Professor emeritus of sociology Gordon Franklin Streib, an internationally known scholar of retirement housing who taught at Cornell for 26 years, died Feb. 17 in Gainesville, Fla. He was 92.

Born in Rochester, N.Y., in 1918, Streib earned a B.A. in history in 1941 from North Central College in Naperville, Ill. During World War II, Streib registered as a conscientious objector and served in various capacities that included building roads in upstate New York, as a cook's helper at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital and volunteering for human hunger experiments. While working at the hospital he earned a master's degree at the New School of Social Research in sociology in 1946. After the war he helped transport horses to Poland for the American Friends Service Committee to help rebuild Poland's agricultural stock.

Streib received his Ph.D. in sociology from Columbia University in 1954, but began his teaching career at Cornell in 1949. While at Cornell, he was the recipient of two Fulbright scholarships and completed research on aging in Denmark in 1959 and in Ireland in 1966. Both resulted in widely distributed publications. After retiring from Cornell as professor emeritus in 1975, he joined the faculty of the University of Florida as a graduate research professor of sociology and retired as a distinguished research professor emeritus of sociology in 1988.

Streib authored or edited eight books, including "Retirement in American Society: Impact and Process," with Clement Schneider (1971) and "Old Homes -- New Families," with W. Edward Folts and Mary Ann Hilker (1984) and 150 journal articles.

He was honored by the Gerontological Society of America with the Robert W. Kleemeir Award for Outstanding Research and received the Distinguished Contributor to Sociology of Aging award from the American Sociological Association. He was a founding member of the Southern Gerontological Society, which named their Gordon F. Streib Distinguished Academic Gerontologist Award after him.

Gordon's wife, Ruth, died one day after he died. Their survivors include four children and their families.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations can be made to American Friends Service Committee, Haven Hospice of Gainesville, Fla., or the University of Florida Department of Sociology for the Gordon and Ruth Streib Graduate Scholarship Award. A celebration of Streib's life will be held in the Oak Room at the Oak Hammock University of Florida retirement community facility, Saturday, April 2, at 3:30 p.m.