David Lee Wallach

August 12, 2024, 12:58 pm 0 Edit

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WALLACH: David Lee Wallach passed away on Aug. 11, 2024, after days of loving family visits, following a quick decline from a debilitating stroke. David is predeceased by his parents (Edward and Dorothy), and his beloved wife of almost 60 years, Carole Gerstacker Wallach. He is survived by his sister Paula Eppinger and sister-in-law Marcia Anselmo, children Beth Wallach, Dan (Joyce) Wallach, Deborah (Joseph) Busche, grandchildren Kaitlin Grabowski, Jonathan Wallach, Christine (Alex) Armstrong, Jackson and Damien Busche, step-grandson Dennis Hullihan, great-grandchildren Ty and Michael Grabowski and Brayden Armstrong, many cousins, nieces and nephews and their children, “extra daughters” Holly (Rich) Schmidt and Ann (Chris) Hall, and wonderful caregivers Corrine, Diane, Emily, Bobbie and Nora, among others. David was born on Aug. 21, 1940, in Cleveland, Ohio, and enjoyed a wonderful childhood, including much mischief and chemistry experiments of dubious safety. He graduated from Shaker High School in 1958, and then went to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He didn’t graduate from Rensselaer because while home after his first year he met the love of his life, Carole, at a bus stop, when they were both attending summer classes at Western Reserve. After another year at Rensselaer, David transferred to Case to be near Carole. A few days after his graduation with a B.S. in physics in 1962, they married and used his years of paper route earnings to take a two-month honeymoon in Europe. They moved to the Pittsburgh area and David worked at Westinghouse-Bettis from 1962-1967, while attending night school at Carnegie Tech and earning a master’s degree in physics. He was a nuclear physicist at Westinghouse, involved in the first large-scale civilian nuclear power plant, and represented Westinghouse when its first nuclear submarine was powered up for the U.S. Navy. In 1967 he received an accidental lifetime dose of radiation in a small mishap at the Shippingport plant. This resulted in a new career in teaching physics, a field to which he was extremely well suited. He taught physics at Penn State, McKeesport campus, until 1998, achieving his Ph.D. in planetary science from the University of Pittsburgh in 1979. He also developed and taught a new course on the campus in astronomy. David was dedicated to making sure his students learned the material, providing caffeinated iced tea to ward off sleepiness, holding extra study sessions at his home on Sundays, mentoring students who approached him, and involving students in research (making sure they were listed as authors). He maintained lifelong relationships with several former students. He developed a curriculum and textbook for teaching physics for engineering technology students, who were not required to take calculus courses. He also co-authored the third revision of Frederick Bueche’s college textbook, “Technical Physics,” finding a number of mistakes as he worked through every problem in this textbook for its new solutions manual. David had a very active retirement, including two college teaching stints at Pitt and Washington and Jefferson, tutoring physics to high schoolers, and managing Carole’s psychology practice. Aside from family, his proudest achievement was writing and publishing his book “God and Science, Resolving the Paradox,” in which he synthesized his understanding of the Divine via both his scientific and religious perspectives. David was first and foremost a family man. A good son, he drove the family to and from Cleveland on many weeknights for a birthday dinner with the relatives. An amazing husband, he took care of Carole, through sickness and health until her death in 2022. He helped her develop her private practice and to realize her dream of traveling to all seven continents. And he stayed with her in the hospital for days at a time through Carole’s many health problems. An enthusiastic father, he built 6-foot high Lego towers and hot wheel tracks that spanned the house with his kids, fixed broken toys with great care, and served green eggs and ham ala Dr. Seuss. He chauffeured his children to their various lessons, and was a proud audience member at every performance. An adoring grandfather, he was an enthusiastic babysitter who always made the children feel special and valued. He served on the Peters Township School Board from 1979-1989, including in the role of president. David’s passion in life was helping people. From fixing strangers’ flat tires to canvassing the neighborhood for charitable contributions, from fixing the cars and appliances for the extended family to donating his valuable O-positive blood as often as possible, he always put others’ needs before his own. Judaism was a core part of his identity, and he was actively involved at Rodef Shalom Congregation, serving as president of Junior Congregation, and attended High Holiday services virtually as his mobility decreased. A remembrance of David would not be complete without mentioning his rescue cats — more than 30 friendly, spoiled, sweet cats across his adulthood. Visitors were greeted enthusiastically, and left with souvenir fur decorating their clothing. Educating until the end, David donated his body to medical science. Donations in David’s name may be made to the Washington Area Humane Society, the UPMC Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (where he had been a research participant for nine years), or the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. PJC