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Obituaries
Paul Diesing, professor emeritus in the Department of Political Science, died May 1 in Bradenton, Fla., from complications of dementia. He was 88.
A philosopher, Diesing studied the role of rationality, methodology and ideology in social science research. He published six influential books and numerous articles on a wide range of topics.
He joined the UB faculty in the mid 1960s, beginning his career in the Department of Philosophy, then moving to the Department of Political Science. He also was affiliated with UB’s Center for International Conflict Studies and was the campus delegate to the American Federation of Teachers.
A native of Elgin, Ill., Diesing attended Concordia Teachers College, where he studied music and philosophy, and then the University of Chicago, where he studied composition with Leo Sowerby and Remi Gassman, and flute with Ernest Liegl of the Chicago Symphony.
He served in the U.S. Army from 1943-46, when he was sent to Yale and the University of Michigan to study Japanese.
Following his army service, Diesing returned to the University of Chicago to study philosophy, sociology and economics. He worked with anthropologist Robert Redfield, within the framework of John Dewey’s philosophy, to produce his dissertation, “An action program for the Fox Indians” in 1952.
He taught philosophy at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from 1952-62, then spent a year at the University of Colorado-Boulder before coming to UB.
In addition to his academic career, Diesing was an avid amateur musician. He had played the flute from boyhood, but early in his marriage he and his wife, Eleanor, discovered the string quartet. He took up the viola, Eleanor the cello, and they played in weekly sessions for nearly 60 years.
They also played together in community orchestras, both in Buffalo—the Amherst Symphony—and in the Bradenton area—Anna Maria Island Concert Chorus and Orchestra.
Robert L. Scheig, professor emeritus in the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, died April 8 in the Center for Hospice & Palliative Care, Cheektowaga. He was 80.
A native of Warren, Ohio, Scheig graduated from the University School of Cleveland in 1949, attended Harvard College and graduated from Yale University School of Medicine in 1956.
He served as an active duty physician with the Navy Medical Corps from 1956-59. He was stationed with the Marines in North Carolina in 1961 and was deployed to Lebanon under the Eisenhower administration. He was honorably discharged as lieutenant commander in the Naval Reserves in 1962.
Scheig continued his postdoctoral training in internal medicine at Yale New Haven Hospital and was a research fellow in the GI unit at the Massachusetts General Hospital. From there, he served several academic appointments at Yale University School of Medicine.
In 1973, Scheig was appointed professor of medicine and head of the division of gastroenterology at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine. He became the acting head of medicine at the school until 1979, and also served as chief of medicine at the Newington Veterans Medical Center from 1973-81.
Scheig was recruited in 1981 to head the Department of Medicine at Buffalo General Hospital and was appointed professor of medicine at UB. He served as program director for UB’s Internal Medicine Residency Program from 1991-96. In 1996, he became a primary care physician at the Veteran’s Hospital in Buffalo until his retirement in 2008.
Soren Erik Sorensen, professor emeritus in the School of Dental Medicine who defied the Nazi occupation of his native Denmark during World War II, died April 21 in ElderWood Health Care at Oakwood, Amherst. He was 93.
As a young man, he played the violin and piano in a group that included Borge Rosenbaum, who became a world-famous entertainer after changing his name to Victor Borge, and Sorensen’s cousin, Ole Schmidt, who later became an internationally known conductor.
Sorensen studied economics in the 1930s and worked for Handelsbanken, or the Danish Bank.
During this time, he wrote an economics textbook and traveled through Germany and Italy, where he saw firsthand the abuses of the Fascists and the Nazis.
Sorensen narrowly escaped arrest and execution, once for photographing Adolf Hitler in a restaurant and a second time for spitting on the boots of a Gestapo agent.
After his interests changed from economics to medicine and dentistry, he enrolled at the Royal Dental College in Copenhagen.
While he was a student there, Denmark was occupied by the Nazis, and he and his future wife, Doris Eriksen, then a university student, actively supported the Danish resistance.
Sorensen opened a dental practice after graduating in 1946 and later served as an assistant professor in the Royal Dental College.
He and his family moved in the 1950s to Chicago, where he taught at Northwestern University before moving to Milwaukee to earn a master’s degree at Marquette University.
He moved to Buffalo in 1962 to take a position at UB, serving as chair of the Department of Dental Materials in the School of Dental Medicine from 1964 to 1988, when he retired.
A prolific researcher and educator, he published numerous papers and received patents for several of his innovations. Many were meant to help people in developing countries, including an inexpensive and easy-to-use “rubber glove” for straightening teeth that is now widely used in the United States.
After his retirement, he continued his research and served on a number of UB committees.
He was a member of the International Association for Dental Research, the Danish Dental Association and the American Dental Association.
Survivors include a daughter, Vibeke Sorensen, professor and chair of the Department of Media Study. His wife, Doris Sorensen, died Oct. 1. She had taught Danish and German in the Department of Linguistics for many years.
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