We received the following... Gunther E. Rothenberg, Professor Emeritus, Purdue University, passed away 26 April 2004. A historian of the first order, Professor Rothenberg authored more than a dozen books and scores of articles. With fifty years of teaching and scholarship, his influence in the field of military history is profound. Among his best-known works were Napoleon's Great Adversary: The Archduke Charles and the Austrian Arm The Military Border in Croatia The Army of Francis Joseph The Art of Warfare in the Age of Napoleon and most recently The Napoleonic Wars. He contributed regularly to the Journal of Military History and was on the editorial advisory board of War in History. He was renowned among students at Purdue --more than 250 students subscribed annually to his undergraduate course on the Second World War. Professor Rothenberg directed legions of graduate students during his tenure at Purdue. He took care of his students. He was a mentor and friend to all of them. Professor Rothenberg was born in Berlin in 1923. Upon Hitler's accession to power in 1933, he and his family fled to Holland and then England. Rothenberg left his parents and traveled to Palestine. He joined the Zionist movement and in 1940, at the age of 17, volunteered for the British military. Rothenberg served in North Africa with a unit composed of German-Jews. After recovering from wounds, he joined the 4th Commando, serving in Italy and Yugoslavia. He left the British Army and returned to Palestine where he became a captain in the Haganah. Rothenberg fought in Israel's War of Independence. In 1949, he reunited with his parents, then in the United States. He volunteered for the US Air Force and served during the Korean War. Afterward he attended the University of Chicago on the GI Bill. He received his doctorate from the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana. He taught at the University of New Mexico for more than a decade, before moving to Purdue University in 1972. There he remained until his retirement in 1998. Professor Rothenberg relocated to Melbourne and then Canberra, Australia, where his wife Eleanor Hancock is on faculty at the Australian Defense Force Academy. Although retired, Professor Rothenberg remained professionally active, taught at the academy, wrote reviews and two books. He returned to the United States in February 2004 to present the keynote address at the 34th Annual Conference of the Consortium on Revolutionary Europe where he enjoyed a warm reception offered by his former students, colleagues and friends. He will be deeply missed. --Frederick Schneid, High Point University Back to 2nd Quarter 2004 List of News Items Back to Master List of News Items Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 2004 by Coalition Web, Inc. This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com