Saul Aronow: Husband, Father, Physicist, Political Activist

Saul Aronow was born on October 4, 1917 in Brooklyn, New York, the fourth child of Minnie (Mirel) and Abraham Aronow, a clothing manufacturer, lover of music, and chazan.  Like many Jewish families of the era, the prosperity of the war for small businesses allowed the family to move from the Lower East Side of New York to Brooklyn to be out in what was then considered almost the countryside.

After the war, with two more children, Abe and Minnie bought a single-family home in Far Rockaway, even further out, near the ocean.  But as hard economic times began to hit small manufacturers in the late 20’s, they moved back to an apartment in Brooklyn.  Abraham suffered a fatal heart attack in 1933, but with the help and sacrifice of his older siblings and Minnie’s strong guiding hand, the family held together through the Depression.

Saul’s early interest in science and math led him to study engineering at Cooper Union where he met Alice Pearlman, an art student who also lived in Brooklyn. He graduated in 1939 and married Alice on February 12, 1942, then celebrated as Lincoln’s Birthday, as they were both strong admirers of Abraham Lincoln.  Saul enlisted the Army, but during basic infantry training was transferred into the Signal Corps because of his engineering background. He was promoted to 2^nd Lieutenant and served in the Midwest supervising the manufacture of radio equipment for the military.

His Signal Corps career took him all over the mid-West and South in search of equipment manufacturers, wood suppliers, and skilled office workers.  Among his many duties was the training of African-American women to be typists and secretaries.  He sometimes instructed classes of fifty or more at a time in huge classrooms in Chicago.  Chicago was also a hotbed of union activity during the war, and Saul and Alice, strong supporters of unions and progressive causes, would often drag their small child off to a union rally or picket line, sometimes showing up in the middle of night with coffee for the picketers.

After the war he and Alice moved to Watertown, Massachusetts.  Having been against fascism through the war, and as firm believers in the principles of democracy, their interests naturally gravitated toward continuing to work for peace and social justice.  Despite a growing family, they were active in the Progressive Party presidential campaigns for Henry Wallace in 1948 and Vincent Hallinan in 1952, where Saul was the Massachusetts state coordinator,  and continued their work in a wide variety of union, racial justice, and disarmament campaigns. 

Because of their great love of singing and folk music, they were founding members of the Folksong Society of Greater Boston.  Saul, Alice, and their six children eventually outgrew their veteran’s housing in Watertown and in the early ‘60’s they moved to Newton Corner.

Saul had interrupted his master’s studies at Harvard to enlist, and after the war, he returned to Harvard to earn a Ph.D. in Applied Nuclear Physics.  He also worked at many engineering positions, including working at Harvard studying echolocation in bats and developing the instrumentation for radio station WEEI using the new format of FM radio.

Upon graduation in 1956, he joined the Physics Research Lab at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) as a faculty member of Harvard School of Medicine. Among other projects, he was the engineering leader on the team that developed an early positron scanner for mapping the location and size of brain tumors. These scanners were hand-made and installed in MGH and several research hospitals around the world including Cologne, Germany and Stanford, CA.  The positron scanner was the precursor of many of the radioisotope imaging devices now in wide use.

The late 1950’s were also a time of the Cold War and the nuclear armaments race. Working with a group of physicians who founded Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR), Saul interpreted the physics for a paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine that described the impact that an atom bomb exploding in Boston would have on the surrounding area and its effect on medical services. The data was taken from recognized government sources but the conclusions were starkly different from what the popular press and government news releases were portraying. The publication of this article and the subsequent book format became part of the anti-nuclear armament movement and the PSR organization was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for its work.

During this time the family took on an advanced engineering construction project under Saul’s direction, the building of a summer house on Cape Cod.  Saul was a strong believer that any mechanically adept person could build something by following instructions in a book, and he spent many nights poring over the Department of Agriculture’s handbook on wood frame house construction.  Alice put her art skills to work as she and Saul made many mockups and models of the planned summer bungalow through the cold winter months. The family worked together for four weeks every summer over a period of years to build their summer retreat, one section at a time.  Even the smallest child, then two years, was put to work sorting nails.   Fifty years later, the house is still standing and is a family gathering place for four generations of descendents.

As the fields of nuclear medicine, biophysics and medical engineering developed, Saul continued at MGH, becoming the director of medical engineering when scattered research groups became consolidated into a single department. In the late 60’s a Fulbright Grant gave him the opportunity to spend a year in Denmark teaching medical engineering and biophysics.

He was also a founding partner in a company, which served the medical engineering needs of a consortium of New England hospitals. The company, TIM (Technology in Medicine), eventually grew to a staff of 60 and continues to serve the medical technology needs of New England health care.

When he retired from MGH in 1982 he continued his career in teaching, consulting and serving on committees of national professional standards organizations.  Among these activities were several years volunteering with Project Hope to develop the abilities of young engineering students in Jamaica to maintain and repair donated medical equipment, as well as supporting the continuing education of engineers in the Food and Drug Administration.

In his later retirement, he became active in the restoration and rebirth of the Adams Street Shul, Congregation Agudas Achim Anshei Sfard, the oldest synagogue in Newton, built by Jewish immigrants one hundred years ago.  Saul served as a Board member for many years and because of his knowledge of electricity and engineering, became the chief “fixer-upper.”

Saul and Alice continued their active participation in folk music and singing after they moved to Lasell Village.  Saul was the raconteur for the Lasell musical productions, spending many hours in preparation of his explanations of complicated plots and often presenting an analysis of the historical events that surrounded the writing of the musical.

Saul passed away on Tuesday after a brief stay at Newton Wellesley Hospital.  The burial was at Jewish Deedholders Cemetery, in Everett, on Wednesday, February 13. Memorial contributions may be made to Saul’s cherished humanitarian and social organizations, including Doctors Without Borders at doctorswithoutborders.com/donate.

He is survived by his Alice, his wife of 71 years and his children Victor, Frederick, David, Nathan, Louisa and Jessie; 11 grandchildren and a great grandchild.

Adams Street Shul

Limited Edition Centennial Shot Glass

I know you want to support the Shul, but haven’t maybe realized how easy this really is.   Bring your Nstar bill to the synagogue for Eric Friedberg, or contact Eric Friedberg directly ( or at 617-335-6937), and he will get you switched to Veridian.  This is the way to jump start you into the program.  The rates are still awesome.