Benjamin Charny; Soviet Refusenik Who Immigrated to U.S.

Benjamin Charny, 59, a refusenik who was allowed to leave the Soviet Union only after a major letter-writing campaign by Americans and Europeans. Charny was denied exit visas nine times by the Soviets. Several U.S. senators, including current California Gov. Pete Wilson, were among the thousands of people who wrote letters to the Kremlin on his behalf. Included in the massive effort was a student campaign at the Claremont Colleges and the offer of a teaching job at one of them, Pitzer College. Charny, a mathematician who formerly worked for the Soviet space program, was officially allowed to move to the U.S. in 1988. He first went to New England, where he was a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and then at a private Boston company. In 1994 Charny moved to the San Diego area, where he was research and development director at Audre Inc. He became a U.S. citizen last year. On Wednesday in Encinitas of cancer and heart disease.