M. Kimberly Sparks ’52 *63

M. Kimberly Sparks died Oct. 30, 2006, in Cornwall, Vt.

Kim left Princeton in 1951 to join the Air Force. He married his childhood sweetheart, Suzann Spayde, and returned to Princeton, earning a bachelor's in 1958 and a Ph.D. in German in 1963. He became chairman of the German department at Middlebury College in 1966 and taught there until his retirement in 1992. Kim's students, colleagues, and friends always will treasure memories of his wit, generosity, kindness, warmth, grace, and love of life.

Kim was large of spirit and body. He played rugby, had an encyclopedic knowledge of flora and fauna, and loved fishing, hunting, gardening, cooking, and hunting mushrooms. For a time he kept a boa constrictor in his University Place office (students delighted in "feeding time") and bred tropical fish in his Harrison Street barracks apartment.

Above all, Kim knew Vienna. He wrote best-selling German-language textbooks and articles on Kafka, but his finest scholarly works may be the CD-ROMs on the culture, history, and urbanism of Vienna that he completed last year.

He is survived by his wife and partner of 55 years, Suzann; son Michael '82; daughters Elizabeth '84 and Katharine; and two grandsons.