Tom Cassirer, professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, passed away Sunday, June 11, 2017, at age 94, in Pullman.
Thomas was born April 28, 1923, in Rome, Italy. For the first 12 years of his life he lived with his family in Rome, Berlin and at the Odenwaldschule, a nontraditional German boarding school established by his uncle and aunt, Paulus Geheeb and Edith Geheeb Cassirer. The school became a target of the newly elected German government in 1933, and in 1935 the National Socialists took over the Odenwaldschule as described in detail by Dennis Shirley in the book "The Politics of Progressive Education." His family, along with many students and faculty, left, but out of loyalty to the ideals of the school, Tom decided to stay. However, the following year, as the policies of the Nazis became more extreme, he joined his parents in England.
Tom attended the Bedales School in England until 1939, when war broke out with Germany. Because of his German nationality, the British authorities took him out of school and detained him as an enemy alien at the Isle of Man. He was then deported across the Atlantic to an internment camp in Quebec, Canada. He spent several years in the camp until the British reconsidered their policy of indiscriminately interning Germans, including those of Jewish heritage and others seeking refuge from persecution by the German government. He was released in 1942 and he enrolled at McGill University, graduating with honors in French and Latin in 1945.
Tom met his life partner, Sidonie Charlotte Lederer, a fellow refugee from Germany, at McGill in 1945 and they married in New York in 1948. They both received fellowships to graduate school at Yale University and in 1953 Tom completed a doctorate in French with a minor in Italian and subsequently taught at Brown University and Smith College. He was a professor, and served for several years as department chairman, in the romance language department at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst from 1965 until his retirement in 1990.
Although classically trained in French language and literature, early on in his teaching career he became interested in non-European French culture. Francophone literature and civilization outside Europe, especially in Africa and the Caribbean, was an important focus throughout his professional life. In the 1980s he co-founded the Five College African Studies Program, an interdisciplinary center for the study of Africa, integrating courses at the University of Massachusetts and Amherst, Smith, Hampshire and Mount Holyoke colleges.
Tom was fluent in English, German, French and Italian and traveled to Europe annually for many years. He maintained a lifelong passion for Italy and Italian culture and he also enjoyed summer hiking trips in the Swiss Alps. He was a strong, thoughtful and gentle man who liked conversation, good food and laughter with friends. He was deeply influenced by his early life experiences and was committed to promoting social justice, diversity and gender equity.
Tom was preceded in death by his parents, Kurt and Eva (Solmitz) Cassirer; his brother, Henry Reinhard Cassirer; and his wife, Sidi. He is survived by a daughter, Frances Cassirer of Lewiston. He also leaves an academic and personal legacy in an extended family of friends and former colleagues and students around the world.
To commemorate Tom's life, contributions may be made to the Global Fund for Women, the American Friends Service Committee or to an organization of your choice.
