Henry J. Abraham (Gr’52), former professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania, died February 26 in Charlottesville, Virginia. He was 98.

Dr. Abraham was born in Offenbach am Main, Germany, attended elementary schools there and the initial stages of high school in Frankfurt am Main. He completed an apprenticeship as a printer and then when he was 15, his mother sent him to the United States. He completed high school in Pittsburgh. In 1939 he was joined by his parents and brother, Otto. He worked as a stock clerk for May Stern & Co., then a bookkeeper for a scrap iron firm.

In 1942, he was drafted by the US Army, and he became a US citizen in 1943. He served in England, Belgium, Holland, France and Germany, initially as an interrogator of enemy prisoners of war and ultimately as a member of the 6889th Berlin Documents Center, which had a direct line to the US Supreme Court Justice Jackson’s office at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials. He was discharged in the spring of 1946.

Dr. Abraham received his undergraduate degree from Kenyon College in political science in 1948, his MA in public law and government from Columbia University in 1949, and his PhD from the University of Pennsylvania in 1952.

He joined the faculty at Penn as an assistant professor of political science soon after and was later promoted to associate professor. While at Penn, he was awarded one of the first Faculty Awards for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching (Almanac October 1959), he earned a Fulbright Lectureship to Aarhus University in Denmark, and he was selected as a Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar. He also served on various committees at Penn, including as chair of the Faculty Senate (then “University Senate”), 1971-1972.

In 1972, he and his family left Philadelphia for the University of Virginia, where he became a chaired professor in government and foreign affairs. He remained there until his retirement in 1997. He received numerous awards and honors, including the University of Virginia’s highest award, the Thomas Jefferson Award; the first Lifetime Achievement Award of the Organized Section on Law and Courts of the American Political Science Association; and several honorary degrees. 

Dr. Abraham was a prolific author, including writing 13 books, concentrating on the nature of the judicial process in general and the US Supreme Court in particular. The agencies of the US Department of State used his services as a lecturer throughout the world. He received several grants and fellowships from, among others, the Rockefeller Foundation, the American Historical Foundation, the American Political Science Association, the National Science Foundation, the American Philosophical Society and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Dr. Abraham is survived by his wife, Mildred Kosches Abraham (G’54); their sons Philip (Janet) and Peter (Anne); and grandchildren Benjamin, Lauren, Marnie and Liesel.