Tuesday, April 18, 2023

Math-Science Breakthrough at the University of Water, Ontario -
Where Christina Jackson Earned Her MA in German Literature

 


When we went to Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario, in 1970, I enrolled at Martin Luther University Seminary, whose legal name is still Waterloo Lutheran Seminary.



Christina soon got a job at the University of Waterloo, a short walk or bus-ride away. It was the spin-off of Waterloo Lutheran University, where John Warwick Montgomery and our brother-in-law Kermit Way (physical chemist) taught. UW called WLU "the little red schoolhouse down the street." 



UnitWat, as they call it, was a collection of beautiful new buildings with underground tunnels to reduce frostbite. We loved to stop by the computer center and watch the new priesthood, mainframe computer minders, silently managing the giant IBM 360 as we watched reverently through a glass wall.

If you want to look down on UniWat, they were known for computer advances decades ago. Not knowing about a school does not remove it from advances, eh?

Christina quickly went from research librarian to graduate student in German literature. All her professors were German born, except one gentleman. Her only lady professor was Gisela Brude-Fernau, PhD Yale, who was impressed with Christina's original paper about the Wandering Jew in literature.

Canadian-American Border