Shove From Rushing Commuter Kills Beloved Professor

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — A Hofstra professor who fled the Nazis with his family when he was just 11-years-old died after being knocked to the ground by a man who was rushing to catch a train on a busy Midtown platform.

Kurt Salzinger, 89, was heading to Macy's with his wife on Oct. 27 when the couple was bowled over by a man trying to catch a train at 34th Street-Penn Station, Salzinger's widow Deanna Chitayat told the New York Post. The man looked back at the elderly couple, but continued to board the train, Chitayat told the Post.

"He stopped and looked at Kurt and saw him laying there and then jumped into the car," Citayat said.

Several onlookers rushed to the aid of the professor, including a nurse who tended to his wounds, but the shove and fall to the ground caused Salzinger to suffer brain bleeding, according to the report. Salzinger fell into a coma, developed pneumonia in the hospital and died on Thursday, the Post reported.

Salzinger served as a professor emeritus at Hofstra University and taught in the school's department of psychology from 1992 and until 2001, according to a statement from the university. During his career, Salzinger taught at institutions such as Columbia University, Polytechnic University, Rutgers University and CUNY City College and authored 14 books and more than 120 articles and book chapters, according to the university.

Hofstra professor Mitchell Schare remembered Salzinger as a "powerful force in the world of Behavioral Analysis."

"Lunch was always more fun when Kurt was around; simple discussions became theoretical debates with universal implications," Schare said in a statement.

Salzinger was born in Vienna, Austria in 1929 and was forced to flee the Nazis at the age of 11, according to an obituary that appeared in the New York Times. Salzinger arrived in New York City in 1938 and attended Bronx High School of Science and later NYU and Columbia University — where he received his Ph.D in psychology, according to the obituary.

The professor is survived by his wife of 38 years Deanna Chitayat, his first wife Suzanne Salzinger, four children, two stepchildren and four grandchildren, according to the obituary.

Photo by Maria Cormack-Pitts/Patch