I was born in 1933, in Berlin, Germany, arrived in the U.S. in 1937, grew up on Long Island, N.Y. and graduated Malverne Jr.Sr. High School in 1951.
I started my undergraduate work that same year at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1952 I joined the U.S.A.F where I served as a control tower operator (mostly in the U.K.) until 1956 and returned to the U of P. In 1957 I transferred to Adelphi College (now a university) where I took my B.A. in 1960.
After marrying Linda we drove to Los Angeles where I started my graduate studies at UCLA. I took my Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology in 1966, drove East to the University of Rochester where I did a two year postdoctoral fellowship, sponsored by the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Blindness. My postdoc mentor was Professor Robert M. Boynton which initiated a collaboration lasting almost 30 years and culminating in the co-authoring of Human Color Vision, Second Edition in 1996.
In 1968 we moved to Toronto, where I took a position as assistant professor in the Department of Psychology, York University, and rose through the ranks becoming a full professor in 1980. From 1979 to 1982 I served as the Department Chairman.
I have had the great fortune to conduct collaborative research in a number of laboratories which include- 1974: Dr. Gunter Wyszecki, National Research Council (Ottawa); 1975/76: Professor John Lott Brown, Center for Visual Science, (University of Rochester); 1982/83: Professor Robert Boynton, University of California, San Diego; 1984: Professor Mitsuo Ikeda, Tokyo Institute of Technology; 1987/88: Dr. Barry Lee, Max Planck Institute (Goetingen, Germany) and 1991: Professor Eberhart Zrenner University of Tuebingen, Germany.
In 1993 I retired from the payroll at York University, but continued my scholarly activities until my last postdoctoral fellow returned to Japan in 1997 at which time I closed my laboratory and office at York University.