R.I.P. Professor Weintraub. Since I refused to participate in the ritual of Sleep-Out on principle, I never took your class. Had I, perhaps I would have escaped the U of C without getting my crappy worst grade ever in winter quarter Western Civ (that would be a B-). You were a cool dude, or so the people who actually bothered to deal with Sleep-Out told me. Love, Kim
CHICAGO (AP) -- Karl Joachim Weintraub, a longtime University of Chicago professor who was so popular with students that they would sleep in line to register for his class, died Thursday, according to the university. He was 79.
Weintraub taught a course on Western history and culture for about 50 years. He died of a brain tumor in the university's Bernard Mitchell Hospital.
Each spring students would line up for hours on campus to get a spot in his class. The student newspaper once reported the annual event under a headline: "Waiting for Weintraub."
Although he was failing in health, Weintraub met with his classes until 2002. He had technically retired, but continued his teaching and refused to accept a salary.
His wife and colleague, Katy O'Brien Weintraub, said that was his way of protesting changing styles in higher education. The Western Civilization course was being downsized and changed by a younger generation of faculty -- except in the two sections the Weintraubs offered.
Weintraub was born in Germany to a Jewish father and a Christian mother. During World War II, he was hidden by a Christian family in Holland. Afterward, the Quakers arranged for him to come to the United States. He finished his doctorate at the University of Chicago in 1957.
Posted by Kim at March 28, 2004 01:38 AM | Boo!"How Do You Sleep?" by John Lennon
Posted by: Kim at March 28, 2004 01:40 AM