Fritz Stern

Fritz Stern

See also Wikipedia's article about "Fritz Stern".

Fritz Stern CC '46 PhD '53, now retired, was a University Professor and twice Provost. His teaching and research interests included 19th and 20th century Germany and Europe.

While a student at the College, Stern was friends with Allen Ginsberg. The two served as debate partners on the College Debate Council, of which Stern was president. They also founded the Roosevelt for President club together in 1944. Ginsberg also persuaded Stern to take classes with Lionel Trilling and Jacques Barzun, which Stern found "humbling and life-transforming". He quit his pre-med track and became a history major, reporting on current affairs for the then-college radio station CURC.

After staying on to complete his graduate studies in history, Stern was named a full professor in 1963. He was named to the Seth Low Professor of History chair in 1967, served as provost of the Arts and Sciences from 1980 to 1983 (and again as acting provost in 1989), and was appointed a University Professor in 1992.

In 1994, he was Columbia College's Class Day speaker. Stern has been honored with the Great Teacher Award, the Lionel Trilling Book Award and the Mark Van Doren Award.

External links

• Profile of Stern in Columbia College Today

Preceded by Michael I. Sovern

Provost (Arts and Sciences)  1980-1983

Succeeded by Robert F. Goldberger

Preceded by Robert F. Goldberger

Provost (acting)  1989

Succeeded by Jonathan R. Cole

Preceded by ?

Columbia College Class Day Speaker  1994

Succeeded by Tom Brokow