David Bathrick ’58

David Bathrick ’58 passed away on April 30, 2020. Dave grew up in Darien, Connecticut, majored in history, played football and rugby, and was a member of Beta and Sphinx. He was also active in the U.S. Marines Platoon Leader Corps. He then earned a Ph.D. at the University of Chicago and taught high school German in Chicago, Wisconsin, and Cornell. During his 10-month stay in East Berlin, Germany, in 1982 to research a planned book on German theater, he was watched as a possible spy by the Stasi, which collected a 240-page file on his activities. Dave was the author of four books and 70 articles on European culture, including a 1996 book of the year titled The Powers of Speech: The Culture of Politics in East Germany. He is survived by his wife, Ulrike, a professor of political science at the University of Bremen, Germany.