Martin Gruberg

Dr. Martin Gruberg, age 89, a retired chair of the political science department at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh who saw his research cited in multiple landmark Supreme Court sex discrimination cases, died on October 9, 2024, in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

Dr. Gruberg was born in the Bronx, New York City on January 28, 1935, to Benjamin and Mollie Gruberg. He graduated with honors from City College of New York after three years, where he served as president of the student government and founder of the Young Republican Club. He earned his Ph.D. in Public Law and Government at Columbia University, during which time he also became a lifelong Democrat. Dr. Gruberg's dissertation was a study in legislative politics around the 1956 senatorial investigation of natural gas lobbying. He served for three years as president of the Polyglot Club of New York, where he met his first wife, Rosaline Kurfirst. For a year, he was with the U.S. State Department as a specialist in citizenship problems.

After receiving his Ph.D. in 1963 Dr. Gruberg settled in Oshkosh, becoming a professor at what was then Wisconsin State College. He taught public law and American politics. Passionate about both student development and academic service, Dr. Gruberg also directed the pre-law program and was promoted from Assistant Chair to Chair of the Department of Political Science.

In January 1964, Dr. Gruberg began research for what would become a groundbreaking text on women in American politics, the first book-length study to be published on the topic. His investigation took him to the two national party conventions as well as interviews in New York and Washington D.C. The book highlighted findings from his survey research of 1,000 women active in political affairs and explored the records of women's contribution to American political life. During his work on the book, Dr. Gruberg formed a friendship with then ACLU attorney Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who used his book in her arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court. The book was cited by the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1973 case of Frontiero v. Richardson and also used in the winning brief in the earlier Supreme Court case of Reed v. Reed. Both cases took up the issue of sex discrimination.

He was a lifelong champion for civil rights. He was appointed president of the Oshkosh Human Rights Council and led a successful campaign in 1968 for a citywide ordinance banning discriminatory housing practices. That same year, he used his role in the University to support student demands for multicultural education and administrative support for Black students and advocated on behalf of student protestors who occupied the University president's office on Black Thursday.

After editing an encyclopedia of American government and contributing over 40 articles to various encyclopedias, Dr. Gruberg wrote two books on Wisconsin local government: one on Mayor Henry Maier of Milwaukee, the other on Winnebago County government and politics. He also authored an introductory law text. After a distinguished 45-year academic career, Dr. Gruberg, retired from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh in 2008. He taught everything from the American presidency to political films to a course on great trials where his students re-litigated famous trials like the O.J. Simpson trial.

After his retirement, Dr. Gruberg published A Record of Natural and Social Disasters and Their Political Implications (Edwin Mellen Press, 2009) in response to the events of September 11, 2001. Following this exploration of the politics of disasters, he published a study of "party bolters," entitled A Biographical Encyclopedia of American Politicians Who Switched Parties (Edwin Mellen Press, 2011). When asked how retirement was treating him, Dr. Gruberg couldn't resist replying "nothing like retirement."

Following the passing of his first wife in 1980, he married Humaira Sayeed in 1983. They raised two children: a son, Shabab Iftekhar Gruberg, and a daughter, Sharita Mollie Gruberg. Dr. Gruberg and Humaira divorced in 1996. He married Dr. Vivian Foss, a professor in the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh English Department, in 2007.

Dr. Gruberg was an active member of the Oshkosh Optimist Club, the Oshkosh Candlelight Debate Club, and the University Club.

He is survived by his wife, Vivian; daughter, Sharita Gruberg; son, Shabab Gruberg and Shabab's wife, Shannon Sharp Gruberg; as well as his grandchildren, Aman and Arif Gruberg. He is preceded in death by his brother, Stanley Gruberg who passed in 2020.

In lieu of flowers, Dr. Gruberg's family requests donations to his favorite organizations, the ACLU of Wisconsin, NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and the New York Metropolitan Opera.

A memorial service for Martin will take place at Konrad-Behlman Funeral Home-Westside, 100 Lake Pointe Drive, on Saturday, October 26, 2024, at 2:00 p.m. Interment will take place at Lake View Memorial Park, Oshkosh.