Frank L. Borchardt, long-time professor of German at Duke University, died May 14 at the Duke Hospice at the Meadowlands in Hillsborough, North Carolina. He was 68.
Colleagues said Borchardt was beloved teacher, friend and colleague, and a passionate lover of everything that was good and right in German culture and literature. A native of New York City and the third and final child of German exiles Hermann and Dorothea Redmer Borchardt, he was educated by the Jesuits (Saint Peter's College, Regis High School), the Dominicans and the Brothers of the Christian Schools, and received his Ph.D. in German from The Johns Hopkins University in 1965.
After short stints as an assistant professor at Northwestern University and Queens College of the City University of New York, he joined the Department of Germanic Languages and Literature at Duke in 1971. He served as chair of the department from 1982 to 1991.
Borchardt worked in two principal areas: Early Modern German Culture, and Educational Technology. He was a pioneer in the use of computer technology in language instruction, and he was instrumental in the creation of CALICO (the Computer Assisted Learning and Instructional Consortium). He edited the CALICO Journal from 1991 to 1997. Interest in this research around the world provided him the opportunity to travel widely from Germany to Latin America to China.
He also was a passionate champion of early modern German culture, teaching and publishing about the literature and history of German-speaking lands between 1350 and 1750, and advocating for the preservation of the field of pre-modern studies both within German studies and specifically at Duke University. He loved poetry, and was renowned for expecting his students to memorize German verse. He himself was learning Goethe's Faust by heart during the last months of his life, and recited its Prologue for his colleagues at one of their final gatherings in March.
In his last weeks, Borchardt made phone calls to say good-bye, and received loving messages and visits from family, friends, colleagues and students.
Survivors include his sister, Susan Barclay (Orinda, California), brother and sister-in-law, Dr. Hans and Patricia Borchardt (Townsend, Delaware), nieces Stephanie Lewis, Deryl Crosby, Joyce Gossman, Nancy Johnston and Janice Embry, and nephews Bruce Barclay, Matthew Barclay and Bryan Barclay.
A memorial service is planned for September 20, 2007, from 2 to 5 p.m. at the Kirby Horton Hall in the Doris Duke Center of the Sarah Duke Gardens at Duke.
A commemorative website in his honor has been created by friends, colleagues and former students.