By Peggy McInerny, Director of Communications
We share the sad news that our former colleague Anne Bodenheimer, a champion of UCLA and coordinator of the Fulbright Scholars Enrichment Program for 29 years, died on June 21, 2018. Her funeral will be held at Mt. Sinai Cemetery in Simi Valley on Monday, June 25, 2018, at 3:00 p.m.
Anne was a supporter of the Jules Stein Eye Institute at UCLA, to which she left a bequest. Friends and colleagues are invited to make donations in her name to the Institute or to other organizations, at their discretion.
UCLA International Institute, June 22, 2018 — In what is perhaps a fitting end to a long, active and productive life, Anne M. Bodenheimer died yesterday in Los Angeles on the longest day of the year, June 21, 2018. She was 104 years of age.
Anne was born in Frankfurt, Germany on April 9, 1914, to Jennie Posen Moses and Hugo Herz Moses. After completing a baccalaureate degree in Germany in 1933, she was sent to Paris by her father. There she completed a juris doctorate at the École de Droit in 1937 and worked at the Institute of Comparative Law in Paris until 1939.
The years of World War II were a terrible ordeal for Anne, who lost her father, her sister Ilse and her fiancé in the Holocaust. Anne herself escaped twice from concentration camps, one of which was Bergen-Belsen, only to be returned to another camp before war’s end. Her sister Lotte survived Auschwitz. Anne recorded an oral testimony of her experience of the Holocaust for the USC Shoah Foundation in 1994.
Following the war, Anne emigrated to the United States after transiting through The Netherlands. She began a new life in New York, where she completed an M.A. in international law at Columbia University, but moved to California when she married fellow Frankfurt native Fred S. Bodenheimer in 1949.
UCLA was the object of great affection in Anne’s heart. She joined the staff of the university in 1961 as a research assistant in the office of the director of International and Foreign Studies. She went on to coordinate the Fulbright Scholars Enrichment Program at UCLA for 29 years (1962–1991), continuing to work part-time for the program after her official retirement in October 1984.
“I looked up to Anne with great respect because of her dedication and strength of character,” said Ann Kerr, her successor as coordinator of the Fulbright Program at UCLA. “She built the program into what it is today, forging connections into the community that gave Visiting Fulbright Scholars entrée into major institutions — public, private and nonprofit — in the greater Los Angeles community,” related Kerr.
Early in her career at UCLA, Anne forged an enduring friendship with Chancellor Franklin D. Murphy. Eye problems later prompted her to seek care at the Jules Stein Eye Institute, where for several years she supported the research of Drs. Kevin Miller and Michael Gorin.
Anne was an active member of the UCLA Faculty Women’s Club (FWC), particularly its German Conversation section, for many decades. The FWC recognized her long membership at a celebration of her 100th birthday held at the UCLA Faculty Center in April 2014. The retired UCLA staffer was also an engaged member of the Affiliates of UCLA.
A tireless volunteer in the Los Angeles community and at UCLA, Anne was recognized repeatedly for her generosity and service to others throughout her long life.
Anne was preceded in death by her husband Fred. She is survived by her son and daughter-in-law, Howard and Michelle Bodenheimer, of Granada Hills; grandson Gabriel Bodenheimer; and niece and nephew, Cecille Gunst and Roger Grunwald. A New York-based actor, Grunwald is the author of two theatrical productions about the Holocaust that are in part based on conversations with his aunt and his mother Lotte.
The UCLA International Institute hopes to publish a more detailed profile of Anne Bodenheimer and her contributions to UCLA later this summer.
Published: Friday, June 22, 2018
