William Elbert (Bert) TePaske-King, who loved Susan, good food and wine, and music that ranged from opera, jazz, R&B, electronica to the Grateful Dead, died May 15. There are no known environmental, behavioral or genetic predictors of esophageal cancer, so it was not an indictment of his wonderful cooking or nightly candlelight dinners with wine.
Professionally Bert worked his last thirty five years at Mathematical Reviews in Bibliographic Services, copy editing and translation. At Math Reviews he used his undergraduate training in Slavic languages at Columbia University to translate the language of math and as Santa. One of the children who sat on his welcoming lap had just arrived from Russia and her mother had warned her that Santa would know her heart’s desire even if he did not speak Russian. Santa Bert was able to ask her in fluent Russian what she planned to get as a gift for her favorite person.
From the early 70’s until arriving in Ann Arbor in 1985, Bert pursued graduate study in Russian romantic poetry at Stanford University where he taught in the Humanities program and worked as a Resident Fellow overseeing Donner House, a residence for 100 first-year students. In 1976 he was honored with the Walter J. Gores Award for Excellence in Teaching. The recognition extended beyond the classroom: “ For his leadership as a section instructor in humanities and den parent of fellow teaching assistants; for the fairness, conscientiousness, and personal interest which have been hallmarks of his advising of undergraduates; and for the love and excitement of literature, learning, and life that his work reflects: illuminator, questioner, teacher and listener, chef, gardener, and man of goodwill.”
To his end he was that person.
Donations in his memory may be made to the Michigan Legacy Art Park.
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