Passing of former professor Heinz Geppert

An email from a former student shares word that Heinz W. Geppert, an associate professor of German at UW-Green Bay during the 1970s, passed away May 7 in Colorado Springs, Colo. He died at home after a long illness, at age 84. There was no published obituary.

Geppert taught courses in German language and culture beginning in 1973. He was active with UW-Green Bay’s fledgling college theatre program. He directed German-language plays here including Harig’s “Ein Blumenstueck” and “Hochwasser” by Gunter Grass, in addition to English-language productions including “A Dream Play” and another Grass play, “The Flood.”

After leaving UW-Green Bay, Geppert taught at Whitman (Wash.) College and spent time directing German theatre with Seattle Theatre Arts before he joined the faculty at Colorado College in 1991 to teach courses on the history of German film.

Geppert grew up in the war-torn Silesia province of Germany, now part of present-day Poland. Barely into his teens, he avoided being conscripted into either the Nazi or Russian armies in the final days of the war and somehow found his way west. He landed work as kitchen help with the English occupation forces and eventually emigrated to the United States.