FALK, Gerhard 1924-

PERSONAL: Born August 22, 1924, in Hamburg, Germany; son of Leonhard and Hedwig (Cibulski) Falk; married Ursula Adler, January 8, 1950; children: Cynthia, Daniel, Clifford. Education: Western Reserve University (now Case Western Reserve University), B.A., 1953, M.A., 1955; State University of New York—Buffalo, Ed.D., 1969.

ADDRESSES: Home—109 Louvaine, Buffalo, NY 14223. Offıce—Department of Sociology, State University of New York College at Buffalo, 1300 Elmwood Ave., Buffalo, NY 14222. E-mail—falkgerhard@ yahoo.com.

CAREER: South Dakota State College, Brookings, instructor in sociology, 1955-56; University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, instructor in sociology, 1956-57; State University of New York College at Buffalo, Buffalo, assistant professor, 1957-62, associate professor, 1962-70, professor of sociology, 1970—.

MEMBER: Western New York Sociological Association (past president), Western New York Group Psychotherapy Association (past president), Alpha Tau Kappa.

WRITINGS:

(With wife, Ursula Falk) The Nursing Home Dilemma, R & E Research Associates (Palo Alto, CA), 1976.

(With Ursula Falk and George Tomashevich) Aging inAmerica and Other Cultures, R & E Research Associates (Palo Alto, CA), 1981.

Murder: An Analysis of Its Forms, Conditions andCauses, McFarland (Jefferson, NC), 1990.

The Life of the Academic Professional in America, Edwin Mellen (Lewiston, NY), 1990.

The Jew in Christian Theology, McFarland (Jefferson, NC), 1992.

A Study of Social Change in Six American Institutions, Edwin Mellen (Lewiston, NY), 1993.

American Judaism in Transition: The Secularization of a Religious Community, University Press of America (Lanham, MD), 1995.

(Coauthor) Ageism, the Aged, and Aging in America:On Being Old in an Alienated Society, C. C. Thomas (Springfield, IL), 1997.

Sex, Gender, and Social Change: The Great Revolution, University Press of America (Lanham, MD), 1998.

Hippocrates Assailed: The American Health DeliverySystem, University Press of America (Lanham, MD), 1999.

Stigma: How We Treat Outsiders, Prometheus Books (Buffalo, NY), 2001.

(With Ursula Falk) Grandparents: A New Look at theSupporting Generation, Prometheus Books (Buffalo, NY), 2002.

Man's Ascent to Reason: The Secularization of WesternCulture, Edwin Mellen (Lewiston, NE), 2002.

Contributor to numerous books, including Interdisciplinary Problems in Criminology, edited by Walter Reckless, Ohio State University (Columbus, OH), 1966; Marital Counseling, edited by Hirsch L. Silverman, C. C. Thomas (Springfield, IL), 1967; An American Historian, edited by Milton Plesur, State University of New York College at Buffalo (Buffalo, NY), 1980; and S & M: Studies in Sado-Masochism, edited by Thomas S. Weinberg and G. W. Levi Kamel, Prometheus Books (Buffalo, NY), 1983. Contributor to a wide variety of scholarly journals, including Marital Counseling,Mental Hygiene, Criminology and Police Science, Criminologica, International Behavioral Scientist, Journal of Reform Judaism, Deviant Behavior, Nursing Outlook, Journal of Pastoral Counseling, and Improving College and University Teaching.

WORK IN PROGRESS: The American Identity: What Football Means to U.S.; research for Christian Zionism: A History.

SIDELIGHTS: Gerhard Falk once told CA: "On becoming an assistant professor I recognized that progress in achieving promotion and salary increases depends on publication of scholarly articles and monographs. Therefore, I worked on such publications diligently and succeeded in producing forty-five journal articles and chapters in books. Then, in 1988 I happened to see the archives of a defunct newspaper in the library. This led me to look for material on murder because I teach a course in criminology. I found news clippings going back over forty years concerning murder. This led me to write a whole book on that subject including such matters as the place of the murder, whether inside or outside, the room in the house where the murder took place, the weapon used, the day of the week, the hour of the day, the relationship of the killer to the victim and many other details.

"Having published that book I recognized that writing books is much more enjoyable than writing articles, not only because books are more visible, but also because books permit the author much more leeway in expressing his views and intentions. In short, books are not as confining as articles. Thereupon I decided to write on anything that interested me. Hence I next wrote a book concerning my profession called The Life of the Academic Professional in America. Then I wrote The Jew in Christian Theology because I had come across the Holocaust murders while writing the previous book. Now I am working on An American Century because I seek to show how we lived these one hundred years. The book deals with daily life. It is not a history book but a sociology of the century.

"My principal purpose in writing these books is to bring these topics to the attention of readers and to 'put my two cents in.' I write on topics not well exposed and sometimes not researched at all. I want these topics to be available in libraries. Until I did so, there was no book on how to become and be a professor. While the relationship of Christianity to the Holocaust is mentioned in various publications, it was never before fully exposed, particularly since I translated, as part of my book, an 85-page work by Martin Luther which has never been translated before."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Ageing and Society, May, 1998, Neil Thompson, review of Ageism, the Aged, and Aging in America: On Being Old in an Alienated Society, p. 379.

Choice, March, 2000, J. P. Brickman, review of Hippocrates Assailed: The American Health Delivery System, p. 1327.

Contemporary Sociology, March, 1998, Robin D. Moremen, review of Ageism, the Aged, and Aging in America, p. 154; March, 2001, review of Sex, Gender, and Social Change: The Great Revolution, p. 181; July, 2002, Carol Brooks Gardner, review of Stigma: How We Treat Outsiders, p. 299.

Judaism: Quarterly Journal of Jewish Life andThought, winter, 1997, Lawrence W. Raphael, review of American Judaism in Transition: The Secularization of a Religious Community, p. 122.

Library Journal, October 1, 2002, Ellen D. Gilbert, review of Grandparents: A New Look at the Supporting Generation, p. 118.

Publishers Weekly, May 28, 2001, review of Stigma, p. 78.