By Janis Siegel , JTNews Correspondent
On April 17, Dr. Peretz Lavie flew nearly 7,000 miles to Seattle. The president of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology spent a few hours in town, had dinner, then flew back to his post in Israel, but not before awarding Olympia philanthropist Hal Marcus an honorary doctorate degree from the institute.
This was only the fourth time in the Technion’s 100-year legacy of producing scientific discoveries it awarded its lifetime achievement honor to a recipient outside of Israel. In Marcus’s case, it was due to health concerns. Marcus’s wife of 50 years, Inge, was also honored.
“There are very few people in the world for which I would fly 24 hours for one event,” said Lavie, who took a few minutes to speak with JTNews shortly after his arrival here. “He has been a leader, he has been a supporter, and he has given his heart to the university, and Inge, too. He truly deserves it. We honor everything he has done. They are a very unique couple.”
Three Technion committees spent eight months evaluating candidates, and unanimously chose Marcus.
The Northwest philanthropist has now joined the ranks of other recipients of the prestigious award that include the late prime minister of Israel, Yitzchak Rabin, and the late King Hussein of Jordan.
Naomi Newman, president of the Northwest chapter of the American Society for Technion, told JTNews the award ceremony at the Washington Athletic Club drew 115 attendees from the community. She found it moving, historic and awe-inspiring.
“He really came across as a sage,” Newman said of Lavie. “He made people laugh with his brand of humor, yet his pride was so obvious and his sense of commitment to what Technion stands for. He commended them, saying they had a heart.”
The Marcuses have given generously in the local Seattle community — most recently a major gift to help complete construction of the new $9 million Jewish Family Service building.
“I’ve known [Hal and Inge] for more than 20 years and they are true philanthropists for the good of humanity,” Lavie said.
On behalf of the ATS Northwest chapter, Newman, the emcee for the event, gave roses to Inge Marcus, who stood at her husband’s side.
Born and raised in Brooklyn, N.Y., Marcus earned an undergraduate degree in Industrial Engineering in 1949 from Penn State, followed by a Master’s degree from the University of Southern California. He spent much of his life as an industrial engineer and management consultant before moving on to real estate development.
In 1999, Penn State renamed its industrial engineering department the Harold and Inge Marcus Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering following the couple’s $5 million gift for which they also received the school’s Philanthropists of the Year award.
The Marcuses inaugurated the first partner program between Penn State and the Technion called the Marcus International Exchange in Industrial Engineering, a vehicle for international students to swap ideas and research.
“He [originally] learned about Technion from an ad in a magazine!” Newman said. “Today, he is the largest Technion supporter in the Northwest and definitely one of largest on the West Coast.”
Long after the first Technion Society president, Albert Einstein, declared in 1924 that, “Israel can win the battle for survival only by developing expert knowledge in technology,” the school has fostered 10 Nobel Prize-winning scientists since 2004, including its latest winner for chemistry in 2011, materials engineering professor Dan Shechtman.
The world-class research hub’s next leap into the future will be the opening of the new Technion Cornell Institute of Innovation scheduled to accept its first class next year in New York City. The Technion has already appointed a dean from Israel. Instruction will start in rental space until the facility is finished.
Meanwhile, the Technion’s groundbreaking scientific research continues.
Lavie, one of the top sleep researchers in the world, founded the Technion Sleep Laboratory. He will present new findings along with his wife and research partner, Dr. Lena Lavie, a Technion senior researcher, at the May meeting of the American Thoracic Society in San Francisco.
“Right now we are focusing on cardiovascular diseases in patients with sleep apnea syndrome and we have new findings,” said Lavie.
Inge Marcus will chair the symposium.
“We are working on the mechanism that provides this protection and we are about to publish a very important finding,” Lavie said.