If you were looking for a good place to eat in Atlanta, Stuart Schwarzschild would have been the person to ask. Known for his voracious curiosity, the retired Georgia State University professor spent hours online researching the world around him, and knew where all the best restaurants were.
“His mind was incredible,” said his daughter, Beverly Clark of Raleigh. Most recently, she said, he “was trying to figure out how to download the voice-activation app on his iPad.”
Schwarzschild died in his sleep Monday. He was 95. A service was held Friday at Peachtree Road Methodist Church, followed by a reception at the Lenbrook retirement community in Atlanta, where he lived.
Schwarzschild was born in Richmond and his father died when he was 12, at the start of the Great Depression. Schwarzschild worked in the family’s jewelry business and attended the University of Richmond. He joined the Army in 1940. As captain of the 902nd Ordnance Company he led troops onto Utah Beach two weeks after D-Day.
After World War II, Schwarzschild served with NATO in Izmir, Turkey, where he started collecting round, brass Turkish coffee trays. He retired as a lieutenant colonel in 1953 and came back to the U.S., where he met his future wife, Betty Grander Schwarzschild, at the family jewelry shop.
The couple moved to Pennsylvania in 1955, and Schwarzschild received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Pennsylvania when he was 40 years old.
The Schwarzschilds moved to Atlanta in 1958, and he became a professor at Georgia State, where he eventually was named a professor emeritus of risk management and insurance.
He often ran into former students at restaurants years after he retired, his daughter said.
“My parents were always having a party,” Clark said. “Dad’s role was making sure the bar was all set up.”
The family played host to Sunday School classes, neighbors and students, and Schwarzschild was known for cooking menemen, a flavorful Turkish dish he learned to prepare while serving abroad.
At 95, Schwarzschild still could recite poetry that he had learned in high school, and was an active benefactor to the Boy Scouts of America and Planned Parenthood. He often was accompanied by friends who were much younger than him, his daughter said.
In addition to his daughter, Schwarzschild is survived by a son, John Schwarzschild of Texas; and two grandchildren.
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