Albert C. Horton

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Columbia University University of Colorado Yale University

Albert Horton Obituary

Albert C. (Bert) Horton, 82, retired Professor of History, passed away peacefully in Harriman, Tennessee on January 17, 2006. Born in Phoenix,Bert's maternal grandparents were among the first settlers of the Prescott area, arriving in Arizona shortly after the Civil War. After completing grade and middle school in Phoenix, he moved with his family to Denver where he attended East High School. He was admitted to Yale University in 1941 and completed two years there before entering military service in 1943. As a US Army combat engineer, he saw action in France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany in 1944 and 1945. In March 1945 his battalion suffered heavy losses while constructing the pontoon bridge used by the British Army to cross the Rhine river at Rees, Germany. After WWII Bert graduated from Yale and subsequently studied at the University of Colorado, the Free University of Berlin and then completed his Master's and Doctorate degrees in history at Columbia University in New York. He joined the faculty of the State University of New York and taught European and World history at the Oneonta campus for 25 years. He said his goal as a teacher was to instill a love of history in his students while maintaining high academic standards. He retired to his native Phoenix in 1988. Here he took an active interest in civic affairs and devoted much of his time to the continuing study of history. He was a member of the Arizona Club, the University Club, The First Families of Arizona, Masonic Lodge of Oneonta New York, Phi Beta Kappa and the American Legion. He was preceded in death by a younger brother and leaves no survivors. A memorial service will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Friday, February 17th at Grace Lutheran Church, 1124 N. 3rd St., Phoenix 85004. Interment with full military honors will be at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia at a date to be scheduled.

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Published by The Arizona Republic on Feb. 9, 2006.

Memories and Condolences
for Albert Horton

9 Entries

John E. Bell

September 11, 2024

Best history professor ever. RIP

Stuart Reinfeld

February 18, 2021

He was a great professor and I was ever so grateful of his teachings at SUNY Oneonta. He was loved by his students.

Warren Frank

April 17, 2006

This letter was found in a box of old correspondence in Bert's residence:

May 20, 1969. Dr. Horton, I attended your Western Civilization today and I felt that I had to write this note. It was one of the most enjoyable classes that I have ever attended. I don't mean to belittle either Dr. M..... or Mrs. L....., since they clearly know so much more than I do. However, it was such a relief to finally get a teacher who knows what he is teaching and to be able to put it across interestingly.

I wish I knew how to put my feelings into words and let you understand how highly I hold you among the people I know and among teachers I've had.

I look forward to taking any electives that are offered with you as professor. I only hope I will become 1/4th as brilliant an instructor as you are. I want very badly to e a good teacher and certainly will hold you as an ideal.

Thank you for allowing me the privilege of being in your class.

A. Student

susan kuenzie

March 30, 2006

bert was a very exceptional man.i met him about 10 years ago.in 1997 i fractured my neck and my hole world changed.i didn't think there was anything left for me to go on in life.bert changed that he gave me the courage to go on.he was my rock and my friend he will be missed very much. it was a privilege to have known him.he will always be in my heart.

Ernest Goodman

March 11, 2006

February 15, 2006

I just heard the sad news of Bert Horton's death. Bert was a dear friend and prfoundly admired colleague. We arrived in Oneonta the same day, in time for the 1063 Fall Semeester at the State University College. We soon discovered that we had similar interests, mainly having to do with Germany yesterday and today as well as the war in which both of us participated as combat soldiers. Widely read, not only about the Thrd Reich abvout which he knew everything there is to know but also about much else. There truly was little he did not know and I considered him a living world Almanach.

Bert was a disciplined person who worked hard, prepared lectures diligently and most of his students considered him the best teacher at the college. Bert love to visit us where he enjoyed sitting on the terrace at our home and he ate with us from time to time. I was priviliged to enjoy a visiting professorship at the same time that Bert lectured at the University of Wuerzburg in Bavaria and together we took several trips to Munich and the Alps. Together we explored Hitler's "Eagles Nest" where Bert entertained several of us for about an hour with stories about Hitler. A shy person, Bert was a fascinating story teller once he felt comfortable in a crowd. I saw him almost every day during academic semesters and we became firm friends. After his retirement in 1988 he still visited Oneonta for some time almost every year. This year around Augsut, our summer will be sadder, our sky darker without Bert's visit to which we always looked forwrd. We will miss him but will certaily remember him vividly and warmly.

Ernest Goodman

Professor Emeritus of Political Science

Dr. Richard and Jean Griesenbeck

February 24, 2006

We became acquainted with Bert through my mother Helen, a long-time resident of the Coronado Villa as Bert was,and treasure the occasional visits and good conversations with him. Much of that related to our mutual interest in Germany, and our exchanges of New Yorker and "Der Spiegel" magazines, and sometimes philately. The Villa will not be the same to us and so many others without Bert Horton.

Shahbaz Shahbazi

February 13, 2006

As a student, I spent many hours chatting and exchanging stories with Dr. Horton - stories of his experiences during WW II and how he came to be a professor of history. I will always remember the excitement on his face when I told him that I had spent 5 years in the PR of China - at the height of the Cultural Revolution. It was an intellectual curiosity that drove his questions about the patterns of life in Mao's China. Dr. Horton was not a superficially serious academic - being well read and accomplished did not preclude him from having a robust sense of humor. I remember him as much for his sense of humor as his inquisitive nature.

Dr. Horton left Oneonta a year before I graduated. Before he was fully moved out, he asked me to stop by his apartment - he had set aside some books for me. The books are still with me as are the memories.

I celebrate his life with all his friends and comrades.

Deirdre Fagan

February 10, 2006

Bert is described as leaving no survivors but he has left behind his “children,” the countless students who passed through his classroom in his 25 years of teaching, his dear friends and the children (of which I am one) and friends of those friends, and one might imagine too, his forlorn intimates and acquaintances. His life, knowledge, and humor touched many lives. His mind alone without corporeal friend (as Emily Dickinson would have put it) lives on through his saved letters, his professional writing, the words of his ancestors who aided in the creation of the Arizona Constitution, and those who came to know his character. This is the hour of lead for us, but we will not let go. We can encompass him. The brain is wider than the sky, deeper than the sea, and “just the weight of God,” or at least Bert’s was – though he’d never let you know it. His insightful always ironic comments will be shared for years to come by those of us who knew him to make sure others do as well.

Frank Fagan

February 10, 2006

Some qualities and characteristics of Bert : an extraordinary memory, insatiable curiosity, gentleness, eccentricity of manner, wry humor, keen intelligence, uncommon modesty, integrity, and pith. I never saw him try to upstage anybody, put anybody down, be the center of attention.

We met in about l959 on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, while I was having a cup of coffee and getting the hang of poetry, and he was finishing up his doctorate at Columbia. It turned out to be a long conversation.

In his retirement he frequently visited me at my place in Old Chatham, NY. We’d drive over to nearby Tanglewood for some music, or just sit on my deck and swap anecdotes of the early days and snippets of dialogue we could remember from the “Treasure Island” of boyhood. My small house reminded him of a sturdy ship and in a phone conversation last month he said he was sorry to hear I was considering a move, as he thought my present vessel entirely seaworthy. He was a traditionalist, which helped to make him such a reliable friend.

That was it about Bert. He was an odd sort of romantic, to whom just about everything was an adventure.

We were constant correspondents in recent years. He died owing me a letter. Very little reason to go to the post office anymore -- just about everybody else uses e-mail.

He was like no other; an inestimable loss.

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