John Robert von Dassow

John Robert "Bob" von DASSOW John Robert von Dassow, June 11, 1937-September 11, 2009 Bob von Dassow died on Friday, September 11, after battling cancer. A man of wide-ranging intellect, he was a poet, musician, musicologist, linguist, translator, scholar of French and Chinese literature, and supernumerary in the Seattle Opera. Well-known to the University of Washington community, Bob tutored foreign students, audited classes, haunted the libraries, and attended hundreds of concerts and lectures, always in beret, overcoat, and turtleneck with his trademark bookbags in tow. Born in Seattle, he and his brother Richard von Dassow grew up here until their father, John A. Dassow, a biochemist, took a job at the Ketchikan Fisheries Laboratory. Bob's first job was in the print plant of the Alaska Sportsman magazine, where his mother, Ethel M. Dassow, worked as an editor. In the 1950s Bob studied violin with a Mr. Sirpico in Portland, Oregon, and then attended Lewis and Clark College and later Reed College, where he earned local fame as one of the original "beatniks," outraging school authorities by appearing everywhere in long hair, blanket and sandals.He earned his M.A. from the University of Washington in 1965 and taught briefly at Utah State University before returning to Seattle, where he lived the rest of his life, bringing small moments into illumination through his poetry: Concert Dancers place themselves in darkness and wait, Wait, till the darkness comes to us, in turn, That sets them free. He is survived by his sister, Laura Dassow Walls; his first wife, Melita Gardner, and their children John A. "Sasha" von Dassow and Sumi von Dassow; his second wife Eleanor Hartmann and their children Eva, George, Peter, and Michelangelo von Dassow and their families; their daughter, Elizabeth, preceded him in death. A memorial event will be held in the future.