Claremont, CA – Albey M Reiner died on October 15, 2026 at the age of 85 in his home in Claremont, California. Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Albey attended Princeton University (B.S.E ’62) as an undergraduate, then spent time at Oxford University, the University of Wisconsin, Harvard University (PhD ’68), the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and UC Berkeley before landing a position in the Microbiology Department at UMass Amherst, where he worked as a professor for 34 years before retiring in the spring of 2005.
Albey liked to be called by his first name by his students, and was best known for his enormously popular Biology of Cancer (later Biology of Cancer and AIDS) course, in which he introduced thousands of students (more than 30,000 all told) to new ideas about disease, healing, and spirituality, while maintaining rigorous academic standards and keeping up with the latest developments in cancer and AIDS research. Albey’s course was consistently overenrolled, despite being held in the largest auditorium on the UMass campus. Students came early to his lectures to make sure they got a seat, sometimes bringing friends who weren’t even enrolled in the course but wanted to see what all the fuss was about. Students hushed when he turned off the lights at the start of each lecture, and lined up afterward to speak with him. In 1993, Albey was recognized by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) as Massachusetts Professor of the Year.
While teaching at UMass, Albey and his first wife Paula (a.k.a. Shakti) were active in the local spiritual community. Albey and Shakti held regular weekly meditation “satsang” meetings at their home in Leverett where anyone was welcome to attend. When the Leverett Peace Pagoda was built in 1984-85, a few of the monks stayed at “Albey-san’s” house just down the road during construction.
Albey had a big sense of humor – among his proudest accomplishments were the publication of a pair of satirical letters in the ultra-prestigious journal Science in which he and co-author Edmund Becker used heavily technical genetics terminology to discuss the mapping of Marvin Gardens, the only Monopoly property not located within the city limits of Atlantic City, NJ.. The second of these letters, “Marvin Gardens Revisited”, was written in 1972 as a rebuttal to author John McPhee, who, unaware of Albey and Edmund’s 1965 letter, had recently written a piece in the New Yorker called “The Search For Marvin Gardens”. This controversial matter was ultimately resolved when Mr. McPhee wrote to Albey offering to settle out of court; inside the envelope was a $500 Monopoly bill.
Albey separated from his first wife Paula in 1988 , and 4 years later was married to Dr. Alicia Landman M.D, a true soulmate with whom he spent the remaining 34 years of his life. In 2005, Albey and Alicia moved to Moab, Utah, where Albey became a fixture in a community of local hikers. Albey loved to be outdoors, to be physically challenged, to find new paths, and to discover new dinosaur footprints, ancient rock art, and more. Of the many hats he wore in this life, his Tilley hiking hat was probably his favorite, both literally and figuratively.
In 2021, Albey and Alicia moved one more time to Claremont, California, a place with which Albey was familiar from a semester spent as a visiting professor at Pomona College in 1981, an hour’s drive from where his son Jesse lived in Los Angeles. Now in his 80s, Albey continued to find community through hiking and walking, and enjoyed the academic and cultural offerings of the local colleges. Albey’s last 3 years were difficult due to the mental and physical challenges brought on by Lewy body Parkinson’s disease, but he continued to be a devoted husband, father, and grandfather, and a loyal friend. For even when he was a celebrity professor, these were always the things most important to him.
Albey is survived by his beloved wife Alicia Landman-Reiner, his son Jesse Reiner (and his wife Rachel), his daughter Selanna Segal, and his four grandchildren Sam Reiner, Joe Reiner, Maya Segal, and Eli Segal.
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