Barbara Streicher Magid, beloved wife, mother and grandmother, passed away on Oct. 21 at the age of 86 in Potomac, Md. Barbara was born on June 6, 1937, in Bronx, NY, to William (Bill) and Pauline Streicher.
As a child in Takoma Park, Md., Barbara wanted to be a scientist, which was very rare for a woman at that time. Like her mother Pauline, Barbara studied Chemistry. She received a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from Cornell University in 1958 and a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1964. One of her proudest moments was receiving her Phi Beta Kappa key at Cornell.
During her time at Cornell, she started a lifelong friendship with her roommate Irene Soskin, who became the sister she never had. While at MIT, Barbara met her future husband, Len, and they were married on June 10, 1962. Barbara spent most of career as a professor of organic chemistry at Suffolk County Community College, working over 50 years and into her 80s before officially “retiring” during COVID.
She loved to play bridge, attend performances of the opera and theater, travel, garden and read books, particularly mysteries. Barbara and Len were avid travelers and they took dozens of trips around the world to Europe, Asia, South and Central America, Africa, the Mid-East, New Zealand and Australia. Their most recent trip was to Scandinavia last July.
Barbara is survived by her husband Leonard, her children, Bruce and Lisa (Jim), and two grandchildren, Matthew and Michael.
