Spring 04 2-16B.Idd
CENTER FOR AUSTRIAN STUDIES AUSTRIAN STUDIES NEWSLETTER Vol. 16, No. 1 Spring 2004 Barbara Krauss-Christensen retires by Daniel Pinkerton For 26 years—through changes of directors, location, financing, and scholarly mission—the one constant at the Center for Austrian Stud- ies has been Barbara Krauss-Christensen, our executive secretary. On July 1, 2004, she will retire, marking the end of an era, and changing CAS forever. Krauss-Christensen arrived at the Center in the fall of 1978, one year after its founding, an M.A. in German in hand. “Barbara was the rock upon which the Center was founded,” William Wright, the Cen- ter’s founding director, asserted. “She had little to work with in those lean, early days, but she never faltered or fretted. She was always there, ready to see to the welfare and mission of the Center. In later years, after prosperity brought many more people into the office, it would be easy to forget how Barbara had carried the load quite alone for many years.” Over the years, Krauss-Christensen learned more than any direc- tor or visitor possibly could about the ins and outs of university and government paperwork—visas, reimbursement forms, budgeting, and the like. “While directors have come and gone, it has been Barbara who has held the Center together and has maintained an institutional memory better and more reliably than any computer,” according to former CAS interim director Gerhard Weiss. “If it had not been for the reassurance of Barbara’s presence, I never would have accepted the Center’s interim directorship.” “Her fierce loyalty to the Center and its mission, and her willingness to put in long hours were major factors in the Center’s success,” for- mer director David Good maintains.
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