Reinhard Wittke

Reinhard was our nextdoor neighbor and a great guy. He was always ready with a good story or a good joke. His daughter Segrit and her husband Tom still live there and are great neighbors. Reinhard is dearly missed. Don and Lynda Clewell.

Dr. Wittke was one of the most influential professors I ever had. History was not my discipline, but I was so taken by his teaching that I took two of his courses. His sense of humor was as sagacious as it was entertaining. As a music professor, I still use one of his jokes regularly, his "They're not good, but they're filling," which is what he would self-deprecatingly say about those jokes. On a whim, coming back to my home state of Michigan from grad school in Indiana, I stopped by campus...

It was with fond remembrance to read the obituary of Dr. Wittke as I was one of his EMU history students during the early 1960's and was on his European tour group in August of 1963. I invited my Howell HS senior year German exchange student Angelika from Munich to our group dinner at the Platzl and she and Dr. Wittke hit it off well with conversations in German and the two together made our waiter remove excess charges to our dinner bill. I was during that trip I had my picture taken at...

Professor Wittke so enriched my college education and experience. God Bless him and his family.

Dr. Wittke was one of my favorite professors at EMU. I still have great memories of his lectures, even though I only took a single Western Civilization 101 class from him, in my freshman year, in 1975. He was a fun and effective teacher, introducing me to stories of history with drama and meaning, many of which remain with me today. And he made no student feel second-class. On more than one occasion he would remind the class, "Folks, always remember: You can get just as good of an education...

Dear Tom and Sigrid and family,
With great pleasure I recently spent a few moments getting to know Reinhard (“Herr Wittke” to Tom). He was delightful, engaged, stimulating to nearly the end. May his endearing and not-so-endearing qualities bring sweet memories in the future.
Deb Yeary

I shall miss this dear dear friend whose legacy is endless. His puns and jokes flowed so easily, and he always managed to catch me off guard with most of them. Conversations were joke mines waiting to be tripped. Angels will be astonished by their own laughter. God bless. Susan Keezer

Sigrid & Tom,
Sorry to hear of the passing of your father. I’m fortunate to have known him. He will truly be missed. God bless you all.