Paul Hugo Meyer

MEYER, Paul Hugo Paul Hugo Meyer of Bloomfield, formerly of Storrs, died on Friday, (June 13, 2008) at the Seabury Retirement Community. For 36 years he was a professor in the Romance Language Department at the University of Connecticut from which he retired in 1991. In retirement, he continued his zest for scholarship and intellectual inquiry, and rekindled his childhood passion for stamp collecting while spending winters in Sarasota, FL and traveling to Europe with Joan, his beloved wife of 62 years. Paul was born in Berlin, Germany on December 5, 1920. With his family, he fled the Nazis in 1938 to England, where they resettled in the outskirts of London. When World War II broke out he was deported to Canada as a German national, and interned. In the internment camp he taught Latin as part of an organized effort by older adolescents to prepare younger internees for college entrance exams. After his release, he met Joan at McGill University, and they married in 1946. He became a U.S. citizen through his service in the American Army after World War II, utilizing his language skills in the counter-intelligence unit. After receiving his PhD from Columbia University, he taught at Bryn Mawr before joining the faculty at UConn. He was a scholar of the French Enlightenment and published a variety of books and articles. Paul was part of the close-knit academic community in Storrs. His life centered around his abiding sense of responsibility to his family, his work, his community, and his adopted country. He grew up as a Jew in Hitler's Germany, but retained an enduring love for German culture and language, and devoted much time and effort during the last two decades of his life to expanding his understanding of German history and discovering and rebuilding the gravesites of his family in Germany. Paul and Joan have three children, Jon Meyer of Manchester, NH, Hedy Rudne of Colchester and Judy Deane of Arlington, VA; and six grandchildren, Tracy Hawry, Megan Rudne, Daniel and Jacqueline Deane, Sebastian and Sabrina Hart-Meyer. He is mourned by his two sons-in-law, Bob Rudne and Stephen Deane; his grandson-in-law, Hayden Hawry, and his sister, Edith Lloyd. He was predeceased by his brother, Achim Montague. A Memorial Service will be held Sunday, June 22, at 11a.m. at Carmon Funeral Home & Family Center, 301 Country Club Road, Avon. Donations can be made in memory of Paul H. Meyer to The UConn Foundation, Department of Modern and Classical Languages (Account #: 21469), 2390 Alumni Drive, Unit 3206, Storrs, CT 06269-3206. The family thanks the caring physicians and nurses at the UConn Medical Health Center and the Seabury Retirement Community for their assistance during his final months. For condolences please visit www. carmonfuneralhome.com.