Hondo
One Too Many
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- Northern California
This is quite an interesting guy, You rarely hear stories of other crew members, this guy was a navigator on a B-17, how I wish I knew him. Veterans of this era fascinate me so much, the stories they must have had.
Were losing many from the greatest generation, I raise my class to you all.
My God Bless, and Rest in Peace:cry:
Blake Lee Spahr -- navigator in WWII, German scholar
Patrick Hoge, Chronicle Staff Writer
Monday, October 9, 2006
Professor Blake Lee Spahr displayed an early passion for ...
Several times, Blake Spahr was almost killed while a crew member aboard a Flying Fortress bomber over Nazi Germany during World War II.
But he didn't let that get in the way of his love for German language and culture, and he spent his life immersed in both.
Professor Spahr, a German literature scholar at UC Berkeley, died Sept. 29 at a nursing home in Walnut Creek after slipping into a diabetic coma after a lengthy battle with various illnesses. He was 82.
Born in Carlisle, Pa., to a father who was a cobbler and a mother who worked in a clothing shop, Blake Lee Spahr displayed an early passion for German that never left him. As a boy, he traded his pocketknife for an old German grammar text and began to study it.
In third grade, he announced to his parents that he wanted to grow up to be a professor of German and to lead the German department at Princeton University.
He showed such facility with the language that a professor at Dickinson College in Carlisle allowed the boy to audit a college course when he was in junior high school. He went on to enter Dickinson during his senior year of high school as part of a special program for gifted students.
When World War II came, he left school and volunteered to serve in the Army Air Forces, becoming a B-17 navigator. He flew 35 missions over Germany, sometimes returning in aircraft riddled with holes from enemy flak, before being sent to Paris to be a German and French interpreter. He was discharged as a decorated first lieutenant.
After the war, Professor Spahr returned to Dickinson, where he became fascinated by the German Baroque era and taught a course in beginning German. He transferred to Yale University, where he earned a master's degree and a doctorate in German literature.
As a post-doctoral student, Professor Spahr spent a year in Nuremberg, where he encountered a 300-year-old literary society devoted to baroque literature. He became its only American member and published a book based on the archives. He lived during his stay with a German attorney who worked as a defense counsel at the Nuremberg trials.
In 1955, UC Berkeley hired Professor Spahr to teach 17th century German literature. When he became chairman of the German department, Professor Spahr was interviewing potential secretaries. An applicant came into his office and he realized that as a soldier he had given her chocolates when she was a little girl in the city of Erlangen, where he had been stationed. He hired her on the spot, and when she retired he gave her a chocolate bar.
In addition to also eventually chairing the comparative literature department at Cal, Professor Spahr helped to start the university's Dutch language and literature program; taught himself Welsh and founded the university's Celtic studies program; and directed the California Study Center of the UC Education Abroad Program at Gottingen from 1974-76.
In 1977, Professor Spahr met his wife-to-be when she came from Antwerp, Belgium, as a graduate student to study comparative literature at UC Berkeley.
"He was my adviser,'' said Herlinde Baekelmans Spahr, a lithographer and writer. "I think by now it would be illegal. In our case, it really worked out.''
The two were married in 1980, and moved to Orinda in 1983.
They became avid scuba divers, and after Professor Spahr tried a bouillabaisse recipe from a diving magazine, he joined her in the kitchen and became a food connoisseur, with a particular interest in cheese.
In 1985, Professor Spahr received the Knight's Cross of the Legion of Merit (Das Bundesverdienstkreuz Erste Klasse der Bundesrepublik Deutschland) from the president of the Federal Republic of Germany for his contributions to German culture. In 1992, he got the UC Berkeley Citation, and in 2000, he received an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Dickinson College.
After his retirement in 1993, Professor Spahr spent time reading, editing publications on 17th century German literature, attending theater and playing French horn in the Oakland Community Orchestra.
"He was a wonderful, wonderful husband,'' said his wife. "His spirit is so robust, that I feel like he is with me.''
In addition to his wife, Professor Spahr is survived by a stepdaughter, Amelia Schaller, of Zurich, Switzerland.
