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In Your Words

Outstanding professor, exceptional mentor, wonderful man

By Sandy Siegel '73

Editor's note: Dr. George H. Fathauer '40 taught at Miami for 34 years, retiring in 1982. He died in 2007, only a few months after his wife, Johanne Wainwright Fathauer '42, passed away.

I graduated from Miami in 1973 with a major in cultural anthropology; Dr. Fathauer was my professor and my mentor. When I characterize Dr. Fathauer as my professor in anthropology, I mean that quite literally. The anthropology-sociology department in those days was quite small, and I took more than three-quarters of my major credit hours from Dr. Fathauer. The breadth and depth of his knowledge and experience in anthropology was quite remarkable. It is more than unusual to have so many courses taken from one professor at a major university. In our case in anthropology, I can say, unequivocally, that our educations and our careers were only significantly enhanced by this circumstance.

Dr. Fathauer represented everything good about the academic experience at Miami University. Dr. Fathauer was a graduate of Miami in 1940; he loved Miami. Dr. Fathauer was an excellent and well-respected anthropologist. He received his doctorate from one of the premier anthropology programs at the University of Chicago, and he studied under Robert Redfield, one of the most prominent anthropologists of the 20th century. Dr. Fathauer was an anthropologist at a time when people in the discipline knew each other on a first-name basis. He could have taken a position at a large university with a prestigious graduate program and where the focus would have been on the doctorate programs and research. Dr. Fathauer chose to teach at his beloved Miami University and devoted a career to undergraduate education.

He was most definitely a professor from the "old school." His relationships with students were formal and professional. While Dr. Fathauer lectured to classrooms full of students who wore the uniform of the day—long hair, torn or patched blue jeans, T-shirts—he came to class every day wearing a sport coat. His classes were demanding and his expectations were very high. His theory seminar was rigorous. There were approximately 10 anthropology senior majors taking his yearlong seminar. He announced at the beginning of the course that his intention was to teach us anthropological theory and to prepare his students for graduate school. Throughout that year, we read a tremendous amount of material and produced a paper each week. I went on to receive a master's degree and doctorate in anthropology, and throughout my graduate education never learned more or worked harder than I did in Dr. Fathauer's theory courses.

Dr. Fathauer shaped my academic interests, and he did so with very few words. His specializations were Native American studies and culture and personality. Dr. Fathauer did his fieldwork research with the Mohave. His guidance and influence were expressed with encouragement and derived from respect, admiration, and his unbridled passion for the subject matter. My anthropological specializations were Native American studies and culture and personality; I did two years of fieldwork studying a plains tribe on a reservation in north central Montana. After I returned from my fieldwork, I maintained contact with Dr. Fathauer. I came to Oxford on more than one occasion to speak to Dr. Fathauer's anthropology classes about my fieldwork research experiences.

Dr. Fathauer was a gentle man. As an anthropologist and as a Native American expert with a very close and emotional connection with the Mohave and other tribes, it caused him some considerable conflict and discomfort that the university he so loved should have a nickname that from his perspective was insensitive and racist. Dr. Fathauer regularly made this discomfort known to the university administration and he explained his rationale for the need to make the change. He did not make these protestations in a public way; that wasn't his style. I have no doubt that he felt quite gratified when Miami adopted the new nickname and mascot.

George Fathauer was an outstanding professor, an exceptional mentor, and a wonderful human being. He touched my life in the most profound ways; he shaped my academic career and he influenced the ways I make sense of the world around me. Miami's reputation for exceptional undergraduate education has been built on the dedication and devotion of teachers such as Dr. George Fathauer.