Cornell Memorial Statement for Henri S. Sack. [November 25, 1903 — March 16, 1972]
"In the death of Professor Henri S. Sack in Ithaca, New York, Cornell University lost a distinguished scientist, an educator of exceptional skill and insight, and an individual of the highest personal integrity. Institutions are built by people and reflect the character of their builders, and his service to Cornell was in the finest tradition. Professor Sack was born in Davos, Switzerland, and received his education at the Eidgenossische Technische Hochschule in Zurich, receiving a diploma in mathematics and physics in 1925 and a doctorate in physics in 1927.
For six years he was head assistant in the Department of Physics at the University of Leipzig in Germany, and then, for seven years, was chef de traveaux in the Department of Physical Chemistry at the University of Brussels. While in Leipzig, he was a research associate of the late Peter J. W. Debye, Nobel laureate in chemistry who later became professor and head of the Chemistry Department at Cornell. Professor Sack came to Cornell in 1940 as a research associate in the College of Engineering. He became an associate professor in 1946 and a full professor in 1949. He was named to the Walter S. Carpenter Jr. Professorship in 1963 and held that post until his death.
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His scientific career spanned a long dynamic era in the evolution of modern physics and to his last day, spent in the research laboratory, he was actively in contact with the forefront of his subject. His earliest contributions were on the physics of dielectric relaxation and he also was one of the first investigators to use ultrasonic techniques to study related molecular mechanisms. During World War II, he turned his inventive experimental talents to a variety of applied problems. From then until the present he was a leader in the use of ultrasonics and dielectric techniques to study the solid state. Over all this time he constantly incorporated the latest theoretical and experimental methods into his programs.
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He was a member of a number of professional organizations, including the American Physical Society (Fellow), the Swiss Physical Society, the American Society for Engineering Education, the American Association of University Professors, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He was an active consultant to various industrial laboratories and other organizations on applied physics.
Professor Sack is survived by his wife, Lotti; two daughters, Renee Sack of Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Mrs. Samuel (Claudia) Adams, and a brother, Fritz Sack, of Bern, Switzerland."