His unexpected death resulted from severe complications following a respiratory infection. He had been under treatment over the past two years for a cancerous condition from which he seemed to be recovering, slowly. During this period, and indeed up to the very week of his death, he carried on a vigorous program of teaching and research and an extraordinary program of lectures, scientific conferences, and meetings of important technical committees. Although we were neighbors in Pittsburgh with a hedge between our properties, our visits became more and more infrequent as he stepped up his activities. His priority was to complete the tasks to which he had committed himself, with excellence, as he had done throughout his life.
Fred Kaufman was a charter member of The Combustion Institute, vice-president from 1978 to 1982, and president since 1982. He was vigorous and selfless and exercised strong leadership in achieving the Institute's goals. He was scheduled to visit Munich in August to finalize arrangements for the 21st Symposium. Through his engaging personality, he brought to the Institute a warm sense of comradeship among its several thousand members throughout the world. His sound judgment in handling complex Institute problems on an international level has done much to cement international relations via the subject of combustion. He and his wife Klari were a most gracious and beloved team to lead the Institute in these latter years.
It was my privilege and pleasure to have known Fred for over 35 years, during which time I watched the development of an extraordinary career in the service of science, teaching, and his adopted country. He was a natural born teacher and h;~s greatest pleasure was to expose modern concepts of chemistry to undergraduates at the Unversity of Pittsburgh. His students, both undergraduates and graduates, surely carried away with them an inspiring legacy.
Fred's chief interest was in the field of chemical reaction kinetics and in particular the study of elementary reacticns. He developed the method of gas tritation that is universally used in such studies. Many of his important contributions were published in the Institute's journal, Combustion and Flame, and in the biennial Symposium volumes. He was the Plenary Lecturer at the 1982 Symposium in Israel. His stimulating lecture on chemical kinetics should serve as a spur to those engaged in this area of combustion.
Fred Kaufman was born in Vienna in 1919, and he had already embarked on the study of chemistry at the Technische Hochschule when, in the face of the Hitler intrusion, his family emigrated to Panama in 1938 and from there to the United States in 1941. He attended evening undergraduate courses at Johns Hopkins University while working at a full-time job. In 1944, under a special plan, he enrolled in the Graduate School of Johns Hopkins and received his Ph.D. in 1948, skipping both bachelor and masters degrees. He then joined the Ballistic Research Laboratories, Aberdeen Proving Ground, as a member of the Combustion Section. He rose rapidly through various positions to that of Chief, Chemical Physics Branch. His stay at B.R.L. presented a golden opportunity to carry out a series of brilliant studies in combustion and chemical kinetics. During this period he taught evening classes at Johns Hopkins. He was the