Herman Weil, the first chair of the UWM Psychology Department and the first director of the
Honors Program, died on August 6, 1995 at the age of 89 at the Jewish Home for the Aged. An
academic leader at UWM, he also was a leader in Milwaukee's Jewish community.
His scholarly specialty was the psychology of prejudice, a subject he knew well through his
own experience in Nazi Germany. Later, in Milwaukee, he was well known for his work in
intergroup relations and human rights, and he moderated a series on modern psychology on
WMVS-TV.
A native of Alsace-Lorraine, Weil earned a doctor of psychology degree at the University of
Marburg in Germany, and worked with the prominent philosopher-theologian Martin Buber in
Frankfurt. Weil came to the United States in 1938, after a short imprisonment at the
Buchenwald concentration camp.
He was a professor at the Milwaukee School of Engineering before joining Milwaukee State
Teachers College, a predecessor of UWM, in 1943. He also taught part-time at
Milwaukee-Downer College. He served several years as an associate dean in the College of
Letters and Science. He retired from UWM in 1976.
In 1986, he received an honorary doctor of public service degree from UWM. In 1994, Weil
was among the first group of individuals honored by having their names listed on the Ernest
Spaights Plaza on the UWM campus. Among many other awards that Weil received were the
Interfaith Award of the Milwaukee B'nai B'rith Council and the Wisconsin Brotherhood Award
of the National Conference of Christians and Jews. In 1988, he was honored by the City of
Frankfurt, Germany. He held leadership positions in many professional and community
organizations, and maintained these commitments to the end of his life. (Source: UWM Report, vol. 16, no. 7 [1995]: 3).
