A message from AAUP-AFT President Charlie Parrish
On May 7, 2020 Professor Emeritus Ira Firestone died after suffering a massive heart attack. Ira came to Wayne in 1966 as an Assistant Professor and remained on our faculty until his retirement in 2014. He was an excellent academician and a good citizen of the University. He served his Department (Psychology), College, and University in many capacities. He and his colleague, Professor Kal Kaplan, won two National Science Foundation research grants that generated support for many theses, dissertations, and papers. He co-chaired, with Professor Ty Partridge, the Social, Developmental and Cognitive areas of the Department when they were combined into a single unit. Later in his career he served as the departmental Honors Advisor.
Ira served as Chief Negotiator for the Union in 1966, leading the first negotiating team on which I served. It was a difficult negotiation with the Adamany Administration. The faculty and academic staff had gone for two years without a contract as President Adamany was an almost implacable opponent. He referred to the experience of the years without a contract as a “radicalizing experience.” We were able to reach a settlement after many long hours at the table and a brief strike. Ira was a steady influence on the team, showing good humor throughout a very difficult time. His personal decency and humanity were inspiring to the team he led to success. He served ably again as chief negotiator in 1994 (?) Ira also served on the Academic Senate where he effectively chaired the Curriculum and Instruction Committee and served on its Research Committee. He also served on his College and the University Promotion and Tenure Committees.
To his many colleagues and students, he was known as a true “mensch,” the Yiddish term, defined as "someone to admire and emulate, someone of noble character.”
Ira was married for over 45 years to Dr. Joan Lessen, to whom it was obvious to those who knew them, he adored. He also leaves three children and five grandchildren whom he loved dearly. Our thoughts are with them in this time of grief.
