Assar W. F. Corvin, age, 90, passed away in Halifax, February 6, 2019. We will miss his love, charm, wit and intellect - wife Sybilla, son Michael, daughter-in-law Teresa, family and friends. As professor in the Dalhousie Faculty of Medicine, Assar taught many generations of Dal doctors and other medical professionals. He was an avid sailor and a gentle father; accomplished teacher and scientist.
Dr. Assar Wolfgang Freund Corvin was born in Berlin in 1928 and passed away in Halifax, NS, on 6 February 2019. His wife, Sybilla, son Michael, daughter-in-law Teresa, family and friends will miss his love, charm, wit and intellect.
Assar’s life began during the vibrant Weimar period in Berlin. Photos from those days show a happy little boy and a comfortable life in a flat on the Hohenzollerndamm with his parents, Leo and Yadya, their German shepherd, Prince, their cat, relatives and family friends. A journalist and author, Assar’s father recognized the perils of the Nazi rise to power so the family escaped to Spain in the early 1930s. By various adventures and separate paths they all made it to England before the outbreak of war. After joining them in Spain, Assar’s aunt, Bianca, even returned to Germany for a time and was active in the Jewish resistance helping Jews escape through Scandinavia before she herself escaped and made her way to the USA.
As a boy and young man in England, Assar attended boarding schools. The first school he disliked immensely but he had happier days at St Peter's Court School of Burgess Hill in Sussex. When the Blitz started the coast of Sussex was directly in the path of the attacking Luftwaffe and the school was evacuated to Duntisbourne Abbots in Gloucestershire. Assar had fond memories of Duntisbourne Abbots, despite the scarcities due to the war. His later schooling was at King William’s College (KWC) on the Isle of Man, where he matriculated and completed early postgraduate studies.
Assar was proud to be a KWC Old Boy. He was happy to get the Barrovian for news of KWC. Like most of the boys, Assar was a Cadet at KWC during the war. In the Air Cadets he learned navigation, a skill that he would later use while sailing and teach his son. Assar caused a minor stir during the visit of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in 1945. As Her Majesty was inspecting the Junior Training Corps honour guard she happened to stop in front of him and ask where he was from. His answer, “Berlin, M’um”, was thought a bit impertinent by the press following her although it was true.
Assar studied and achieved his Higher Certificate (equivalent to a BSc) and worked in London as assistant to a consulting chemist at his private laboratory. Along with his parents, Assar immigrated to California shortly after the end of the war. He chaperoned the children of family friends across the Atlantic aboard a leaky old Liberty ship and then rode across his new homeland by Greyhound bus. The bus trip took Assar via the southern States. Through family, contacts in academia and in the early civil rights movement, Assar visited and was hosted by several colleges across the Southern states, many of them historically black colleges. This gave him, a young, white, Jewish émigré and once refugee from Nazi oppression and terror, much insight into the state of civil rights at the time. Supporting causes in aid of civil rights was a lifelong concern for him.
In California, Assar completed undergraduate studies in Psychology in 1948 at University of California, Berkeley. He continued with graduate studies and then did clinical work at University of Chicago. In 1953, during the Korean War, Assar was drafted into the US Army. Despite his unimposing size, perhaps because he was an outstanding marksman, the Army bureaucracy first assigned him to a mortar company and then to MP training. Uncle Sam finally took advantage of his psychology training and Assar served most of his tour as a counselor. Assigned to the 6th Infantry Division at Fort Ord in California he took care of service members and their families.
After his Army service Assar returned to Berkley and completed his Masters degree. He had planned on going back to Chicago for PhD studies when a chance meeting with an Army buddy changed his path. His friend suggested that Assar look into studying in Heidelberg, Germany. It was a renowned school, the cost of studying there at the time was modest and Assar was fluent in German. Assar did go to study in Heidelberg in 1955, performed medical research into mitochondrial membranes for his thesis, passed the German State Medical Board Examination with credit and obtained his MD in 1961.
While studying in Heidelberg Assar lived in the Collegium Academicum student community. He became close friends with Peter, who was studying astrophysics. More importantly, he met Peter’s vivacious and pretty sister, Sybilla. Sybilla was studying in Freiburg and became a schoolteacher. Assar proposed to Sybilla on a high balcony of the great, gothic Münster in Freiburg im Breisgau and they were engaged at midnight on New Years Eve. However, before they got married Sybilla spent a year teaching in Offenburg because it gave her such joy and satisfaction.
Assar returned to San Francisco in 1961 to begin postdoctoral work. He liked to recall the remarkable, non-stop, trans-polar flights to and from Europe he’d been lucky to experience aboard the TWA Super Constellations (L-1649 Starliner). The lovely aircraft was much noisier than the airliners of today but Assar remembered that the level of comfort and service was much higher.
Assar did research and clinical work at the University of California Medical Center, San Francisco. Initially he was at the Cardiovascular Research Institute and then he moved to the Department of Psychiatry Langley Porter Hospital.
Assar and Sybilla were married in Freiburg on 7 June 1962. Sybilla joined her new husband in distant San Francisco. It was a challenge for her to leave behind her large family, many close friends and her students.
