complain about the noise. To this day, we don’t know how an opera-loving immigrant with an accent only slightly more intelligible than Arnold Schwarzenegger’s connected with a fiery redhead from rural upstate New York, but they were inseparable for 53 years of marriage. Although it comes with overwhelming sadness, Herman’s death is testament to his tremendous love for Diane because it was undoubtedly the awesome stress of her illness and the knowledge of her imminent death that caused his own.

Herman faced his own mortality head on and without fear, often telling us that when he “dropped dead” to just “dig a hole and roll him in.” Much to his disappointment, he will be properly interred next to his wife Diane on Saturday, June 1, at 11:00am in Mount Hebron Cemetery in Montclair, New Jersey. He is survived by his two sons, David and Daniel and brother, Hubert. To share a memory of Herman or send a condolence to his family, please visit Becker-FuneralHome.Com