By Gal Tziperman Lotan, News Staff

A few times a year, then-Prof. Bernard L. Gordon would show up at the offices of his colleagues in Northeastern’s Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences with armfuls of books and artifacts from Book and Tackle Shop, a bookstore he owned in Rhode Island. He would set the books down and start to talk about art, history, fisheries – any topic he knew his colleagues were interested in.

“With Bernie, you never knew what the subject of the conversation would be,” said Mal Hill, chair of the Earth and Environmental Sciences Department. “But you didn’t have to worry much. He could talk about a wide range of topics.”

Prof. Gordon died of lymphoma complications May 7 at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He was 80.

He joined Northeastern’s faculty in 1961 after teaching at Rhode Island College in Providence and researching marine resources, oceanographic history and Rhode Island’s fisheries for Brown University and Boston University.

But his interests were broader than the scope of his research. For more than 50 years, Prof. Gordon ran the Book and Tackle Shop in Westerly, R.I. He opened the store during his last year as an undergraduate at the University of Rhode Island in 1953, and, over the years, collected about 50,000 rare and antique books as well as postcards, periodicals, maps and paintings.

He published 16 books, ranging from a series of children’s books about extinct animals co-authored with his wife, Esther, to the local climate history chronicle “Hurricane in Southern New England: An Analysis of the Great Storm of 1938.” He also published 150 articles about the ocean and its inhabitants in academic journals while at Northeastern.

“He enjoyed his years at Northeastern, he enjoyed the students,” his wife said. “He really enjoyed teaching, he enjoyed young people.”

After he retired in 2000, Prof. Gordon focused on writing, photographing coastal New England, and running the Book and Tackle Shop.

The courses Prof. Gordon developed and taught – New England Fisheries Resources and Biological Oceanography – are still part of the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences.

“They’re interesting topics to students, and it’s in the overall umbrella of topics the department should have,” Hill said. “The courses Bernie developed are being well taken care of today.”

Along with his wife, Prof. Gordon leaves behind two daughters, Jocelyn of Brookline and Zimra of Stamford, Conn.; and four grandchildren.
Services have been held.