Levere Cortez Hostler

Levere Cortez Hostler, a retired physics professor, passed away in Needham, MA, on November 15, 2023, at the age of 91. He is survived by Dorothy, his beloved wife of fifty-six years.

Levere was born and raised in York, Pennsylvania. After beginning his post-high school education at York Junior College, Levere transferred to Massachusetts Institute of Technology, from which he received his B.S. in 1955. After graduation, he worked at Raytheon as a microwave magnetron design and development engineer for three years before moving to Palo Alto, California, to earn his Ph.D. in Physics from Stanford University, where he began to focus on quantum electrodynamics.

Levere was a post-doctoral research associate at Yale University, the University of Pittsburgh, and the University of Minnesota. When in Minneapolis, he married Dorothy. In 1967, they moved to Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, for Levere to join the physics department at Wilkes University, where he ultimately was promoted to be a full professor. During his years at Wilkes, Levere spent multiple sabbaticals as a visiting professor at Michigan State University, Yale, and Cornell. In 2013, Levere and Dorothy moved to Newton, Massachusetts, to be near family.    

Physics research was Levere’s very favorite activity. He focused on applying the Coulomb Green’s function he developed in his Ph. D. dissertation as a useful tool in the Lamb shift calculation and also investigating new concepts in relativistic quantum theory. His work led to a total of twenty-six papers in major physics journals such as Journal of Mathematical Physics, Physical Review, and Annals of Physics.

In addition to Dorothy, Levere is survived by his daughter, Beth Wilkinson, and her husband, Hugh; his granddaughter, Hillary Tsibris, and her husband, Athe; and their sons, William and Andrew. Levere was pre-deceased by his mother, Mildred Steward, and his brother, Frayer Jamison, and wife, Vivian. Levere leaves his sister, Nedra, and her husband, Barry, of York, Pennsylvania, and several nephews and nieces.

The family will hold a private celebration of Levere’s life at Newton Cemetery.

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