Philip L. Kintner, 1926–2012, Historian of Early Modern Germany and Inspiring Teacher

Philip L. Kintner, professor emeritus of history in Grinnell College, died on Sunday, January 1, 2012, in Grinnell, Iowa. While at Grinnell, he taught medieval and early modern history, as well as historiography, to several generations of students, and inspired a number of them to go further with studies in history, German studies, and related fields....

Kintner was born in Canton, Ohio, on January 23, 1926. His education was interrupted by service in the European theater of the Second World War as a technician fifth class in the 102nd Recon Mechanized Cavalry. He was awarded the ETO medal with two Bronze Stars, and after the end of the war he continued as a radio operator with the American forces that had liberated Plzen, Czechoslovakia. He returned home to Ohio in 1946, and received his BA with honors in history from the College of Wooster in 1950.

Kintner entered Yale University as a graduate student in history, and received MA and PhD degrees from Yale in 1952 and 1958, respectively. His doctoral dissertation, written under the direction of Hajo Holborn and Roland Bainton, was a study of the German reformer Sebastian Franck as a historian. He taught history at Trinity College, Connecticut, from 1954 to 1964, with a year's visiting appointment at Reed College in 1957–58.