UW's Dr. Ernst Behler, Popular Germanics, Literature Professor

Diana Behler often wished she could "download" her husband's mind.

The two of them worked in the same field, shared many of the same interests. And she remained in awe of his intellect.

"He had almost encyclopedic knowledge," she said of her late husband, Dr. Ernst H. Behler. "He was an untiring researcher and writer. He developed new courses and seminars to involve his students, and he really thought it was his mission to educate future generations."

Dr. Behler, a longtime University of Washington professor in Germanics and comparative literature, was highly respected among his peers and was one of the university's most popular instructors. Earlier this year, he received extremely high ratings from students who rated instructors and more than 3,000 UW course offerings on the Web.

Dr. Behler, who was the university's chairman of Comparative Literature for two decades, died Tuesday (Sept. 16) after suffering cardiac arrest at his Windermere home a day earlier. He was 69.

He had had open-heart surgery last summer and was recovering, his wife said.

After 20 years as a department chair, he had stepped down from the post in June, but had not planned to retire from teaching for another year.

"He was always involved in what seemed like a dozen projects at one time," said Gary Handwerk, now chairman of the Comparative Literature department. "He was affable, friendly, accessible, and I think he was someone who encouraged a great deal of independence in his students."

Dr. Behler's accomplishments were many. He was twice a Guggenheim Fellow and had received numerous travel and research grants. He served on the editorial boards of national and international scholarly journals. He had written extensively on European romanticism, and edited a 35-volume edition of the works of the German Romantic critic and philosopher Friedrich Schlegel.

Dr. Behler earned his doctorate in philosophy at the University of Munich in 1951. Dr. Behler, who also was a Fulbright scholar, joined the UW faculty as professor of Germanics and comparative literature in 1965 after a visiting professorship here. He was named the Comparative Literature department's first chairman in 1976.

"To his students, he was a much-beloved and respected teacher, a job he took very seriously," said his wife, who also is a professor of Germanics at the UW.

"It wasn't only his vast information, but it was also the way he could synthesize information and make the difficult and complicated seem easy."

And, she added, "he was absolutely devoted to his family."

Dr. Behler also is survived by daughters Caroline Behler, a UW medical student; and Sophia Behler, a sports psychologist; and son Constantine Behler, an assistant professor in liberal arts at the UW's Bothell campus. All live in the Seattle area. Also surviving is a sister, Hildegard Schoeningh of Paderborn, Germany.

A private service and family gathering will be held. The family suggests remembrances be made to the UW Division of Cardiology, P.O. Box 356422, 1959 N.E. Pacific St., Seattle, WA, 98195.

Charles E. Brown's phone message number is 206-464-2206. His e-mail address is: cbro-new@seatimes.com