MYER M. KESSLER
A funeral was held in Stanetsky Memorial Chapel in Brookline on August 15 for Myer M. Kessler, 80, of Belmont, who died on August 13. He began his MIT career in 1954 and retired in 1976.
Dr. Kessler, a physicist, worked on developing radar and military guidance systems at the Radiation Laboratory and Lincoln Laboratory. In 1962, he was named director of MIT's Technical Information Project, in which he devised the system familiar to computer users for retrieving articles and documents by searching for a word or words in a text rather than by looking for titles, authors, key words or subject classifications. He first demonstrated the technology with an IBM 7094 mainframe computer in 1964.
Dr. Kessler is survived by his wife, Minuetta; a daughter, Jean Brenner of Lutherville, MD; a stepson, Ronald Kessler of Potomac, MD; a sister, Manya Grossman of Cambridge, and four grandchildren. Memorial contributions may be made to the United Jewish Appeal.
MARJORIE LUCKER
A memorial service was held on August 3 at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard for Marjorie Lucker, 66, of Lexington, who died on August 1. Another memorial service will be held at the school in September.
Mrs. Lucker was a former administrative officer in the School of Humanities and Social Science at MIT and the wife of Jay Lucker, former director of the MIT Libraries, who retired in 1995. At the time of her death, she was registrar and assistant dean for student services at Harvard's JFK School.
In addition to her husband, she leaves two daughters, Amy of Lexington and Nancy Lazerson of Encinitas, CA, and a sister, Helen Stern-Richter of New York, NY.
HELEN L. THOMAS
A memorial service was held on August 21 in Christ Church in Cambridge for Dr. Helen L. Thomas, 91, of Cambridge, who died on August 6. She was a former director of the publications office in the Research Laboratory of Electronics who retired as RLE editor of publications in 1971. She was the first woman in the United States and the second American to earn a PhD in the history of science, which she received from Radcliffe College in 1948.
Ms. Thomas leaves a son, Robert M. of Weston; a brother, Harold B. Lewis of Salem, CT, and two grandchildren.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on August 27, 1997.
