Oleg Dimitri Sherby
Feb. 9, 1925-Nov. 9, 2015
Menlo Park, California
Submitted by Pamela McCroskey

Oleg Dimitri Sherby, a professor emeritus at Stanford in the Department of Materials Science & Engineering, died November 9 at his home in Menlo Park. He was 90 years old.

Oleg is survived by his four children: Lawrence (Diana) of Palo Alto; Pamela of Palo Alto; Stephen (Ann) of Roseville; and Mark (Maria) of San Jose; and by nine grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his wife, the former Juanita Slater, who passed away in 1989.

He was followed in death by his second partner, Marilyn Kazemi, and she is survived by her daughter, Leila Carlton (Ernie), of Roseville and her two children.

Oleg was born in 1925 in Shanghai, China, to parents who had fled Vladivostok, Russia, a year earlier due to the Russian Revolution. He was 13 when his family emigrated once again, this time to escape the Japanese bombing of Shanghai.

The family settled in the San Francisco Bay Area, where Oleg attended the University of California, Berkeley, and after brief service in the U.S. Army earned his bachelor's and master's degrees and doctorate in metallurgy.

He was a National Science Foundation Fellow at Sheffield University (1956-57) and then scientific liaison officer in metallurgy with the U.S. Office of Naval Research, London (1957-58).

In 1958, Oleg and his family moved to Palo Alto. He joined the Stanford faculty in the Department of Materials Science, where he taught for 30 years until he was named professor emeritus in 1988.

Faculty colleagues remember him as an inspiring teacher who enjoyed hosting the occasional poker party.

As a researcher, Oleg made important contributions to understanding the mechanical properties of materials. He was a pioneer in discovering the atomic mechanisms controlling "creep," the slow deformation of metals and ceramics at high temperature.

He was the co-holder of eight U.S. patents, the author or co-author of 340 publications, the technical editor of two books and the co-author of a text on superplasticity in metals and ceramics. It was in the field of superplasticity that Oleg left his most enduring mark.

Even after he became an emeritus professor in 1988, Oleg remained a prolific researcher and over the next 25 years co-authored with colleagues Chol Syn and Don Lesuer of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory about 50 papers.

Elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1979, Oleg was the recipient of numerous awards and honors from all the major materials science communities.

Oleg had a lifelong passion for athletics. While an undergraduate at UC Berkeley, he played soccer and ran track, and at Stanford he was known for organizing noon volleyball games for faculty and students alike.

Oleg loved Stanford football games and had season tickets for many years. He also was very enthusiastic about attending the Stanford women’s basketball games held on campus.

Drafted into the U.S. Army during his senior year at Berkeley, Oleg was honorably discharged in 1946. He met his future wife, Juanita Slater, at a dance in Berkeley in 1948, and they married in September 1949. Their union was a happy one, lasting 40 years until Juanita's death in 1989.

Oleg visited Yosemite Valley for the first time as a youth. He was immediately taken by its grandeur. He visited Yosemite countless times during his lifetime. Oleg’s children fondly remember yearly camping trips to Yosemite Valley in the summer with their mom and dad, camping by the Merced River in tents. Their dad loved being by the river.

His children remember frequent visits to Oleg's parents’ home in Berkeley for Russian meals. It was also fun and interesting for the children to hear their dad speak fluent Russian with his parents.

The family remembers their stay in Paris 1967-68, the year their dad took sabbatical leave from Stanford. The entire family traveled throughout Europe that year.

Oleg always considered himself a very lucky man. When he was widowed in 1989, he continued to charge ahead with his academic endeavors and travels related to his research. When he met Marilyn Kazemi in 1993 he found a supportive partner who was as enthusiastic about traveling the world as he was. Together they experienced, among many other things, the wonders of Machu Picchu, the Panama Canal, Egypt, Greece, and India.

They tremendously enjoyed visiting Vladivostok, Russia, and Oleg spoke fondly of being on a boat on Lake Baikal in Siberia with a cigar in hand enjoying a little vodka. Oleg’s children and grandchildren remember their winter trips to Lake Tahoe and a private tour of Costa Rica. Oleg’s children remember their father as a man with much personal inner strength, who always saw the big picture. His children were always comforted by their dad’s wisdom when helping them explore a solution to a given problem, always encouraging them to “hang in there.” When Oleg’s youngest son Mark faced big challenges, Oleg wisely reminded him that “inch by inch is a cinch, yard by yard is hard.”

Oleg was a very generous man and father. He always displayed tremendous enthusiasm and a keen interest in people, never one to brag about himself. Above all, Oleg was an honorable man.

The family is grateful to Alice Mafi, who provided loving care for their father during the last two and a half years of his life.

A private memorial service will be held at a later date.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorial donations be made to the Yosemite Conservancy or their favorite charity.

Tags: veteran, teacher/educator