The following is a copy of an article written by R. W. Apple, Jr. '57 on Friday, April 18, 1955, the day Albert Einstein died. The Daily Princetonian broke the news and published a special edition only hours after his death.
Dr. Albert Einstein died this morning at Princeton Hospital.
Seventy-six last month, the physicist succumbed at 1:15 a. m. today to heart disease.
He was admitted to the hospital last Friday after a two-day illness, according to Dr. Guy K. Dean, his personal physician. He had apparently been making a recovery from a leak in the aorta and gall bladder complications.
Best known for his theory of special relativity—first published in 1905—Einstein appears certain to be accorded a historic place in man's quest for scientific achievement beside the names of Archimedes, Euclid, Galileo, Copernicus and Sir Isaac Newton.
In Washington, President Eisenhower issued the following statement:
"For 22 years the United Stats has been the freely chosen home of Albert Einstein. For 15 years, he has been a citizen of the United States by his own free and deliberate choice. Americans welcomed him here. Americans were proud, too, that he sought and found here a climate of freedom in his search for knowledge and truth.
"No other man contributed so much to the vast expansion of twentieth-century knowledge, yet no other man was more modest in the possession of the power that is knowledge, more sure that power without wisdom is deadly.
'Mighty creative ability'
"To all men who lived in the nuclear age, Albert Einstein exemplified the mighty creative ability of the individual in a free society."
Dr. Thomas S. Harvey, the Hospital's pathologist, performed an autopsy shortly before noon today and concurred with Dr. Dean's diagnosis.
"A small leak from the aneurysmal sac into the tissues behind the aorta brought death," Dr. Dean said. Dr. Harvey explained that Dr. Einstein's aorta (the main blood vessel in the body) was "bulged out like an old inner tube and finally broke." He added that the ailment was similar to arteriosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries.
A Professor Emeritus in the School of Mathematics at the Institute for Advanced Study here, Dr. Einstein was born at Ulm, Germany, on March 14, 1879. He was a Nobel Prize winner in 1922 for his work on relativity.
Dr. Einstein first came to Princeton in 1932 when a wave of Anti-Semitism swept over Nazi Germany with the rise of Adolf Hitler.
Author role
He was the author of many scientific and philosophical books, including "Meaning of Relativity" and an autobiography published in 1946.
With him when he died was Mrs. Alberta Rozsel, a nurse. She told Dr. Dean that, about 1:10 this morning, the physicist's breathing pattern changed. Summoning assistance, the nurse raised his head and heard him breath heavily twice before he expired.
Six doctors had been in attendance during the illness: Dr. Dean, Dr. Ralph J. Belford and Dr. Willard G. Rainey of Princeton Hospital; Dr. Rudolf Ehrmann and Dr. Gustav Bucky, old friends from Germany; and Dr. Frank Glenn, a cardiac and aortic surgeon from New York City.
Survivors
He is survived by two sons and a daughter: Dr. Hans Albert Einstein, 57, Professor of Engineering at the University of California, who flew here Saturday; Dr. Edward Einstein, 45, now living in Switzerland; and Miss Margot Einstein 55, who lives here. There are also two grandchildren.
Spokesmen for the family said today that funeral plans and the provisions of the will may not be made public. Dr. Otto Nathan of New York has been named executor of the estate.
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