WOOLWICH — Fritz Kempner died January 7 at home in Woolwich. Born in 1921, Fritz was raised in Berlin by deeply caring parents. His father, son of Jewish parents, became a partner of the Mendelssohn Bank in Berlin when he married Marga von Mendelssohn, a direct descendant of the 18th century philosopher Moses Mendelssohn. He was close to his parents and his three siblings, with whom he shared the essential values that guided his actions.
While Fritz felt no Nazi hostility from his gymnasium classmates, no similar respect was shown by his party-line school principal, who told his father that “the school felt no concern for Fritz, member of an inferior race.” The family’s response was Fritz’s transfer to an English Public School, Marlborough College, in 1936. In 1938 the family emigrated to England, moving on to New York City in 1939. There followed Fritz’s senior high school year at Milton Academy in Massachusetts, providing for a smooth transition to Harvard in 1940. Latin, Greek, German, soccer and social service filled the time before being drafted in 1943.
Fritz served as interrogator of prisoners in France, Holland and Germany until his discharge in 1946 when he returned to Harvard for his M.A. in Classics. There followed
40 years of enthusiastic teaching of Latin Greek and German, along with soccer coaching, first at Milton Academy, then at the William Penn Charter School in Philadelphia. For a year each he taught at a gymnasium in Braunschweig, Germany, and at a Comprehensive School in Bolton, England. He supplemented his teaching with summers at the American Academy in Rome and the American School of Classical Studies in Athens.
At Penn Charter School, Fritz was introduced to Quaker service projects via weekend work camps and summer long college work camps in the Lummi Indian Reservation near Bellingham, WA; in Port Harcourt, Nigeria and in Unterweissenbach, Austria. Fritz’s belief in the importance of seeing “the other side,” motivated his leading of student summer trips behind the Iron Curtain in 1963 and 1964.
In 1971, at age 50, Fritz married Natalie Pierce Kent, a widow with four children, living in Ithaca, NY. Natalie was a long time Friend (Quaker) and together they joined Chestnut Hill Friends Meeting in Philadelphia. Both were active in American Friends Service Committee service projects. In the 1980’s they became deeply involved in the Sanctuary Movement. To the undocumented Guatemalans and Salvadorans who found refuge in the Kempner house, Fritz was El Gato.
In 1990 Fritz and Natalie left Philadelphia for their house on the banks of the Kennebec in Woolwich and became active in Brunswick Friends Meeting.
In Maine, Fritz pursued his passions for teaching and learning by tutoring high school students in Latin. As a volunteer for College Guild, he carefully critiqued the work of prisoners. He became a familiar figure on the Bowdoin campus where he tutored students of German, was a docent for the classical collection at the Museum of Art and a regular at the Tuesday night “German Table”. He audited at least one course a semester in art history, literature, music, history and philosophy.
The Kempner house in Woolwich was always open to a vast circle of family and friends and former students from around the world, all participating in cooking and conversation and work projects organized by Fritz. Talk around the kitchen table, sparked by Fritz, ranged from ancient history to current politics and World Cup soccer scores. Every room in the house is full of books, not there for decoration. Fritz thrived on ideas. He stimulated others to think and act. Young people were drawn to him in the classroom, as well as on ski slopes and hiking trails. Fritz won the hearts of children with games and jokes and card tricks. His inventive and entertaining teaching methods are legendary among his students.
Fritz traveled widely, not to comfortable resorts, often to less developed parts of the world where he engaged the local people, frequently in their own language. He was interested in, and tolerant of, all people except the pretentious and sentimental. He liked to explore opinions that differed from his. A few years ago, he published a memoir, called Looking Back.
In Natalie, he had a kindred spirit. Together they studied Spanish in Mexico and Guatemala and taught in a school in Puerto Rico. They travelled often to Europe and in these last years Fritz’s special delight was including his beloved grandchildren, one or two at a time, in carefully planned journeys to Germany, Switzerland, England, Italy, Holland, Austria, the Czech Republic and Spain.
In the fall of 2004, Fritz and Natalie spent six weeks celebrating Natalie’s 80th birthday by walking the 455 miles of El Camino, the Pilgrim Way across northern Spain to Santiago de Compostela.
A Quaker Meeting for Worship to celebrate Fritz’s life will be held Saturday, February 2, at 2 o‘clock, in the Day’s Ferry Congregational Church, 50 Old Stage Road, Woolwich.
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