Dr. Stephen J. Kaplowitt

1930 – 2012
Woodstock, CT – Dr. Stephen J. Kaplowitt, 81, of Green Road, died Wednesday, January 18, 2012 at UMass Memorial Hospital in Worcester, MA. Born in Newark, NJ, he was the son of the late Jacob Kaplowitt and Martha (Glick) Kaplowitt. Dr. Kaplowitt was a professor of modern and medieval German language and literature at the University of Connecticut for 31 years. He also briefly taught at Columbia University in New York, as well as at the Goethe Institute in Schwäbisch Hall, West Germany. In addition to authoring several books and textbooks and many scholarly articles on medieval German literature and modern German grammar, he was a much sought-after pre-press reviewer of German textbooks and scholarly papers on medieval German literature. In 1988, he was tapped by the American Council of Learned Societies to contribute several entries to Scribner’s encyclopedic 13 volume Dictionary of the Middle Ages. His career as a scholar started early. He was valedictorian of his class at Weequahic High School in Newark, NJ, and after being selected to participate in Boys Nation, he was received at the White House by President Truman on August 9, 1946. He and his fellow members of Boys Nation spent two weeks in Washington meeting with legislative and military leaders and members of the Supreme Court, holding a political convention addressed by both the Democratic and Republican National Committees, and organizing a moot Supreme Court addressed by Justice Burton. He then went on to earn a baccalaureate degree from Hamilton College in Clinton, NY and was once again named valedictorian of his class and inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, the nation’s oldest academic honor society. He earned both of his graduate degrees, an MA and PhD, from the University of Pennsylvania. In 1952 he was named a Fulbright scholar and was a member of the first group of Fulbrighters to travel to Germany. From 1954 to 1956, Dr. Kaplowitt served in the US Army in post-war Berlin as a member of the Army Security Agency (the forerunner of today’s CIA) and was tasked with intercepting, translating, and analyzing telephone and telegraph communications. He was an avid connoisseur of classical music and fine food and wine, as well as fine art, and his love of languages and literature often led to bi- and even tri-lingual word plays and inventions that always delighted family, friends, and colleagues. He was loved and admired by those who knew him for bringing an unwaveringly clear sense of civility, reason and dignified equanimity to any situation. For many years, he served as the tireless and loving caregiver to the last remaining family member of his parents’ generation, his maternal aunt, Celia Glick. He is survived by his devoted wife of nearly 30 years, Carlene A. Haworth of Woodstock, his two daughters, Beth A. Kaplowitt of Easthampton, MA, and Jane Kaplowitt Pike of Pittsboro, NC, and his son-in-law, Prof. David Pike, and granddaughter, Ekaterina Pike, also of Pittsboro, NC. He was predeceased by his first wife, Stephanie Shafer Kaplowitt, in 1983. Gilman Funeral Home, 104 Church St., Putnam has been entrusted with the arrangements. A memorial luncheon for family, friends and colleagues will be held on Saturday, February 11th in Pomfret, CT. Reservations may be made until February 1st by either contacting the family directly or by requesting reservations through the Memorial Guestbook site at www.GilmanAndValade.com. Memorial donations may be made in his name for Arts and Science programming at WGBH in Boston. www.wgbh.org

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