Norman Itzkowitz *59

Norman Itzkowitz, professor emeritus of Near Eastern studies at Princeton, died peacefully Jan. 20, 2019, at age 87.

Born in New York City, he graduated from the specialized Stuyvesant High School and then from City College, in 1953, where he was a varsity fencer and lacrosse player. He earned a Ph.D. in 1959 at Princeton in Oriental languages and literature. He began teaching at Princeton in 1958 and retired in 2001.

Itzkowitz authored highly regarded books in Ottoman and Turkish studies. He also developed an interest in psychoanalysis, trained to be a lay analyst, and engaged in psychohistory, which produced a groundbreaking psychobiography of Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey.

He also became increasingly involved in the on-campus life of Princeton students, becoming master of Wilson College from 1975 to 1989, where students affectionately called him “Uncle Norm.” Itzkowitz organized regular trips to New York City for cultural and sporting events. He also was a faculty adviser to Princeton fencing and hockey teams, and served on the Committee on Undergraduate Life, which reorganized undergraduate life by creating the residential-college system.

Itzkowitz is survived by his wife, Lenore, with whom he resided in Princeton for 65 years; two children (including Karen Redlich ’85); and four granddaughters

Graduate memorials are prepared by the APGA.