Ernie Frecricksmeyer
Professor
Classics

Ernst Fredricksmeyer was a member of CU Classics from 1966 until 2003. While still only 17, Ernie embarked from Germany for the US by himself, with little money and no knowledge of English except for the sentence, "My knowledge of English is rather limited." Yet Ernie had the advantage of years of Ancient Greek and Latin at a Classical Gymnasium. Indicative of his linguistic facility was that he and his father (a Lutheran minister) always corresponded in cursive Latin. After serving in the US Army, Ernie eventually earned a PhD in Classics from UW Madison, and took positions at Dartmouth and Bryn Mawr, among other institutions, and at CU Boulder, where he rose to full professor and served as Chair. He published extensively as a Hellenist and Latinist, served as President of CAMWS for 1987-88, and inspired generations of students with his humor and infectious love of classical literature, history, and mythology.