Eaton, Joseph W. (32498461): Difference between revisions

Eaton, born Josef Wechsler (September 28, 1919 – October 15, 2012), was an American sociologist who published widely in the fields of social work, sociology, public health, and public and international affairs. After the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933, Joseph's parents arranged for him and a younger brother to emigrate to the United States by themselves, with the assistance of the German Jewish Children's Aid program; By that time he had changed his last name to Eaton (the name of his foster family), out of concern for the safety of his parents, who were then living in the Netherlands, under Nazi occupation. After joining the Army in 1942, he was trained in military government and psychological warfare at Camp Ritchie. He in September 1942, he entered the US Army and was trained in military government and psychological warfare at Camp Ritchie. Joseph attended Cornell University (BA, Liberal Arts). Joseph was editor of the weekly paper in Straubing. He worked as Research Director for Social Work organization. He , 26, presumably after the war in Schwandorf displaced persons camp in Germany. Joseph’s parents, Jacob and Flora, were murdered in Sobibor killing center and his maternal grandmother, Cilli Goldschmidt, died of starvation in Theresienstadt. Eaton was born in Nuremberg, Germany, the son of Jakob Wechsler and Flora Wechsler (née Goldschmidt). Eaton graduated from Cornell University in 1940, and completed his Ph.D. In sociology at Columbia University in 1948. He spent most of his professional career at the University of Pittsburgh, where he was appointed professor of social work research in the School of Social Work in 1959. He is credited with the creation of a masters of social work research major there, and, in the 1980s, organized the dual degree program between Pitt's School of Social Work and the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs. They were killed in Sobibór in 1943.