Peter Gontrum, professor emeritus of Germanic language and literature at the University of Oregon, died of pneumonia May 24, 2013. He was 81.

Gontrum graduated from Haverford College in 1954, and in 1956 he earned a master’s degree from Princeton in modern languages and literature. That year, he moved to Germany, enrolled in a doctoral program at the University of Munich, and completed his dissertation in 1958 on the German/Swiss writer Hermann Hesse.

Returning to the United States he joined the faculty of the University of Chicago in 1959. In 1961, he moved to the University of Oregon, where he received its Ersted Award for Excellence in Teaching in 1969. In 1974, he won a Fulbright award to conduct research in Germany. He also received several Humboldt grants to study the writers Max Frisch, Friedrich Dürrenmatt, and Rainier Maria Rilke.

Gontrum loved teaching and Mozart and Bach. He was pleased to recall his selection in 1950 as an “All-Maryland” high school lacrosse player. In his later years, he endured the health challenges of MS, but continued to teach until 1994.

He is survived by his wife, Margaret, whom he married in 1956; three children; and seven grandchildren.

Graduate memorials are prepared by the APGA.

Graduate Class of 1956