Born on January 26, 1921, Alfred Robert Neumann was raised in Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany, in a Jewish family. Alfred Neumann studied violin and viola under the principal violinist of the Frankfurt Symphony, gaining a life-long love for music and the arts. He was the younger son of a cultured, well-to-do family in whose home the finest musicians in Europe met to relax by playing chamber music.
Alfred Neumann immigrated at the age of 16 from Germany to New York City, United States, in 1937. His mother Jenny came to the United States as well. Alfred Neumann came to the US to complete his academic studies just before the start of World War II and amidst the worsening of the Holocaust. Already speaking four languages by age 16, Neumann earned a bachelor of arts degree from Marshall University in West Virginia in 1940; and an MA degree from the University of Kentucky in 1941. He began working in education at Beall High School in Frostburg, Maryland, where he taught high school Latin and French in 1941-1942 and lived with his mother.
With the United States’ entrance into World War II, Alfred Neumann enlisted in the US Army on February 14, 1942. He served in the US Army during WWII from 1942 to 1945, being discharged close to the end of the war with the rank of Staff Sergeant. During the war, he met his future wife Selma Smith, and he came to Texas for the first time for Army training.
After WWII, Neumann returned to education, teaching German and French at Tulane University in New Orleans in 1946. He went to Harvard University in 1946 as a teaching fellow, earning his second master’s degree from Harvard in 1948. Moving to the University of Michigan, Neumann was a German instructor from 1948 until 1952, and earned his PhD in German literature in 1951.
Dr. Alfred R. Neumann, chancellor of the University of Houston at Clear Lake City, posing outside next to the sign for the Vanguard Building at 1115 Gemini Street in Clear Lake City, Texas, circa 1973-1974. This building served as the UH-CLC administration and faculty offices building when UH-CLC was first founded, located about 2.5 miles from the main campus location (courtesy UHCL Archives and Special Collection).
In 1953, Dr. Alfred Neumann joined the University of Houston as an assistant professor of German. He progressed through the ranks as associate professor of German, assistant to the president, acting dean, professor of German, and Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences, from 1959 to 1972. In 1972, Dr. Neumann was appointed founding Chancellor (or president) of the new University of Houston at Clear Lake City (UH-CLC) campus—present-day University of Houston-Clear Lake.
Portrait of Dr. Alfred R. Neumann, founding chancellor of the University of Houston-Clear Lake, circa 1970s (courtesy UHCL Archives and Special Collection).
After growing UH-CLC’s enrollment to over 6,000 students, Dr. Alfred Neumann retired as Chancellor on August 31, 1982, and was named chancellor emeritus. He had spent 29 years with the University of Houston System at the time of his retirement. On May 23, 1983, he died of heart attack and was buried in Emanu El Memorial Park in Houston, TX.
Photograph of the Alfred R. Neumann Library sign outside of the library in the Bayou Building at the University of Houston-Clear Lake (courtesy UHCL Archives and Special Collection).
Dr. Neumann was posthumously recognized by the University of Houston System’s Board of Regents, which named the library at the University of Houston-Clear Lake in his honor as the Alfred R. Neumann Library.
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