Dr. Alexander Lehrman

Born: 5/24/1952 Died: 10/10/2011 Dr. Alexander Lehrman of Newark, Delaware, passed away at home on Monday, October 10, 2011. He had worked since 1989 at the University of Delaware as a professor of Russian language, literature, and culture. A philologist, etymologist, and Yale-trained Indo-Europeanist, he knew over forty languages and was an expert on words and their histories, as well as on languages and cultures and their interrelations. He published three scholarly books and many articles on a vast array of subjects, along with three book-length translations, a novel, and poetry. Music was his second love. A native of Moscow, USSR, he was trained as a classical cellist at the Gnesin School of Music. He was a vocalist, bass-guitarist, and song writer in the underground rock and roll movement in the USSR in the late ’60s and early ’70s. He immigrated to the West in 1975, settling in the US in 1976. After the fall of the USSR he recorded and released in Russia two CDs of his music. An avid student of the Bible, he joined the Christian Science church in 2002 after experiencing several healings of incurable chronic ailments through reading Mary Baker Eddy’s Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. He served actively in the Newark, DE, church, and also worked to bring to Russia the spiritual truths of this beautiful religion. A loving husband, son, father, and grandfather, he leaves to cherish his spirit his wife Susan Amert and his mother Zinaida, of Newark, DE; his son Ilya and his wife Noelle of Glenmoore, PA; his son Nicholas; his grandson Tristan; two sets of cousins and their children in Russia and in Germany, as well as a large extended family in South Dakota. His father Anatoly passed away before him. Burial will be private, with a memorial service to be held later. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests contributions to the First Church of Christ, Scientist, 48 W. Park Place, Newark, DE 19711; the Spiritual Resource Foundation, P.O. Box 7278, Olympia, WA 98507, or the Delaware Symphony Orchestra, P.O. Box 1870, Wilmington, DE 19899.