# Robert Herndon Fife Jr.

Robert Herndon Fife Jr. (November 18, 1871 – January 8, 1958) was an American academic who specialized in German studies and served as Gebhard Professor of German and Chair of the German Department at Columbia University. He was the founder of The Germanic Review, former President of the AATG and President of the MLA. Fife wrote on German history, German language and literature, Martin Luther, and German romanticism and edited works by Heinrich Heine, E. T. A. Hoffmann and Ludwig Tieck.

## Life and career

Robert Herndon Fife Jr. was born to Robert H. Fife, a farmer, and Sarah Strickler in Charlottesville, Virginia on November 18, 1871. He grew up with three sisters and three brothers and attended the Jones School, a private classical school in Virginia.
Fife received his B.A. and M.A. from the University of Virginia, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He went on to earn his doctorate at the University of Leipzig in Germany in 1901 under the direction of Eduard Sievers and Albert Köster. Fife was a German teacher at St. Alban's School in Radford, VA (1895-1898) before continuing studies at Göttingen and Leipzig from 1898 to 1901.
Fife's first position at an institution of higher education was as an instructor of German at Western Reserve University (1901-1903). From 1903 to 1905, he taught at the summer school at the University of Virginia prior to becoming an associate professor at Wesleyan University (1903-1905). At Wesleyan University, he remained a Marcus L. Taft Professor of German Language and Literature until 1920. After staying at Wesleyan University, Fife replaced Calvin Thomas as a professor of German at Columbia University in 1920 and upon his appointment at Columbia, received the Gebhard Professorship.
Fife became chair of the German department at Columbia University, founded The Germanic Review in 1926, and became the journal's first executive editor from 1926 to 1946. From 1927 to 1929, Fife was the associate dean of the Faculties of Political Science, Philosophy, and Pure Science at Columbia.
Fife served as president of the Modern Language Association in 1944 and president of the AATG in 1932. Fife also served as the chairman of the Committee on Modern Language Teaching of the American Council on Education. From 1919 to 1920, Fife was the president of Connecticut State Board of Charities. Fife was also a member of the Germanistic Society of America, the Virginia Historical Society, the American Council on Education, and the American-Scandinavian Foundation.
Besides his university activities, Fife was a trustee of the Connecticut State Hospital for the Insane, trustee of the Montclair Academy in New Jersey, vice-president of the Connecticut State Conference of Charities and Corrections, and secretary of the Connecticut Child Welfare Association (1918-1920). Fife developed German courses during World War I with the War Department Committee on Education and Special Training.
Fife was first married to Sarah Gildersleeve Fife, a prominent bibliophile and horticulture leader, from 1913 until death her death in 1949. They had no children together. Fife married his second wife, Hildegard E. Wichert, in 1952.
Fife died on January 8, 1958, in Brooklyn, New York.

## Honors

Fife was an Honorary Member of AATG in the 1950s. He received an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Wesleyan University in 1920, an Honorary Degree from Columbia University, Litt.D. in 1929, an Honorary Degree from the University of Pennsylvania, Litt.D. in 1946, an Honorary doctor of letters from Washington and Lee University in 1949., an Honorary doctor of letters from Princeton University in 1949 and an honorary degree from Middlebury College, LittD. in 1955.