Dr. Lothar Leo Tresp

Dr. Lothar Leo Tresp, Professor Emeritus of History and Director Emeritus of the Honors Program at the University of Georgia, died peacefully at his home in Columbus, Georgia, on Tuesday, January 22, 2019. He was 91. Born in Ortelsburg, East Prussia, on March 4, 1927, he attended public schools in his home town and the Herman Lietz School on the Frisian Island of Spiekeroog, where, at the age of 15, he and his fellow students were drafted to auxiliary military service for anti-aircraft duty. He was subsequently called up to regular military service in the German Wehrmacht and was wounded during combat in East Prussia in February 1945. After World War II he continued his education at the Herman Lietz School in Bieberstein, Germany, the Philosophical and Theological College in Regensburg, Germany, and the University of Wurzburg. In 1950, he received a Fulbright Scholarship for one year of study at the University of Georgia, where he met Miss Lucy Elizabeth Nickerson, his wife of 67 years. They were married in 1951, prior to Lothar’s return to Germany, where he completed work at the University of Wurzburg in 1952 for his Ph.D. in German history and German and English literature, graduating magna cum laude. The same year he emigrated to the United States.

Dr. Tresp taught at various colleges in the Southeast prior to joining the faculty of the University of Georgia’s History Department in 1957, where he taught for many years primarily in the area of modern German and European history and also published a number of articles on Salzburger emigration to colonial Georgia. He helped to found the University of Georgia’s Honors Program and served as its Director from 1967 until his retirement from the University in 1994. From March 1979 through June 1980 he also served as Acting Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs. His contributions to the Honors Program and to the University in general were recognized in 1985 and 1986 respectively with the Honoratus Medal commissioned by the Honors Program Alumni Association and the Special Alumni Faculty Service Award by the University of Georgia Alumni Society, and also with the Blue Key Faculty Service Award and the University of Georgia’s Abraham Baldwin Award. The University’s Outstanding Honors Professor Award bears Dr. Tresp’s name. However, his greatest contribution in his distinguished academic career was to the lives of the countless students whom he mentored in both the classroom and as an advisor.

Dr. Tresp served as co-founder and first president of the Southern Regional Honors Council and as president of the National Collegiate Honors Council, an educational organization for the promotion of honors programs in this country. During his long involvement with honors education, he also consulted and evaluated honors programs at more than 30 institutions across the country and presented numerous papers and workshops at national, regional, and international honors and academic conferences. In 1984, he initiated a program to bring German math and science teachers to Georgia, which attracted substantial media attention at the time and was subsequently reproduced in several other states. He was also recognized and honored by the Federal Republic of Germany, receiving its Friendship Award in 1986, and being presented the Officers Cross of the Order of Merit First Class by the German President in 1987. He was inducted as a Fellow by the National Collegiate Honors Council in 2016, the year following his move from Athens, Georgia, to Columbus with his wife Lucy.

Dr. Tresp held membership in a number of professional and honorary societies, including Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Kappa Phi, and the University of Georgia’s Sphinx Society. He was a member of Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Athens, where he previously served on its vestry.

Lothar’s parents, Dr. Vincentius Paulus Tresp and his wife, the former Anna Martha Kroschewski, of Ortelsburg, East Prussia, as well as his oldest brother, Joachim Andreas Tresp, died during World War II, and his other brother, Dr. Ulrich Tresp, died some years ago. In addition to his wife, Lothar is survived by one daughter, Lucy Anna Tresp Sheftall, and her husband, John McKay Sheftall, of Columbus; three grandchildren, Lucy Banks Sheftall of Los Angeles, California, John McKay Sheftall, Jr., of Boston, Massachusetts, and Andrew Tresp Sheftall of Columbus; a sister-in-law, Regina Tresp of Hamburg, Germany; and a host of relatives, friends, and adoring former students scattered across the state of Georgia and the world who remember well his encouragement, admonitions, and lessons of history, including his own personal history, that he taught in both the classroom and his life.

Graveside services for Dr. Tresp will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday, January 26th, at Oconee Hill Cemetery in Athens, with reception to follow at the Cemetery’s Sexton’s House, the Rev. Timothy Graham of Trinity Episcopal Church, Columbus, officiating. The family will also welcome friends who wish to call between 5 and 7 p.m. on Friday, January 25th, at the Tresps’ home, 100 Spring Harbor Drive, Apt. 551, in Columbus.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests contributions to the University of Georgia Honors Program or a charity of choice. Striffler-Hamby Funeral Home in Columbus, www.shcolumbus.com, is in charge of the arrangements.