TEXAS JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY (August 2015)
Teaching the World
by Vickie Vogel
Joseph Sidney Werlin was born in Philadelphia on December 5, 1900. The family moved to Houston where Jacob is said to have owned the first Hebrew typewriter in Texas.
His son Joseph inherited his father’s love of writing. Giving up formal schooling after half a year in high school to help support the family, Joseph began an intensive self-study program. When World War I broke out, he received a Congressional appointment as third alternate from Texas to the United States Naval Academy. When candidates ahead of him failed their examinations, he was able to enroll in the fall of 1919. At the end of his first year, he decided it was not suitable for him and withdrew.4
Joseph took entrance exams for Rice Institute (now Rice University), which was virtually tuition free. Working part time and contributing his wages to the family, he completed his BA degree in 1924. Deciding an academic career was for him, he enrolled in the University of Chicago where he attained his MA in 1926. The next year, he studied at the University of Berlin and did research at the University of Moscow.
Returning to the United States, Joseph married Rosella Horowitz in 1928. She was the daughter of Rabbi and Mrs. Henry J. Horowitz of Galveston. The newlyweds moved to Chicago where Joseph received his PhD in 1931, the first American to receive a PhD for research into the Russian social/economic experiment of 1898-1905.
In 1934, he was invited to become a charter member of the faculty of the University of Houston, which was expanding from a junior college to a four-year institution. A creator of the Department of Sociology, he gained a full professorship in 1945. With the end of World War II and renewed travel opportunities abroad, Joseph developed a ground-breaking summer study center in Mexico under the university’s auspices. The idea was so successful, it was broadened to include centers in Guatemala and in Cuba at the University of Havana. He conducted similar programs in Europe for the rest of his life.
Joseph Werlin’s lifelong interest in Mexican-American relations led to an award as Distinguished Visitor’s Medal and Diploma from the Government of the Federal District of Mexico. He was working on a book, Today’s Mexico, at the time of his death. A noted linguist, Joseph spoke Spanish, French, Russian, Italian, and German, and knew to a lesser degree Portuguese, Greek, Dutch, Danish and Sanskrit. He also studied several Latin America Indian dialects. He wrote and lectured extensively.
In 1948, Joseph Werlin was named “Man of the Week” by The Jewish Beacon. He received the Bronze Medal from the Belgian Ministry of Education in 1951 for his work on behalf of international understanding. In 1959, Honorary Citizenship of Vieux Montmartre (Paris) was bestowed on him because of his “quarter of century of visiting, writing, and lecturing on Europe.”
A heart attack or cerebral hemorrhage brought a sudden end to Joseph’s life at his home on May 30, 1964. He was 63.
On May 30, the Houston Post lauded Werlin, writing, “He will be long remembered by those whose privilege it was to know him.”
Joseph Werlin’s love of learning and teaching carried him around much of the world, spreading knowledge and understanding with the aid of his extensive language skills. He lived his life doing what he loved.