Plans for a memorial service on the UC Berkeley campus are pending.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/10/09/BAGVOLLB4H1.DTL
Were losing many from the greatest generation, I raise my class to you all.
My God Bless, and Rest in Peace:cry:
Blake Lee Spahr -- navigator in WWII, German scholar
Patrick Hoge, Chronicle Staff Writer
Monday, October 9, 2006
Professor Blake Lee Spahr displayed an early passion for ...
Several times, Blake Spahr was almost killed while a crew member aboard a Flying Fortress bomber over Nazi Germany during World War II.
But he didn't let that get in the way of his love for German language and culture, and he spent his life immersed in both.
Professor Spahr, a German literature scholar at UC Berkeley, died Sept. 29 at a nursing home in Walnut Creek after slipping into a diabetic coma after a lengthy battle with various illnesses. He was 82.
Born in Carlisle, Pa., to a father who was a cobbler and a mother who worked in a clothing shop, Blake Lee Spahr displayed an early passion for German that never left him. As a boy, he traded his pocketknife for an old German grammar text and began to study it.
In third grade, he announced to his parents that he wanted to grow up to be a professor of German and to lead the German department at Princeton University.
He showed such facility with the language that a professor at Dickinson College in Carlisle allowed the boy to audit a college course when he was in junior high school. He went on to enter Dickinson during his senior year of high school as part of a special program for gifted students.
When World War II came, he left school and volunteered to serve in the Army Air Forces, becoming a B-17 navigator. He flew 35 missions over Germany, sometimes returning in aircraft riddled with holes from enemy flak, before being sent to Paris to be a German and French interpreter. He was discharged as a decorated first lieutenant.
After the war, Professor Spahr returned to Dickinson, where he became fascinated by the German Baroque era and taught a course in beginning German. He transferred to Yale University, where he earned a master's degree and a doctorate in German literature.
As a post-doctoral student, Professor Spahr spent a year in Nuremberg, where he encountered a 300-year-old literary society devoted to baroque literature. He became its only American member and published a book based on the archives. He lived during his stay with a German attorney who worked as a defense counsel at the Nuremberg trials.
In 1955, UC Berkeley hired Professor Spahr to teach 17th century German literature. When he became chairman of the German department, Professor Spahr was interviewing potential secretaries. An applicant came into his office and he realized that as a soldier he had given her chocolates when she was a little girl in the city of Erlangen, where he had been stationed. He hired her on the spot, and when she retired he gave her a chocolate bar.
In addition to also eventually chairing the comparative literature department at Cal, Professor Spahr helped to start the university's Dutch language and literature program; taught himself Welsh and founded the university's Celtic studies program; and directed the California Study Center of the UC Education Abroad Program at Gottingen from 1974-76.
In 1977, Professor Spahr met his wife-to-be when she came from Antwerp, Belgium, as a graduate student to study comparative literature at UC Berkeley.
"He was my adviser,'' said Herlinde Baekelmans Spahr, a lithographer and writer. "I think by now it would be illegal. In our case, it really worked out.''
The two were married in 1980, and moved to Orinda in 1983.
They became avid scuba divers, and after Professor Spahr tried a bouillabaisse recipe from a diving magazine, he joined her in the kitchen and became a food connoisseur, with a particular interest in cheese.
In 1985, Professor Spahr received the Knight's Cross of the Legion of Merit (Das Bundesverdienstkreuz Erste Klasse der Bundesrepublik Deutschland) from the president of the Federal Republic of Germany for his contributions to German culture. In 1992, he got the UC Berkeley Citation, and in 2000, he received an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Dickinson College.
After his retirement in 1993, Professor Spahr spent time reading, editing publications on 17th century German literature, attending theater and playing French horn in the Oakland Community Orchestra.
"He was a wonderful, wonderful husband,'' said his wife. "His spirit is so robust, that I feel like he is with me.''
In addition to his wife, Professor Spahr is survived by a stepdaughter, Amelia Schaller, of Zurich, Switzerland.
Plans for a memorial service on the UC Berkeley campus are pending.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/10/09/BAGVOLLB4H1.DTL
