Lasting Memories

Anita Burdman Feferman
July 27, 1927-April 9, 2015
Stanford, California

Anita Burdman Feferman died peacefully at the age of 87 in hospice care at her home, to the surprise of many who thought her invincible. Professionally, she was noted as the author of two highly praised biographies, and personally as a vibrant, stylish, athletic, direct, spontaneous, engaging and engaged human being. She was a loyal friend to young and old; to her family she was sine qua non as a loving and caring wife, mother and grandmother.

Born in Los Angeles, Anita Feferman attended Hollywood High School, UCLA and the University of California at Berkeley, from which she graduated in 1948 with a B.A. After working as a teacher on a pediatric psychiatric ward in San Francisco she returned to the university in Berkeley for a degree in education, and then taught to her constant satisfaction in the Oakland elementary school system. In 1956 she moved to the Peninsula with her husband Solomon Feferman, who had just joined the faculty of Stanford University in the departments of mathematics and philosophy. They came with two very young daughters and so Anita traded teaching for raising a family.

Always a serious reader and natural storyteller, in her 40s she took writing courses at Stanford and began her writing career with a number of short stories and interviews. It was also at Stanford that she became an early and active member of a notable biographers' seminar initiated by Diane Middlebrook and Barbara Babcock. Anita Feferman?s first biography was "Politics, Logic and Love: The Life of Jean van Heijenoort" (reprinted in paper as "From Trotsky to Gödel"), published in 1993. That was followed in 2004 by "Alfred Tarski: Life and Logic," co-authored with Solomon Feferman. Each of these books dealt with a passionate, complicated man whose life and career was directly bound up with major historical events of the '30s and '40s, the first, a revolutionary who ended up as an esteemed scholar of logic, and the second, one of the most important logicians of the 20th century and leader of a new school in logic at Berkeley. Both biographies were acclaimed for their engaging and revealing storytelling deepened by full explanations of their historical context and the nature of the scientific contributions involved.

Over the years, Anita and Solomon traveled widely, especially during his sabbatical years when they resided in Princeton, Cambridge (Massachusetts), Oxford, Paris, Florence and Rome. Besides the pleasure they took in expanding their cultural horizons, they formed many new friendships in the process, enhanced by Anita's fearlessness with new languages and her endless curiosity about people. When at home, Anita enjoyed playing tennis competitively, ran and swam, treasured her work in the garden -- lush with flowers, fruits, vegetables and herbs -- and was famed for hosting memorable and convivial meals.

Anita Burdman Feferman is predeceased by her daughter, Rachel Feferman, and is survived by her husband, Solomon Feferman; daughter, Julie Feferman-Perez; and granddaughters, Isabel Feferman-Perez and Graciela Feferman-Perez.

From Mark Borowsky M.D.
Sept. 13, 2016

Now, in memory of Sol: Sol was my undergraduate academic advisor, and wrote a letter of recommendation for my successful application to the Stanford MLA program. When I informed him of my acceptance, and thanked him for his support, he replied, that with my academic record it had been a foregone conclusion. I took care of his mother ( who lived into her 90s ) during my days at Kaiser in Los Angeles, and greatly enjoyed the 2 books written by his wife Anita, one of which ( Alfred Tarski ) he co authored. Harold Levine is now my last faculty connection to the Stanford Math dept.

From Mark Borowsky. M.D.
July 13, 2016

I cannot say that I ever really knew Anita. I read both of her books, as well as an article that she wrote about Georg Kreisel, and another for the Stanford Campus Report detailing her experiences as a woman in Oxford, where she and Sol were spending the year,while among other things serving as editor in chief for the Collected Works of Kurt Godel. The first time that I was ever in Anita's presence, was when she and Saul returned to America, from that sabbatical. I was at SFO picking up my English cousin, Michael Plaut, who was coming to visit us for several weeks. As I was waiting for him to appear, there was Sol, and the woman with whom he was travelling. The two Feferman daughters were the welcoming committee. I picked up Michael, and headed home. I mentioned this to Sol about 3 months later, at the beginning of the fall Academic quarter in 1980, when, in his capacity as my academic adviser, I had him sign my course list for the upcoming term. I graduated from Stanford in the spring of 1981, when I headed off to Medical School in New York. The Fefermans were out of sight and mind for the next 10 years or so, when I returned for the Stanford Centennial celebrations in 1991. Saul was chairman of the Mathematics Department at that time, and I saw him in this capacity. I was living in LA, and working at Kaiser before heading off to do my radiology residency in NYC ( perhaps, somewhat ironically, the medical specialty of Rudolf Godel, Kurt's brother. One of the patients who I would occasionally care for, was Annie Feferman, Sol's mother, much as I had taken care of the mother of Paul W. Berg, in New York, during my internship at Einstein. I had mentioned to Sol that I was still struggling to make sense of the Independence of the Continuum Hypothesis, a topic that I had discussed in the class that he taught on the History of Mathematics. Sol graciously offered to send me an article which he had just written on the topic, and I was happy to accept. The article would later be published in " In the Light of Logic ", a collection of Sol's expository writings. In 1992, I was back in New York, but came back out to the West coast to take a trip to Mexico. I went via LA, where at the UCLA bookstore, I picked up a copy of Politics, Logic and Love ( From Trotsky to Godel ). What a tale, and an exceedingly well written book. I droppped a note to Anita, expressing these sentiments, as well as much of the history contained herein. Anita responded graciously. I later left the Tarski bio, as well as PLL with Sol, and they , once again, graciously signed them for me. I suggested to Anita, that her original choice for the Tarski bio," Truth and Consequences ", was a brilliant title, especially if it were to be published by the University of New Mexico Press. As it turns out, the only other chance that I would have to meet Anita was at the conclusion of Prof van Dalen's talk on his biographer of Brouwer. Sol was about to introduce us, but, sadly, and as I was already running quite late, I already had a foot out the door, and fear that I must have appeared rather rude as I left, sans intro. Regrets of things past. Anita was clearly an interesting person. I am sorry that I never had occasion to really interact with her on a personal level.

From Haim Gaifman
May 30, 2015

I first heard of Anita in the 60's when I was working on a Ph.D. under Tarski and she was rumored to be a striking beauty whom Sol was lucky to have married. When I saw her I realized that the rumor was more than justified, yet did not do justice to the combination of beauty wit and strength that she represented. Our paths crossed occasionally during the years. In the later period of her life I saw her more often. She and Sol interviewed me, as they gathered material on Tarski, for their book. Since then my wife and I spend time with them whenever they visited New York. I always was struck by her remaining beautiful; whatever the years took was more than compensated by her kin lively interests, and the intelligence and character that shone through. I saw her when the cancer was already taking its toll. She needed a cane for walking, but maintained a straight posture, not giving an inch more than what absolutely necessary, smiling and beautiful as ever. She was one of those people whose disappearance is a real loss, no matter what age they are.