Greifer, Elisha, 1924-2010

Dr. Elisha Greifer was born in New York City on December 27, 1924 to Joseph and Minnie (Narotzky) Greifer. In third grade, he moved to Ishpeming, Michigan where he was surrounded by many maternal relatives in the Narotzky and Dubinsky families. After graduating as valedictorian of the Ishpeming High School class of 1942, he attended Harvard University where he was awarded a full scholarship. He suspended his studies at the age of nineteen to serve on the Navy USS Winged Arrow during World War II.After the war, Dr. Greifer returned to Harvard to successfully complete his undergraduate degree in 1946, with a major in philosophy and a minor in mathematics. Having had a taste of travel in the Pacific during the war and with a love of foreign languages, Dr. Greifer was interested in seeing more of the world and accepted a job in the foreign service with the U.S. State Department in Berlin, Germany. He returned to Harvard after a five year stint in Berlin to complete a Ph.D. in political science in 1958. This was followed by faculty positions at Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts and Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York. In 1961, with a growing family in tow, Dr. Greifer re-entered the foreign service, this time with assignments in Argentina and then Ecuador. In 1967, Dr. Greifer came back to his roots in Upper Michigan where he taught political science at Northern Michigan University until his retirement in 1997. Of these thirty years at NMU he once remarked, "it didn't feel like work because I enjoyed it so much." Greifer died on September 29, 2010 at the age of 85. Source: Mining Journal Obituary