SR0744 101ST GENERAL ASSEMBLY

SR0744 LRB101 14803 MST 63770 r

SENATE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois Senate are saddened to learn of the death of Walter Leonard Arnstein Ph.D. of Urbana, who passed away on October 6, 2019; and

WHEREAS, Dr. Arnstein was born in Stuttgart, Germany on May 14, 1930; his family emigrated to the United States in 1939, and they became American citizens in 1944, at which time he chose his middle name of Leonard in honor of composer Leonard Bernstein; he received his Bachelor of Specialized Studies at the City College of New York in 1951, magna cum laude; he served in the U.S. Army in Korea from 1951 to 1953 as an assistant battalion supply sergeant in an anti-aircraft battalion; he married Charlotte Sutphen in 1952; he received his Master of Arts from Columbia University in 1954 and spent a year as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of London; he earned his Ph.D. in History at Northwestern University in 1961; and

WHEREAS, Dr. Arnstein was a member of the Department of History at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from 1968 to 1998; he retired with the titles of Professor of History Emeritus and Jubilee Professor of the Liberal Arts and Sciences Emeritus; he won numerous awards for his teaching, and he served as department chair and Director of Graduate Studies; he supervised 25 successfully defended Ph.D. dissertations in British history and taught British history at every level from the introductory survey to the doctoral seminar; and

WHEREAS, Dr. Arnstein also taught at Northwestern University, the University of Chicago, and Roosevelt University, where he rose to be dean of the Graduate Division; he held visiting appointments as Fellow at both Cambridge University and the University of Edinburgh; he was also a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society; he served on the editorial boards of The Historian, Albion, and Victorian Studies; in 1990, the Midwest Victorian Studies Association established an annual graduate student prize in his honor, the Annual Walter L. Arnstein Prize for Dissertation Research in Victorian Studies; he was one of the first presidents of the North American Conference on British Studies; and

WHEREAS, Dr. Arnstein was known to decades of University of Illinois history students as a founder and frequent host of the British History Association (BHA); in retirement, he and his wife continued to host numerous reunions of BHA alumni from all over the United States; and

WHEREAS, Dr. Arnstein was the author of eight books, including Britain Yesterday and Today: 1830 to the Present, The Bradlaugh Case (1965), Protestant Versus Catholic in Mid-Victorian England (1982), and Queen Victoria (2003); he was the author of over 45 journal articles and 170 book reviews; in 1973, he competed successfully for five days on Jeopardy!; and

WHEREAS, Dr. Arnstein is survived by his wife of 67 years, Charlotte; his daughter, Sylvia; his son, Peter (Judy Dworkin); his sister, Laura Altschuler; his grandchildren, Katharine and Julianne (Ryan Galligan); and numerous nieces, nephews, and cousins; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE ONE HUNDRED FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we mourn the passing of Walter Leonard Arnstein Ph.D. and extend our sincere condolences to his family, friends, and all who knew and loved him; and be it further

RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be presented to the family of Dr. Arnstein as an expression of our deepest sympathy.