Memorial Service Set For Seymour Axelrod

By Arthur Page

Release Date: June 4, 1998 This content is archived.

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BUFFALO, N.Y. -- A memorial service will be held on June 14 for Seymour Axelrod, 70, a psychologist who was professor emeritus in the departments of psychiatry and psychology at the University at Buffalo.

Axelrod, a UB faculty member for 34 years who retired in 1996, died May 21 after a long illness. He lived in Buffalo.

Funeral services were held on May 22 in Delaware Park Memorial Chapel. A memorial service will be held at 3 p.m. on June 14 in the Center for Inquiry, 1310 Sweet Home Road, Amherst.

Axelrod came to UB in 1964 from Duke University, where he had been an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology. He taught research tools and methods for psychiatry residents and lectured on such topics as research opportunities, learning theory and behavior modification, as well as supervising theses of graduate and doctoral students.

Axelrod was an avid reader, especially of dictionaries. For the past nine years, he was active in Mendele, an international Yiddish interest on-line discussion group.

Born in New York City, Axelrod graduated cum laude in 1951 from Washington Square College, New York University. He received his doctorate in psychology in 1958 from New York University's Graduate School of Arts and Science, where he was a University Scholar.

He served in the Army Air Force from 1945-46.

At UB, Axelrod was active in the Faculty Senate, serving the organization as secretary from 1986-88, during which time he also chaired the Elections Committee. He had been a member of a number of committees in the Department of Psychiatry, chairing the Committee on Appointments, Promotions, Tenure and Privileges. He was president of the Faculty Council in the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences from 1994-95 and was co-chair of its task force on faculty development. Axelrod also had been a member of the Institutional Review Board in the School of Health Related Professions.

The author or co-author of more than 50 scientific papers, Axelrod was the recipient of numerous grants from the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute for Neurological Diseases and Blindness for research in such areas as tactile and auditory functions in blind children and neurological studies of perceptual functions.

He is survived by his wife, Janice; a son, Ethan Jacob of Buffalo, and three daughters, Bryn Loizeaux of Westchester, Lieza Zionts of Buffalo and Shoshanna Friedman of Provence, France.