Christopher Niebuhr Obituary

Name: Memorial service for Christopher Niebuhr
Start: 2018-06-08T15:00:00.000Z
Location: First Congregational Church of Stockbridge

Christopher R. Niebuhr, 83, formerly of Stockbridge, died Friday, June 1, 2018.

Born in New York City, Christopher was the son of the late theologians Reinhold and Ursula Keppel-Compton Niebuhr.

The Niebuhrs summered in Stockbridge for a number of years and then, in the 1960s, became full-time residents. Mr. Niebuhr attended schools in New York City and graduated from Harvard College. He served honorably with the US Army from 1956 until 1962, and thereafter worked in various positions as a city planner for the State of New York. He was also a volunteer with Habitat for Humanity and spent several seasons on their projects aiding the impoverished and homeless in Indonesia.

Mr. Niebuhr leaves behind his sister, Elisabeth Niebuhr Sifton, and nephews: Sam, Toby, and John Sifton.

A Memorial Service will be held on Friday, June 8, at 11AM at the First Congregational Church of Stockbridge with Pastor Brent Damrow officiating. There will be a reception in the Jonathan Edwards Room immediately following the service.

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Published by The Berkshire Eagle on Jun. 6, 2018.

Memories and Condolences
for Christopher Niebuhr

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4 Entries

Marion Pauck

May 31, 2020

Christopher and I were friends from the day his father introduced us in 1955. Those of us who knew and loved him still miss him. We are grateful for many fie memories. Marion Hausner Pauck P.S. I am 92 years of age!

Marion Pauck

June 25, 2018

I first met Chris Niebuhr in the fall of 1952 when I was working as assistant editor to Reinhold Niebuhr, my professor and f friend. He had founded a little political magazine during the second world war, titled "Christianity & Crisis". I was managing editor there for two years between 1952 and 1954. I was working also for a doctorate in Christian theology but before I was able to complete it, I accepted an invitation to be Assistant Editor in the Religious Books Department of the Oxford University Press. In 1964, Wilhelm Pauck, the church historian who was a close friend of Reinhold Niebuhr's, and I were married. Wilhelm and I were in touch with Christopher's parents and with his sister, Elisabeth, throughout these sixty years. I shall miss his telephone calls and his liveliness about current events. May he rest in peace. Marion Hausner Pauck

Marion Pauck

June 25, 2018

I first met Christopher Niebuhr in 1952 when I was working for Reinhold Niebuhr as Managing Editor of "Christianity and Crisis", a little political journal founded by him during the second world war. Christopher and I became friends and communicated by long distance telephone and old fashioned letters. He never mastered the art or science of the computer. Our last conversation occurred in the winter of 2017-2018 after he had settled in his last home. His energy, enthusiasm, and eagerness to communicate with us - with me and with my late husband, Wilhelm Pauck, a close friend of his parents, will be missed. May he rest in peace.
Marion Hausner Pauck

June 25, 2018

I grew up with Chris at Union Seminary in New York where his
father and mine were professors. The Niebuhr family lived two
floors above us in the Seminary quadrangle. Al the faculty boys played together and there were severalufs- Paul Tillich's son, Rene,
the Bennets, David Porter others. It was a happy time: going to
Yankee baseball games in the weekends, sledding in Riverside park,
just hanging ut together. In the summer, later on, Chris and I were both working in the city while our families were away in Heath

(the Niebuhr's) and Maine (my family.) Chris and I would get together and play vigorous ping pong games. Chris was a pro,
his returns were virtually unplayable, they were so flat and fast.
Later still we went to Harvard in the same class and saw each other
often. One of Chris's roommates became one of my best friends in NY. Later when Chris worked for the Stat government, we would
see each other i NY and, still later, when he lived with his
mother in Stockbridge, after Dr. Niebuhr died. Chris was always
upbeat and cheerful, full of gossip. e was also a prodigious letter writer. If you sent him a book he would reply almost at once with a list of errata. I would sometimes forward his letters to the authors (I was an editor at Harper) The authors would reply, grateful but
somewhat puzzled at Chris' unique style of erudition.
Chris would often phone--I think he must have had special rate fr ling distance.
I think of him as one of my oldest and closest friends, for which I
a grateful.--Hugh Van Dusen