Retired English professor Herbert Tjossem passes away at age 100

Lawrence University is mourning the death of Herbert Karl Tjossem, a retired English professor who spent 37 years on the Lawrence faculty. He died May 27 at the age of 100.

Tjossem joined the faculty in 1956, teaching English literature and linguistics until retiring in 1993. He helped establish Lawrence’s London Centre and led the program for three years.

Tjossem, of Appleton, was awarded an honorary Master of Arts degree upon his retirement, with then-President Richard Warch praising his influence on generations of Lawrentians: “For over 37 years, you have lent aid in English and wise, practical counsel to Lawrence students. To the young men and women of the American Midwest and beyond, you have extended what can only be called global comprehension—through Chaucer and Achebe, through Soyinka and Shakespeare. … In your many travels at home and abroad, you have covered physical and psychic distances and have, for your students and in yourself, broken cultural boundaries in ways that should be a model for us all.”

Tjossem’s family provided the following obituary:

Born March 14, 1923, to Portes Jonas and Eva May Tjossem on a farm in Marshalltown, Iowa, Herbert Karl Tjossem knew early that he wanted to be a teacher. Emerging from a one-room schoolhouse, he graduated early from Marshalltown Senior High School in 1938, earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of Minnesota, his Master's Degree from the University of Chicago, and his Doctor of Philosophy from Yale University (1956). While teaching and studying at Yale, he supported himself as an usher at New Haven’s Shubert Theater and was proud to have seen the world premiere of A Streetcar Named Desire, starring Marlon Brando and Jessica Tandy. He taught at Missouri Military Academy and Iowa State Teachers College, and he was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to study at the University of Heidelberg before joining the faculty of Lawrence University in 1956, where he taught English literature and linguistics for 37 years until his retirement in 1993. During that time, he helped establish Lawrence’s London Centre and led the program for three years.

Throughout his life he took a deep interest in his students, fellow travelers, and people he met along the way. They recall his curiosity, gift for mentoring, guidance, dry humor, prodigious memory, and unflagging interest in their professional and personal lives.

He met and married Morla Wright while they were both teaching at Iowa State Teachers College.  They spent their honeymoon bicycling around England, a harbinger of the travels they would pursue throughout their lives. After two years in Heidelberg, they settled in Appleton to raise their family but continued to travel, eager for the eye-opening experiences it provided for them and their children. The people they met soon became friends who often turned up in Appleton or London, assured of good food and conversation.

He was preceded in death by his parents, a brother Paul L. Tjossem, his wife, Morla Wright Tjossem and son, Alan K.D. Tjossem. He is survived by his children, Kristine M. Tjossem, St. Paul, Minnesota; Martha E. Kepner (Charlie D. Kepner), Chicago; Paul J.H. Tjossem (Paula V. Smith), Grinnell, Iowa; and Sara F. Tjossem (Shahid Naeem), New York City; grandchildren Eric and Nora Tjossem, Peter, Elizabeth and Katherine Kepner, and special friend Lynn Hagee. His family appreciates the care and concern demonstrated by Right at Home, Home Instead, and Compassus Hospice Care, which allowed him to remain at home through his final months.

He thought that his 100th birthday celebration at home was the perfect coda to a life well lived, so he desired no funeral or memorial service. Instead of flowers, contributions to the Herbert and Morla Tjossem Discretionary Fund for Student Assistance at Lawrence University will continue their legacy of nurturing students.