Lev Gorelik

A scientist, scholar, and loving husband, father and grandfather.

Lev was born and grew up in Gorky, Russia (currently Nizhny Novgorod), an old historic town about 300 miles East of Moscow on the banks of river Volga, with a 16th Century citadel (Kremlin).

He was raised by his father Venyamin and his mother Haya in a traditional Jewish family that came from a small town (mestechko) in rural Belorussia, Krivsk. He had one sibling - brother Gregory. His grandfather was a Talmud teacher, and his father was a master carpenter and furniture maker.

Lev grew up during the 2nd World War, and was one year shy of being drafted into the army when the war ended. He remembered bombing raids over the city.

After high school, he studied physics at the Gorky State University. Incidentally, at that time it was the top university in the country (of the caliber of Harvard or MIT) since most of the leading country’s scientists from Leningrad and Moscow, including members of the National Academy of Sciences, were evacuated to Gorky due to the war.

After the graduation, he was sent to work as an engineer at a defense plant in a small town of Taganrog on the Sea of Azov. There, while still fresh from college, he made his first invention and was granted a patent signed by a Navy Admiral.

Lev moved to St. Petersburg (Leningrad at the time) in 1953 to pursue a scientific career. He started working at the Federal Institute of Hydraulic Engineering (VNIIG) conducting research and designing dams and hydroelectric power plants. This became the cornerstone of his professional career, and he had an opportunity to participate in designing some of the largest hydroelectric power plant dams in the world. While at the Institute, he grew from a young researcher into an internationally recognized scientist in the area of Soil Mechanics.

He received his Ph.D. in Engineering (while working full time) in 1962. After many more years in the field and impressive technical accomplishments, he received the highest degree of the Doctor of Science in 1979 (Dr.Sc., roughly equivalent to a Full Professor academic standing), and served as a scientific advisor and graduated 9 Ph.D. students.

Lev was a modest man in both personal and professional life, and never actively pursued career advancement, working at the same organization most of his life. However, inevitably he was recognized for his work and technical achievements, and in 1983 was promoted to the top technical position of the Institute’s Chief Scientist.

During his professional career, he published about 200 journal papers, and authored a book and 13 patents in his field.

Science was Lev’s life-long passion, and he always viewed some of the world’s top scientists as his role models and inspiration, most notably Albert Einstein. He read many books about Einstein’s professional and personal life, and enjoyed sharing some of these stories with family and friends.

One of Lev’s favorite sayings was - “If you love what you do, you will never have to ‘work’ a single day in your life”. And he was fortunate to have this life. He could be seen working at home in the evenings or on weekends (writing papers etc.), and when I asked “why do you do it?”, his answer always was “ because I enjoy it”.

A few years after his retirement, Lev was recognized with an honorary title of the Distinguished Scientist of Russia in the area of Energy and Power Generation.

Personal Life:

Upon arrival to Leningrad in 1953, Lev lived for several years with his aunt, Rebecca (a survivor of the 900 days siege of Leningrad during the war), who almost became his “second mom” (she didn’t have a family of her own, her husband died during the war).

Lev got married to Ida in 1963, and they had a son, Michael, in 1964 (the only child). He enjoyed family life, and was a loving husband and father. He also enjoyed travel, music, poetry, and spending time with friends and family.

He had several life-long friends; one of them, also Lev, was a war hero, having fought as a tank driver from the first till the last day of war.

He learned a lot about the war from his friend Lev and his aunt Rebecca (something one can’t usually read in the books), and said that it always helped him putting things in perspective living during the time of peace.

Dinners with friends, at his place or theirs, with a good conversation and a glass of wine, were some of his favorite past times. Lev liked music (classical, waltz, tango, etc.) and was a pretty good dancer (at least according to himself 😊).

He also enjoyed travel and outdoors (hiking, biking, cross-country skiing and snorkeling), and taught his son to ski, swim, free-dive and snorkel. A summer vacation with the family by the Black Sea was always a special experience for him.

Lev immigrated to USA with Ida and Michael in late 80s where they got reunited with Ida’s family in the Chicago area. He lived with Ida on the North Side of Chicago since then.

Lev is survived by his wife, Ida, and his son, Michael.

May he rest in peace and his memories live forever.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Jewish National Fund - planting a tree in Israel, www.jnf.org OR to Temple Chai - minimum donations of $18 requested, www.templechai.org.

A funeral service will be held on Friday, October 22 at 9:30 am at Weinstein & Piser Funeral Home, 111 Skokie Blvd., Wilmette, IL. Interment immediately following at Memorial Park Cemetery, Skokie, IL. Due to the latest CDC guidelines, masks will be required indoors.

For information: call 847-256-5700.