Dr. Robert Detweiler spent six years in postwar Germany helping refugee families.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153He struck you as a kidder, but he worked very hard. He had a very strong record of academic publications,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Dr. Paul, who was his colleague in the 1980s.<\/p>\n
Dr. Detweiler, who taught comparative literature, served as the director of the Graduate Institute of the Liberal Arts at Emory from 1973 to 1982.<\/p>\n
He became nationally recognized for his insights in the areas of religion and literature, as well as his work on authors John Updike and Saul Bellow.<\/p>\n
His books include, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Breaking the Fall: Religious Readings of Contemporary Fiction\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in 1987 and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Uncivil Rites: American Fiction, Religion, and the Public Sphere\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in 1996.<\/p>\n
Dr. Detweiler became a lifelong mentor to many of his students, guiding them in their search for jobs after graduation, said Harriette Grissom of Asheville, N.C., a former student.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153He wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t paternalistic about it. He always treated you as a peer, not a student,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said.<\/p>\n
Dr. Detweiler was born in Souderton, Pa., and was reared as a Mennonite. He earned a divinity degree from Goshen College, and after college traveled to Germany on a church-sponsored relief project to assist in the post-war rebuilding of the country. He stayed six years, helping build homes for refugee families and counseling students who had lost their families.<\/p>\n
Former student Gary Tapp said that experience helped shape Dr. Detweiler\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s outlook.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We knew he had been through a lot in Germany. It enabled him to not take the small trials and tribulations of university life too seriously,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Mr. Tapp, of Atlanta.<\/p>\n
Dr. Detweiler met his wife, Gertrude Detweiler, in Germany. Although he left the Mennonite faith as an adult, he remained strongly influenced by his upbringing and enjoyed listening to Mennonite hymns.<\/p>\n
His experiences in Germany and in his advanced studies \u00e2\u20ac\u0153opened his mind but didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t stop him from being a deeply theological thinker,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Dr. Paul. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153From his Mennonite background, he retained a communal spirit and the feeling of the sacredness of life.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Dr. Detweiler, 76, formerly of Atlanta, died Sunday at his St. Simons Island residence after a series of strokes, his wife said.<\/p>\n
The body was cremated. Cremation Society of the South is in charge of arrangements.<\/p>\n
The memorial service will be Saturday at 10 a.m. at Emory University\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Canon Chapel.<\/p>\n
Survivors other than his wife include a daughter, Bettina Detweiler of Atlanta; a son, Dirk Detweiler of Aspen, Colo.; and four grandchildren.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I got the notice of Bob Detweiler’s obituary just as I finished the first draft of the poem I’m going to read at the memorial service on Saturday morning. Yes, he treated each one of us as a peer, and brought out every speck of brilliance and humor that we had in us. The twinkly eyes seem to have been appreciated by all. ST. SIMONS ISLAND Robert Detweiler, 76, treated students as his peers By KIRSTEN TAGAMI The Atlanta Journal-Constitution…<\/p>\n
Read More Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,34,15,10,13,33,6,20,8],"tags":[6183,5116,5108,5111,5106,5112,5115,5110,4495,5114,340,5113,5117,5105],"class_list":["post-2141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academia","category-atlanta","category-mommy-stuff","category-human-rights","category-humor","category-language","category-personal","category-photo","category-religion","tag-atlanta","tag-bettina-detweiler","tag-bob-detweiler","tag-dirk-detweiler","tag-emory-university","tag-gertrude-detweiler","tag-graduate-institute-of-the-liberal-arts","tag-harriette-grissom","tag-ila","tag-john-updike","tag-robert-detweiler","tag-robert-paul","tag-sharon-greene","tag-st-simons-island"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.virushead.net\/vhrandom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.virushead.net\/vhrandom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.virushead.net\/vhrandom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.virushead.net\/vhrandom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.virushead.net\/vhrandom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2141"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.virushead.net\/vhrandom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2141\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2145,"href":"https:\/\/www.virushead.net\/vhrandom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2141\/revisions\/2145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.virushead.net\/vhrandom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.virushead.net\/vhrandom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.virushead.net\/vhrandom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Dr.](\"http:\/\/www.virushead.net\/vhrandom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/09\/bobdetweiler.jpg\" "\\"Bob")
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