In the late 1930s the Eckstein family escaped from Germany to England, where he attended boarding school, then came to the United States in December 1939. He lived first in Jackson Heights, N.Y., graduated from high school in 1941, got a job as a chemical-lab assistant in New York City, and joined the Army in 1943. He served in Europe in a field-artillery battalion until the end of the war and made a visit to his hometown, Ulm, which had been destroyed by U.S. bombing in 1944.
Right after discharge, he came to Princeton in the fall of 1946, majored in chemistry, and, though having matriculated two years “late,” graduated with our class in its designated year. While at Princeton he got to know another distinguished native of Ulm, Albert Einstein.
He earned a Ph.D. and then a postdoctoral fellowship in polymer physics at Cornell. From 1954 to 1957, he did materials research at DuPont in Wilmington, Del. From 1957 to 1986, he was at the Parma Technical Center of Union Carbide, near Cleveland. There his major research focus was fundamental and applied studies of carbon fibers.
Bernard and Sheila Rubin, an artist, who survives him, married in 1958. They shared interests in travel, music, and other arts. Bernard was active in his synagogue and in several professional societies. He is also survived by two nieces, a nephew, three great-nieces, and five great-nephews. His brother, Otto ’51, predeceased him.