Ernest Greenwood, a professor emeritus at U.C. Berkeley who spent some of his early years in a Jewish orphanage, died in a Berkeley hospital on Tuesday, May 4. The Oakland resident was 93.
Greenwood, born Grunwald, was born on Dec. 26, 1910, in Kolozsvar, Transylvania, now Cluj, Romania. His mother died during World War I, when Greenwood was just 6 years old.
His father remarried, and his new stepmother cared for him and his two younger sisters. The family moved to the United States in 1921.
Shortly after their arrival, Greenwood’s stepmother died as a result of childbirth complications. His father, not knowing what to do, gave his children the option of staying together in an orphanage, or living separately with various relatives. They chose the orphanage, and went to live at the Hebrew Orphan Asylum, where they stayed for two years.
They rejoined their father when he married again, and they moved to Passaic, N.J.
Greenwood received his bachelor’s degree from Ohio University in 1933. He was the first in his family to go to college, making his family very proud of him, said his great-nephew, Jose Klein. He obtained a master’s degree in sociology from the University of Cincinnati in 1936, and finally, a Ph.D. in sociology from Columbia University in 1943.
He also received a second master’s degree, in social administration, from the University of Chicago in 1947.
While doing his graduate work in New York, he worked and lived at the same orphanage where he had lived as a child. He continued to live there after it closed, in the 1940s.
While Greenwood occasionally attended synagogue, Klein said his great-uncle was a “confirmed agnostic.” But he identified very strongly with being Jewish, he said.
Because of his sociological background, Greenwood introduced new research methods to a field in which psychological studies were more widely used.
Greenwood joined the faculty of U.C. Berkeley in 1953, and stayed until 1970. He co-chaired a committee there to establish a doctoral program at the School of Social Welfare in 1960, and in 1963, endowed the Greenwood-Emeritus Faculty Prize for Excellence in Writing, which is awarded to a master’s student.
After retirement, Greenwood went to work on a family history project. He traced several generations of his family in Eastern Europe, stopping with his father’s generation. It will be archived at the Western Jewish History Center of the Judah L. Magnes Museum, said his great-nephew.
Greenwood is survived by his sisters Olga Schwartz of Vancouver, B.C., and Magda Grunwald Klein of Santa Fe, N.M., six nieces and nephews, and 36 grand- and great-grand nieces and nephews.
Donations can be made to the Greenwood-Emeritus Faculty Prize for Excellence in Writing, c/o School of Social Welfare, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-7400.