Morton H Litt

Morton Herbert Litt, Ph.D., passed away unexpectedly on June 2, 2020, at University Hospitals, Cleveland. A University Heights resident since 1967, he is survived by his wife, Lola, his children Jonathan (Maria) and Jennie (David Alpher), and his grandchildren Daniel, David, Michael, and Mirabelle.

Morty was born in Brooklyn, NY, on April 10, 1926, to Samuel Litt (formerly Litwak) and Minnie Hertz. He was raised in the Bronx and Monticello, New York, and attended The Bronx High School of Science; City College of New York; and Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, where he earned his Ph.D. in polymer science.

He did a post-doctoral fellowship at The University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) in Manchester, England, where he met and married his wife of almost 63 years, Lola (Abrahamson) Litt. They sailed to New York City in December, 1957, and settled in Syracuse, NY, where Morty did a second post-doctoral fellowship at the College of Forestry, then a division of Syracuse University. He worked for Allied Chemical (now Honeywell) in Morristown, New Jersey, in first half of the 1960s before taking an academic position at Case Western Reserve University in the Department of Macromolecular Science.

Morty remained at CWRU for the remainder of his long and distinguished career, attaining the rank of full professor, until his retirement in 2005, dividing his time between teaching, supervising graduate work, research, publishing papers, generating patents, and consulting. Starting in the 1980s, his work focused on the development of fuel-cell technology.

Morty had an artistic side as well. He was fascinated by rocks; he cut and polished opals, alexandrite, chrysoprase, turquoise, agate, and other semi-precious minerals in his basement workshop, eventually branching out into silversmithing and jewelry-making. He was a devoted amateur photographer as well, chronicling nearly 80 years of family life and travels with his camera. In later years, he scanned thousands of prints and slides to create a digital library of this archive. He loved wine, food, science fiction, and reciting poetry.

Morton and Lola moved to Judson Park in 2019.

Morty was generous, brilliant, family-oriented, intellectually well-rounded, curious, and an open-handed supporter of causes he believed in.

In lieu of flowers, friends are encouraged to make a memorial donation to the ACLU in Morty’s name: https://action.aclu.org/give/make-gift-aclu-someones-memory?cid=70136000001OB6t&ms=hp_donate&ms_aff=NAT&ms_chan=web&initms=hp_donate&initms_aff=NAT&initms_chan=web

A celebration of Morty’s life will be held at a later date.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy for the Litt family may be shared at the "add a memory" link .