Paula M. Getzin

Paula Mayer Getzin passed away on July 4th, 2022 in Ithaca, NY. She was born in 1941 to Henry and Jenny Mayer, in Brooklyn, NY.

Paula was a Professor of Chemistry at Kean University for 40 years. In addition to Chemistry, she also taught Computer Science and Environment, Technology, and Society. She was the consummate teacher and took great pleasure working with the diverse group of students at Kean during the school year, as well as during the summers when she taught a bridge program to help support students from less academic backgrounds to help with their transition from high school to college.

Paula was an accomplished intellectual. After getting a perfect score on her Math SATs, she went to Radcliffe (Harvard) at age sixteen. There she earned her AB (Artium Baccalaureus) in Chemistry in 1961. Next, she acquired a doctorate in Chemistry from Columbia in 1967. Paula later earned a second masters from Stevens Institute of Technology in 1986, this time in Computer Science.

While she was at Columbia, she met and married fellow Chemistry PhD candidate Donald Getzin and the couple had two sons: Andrew and Jeffrey. After the marriage ended, she and Don remained lifelong friends.

Andrew attended Amherst College where he was a member of the football team. He is now a medical doctor specializing in Sports Medicine. He is married to fellow medical practitioner and Olympic diver Karen LaFace. The couple lives in Ithaca, NY and have three children: Zoe (a junior at Williams College), Lucy (a freshman at Vassar College), and Quentin (a high school freshman).

Jeffrey is a lifelong mixed martial artist, the author of six books, and a software architect who formerly worked at Google. He earned a BA from Clark University and an MS from the University of Pittsburgh, both in Computer Science. He lives with his bibliophile wife Katherine in Boonton, NJ.

In addition to the children and grandchildren whom she adored, Paula’s interests included gardening, gourmet cooking, Bridge, reading, and word games such as Wordle and Scrabble. She was an avid world traveler, particularly with fellow Columbia alumnus Jim Nearing and fellow Kean professor Ron Criasia. Paula loved playing tennis, in which she was a fierce competitor and a reliable partner. She also volunteered for the Highland Park, NJ Board of Health, Human Rights Commission, and Board of Education, where she served as president for several years.

Paula was loved for her compassion and thoughtfulness. She was extremely generous: not in showy ways, but in ways that genuinely made a difference to people. She was uncommonly considerate, recognizing the needs of others that often went overlooked by those around them.

There are too many people who loved her to list them all, but notable among those who cherished her and were cherished by her were Jayne Howard (close friend and neighbor), Diane Marshall (a fellow educator, and friend of over 50 years), Elizabeth Purcelly (Don Getzin’s long-time partner), and Judith Rabkin (widow of Jim Nearing).

Paula died with dignity and on her own terms after living with neuroendocrine cancer for twelve years. She hopes that awareness of this disease will increase in the medical community so that earlier detection will occur more often; she stresses that early detection could lead to cures and save lives. She also hopes that New York will pass a right to die law (also known as a “dignity law”) similar to those in some neighboring states.

In lieu of flowers, please donate in her name to Doctors Without Borders, or to a charity of your choice.