Blumenthal, Gerda Renee 1923-2004
BLUMENTHAL, Gerda Renee 1923-2004
OBITUARY NOTICE—
See index for CA sketch: Born July 26, 1923, in Berlin, Germany; died of complications from heart surgery, April 18, 2004, in Washington, DC. Educator and author. Blumenthal was a professor emeritus of French at Catholic University. Born in Berlin to Jewish parents, her family fled the Nazi regime to Russia, Latvia, and finally New York City, where they finally settled. Blumenthal, who later converted to Catholicism, completed undergraduate studies at Hunter College in 1945; she then attendedColumbia University, earning a Ph.D. in 1955. During the late 1940s and early 1950s, she taught at Columbia and at Jamestown Community College. She joined the Washington College faculty in 1955, where she was chair of the modern languages department for ten years. In 1968, she moved to Catholic University, where she became a professor of French and comparative literature, remaining there until her 1988 retirement. She was the author of three scholarly works: Andre Malraux: The Conquest of Dread (1961), The Poetic Imagination of Georges Bernanos (1965), and Thresholds: A Study of Proust (1984).
OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:
PERIODICALS
Washington Post, April 24, 2004, p. B6.