He was a member of the same family as Dr. Murray Feshbach, the Sovietologist and retired Georgetown University professor.

Feshbach was active in the nuclear disarmament movement and was a founder and first chairman of the Union of Concerned Scientists.

He worked to increase the number of women and minority members in both the physics department and at MIT in general.

Feshbach joined the National Academy of Sciences in 1969 and was president of the American Physical Society from 1980 to 1981.

The physics department also has an endowed Herman Feshbach chair, established in 1999 to support theoretical physicists.