Friends and Family of E. Lester Levine

E. Lester Levine Memorial Scholarship

E. Lester Levine was a longtime mentor at the Niagara Frontier Center who passed away suddenly in 1991. Said his brother Maurice Edwards of Lester, “This should suffice to illustrate one aspect of Lester’s personality, namely, his cool ability to objectively zero in on the essence of a situation. Another aspect is his sense of humanity and concern for his fellow man — a quality universally reported on by those who remember him as a teacher, a scholar, a union member, a faculty organizer, a New Deal-Fair Deal liberal, a human being.”

As his cousin, Professor Marvin J. Levine of the University of Maryland commented, “Politically, we saw eye to eye on the important issues of the day, both of us being unabashed liberals. Lester was then, and remained until the end of his life, a champion of the underdog and the dispossessed.”

Jane Altes, a colleague and former Acting President of Empire State College said at his memorial service, “Lester was unique – as a person and as a member of the college community. He was smart, funny, kind, concerned, dedicated – and a pest! He wanted us to fix things just because they ought to be fixed. He wanted people to know about things just because knowing them was right and reasonable. He wanted everyone’s ideas to be represented just because that was morally proper. What a pest!”

The E. Lester Levine Memorial Scholarship was established by Lester’s friends and family members, primarily by his late brother Maurice Edwards. The scholarship is available to undergraduate students enrolled at the Niagara Frontier Center.