Childhood: son of diamond merchant, Berlin, Germany; Antwerp, Belgium; the Bronx, New York; City College of New York, physics, 1939-1941; University of Michigan, physics, 1941-1943; research at radiation lab, University of Michigan, 1943-1945; Columbia University, physics, 1945-1947; cruise to Cuba, seismology readings, 1953; association with Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory [Lamont], 1950; discove ry of third layer in ocean floor; doctoral thesis on marine refraction seismology, 1953; icesheet and seismology research, Lake Superior; pressures research, Stanford Research Institute, 1953-1955; professor and chairman, department of geophysics, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute [RPI], 1956; reminiscences of colleagues.