In 1963 Sybilla and Assar’s son, Michael, was born. Life in San Francisco was modest but had its joys. They lived close to Haight Street at the dawn of its bohemian days. It was an interesting neighborhood with colorful characters and a sense of community. Assar’s parents lived nearby and they enjoyed spoiling their new grandson. Sybilla was embraced by the family friends and made new friends. Some of those would become lifelong friends.
A move across the country in 1965 to Buffalo, NY, took Assar to be an Assistant Research Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the School of Medicine, State University of New York at Buffalo. His research was in neurochemistry including biochemistry related to schizophrenia.
While Sybilla and Michael flew to Buffalo, Assar drove the family’s ’59 VW bug, “Minimus”. Some years later, when the Corvins left Buffalo, Minimus was sold to a secretary in the department, was eventually was passed on to others at the university and was last known to be on the road well into the ‘70s!
The Corvin family moved to a block of newly constructed duplexes in Amherst where there were a lot of other young families as well as some older couples. The kids could play together and the moms helped each other out. Hibachi grills got passed along from yard to yard to take full advantage of the hot coals on summer afternoons. Some of these neighbors, Assar’s colleagues and other friends at the University became lifelong friends of the Corvins.
In 1969, Assar and his family moved to Nova Scotia. There he joined the Faculty of Medicine at Dalhousie University in Halifax. Cross-appointed in Psychiatry and in Physiology and Biophysics, Assar taught, did research in neurochemistry and worked to promote advances in the medical programs at Dal. Many classes of medical, dental and nursing students benefitted from his lectures. Assar collaborated with colleagues and postdoctoral researchers in the lab. He was known for his crisp lab coats and bow ties. In animated lectures the accent of his British schooling often emerged. Assar continued teaching, advocating and doing research at Dal until he finally retired in 1994.
In 1984 Assar took a one-year Sabbatical from to do research at the Rockefeller University, New York, and the Payne Whitney Clinic. A small studio apartment on West 66th St, right across from the Julliard School, was home base. It was close to Central Park, many museums, other New York amenities and was a short commute to Assar’s work. Sybilla joined Assar for part of the year to enjoy those amenities with him while Michael held down the fort in Nova Scotia. The family shared a memorable Christmas together in New York.
Assar’s research often required computation of statistics and models. In the late ‘60s and into the 70’s a Curta whirred in his hand at home and early electronic calculators were in his office and lab. Later, he had one of the first HP-65 programmable calculators ever sold in the Maritimes. Early desktop computers followed at work and then at home. As medical references such as the Index Medicus started to be available electronically, Assar pushed to have use of computers for data and analytics incorporated into the medical curriculum. Today the Division of Medical Education has an entire program of study devoted to Medical Informatics. Assar’s interest in computers continued into retirement when he enjoyed games including Myst, Riven and others.
Assar developed a strong concern for medical ethics. He worked to have discussion of ethical issues included in both academic and clinical parts of the Dal medical curriculum. He considered it a key part of training rational, medical professionals to be compassionate care givers to their patients and their patients’ families. Today the Faculty of Medicine at Dal has an entire Department of Bioethics dedicated to this goal, looking at “what should be done” when dealing with or taking care of people and other living creatures. Assar would be very proud of that.
When they moved to Nova Scotia in 1969 the Corvin family settled in Dartmouth. After a year residing in a rented duplex, Assar and Sybilla bought their house at 3 Strath Lane. Assar lived in their home 48 years before he needed hospitalization and passed away shortly thereafter.
Assar and Sybilla raised Michael at 3 Strath Lane. Assar was a caring, gentle father who conveyed to his son a deep interest in reason and science. He and Sybilla nurtured and encouraged their son’s academic interests, but also a love of art and music. Our home was full of books and reading was a way of life. His weekly stop on the way home at the Dartmouth Regional Library kept the whole family supplied with novels, science fiction, histories and other interesting books. Assar’s large collections of Science and Scientific American magazines were a great resource for Michael’s school projects.
Assar became an avid sailor. Soon after coming to Nova Scotia, Assar started sailing with friends and took a course sailing Flying Junior racing dinghies. The navigation skills he learned as a Cadet were tested when he crewed with friends racing in 24-hour offshore races outside Halifax harbour. In 1975 Assar bought the family a Tanzer 22 sloop, one of the few luxuries he ever indulged in. To learn how to sail their new boat, Assar and Sybilla raced “Musaqua” in the Wednesday night races at the Bedford Basin Yacht Club (BBYC), where we kept her moored. Many happy days were spent sailing, racing and cruising Musaqua. Assar was active in the BBYC, especially in the committee running the junior sailing program. The family enjoyed the sailing community and the fun of big events such as Tanzer class racing in Atlantic Regatta Canada. We remember wonderful overnights aboard Musaqua, stars overhead, the sea aglow with phosphorescence and always with a galley well provisioned by Sybilla.
All who knew Assar were fortunate and touched in many ways. He will be greatly missed.
My father, Assar Corvin, was an avid sailor and a gentle father; accomplished teacher and scientist.
- Michael Corvin
If you wish to honour the memory of Dr. Assar Corvin and his dedication to medical research and education, please make a contribution to the Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation through the Molly Appeal for Medical Research, https://dmrf.ca/molly-appeal/ways-to-give/. Thank you.
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