Professor Emeritus of German Otmar Drekonja passes away

07/31/2007

Dear Colleagues,

It is with great sadness that I inform you that our friend and colleague Otmar Drekonja, Ph.D., professor emeritus of German at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University, passed away on Monday, July 30, after a courageous five-year struggle with ALS.

Otmar was much admired as a teacher, mentor and colleague. A native of Austria, he began teaching here in 1967. He was well known for his high energy and contagious enthusiasm for the German language and culture and his great devotion to students and teaching. 

Otmar has left an enduring legacy at our institutions that includes 37 years as a professor of German, the co-founding of the Salzburg Study Abroad Program in 1977 and a 1991 Teacher of the Year Award. He also received a National Endowment for the Humanities grant in 1979 and the Austrian Medal First Class for Arts and Sciences from the Austrian Consul General in 1991.

Although Otmar retired in 2000, he continued to stay in close touch with former students and members of the colleges’ community.  In 2004, several of Otmar’s former students along with colleagues and friends established the Otmar Drekonja Scholarship in German Cultural Studies in his honor. In 2005, Otmar published his memoirs under the title Following the Trail of Max Birnbaum.

The Saint Benedict and Saint John's community mourns the passing of this remarkable man and teacher. We hold in our prayers his wife, Ingrid; children, Thomas, Dimitri and Natascha; and grandchildren, Alexander, Nikolaus, Andreas and Stephanie.

A memorial mass will be held on Saturday, Aug. 4, at 1:30 p.m. in the Saint John’s Abbey Church, with a reception to follow.

Rita Knuesel

Provost
College of Saint Benedict/Saint John's University