Richard E. Berendzen Biography, Age, Height, Wife, Net Worth and Family

In 1992, Berendzen returned to American University as a full-time physics professor and served in that role until he retired in August 2006.

In March 1990, daycare owner Susan Allen received a phone call from a man claiming to be a gynecologist and inquiring about her sexual habits. Allen reported the call to her husband, a Fairfax County law enforcement officer, and continued to engage with the caller for several weeks while police monitored the communication via call tracing and tape recordings. Allen described the calls as “filthy beyond your most horrible nightmares.”

In the summer of 1990, Allen filed a $11 million lawsuit against Berendzen and American University. The case was settled for an undisclosed sum.

As president, Berendzen secured a $5 million donation from Saudi businessman Adnan Khashoggi toward the Adnan Khashoggi Sports and Convocation Center and named Kashoggi to the university’s board of trustees. Khashoggi’s donation, and the building’s subsequent naming, elicited limited protests from some American University students and former faculty who were concerned about Khashoggi’s role in the Iran-Contra Affair. Kashoggi was removed from the board in 1989 after facing charges of racketeering, fraud and obstruction of justice pertaining to his dealings in the Philippines.

Berendzen received a honorary doctorate degrees from Seton Hall University and the University of Columbo in 1985, and from the University of Maryland in 1990.

Under the auspices of the New York Academy of Sciences and the American Astronomical Society, Berendzen organized and chaired a major international conference, titled “Education in and History of Modern Astronomy.” He organized and chaired two other key conferences: “Life Beyond Earth and the Mind of Man” (at Boston University) in 1973 and “Space 2000” (at American University) in 1999. Proceedings from the Boston University was included in Who’s Out There?, a 1975 television program narrated by Orson Welles.

Berendzen joined the physics and astronomy faculty at Boston University and became the chair of the astronomy department in 1971. In 1974, he was hired as the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at American University in Washington, D.C. American University appointed him as provost in 1976, and in 1980 he became the university’s eleventh president. During his 10-year tenure as president, Berendzen and his wife Gail averaged eleven Washington social functions every week and the university’s endowment tripled in size.

Berendzen attended Southern Methodist University where he pursued a physics degree. He transferred to MIT after his sophomore year and received a Bachelor of Science degree in 1961. Berendzen continued to Harvard as a graduate student where he served as a teaching assistant for both William Liller and Carl Sagan. He graduated in 1967 with a master’s degree and a joint PhD in astronomy and education.

Berendzen met his first wife, Barbara Edwards, at Woodrow Wilson High School, and their first daughter, Deborah, was born during Berendzen’s first year at SMU.. In 1960, while Berendzen was at MIT, Barbara returned to Dallas with Deborah and the couple divorced. Berendzen married Gail Edgar, who he met at Harvard, in 1964 and the couple had a daughter named Natasha.

In 1946, Berendzen began attending school for the first time as a second grader. His mother’s mental health began to deteriorate, and “she was wildly unpredictable. Labels like manic, paranoid, delusional, and psychotic came years later. Sometimes she would be furious for no apparent reason; then, in a snap, she could suddenly become incredibly loving, supportive, and fun.” Berendzen began experiencing sexual abuse in his home at this time.

In 1945, the family relocated to Dallas, Texas where Earl managed a hardware store. Richard Berendzen remained ill and bedridden for three more years and began spending time stargazing on his lawn.

Richard Earl Berendzen (born September 6, 1938) is an American scientist, professor, and former president of American University, specializing in astronomy. His resignation in 1990 came following formal charges of making indecent phone calls to households in the Fairfax area over the course of several weeks that year. In 1992, he returned to American University as a full-time physics professor until his retirement in 2006.

Berendzen was born in Walters, Oklahoma on September 6, 1938. In 1942, Berendzen and his parents, Earl and June Berendzen, moved to Portland, Oregon, where Berendzen developed rheumatic fever and asthma at a young age, which confined him to his room.