| Graduation Year | Class of 1967 |
| Date of Birth | May 11, 1949 |
| Date of Passing | Jan 07, 2024 |
| About | Robert Entenmann ‘67 passed away January 7, 2024. Robert was born in Seattle to a German immigrant father and the daughter of Norwegian immigrants. He died from Parkinson’s disease in Northfield MN this year, and is survived by his wife, Sarah, children, Leah and David, and brother, Karl. Robert was born deaf in his right ear, and this disability taught him early on to be kind and resourceful when others needed assistance or sensitivity. Growing up, Robert loved climbing in Washington State’s mountains and attending operas with his father. He ventured on numerous road trips with his parents and brother, spent a summer in Europe (mostly Germany) with his father as a teenager, and hatched a lifelong love of travel. Robert graduated from Roosevelt High School in 1967. Study of both history and the Chinese language consumed his days as an undergraduate at the University of Washington. He was a member of the 1967 UW team on the popular TV show College Bowl. From there, he headed down the Pacific coast to get a Master’s in East Asian studies at Stanford. As a member of an anti-war group he joined there, the Committee of Concerned Asian Scholars, he was invited to visit China in March, 1972, shortly after Richard Nixon’s historic visit. There these scholars easily drew a crowd, met members of Mao’s Gang of Four, and witnessed flight attendants performing Maoist songs mid-air. After earning his MA at Stanford, he went on to Harvard, where he pursued his PhD in history and East Asian languages. In 1979, he met his future wife Sarah at a party in Cambridge: she was standing, as fortune would have it, on his left side—his hearing side. They married in Mystic, Connecticut in 1980. Completing his PhD in 1982, he began teaching the same year at St. Olaf College, the school he would serve for 36 years. There he built a reputation for leading study abroad student and alum groups to Asia (notably the 1995 Term in Asia, a monumental experience for him, his family, and his students); researching and writing on the social history of Chinese Christians during the Qing Dynasty, including analysis of the diary of a Chinese Catholic monk, Li Ande (Andreas Ly), in 18th century Sichuan; chairing the St. Olaf history department several times; and serving as the faculty liaison of the Hmong student association for two decades. His research took him to archives in China, France, and the Vatican, his writing brought him international acclaim, and his service reverberated in academic associations. Highly regarded by his intellectual and social community, Robert was known for his humility, brains, and keen sense of humor. It was a coincidence that Robert came to St. Olaf, because nine years earlier, his wife Sarah had graduated from Carleton College in the same small town in central Minnesota. . After moving to Northfield, they added Leah and David to their family. In addition to quite a few study groups led by Robert alone, He and Sarah co-led eight study groups to Asia. Leah went on to Carleton and David to St. Olaf. Donations should be sent to The Ed and Lois Langerak Endowed Scholarship for International Studies of St. Olaf College. |
| Events | Memorial in Northfield MN on March 16, 3024. |
