Meir Rosenblatt was born in Germany in 1948, to parents who were war refugees. They migrated to Haifa, Israel, in 1949, where Meir graduated from the prestigious Re’ali High School, despite economic difficulties. He obtained his B.Sc. in Industrial Engineering and Management at Ben-Gurion University in Be’er Sheva. There he met his future wife Zehava, and they had two children. With financial support from the university, he obtained his M.Sc. at Stanford in 1974 and there he also got his Ph.D. in 1977. After one year as a Visiting Assistant Professor at Cornell University, he and his family returned to Ben-Gurion University, where he served first as lecturer and then as senior lecturer during 1978-1982. After an additional stay in Stanford as a Visiting Associate Professor, Meir was appointed in 1984 to the Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management at the Technion, Israel. There he advanced rapidly up to the rank of Full Professor in 1990.

He was head of the Industrial Engineering Area in 1987-1989, and served on most academic committees of the faculty, and as faculty representative to the Technion senate. He was intensively involved in the establishment of the Davidson School of Management and of the MBA program, and was also appointed to the post of Academic Director of TIM (Technion Institute of Management).

Parallel to his service at the Technion, Meir was appointed in 1991 as Myron Northrop Professor of Operations and Manufacturing Management at the Olin School of Business, Washington University, St. Louis.

Meir Rosentblatt received several awards for academic excellence and teaching at the Technion and Ben-Gurion University, as well as at Washington University. At Stanford University he won the faculty service award. He also received the “1996 Meritorious Service Award” from the Operations Research journal.

He published close to seventy papers in highly-rated professional journals, and five chapters in books. He was an associate editor, area editor and member of Editorial Boards in numerous prestigious journals in his fields of specialization. Meir Rosenblatt was interested in applications and served as a consultant with various Israeli and American firms.

Meir’s energy and involvement contributed to the academic excellence of the Industrial Engineering program at the faculty, and to the vision of establishing a high- level MBA program. His strong and well-articulated ideas about teaching, research and staffing provided leadership to his students and colleagues at the Technion and at Washington University. These are sorely missed by all of us.

Despite his many obligations, Meir was committed to volunteering, spending many evenings by singing in homes of the aged.

An insidious disease as a young lecturer hit Meir, and throughout his academic career he battled it with vigor and determination, with the strong support of his family. Nevertheless it overcame him at the age of 52, cutting short his brilliant career, and depriving us all, and his discipline, of his many contributions. At the time of his last illness he was engaged in writing the story of his battle with the disease in a book, which he called “Five Times and Still Kicking”.

We remember him with admiration!